Ruth, Truman, and I were pushing through a line of people in order to get to our seats on the plane. My luggage was in my green duffle bag. It hurt my hand because it was made of nylon and all the weight was on my hand making me struggle to hold it.

“Row thirty-six, window seat. Row thirty-six, window seat.” I repeated to myself over and over again. “Just where are you, Row thirty-six, window seat?” My eye passed through the numbers on the rows. Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen…

“Row fifty-two, row fifty-two, row fifty-two,” Ruth repeated out loud.

“Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet,” Truman told her.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up.”

I quickly turned to the two. “Here’s an idea. Why don’t you both shut up!?”

Ruth picked up her luggage with grace and elegance. “Listen Feliximo, I really don’t care because I’m at my row and you two can go all the way back to row fifty-two with Khabira Do-Dumb.” Then, she drove her luggage into the overhead as we went back to our row.

We thrust our duffel bags into the overhead and got in the seats. They felt leathery and I could just submerge myself fully into them to fall fast asleep. Truman and looked up together to see the seatbelt sign go off so we could immediately buckle up excitedly.

“Here we go," I said. I started to feel movement and became conscious of the plane moving. It felt like you're moving uphill on a roller coaster in the very beginning.

I directed my attention to Hope and her older sisters Rob and Robert waving in the direction of Truman and Ruth's family alongside Violet. Hope blew me an air kiss and I caught it and stamped it on my heart. She then signaled me the ‘call me’ sign frequently, telling me to call her often. I pointed to myself to make the same ‘call me’ signs, and then made two with my hands. This told her that I will call her frequently squared. She laughed and so did I. We liked math jokes. Surprisingly, they were Ruth's idea. Who knew!

This was madness.

Hope took out her phone and typed something on it before my phone went off. “Don't get kidnapped out there," it read, "'cause I don't think my mother will save u w/o me. <3”

I nearly fell into the passenger walkway laughing so hard when I saw it. Truman was so jealous that we saw her as long as we did. He had some things he wanted to thank Mrs. Aaron for.

When the flight attendant calmed us down, I looked at Hope and rolled my eyes in response. She laughed back and pointed down. I gaped in amazement as I noticed the airplane had ascended. I looked back at my crush, but now all I saw was the airport, but I knew she’s there, waking away with that innocent smile on her goofy face, thinking to herself, “He’s so going to get kidnapped."

Looking down at the city, I could tell it was getting smaller and smaller. I marveled how much man and God had brought to pass. Man and God were a great team all right. I tried to see our school and houses, but I couldn't because we were too far up. Then, I looked for San Francisco to remember what had happened there with the near kidnapping.

“It looks so small from up here, but so big when you’re down there. I can’t believe I got lost at a place seeming so small,” I accidentally said.

“Tell me about it.” Truman concurred.

I looked at him in utter bewilderment “How did you…?”

“You were talking out loud,” He interrupted.

I look out the window again.

"That pretty much sums it up."

The clouds zoomed by at a speedy rate. It was making my eyes heavy. I watched more and more of them fly by and my eyes closed more and more until…

“Felix… Feliximo…Feliz!” Truman was shaking me. “Wake up, we’ve got no time to spare.”

“Mxbfaibgib,” I replied, still half asleep.

“We’re in Italy!”

I immediately sat up in my chair and widish awoke. We're in Italy! I better not get lost here! Not with this cell phone, this time!

“We’re in Italy!” I cheered, grinning ear to ear.

We looked outside, but I immediately closed my eyes because they had not yet adjusted to the light inside the plane.

“We are, wow.”

“Yah and we need to go now.” He said, hustling me to life.

“Why didn’t you wake me up sooner?” I asked while trying to adjust my eyes STILL to that light.

“Didn’t want to wake you," he solemnly replied.

“Good grief.”

We got out of our seats, took our luggage out of the overheads, and bustled through the crowd until we got out of the plane.

“Remember class," I remembered our teacher, Emiline Summers saying, “We will meet in the waiting room in the airport.”

We found the siblings Charles and Kaily and continued together to the waiting room. People kept bumping into me, making me get further and further behind our group.

"No, no, no.” I pleaded, “Not again. Not again. Oh, please not again.”

“Can’t keep up with the others either?” a curious voice asked.

“Huh,” I said, turning around slightly. “Oh, it’s you Kristy.”

She trotted up next to me as I continued talking, “It’s so hard to keep up these days, it’s like they have a super walk.”

The girl agrees fully and loudly in response. Her black hair glided down even further from her hearty laughter. “Too true! Too true! I wonder how they actually do it though!"

"Beats me," I answered, "I can't even get off the plane when it's empty. Anyway, how was your flight?”

“I don’t know. I fell asleep.”

She smiled, “Out of all the questions in the world I wonder about, you are the question that I will never find the answer to.”

I pulled out my phone that Hope had proudly and sternly made me charge on the drive to the airport. "I am glad you flew here with us. Now, we're guaranteed to-"

"You have a crush?" Kristy suddenly asked, pointing at the plastic.

"Oh!" I yelped with my face visibly beating red. I never hung out with new people this long to see it.

"Uh…ha, aaah…" I took the call. "Hey… You sure called me on time like you said you would have. How's it going over there…? He… he…"

I noticed Kristy's face. She was failing to hide her excitement that I had a crush on Hope. Completely failing.

My face turned a deep red.

"Hey, you're in Italy!" Hope's youthful music sang through my speakers instantly making me feel better. "Seen any hotties for Ruth yet?"

"No! Not yet, but knowing her…" I signed.

"She's probably already found one by now." We said before laughing at the coincidence.

"Did Truman remember his bag from the airplane?"she asked.

"Yup," I said. "And I remembered to charge my phone the whole way…"

Then it suddenly dawned on me, I had fallen asleep on the plane. I didn't get to enjoy a thing of it! "Nobody is lost!" I continued, hoping she wouldn't notice the change in emotion.

"I got my eye on you, Feliximo!" My silver locket cutie said, "Ruth, Truman, and Ms. Summers are keeping you in their sights. You won't even have to wear that kingly orange jacket you so desperately use as a blankie. You're growing up at last."

"Thank you," I sincerely praised "I am nervous being here."

Hope laughed, "Well, I promise I won't have my Mom over here either. I might summon the devil though."

Yech, Lily and Hope home alone. "I'll send you plenty of pictures to keep you…"

I paused. Lily had always driven Hope past the limit. I could relate to the girl though, being the youngest sibling isn't easy. Lily was lucky to have such a good sister like Hope. And have cool friends like me to ignore Hope with. I didn't know what was about it, but being the youngest with a youngest was the best!

"Lily should have come with us. We could have terrorized any evil yellow toothed guys," I grimaced. This walk out the airport wasn't nearly as fun without Hope to get lost in her eyes with, "Gah, I wanna be in Italy with you, Hope! It's weird not seeing the gleam of your silver locket."

"I miss you too! I can’t wait for you to tell us what you guys are doing over there."

"Ruth, Truman, Kristy and I are in Italy of all places… Italy!"

I looked at Kristy, "No runaway adventures this though, sorry." She had pulled me away from lunch once to see what the rest of the school looked like without dozens of students crowding the halls.

It was the only time I found myself sitting in the Principal's office later. I had never been in the Principal's office before. It was horrifying. That was the moment I fully understood Kristy Dues was nothing like her older brother, Qadir Dues.

I had never felt such ambivalent feelings of relief and annoyance in my entire life. In truth, I wasn't quite sure what to feel about Kristy. I still didn't know why she chose to talk to us and not somebody else. She was super hyped too.

Hope really liked her.

I was so happy to have another friend in our group. Especially one that Hope picked. I got the Trio. Truman got Ruth and now Hope got Kristy. The guys were outnumbered… by girls who didn't give a crap that we were men and could rip us to shreds any moment.

I shivered.

“Look,” Kristy said, “There are others.”

“We're catching up to everyone,” I said to my friend, "I love you, Mrs. Kristy. I'll talk to you later."

"Mrs. Kristy?" Hope argued, "Really now, Fee Fee?'

"This is gonna be fun." I laughed and hung up the phone. The two of us hurried along the passageway. “How was your flight?” I asked Kristy.

“Interesting.” She responded.

“Why?”

“I was sitting next to Ruth.”

“Oh.”

At last, we submerged ourselves into the group and exchanged greetings with other students. Ms. Summers instructed us to follow her to the hotel we would be staying in. Everyone got out of the airport and I got to finally see the gorgeous state called Italy.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

It looked just like an ordinary airport.

“It doesn’t feel like we’re somewhere else.” I thought, “It feels like we’re just in another airport anywhere else.”

"We're in another country!" Kristy squealed with excitement.

"With gorgeous hot men all around us!" Ruth's eyes sparkled.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"This is the best!" Truman danced with joy like an idiot. We went on a bus that took us to Florence Italy and I put my luggage down with sweaty hands. I had to hold on to a pole because there weren't any seats available to me for my usage. The pole felt slippery and I didn’t feel very safe holding on to it during the trip. We started going through the cities of Italy.

The place looked a lot like America, but a little bit different. The buildings had a light brownish color and the roofs were browner, but not quite there. Cars still roamed the streets, streetlights went from green to yellow to red, and pedestrians walked along the sidewalks.

One thing caught my eye though was a puppy bounding across the streets with fur bright as snow bounding. It had no owner because it had no collar and was roaming the streets freely, purely, happily, and freely without a care in the universe. I watched the dog run untiringly through the streets on our bus and it looked at me. Its brown eyes sparkled with love and hope making me forget all my troubles.

The bus stopped and everyone got out. I bustled through the crowd to find that dog, but it was nowhere to be seen.

“Did you see a white puppy?” I asked Ruth.

“Are you kidding!?” she exclaimed, “With all the beauties here!?”

“You mean handsome men, don’t you?”

“Why, Feliximo.” Ruth exclaimed. “You know me so well.”

We went into the hotel and got settled in. Our hotel room was beautiful with everything nice, neat, clean, and organized. It had a window right next to the bed on the left so you could look into all of Italy. Truman and Kaily took the other bed since they didn’t want the sun in their eyes when they woke up. I looked out the window to see that dog again, making me feel inner peace and love in my soul. Its eyes were familiar to me like I’d seen them before, but I didn’t know where.

“Where do I know those eyes, where, where, where?” I questioned myself.

“What eyes?” Truman eagerly asked. I signaled him forward, pointing to the puppy.

“See? See?” I said facing him, pointing more urgently at the puppy.

“What puppy?” he asked. “I don’t see a puppy anywhere.”

“Bu…” I stammered. "Bu… it was right there.”

“C'mon, Feliz,” my friend said, “We have to get going.”

He grabbed my arm and pulled me to the lobby until I pried his hand loose. It made my hand sweaty again. We went into the lobby to wait for a couple more students to arrive. Soon, all of them showed up, but Ruth, who we had to wait fifteen more minutes for because she was trying to “look good for the macho Italian Men.”

We exited the Hotel on the bus. As it started moving, Kristy asked Emiline, “Where are we going?”

“To the Palazzo Vecchio," she responded excitedly.

“Thanks.” she replied.

I looked out of the tinted window one again to see that snow colored puppy running with the bus. I wanted to show someone but thought to myself, “Don’t bother, it will just disappear again.”

A thought crossed my mind, “Why does it only want me to see it and why is it always following me?”

I couldn't answer this question because questions are only things that are puzzle pieces, but are unfound and missing. The only way you answered these questions is to go and find them with enough patience to take the time to actually find them.

“Don’t worry,” Kristy said to me. “You’ll answer those questions all right.”

“How do you know I have questions?” I asked.

“Your face.” she answered. “Faces can tell hidden emotions inside people whether they like it or not. Plus, I get that face all the time so I know that face anywhere.” She smiled.

The bus came to a stop and we got out. “Here we are.” Ms. Summers dramatically announced with pride in her movement. “At the Palace Vecchio.”

“Wow!” I said. “This place is bigger than our school cubed!” The tall light brown building seemed to go up for miles and if you looked up long enough, you could see a clock.

“Excuse me,” Ruth said looking at the nude statues on both sides of the entrance. “Is this building appropriate?”

“Oh, it’s appropriate.” Ms. Summers answered. “The work and art making these statues are beautiful. See how smooth it is? Only a genius could have built these.”

“Yeah,” Ruth mumbled. “A gay genius.”

We walked in with the fashionista having a look of disgust.

Kristy pointed to her, “See, that’s an example of emotions on the face.”

This made us cackle up like a pair of mischievous witches creating a finished potion for diabolicalness. "I've never been so entertained by Ruth." I laughed hysterically, "I wonder why she doesn't like the sexy macho statues."

I want to tell her.

"Can you tell her?" Kristy anticipated as she looked into my eyes with such waves of innocence. I was making another friend with the name Kristy.

"Uh…" I stammered wanting to ask her about the name and ask Ruth about the statues.

"There are more questions on your face." She pointed out. "Are you curious like me?"

"Yeah!" I replied. "Ruth!" I called.

"Ungh Felix, look at these," the blonde walked over to us. "These statues are atrocious. Never look like this for Hope. Ever."

My face radiated five levels of red. "I would… uh."

"What do you want?" She speedily insisted. "Distract me from the lame-o stat-yos. I did not come all this way to look at some measly thingies before the real hotties. Where are the sexy Italian men?"

“In the center,” Ms. Summers said as we entered the first courtyard. “We got to see the porphyry fountain.”

“Wow, this is amazing," Truman immediately took an interest in it Before we could answer Ruth. "How do you think he made it?”

"Duh, True." She objected. "Geniusness. Only the most skilled and famous of them all get into places like this. That's why Justin Beiber is such a big deal. He knows his stuff just like Porphyry whatever."

"I wanna make things like him!" He exclaimed, "We're gonna make so many cool things like this."

"Yay!" Our group cheered and ventured onwards.

Along the sides of the room, we noticed pillars with the most incredible carvings as wonders. They were even carvings along the walls.

"I have got to do this for my room," said Ruth.

"Me too," Kristy agreed.

"Whoever made it had way too much time on their hands," I noted. "It must have been a family project or something."

So while Ms. Summers and Truman were looking at the fountain, the rest of us were taking interest in the walls.

"Your family would let you do this to your walls?" Ruth asked Kristy. "The Dues' are that amazing? 'Cause honestly, Qadir isn't all that, but you're different."

"Qadir is mysterious," She replied. "He loves me and that's enough."

"As long as he doesn't sign up to be a candidate for School Body President again next year. I am Ms. Umper then and nothing is going to get in my way. I win everything. Hot people around the world are missing out without me beautifying them. If you want, I can make them miss out on you too unless you know how to be even more perfect. Truman is getting it. You are looking pretty hot without all those layers."

"Yeah, yeah." Truman said, "It's embarrassing."

"You are?" Kristy asked. "Why?"

"We know it is embarrassing," Ruth barraged. "We don't care."

"It is embarrassing. I don't like being like that…" and his voice trailed off.

"Oooooh yeah," I explained to Kristy. "Truman was a bully. When we were in middle school, he used to bully Hope because he thought that looking at a picture in a tiny girly locket was for losers. It took a long time for them to become friends."

"That has nothing to do with his body," Ruth said.

"He was pretty popular with some of the girls too," I added, "but he never seemed to hang out with the same girls. It was always me and Hope."

"Hope was shy back then. She wasn't going to pose a threat."

"We didn't even go to the same school." Truman said.

"I take care of my friends."

"You have too high of standards for people." He said, "I wish you wouldn't do that."

"I am not having my friends grow up and let some lame-o be their partner. You guys deserve the world and we will give it to each other. Just watch, Ms. Umper is gonna keep you safe."

As a matter of fact, Ruth was only here because Truman went with us to our new highschool. His parents were rich and Truman was Ruth's friend so there was no way she was not going to use their high value lighting and endless mirrors to make herself even more perfect.

I hoped we could find another mirror maze here to show Kristy how many times she will smack into them while applying makeup. We had a small inside joke now that Ruth's make up stains will forever beautify the last mirror maze we went to. What would Kristy think of it?

The difference between her and her sister was strange. Qadir was our school's student president. He rose to fame by being a jock and charismatic. Truman and him were about the same height, but Qadir boasted himself with whomever he could find. Usually, it was the same group of basic bros but that didn’t stop him from touring the highschool roof for all to see. He had to apologize in every class for about a week or so.

It made him more popular.

If Ruth wasn't so sure of all people's hotness, I would have started to seriously dislike him. It was pretty cool he got the school to liven up and be less of a loser by being stoked someone had the silliness to climb on the roof. Teachers hated it. Students loved it.

Why do all the older people get mad when younger people have fun? Shouldn't they have fun too? Wouldn't they want to get along with the students by being stupid with us?

"Ungh!" Ruth growned. "I can't wait to get you buff for candidacy. We are going to rule above that wanna-be momma's boy. He's cute, but I am way better. This school needs an Umper to make them pretty. almost fun. That's dumb like Hope not being here. We only do highschool once before we rule the world. I have all my energy focused on being popular and I won't have time to hang out with Hope when the world cheers my name. Being popular is the worst. This world needs me to rule them."

"Ruth!" Emiline suddenly called. "Pay attention."

"Ungh, yeah…" she rolled her eyes as we broke up our conversation and walked towards the group, "They need me."

After a while, Truman called me. “Hey Feliz! Take a picture of it with me so you can show it to Hope and Violet when we get back.”

“Sure.” I said enthusiastically. “I think they’d like that.” I took out my iTouch while Truman got as close as he was allowed to. “All right, say Battista del Tadda.”

“Batteda del Thata, Thida, Taddi.” Truman stammered with a funny look on his face trying to pronounce the word.

Click! The camera went off.

“Hey!” He yelled. “You took a picture of me with that funny face! Take another!”

“All right. Alright. Say Cheese.” I said, giggling.

“Cheese.”

Click! The camera went off again.

He looked at the picture, “Now that’s better. C'mon, this day has just begun.”

“Buon giorno.” said a man who came up to our group. Hebwas a tour guide, with wavy black hair, brown eyes, a tall tan muscular body, and white teeth. Kristy nudged me pointing to Ruth. Her eyes had dropped out of their sockets and into her hands looking like a little kid who had eaten too much candy.

“Hello,” Ms. Summers greeted, “We are…”

“Buon giorno!” Ruth interrupted. She whispered to Ms. Summers, “I know a little Italian myself.” Then she looked back at the tour guide and said, “Il mio nome è Ruth. Voglio afferrare la linguetta e nuotare all'interno di un maiale.”

“Keep working on that Ruth.” The guide said, “You just told me that you want to grab my tongue and swim inside a pig.”

Her face went bright red and sweat started dripping. She was definitely humiliated.

“Now,” The guide continued, “My name is Arturo. I will be your guide for today. Does anyone have any questions?”

“Yes!” Ruth flirted, “Did you build this room ‘cause you just created a room in my heart?”

He looked at her and said, “Okay, does anybody have any questions besides Ruth?” The class went silent except for her still trying to win him over.

“Please,” She wooed, “They’re just so stunned about how gorgeous you are ‘cause baby you are out of this world. I bet Posedian is nothing compared to you and…”

“Hey look Ruth!” Truman said to shut her up. “Naked statues!”

Ruth’s face froze stiff, her arms tingled, and her eyes twitched. She talked no more.

Finally, we could move on with the museum. Just as we started walking, Kristy nudged me with her purple sweatered arm. As I opened my mouth in question, she put her pale hand over it and the other to her mouth making the ‘sh’ sign. She grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the group and behind Battista as in not to get noticed by the others.

I mouthed to her, “What is going on!? We’ll miss the tour!”

Apparently, she could lip-read, and pointed to two men in suits looking around the museum. They looked like no one important; just two guys looking at the wall art taking notes on what they saw. Although one was a little familiar. Kristy on the other hand, had a different mindset for these two. I could see it in her eyes; they were gazing with wonder and curiosity, like that time when she saw the new teacher’s desk.

She had gotten in detention for opening the drawers and snooping around. Her excuse, “I was curious.”

She grabbed my red pen from my white pocket and started writing on her arm, “See what color of the papers they’re holding?”

I peeked out from behind the fountain. They had blue papers that they were writing on, except they shared the same paper and looked like they were drawing something…

Or maybe they’re doodling something because the art isn’t very interesting to them?

The problem with that theory was that they seemed to be the most interested in the museum out of everyone in our whole group. How can they be doodling when they are clearly interested in something else!? These are strange people.

Kristy knew, obviously. She could see the confused wrinkles on my forehead.

I turned to her and mouthed, “I don’t understand, why are they so interested in the doodling when the museum was clearly more interesting to them?”

“Exactly,” she wrote on her newly tanned arm in red ink. "How can they be so interested in that piece of paper? I mean it looks like they're making a blueprint of the whole place! And why would they do that if there is clearly an outline of the museum on the museum’s website!? Plus, not only are they massively interested in the place, but look at their faces. Go on, Felix!”

I peeked out again from behind the structure. They had moved to the place where we met Arturo, but Kristy was right. Something was up with these two. Their faces were completely spontaneous to each other. The blonde haired was completely serious with thick wrinkles on his deep tanned forehead. To my amusement, I imagined myself asking what his name was and then for him to take off his black sunglasses and say, “Bond, James Bond.”

This makes me giggle. Though he was serious, he could be made fun of as Mr. 'I Am So Cool That I Only Let The Colors Tan Blonde White And Black Be On This Body'. I then drew my attention to the next guy. I had definitely seen this guy before. His smirk, his hair, his mouth with ten white teeth and the other twenty as cavities and his evil greedy eyes.

Why had I seen them before? It’s like my mind was punching me in the face crying out, You idiot! How can you NOT remember him?

Then we looked at the Third Courtyard where Ruth finally recovered from her life threatening experience before seeing the Salone Cinquecento where Charles and Carlos marveled at the Battle of Anghiari.

“The picture just makes it--” Charles said unhappily.

“...Seems so real.” Carlos mournfully continues.

“I just feel sorry for--”

“...The people in the picture.”

After that, we see the beautiful Studiolo of Francesco. It was the best piece of artwork I had ever laid eyes on except for Hope's silver locket. All around the room there are pictures relating to religion and myths looking true, strong, and powerful.

“The artwork is great, but the artwork tastes horrible!” Ruth said. “I mean, would it hurt to give the characters in the paintings some pants!?”

The Second Courtyard has enormous amounts of artifacts and artwork. I feel honored to even be looking at these pieces of past art. We witnessed the Apartment of the Elements with its five rooms. Then the Terrace of Saturn viewing its fresco.

"We make this place a million times better. I love Saturn and all, but it can't be made more beautiful. Stop looking at the stars and start letting the stars look at you, Abira."

After that we awed the Poseidon Room and its spectacular stories.

"If he was alive,” Ruth said. “Every girl in the world would try to win him because of his huge muscular manly muscles even though I would obviously win him over.”

Then we went to the Lion House, Room of Jupiter, Room of Cybele, Ceres Room, and the whole compass.

Truman pulled out his camera. "Getting' here guys! C'mon. Yo Carson, can you get us a picture over here?"

Ruth hugged Krisry while resting her deep-shaded sunglasses in her rich wavy hair, "Kristy, get closer in. Tru', show off your muscles. Felix, comb your hair over. Babe, I said for you to be that womanizer you tempt us with every strip tease."

"Aw, Rue…"

"Not Rue, it's you. Hope needs these shots."

"Say Italy!" Carson said.

"Italy!" We cheered.

"That was great!" I laughed.

"Let's explore!" Kristy started to say. "Um, Ruth I-"

"Keep 'em coming, Carson!" She interrupted her.

Oh no.

"Italy is perfect again!" She cheered. "The hottest girl you ever saw in womankind has arrived."

We posed. I was so excited to send this to Hope, Violet, Lily, and Mandy.

"Don't stop." She continued like no pictures had just been taken. "This lighting is perfect."

"Got it!" Carson obeyed.

Truman and I looked at each other nervously. So this is why Hope always came with us. We were in for it now. We were deep in it now.

"Cut it out guys." Kristy squirmed.

"Sorry, you gotta." Truman said.

"Let Ruth be Ruth." I said. The two of us laughed at the inside joke.

The day was all over, but yet I had a feeling it’s only begun. We were gonna be here for a while. Worst of all, there were no naked men to stop her.