"Mere? Mere! Wake up!"

Meredith Stepien opened her eyes, but immediately closed them due to the harsh sunlight beating down on her. She put her hands over them, opening her eyes and looking through her fingers. She felt something wet just below her eye brow. Am I bleeding?

"Wait, what happened? Where are we?" She sat up, and almost whacked into Brian who was leaning over her. "Sorry."

"It's fine," he said, looking as if he was trying not to say something.

"Bri…what-," her thought was stopped when she saw the wreckage. There were pieces of metal lying in the sand, some already being pulled out to sea. Why am I on a beach? She shook the thought from her head, she was dreaming. I was a really weird dream. She kept looking around, trying to find something to prove to her she was asleep, but then she saw it. A worn, tattered, and burnt copy of "Little Women" sitting a few feet from her. Lauren was reading that on the plane-

And then everything came back, hitting her all at once.

"Can you please stop bouncing my seat?" Jaime's round blue eyes appeared over the seat in front of the petite brunette.

"She probably just has to pee… again…" she heard Joe mumble into his magazine as he failed to suppress a small chuckle.

"So what if I do, Walker!" Her indignant tone caught the attention of some of the surrounding passengers.

"I am just saying, you have the bladder of a squirrel, Lopez!" He shut the cover of SkyMall and turned around to face his spit-fire friend.

"Guys! Shhhh…. There are people trying to sleep." Julia, who was sitting to Lauren's right, hushed the bickering friends like the mother hen she was, "Lauren, you know I hate airplane bathrooms as much as you do, but this is a 19 hour flight… you won't be able to hold it."

"Fine!" She grumbled, scrabbling out of her seat and -stepping on the groin of the, then, sleeping Joey Richter- she made her way down the aisle, smacking Joe upside the head on her way.

"I swear… that girl can't go 20 seconds without having to pee." Julia spoke in agreement as soon as the tiny girl was out of earshot, the surrounding members of Team StarKid laughed a bit at their smallest companion's expense, and they didn't miss the way her gray eyes flicked over to their most famous friend to see if he found her remark as funny as the rest of them.

A few moments later and the friends had settled back into their former positions; Meredith was resting quietly on Brian's shoulder; her brown eyes drooping with sleep. Brian Holden smiled softly down at his girlfriend's tired form before fixating his eyes onto the small TV a few rows ahead of them. To Meredith's right, Charlene was dozing against the window, her ear-buds blasting the 1980's classic "Total Eclipse of the Heart". A row behind Charlene, Darren Criss sat with wandering eyes. His left leg was bouncing up and down with excitement; the curly-haired man was ecstatic, not only to be headed to Australia, but to be back with his family. To Darren's left was Jaime, who browsed absent-mindedly through the most-recent issue of People Magazine and periodically sneaking a glance at the shaggy-haired friend in the next row. Joe Walker had finished with his copy of SkyMall and was now on the hunt for the most comfortable position for a tall man on a small plane. One row back found Joey Richter snoring slightly, his lanky legs stretched out intrusively in the aisle next to him. To his right, an empty seat, except for the hardcover copy of "Little Women" which Lauren had been engrossed in before her bladder began crying for relief. Julia sat in the next seat, her glasses resting comfortably on her nose, and her hand cramping as she scribbled furiously in a black notebook that rested flat on the tray table in front of her. In the final row that the StarKids had booked, Dylan's thumbs were getting some exercise on the old Gameboy Advanced, though he was lazily slouched, with his head lying against the headrest. Next to Dylan, Liam White was napping soundly, and Clark drummed his long fingers against the window.

THUMP

"Oops… Sorry!"

The flight attendant gave the short brunette a disgusted look and snarled at the apology. The blonde in uniform rubbed her shoulder and forced acceptance as Lauren made her way back toward her friends, her jaw hanging open in disbelief.

"Well… she was fucking rude." Joe, who had turned at the thump knowing it probably had something to do with his clumsy friend, had his head hanging out into the aisle glared at the back of the airline employee while addressing his friend. She smiled grimly and placed a gentle hand on his muscular shoulder for support as she stepped delicately over Joey's outstretched legs.

Lauren settled back into her seat, and back into her book. Joe finally managed to doze off, Julia released a large yawn, and Jaime got up to stretch her legs. Dylan was tickling Liam's nose with the end of a pen, just to laugh when the sleeping man repeatedly swiped at his face, and Meredith gave up on sleeping and was talking quietly to Brian.

The blonde flight attendant started coming around with a garbage bag, and suddenly the plane began to jerk in violent spasms.

And suddenly, everything became clear.

"We crashed…" She spoke softly, the words sounded hollow and foreign. Not a second later the words finally sunk into her reality, "We crashed?" This time she whispered them harshly to Brian who nodded solemnly, "We crashed."