The Worst Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry Read Free Book Online Page B

Then we headed for the elevators. The Hot/Popular clot drifted past. Suzana worked her way over and whispered, “Seen anything?”
    “No.”
    “Okay,” she said. She held up three fingers. “Remember the signal.”
    “Okay.”
    Her clot drifted away. Matt and I and some other losers got on an elevator. As soon as the door closed Cameron Frank released a pretty spectacular fart, even by his standards, but I was too
tense to laugh.
    I felt a little safer once we got to our room. We got into our pajamas and figured out where to sleep. There were two beds, plus a sleeper sofa, plus a cot, which was where I ended up. We turned
on the TV and sat around doing stuff on our phones, with Matt or me getting up every couple of minutes to look out the window and not see anything.
    A little after ten thirty somebody pounded on the door, which made Matt and me both jump up, but it was just Mr. Barto telling us to turn off the TV and the lights and go to bed. He was still
wearing his backpack; I think maybe he slept with that thing on.
    We turned the lights off and the TV sound down and went back to our phones. I looked out the window a couple more times, but I was getting pretty tired, and I was beginning to feel like we were
going to be okay, at least for the night. I closed my eyes and my mind started drifting around, the way it does when you’re falling asleep. I drifted back to Miami, and getting on the plane,
then kind of went through the whole insane day, ending with getting back to the hotel and being scared that the weird guys would be waiting for us….
    Suddenly I sat up. I was wide awake now.
    I looked around the room. The TV was still on, with the sound down. Victor and Cameron were asleep in the two beds. Matt was asleep on the sofa bed. I got off the cot and walked quietly over to
Matt. I poked him whispered “Wake up.”
    His eyes opened. “What?”
    “They’re here.”
    “What?”
    “
Shh
. Whisper.”
    “Where are they?” he whispered.
    “In the lobby. We walked right past them, but their backs were turned so I didn’t see their faces. I don’t think they saw us.”
    “You
saw
them? Why didn’t you say anything?”
    “I just now figured out it was them.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “Yeah. Remember when we came in tonight? The man and the lady at the front desk?”
    He frowned. “Yeah, but that was a man and a lady.”
    “Did you happen to notice what the man was wearing?”

    He thought about it for a second. “A coat?”
    “Right. A long coat.”
    “So?”
    “So it’s warm out. Way too warm for that coat. That’s like a heavy winter coat. He’s wearing it to cover himself, especially his tattoos. He had a hat on, too. He
doesn’t want us to recognize him.”
    “But he was with a lady.”
    “He was with somebody in a dress.”
    “With blond hair.”
    “Or a blond wig.”
    “But why do you think that was—”
    “The
shoes
. Do you remember the shoes on the ‘lady’?”
    “No.”
    “They were purple. I didn’t really think about it at the time. But they were definitely purple.”
    “So?”
    “Purple shoes with a red dress?”
    “Those don’t go together?”
    I rolled my eyes. “No. And guess what the little weird guy was wearing on the plane.”
    “What?”
    “Purple Crocs.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “Positive. I thought it was weird, a grown-up wearing Crocs.”
    We heard a rustling in one of the beds. Cameron was sitting up.
    “What’s going on?” he said.
    “Nothing,” I said.
    “Okay,” he said. He got up and shuffled into the bathroom.
    Matt leaned toward me and whispered, “Okay, say that was them, in the lobby.”
    “It
is
them. They’re here.”
    “Okay, but they don’t know what room we’re in.”
    “I think maybe they do. I think that’s why they were talking to the old guy at the front desk. They were finding out what room we’re in. Maybe even bribing the old guy to give
them a key.”
    “But they don’t know our names.”
    “Yes they