"Girl, so, you got to find a place to stay at by tomorrow?" Laila asked in complete disbelief. It was the next morning and the girls were on their way to spend another day at school. During the walk, Lindsay had poured out her latest distress to her friend.

"Ugh, I know!" Lindsay groaned putting up her arms in exasperation. "I just hate my careless butt at times. Always missing out on the most important things in my life," she fiercely kicked the dry path sending clouds of dust into the air.

"Ok, ok. Let's not get all negative now," Laila lightly advised her friend while wafting the air with her hand to dismiss the dust. "We got to work our way through solutions now,"

Lindsay gave a grunt in reluctant agreement as she slowly walked alongside her friend, with her eyes glued to the ground in despair.

Laila sighed remorsefully, "Such a shame," she said. "I could have invited you over to my place as you're more than welcome there but..."
She side glanced at her depressed friend. "But my grandparents are visiting this week," she continued on with a low voice. "Therefore, the guest rooms would be taken up."

"Ohhh," Lindsay nodded understandingly. She felt extremely disappointed because even Laila who was her only hope, was not able to help her out this time. Nevertheless, she forced herself to be convinced that its fine and Laila was a true friend regardless. She blamed it all on bad timing. Besides, it was not like she could possibly ask Laila to entertain both her grandparents and her at the same time. That would be asking too much from a wonderful human being such as her.

"It's ok, Laila," she assured with a small smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, however. "I'm so happy that you're offering to help but I understand your situation. I could find something else, I guess?"

Laila gave a small nod before crossing her arms and sighing deeply, wrinkling her brow as she succumbed to a series of deep thinking in order to come up with a way to help her friend whom she loved dearly.

"You could try staying over at a hotel, perhaps?" Laila suggested with a cheerful smile.

Lindsay's ears perked up at this.

A hotel? Why not?

"Hmm, yeah," Lindsay agreed as she contemplated on it. "Yeah, let's check it out!" she finally decided before she reached into her jean pockets to pull out her phone.

The girls halted in their tracks. Laila peered over Lindsay's shoulder expectantly as she witnessed her friend click the 'Google Chrome' icon and type in 'Hotels near me' in the search bar. Soon after, the page started to load with the signature blue rotating circle. Although it lasted for only a few seconds, it felt like several minutes as they patiently waited with bated breath.

At last, some top results popped up one by one on the brightly lit screen. "There we go!" Laila cheered as Lindsay squealed in delight. Lindsay excitedly started to scroll down the list of hotels as she read the names out loud.

"Ok! Ace hotel, fully booked..." the animated voice that she started out with gradually dropped as she read the last two words. She stared at her friend with a look of dread.

Laila too was stunned at this but she swiftly shook it off and adopted a warm smile.

"It's ok, try some more," she encouraged with a grin.

Lindsay drew in a shaky breath and exhaled to calm her hyper nerves down before sliding her finger upwards on the screen. "Lakewood Hotel, fully booked. Mount Lagoon hotel, fully booked. Elixir hotel, fully booked."

Lindsay turned her face away from the sheer disappointment before her and she turned to her friend in misery. Her friend stared right back at her with a staggered expression.

"What am I going to do now?" Lindsay whispered as she clutched her head tightly within her hands trying so hard to not go screeching around the place going insane.

Laila was at a loss for words for several moments before she stuttered out trying to keep a positive beat on her voice. "Wait. No, no. It's ok." she said rubbing her dejected friend's shoulder. "I forgot that it's the tourist season these days." She sighed as Lindsay softly whined. She gently took the phone from Lindsay's quivering hands and started to dig in deeper in the search list.

"Hey what about this hotel? Jinleen5 hotel?" she exclaimed as she flashed the phone screen right infront of her friend's confused face.

Lindsay stared at the hotel appalled. Who in the right mind would name a hotel as Jinleen5? She wondered to herself. Some dummy with no social life, probably.

She kept these thoughts private though because she didn't want to appear rude to the friend who was trying so hard to help her. Upon closer look, Lindsay let her head drop in forlorn. "No, Lai," she sadly mumbled. "It's super far away from here and I wouldn't be able to come to school from all the way there," she explained before adding. 'Plus, it's not like I can afford it or any of the other hotels for that matter. Not after spending all that hefty money on that stupid renovation."

Laila tugged at her twin braids in frustration. "Yeah, the tourist seasons must have pushed up the charges," she figured. "Can't you ask your parents to lend you some money?" she asked hopefully.

Lindsay grimly shook her head with her lips pursed. "Nope," she sighed. "I get my allowance monthly and if I'm gonna ask them for an advance, I'd have to explain to them about this mishap and I don't want to do that." She added with a look of melancholy at her friend. "They are already disappointed in my reckless behavior and it would just kill me to inform them about this." Lindsay wasn't completely broke however, she did have some cash to spend on her basic necessities but not quite enough to afford lodgings.

Laila blew at her bangs in frustration before settling for a nod of understanding.

"Come," she finally said to her friend as she affectionately draped her arm around her shoulder. "We should really pick up the pace if we don't want to end up outside the class for being late." This made Lindsay chuckle amidst her sorrow and she alongside her friend she continued on her path to the school.

They had reached the school gardens and they were still deep in the conversation about Lindsay's lodgings for the following week. The tranquillizing nature of that morning was soon replaced by the school garden as it bustled with the animated noise and chatter of the sea of children and teenagers briskly moving around.

"You could maybe ask a person from Northwest High other than me on whether they would be kind enough to let you stay over?" Lindsay helpfully suggested.

Lindsay burst into a series of laughter at her friend's absurd suggestion. Laila stared back disturbed as her friend laughed so hard that tears were almost threatening to trickle down her cheeks.

"Yeah right," she chortled while literally gasping to catch her breath. "You mean go up to someone like, 'Hey dude, my house is going under some stupid renovation that came out of the blue, so could I please crash over at your place for a week?" (When I was writing this, I literally typed accidentally 'My life is going under some stupid renovation' LMAO!)

- "No way! Get a life, girl!" some random boy who happened to be passing by literally answered her in disgust.

"See what I mean?" Lindsay pointed out to Laila with a wistful smile as she moved her hands to rest on her hips.

Laila threw her hands to clutch her head as she groaned loudly, "Urgh, this is so frustrating!"

Just then the girls were jostled from their heavy clouds of despair by the loud bell ringing in the distance which signaled that school was going to start very soon.

"OH NO!" Lindsay and Laila both yelled in unison.

"Sorry, Lindz. Got to dash," Laila hastily said while rushing to adjust her bag around her shoulders.

"Yeah me too!" Lindsay agreed equally rushing. "See ya!" she called and she felt as if her feet had sprung wings as she flew off running towards the school but then

CRASH!

I'm entirely sure that judging by how much you all are familiar with Lindsay now; you could guess what might have happened.

She tripped over yet another traffic cone which was in the middle of the path. She hurriedly got onto her feet which proved to be quite challenging as her head was lightly spinning. "I'm ok, I'm ok," she called out to Laila who was just about to run over to her check whether she was doing alright.

"Whoa," she exclaimed as she started seeing blurry, doubled visions before her. "My brain is just slippery." She figured as she lightly jittered her head in order to get herself to see clearly.

She waved her friend off before dashing towards the school trying to squeeze herself in between the crowds of teenagers that surrounded its broad entrance.

For your information, I'm sure that Jinleen5 hotel is a wonderful hotel despite Lindsay not having the budget to afford its luxury.

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A/N: Dear, reader. Please don't forget to vote and comment! 💜