--------------------- Mauritius, Waldorf Astoria ---------------------

On the schedule, they said we would all arrive at the hotel by noon. We were said to be staying in Waldorf Astoria. 

A few minutes after I woke up I headed out of the bedroom in the yacht and made my way to the lounge where everyone else was and quietly made my way to sit in between my usual duo of friends. I leaned my head on one of their shoulders as  I was still slowly waking up. Everyone else was still chatting and laughing.

Around 10 minutes went by and we started to approach the hotel's dock. Once I realized that, I went back into the room grabbed my suitcase and brought it back out and continued to sit with everyone else.

Upon arrival at the hotel, we all got up and our homeroom teacher started rushing us off the yacht. We all stepped out one by one since it was quite a big step and the staff helped us get our luggage out. 

Once that was out of the way, I was so glad to finally be back on solid ground yet it felt so weird. I could still feel the rocking of the boat. 

At the entrance, we were greeted by a sign to our right that displayed the hotel's name in black text and directly in front of us was their hotel lobby which had an open-air design which gave us a panoramic view of the ocean and the white sand beach.

We entered the lobby with our luggage in hand so that we could keep order and complete the check-in process much faster. Nadia, Mekky, Nawaf, Chloé, and Chris entered as well as everyone else and sat on the white couch to the right of the entrance. It had a coffee table in front of it, two armchairs of the same design, and two woven ottomans.

We continued to chat for a while, as the whole lobby was full of us students conversing and laughing as the teachers had a few words with the receptionists at the front desks. After a few minutes, they finished talking and asking questions regarding our stay and the hotel, and then our year-level leader took a few steps forward and demanded the attention of our whole grade.

"Okay everyone, listen here!" She yelled from the front desk.

She then began briefing us on a few things regarding our stay and talking to us about how we are ambassadors of our school and whatever we do here will reflect onto our school and blah, blah, blah. Once she was done she invited one of the staff to brief us on the safety protocols and history of the hotel, the activities we'll be partaking in, and the rules in the hotel and the villas (our rooms).

Following the discussion, we started heading to our rooms in homeroom groups from A, B, C, D, E, and lastly, F. Each homeroom group had 4 groups of three which were in order from numbers 1-4, and headed to their rooms that way. Golf carts would pick us up from the reception and drop us off at our villas. We were all staying in the overwater villas which were on the left wing of the hotel together with the reef villas, while the beach villas were on the opposite side.

It was mine, Chloé's, and Nadia's turn to get on to the golf cart and drive off to our villa. We got into the golf cart as our suitcases were loaded in the back seats. We enjoyed the scenery as we travelled across the resort to make it to our villa. 

Once we arrived at our stop we entered our villa's driveway for villa number 313. The staff helped us take our bags out and dragged them in through the blue gate and we were beyond mesmerized by the beauty of the villa as we were greeted with a private pool, multiple lounge spaces and a porch at the front door of the villa.

(A/N --> You can search for a tour on YouTube or watch the tour I linked above, on the chapter's cover, the resort is really cute)

We entered our villa and I immediately flopped onto the bed.

"I'm sleeping on a bed alone! The two of you can share." Nadia quickly spoke.

"That's not fair, let's play rock paper scissors and whoever wins gets to have a bed all to themselves," Chloé suggested.

"Fine," Nadia replied, "Alright, the two of you can start" My response followed.

We did a mini tournament of rock paper scissors, and guess what? I won!! which means I got a bed all to myself.

It started with Nadia and Chloé battling it out through rock-paper-scissors. They did three rounds by themselves, and whoever won went against me. Between the two, Nadia won, and between me and Nadia, I won, so I got a bed all to myself while the two of them had to share.

"Chloé, you literally gave the idea yet you were the first to lose," I started.

"Shut up!" She yelled from the bathroom and I giggled.

We spent the rest of the 40 minutes of free time they gave us unpacking and getting familiar with the items in the villa. We set our toiletry bags which had our skincare and basic hygiene necessities on the bathroom counter, placed our suitcases in the wardrobes took out the clothes that we planned on wearing for the rest of the day and hung them on the hangers in the wardrobes. 

Since we were gonna ahead as a grade for water and beach activities after the free time they lent us, we changed into our swimsuits, wore our cover-ups, and packed a tote bag for the three of us that had beach and pool essentials. 

Before we left the villa, we asked for a buggy (a small car like a golf cart) to take us to the lobby. The lobby is in the middle of the reef villas and beach villas, and it's also close to the pool. We thought it would be a good idea to go to the lobby first and then walk to the pool from there.

We waited outside on the front porch of the villa, watching for the buggy. After about five minutes, we heard the sound of a vehicle coming closer. It was the buggy. We got up, climbed in, and asked the driver to take us to the lobby so we could go to the pool.

The ride to the lobby was quick, it only took about three minutes. When we arrived, we got out of the buggy and started walking to the pool. As we got closer, we could hear laughter, shouting, and the sound of water splashing everywhere. Our classmates were already at the pool, having fun.

When we got near the sunbeds, Nadia suddenly pointed and said, "Guys, look over there!"

"What is it?" I asked, trying to see what she was pointing at.

"There are three empty sunbeds right next to them. Let's put our stuff there," Nadia said excitedly.

I sighed but said, "Okay."

"Alright!" Chloé said somewhat happily.

We started walking toward the sunbeds. For some reason, Nadia and Chloé ran ahead of me, like they were in a hurry. When I finally got there, I realized they had left me with the only empty sunbed, and it was right next to Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos FREAKIN' Junior! My face turned red, and I wished the ground would open up and swallow me whole at that very moment.

↜-------------------------------------↝

A/N

Hey guyss!

I have returned, finally! My apologies, I've had this chilling in my drafts unfinished since October 15th and I literally just got the motive to complete it today. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and I promise I'm getting to the next one right now 😭 I promiseee!

Bye, Love you all,

Words - 1,341