“Mom!” I shouted, throwing clothes behind my shoulder and on my bed. 

“Where’s my skirt?” 

It was early July and we’re going to Disney World in Florida. We’re going there for two weeks. My brother, Natheniel, is 6 and also wants to go. I am 9 and I still want to go. I know you must think that I’m too old to go to Disney World and that people will stare and make fun of me, but I don’t care what people think about me. I just want to have fun (Okay, maybe I was lying about the ‘I don’t care what people think about me’ part. I do care, a little-okay fine, a lot!-).

My name is Claire Randle. I love to have fun-I mean, who doesn’t-and my favorite food is fries. My mom’s name is Caroline, and my dad’s name is Roger. Anyways, I’m packing my things to put in my suitcase because we leave tomorrow-which is Sunday-and I want to be ready. 

“It’s probably in the top shelf of your chest!” Mom finally shouts back. 

“I can’t reach it!” 

“Ask your dad!” Mom shouted, sounding annoyed. 

“Dad!! A little help!” I scream taking out other stuff. 

“Be there in just a minute!” 

I roll my eyes. Dad always says one minute, and takes one HOUR instead! In the meantime, I look for my necklace and find them in the top drawer of my dressing table. Then I turn around and just stare at my bed. I sigh and then groan. I flop face first in the pile of clothes that are on my bed. Then my dad came inside and saw that I was face first into my bed. He walked over to me and nudged me. 

“Hey. What do you need help with?”

I rolled over and stared at him. 

“I need help getting my towel from there.” 

I grumble pointing to the top shelf of my chest. He walked over to my chest and took out my towel from the top drawer. 

“Do you need help with anything else?”

I grin slyly. 

“Could you help me with putting my clothes in the suitcase?”

“No. Either do it yourself or ask your mother.”

He turned around and walked out of my room. I waited a second and then walked outside my room. I went into my parents’ bedroom and looked around for my mom. She was taking out her clothes from her closet. 

“Mom, could you help me put my clothes in my suitcase?”

“Sure honey. I’ll be right there.”

“Okay. Thank you!” 

I said skipping back towards my room. When I got there, I turned back and saw my mom coming. I turned back around and walked to the side of my bed. I pointed at the clothes when my mom came inside. She groaned. 

“What if I fold them and you can put them inside the suitcase?”

“Okay!”

I smiled and went down on my knees. My mom walked over to my bed and sat down. She began to fold the clothes and then put them on the side. I kept grabbing them and neatly putting them in my suitcase. An hour later, we were done. It took 1 suitcase to fit in all of my clothes. Mom was tired when we finished, so she went downstairs and watched t.v. to relax. I was tired too, so I read at my desk in my room. After 30 minutes, I got up and went downstairs. My mom was snoring on the couch and t.v. was still playing. I walked over to her and turned off the t.v. with the remote that was right next to her. I put a blanket over her and went back upstairs. I started to look for some more things to do. Then I started taking out my accessories and putting them in the pocket of my suitcase. By the time I finished, it was late and time for dinner. I went downstairs and found mom making some food. It was Macaroni and Cheese. 

“Hey honey, is your suitcase ready?”

“Yes.” I answered excitedly. 

“Then can you bring it downstairs?” She asked, her focus on the food. 

“Fine! But then I get to watch some t.v.!” I hesitated. 

I went upstairs to go get the suitcase when mom nodded yes. I brought the suitcase down and watched my show. Then by the time my show finished,, the food was ready. So we ate and then went to sleep. 

My parents woke me up in the morning at 6:00 and I got ready. At about 6:30, we were ready. Since we were going by plane, we had to call an Uber and it took a while until they reached here. When the Uber came, we put our suitcases in the back and got in. Before I knew it, we were off to Disney. It took 30 to reach there, but it took 2 hours to reach the plane because of the packed airport. When we went inside the plane, I was so tired that I was sulking toward my seat. The plane flight is 3 hours so I’ll get enough time to finish my sleep. My seat was the window seat and my mom was next to me, and on the other side of her was Nathan. My dad was outside of the three seats but he was across us. He had to sit with strangers. I felt bad for him. 

“Claire! Wake up, we’re here!” My mom said, nudging me excitedly. 

I slowly opened my eyes and looked around to see what’s happening. We were in Florida! I got up from my seat and got my stuff. But since there was a long line of people, it took a while until we were out of the plane. I made my way into the Florida airport. I felt a gush of wind when I stepped into the airport. I turned around and saw my parents. They were coming behind me rolling their suitcases. I turned back around. 

“Wow!” I said looking around. 

“Yah! It’s so packed!”

“Nathan, I meant it’s big and beautiful!” I said, turning around to stare at my brother. 

We started doing all of the baggage claim and stuff like that. It took only 1 hour. My dad was getting the last suitcase from the baggage claim. I was sweating by then! As soon as the suitcase hit the floor I ran for the sliding doors!

“Claire! Wait!” My mom shouted, running towards me.

I kept running until I reached the sliding doors. Then I just walked outside. I felt better in the breeze. A few seconds later, my whole family rushed up to me. 

“Claire! You cou-” 

Suddenly, they felt the wind and became quiet. Grumble! Whoops! That was my stomach. Since it was 1:00 I was famished!

“Whoops! That was me.” I said trying to not laugh. 

Then we all burst into laughter. 

“Let’s go get some food!” We kept giggling a little, while walking toward the restaurant nearby the airport. We got there and sat at a table as dad went over to the counter to order. A few minutes later, our lunch was ready. It was french fries. We gobbled it all up. Then dad paid and we left. We needed to find our hotel to settle in and relax. We looked at the directions. 

“It’ll take 30 minutes to reach there.”

“Dad! You said it would take 10 minutes!” I shouted.

“I may have miscalculated the route. Sorry!” Dad said quickly, seeing the deafening stare mom gave him. Then we hit the road and I fell asleep. 

“Claire! Wake up! We’re at the hotel..” 

I slowly started opening my eyes. It was dad. 

“I’m coming.” I murmured, stretching my arms wide.  

I got out of the taxi and then the taxi drove away so suddenly that I almost fell over! Luckily, Nathan was there to save me. He was sleeping in the Uber, plane, and taxi! He had a lot of energy! Everyone trudged to the door of the hotel. We went inside and dad got the keys to our room. We had to go into the elevator because our room was on the 2nd floor. When we reached our room, dad unlocked the door and everybody slowly went inside. It was awesome! It had a bathroom, a table, and-oh no!-TWO beds! Nathan and I don’t sleep together! He always jumps on the bed and rolls! Also, the last time we shared a bed was when I was 7! He would always kick me! I DO NOT want to sleep with my brother! I was about to explode into anger!

“MOM! WHY ARE THERE TWO BEDS INSTEAD OF THREE!”

“There were no rooms with three beds.” Mom said calmly.

“But maybe dad can sleep with your brother and you can sleep with me?” Mom said, pointing her index finger quickly glancing at my expression nervously. 

“But-” Mom held her hand up to tell dad ‘end of discussion’. 

Dad became silent. Everyone became silent. Then Nathan started jumping on the bed. Then he started screaming. Dad groaned as mom mouthed ‘Sorry’. Then we put our suitcases next to the table. By that time, Nathan was still jumping and screaming. It seemed like mom and dad were fed up by then because they got mad. Really mad.

“Nathaniel Randle!” Mom shouted. 

Uh-oh. Whenever someone gets called by their full name, that means that they are in BIG trouble. 

“Get down from there and be calm! How do you have SO much energy!” Mom cried.

Then we all decided to sleep. So we slept, at least tried to. Nathan kept moving around and waking up dad. When dad wakes up he makes a loud angry noise. Then it wakes mom up, and then everything goes bonkers. Completely bonkers. Because of that, we could barely sleep. Mom kept blaming dad, and dad kept blaming Nathan. Everything was getting really out of hand. I needed to take charge!

“Everybody STOP!” I screamed as everyone suddenly became quiet. 

“We need to spend time together, not fight.” I said sitting up. 

“Nathan, you can do whatever you want.” I jumped up off the bed, walking towards the middle of the beds. 

“But-” Dad started. 

“Though, dad is going to sleep with us. Is that okay, guys?” I said sternly, cutting dad off and eyeing everyone as they nodded. Then I helped dad set up and got inside the middle of my dad and mom. Everything was silent. Mom kissed me on the head and smiled at me. Then we got ready to sleep as-

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!” Me, my mom, and dad smacked our heads and started laughing. Then some time later, everything was quiet. It was 4:00. We slept for an hour more. I woke up first. I slowly got up and went behind dad.

“BOO!” I said in dad’s ear as he screamed and sat up. That woke my mom up, too. 

“I’m awake!” Mom sat up. My brother just yawned and turned around. I started laughing, HARD! 

“Honey, what’s so funny?” Mom asked me as dad nodded. 

I calmed down and told both of them everything that just happened. They were silent for a minute. Then all three of us burst into laughter. By then, my brother woke up. 

“Huh?” Nathan said, looking innocent. 

We were all silent as we blinked at him. And we started laughing again. 

A while later, we were walking out of our room. Nathan was babbling on about random stuff and mom and dad were talking about something that I couldn’t hear because of  Nathan’s loud ‘talking’. I sighed as we walked into the restaurant nearby the hotel  . I  think my mom noticed.

“What’s wrong, Claire?” Mom asked as we sat down at a table. 

“Nothing, it’s just that I want to have a good time.” I sighed for the hundredth time. 

“Don’t worry, we will.” Mom said, hugging me as dad walked back from the counter. 

Our order came. It was pizza! We finished and went back to the hotel  . We sat down on our beds and mom and dad started to talk about work, while Nathan jumped on the bed. Suddenly, I thought of an idea! I jumped off the bed and opened my suitcase. I took out a map of Disney. I tapped mom and dad on the shoulder. 

“Hey guys, let’s start thinking about what to do.” I said, showing the map to my parents. 

“There are 4 parks. There’s the: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios! They all sound awesome, but I only want to go to one.” 

“We can ONLY go to one.” Dad said, earning a stare from mom. 

“Let’s choose some options.” Mom said, thinking intensely. 

“How about either Epcot or Magic Kingdom? I heard that Magic Kingdom has the most rides!” I said as Nathan’s attention whirled over to what we were talking about. 

“The MOST rides! I want to go to MAGIC KINGDOM!” Nathan screamed loud enough to make the three of us cover our ears tightly. 

“How about we go to Magic Kingdom.” Mom echoed, as if finalizing it. 

“Yah!” Me and Nathan said in unison. 

“Can we go tomorrow? We have to pack up anyway. I’m still tired.” Dad said scratching his neck nervously. We were silent for a second then burst into laughter.

“Okay Roger.” Mom said to dad, still laughing. 

So we all got in bed, but we had a last minute change: I was sleeping on the other side of mom. So it would be Nathan on the first bed and then if you keep going, it would be dad, mom, and then me. I almost fell off the bed, but it already felt like I was falling! 

“Roger, put the map in my purse.” Mom whispered pointing at her purse. 

“Where do I put the soap?” Dad said a little too loud as mom shushed, but too late.

“What time is it?” I groaned, slowly opening my eyes as I sat up. 

“Claire, you’re awake. Why don’t you wake your brother up?” Mom smiled nervously. 

“Okay.” I said walking over to my brother’s bed. 

“Nathan, wake up.” I said nudging him a little. 

When he woke up, we got ready with our suitcases. We went outside and locked the door. Then we gave the front desk the key and went outside into the sunny morning. We had our breakfast and got in the car. Mom took out the map and mom and dad both figured out the way. They said that it would take 20 minutes. I was happy. 

We reached there 20 minutes later and went into our hotel that mom and dad booked in the morning when Nathan and I were sleeping. The hotel was big. It looked like it had about 10 floors. We went inside and settled in. Mom said we would be staying for 2 days! The hotel was blue. Talk about weird! After we settled in, we sat down on our bed. 

“Magic Kingdom is 15 blocks away.” Dad said nervously. 

“Ugh!” I sighed.

We all got in the car. We started driving there when the car started sputtering and slowing to a stop! Dad kept trying to start the car when he noticed something. 

“Um. I think I forgot to  fill the gas in the car.” Dad said scratching his head. 

“Seriously!” Mom yelled at dad. 

“Let’s just walk.” She said getting out of the car as I made a face. 

We were only 5 blocks in. We had to walk 10 blocks. This is HORRIBLE!!!!!!!

It took us 30 minutes to reach there. My legs were aching by then. 

“Mommy! I think we’re here.” Nathan said pointing to the park. 

Thanks Mr.Obvious! We went inside. WOW! It was amazing. There were rides! LOTS!

“Can we go there first?” Nahan said, pointing toward a carousel ride. 

“Okay. We can make our way through there and then come back.”

So we did the carousel ride and then about 20 more. We did the Street Light, and other rides that I’ve never heard of. The last ride I did was called Train Thumper. It was really scary! There were sharp turns, loops and some parts were going down almost straight! I was terrified at first, but then I LOVED it! I was the only one on the ride in my family, because Nathan is too little, and my parents need to stay with him but also they didn’t want to go. I went on one more time. I was having fun, but was tired. Everything turned out great except that my legs were really sore! And we had to walk home because we didn’t have a car. My legs technically broke by then! I slept right after because it was 8:00 by the time we reached the hotel  . 

“Goodnight mom. Goodnight dad. Goodnight Nathan.” I said smiling. 

“Goodnight.” My family said back in unison. 

I moaned as I woke up. As I slowly opened my eyes, my parents were packing the suitcases up with a glum expression stuck to their faces. 

“Why are we packing a day early?” I asked. 

“We have to go back. My boss said that there is an emergency.” My dad said packing. 

“But you’re on vacation and-” I started. 

“We have to go back! And that’s it!” Mom said frustrated. 

“That’s not the real reason. Why are we going back! Come on!” I said sternly. 

“Fine. I give up. Roger, tell her the actual reason.” Mom finally said. 

“Our friends called us over and they won’t take ‘no’ as an answer!” Dad sighed. 

I’d never seen him like this. It was weird.

“Let me talk to them. I can explain it to them.” I said, pointing at the phone. 

“But-” Mom started.

“Please.” I said, cutting off mom. 

She gave up and gave me the phone after she dialed the call to our friends.

“Hello?” Came a familiar voice. 

“Oh, um, hi Ms. Pizzano, I just want to talk about coming over to you guys. We’re on our vacation and we really need to finish it. It’s just for one day. We’ll leave tomorrow morning. I promise. Pretty Pleeeease!” I asked politely after pausing for a minute. 

“Fine!” She said in a grumpy voice before she hung up. 

Then for a while, mom and dad were praising me. It was annoying! I think even Nathan felt so because he had his arms folded the whole entire time. I also think that he was jealous that I had mom and dad’s attention. We had breakfast and then walked to Magic Kingdom. We had so much fun as we finished the park. We were having fun!!!

“Mom? Dad? This was really fun. Thank you for bringing me here.” I smiled. 

“You’re welcome, Claire!” We all talked, and laughed all the way back to the blue hotel. 

THE END!