The following is based on actual events. Only the names and some of the situations have been changed to protect the innocent. Namely my profs... he, he.
Disclaimers: I don't own them, 'nuf said.
There was nothing unusual that morning. Of course being up at 4 am wasn't all that unusual for any of them. After all, they'd been on countless missions where they'd been up for 48 hours straight. Duo yawned. Quatre was half-asleep on Wufei's shoulder. Wufei was leaning against a bag of beauty bark asleep.
Heero and Trowa were staring across the parking lot watching the drizzle in the streetlights.
"Where are they?" Duo whined dumping his backpack on the ground.
"Probably at the other pick up point." Heero muttered.
"Oh, great. Is that snow I see?" Duo grumbled. "This is going to be a lousy field trip."
"It was completely voluntary." Trowa reminded him.
Duo narrowed his eyes.
"Listen, I've been up since six yesterday morning. Don't make Death any madder than he already is. All I want is to get into that van and go to sleep."
"Professor Ross is late isn't she?" Quatre murmured.
"By fifteen minutes. I mean come on! It's practically snowing!"
"Duo, shut the hell up." Heero warned. "She and Dr. Dirk will be here when they get here. Someone was probably running late."
"Probably one of the girls."
"I didn't think there were any women going on this trip?" Quatre muttered giving up leaning on Wufei. He stretched.
"I heard our TA was coming." Duo said. "What's her name?"
"Yeah."
"There's the van now." Trowa said. A large white van pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store. Two people hopped out.
"Hello." Their TA announced. Heero poked Wufei and he started awake. "Sorry we're late. The other people didn't show, so we are leaving without them. It looks like it'll just be us." She said. "Come on, let's get your stuff in the van. Dr. Ross nodded and opened the side door to the fifteen-seat school van.
After stashing their backpacks under seats and in the back, the five boys climbed in. There were four benches and two-bucket seats. Dr. Dirk was driving, with Dr. Ross as copilot.
The TA, whose name none of them could remember at this time of the morning, but they thought it started with a K or was that a T? Anyway it had to end in an "e" sound. Well, she sat by the window in the first bench. Heero and Quatre took the far backbench. Wufei got his own, as did Duo. Trowa sat next to the TA directly behind Dr. Ross.
"All right, is everyone ready for this trip to the coast?"
"A six hour drive to go take guided tours of wildlife facilities sounds fine to me. Wake me when we're there." Duo mumbled stuffing the pillow he'd brought along under his head. "Night."
Three hours later Duo woke up after being tossed into the air. Wufei looked over the seat at him.
"Are you all right?"
"What the hell was that?"
"We hit a speed bump in the fast food restaurant's parking lot. Dr. Ross wants to stop for coffee." Duo groaned and hauled himself back up on his seat. Sitting up, he noticed that Heero was taking off his headphones while Quatre was pulling out his CD case. Quatre pulled out a CD and switched it with the one in his player. The TA nudged Trowa awake. Somehow he'd survived the speed bump without falling out of his seat.
"Use the bathrooms if you need them and get some breakfast." Dr. Ross said climbing out of the van. They all stumbled out and headed for the door. Once inside they discovered that the bathrooms had only one stall. Complaining, they had to wait for the two women to go through before they could also use the women's restroom.
"God, what's taking Heero so long in there anyway?" Duo muttered. His mood had not improved. The only good news was that it wasn't snowing. They had really bizarre weather at that school. For pity's sake it was April, not December.
"You can use the ladies room." The TA told him as she exited. Duo zipped inside before Wufei could tease him about showing his true nature.
They filed back into the van and awaited Dr. Dirk to return, he was still flirting with the waitress.
"I heard you went on this field trip last year." Quatre said as he buckled his seat belt. The TA smiled.
"Yeah. I took Dr. Ross' Practical Application of Ecology and Marine Animal Studies class last year. This trip was the highlight. Although, there were six girls last year and no TA. Poor Dirk, he had to deal with the high estrogen levels. I'm sure he feels much better this trip. I hope he doesn't play chicken with the semis again."
"Chicken with the semis?" Wufei said raising an eyebrow. "We're doomed." Moaned Duo. He lay back down and attempted to get some more sleep. As he faded off he could hear the TA talking about last year's trip.
"Yeah, we visited this oyster production site where we got to sample the oysters. It was great. They were a bit briny, but good."
Three and a half-hours, one wrong turn, seven stoplights, two bathroom and one gas stops later, the five boys, one TA and two professors climbed out of the parked van.
"Where are we?" asked Quatre, who'd been asleep for the majority of the excitement of being lost.
"The zoo. We're here to look at their shark exhibit." Dr. Ross said confidently. "Now if you'll all follow me."
She took the lead and marched towards the main gate, vouchers in hand. It took a few minutes to get into the zoo and a few more for the shark keeper to appear. Everyone was more or less awake. While they waited, Quatre noticed some peacocks wandering about and convinced Trowa to take a picture of him with one. Duo propped himself next to the TA and instructed her to wake him when it was time to go.
The keeper finally appeared and led the group into the aquarium.
"Wow! Look at the size of those sharks." Duo said. He was impressed and spent several minutes watching the large carnivores swim back and forth.
"Why don't we go upstairs and watch the other keepers feed them?" suggested the shark keeper.
The insides of the aquarium weren't as elaborate as the outside. Concrete, pipes, and lots of water. There were plastic containers filled with fish and squid for the Lemon and Reef sharks.
Heero leaned over and examined one bucket. The fish were clearly dead, but the keepers were using long poles to get the sharks to eat them. By splashing the fish against the water it simulated a thrashing meal.
Heero blinked and decided that his mind was more alert than his body and that it was too early in the morning to be thinking about how ingenious the system was.
Trowa stood by one keeper watching the shark erupt out of the water and snatch a squid. Their guide was talking on and on about the recirculating water system they used, Trowa was oblivious. Instead he asked the keeper if he could try.
She hesitated, then said sure. He grabbed a squid from her bucket and foregoing the pole, held it up above the nose a large Lemon shark. It came out of the water.
"TROWA!" hissed the TA angrily just as the shark snatched the squid from his hand. "God, you're indestructible." She commented as he stood back up with all five fingers still attached.
"No, that would be Heero." He told her. She looked a bit confused, but ignored it and escorted him away from the tank's edge.
By now their guide had vanished into the generator room showing them exactly how the water was pumped into the tanks. He spent forty minutes talking and completely ignoring the blank, bleary-eyed looks he was getting from his audience. Even Dr. Ross and Dr. Dirk were nodding off by the time he suggested they go downstairs and look at the jellyfish.
"Heero, could you kill me?" Duo asked as they walked down two flights of stairs to the jelly fish exhibit.
"I didn't bring my gun."
"WHAT? You always have your gun."
"I think it would jeopardize our mission. We're supposed to be students." Duo hung his head. He prayed that the next presenter would be more interesting. He wasn't. They spent another twenty minutes attempting to stay vertical while the main jellyfish keeper, rattled on about how polluted the ocean was and how the remarkable jellyfish would suffer.
"Heero, did you bring your gun?" Quatre asked.
"No."
"See, told you." Duo said.
"What's this about a gun?"
"Nothing miss TA." Quatre and Duo chimed. The TA rolled her eyes.
"Damn and I didn't bring mine either." She said leaning against a tank with rockfish swimming about. Shrugging she suggested that if they all started walking towards the exit, Dr. Ross and Dr. Dirk would get the hint. Ten minutes later they did. After they couldn't find their students.
Back in the van again, all the boys attempted to go back to sleep. Dr. Ross was driving, so the ride wasn't as turbulent as before. They made a stop at a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Wufei perked up and happily talked to the waitress in Chinese for ten minutes while the others tried to decide what to have.
"What time were we supposed to be at that salmon hatchery?" Duo asked over his sweet and sour pork.
"Two-thirty." Dr. Ross replied.
"It's two-forty." Duo said looking at his watch. "We're late."
"I better go call." Dr. Ross said hurriedly getting up and running for the pay phone.
"Oops." The TA snickered. Trowa tried to hide a smile, but lost.
An hour later they finally arrived at the hatchery. Everyone was a bit more awake and they wandered about the facilities staring into the raceways full of young salmon. Duo wished he'd brought a fishing pole. There were some decent sized fish.
"A little lemon and butter, wrap it up in foil, throw it on the grill." He muttered smiling as a particularly big one swam by.
"Duo, these are an endangered species." Quatre said.
"I see a stick we could use." Wufei commented staring into the water's depths.
"I have string." Heero offered.
"I have a paperclip we could bend into a hook." Suggested Trowa.
"Agh! You guys are horrible." Quatre declared and strode off to go listen to Dr. Dirk talk with their guide.
"You guys are looking at the small fry." The TA called. "Come see the suckers in this pen!" The four hurried over to drool over the salmon.
"I like her." Duo said as they all walked back to van. He nodded towards the TA. "She's a riot. Do you think we can take her along when this mission is over with? I mean, she could easily get rid of Relena for you Heero."
"The possibilities." Heero muttered the rest of his sentence lost to anyone who didn't have superhuman hearing.
"In the van with you all!" the TA called cheerfully. "I want to get to the hotel before my latte wears off!"
The sun had risen an hour after they had been forced to get up. Dr. Dirk said that they had a long drive ahead of them. Both Dr. Ross and the TA were in need of caffeine, so they would be stopping at the nearest StarbucksT.
Trowa had snatched two muffins from the hotel's snack stand and was eating them in the far back seat, which he was sharing with Duo.
Duo was busily looking through his backpack for his water bottle and praying he hadn't left anything in his room.
Heero, the perfect soldier he may be, had not been awake this morning and forgot his pillow. They'd had to turn around and get it. Now he was curled up in a seat by himself putting newly recharged batteries into his CD player.
"That battery recharger is a good idea. I need to remember to get one." Quatre said. He was turned around in his seat so he could face the others in the back.
Next to him sat the TA, who had just found her wallet where she'd left it. Breathing a sigh of relief, the TA checked to make sure she had enough money for a caramel latte.
Two miles from the hotel, they found a StarbucksT and stopped. The two women leapt out and charged into the building. Five minutes later they reemerged with hot beverages in hand and content looks on their faces.
Once back in the van, Dr. Dirk, who seemed to be driving an awful lot on this trip, gunned the engine and made his getaway before the women decided they needed anything else.
Again everyone fell into their routines. Quatre, Heero, and Trowa listened to music, Duo and Wufei slept, the TA read, and Dr. Dirk and Dr. Ross chatted. Occasionally they would change so that they were all listening to music, or some were talking.
The TA told the story of last year's field trip, including the one student that got stuck in the mud of the tidal flat. Apparently they'd gone out to look at some clam beds that people were culturing for market when one of the girls stepped in a particularly soft spot. She sank in up to middle of her calf and it took her friend to get her out.
Then there was the detour up the side of that canyon so that someone could get a better picture of the river valley. Wufei prayed that they wouldn't have to be subject to Dr. Dirk driving up another canyon wall. It sounded too nerve-racking. Flying a Gundam was safer.
An hour into the drive, they pulled off the road so that could fill up the van.
"I thought they would have put gas in the van BEFORE we left." Wufei muttered.
"One would think." Heero replied as he thumbed through Duo's CD collection. Duo had found a crossword puzzle book and was busily trying to fill it in.
"Does anyone know another word for challenges?"
"Dare." Heero said.
"Question." Quatre said.
"This trip." Wufei grumbled.
"Has to be one, two, three, five. Five letters long." Duo counted.
"Query or stump." Trowa offered.
"Okay, either will work, let me see what ten down is. Um. Russian villa. That's not going to help. Let me try another." Duo said as he scanned the rest of the down questions.
"You know the answers are in the back of the book." Quatre said.
"That would be cheating." Duo exclaimed. "Besides it would take all the fun out of doing it if I looked at the answers every time I got stuck." With a firm nod he went back to his puzzle.
"A Titanic message? That would be an S.O.S." the TA said glancing at the puzzle. Duo glanced at her.
"Question 57 across."
"I hadn't gotten that far. I'm only on ten across." Duo told her. "But thanks for the help."
Nine minutes later they were back on the road and heading for an oyster farm. Another hour and a half they pulled into the driveway. Everyone staggered out into the warm sunshine. At the professors' request, they had lunch first at a nice little seafood restaurant. Dr. Dirk claimed they had the best oyster soup he'd ever had there.
"I think I'll take his word for it." Duo muttered. Oysters were not among his favorite foods. Same with brussel sprouts. "Besides I think clam chowder is better."
"They have that here too." Dr. Dirk said walking into the restaurant. Suddenly they were chatting about the finer points of clam chowder and which restaurants served the best.
After lunch, they headed off to the oyster farm. They were met at the entrance by a smiling man, who was shorter than Wufei. They were all forced to wear paper hats as they walked through the processing plant and then out too where the barges were bringing in new batches of freshly harvested oysters. Their guide happily gave them the history of the industry, the farm and processing plant, and his work. He went on and on for what seemed like forever.
Despite the reasonable amount of sleep they'd all gotten, the boys were beginning to nod off. Dr. Ross and Dr. Dirk didn't help any by chatting it up with him for an extra forty-five minutes on how his algae cultures were doing. Then they all boarded a barge to go out and see the plots where baby oysters were planted.
The attendant made the mistake of giving the boys a chance to drop the tiny shellfish into the water by hand. Duo and Wufei started having a contest on who could throw them the farthest. Quatre dropped them one at a time over the side of the boat. Heero shrugged and threw his handful over the side in one go. Trowa was skipping them absentmindedly to see how many skips he could get.
Dr. Ross shook her head, while Dr. Dirk continued to talk about equipment and parts of boats. The TA ignored them and instead asked the captain if she could pilot the boat. Fortunately the captain remembered her from last year and refused, not feeling like doing donuts at high speeds.
Reluctantly, they disembarked from the boat at the dock and returned to the van. After another brief bathroom stop, they were on their way again. This time they were on their way to the marine research facility that the school sponsored. It was another hour drive down the coast.
"Anyone got any threes?" Duo asked.
"Nope, go fish." Said the TA.
"Does anyone have any aces?" Heero inquired.
"Yes." Trowa handed over an ace.
"Does anyone have any queens?" Heero asked.
"Nope, go fish." Said Duo.
"How can you play go fish?" Quatre wondered aloud as he twisted in his seat. Once more the seating arrangements had changed. The TA and Heero were sitting in the same seat. In front of them were Trowa and Duo. Wufei was in the very front seat curled up with both Duo and Heero's pillows. They'd loaned them to him for a bit. In between the go fish players and Wufei sat Quatre, who had pulled out his book and was reading.
"Easy. We have the deck one of the paper hats so the cards don't fly about when Dirk goes around a curve." Duo said.
"Oh. I think I'll go back to my book."
"Now, we will be pulling into the research center soon." Dr. Ross announced. "When we get there, you'll need to put on some rubber boots. Don't worry, the facility has some you can borrow. Anyway, we'll be going out into the tidal flats. Please try to watch where you step. I don't want anyone getting stuck out there."
The TA tried hard not to laugh.
"I'm sure we'll lose someone. We always do." She whispered.
They turned into the research facility driveway and everyone climbed out. Heero was smiling because he had been winning the go fish game. The others didn't seem to care.
Dr. Dirk went up to the main building, while everyone else milled about on the lawn. Duo wandered down to the shoreline and stared at the incoming tide. There were some rocks sticking out of the water that he could get to. He wondered if he should do it or not. Behind him Wufei and Trowa were reading a sign about the facility's purpose and how it was founded.
"This place was founded in 1963." Wufei said.
"Amazing that it's been running that long."
"It started as a small shack." Trowa read. "A professor's house apparently."
"Doesn't look like Dirk is having any luck finding the caretaker." The TA said squinting in the sunlight.
"This place closes at about five. Does anyone know what time it is?"
"Five-twenty." Heero said looking at his watch.
"Okay. That's it. Everyone back in the van. We're going into town, with or with out the profs." The TA announced. "I don't know about you, but I'm getting hungry and would really like to get to the hotel before it's dark."
"I'm way ahead of you." Quatre announced holding up the van keys.
"Get in, I'm driving!"
Unfortunately, the six could not ditch their professors, but they did convince them to go to the hotel. The professors decided that since all they were doing the next day was driving home, they could stop at this lighthouse that was supposed to be beautiful. With that agreed upon, they pulled away from the research facility and headed back into town.
The wake up call came at eight in the morning.
Rolling over, Heero reached for the phone. Thankfully it had stopped ringing, so the lucky receptionist wasn't chewed out by a tired Gundam pilot. Heero grumbled, threw back the covers and got up. In the bed next to him Wufei growled and pulled the covers back over his head.
"We've gotten less than ten hours worth of decent sleep in three days, I'm not getting UP!" he snapped as Heero stumbled into the bathroom.
"Too early." He muttered as he shut the door.
Next door, Quatre and Duo were having a very similar conversation. Duo had thrown his pillow at the phone.
It had missed and hit Quatre instead. At that point the blond, who'd been attempting to ignore the ringing, got up and slunk to the bathroom.
"I don't wanna get up!" Duo moaned. "Need more sleep."
"You and me both!" Quatre called.
The four eventually dragged themselves out of their rooms, packed bags over their shoulders. Trowa stood by the parked school van while Dr. Dirk looked for the keys he hopefully hadn't just locked in his room.
"Good morning all." Dr. Ross said as she appeared with the TA. "What do you say about going to the little family bakery for breakfast? It's on our way out." Five blank stares answered her.
"Hello, food. Breakfast." The TA said waving her hand in front of Trowa's face.
"Sounds fine." Trowa said as Dr. Dirk found his keys and opened the door.
"Well, at least I got an answer out of someone." The TA commented, as the side door was unlocked so they could throw their stuff in. They filed in and drove into the little beach resort town. Duo's eye's lit up when he saw a sign reading "Bakery" off on his left.
"Mmmm. I can smell the fresh donuts already." He sighed happily. They parked across from the bakery. Dr. Dirk locked all the doors while the others scampered into the small shop. They weren't the only ones who were hungry for pastries that morning. A bunch of tourists were in there getting coffee and muffins.
Some little kids were running around playing hide and go seek behind their parents. Wufei watched them with disgust and wishing the parents would be more considerate and keep their kids from acting like heathens.
"Wow, they have cookies. Look, they're shaped like crabs, fish, starfish, and octopus." Quatre said looking at the display case.
"If they don't have any maple bars, I'm going to be mad." Duo grumbled.
"Can't start your morning without a good maple bar?" inquired the TA.
"No, it's just somebody keeps snitching them before I can have one."
"That's because you sleep through your alarm." Trowa told him. Duo glared at him then flashed a smile.
After purchasing their pastries, coffee for those who needed the caffeine and orange juice they sat down at the tables and munched. Heero had a plain glazed donut and a poppy seed muffin. Duo ate two maple bars. Trowa had a blueberry muffin and something in a small paper bag, which he wasn't showing anyone.
Quatre happily ate one chocolate donut and an apple fritter. Wufei had a bran muffin and a blueberry donut. The TA was happy with her latte and chocolate muffin, while the two professors had coffee and powdered sugar donuts.
Once done with breakfast, they piled back into the van and left. As they started their nine-hour trip home, Dr. Dirk reminded them that they were going to look at this historic lighthouse that had been there since the 1860's. A great sigh arose from the back.
Thirty-two minutes later, they parked in the parking lot to the visitor's center. Dr. Dirk lead the expedition up to the visitor's center, but no one followed him.
The rest, lead by the TA, went in search of the elusive lighthouse. The dirt trail lead through the forest, past a steep drop to a little cove and up the side of the steepest hill they'd seen in a long time. Finally reaching the top where the tiny white lighthouse stood, they discovered that Dr. Dirk had beaten them there.
"How did he do that?" asked Wufei, amazed.
"I don't know, but I'd like to learn where the shortcut is. I don't feel like going through that mud again." Quatre said.
They stood and admired the view of the ocean for a while. Dr. Dirk took lots of pictures. The boys and TA climbed over a barrier to sit at the base of the lighthouse so that Dr. Dirk could get a group shot.
"Okay, now everyone smile." Amazingly everyone did, including Heero, Wufei and Trowa.
"You know, that we're doing touring all those places, it feels like we're on vacation." Duo commented as they began their hike down. Heero nodded. "It's nice acting like normal school kids for a while." He continued in a whisper.
Dr. Dirk took them on his short cut, which involved more climbing over fallen trees, crawling through brambles, and avoiding low branches than the marked trail, but it was faster. The visitor's center was closed, but they could look through the old World War II gun torrent and ammo shelters that were there. Someone suggested a game of hide and go seek. Dr. Dirk agreed to be "it" first.
After running around like idiots, ducking into all sorts of dark hallways and rooms, scaring the hell out of any passerby, they finally decided to go back to the van. Dr. Ross had remained with it, not wanting to trek all over creation following Dr. Dirk. She'd done that before and didn't plan on doing it again.
"Whee! That was fun!" Duo exclaimed. "I've not done that in ages!"
"I have never done that to my knowledge." Wufei announced.
"Come on, you had to have done it when you were little." The TA said. Wufei shook his head. The TA sighed. "I'm amazed we got the silent two to play. I never figured you two," she glanced back over her shoulder to Trowa and Heero. "To lower yourselves to juvenile games."
"Momentary lapse in sanity?" Heero asked hoping to pass it off as that. The TA smiled.
"Whatever. You know, it's true what they say. You try so hard to grow up and what do you do the moment you get away from your parents and any responsibility. You revert to being three." Duo and Quatre giggled.
Back in the van again, they began their arduous journey home. During those nine hours, they played cards, talked, listened to CD players, read, stared out the windows and made catcalls at any cute guy that they happened to see. The latter had started out with Duo whistling at some guys in a mustang with no shirts on that were pumping gas at the same station as them.
Quatre perked his head up and leaned over to look. Heero stared, while Trowa and Wufei vied for the seat next to a window.
"Look at that one."
"I think his friend is better."
"You would."
"I happen to like blondes."
"No kidding."
"I prefer the one with the long hair."
"I wonder why?"
"Listen, I want the one with the nice abs. You guys can fight over the other two." The TA said. All five boys turned to stare at her. She'd been in the bathroom or so they'd thought. "Oh, come now." She said in a huffy manner. "I have the right to stare and make comments about guys just as much as you do."
They all breathed a sigh of relief. After that, every time someone saw a cute guy, they immediately let everyone else go. It became sort of a game. When they finally reached the school, five tired, but refreshed Gundam pilots climbed out. They waved goodbye to their professors and TA and began to walk home.
"You know. That wasn't as bad as it could have been." Quatre said as they hiked up the hill to their house.
"Agreed." Heero muttered shouldering his backpack.
"Next time we go on a field trip. Let's forget the profs and just take the TA." Duo said. "By the way, does anyone remember her name?"
"Nope." Said Wufei and Quatre together.
"I know it." Trowa said quietly.
"Well, are you going to share? I felt too embarrassed to ask her. I mean we see her in class every day." Duo told him. Trowa smiled evilly and shook his head.
"Trowa! That's cruel." Quatre whined making puppy-dog eyes at him.
"Too bad." Trowa replied.
"Omae o korosu." Heero growled. Trowa just smiled again and strode ahead of them. The others growled and whined hoping that someday they'd wear him down enough that he'd tell them.
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