The voices quickly quieted down as heads turned towards Mr. Bowman. As soon as Mr. Bowman saw that he got everyone's attention, he continued on.

"Okay, good morning everyone," Mr. Bowman started off.

"Morning, Mr. Bowman," the class echoed.

"I hope you all had a nice sleep last night. Anyway, today is our first full day in Mexico, and we are going to start things off by visiting the ever famous pyramids of the Aztecs."

Alright. Just what I've been waiting for. Elizabeth thought to herself.

"We will be spending the whole day there, just because it is so big and there will be many things to look at and explore. Because we have such a large group, we will divide ourselves into three groups. Ms. Loflet, Mr. Growm and I will be leading each group with a tour guide. My group will be known as group one, Ms. Loflet's as group two and Mr. Growm as group three. I will read the list of each group so listen carefully for your name," Mr. Bowman announced.

Elizabeth listened carefully for her name. She was in Ms. Loflet's group. She was just listening now to see who else was in her group.

". . . Winston Egbert, Lila Fowler, Ken Matthews, Amy Sutton, Jessica Wakefield and Todd Wilkens," Mr. Bowman finished.

Alright! Elizabeth thought. I'm with Jessica and all my friends. Well, most of my friends. Too bad Maria and Julie aren't in my group. And then there's Lila . . . Oh well, I'm sure things well be fun, even with Lila's complaining and whining.

"Ditto that," Lila whined.

"Can you say Dork Central?" Jessica asked.

"Calm down you guys it won't be that bad. Elizabeth and her friends are pretty nice," Mandy said, trying to be comforting.

"Speak for yourself," Lila retorted. "You get Jake and Aaron and Ellen . . . well, Ellen is kinda, um, never mind. But you get the picture."

"Hey!" Ellen yelled. "Did you say something about me?"

"No, no!" Lila said quickly. "I was just saying how luck Mandy was to have you in her group."

"Oh," Ellen said a little happier. "Thanks!"

"Anyway, back to MY problem . . ." Jessica started.

"You mean OUR problem," Lila corrected.

"Right," Jessica said. "Do you know how much torture we will be going though? I mean, this was suppose to be a vacation of fun in the sun, but now instead I, uh, I mean we, get stuck with Winston, Mr. I'm-Gonna-Kill-You-With-My-Corny-Jokes, Todd, Mr. Boring-as-Butter, and Amy, Ms. I-Forgot-My-Life-At-Home-Can-I-Borrow-Yours. What did I ever do to deserve this?"

"Whoa! Calm down. You don't have to spend ALL your time with them. You and Lila can do your own stuff," Mandy reasoned.

"Yeah, but it's not the same," Lila wailed.

"Don't worry, you guys will see. You are going to have a VERY interesting trip," Mandy promised, without realizing how right she really was.

"Hey guys!" Winston yelled from somewhere. "Over here!"

The kids looked around. "Where are you?" Todd asked.

"Right here," Winston said, waving his arm from behind a wall.

The kids made there way to where Winston was.

"Wait!" Elizabeth yelled suddenly.

"What is it?" Jessica asked, mid-step.

"I don't think we should go there. Ms. Loflet doesn't know where we are and she told us to wait here," Elizabeth explained.

"Oh, please," Ken said. "We're only going to be gone for a couple of minutes. She won't even know that we were gone."

"Well . . . alright," Elizabeth said hesitantly.

Once again, the kids made there way to where Winston was standing.

"Take a look at this," Winston said, beaming.

"Wow," was all anyone could say. The wall that they were standing in front of wasn't just some ordinary wall. It was a stone wall with beautiful carvings in it. There were carving of people and animals on it. It was breath taking.

"This is beautiful," Elizabeth said.

"Uh huh," Lila said, admiring the wall in awe.

The students all stood there for what seemed like hours, admiring the wall, and running their fingers over it, examining each art work. The all of a student, Amy let a scream.

"Ah!" she yelled. "It's 9:20!"

"So?" said Lila. "What's the big deal?"

"Oh my gosh! Amy's right!" Elizabeth yelled, finally realizing what Amy was so frantic about.

"Look," Lila started, "we already established that. There's no need to get excited."

"No, no!" Elizabeth yelled. "Don't you see? We arrived here at 9:00. We've been gone for twenty minutes. Ms. Loflet must be wondering where we are!"

"Oh, your right!" Winston said looking at his watch. "Come on, let's go."

But Winston didn't have to say that, because all the kids were making a mad dash to the information desk.

Ms. Loflet wasn't there.

"Um, okay, no need to worry," Elizabeth told everyone. I'll just ask the lady if she knows where Ms. Loflet is."

The students made there way to the desk.

"Excuse me," Elizabeth said.

"Why hello," greeted the lady behind the desk.

"Hi. Do you know where Ms. Loflet is?" Elizabeth asked, embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, I don't recall that name," the lady answered. "Maybe you can describe how she looks like."

"Well, she's wearing a light purple suit. She has brown hair and she wears glasses," Elizabeth described.

"Oh yes, I remember. She was here a couple of minutes ago. She was looking for you guys. She told me that she was going to check for you guys in the gallery," the lady replied.

Everyone's faces looked relieved.

"Thank you," Elizabeth said, making her way to the exit. Then she stopped. Lila bumped into her.

"Ouch! What did you stop for?" she yelled.

"Do you know where the gallery is?" Elizabeth questioned.

"Well, no," Lila said.

Elizabeth made her way back to the desk to ask for directions.

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