Alexa was only in Germany to make up her failed biology credits. She had been allowed to walk with her classmates in May, under the strict promise that she would take, and pass, Study Abroad: Biology, which would wipe out her entire summer and put her behind her friends, all of whom were applying to jobs and internships and graduate school and spending time with their boyfriends (or going out dancing to try and get boyfriends).
It was unfair.
Then again, her mom had reminded her as she waved her daughter goodbye at the airport, she wouldn’t have to do this at all if she had just passed biology the first time, and wasn’t it lucky that she could make it up in Germany?
Alexa didn’t think so. All she knew about Germany was that it celebrated Oktoberfest and lederhosen, and Alexa wasn’t into any of those. Besides, the boy she thought she was interested in kept making jokes about sauerkraut and bratwurst, and not only had it killed the flirtation dead but it had done nothing to inspire her with joy at the thought of spending a month gallivanting around Germany, going on hikes and dutifully categorizing different species of plants.
There was a reason she had failed biology the first time.
“You’ll remember this always,” her mother had said, sighing happily, remembering her own college study abroad trip in Austria.
She hadn’t believed her mother at first, but she had been in Germany for a week now, and Alexa had amassed enough injuries that she was sure she would remember this trip forever…by counting her scars. Her blisters had blisters. (Apparently, hiking boots were required if someone wanted to spend hours on end wandering in the woods and the mountains.) She was sunburned on her nose, neck, and shoulders. She had slipped with a pocketknife and gashed her arm, but instead of taking her to the doctor’s Dr. Chu had simply wrapped her arm with gauze and cheerfully said, “You’re all set!” And then there were bug bites all down her arms and legs. But thankfully, due to some mandate the university had regarding study abroad trips, Alexa and the others got to spend this weekend in Berlin, doing some cultural sightseeing and taking a break from the wilderness.
Alexa had planned to spend as much time as possible in the hotel room, sleeping in a real bed, instead of a thin sleeping bag on the floor of a cabin, where she was kept up all night by the sounds of the other girls giggling, or, worse, the sounds of wild animals roaming the mountains.
Or, at least, she had until Dr. Chu had decided to put them all in groups and send them on a scavenger hunt to find five different historically and culturally relevant locations, all to fulfill their study abroad requirements.
“Alexa,” Charity snapped, “keep up.” Charity and Beth, the partners Dr. Chu had assigned her, were several yards ahead of Alexa. Beth was holding a map, as if she was living in 1970. They had found two of the locations on their scavenger hunt and snapped a selfie as proof, but there were three more to go, and only a few hours until they had to return to get dinner as a group.
Charity had actually brought hiking shoes to Germany, and a bunch of Patagonia shirts and a colorful water bottle with stickers of National Parks on it. “I’m, like, so granola,” she had joked the first night there, and all the other girls had laughed while Alexa sat there wondering what that even meant. She didn’t have blisters holding her back. She probably walked ten miles every day and thought that a leisurely five mile walk around Berlin was a vacation.
“I’m coming,” Alexa grumbled. Beth gave her a slightly sympathetic look—she was the shortest in the group, and although much more used to walking than Alexa, it was clear that she was used to coming in last most of the time—but didn’t say anything when Charity sniffed and started practically running to the next culturally significant location.
“What’s even the point of rushing,” Alexa muttered to herself. “It isn’t like we win a prize or anything.”
She wished that, if she had to be in Germany, she could at least have been in Germany with her friends, all of whom would have been happy to ditch the scavenger hunt and hole up in a bar drinking, and then lie and say that they had gotten super-duper lost in Berlin and were so sorry they had missed out on all the cool historical locations! Instead, she was here with two type-A personalities whose idea of a leisurely stroll was a fast-paced jog, and couldn’t think of anything cooler than seeing the outside of an apartment where some old dead white guy had been born.
Charity and Beth turned a corner, and Alexa sighed. Maybe she could pretend she had lost her group. Maybe she should just turn herself in to the American consulate and beg to go home.
Overhead, a very loud, and dangerously low, plane made its way across the city.