"Jaden, stop it! You're gonna choke if you don't slow down!" Syrus warned, trying to convince his friend to stop shoveling in rice so fast. Unfortunately, his words seemed to have little effect on Jaden, who kept stuffing his face without pausing to respond.
Jesse just laughed. "Well, he's been eatin' like that for a while, and if it hasn't killed him before, it probably won't now."
The three boys were sitting at a table with Alexis and Sophie in the Slifer mess hall, where the group of friends had decided to have lunch together. In an attempt to distract Syrus from worrying about Jaden, Alexis decided to change the subject. "So, are you guys all excited about the School Duel?"
Jaden grunted in reply and, after a moment, managed to swallow his food. "Yeah, I can't wait! It's gonna be totally sweet!"
Syrus nodded in agreement. "Yeah, and since it's being hosted at North Academy this year, I hear we're going to fly there instead of taking the boat." he said excitedly.
"I heard the same thing," Jesse confirmed.
"Y-you mean we're going to go in an airplane?" Sophie asked, trying to keep the nervous edge out of her voice. Luckily, the others didn't seem to notice that she had stuttered.
"Yep!" Alexis said with a smile. "It'll be a lot faster than us going on the boat, since North Academy's so far away," she explained.
"I see," Sophie said, trying to muster a smile as she went back to pushing her food around on her plate. The conversation soon moved on to other topics, and Sophie felt relieved that no one had questioned her odd behavior. Little did she know that a certain blue-haired boy had noticed her strange reaction, and made plans to confront her about it later.
After lunch was over, Jesse caught up with Sophie as she was heading back to her dorm.
"Oh, hi Jesse," she said as her friend fell into step beside her. "What's up?"
He shrugged his shoulders and looked back to make sure no one was following them. "Not much, I suppose. What's up with you?"
"Nothing new," she said, shrugging her shoulders in return. He had returned his gaze to her and seemed to be studying her closely, so she looked away to hide the blush starting to creep into her cheeks.
"Ya sure?" he asked doubtfully as he craned his neck to get a better look at her face. "'Cause ya seemed kinda nervous at lunch about the trip to North Academy."
She stopped walking suddenly, and he did the same in response. Darn it. He can read me a bit too well sometimes. She sighed, and gave a reluctant smile. "I thought no one had caught that, but I guess there's no point in trying to hide it from you, huh?"
He smiled kindly at her and put his arm around her shoulders. "Nope. You should know ya can't hide anything from your best bud. Now tell me, what's buggin' ya?"
She looked back into the face of her friend and crush for a moment before lowering her gaze again. "Well, it's sort of embarrassing," she began, "but the truth is, I'm terrified of flying in a plane. I mean, I know there's hardly any chance of something going wrong, but the idea of it still scares me."
Sophie continued to stare at the ground in front of her feet as Jesse stayed silent, but she looked up at him in surprise when he started laughing. "Hey!" she said, feeling a little insulted, "It's not funny!" She moved out from under his arm and crossed hers over her chest with a frown.
"I'm not laughing at your fear, Sophie," Jesse said when he had stopped laughing a few seconds later. "I'm laughing at the fact that you think that's embarrassing. Lots of people are afraid of stuff without really knowin' why." he said in an understanding voice.
"Oh," she said after a moment, relaxing her tensed muscles as she walked back over to him. He put his arm back in place over her shoulders. "Sorry, I can be a little touchy about it." she said apologetically.
"That's okay," he said, giving her shoulders a short squeeze. "But, I mean, if you don't want to go to the School Duel, I doubt Chancellor Shepherd would make you."
"Ugh, that's the problem. I really, really want to go see the duel; I just also really, really don't want to fly." she said.
"Well, how about this," Jesse said as he turned his body to face her, "I'll sit right next to you on the plane and do whatever I can to make you feel better. Okay?"
She looked into his kind eyes and couldn't help but smile at him. She considered his offer for a moment, and eventually consented. "Okay." Sophie wrapped her arms around the tall boy in a hug. "Thanks, Jesse. You're an awesome friend."
He hugged her in return and smiled down at her. "No problem."
Exactly seven days later, all of Duel Academy's students were standing in the hangar outside of the huge plane that would take them to North Academy.
"I didn't even know this school had a place for planes to land," Jaden said as he looked at the giant plane with awe.
"Yeah, neither did I," Sophie said, trying to make conversation to distract herself from their imminent departure. At the time she had agreed to Jesse's plan, the prospect of flying had not seemed so daunting. But now that the moment was here, she was feeling more than a little queasy.
"Alright, everyone!" Crowler called to them from the small staircase leading up to the plane. "The pilot says that everyone can now begin boarding, so get in a line and let's make this as orderly as possible, okay?"
Despite Crowler's request, the group of students that assembled in front of the plane was more of a mob than a line. But eventually, after about ten minutes of waiting in which her nervousness increased, Sophie had boarded the plane and managed to get a seat next to Jesse.
"You feeling alright?" he asked in concern as she sat down beside him. She merely nodded in response, not meeting his gaze. "Alright" was the last thing she felt right now.
After a few more minutes of waiting, during which a flight attendant went over emergency safety information, the pilot came over the intercom to speak with them:
"Ladies and gentlemen, we will be departing immediately for North Academy. The skies look mostly clear, but we may be experiencing some turbulence over the ocean as we near the school, so be sure to keep your seatbelts fastened at all times."
And with that not-at-all-comforting announcement, the plane began to move, picked up speed, and was soon in the air.
Sophie's stomach was doing somersaults by the time the plane had left the ground, and she was now anxiously playing with her fingers as she tried to find something to distract herself with.
Jesse noticed Sophie fidgeting and knew she was feeling uneasy. "Hey, Sophie," Jesse said calmly as he placed his thumb and forefinger under her chin and turned her head to look into her eyes, "Everything's gonna be fine, I promise. Just breathe in and out slowly, okay?"
Sophie nodded and did her best to follow Jesse's instructions, but while staring into his sea-green eyes was definitely distracting, it was hardly helping to make her less nervous. Any time their faces were this close together, she always got butterflies in her stomach and started to blush. So, to keep from embarrassing herself more, she eventually removed her chin from his hand while reassuring him that she was okay.
"You sure?" he asked, a worried look on his face. She nodded and gave him a small smile. "I promise."
For the next half hour, Sophie managed to keep herself relatively composed. She did, however, have Jesse's hand in a death grip by this point, which he had fortunately not objected to. She was grateful for his strong presence next to her, as she always did feel safer when he was around.
Maybe this isn't so bad after all, she thought to herself. Yeah, I can make it through this.
Just as these hopeful thoughts had passed through her mind, the pilot began speaking over the intercom again:
"Ladies and gentlemen, it seems we are just coming up on that turbulence I mentioned earlier. It's going to get a little bumpy, so make sure once again that your seatbelts are securely fastened."
After this announcement, Sophie turned nervously as she bit her lip to face Jesse, who gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry," he said as he removed his hand from her grip and replaced it with his other one. "I'm here for ya. We're gonna be fine."
Sophie glanced at the hand Jesse had recently removed from her grip and noticed it was white where she had cut off the circulation. "Oh," she said with embarrassment when she noticed his bloodless hand. "Sorry about that."
He shook his head dismissively. "It's fine, I don't mind at all. Whatever helps you get through this."
Right then, the plane made a sudden lurch that sent Sophie's stomach into acrobatics again. She tensed up immediately, and the plane continued to jerk around.
Jesse took note of her change in demeanor, and he took his hand out of hers to place both of his hands on her shoulders, turning her upper body to face his.
"Sophie, everything's going to be okay, understand? It's just a couple bumps. We're totally safe." He kept his voice even and calm as he stared into her eyes.
Just as Jesse's words of comfort were starting to reach Sophie's brain, the plane fell several feet without warning and dispersed any help he had been providing.
Sophie inhaled sharply and broke eye contact with Jesse as she started looking around worriedly, feeling as if the plane and everyone in it would come crashing down at any moment.
"Damn it." Jesse muttered under his breath when he saw the fearful look in his best friend's eyes. He could tell that she was about to lose her hold on reality and have some sort of panic attack, so he was racking his brain for any possible way to distract her. He knew it was important to act quickly, but as her mood became more frenzied, he couldn't think of any reasonable actions. Realizing that he was running out of time, he did the only thing he could think of.
He grabbed her face between his hands and kissed her full on the mouth.
Sophie stopped moving immediately out of shock, but made no attempt to move away from him. Is this actually happening? Once she had decided she wasn't just imagining the moment, she closed her eyes and returned the kiss.
The plane continued to move around in strange ways, but with Jesse's lips covering her own, the plane's motions were the last thing on Sophie's mind. She felt like she had been waiting for this to happen forever, and now that she was finally kissing Jesse, nothing could ruin the moment.
After a few minutes, the turbulence ended and Jesse reluctantly pulled away. He kept his hands on either side of Sophie's face and looked deeply into her eyes. "You okay?" he asked, panting slightly.
"Yeah," she said with a nod, equally out of breath and blushing.
"So, umm..." Jesse trailed off with a blush of his own, unsure of how to say what he wanted to tell her next. "I've been wanting to do that for a long time. Were you okay with what I just did there?"
She smiled at him and nodded. "Yeah. I've been wanting you to do that for a long time, too."
He let out a sigh of relief as he gave her a huge smile. "Good," he said simply, as he pulled her into a hug that she quickly returned.
"Oh. My. God." Jaden said from the next row of seats over. Sophie and Jesse turned to look at him and saw the completely bewildered expression on his face. "You," he pointed to Sophie, "and him," he pointed to Jesse, "are a couple?" he finished in disbelief.
Jesse gave a small laugh. "Well, I guess we are now." He then turned his attention from Jaden to Sophie as a small smirk played on his lips. "Only if it's okay with you, of course."
She laughed and smiled at her new boyfriend. "It's fine with me."
"Awesome," he said with a grin as he put his arm around her shoulder, like he had done so many times before. They sat in silence for a few moments before Jesse spoke again.
"So," he began, "flyin' isn't so bad after all, huh?"
Sophie was surprised for a moment when she realized her fear had been completely forgotten, them she grinned back at him. "Nope," she said, putting both of her arms around his neck. "As long as I'm with you, it's just fine."
And she leaned back up to kiss him again.