Class Trip by Rachel Burns Read Free Book Online Page A

them.”
    There it was,
another joke about me being a little girl. He did that all the time
and it was getting on my nerves. I wanted to yell at him that I
wasn't a baby but my pouting about it would only prove his point.
    A woman laid a
plate of just potatoes in front of me. She went back to her spot and
hung over her plate and scarfed her food down. Everyone here seemed
to have really bad table manners. Even Herr Schweitzer. Only the
woman who had undressed me and Herr Glossner were eating nicely. The
bus driver was also here. I was starting to notice a resemblance.
They looked like brothers now that they were both dressed casually.
    I ate nicely but
slowly. Everyone else was finished and talking while I still ate.
They were still loud about it but it wasn't the arguing from before.
Herr Glossner still had his arm on the back of my chair. It was clear
that he was the boss and that he was giving the others instructions.
    Some of the women
got up and started setting up the line for food. I watched them to
see if there was a door in the kitchen that led out of here.
    I saw what I
wanted. There were even double doors in the kitchen. It looked like a
delivery van was parked there. Was that my ticket out of here?
    A door opened and
the other girls were coming in to eat again. They took a plate and
the woman slopped the food on it. Lots of the girls said no thank you
to the goulash. They sat down and complained about the food. A few
had noticed me and they were looking my way. I lifted my hand to wave
at them.
    Herr Glossner
leaned in to me and whispered that he wanted me to stay put. I nodded
meekly and he got up and walked around the girls again.
    There was a stack
of canes piled on a table against the wall. He went over and picked
one up. All eyes were on him as he slashed them through the air. He
was testing them through and everyone was being really quiet so the
only noise was the terrible noise of the canes.
    I was all alone
at my table now so I took the chance to look over at the other girls.
They were all watching him.
    I tried to find
my roommates but they were all gone. They must have been in that
huddle of girls out in the courtyard. I had only been able to
recognize the two playing ball.
    I started
counting heads. Forty-one girls were here, plus me forty-two that
meant that there were ten in the courtyard.
    Why was I being
singled out?
    I rose from my
chair and went over to the other girls. Herr Glossner grabbed me by
my arm and pulled me back to the table where we had lunch.
    “I told you to
stay put very clearly.”
    Tears sprang into
my eyes. “Why am I being separated from the other girls?”
    “Because you
already have an owner. The others will get theirs this evening.” He
pushed me down into the chair and went away from me again.
    I left my eyes on
him. I wanted to raise my hand to get him to come back to me. I
wanted him to explain exactly what he meant by owner. I wanted to
debate with him and get him to understand how wrong the idea of an
owner was.
    Three women came
in and went to him. He looked right at me. He smiled because I was
already looking at him.
    Herr Glossner
waved me over to him. I got up and pushed in my chair and went to
him, stopping a safe distance from him. He looked at me as he spoke
to the woman. They nodded and one grabbed onto my upper arm.
    He scolded her
and her hand slid down my arm to my hand. He wanted her to hold my
hand like he always did.
    The women took me
out of the room and into a huge spa area. This would be heaven if I
had it all to myself. Everything was a coral colored marble and there
was a huge swimming pool sunken into the ground.
    The women were
undressing me again. There were three of them so I didn't try to
fight them but I felt really guilty about that. I shouldn't be making
this so easy on them. They brought me over to a shower area and
turned on the water, stood me under it and all three of them started
to scrub me clean. They were all touching me.
    My heart