TL;DR: I wasn't allowed to enjoy a three-day field trip because the dwarf girl I was travelling with insisted on getting ice cream. Long post ahead. Sorry.
A little background - I had just arrived at this school about four months prior to this incident. I'd just moved to this rural town from a big city, and for the first week or so, I was the shit. Big city girl, moving to a rural town in middle school - but after the novelty wore off for the other students, I was pretty lonely. Everyone had known everyone else since they were toddlers, and I didn't know a damn soul. Sure, I made a few acquaintances, but these kids had a bond like blood already, and I was just kind of an outsider.
What I didn't realize then was that this also applied to some of the teachers at this school.
So the end of 7th Grade rolls around (which makes me about 12 years old). We're going on a three-day overnight trip to Ottawa, which was a big deal and was supposed to be super fun. We had a break on the first day, between scheduled activities, where we were free to roam around the Byward Market - it's basically a collection of shops where we could do a little touristy shopping. We had to be in groups of four, so naturally, everyone paired off with their best friends - except for me, who was left completely alone. The teachers paired me up with two girls who I knew, and one who I didn't. Of the two girls that I knew, one - who we'll call Samantha - was a little person. Honestly, she went up to my waist, maybe. Like, really tiny. She was a known troublemaker. The other girl that I knew was probably my only real friend at this point - a girl we'll call Tina. The last girl, whom I didn't know, doesn't really play much of a part in this - the only thing that's worth mentioning is that she had some sort of disability, which resulted in her having a hard time hearing, and she walked with a cane. She required a bit more supervision - but Tina and I were known to be just good kids, so the teachers (specifically my homeroom teacher, Mr. B., who was totally fucking awesome) asked us to take her with us.
No big deal. Tina and I were cool with it. So the four of us head off, with explicit instructions to meet back at the bus in an hour. So we roam around for a while, when I look at my phone - we've got about ten minutes to get back to the bus, and we're probably five minutes from where the bus was set to pick us up. No worries.
So I told everyone in the group that we had to start heading back. Initially, all went well - until Samantha spotted an ice cream shop and insisted on getting some. Before any of us could stop her, she ran inside and got in line. We followed her, telling her we had to get back to the bus or else we'd catch hell from the teachers, and that we didn't have time for ice cream. She vehemently refused, as she'd already placed her order at that point and now had to stick around in line to wait for it and pay. Great.
So she gets her fucking ice cream, and we book it back to where the bus was waiting. We got back five minutes late, and were the last group to arrive. One of the teachers who was on the trip with us - Ms. L, we'll call her - was absolutely furious. She started screaming at Tina and myself, saying we were supposed to be the responsible ones and should have made sure we'd gotten back on time. I explained what happened, but Ms. L. wasn't hearing any of it. She told us that for the rest of the trip, Tina and I were not to leave her side, under any circumstances, because, and I quote, "we were irresponsible and couldn't be trusted to follow instructions". She said this while staring straight at me.
Samantha - the girl who caused this whole mess - and the other girl who was with us, got no punishment whatsoever. Sam didn't say a damn word when we explained what had happened and let us take the fall for her as she sat there, licking her fucking ice cream cone not two feet from where Ms. L was chewing us out.
Well, whatever. At least if I'm stuck in purgatory, I'm stuck in purgatory with Tina, who was my only friend. We visited a few museums, the Parliament Buildings, and a few other sites, and the entire time, we had to stick right with Ms. L., who spent most of her time scowling at me, or barking orders at me. Not at Tina. Just me. I called my parents the night all this happened, and they were just blown away - ready to get in the car and drive the five or so hours to Ottawa to come get me and give Ms. L. an earful.
On the last day of the trip, we were allowed to return to the Byward Market before we got on the bus for the long ride home. Of course, Tina and I had to stick with Ms. L., even while all the other kids were off having fun with their friends. She dragged us to all the stores she wanted to go to, made us eat where she wanted to eat - it was bullshit.
Tina had been in Ms. L's class the year before, and Ms. L. obviously really liked Tina. So when Tina asked if she could just run across the street and check out a shop she was interested in, Ms. L. very sweetly said, "Of course dear, just be back in a few minutes."
I watched Tina run off, and then looked at Ms. L and asked if I could go with, since Tina was my best only friend, and she let Tina go. The expression she gave me was like she'd just choked on a lemon - she looked down at me with this look of pure hatred in her eyes, and said "No. You have to stay here. You can't be trusted, unlike Tina. You're a horrible influence on her. She's a good girl, and she shouldn't be made to suffer because of you."
I'd never even met this woman before today, and she hated me so irrationally, based on something I didn't even do. So I waited for Tina to come back, with tears pouring down my face (I seem to recall Ms. L. making some sort of comment about me being immature for crying about it, too, and that it was proof that I couldn't be trusted, but that could just be me remembering it wrong - I have a hard time believing anyone could be that heartless). I sat alone at the back of the bus for the entire ride home.
I'm twenty-three now and I'm still salty as fuck over it.