Hi guys! This is MusicLover27 back after a very, very long absence, and I'm sincerely sorry for that. I just got to caught up in school, and I had a terrible case of writer's block that I'm only now getting over. I know most of you are used to me writing Harry Potter stories, but I thought I'd write this as a nice, light way to get back into writing. Yes, I am a huge fan of One Direction, don't judge me! But I do hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 1- The Beginning
"I'm very sorry Miss Anderson, but there seems to have been a mix up with your seating arrangements. I'm afraid your seat has been double booked. You see, we've just installed a new online system, and it's still a bit glitchy," said the well-dressed flight attendant standing behind the desk.
"What?" I asked, "But how can that be? I booked my seat three months ago! How am I going to get home now?"
This could not be happening. I'd just driven five hours to get here; my flight had already been delayed by three hours due to 'unforseen circumstances', and now they were telling me I didn't have a seat at all? This day just kept getting better and better. It seemed to be such a bad end to what had been an incredible year.
The flight attendant in front of me smiled sympathetically, and reached across the desk to pat my hand. The badge pinned on her shirt told me that her name was Hannah, and if wasn't for the severe bun her hair had been scraped back into, she would have been quite a pretty woman.
"The airline is very sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused you, but if you're willing, we should be able to get you onto the next flight available back to Sydney. First Class of course, to make up for our mistake. We truly are very sorry. It's been a bit hectic around here for the last few days, we've been very busy with making arrangements for some very special guest flyers, and I guess the mistake must have been overlooked in the chaos."
Hannah smiled at me sweetly and patted my hand again, and I caved at the pleading look she was giving me. The First Class seat also may have helped some.
"Well okay then, I guess that will be fine. What time would the flight be departing?" I questioned.
It all moved very quickly from there. Hannah gave me a delighted grin and pulled back her hand to tap away at the keyboard with her manicured nails. Soon enough she was giving me my boarding pass, loading my luggage, and wishing me a 'Happy, happy day! From all of us here at LAX!' Seeing as I now had another two hours to wait for my flight, I decided to set myself up in a small café not far from my boarding gate. I quickly ordered a coffee to stave off the exhaustion that had slowly been creeping up on me and sat down at a booth in the back of the shop, pulling out my battered copy of 'The Chrysalids' by John Wyndham and making myself comfortable.
Two coffees and three quarters of my through the book later, a loud noise disturbed me and I glanced up quickly, only to see a large group of teenage girls holding up signs, run past the door to the café not a second later. I watched on in confusion as the hoard continued on for a few seconds before gradually dying down, until only a few stragglers were left walking behind the group. I wondered what was going on for a moment before glancing down at my watch and letting out a quick swear. My flight would be boarding any second now. I flipped my long, straight blonde hair over my shoulder before quickly dumping my rubbish and running out of the cosy café.
I huffed and puffed my way down the never ending hallways before finally reaching my boarding gate. I breathed out a quick sigh of relief as I realised they had only just started boarding. Hoisting my bag further up onto my shoulder, I made my way through the crowd surrounding the door, glancing up at the monitor above it for a moment to see that they were boarding First Class at the moment.
I quickly made my way to the front of the crowd. Handing over my pass, I only had a brief second to revel in the envious looks I was getting before being swept onto the plane. What? It's not every day a girl from outback Queensland gets to fly First Class!
I stepped onto the plane and turned towards the doorway I knew led to First Class, but I was stopped suddenly by a hand being thrust in front of me, stopping me from continuing forward. I glanced to my left and saw a snobby looking flight attendant staring down her nose at me.
"Can I see your pass please?" she sniffed, looking me up and down with contempt.
I smiled back at her tightly. I knew I probably wasn't the typical First Class flyer. I was wearing a tight, but comfortable pair of black skinny jeans, a faded, slightly tight old football jersey I had borrowed from my brother a few year before and never given back, and my favourite pair of white and silver Chucks. This probably wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the shoulder bag I was carrying. It was covered, and I mean covered in nerdy stickers, anything from Harry Potter to Doctor Who to Pokemon. You name it, my bag was covered in stickers of it. Sure, I knew it probably wasn't the most fashionable item to be carrying around with me, but I'd had it for years, and I loved it to death. It was the only bag I'd manage to find that could fit as much stuff as it did, and still feel as light as a feather.
I flipped my hair out of my eyes with annoyance and handed over my boarding pass to the heavily made up flight attendant. She looked down at it quickly, sniffed and then looked back up at me with a glare.
"Well then, right this way Claire, your seat is the third on the left."
I smiled at her triumphantly and took back my boarding pass, making my way through the curtains that has always stopped me from seeing First Class before this. I looked around and gasped. Holy Crap! No wonder these seats were so expensive, it looked like some kind of posh living room for a hotel!
I quickly made my way to my row, groaning in delight as I flopped down into the comfiest seat I swear I've ever sat it. It was so heavily cushioned I felt look I'd never be able to get out of it again, and that suited me just fine. I quickly stowed all of my carry-on luggage before pulling out my iPod and my book and settling in for the long flight ahead. I knew I wouldn't be getting much sleep over the next 24 or so hours. I had never been able to sleep on planes; something about them just stopped me from dozing off properly. Most likely it was the thought of hanging thousands of feet in the air in a giant metal container, but most of the time I just tried not to think about it.
I quickly put in my earphones and turned the volume on low, so I could still hear the Captain over the loudspeaker, before diving back into my book.
A few minutes later I heard a bit of commotion behind the curtain hiding First Class from the rest of the plane, before it was flung open and the same flight attendant who had snubbed me came walking in with a large, plastic smile on her face. I saw a few people behind her, but assuming they were just other First Class passengers being led to their seats, I returned to my book.
Slowly the seats around me started to fill a little more, but not by much. It mustn't have been a very busy flight. There was an older gentleman in a suit and his wife a few seats ahead and to the right of me, and a younger business man, also in a suit, in the seat across the aisle from me. I could also hear a bit of noise from behind me, and what sounded like laughter, so I assumed there was about five or six people somewhere in the three rows behind me. Not long after the last person sat down, the plane took off, and I found myself once again absorbed in my book.
About an hour later, I finally finished my book and stowed it away in my bag, choosing instead to focus on the soft music playing in my ears. It seemed that everyone on the plane had fallen asleep, as it was around 1am where we had come from, so I decided to lean my head back against the headrest and rest my eyes for a while. I knew I wouldn't fall asleep, but it was nice just to relax for a while, especially after such a stressful day.
After a while I realised it was getting quiet stuffy in the cabin. I was okay for the moment, as my soccer jersey was quite light, but I realised they must have turned the air conditioning down whilst everyone was asleep.
A few moments later, I was jolted out of my rest when I felt a hand grip onto the back of my chair to hold the person steady as we moved through a bit of turbulence. The person continued on after a moment, and I opened my eyes and pulled my headphones out to see them, hoping to catch a glimpse of one of the people who had been responsible for the infectious laughter before.
At first it didn't realise what I was seeing, but after a moment I became aware of just what I was looking at. A teenage boy slowly made his way down the aisle, probably hoping not to wake any of the sleeping passengers, and for his sake I hoped he didn't either, because the boy was very much naked.