It was a Thursday afternoon, and we were in the middle of math, until Mrs. Cahill got a call from the class phone.  I was being summoned to the office.  Everyone is scared of the office. 
     I expected it.  I was just leaving school to go to on my trip to Napa Valley for my family reunion.  “Bye Emma!”, all my friends yelled.  I, of course, told all my friends that I was leaving.   
     When I got to the office, the mean, old, cranky secretary was organizing her files, so everything was a mess.  “Your mom is standing outside….. Wait! You have to sign this!” The secretary yelled at me.  She searched through her mess for a good five minutes.  I sighed.
     I signed the paper, then walked out the main door of the office. 
My mom was in the parking lot, helping my little brother get the seatbelt unstuck from the car door.  “Great, now we can finally go.  Emma, Dad isn’t going to show up in Napa until tomorrow.”, my mom said.  Jason, my little brother, complained, “But he’s going to miss the Safari tomorrow.” “I know,” She said.  My mom hopped into the driver’s seat, while I put my backpack in the back of the car and jumped into the front seat.
I never knew that something bad would happen while I was gone.

When we drove through downtown Calistoga, I was looking at all the hotels to see which one we were going to stay at.  The piece of paper said Indian Springs Resort.  I stretched my neck to look forward.  There it was.  There was a huge sign with big golden letters, with a water fountain behind it, and tons of palm trees throughout  the large lawns, and gigantic buildings. 
     We pulled up to the cottage.  It was a cute, fancy little building.  Across the little driveway, there was Bocce Ball, Checkers, Croquet, and Shuffleboard.  Just down the road, there was the yoga room, the pool(which was 90 degrees because of the geyser), the restaurant, the spa, and the geyser.  There were palm trees everywhere. 
The door to the cottage opened.  My cousins raced up to me and said “Guess what?”
     “No I want to tell them!”
      “Fine.”
     “The coach of the Warriors is staying right up the hill! And we got to meet him!  His therapist is right next door to us.” He pointed to a cottage at the right.  “You guys are staying in the cottage over there.”  He pointed to the left.  Their names are Luke and Henry.  Luke was tall and skinny with blue eyes and silver blond hair.  Henry was shorter with blue eyes and silver blond hair.  Henry was in second grade and Luke was in fifth.  I was also in fifth grade. 

     A car pulled up into the driveway.  My other cousins, Jack, Will, and Gus got out of the car.  Jack was very tall, with blue eyes and dirty blond hair.  He was also in fifth grade.  Will was a little taller than Jack with chocolate brown hair and a really annoying voice.  He was in seventh grade.  Gus was extremely tall, with brown hair and he was starting to grow a beard. He was a sophomore in high school. 
     As we sat down for dinner, we looked over and saw that there was this weird see-saw that looked like it was part of the a playground for little kids.  It wasn’t a see-saw.  It had wheels at the bottom of the seats and it could move in circles.  Jack immediately went over there with Luke.  They got on and started spinning really fast and yelling “Wheeeeeeee!  This is fun!”

The next morning, we had to wake up at six o’clock to go on the “Safari”.  I slowly rolled out of bed, and got dressed.  I overslept.  I raced over to the car pulling out of the driveway shouting, “Wait for me!”  The car stopped and the door slid open. I jumped in.
I watched all the trees pass by by in a blur, and thought of what the safari is going to look like.  My mind came up with cardboard cutouts, instead of real animals.  It’s going to be really stupid.

We finally pulled up to what looked like a zoo.  There was two giant statues of lions that stood by the entrance and a water fountain that had a statue of a crane in the middle.  All the buildings looked like they were made from bamboo and palm tree leaves.  As I climbed out from the front seat, all my cousins sprinted up to the front desk. 
     When we were eating candy in the lobby, my parents explained that we were at a place called Safari West.  Apparently, it was a “safari” tour that lasted three hours.  I thought to myself, how all my friends were watching some cool assembly, where they were getting this speaker who always brought animals with her(to show off), and I was about to go on a lame, fake, safari tour, but I was wrong.
      As we headed outside to see the jeep, I saw cheetahs, lions, flamingos, and many more animals in a huge, open, grassy area.  The jeep had three rows, with the last row elevated a little more than the others.  There was on row on top of the jeep and right below, there was the driver’s seat.  All the kids, including me, raced to see who gets to sit on the seat on top of the jeep.  The driver picked me and four of my cousins.  As we started to go through the gates, in the jeep, I realized it was going to be an extremely bumpy ride.
     When we reached the lion’s territory, the guide told us,  “Be careful.  These lions are extremely territorial.  That means, if anyone goes out of the truck, the lions might try to harm you, although I assure you, that they will not touch the truck.”  When we saw the first lion, she stopped the truck to talk and went into major detail.  I looked around and took a few pictures of the lions. 
     As we started driving again, I heard a “klump!” .  I immediately turned around in my seat.  I saw my cousin Luke, laying in the middle of the road, with a bloody arm, the lions slowly walking towards him.   His arm was oozing blood and he was screaming from the pain. 
     “ Luke fell out of the top seat! Turn around!”  I yelled.  The jeep screeched to a stop.  “I need someone to help me get him out of the middle of the road!”  the guide yelled. My little brother volunteered.  “No, you’re too small.” she said.  My uncle volunteered.  They jumped out of the truck and slowly walked towards Luke.
      My uncle touched Luke on the elbow.  Luke screamed.  “Aghhhhhhhh!  Don’t touch my arm!”  The lions got closer.  “His arm is broken.  We need to get him to a hospital immediately,” The guide yelled. They lifted him up; he was screaming. They started walking back to the truck.  The lions were 10 feet away, all of us in the truck screaming for them to come closer to the truck.  “Hurry!” my aunt yelled.  They were 5 feet away.  The lions were a couple feet away from them, ready to spring on to them any second.
     “Let’s go! C’mon! Move it!” my sister, Kate, yelled. Kate was a very tall, with a round face and dirty blond hair.  She was in third grade.   My uncle dumped Luke in one of the seats, and hopped in, while the guide jumped into the driver’s seat.  She jiggled the key, again, and again. The truck wouldn’t start.  Her face was turning pale with fear, and she started to panic.  One lion was climbing on to the back seat, another was on top of the truck. Everyone in the truck started screaming.  The lion on top of the truck was getting really close to the people sitting on the top of the truck.  She finally got the truck to start.  We sped out of the lion territory, both lions flew off the back of the truck. We made it out the gate.  The guide hopped out of the truck, running to close the gate, the lions sprinting to the truck. “Screech!”  The gate was closing slowly, as the lions were 50 feet away. 
     “Bam!” The gate closed. The guide breathed heavily.  She hopped back into the jeep and we headed back to the main entrance. 

We decided that we should head home early.  The drive felt even longer and more boring than ever.  I                                                                                       thought, how can this week get any worse?  No….wait, it always does.  In strange ways.  

On Monday, I was going to school…….
I jumped out of the car.  “Are you okay? Your friend’s mom told me that there was something wrong with you and you were being really mean to the other girls.” My mom said.  “I’m fine.  My friends have been acting weird, ever since the first day of school.”  I told her. 
     I walked over to the big tree next to my classroom, where my friends were.  There was this huge grassy area over near the big tree, where everyone met before and after school.   It was right next to the fifth grade classrooms.   When I got there, my friends turned around and walked the other way.  “Wait!” I yelled, “ Why are you acting so weird? We’ve been best friends since kindergarten.” “You’re so mean.  Why did you do this to us?” Rebekah said.  Rebekah is as tall as I am, with jet black hair, and she was Korean.  “What did I do?” I asked. I seriously didn’t know. “Idiot! Don’t pretend you don’t know!” Tiphaine yelled.  Tiphaine is a very short French girl who lived in France for 8 years, and she had dirty blond hair.
     “ Seriously, what do you think I did?” I said. “Whatever!” Rebekah yelled.  “No, wait, we should tell her.” Athena said.  Athena is a little shorter than I am, she is obsessed with basketball, with long black hair that is always in a braid and she is Indian. “Someone texted us that you never wanted to see us again and we were not your friends anymore.  They also said you were moving because of us being your friends and you were saying mean things behind our backs. You also threw a party over the weekend and made fun of us at the party….. We were not invited, but of course you knew that.”  “What the heck? Why would you believe I was moving because I didn’t want to be friends? My parents would never move because of that little reason….  I also didn’t have a party…...Who told you that?” “We are not allowed to say. They said that they will beat us up if we do it.” Athena told me.
     “ Rebekah! You do wrestling! You can beat them up any time!” I said. “Oh, yeah…..I forgot.” Rebekah said weakly.  “So, who is it?” I asked.  “The problem is that we don’t know!” Tiphaine yelled.  “I think I know who would do something like that…….” I said, “Veronica!”  Veronica was a really mean girl,with short, black hair and a little overweight. Tiphaine’s face turned pale as Veronica walked over to our group. “Did I hear my name?  You guys look terrible, that’s probably why you’re losers!” “You know that you’re the only loser here. Right guys?” Immediately after I said that, I regretted it.  I looked over at my friends, and they were just staring at me, clueless.
     “You don’t scare me!”I told her. “Well, listen to your friends over here.  You should be as scared as they are.” She said in a sassy voice.  “You and your friends are so scared, stupid, and ugly!”

And that’s when Rebekah hit her. 

“You idiot! Let’s see what the principal says about this!” Veronica hollered at Rebekah.  Veronica quickly walked to the office, tears started streaming down her face. 
     “Rebekah! That was…...Awesome!” Tiphaine quickly said.  That’s when the announcements said,“Will Rebekah Kim please come to the office, please.””Bye guys! See you in class, if I’m not suspended.” Rebekah said smiling, as she walked away. 
“Wow, that was………...something.”  I said.

The End