Disco Balls and Plane Tickets
Chapter 7

Melissa: We boarded the train at Nice with much excitement. Moving through crowded train cars, we made our way to our cabins, where we were split into groups of two. Rachel and I shoved our way into the tiny hallway dumping our stuffed duffle bags onto the floor. I plopped down onto the plush navy blue couch taking up half the space in the tiny train cabin. “So what now,” Rachel asked taking a seat on the other end of the couch. “Hm….” I gazed out the window into the busy Nice train station as the hustle and bustle started to disappear leaving the station baron with the exception of a crowd of gray pigeons scowering the dull ground with a meager hope of any sort of food left by the hoards of passengers. “All aboard,” the conductor yelled from somewhere outside the car and we heard the faint sound of the train horn blare outside as the train jolted forward. I felt an emptiness in my stomach and it began to growl rather loudly. “How about dinner,” I asked Rachel. “You read my mind.” I smiled as we left the stuffy cabin behind and headed into the crammed hallway. We stopped at Heather and Lillie’s cabin next door and started to bang on it loudly with our fists until we heard the muffled voice of Heather on the other side of the door yell, “Sleeping!” “She’s always sleeping,” I commented to Rachel as we made our way down the long hallway towards the dinning car. I clung to the handrails as we moved between cars. We entered the fancy dinning car and sat down at a large booth in the back. While we waited for the waitress to recognize the two teenagers at the back of the car, we talked about our performance in the gorgeous gothic cathedral in Nice. Finally, we were noticed and handed menus before Rachel translated our drink orders into French. The waitress left to fill the order and five minutes later, I felt a tap on my left shoulder. “Hey,” I told Spencer and Bob as we made room for them at our table. “Where’s the other half,” Bob joked noticing the absence of both Heather and Lillie. “Still sleeping,” Rachel kicked in, apparently annoyed at this habit. “No hostility there,” Bob pointed out with a laugh. “You’re kidding about that sleeping thing, right,” Spencer looked at me. “Nope,” I shook my head. “Wow, isn’t too much sleep unhealthy?” “Good Point. I think you’re right,” I gazed over the menu. “Hey Rach, what’s this,” I pointed to an item in italicized French. “Roast Duck.” “Ew…do they have anything safe,” I asked. A minute later, “I’m pretty sure that’s chicken.” “Let me look,” Bob took the menu. “Nope, that’s chicken,” he pointed to something else. We all voted on Bob to order our dinner since he had spent a few more summers abroad and was starting to become fluent in many European languages. Within an hour, we got our food, finished eating and headed once more down the shaky line of train cars.

Chapter 8