Sneakers and Jeans

“Class, today we have a special announcement. This school has paired with an American school to do a combined field trip week, and we’ll be showing them all of our amazing sights and places, giving them a proper trip to Wales. I’ve had a permission form sent to all of your parents, and thankfully, all of them have signed it and given their permission for all of you to join in with this enriching experience. We will travel all over the country for a week, showing the Americans where our favourite historical sites and hidden gems are. We will also be going to West Wales, which is why I’ve had your parents sign the permission forms. There’s a hotel where everyone can stay in Mid-West Wales, and we’ve sorted everyone out with rooms, so unfortunately, you can’t choose your roommates.” At this, there was a collective groan from most of the girls sitting behind me, and I just rolled my eyes, but to be fair, that was probably like saying they couldn’t take their phones.

“And,” Miss Williams said, raising her hand for silence, “There will also be a no-device policy.” 

“WHAT?!” The collective cry came from all the girls in the back and some boys. I rolled my eyes again, sighing a bit. It would be a slight inconvenience without my phone, but really, aren’t face-to-face interactions without the distraction of devices better for our mental health anyway?

“Girls, please. This is for all of our benefits. And besides, maybe some of the Americans can show you some of the games they play without phones!” Miss Willians said, earning a glare from the people as mentioned earlier. She really is a good teacher, I don’t know why all of her students hate her. Well, all of them except for me and my friends.

“Miss, no one plays games without their phones. Why would you when you’ve got way more fun games on the phones?” One of the snotty girls in the back said, and I could hear her gum inhibiting her speech. Miss sighed.

“Look, Gwen, I’m sorry that you’re upset about this, but I don’t make the rules and your parents signed the slip so everyone in this class is going whether you like it or not, ok?” Miss said, turning back to the board. She writes a packing list on there and asks everyone to take a photo of it. She then reminded everyone that anyone caught with a device will have it confiscated immediately, and if any misbehaviour occurs on the trip, parents will be called to pick up the offending child. Everyone grumbled but pulled out their phones anyway, taking a picture of the board and talking about what else they wanted to bring. Miss then writes a list of all the things not allowed on the trip, clearly looking at a few individuals for some of the items on the list.

“Your parents have been notified to pick you up in a few minutes, and then they’ll bring you back at noon, right bout lunchtime, and we’ll feed you then we’ll get on the school bus to go to the hotel, and meet our American friends! Oh, also, I almost forgot to give these to you. Everyone will be paired with three others, two Americans and one other Welsh student. The partner you’re with now will also be your roommate and you will be placed in a group with the two other Americans when we do activities. There’s one Welsh group leader, and I will give these slips to them. When I call your name, please come to the front to get the name slip and schedule sheet. Mared Pendry.” She said, calling my name first. I quickly got up and collected my paper from her, immediately noting the name of my roommate, a timid, rarely-spoken too girl called Bryn.

Later, when we’re almost at the hotel, the bus is starting to get a bit stuffy, and I finally give up on talking to my roommate. I had been trying all the way so far, but all she gave me were one-word responses, and sometimes not even that, just a nod or a little noise of disagreement. I sighed and leaned back, giving up altogether. Ok, so maybe this wasn’t going to be such a fun trip. At least I can hope Tyler and Jacob, the two other names on my sheet, will be more… conversational. 

We pull up to the hotel and we’re told to go to our assigned rooms and unpack our stuff a little while we wait for the Americans to arrive. Everyone chatters and races up to their rooms, but Bryn and I walk slower, my suitcase very heavy with all the books I’d bought, and Bryn…. Well, she just usually hangs at the back of the pack anyway. When we finally arrived at our room, I could hear Gwen and her roommate squealing loudly with a few of her other friends. Uh-oh. This is going to be a long week. I shoved some of my stuff in the small closet, claiming the bed by the window and pulling all of my books out of my suitcase. Bryn eyed the pile warily, giving me a strange look. She slowly unpacked some of her things, and that’s when I looked out of the window to see a huge touring bus pull up outside the hotel, a loud, rowdy group of kids our age piling out of it.

I quickly ran down the stairs, some of the other Welsh kids following me or in front of me. Collectively, we burst from the hotel doors and walked over to the kids, each team captain calling out for their other two team members. I stood off to the side and hoped my voice would carry over the din, calling out for Tyler and Jacob. A blond boy with a smirk looks over at me when I call ‘Tyler’, and he nudges a scrawny-looking dark-haired boy next to him when I call out ‘Jacob’.

When they had finally made their way over to me, I was smiling warmly.

“Croeso y Gumru, Tyler and Jacob,” I said, pulling them over to the side more so we could talk without yelling. The blond one, whom I assume is Tyler, snickered.

“What does that mean?” He asked like I had insulted him by speaking Welsh. I paused for a moment, trying not to get mad at him, and convincing myself he was just oblivious, like most Americans are, to the Welsh culture and language. I forced my smile to widen, trying to keep my voice light and friendly.

“It’s Welsh for ‘Welcome to Wales’,” I said, turning my gaze to Jacob as Tyler snickers again. I’m desperately trying to ignore Tyler’s smirk, worried that if I look at him for too long I might smack that look off of his tan, perfectly structured face.

“Why didn’t you just say that in the first palace then?” Tyler asked in the most annoying tone I had ever heard. I barely resisted the urge to roll my eyes, instead settling for a restrained glare.

“Because while you’re here, we’ll be teaching you some of the Welsh language while showing you our most spectacular sites of interest,” I said, the forced lightness of my voice sounding sickly sweet in my ears. Tyler gave Jacob a side-eye, still with that insufferable smirk on his face.

“Ok, yeah, whatever. So, which part of London is this again?” Tyler said, looking around with a bored but slightly amused expression. I struggled to resist the urge to throttle him, but instead, I forced a tight smile onto my face.

“It’s not London. It’s not even England. It’s a country called Wales, and it’s part of the UK. A fact we’re not particularly thrilled about. But it’s not a part of England. And London is a city anyway. It’s not even a small country by any stretch. Right! Enough of the introductions, you can meet Bryn tomorrow, but it’s time for us to all get settled in our hotel rooms and then we can see what the teachers have planned.” I said, desperately trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice. I turned and strode away, trying to distance myself from Tyler before I did something that might get me in trouble.

The next few days were…. Hard, to say the least. We visited St. David’s cathedral, where Tyler made jokes about all the boys wearing ‘dresses’; we then walked a little bit of the coastal paths, where Tyler mimed jumping off some of the cliffs. To be honest, I nearly threw him off one or two cliffs myself, but I somehow managed to control myself; we walked along Offa’s Dyke for a while, where Tyler was messing around about the fact that England was right over the mound of dirt. He also was thrilled about the fact that he could push me into a different country, a thing which happened more than I could handle. I might’ve yelled at him a bit, but at least that shut him up for a while. By the time we reached Neath, I was ready for this week to end. Heck, at this point I would gladly give up the weekend if that only meant that Tyler disappeared from my life.

Our next stop was Neath Abby, A particularly interesting spot my grandmother lived in that area so I knew it well, and seeing as she used to take us on picnics to the Abby, I figured I knew it fairly well. We all piled off of the bus, and then split into our groups, the group leaders taking their teammates around the Abby at their own pace, and reading from the info sheet we were given. I had glanced over the sheet before we arrived and I realised that the sheet covered barely any of the actual history of the place, only really talking about the fact that it was an Abby and what that meant. I sighed a folded up the sheet, shoving it in my back pocket. I turned to see Tyler staring at me and I gave him a look that said: ‘What? Why are you staring at me?’, and he quickly looked away. I rolled my eyes and gathered the rest of my group. We had about an hour here before the teachers said we had to get back on th bus and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, there was still scaffolding around the manor house area, but we could still walk around the garden walls and see into the main hall. 

As we walked, I told everyone about how this used to be an Abby, but then, after the Abbys all over the UK started to decline, the Abby became a copper works, and then a rich family took it over and built the house.

“So… what happened to the church guys? Did they just…. Move in with the rich people?” Tyler asked, scraping a bit of mortar out from between the brick of the remaining walls of the original Abby. I reach out and grab his wrist, stopping him from destroying the poor Abby any more.

“No, by the time the Abby became a copper works, the monks had all moved out and either found different work or died. When the rich family bought it, it was in a state of disrepair and a load of homeless people lived in it.” I said, glaring at Tyler. He glanced down at my hand on his wrist and I dropped it, accidentally leaving a bit of a red mark from how hard I had gripped him.

“Right.” Tyler said, turning away from me and making a ‘crazy’’ sign to Jacob. I tried to not react, but Tyler was really getting to me.

“Ok, how about we go for a walk? The canal right next to the Abby was used for shipping the copper and other things to and from the port at Britton Ferry, or to and from the market, which was one of the biggest in the area at the time.” I said, leading the group to the canal path. We walked along there for a while, and I told them about the history of the canal and a bit more about the history of Neath Abby. I got completely caught up in the talking, and by the time I stopped, I realised that we had walked quite far and then when I looked at my watch, My eyes widened.

“Uh-oh… Guys, we need to get back. Like, really quickly. We’re supposed to be at the bus at 11:30, and it’s 11:24 right now and we’ve got at least a 20-minute walk back. We need to like, RUN.” I said,  turning on my heel and ushering everyone back. Tyler happens to be right behind me so I accidentally walk into him and he makes this cute little yep. Wait, CUTE?! No, no, no, not cute, just… weird.

“Come on, come on, guys we really need to be back at the bus. They might actually leave without us.” I said desperately, and everyone started to jog back. I led the way again, having travelled up and down this canal multiple times when I was younger, thanks to the trips my grandmother used to take me on.

I kept frantically checking my watch and the time gets closer and closer, until, by the time we finally arrived back at the Abby, it was 11:13. And there was no bus. We all stopped dead when we saw the absence of the bus, and I don’t know bout anyone else, but the only thought in my mind was: Crap.

“Is no one going to say it?” Tyler asked helpfully. “We’re screwed."