A/N: Hi everyone! This is my first fanfiction that I have published. After countless hours of reading story after story, I finally got the courage to post mine here, too. I also wanted to let you know that not only am I not English, so the "British slang" will most likely not be used (even if I try to use it, it would probably be incorrect), but also I am not a writing major or anything related. I am purely another amateur writer who fantasizes about random scenes with fictional characters, so I deeply apologize for any grammatical/spelling/punctuation mistakes. Formatting, too, I am not a specialist in. Thank you for showing some interest in my story, as I am not so good with summaries. Enjoy!
I looked around the plane, double checking the amount of girls that were here. There were the younger girls in the front and the older ones towards the back, save for the few adults that accompanied us. After confirming with the attendant that we had everyone, I stood up on my seat and smoothed down my pleated skirt.
"Alright, everybody," I said, capturing the attention of everyone, "Ms. DeLaney has put me in charge while she rests, so please listen and obey the adults here. The pilot told us that the flight should take only about 2 hours from here to London, so sit tight for a bit."
I sat back down and heard the faint mutterings of disapproval from the others. The girl next to me noticed my discomfort and leaned towards me.
"Don't mind those brats, Lilith. They're just jealous that DeLaney doesn't like them as much," she confronted me. A piece of her wavy brown hair kept moving toward her lipstick stained lips as she talked and I noticed that some of her powder foundation had rubbed off onto her standard white blouse. As she went about telling me how annoying the little ones were, I really studied her. I've definitely seen her in some of my classes and I knew she was one of the richer girls at our academy. Was she the one that bought the huge stuffed frog yesterday?
"And, my sister knew Reita's cousin, so that's why we don't like each other. Lilith, hello? Are you even listening?" the girl questioned. I completely blanked out and had no idea what she was even talking about. What should I do?
"There's hair in your mouth," I suddenly blurted. The girl looked down and shuffled in her seat. My face was burning with embarrassment as I tried to fix the situation.
"I, um, I'm sorry. I was too busy looking at your shoulder and thinking. There is a bit of face make up on it…" I trailed off and wiped my clammy hands on my skirt. Gosh, why'd I have to be so creepy like that? What person in their right minds would study a person like I did? I made everything so awkward.
A high pitched giggle broke me out of my self-loathing.
"Oh, thank you! I fell asleep on the bus ride to Oslo and some of it must've rubbed off. Honestly, I'm so tired from walking everywhere; so exhausting. My mum and dad should be surprised at the souvenirs I bought them, though; hopefully they'll enjoy them. Did you get anything for your folks?" I turned my head to see her smiling brightly, seeming as if she forgot my awkwardness from a moment ago. I paused as I thought about my response. What should I tell her? That my parents couldn't give a care and made me pay for this school trip myself? That I could hear them whispering things about how they wish the plane would crash on the way to Norway? All this would only freak her out again.
"I got my mum a small trinket because she likes those things, and I got my dad a keychain to put with his keys," I sputtered out the first lie that came to mind. The devil should be very disappointed in me; these weren't convincing enough. Quickly, I changed the subject.
"I actually didn't pick up on your name. You seem to already know me," I smiled at her. She shook her wild bangs out of her green eyes and gave me a blank stare.
"Lilith, come on, you don't remember me? We worked on so many group projects together! I'm also in the special class for biology?" Her eyes kept pleading with me as I wracked my brain for the name of a girl with messy brown hair, green eyes, and strong cheekbones. Nothing came up. She huffed and rolled her eyes.
"Evie! Come on, how do you not remember a name like that! My name is Evie Connor: grade 9, well, now grade 10, I guess, I am in over half of your classes, and you and me once got into trouble with Headmaster Price. Do you remember now?" Connor…Evie…putting gum into Lucy Gopp's hair…Headmaster Price…some things are coming back.
"Oh, of course, Evie! I am so sorry. My mind is just all over the place, you know? I mean, it's finally the end of the year and we just had a fun trip to Norway and I'm just so anxious to get back home!" I blabbered on and on.
"I understand, it is pretty exciting to get back to London. I still don't understand why DeLaney made us wear our uniforms back, though. Weird."
I watched as Evie turned her head out the window and let out a sigh. I wondered when we were going to leave this airport! We've been sitting in the middle of the runway for almost half an hour! As soon as I unbuckled my seat belt, the overhead lights dimmed and a low voice came over the speaker.
"Hello, ladies! I am pilot John and my co-pilot, Marcus is next to me. We will be flying you all back to your homes in London. Please buckle up and don't be afraid to push the overhead button for help. Our wonderful attendants, Christy and Wilma, will be there soon to assist you. Thank you, and enjoy flight 0283 from Oslo, Norway to London, England."
Another body was soon felt squeezed into the other seat next to me. I looked over to see a pudgy girl, appearing to be a couple years younger than me, wipe some sweat from her forehead. I gave her a big smile.
"Hey, you're a little late, aren't you?" I cocked my head to the side.
"Yeah, I am. And I'm awfully sorry 'bout it. I held up this whole flight and—"
A loud flight attendant yelling the safety precautions and information interrupted the girl's speech. After the lady was done and buckled in, the girl continued on.
"Are you excited to get back home?" she noisily questioned, "Your friend over there looks bored to pieces. I wouldn't blame her. Oh, look we are moving!" God, this person was annoying. I looked past Evie's head to see that we were starting to move faster and faster against the pavement until we finally lifted off the ground. My stomach did a few flips and Evie turned around to beam at me. I opened my mouth to say something but the girl to my left nudged me.
"Hey," she said, "do you have any snacks? I'm super hungry."
This girl was slowly beginning to unravel the bad mean side of me. She turned her head so I thought this was a great time to poke her right in the neck fat.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Penelope, but my friends all call me Pene, like the pasta!"
"Well, Pene the Pasta, I do hate it when people bug me when I'm trying to read, so do refrain from talking much," I said in the snottiest tone I could muster. I pulled up a book and started reading. I looked over at Evie, who already started to dooze off. This was only a short 2 hour flight, so sleeping wouldn't do any good, only make you even more tired.
I didn't hear any more of Penelope until about forty five minutes into the flight when she shook my arm wildly. I was getting to a really juicy part of my book, and she interrupts me now!
"What?" I hissed.
Penelope was shaking violently and I was afraid she was going to make the whole plane go off track.
"D-do you feel that? The moving?" she said so quietly I almost didn't hear her.
"Relax, it's just turbulence. Every plane runs into this. Haven't you ever been flying before?" I gave her an unconvinced look. If this little thing was playing with me...
"I have been in a plane before. But, but this is different. It's, like, real shaky right now. Too shaky, huh?" Pene slowly whispered. She looked like she was about the throw up. I quickly grabbed the paper bag that was in the seat slot in front of me and shoved it into her chubby hands.
"Throw up in this, please. I only brought one change of my school clothes and I can't have yack all over me." Lord knows Evie would be in cardiac arrest having to wake up to someone puking all over her. Well, all over me, actually.
As Pene put her mouth tentively up to the opening of the bag, the plane lurched back and my neck quickly snapped back into my headrest.
"What the hell? What did we just hit?" I looked around to see many of the younger girls clutching their stuffed bears and holding hands. Someone groaned beside me.
"Did we just land, Lilith?" Evie groggily asked. I looked out the small window. It was still bright outside but we were surrounded by a thick fog.
Another impact was felt on the whole left side of the plane as we slowly tilted sideways. My heartbeat quicked immensely. What was happening? Are we going down? Maybe Pene was right.
All of the girls on the left side of the plane started crying and shrieking. Well, if we were going down, I certainly don't want all of us to be running around crazily. I saw some of the adults get out of their seats to comfort the little ones in the front. Out of instinct, I unbuckled my belt and stood up on my seat once again. I looked down to see all sorts of trembling and tear streaked girls.
"Girls, please, calm down!" I yelled, "Just listen and be quiet. It appears that we may be going down. But this is not a reason to cry and freak - there are 2 blowup rafts on here. What we are going to do is throw the rafts down and jump out of the plane. We are steadily heading towards the water anyway, so just think of the jump as you jumping off of your diving board into your pool!"
Some of the girls paused their crying but others wailed even harder. At this rate no one is going to listen to me.
"One of the adults," I went on again, "will open the hatch. From there we will jump out in pairs. As soon as you hit the water, swim up and try to grab a hold onto the raft. Get into it and wait for the rest of us. We should be close to London, so don't fret. Listen, the more we panic, the less will get done! Okay, let's go!" I hopped off the seat and immediately went to the younger girls. I tried my best to reassure them, but the tears coming from their eyes told me that they didn't believe me. The plane was getting closer and closer to the water. And I wasn't going to let all of us drown in the North Sea.
I looked over to see Ms. Jensen and Mrs. Poyier turning the door's hatch. The door was swung open and Ms. Jensen was sucked out into the sky. My eyes widened as I saw Mrs. Poyier struggling to hold onto the door. I could hear her screams as she was too sucked into the air.
"Mom!" a panicked girl ran after her mother.
"No! No, you can't go after her! Stop, ple—"
But before I could reach her, she jumped. I frantically looked around at the girls. They were screaming and running around. They weren't listening to what I directed them to do! Evie turned to me and she hugged me tightly. Tears were starting to form into her eyes, but I couldn't see much else because my blond locks were blowing all about my face. I looked over at Pene and saw her hurling her guts out. Poor girl.
A few girls started to shuffle towards the exit. They all held onto each other and it seemed as if their tears mixed into one.
"We've got to do this! Lilith said this was the only way to survive!" one of the girls shouted at the little ones. And as one, all three of them jumped. Some of the remaining adults helped the others get out of their seats and soon a line was formed to jump out of the plane. Evie grabbed my hand.
"We are jumping out of this thing together. And we are going to survive," she gave me a forced smile. The only thing I could do in return was squeeze her hand. The line was starting to end and I took one last look around the plane. Wait, Ms. DeLaney was still sitting down! I ran over to her and urged her to get up, but she simply kissed my hands and told me she wanted this. I suppressed a sob as I ran away from my loving teacher. How could this day go to ashes to quickly?
Evie pulled my hand and she hugged me. Instead of going together, though, she released me and dove into the ocean below. I turned around so that my back would hit the water instead of my face and took one step backwards. I felt the rush of the air as I fell. I saw the countless blood splatters on the side of the plane and the wings from all those girls who thought they'd go on by themselves. I shut my eyes as I felt the ocean sting my back.