Before dinner, Meghan and I decided to make the journey upstairs to go and visit Fern. Meg was still sore about missing out on her place in the Mickey Mouse Adriatic Automobile Scam, so she was going to ask big sister if Halley could lose his place. I went because Naomi had invited me to go and see the mysterious Ninja Crow earlier on in the day. As I had had no idea as to what she had been talking about, I thought that I had better so and see for myself.

'So what's this about a crow?' I asked Madrigal as she opened the door of their room.

'Ninja Crow!' cried the inmates of the room, who (as well as Madrigal) were Fern, Jim Winterbury, Kathryn and Naomi.

Meg and I were ushered in. Madrigal closed the door behind us and pointed.

'Ninja Crow,' she announced.

The black paint of the door had been peeled away to reveal a red background. It had been removed in such a way so that the red area was shaped like a crow in a martial arts-style pose.

'Wow,' said Meg and I, and left it at that.

'Why is there a mattress on the floor?' asked the ever-vigilant Meg.

'I've been sleeping on the floor because this bed's bad for my back,' replied Fern. She was sitting on the empty frame of the bottom bunk bed nearest to the door.

Meg and I seated ourselves on the floor and everybody proceeded tow atch Kathryn question Madrigal in preparation for her driving exam. Kathryn was doing very well at asking the questions, but Madrigal wasn't as great at answering them. At out end of the room, a conversation about driving continued until dinner, Meg still not having found her way into the Scam.

Dinner was chicken with chips, or a dubious-looking vegetarian option I seated myself with Meg, Clio, Rebecca, Bobby, and Steven, because I had decided that I was going to try to make things up with him. Whenever he was sarcastic I was going to take it as normal; whenever he insulted me (which he invariably would) I would ignore him. Because of the decision to behave nicely towards Steven, I began to develop the suspicion that Good Stevie was making a sub-conscious bid to take control, which may or may not have been a good thing.

After our meal we gathered in Pat, Damon, Tony and Xander's room for a few quick games of Cheat before we had to go an take part in the quiz. This was the fifth day of our Cheat marathon, and I had begun to develop a taste for lying through my teeth, as had many of the other members of our party. I had just placed 'two queens' on the pile when Xander added another two cards.

'Two sevens,' he announced, which he promptly followed with 'Oh dear.'

Such was the nature of our gameplay.

Soon, everybody had gathered in the dining hall for the quiz. Kathryn decided to shorten out team name to 'MMAAS,' as apparently 'Mickey Mouse's Adriatic Automobile Scam' was too ridiculous. The quiz kicked off with a series of simple questions concerning world capitols and suchlike. Jack Tamlyn, acting as quizmaster, was succeeding very well at being annoying and proving that he was a fool. The delivery would have been more comic if it had been Rose Pendragon cracking jokes.

The quiz included rounds on the previous summer's pop tunes and the Harry Potter books, all of which we felt we had failed spectacularly at. how were we to know which broomstick Cho Chang rides' And all of the intros to Gabrielle's songs sound the same - how can anybody tell them apart' Whilst we waited for everybody's quiz sheets to be marked, madrigal produced a pack of cards and decided that we were all going to play Hello Jack. I happened to be sitting to the right of Damien Halley, so every time a ten appeared, I received an almighty wallop on the arm. However, it was heavily delayed, and so he would always end up having to take the pack. After several games, we were becoming extremely restless, and so it was to our relief that jack decided to reveal the results of the quiz. In last place was Tony, Pat, Damon and Xander's team. This surprised me, as Tony struck me as the exact type who would know which broomstick Cho Chang flies on. MMAAS came a respectable fourth, which was good as we had guessed most of the harder questions, such as, 'Which goblin showed Harry around Gringotts?' The surprise winners were the I Love Steven Society Minus Steven, who were very pleased and smug with themselves, having gained full marks on the Harry Potter round.

Meghan, Clio, Rebecca and I returned to our room after the quiz for an early night. I needed one after the mountain ordeal.

We left the Youth Hostel bright and early the following morning. Today was to be the day of the great visit to the hydroelectric power station. Inside a mountain. Wow. We were down to our last two videos, so we elected to watch 'Mission: Impossible' as nobody was up to 'Top Gun' yet. After a bemusing two hours, followed by another two hours spent in the coach without any film to watch, we arrived at our destination. It was a lovely sunny day, and we were told to wait on the grass outside the mountain containing he power station, which nobody objected to. In this period of waiting (for what, we didn' t know), Fern managed to find pleasure in two things. Firstly, she discovered that Steven's trousers were strokey, and she managed to get in a stroke or two before he ran away absolutely petrified. Secondly, she caught a glimpse of Mr Morris running in his tight jeans. Oh, what joy that brought.

Eventually, we were divided into our coach seating groups. The Coach One people were to go into the mountain to view the power station first, whilst the Coach Two passengers were to go and watch a film about the power station. Though bearable at the start, the film soon declined from the power station's creation through to its implication on local inhabitants. Dull dull dull. Its one saving grace was its dated Eighties synthesised soundtrack, which earned it bonus points for comic value.

Once the film was over, we were ushered from the small cinema-like room in which it had been played out to the entrance of the mountain, where we waited for a bus to take us inside. When the bus arrived, we were all crammed inside it, along with some sweaty tourists who had also travelled for hours to see the power station. A short trip into the mountain later, we had arrived at a vast hall, where we were permitted to take photographs. Having watched the film, I did have high expectation of the power station. I was hoping to see turbines and motors and waterfalls etc. etc. I was thinking that the hall before was only a prelude to what was to come. In fact, it turned out that the hall was the main attraction, and the only turbine that I saw was a used one, mounted on a stand on one side of the hall. It was impressive, though, as it was several metres in diameter and it towered above us all.

On the side off of the hall was an open door that led to a small room. A fain glimmer of optimism shone within me. Maybe this room would lead to a viewing gallery that would reveal the power station in all its working glory. Sadly, my optimism proved to be redundant. The room was filled with grey computer banks, some with panels on the front displaying numbers lit up in red There weren't any interface terminals. Fake computers. Huh. What a power station. One (used) turbine and a room full of fake computers. What a let-down.

When we emerged from the mountain, I went exploring around the reception area. Behind the main desk I a-spied some t-shirts with a sign beside them reading: 'Please ask an employee if you wish to buy a t-shirt.' I realised that my brother would b overjoyed by the nifty power station motif and Norwegian text, and sought out the nearest tour guide from which to purchase a t-shirt. A short while later I exited the building carrying a t-shirt, feeling rather leased with myself. I showed my new purchase tot eh first person that I met, who was Xander.

'Look at my t-shirt!' I cried.

'Oh wow!' said Xander, equally excited. 'Where did you get it?'

'In there.' I pointed to the reception area.

'Okay, I'm going to get one.'

Soon, Xander was the proud new owner of a power station t-shirt, and this was met with amusement by Pat, Damon, Meghan, Clio and Rebecca.

'You know what,' said Clio sarcastically, 'You two should wear your t-shirts to the party tonight.'

Xander and I agreed upon it, even though the t-shirt was officially my brother's. Never mind.

On the way back, we stopped for lunch beside a lake. Again, sandwiches. In a brave stand of madness and impulsiveness, I managed to force myself into eating all of the sandwiches without unleashing Bad Stevie. It was a risk, but my gamble succeeded. Impressed at my own greatness, I stood up and cried, 'I am invincible!' Steven, passing by, took one glance at my empty greaseproof wrapping and told me tha t he had been eating all his sandwiches every day.

'Oh, shut up,' I told him dismissively.

Further on, we stopped again at some shops to go gift shopping. However, some of us had bought all we needed to in order to satisfy our families, and so we ended up playing Snap in the middle of a grassy roundabout at somebody's suggestion, probably mine. We even managed to coax Tony into a game, though he didn't play again as he lost horrendously. I realised to myself that the day's trip hadn't been a complete loss, as I had been able to spend time with some immensely amiable, entertaining people, and I had managed to find my brother a present that he would be exceedingly impressed with.

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