Royal Colours And Troubles

Chapter 12 - One Call Away

Song - One Call Away by Charlie Puth

Chapter 12 - One Call Away

"All of you! Stand in a queue this instant!" The Dung barked. "Let's do a headcount, shall we? Miss Sullivan, you start."

The three of us simultaneously rolled our eyes. 

"One." Mia said in bored voice.

"Two." I said.

"Three." Sophia said softly.

"Perfect! All of us are here. Let's move. Pronto!" He said loudly, and we marched to the airport exit. 

As we were parading across the massive airport, I could see schools  from all over the country arriving. Some were dressed in their school colours, some were in casuals, and some just seemed so into the whole "dressing like an artist" thing - a French artist hat, paint stained jackets, and paintbrush tucked behind the ear.

As we walked out, we saw hundreds of people waving about signs with the names of people written on them. 

We saw a particularly large sign saying "National Talent Convention Participants Over Here" being waved about by a relatively tiny woman, who seemed to be having a tough time managing the people around her.

All of us went over to her. 

"Illyrian High, New Illyria." Mr. Dungworth said curtly.

"Oh hello!" The tiny woman said shrilly, looking panicked and rushed. Her blonde hair had come out of her bun and her spectacles were askew. "Please sign this!" She then turned to another group of people.

We signed the paper she handed us and waited. 

After 10 more minutes of waiting, she tried yelling in her extremely soft and squeaky voice,"Alright everyone! We will now be heading to our hotel, The Hilton. Please form a single queue and we shall all head to that bus over there and..."

But the rest of her sentence was drowned out as everyone once again broke into loud excitement and started walking over to the buses she indicated, in a completely unorganized manner.

The buses were huge, and some schools, including ours, were told to file into the 3rd bus.There were 5 more buses. After some time of bustling about and chaos, everyone was finally seated.

The bus drove off. 

The way to the hotel was beautiful. The route to our destination was lined with beautiful fir trees, lush landscapes, and flowering bushes. The hotel was in the middle of the city, but the route to the city was pure nature. The city was filled with skyscrapers and looked like a miniature Vegas. But, there were also many architectural and cultural marvels to spot.

But the hotel....the hotel was the showstopper.

It was a monument. It really was. It rose dramatically from the middle of the city. I could see that the main hotel was a part of a whole tiny city within walls, which included a separate gigantic conference/banquet hall with glass panelled walls, an overly bright and colourful looking club, an extravagant casino, and a Fun Zone.

Yep.

All of that within one ginormous area.

I could hear the semi adults across the bus, oohing at the sight of the hotel and it's surrounding facilities. I even heard a couple of girls excitedly scream when we crossed the club. 

The tiny lady cleared her throat and spoke into the announcement microphone.

"Alright, everyone. We have arrived at the Hilton. My name is Julia and I am your coordinator, that is, the coordinator of the schools in this bus.The other coordinators have not come along as they had other work to attend to.The convention will be taking place within these premises. You all are free to visit any of the facilities and..."