on and then took them off my head while humming The Romantic Era’s entire album. When people pounded on the door, which made me have to hum louder, I ignored them.
The second chaperone on the trip, Ms. Finley (Nurse Ratched), came by to give us a lecture on compliance. I was expecting her to tranquilize all of us because she said her nerves were shot and our activity level must “cease and desist.”
James made John be a lookout at the front of the hall so kids could keep changing rooms at will. Eventually, everyone got hungry and they asked me to go buy Doritos, Lay’s, Reese’s Pieces, and popcorn at the mini-mart attached to the gas station next to the hotel. Mini-marts give me the total heebie-jeebies, but I couldn’t let the entire class down, so I had to muster the strength to go by putting on my green sherpa and matching green Chucks. When I got there, I stood at the door, closed my eyes, counted to ten, took six deep breaths, clapped my hands twice, and then went in. I guess what happened to me in there was my reward from God or whoever exists to design these things on our behalf.
While I was in there, some Torontonian (or is it Toronitian or maybe Torontoino) male teenager actually looked at me like I was worth looking at and then talked to me. Stop it. I spoke back to him. Stop it again.
Here’s the most unbelievable thing in the whole world aside from how delicious and intoxicating Jacob Kingston smells: this guy, his name is Brian, and he’s a little fat, but who cares because I’m a lot fat, asked me for my room number. His dad works at the hotel, so he’s there all the time. Get this—I gave him my room number. He’ll probably never call me, but still, this is a major step in a direction that leads to people not thinking I’m a total freak.
*CANADA JOURNAL* 3/2
#2 Entry from a hotel room in Toronto, room 206, to be exact
(Jesus, he visits me.)
Sara’s sickness is by far the best thing that has ever happened to me. It’s been four hours since we checked into this hotel, and I bought snacks and met Brian. Ms. Finley has appeared once to tell us to stay in our rooms and that we have no definitive report on how Sara is doing.
At about the two-hour point, Brian knocked on my door and Keira answered. He had put on a nice collared shirt and was obviously nervous because I saw a little sweat around his short curly brown hair. When Keira realized the deal, she turned to me with big eyes and a wide-opened smile and said, “Well, Danielle, you work fast.” She was being über-sweet when I know inside she was shocked that I had a “gentleman caller,” as my mom would say.
He came in the room and all three of us just stared at one another for a while. Keira finally said, “Danielle, why don’t you offer Brian some of the snacks you bought and you can, like, ask him about his school.”
It got easier from there. We ate Reese’s Pieces and he talked about being a senior in high school and other stuff, but I drifted off because I was in shock over my good fortune and then Jacob came over to our room to see Keira. He sported a stunned look on his face when he saw that there was a random guy in our room to see me.
Other people started coming into the room because Keira and Jacob were in there. A couple of times I saw Brian look over at me in a way that was, well, just so incredible. I mean it was like he liked me, maybe.
Brian had to go do something for his dad, but he grabbed my hand, squeezed it, and said he’d be back in a little bit. I had to write this all down. OMG!
*CANADA JOURNAL* 3/2
#3 Entry: Nothing, ever, works out for me
I can’t wait to leave this stupid hotel. The front desk dude confiscated the skateboard that James found outside the hotel and that he was riding in the hall. Brian came back as that was happening, and he stole the skateboard back from behind the desk. That made everyone think he was awesome.
One of the girls thought it would be fun if we played truth or dare. I had never done this ever but I knew