MesonHill’s Anem

Chapter 9: The first night

The hotel that Celeste had booked was a few metres away from the golden, sandy beach. This wasn't her reasoning for booking that specific hotel, as Celeste had booked it for its cheapness, but she certainly wasn't opposed to the idea of having a view across the vast, blue ocean from her hotel room. Nor was she opposed to taking late-night strolls down the beachfront and dipping her toes into the icy-cold water. She imagined all of this as she watched the waves roll onto the beach through the window of the minivan as it pulled into the car park of the hotel.

By the time they had finally arrived at the hotel, it was around 3 pm, Central European Time. The sun was high in the sky, and the heat was a little unbearable in the warm clothes that they were wearing. Granted, with it only being October, it wasn't as hot there as it would have been in the summer, but it didn't stop the sweat droplets from rolling down Celeste's forehead that she felt the hot air enter through the open windows.

"Righ', fellas n' females, we're 'ere. Let's go grab ah stuff!" River exclaimed, leaping out of the van.

Celeste opened the side door and followed River to the back doors, along with the others. She wore a large mint green hoodie with the MesonHill logo stitched onto it. The school had provided it as sportswear for when the different school teams would compete at the end of the year for everyone's favourite day - Sport's day! If it wasn't already obvious, this wasn't Celeste's favourite day at all. She very much disliked sports. In fact, she would do anything she could to get out of going. The previous year, she had unfortunately acquired food poisoning from the cafeteria's chicken pie, which several other students had eaten too but had not become ill. Maybe Celeste was a genius or maybe the teachers were just oblivious. The most likely reason is the latter; Britain never really did hire the most authentic teachers in public schools. She thought back on this fact and giggled quietly to herself as she removed the hoodie over her head and tied it around her waist, revealing her pretty pale pink t-shirt.

Once everyone had clambered out of the van, River opened the back doors and started to pass out everyone's luggage. He passed Celeste's duffle bag to Axel, who she thought would pass it to her. But, she obviously wasn't as genius as she thought because he kept a hold of her bag and passed her his, instead.

"Here, you carry mine. It's much lighter than yours." He said, and she took it off of him. She smiled at his sweet gesture, and gave him a shy "thank you".

Once everyone had their bags, River locked the minivan and they started over to the hotel. It was a grand building, with tall glass windows that touched the roof at its entrance. It stretched far across the seafront and Celeste was sure she would end up with a sea view room. They entered the building through a glass door where the reception had glittering black tiles on the floor, and watermelon pink painted walls.

The group headed over to the black marbled reception desk to check in. River did the majority of the talking, as the oldest of the group. The others only had to participate in minimal conversation with the lovely French lady when accepting their wristbands which would prove that they were all-inclusive guests at the hotel. "Alreyt, so we 'ave three rooms since there's six o' us. Thanks, Celeste, by the way, fo' booking this." River said, looking over to Celeste, who replied with a "no problem" and a dramatic bow.

"Who's roomin' we who?" River asked.

There were three boys and three girls. Either someone could room alone, and leave a room of two and a room of three, or one of each gender could share the final room. Celeste knew that there was no way that she would share a room with Aria alone, so that idea was ruled out straight away, leaving not many more options.

"How about, for the first night, River, you take a room on your own to catch up on sleep? We three girls can share a room together. I don't mind sleeping on the sofa." Celeste suggested.

"I don't mind doing that. Aria, are you alright with that, too?" Fawn asked.

"Yeah, I suppose," Aria responded, not so enthusiastically.

River thanked Celeste for making the suggestion, and once again for booking the hotel before they then took off to the elevator to find their rooms on the seventh floor.

Their rooms were all next to each other and the girls had chosen the room on the far right. Axel dropped Celeste's bag in front of their door and she handed him his. He gave her a quick, taunting flick on the shoulder and a sweet smile, before heading to his and Beck's room, in the middle. When they opened the door to their room, the three girls entered and began to explore it.

"Omg! You have to come to look at this bathroom!" Fawn yelled to Celeste and Aria, who were currently examining the sitting area.

They both ran over towards the room, next to the doorway, where they saw the most luxurious bathroom. It had double sinks, with a marble countertop, a walk-in shower to the right of the sinks, and a simple yet necessary touch - the toilet.

"I can't wait to have a shower in that!" Aria exclaimed.

She was surprisingly much more relaxed around Celeste, that day. She had shown no opposition to sharing a room with her, but Celeste couldn't understand why not. Aria had never been nice just for the sake of it before, so Celeste doubted that her newly found tolerance for her was off of her own back. She didn't let the thought linger in her mind for long, however, and blocked it out, continuing to explore the hotel room.

They exited the bathroom and went into the bedroom to check it out, even though Celeste wouldn't be sleeping in there. There were two single beds, neatly made, and an average-sized wardrobe. Looking at the size of the bags that the girls had each brought, Celeste realised that there might not be enough room for all of their clothes.

"Do you think the boys will let us put some of our clothes in their wardrobe? Something tells me all of ours won't fit in there." Fawn said, laughing and pointing at the wardrobe.

"I was thinking the same" Celeste replied, giggling.

She went back into the sitting area, to check out the sofa that she would be sleeping on. She noticed that it had a set of wheels underneath it, so she pulled on the underside of the sofa to see if it would move. Unexpectedly, the bottom half of the sofa began to move whilst the top stayed in place, revealing a single mattress laid on the area that pulled out. When the cushions, that had previously been sitting on top of the mattress, were placed into the gap, it created a double bed.

She would be sleeping in luxury! Not only that, next to the sofa bed were the balcony windows, with an astonishing view of the golden beach. Any previously negative thoughts that Celeste was having about having to sleep on the sofa bed were completely extinguished.

"Guys, I'm gonna go ask Beck and Ax if I can put my clothes in their wardrobe. You guys can have all the space in ours then." Celeste shouted through to the other room and lifted the heavy bag over her shoulders. She heard a faint "alright" from the bedroom, then headed to the boys' room. She knocked a few times on the door until Axel answered.

"Oh, fancy seeing you here. Have you come to see what you're missing out on?" He smirked, his elbow resting on the door frame, as he blocked her entry to the room. She dropped the bag on the floor, in front of her, and rolled her eyes.

"Not quite. Got any spare room in your wardrobe?" She asked, pointing down to her duffle bag. Axel let out a snigger at the situation Celeste looked like she was in.

"Did you get booted? Come to shack up with me and Beck for the night?" He taunted. She shoved him playfully back into his room and started to drag her bag across the floor.

"I just need some wardrobe space!" she exclaimed, dragging her bag backwards into their room.

Suddenly, she stumbled backwards, as she had tripped over something. She fell straight onto the laminate floor and sat for a moment in embarrassment, whilst Axel keeled over with laughter instead of asking if she had hurt herself.

"Oh my gosh, Cely! I'm so sorry, I didn't see you!" It appeared the 'something' she had tripped over was Beck. He ran over to check if Celeste had hurt herself, but she just laughed as he helped her back to her feet and carried her bag over to the wardrobe.

"Here you go, this side is all yours." He said, pointing to a large railing to the right of his and Axel's clothes.

"Thank you so much!" She beamed at him, then began to unzip her bag.

Unpacking took Celeste about an hour, as she had packed so many clothes and shoes and she had to run between rooms to put away toiletries in the girls' bathroom. It wasn't until they'd finished unpacking that they discovered a door that led directly into the other room.

"Where does this door go to?" Axel asked. Both Celeste and Beck shrugged their shoulders, so he opened it to reveal another door.

"Wait, does that go into our room? Let me check!" Celeste ran out of the boys' room, and into hers. She found a similar door on the other side, which she opened to find Axel standing on the other side.

"Aria! Fawn! Come check this out!" She yelled to the two girls, who were getting changed. They came through to the sitting area, in their new outfits, and beamed when they saw the door.

"Alright ladies," Axel said, giving them a nod.

Aria and Fawn took Celeste's spot and went to go check out the boys' room. She took the opportunity, whilst the room was empty, to get changed into some clothes that she had brought through with her. She went into the bathroom and slipped into a pale blue sundress, which had small daisies dotted all over it, and traded her chunky black trainers for a pair of white pumps. Finally, she grabbed a bobble out of her toiletries bag and took her straight hair up into a loose bun. Before leaving the bathroom, she applied a few strokes of sun cream. Then, she made her way back to the sitting area, and through the newly found door.

When she entered the room, Axel's jaw practically dropped at the sight of her. He didn't take his eyes off of her, as she walked over to them.

"Anyone fancy a walk on the beach, before dinner?" Celeste asked, to which the whole group answered "yes".

The five of them left River to sleep in his room, whilst they headed down to the beach. The walk from the hotel to the beach was no more than two minutes. When pavement turned into sand, Celeste sat on a nearby wall and took off her shoes and socks. Leaving them on the wall, she moved onto the sand, which was warm under her feet, and it tickled in-between her toes.

The beach stretched for a few miles until it reached a small port to the right. The sun was beginning to set, and it cast an orange glaze across the sea of waves and bright flecks of orange light that reflected off of the boats in the distance.

Beck, Fawn and Axel had found themselves walking together, whilst Aria was left to walk with Celeste. The atmosphere was much less tense than she had imagined when being alone with Aria.

"You're actually pretty cool, Ripley." She said. Celeste stumbled in her walk at the compliment she had just received from Aria.

"Thank you. That means a lot." She replied, giving her an unforced smile. "You're not so bad yourself, Balker."

Aria still couldn't bring herself to use Celeste's first name, but this was a step closer to the two of them becoming friends. And, that was all that Celeste wanted.

They continued to walk on in the blissful silence, with only the sound of still waves, rolling onto the beach. Axel stopped for a second and then plonked himself down to sit on the sand. He leant back to rest on his elbows and stared out to sea.

"This is the life!" He said as the others began to sit around him. They sat there for around half an hour, in silence, watching the sun fall behind the horizon.

The silence was suddenly broken by Fawn's thinking out loud.

"Hey Cely, you know since we've come on this journey to find the Zirkyan stone, does that make us Anems?" She asked. Everyone seemed a little surprised at Fawn's comment and turned to face Celeste, as they awaited her response.

"Well, I'm sure that, to be an Anem, you only have to believe in Zirkyan magic and want to bring it back, so I suppose so, yes. I know some of you are only here purely for the holiday so, in that case, no. But, I know that some of you are definitely here to help." Celeste replied.

She had tried to subtly hint that Aria wasn't here at all for the Zirkyan stone, but considering that they had just started to get along, she thought it best not to expand on that. Nobody appeared to question what she had said, either, which she was very grateful of.

"I think it's time to get some dinner and fetch River down," Axel said, getting to his feet. The rest agreed and followed him back to the hotel.

The dinner buffet was much like the one they would usually have at MesonHill. A selection of bread, cheeses and dips for starters; meats, pasta and accompaniments for mains; and cakes, biscuits and ice-creams for dessert. They each piled their plates high and had finished eating by 7 pm.

For the next few hours, they spent their time in the hotel bar and entertainment room. They sat cradling drinks of soda, whilst watching a Queen tribute act on the stage. Queen was one of the many artists that Fawn had introduced Celeste to, so she joined in with the rest of the group, who were singing along to some of their greatest hits.

She had never felt exhilaration quite like being in that moment before. If Anems like Celeste were given their name for feeling nostalgia, then she would reminisce on that moment forever. And, in all of the excitement, the time flew by.

"Gosh, it's 10 pm already! I think we should call it a night!" Celeste yelled over the loud music. The many yawns were enough of an agreement, so they all headed back up to their rooms for the night.

When the girls got back to their room, Celeste had to go back into the boys' room to get some pyjamas, from a draw in the wardrobe. She picked out her favourite little pink shorts set and ran back through to her room. She quickly got changed, and fetched a blanket and some spare pillows, from the top of the wardrobe in the bedroom. Coming back into the sitting room, she unfolded the blanket, placed down the pillows, and laid herself down on the double sofa bed. Through complete exhaustion from the journey, she was asleep in seconds.