9When the bus finally stopped, I peered out the window to see the Lodge. There were lots of little log cabins outside, which were surrounding the Lodge.
"It looks so cool!" I said to Sharyn in Chinese.
"Yes, it does." I grew more and more excited by the second. Before we were allowed off the bus, one of the Geography teachers stood up and started talking.
"All right kids," She began. "I will give you your cabin numbers now, and once you get off the bus, you are to bring all of your belongings into the cabin. In an hour we will call you all to the Lodge for lunch, and after lunch we will show you all the route for our hike. The hike will begin at 2:00, and we will stop for a supper break at 6:00 in a small hut in the woods. We will walk back and go to our cabins at 10:00. Understand?"
Everyone shouted out "Yes!" As we exited the bus, she gave us our cabin numbers and each pair got a key. (Four students per cabin, so there were two keys per cabin.) Sharyn took our key and we excitedly ran off the bus and into cabin number twelve.
"I call the top bunk on this bed!" Sharyn exclaimed. I decided to get the bunk below Sharyn. We started to talk about the hike, making ourselves more and more excited until the two other girls came.
"Yeah, I know Marissa! Like, this hike thing is soooo gross!" A blonde haired girl said. She was tall and very slim. I guessed she was one of those popular girls. I looked at Sharyn who was giving me a strange look and rolling her eyes at the girl. Then her friend (Marissa, I'm guessing?) walked in. She was not as tall as the other girl, but just as skinny. She had long brown hair that was kind of curly. Marissa had a look of disgust on her face as she walked in and took a look around our tiny cabin.
"Ew! Claire! Isn't this place so nasty?! I mean, just look at it! I bet there are bugs in here! Eeeewww!" Marissa whined. Claire put her cute little pink backpack down on the bunk next to mine, and sat down on the bed. She cursed and complained, acting as if it was the end of the world.
"At least it's only two days." Claire said as she took out a mirror to fix her already perfect makeup.
"Yeah, like, I so agree with you. Oh my gosh, where are the bathrooms?!"
"Outside." Sharyn laughed. "Look." She pointed to a tiny outhouse that was to be shared between cabins eleven and twelve. There was one outhouses for ever two cabins- eight girls." Claire and Marissa took one look at the outhouse and looked as if they would faint. I wanted to laugh, but didn't want the ditsy girls to get angry. They might send their evil pack of cheerleaders against me! Now I was about to burst out in laughter, but managed to keep it in.
"So, are you two, like, seriously excited about this stupid hike thing?" Marissa asked. Claire giggled.
"Yes," Sharyn answered. "It go to be fun!" Sharyn said, smiling. Claire began to laugh out loud.
"Aww, how cute." She joked. "How about you? Are you excited?" Claire asked me.
"Umm…" I didn't want to sound dumb, or they might laugh at me. "No way! It seem boring! Hike is for losers!" I lied. I saw Sharyn looking at me with disappointment. Both of the popular girls smiled. Marissa said:
"You are cool. I mean, I thought you two were nerds or something, but I guess only one of you is." Claire giggled again.
Whoa, popular girls think I'm cool? That is so awesome! I thought. Maybe they want to be my friends!
The girls left the cabin for a while - they said it was "creepy" - and I wanted to apologize to Sharyn. She looked at me sadly. She had tears in her eyes. I felt so bad.
"Sally, how could you?" She asked sadly (in Chinese).
"I'm sorry Sharyn; I didn't want the popular girls to think I am dumb." My friend stared at me coldly. She obviously could not believe what I had just said.
"Who cares about popular girls?! They are just pretty, skinny white girls who think they are cooler than us. They think we are nerds Sally! They don't like you!" Sharyn yelled. That made me upset. How did Sharyn know? She wasn't popular.
"I don't believe you. I think you're just jealous! Leave me alone!" I yelled. She got off my bed and climbed up to the top bunk crying. I felt bad, but I did not like it when Sharyn was mean to me. She thought that just because she lived in Canada longer that she was smarter than me. A sudden sadness came over me. What if she was right? What if these girls did not like me? I would just have to find out myself. I lied down on my bed to have a short nap before lunch.
I woke up to the sound of the phone ringing. I answered it:
"Hello?" I asked.
"Hello, is this cabin number twelve? Marissa Smith, Claire Miller, Sally Chu, and Sharyn Wang?" A voice asked.
"Yes it is!" I replied.
"We ask that you and your roommates please proceed to the Lodge for lunch at this time. Thank you. Goodbye." The voice hung up, and I was left to get the three girls to the Lodge. Sharyn got down from her bed.
"We go to the Lodge now, right?" She asked. I nodded and went outside to find Marissa and Claire. I spotted them with a group of friends, talking and laughing. I was shy, but I went up to the group.
"Hey it's Suzy Chung! Our new Chinese friend, right?" Claire asked. I wasn't too pleased that they had forgotten my name, so corrected her.
"Umm, my name not Suzy Chung, it Sally Chu. It sound same, right?" I pretended to laugh. Everyone else laughed too.
"Aww, how cute! Anyways, why are you here?" Claire asked. She smiled at me.
"It time to eat lunch. The phone call us and say we go to the Lodge now." I said.
"Okay, let's go!" Claire said. I followed her -and the rest of the popular kids- into the Lodge. I looked back to see Sharyn standing all alone. Eventually she met up with Christina (the girl we met on the bus) and they both walked into the Lodge. I was happy to be part of the popular group, but sad that I had to leave Sharyn behind.