"Seriously!?" Hannah stared in disbelief. "Are you guys seeing this?!?!?"

She called to the rest of the group, who, one-by-one entered the lobby with their luggage.

"Hannah, I expected more from you. Shouting in public is not appropriate behavior," their supervising teacher said, entering the scene last. From the upstairs walkway Jayden saw it was Ms Smiro, their maths teacher. He was meant to be her favorite student, he thought as he ducked behind the railings, hoping she wouldn't notice him. Luckily she didn't, her attention was on Alex. "And who is this? Chris you guys had a deal with the school to reserve a series of accommodations, one for each group we send to the region.."

LOL she doesn't know who alex is.  Thomas thought as he watched from the sides. He was also assigned to this group for the trip. 

It's cause he's never been to class.

"They specifically requested this hotel Ma'am," Chris tried to explain. "They didn't look dangerous and wouldn't take up that much space."

"Nah," Alex interrupted. "I thought we agreed that you'd let me murder everyone staying here tonight?" He said, messing around.

"WHAT WHAT WHAT?!!" Ms Smiro said, freaking out. 

"Alex! Stop teasing her!" Hannah said. "And you get down here too, Jayden!"

Embarassed, Jayden got up from behind the railings and walked down stairs.

"Ms Smiro," Hannah said, as she walked around Ms Smiro's large body to her other side. "Meet Jayden and Alex, our famous runaways." 

"Nice to meet ya here." Alex lifted his chest and waved at her, beaming.

"Shut up we got caught red handed." Jayden said as he smacked Alex on his back. "Sorry Hannah, should have left you a note too."

"That's not the problem!!!" Hannah said, stomping up to them. Then she secretly hissed at Jayden. "You made me miss out on good scenes!!!!"

"We didn't do anything Han"

"Nope definitely nothing," Alex agreed next to him. "We didn't ride the train together during which Pajamas grabbed my hand and put it on his lap, then, when there was a sudden black out we made out and tongued. No sirree!"

"That's oddly specific." Ms Smiro said, then narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Almost too specific."

"He's just teasing you again, Ms Smiro." Hannah said. "Hahaha"

"HA-HA-HA, yeah..." Jayden quickly followed up, but realised that was a questionable thing to say. 

"OMG YOU DIDN'T..." Hannah said to Jayden who turned around, pretending to examine a column of tourist flyers, to hide the red in his face.

"You know how much I hate homosexuality." He said, still facing the other way. "Don't say things like that."

They actually didn't do anything, Alex had been surprisingly tame during the trip.

You totally did. Hannah thought to herself, but I'll let this slide.

"ANYWAY," Ms Smiro instructed the students. "Chris would you take care of the students while I go sort this out with the other teachers? And Hannah, Julian, make sure Jayden doesn't run away again. Thomas, Jacob, keep an eye out on this "Alex" boy here."

"Ms Smiro!" Jayden called out to her.

"-Uh-Uh, not a word from you Jayden. I am extremely disappointed." 

"BUT." He shouted. He knew he needed to stop her from alerting the whole area of their presence. "We're on the vegan-organic-gluten-free crusade!"

"You what?" She waddled over, her dream catcher necklace swaying from side to side. "You meant, the legendary VOGF crusade? You?"

She took the bait.  Jayden thought. He knew that she was the free-spirited type and he felt kinda bad using that to his advantage, but he can't risk disturbing the enemy. It was his task after all, to ensure that Alex succeeds in the capture/kill of their target, Christina. Beside him, Alex tugged at his sleeve and gave him the you-know-I-can't-live-a-day-without-meat look.

"Ms Smiro, whats wrong?" It was Jacob, one of Alex's followers. He was a lean guy on the track team, and he also hated studying. "You can leave Alex to me and Thomas! We'll make sure that he doesn't run away! We promise."

He winked at Thomas. They were totally gonna let Alex escape the moment Ms Smiro leaves.

"No, no, no. Jacob," Ms Smiro said, swinging around to face Jacob. " This is utterly so important. The VOGF crusade is a sacred ceremony and must be kept from the public as much as possible."

What should she do? She thought to herself.

Looking around this group is riddled with delinquents who probably doesn't care too much about the school rules. Then there's the occasional snitch, but they seemed to be on good terms with Jayden the straight A student. She took her hands and began stroking the vegan birthmark on her neck, hoping it would give her a directive. 

"And then it began heating up,"  Or so she would say when anyone else asks. "And that was when I decided to let the boys do what was ultimately right."

No, nope, nuh-uh. If you asked anyone there they'd tell you it didn't heat up, but she took a bet in her students and another one in her faith of VOFGnism, and made her choice.

"I wish you boys all the best then," she said, deciding to pretend that none of this has happened.  Then she turned to the children and made them swore secrecy regarding today's events, before asking the cashier to start assigning the group to their rooms. 

"Okay come with me." The cashier said, looking up from the piece of paper he was holding, before tearing it up into small pieces and throwing it into the closest bin. One fell out. "Though you're not doing a very good job as a supervising teacher."

"Ts, ts, aim your rubbish properly!" Ms Smiro picked it up and placed it in the bin. "No, there is a line in life for everyone that one mustn't cross, and that line for me is my love for the VOGF society," she said to justify her actions, not taking notice in the piece of rubbish that she picked up.

Had she looked she would have noticed that on the paper it was written 'meal requests'.

CHAPTER END

XXX

Slam! The door opened and bounced off the walls as Jayden and Alex came in with their shopping bounty.

"Oh you bought some of those?" Alex asked, noticing the vegetables in Jayden's bags.

"Yep, they were on sale, and... I think you should try these," Jayden said, taking out the cucumbers. He was trying to remember cucumber recipes.

"No wayyy!" Alex said, putting his bananas away. "They're spiky and everything."

"Haha alright, what about these eggplants. They'll be great for the vegan crusade," Jayden said, showing the purple fruits to Alex.

"Huh! Eggplants?" Alex said, going up and weighing the eggplants on his palms. "This shit is gonna make the sacred gate collapse! You know it's only gonna open for these right now right?" He said, showing him a pack of grapes.

"Sure we'll start small." Jayden said. Then added. "Hey remember when Ms Smiro used to tell us how being vegan has a lot of benefits?"

"Well, who is to say that fruits and vegetables doesn't feel good in the digestive tract." Alex said, placing the last of the carrots in the fridge, leaving one on the table.

"I guess," Jayden picked it up started washing it. "You'll just have to try it out yourself."

XXX