-1 I never had a very exciting life. I'm was Jewish fifteen year old girl with two parents and a dog. I went to school, came home, did my homework, and went to bed, with the occasional after-school activity, or sleepover. I lived in the suburbs of a big city. Where exactly doesn't matter, because who I was then doesn't exist anymore. My name is Lily Shanzer, and this is the story of how my life was (very rudely and quite unexpectedly) changed forever.
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"Mom, I want to go to Australia."
Meet my mother. English teacher, neat freak, germaphobe. Life's goal: achieve the impossible. Which in her world, meant doing as much as possible at the same time. In other words, drive us all insane with charities and meetings and dinners, and so on. Age I am not aloud to tell.
"What was that hon?" She looked up at me from her novel, probably a classic. She was into that.
"Australia. Please? David's going too! This summer vacation. Alone. His grandparents live in Sydney I think. I bet his parents would be totally relieved if he knew we were going too. Plus it's my birthday coming up. Don't I get to pick where we go this vacation?"
Meet David Goldberg. My best friend since the age of two. Swim team captain, comic book reader, extremely sarcastic and cheeky. Favorite pastime: annoying the hell out of me. His parents are divorced, and his father is in rehab in Tennessee. We live in New Jersey. He would never admit it, but he has a sensitive side too. Age fifteen.
"Well Lils, I know I said it was your choice, but Australia? Seems a bit much."
"Since when is 'a bit much' in your vocabulary mom? What happened to your love for challenge and multi-tasking? Where's that when I actually want it?"
"Now don't be fresh Lily. I'll talk to your father, and if he approves…"
"If he approves then…"
"Australia it is."
"I knew you couldn't resist the charm of your eldest and favorite daughter." I kissed my mom on the cheek and bound up the stairs to call David. Needless to say we were going to Australia. It was really up to my mom, not my dad. Wondering why?
Meet my dad. His motto: Ask your mother. Lawyer, part time tutor, and in his spare time, basketball player. Usually with me, in our backyard. It was a pretty big backyard, and a pretty big house too. We were pretty "well to do" as my mother would have put it, back then, before Australia.
When David heard the news, his reaction was not "awesome!" or "this'll be great!" but, "I hope you're ready for a hell of a plane ride Lily. For your own sake, don't sit next to me." I could almost see him smirking. Of course, I sat next to him anyway. Males.
Anyway, I guess I should probably introduce myself. Meet me, Lily Emily Shanzer: Well I don't know what to say about my personality…kind of odd trying to define yourself…I guess I'm pretty outgoing, I'm definitely not shy. I love horror movies and roller coasters. I'm five foot one, I have sort of belly button length thick black hair, light skin, and very blue eyes. I have a dimple in my chin. I like to read, dance, and I need to get good grades, and if I don't I get panicky and irritable and rude. Like my mom, I'm pretty germaphobic. What can I say, I enjoy hygiene.
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The day of our long awaited vacation finally arrived. We crammed last minute things into our luggage, crammed everything into the car, picked up David, and rushed to the airport. We barely made the flight. That was us. Always in a panicked rush.
We were sitting in that room where you wait to board. The one with rows and rows of chairs. What's it called again? I can't remember. I looked around and observed the other passengers who would be on our plane. Oceanic flight 815 I had learned it was called. They were a strange bunch, I can tell you that. There was a tall muscley guy with long-ish (for a man) blonde hair. There was another tall big guy sitting near him, but he had short brown hair, and looked a bit more put together. They were pretty good-looking, I thought, for old guys(they looked in their thirties).
There was a younger looking girl, about twenty I guessed, who was very very pregnant. Pretty, I thought. She had long blonde hair and small features. Then I noticed another women. She had curly brown hair, and was vary tall, and pretty thin. She was wearing dark colors, and sitting in the corner with her hood up. Strange much?
"Hey David, what's up with that woman in the corner?" He looked up from his magazine and at the mystery person.
"She's probably a narc. An undercover security guard making sure no one takes a candy bar from the wrack or something." He said monotonously. "How much longer till we get on the plane anyway? What are they doing, waiting for us to die of old age?"
I thought about what he said. About the woman. I was not convinced. Then I noticed…was her arm handcuffed to the chair?
Before I could whisper this to David, a man called our flight. It was time to board. We got in line, our passports were checked, and our seat numbers given. We were ready to board.
To my parent's dismay, our seats were very spread out. Two seats in the center of the plane, and two at the very back. After much complaining and whining, it was decided that I would sit in the center with David, and my parents at the back. I realized that there were four seats in each row. I wondered who David and I would be sitting next to. I hoped it was not that older looking man in a wheelchair I had seen earlier. It would be impossible to get past him to go to the bathroom.
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"So Lils, these are our seats. I hope you like em, because we'll be spending the next twenty four hours in them." David said. I groaned.
"Hey at least we have TVs on the seats."
I groaned again.
We scooted into our seats, the two middle ones of the four.
"Ugh we got the middle seats. It'll be impossible to get to the bathroom if an outside person falls asleep." I complained.
"Just squeeze by, and if they wake up, just say, 'sorry, you wouldn't want me to pee in my pants, would you?'. And they'll totally buy it cause we look so young and innocent." David answered with a smirk.
"Excuse me? I look innocent, you look like a street hobo."
Before David had a chance to flick me, my plane neighbor showed up.
Oh great, I thought, it's the tall blonde man who looks like a bad guy from one of those retarded cop shows.
Before I could introduce myself, the guy spoke. And he was very rude, I might add.
"Oh great, I'm sitting next to the munchkins. Of all the rows, I got the day care center." He mumbled in a thick southern accent, so that no one could hear him. Except apparently, they could. And it was the wrong move. If there was something I did not like, it was being called a kid.
"Well if I'm a munchkin, you must be The Hulk." I answered back, smiling bitterly.
"What the hell-"
"I'm Lily. This is David." I said. David looked up from his magazine.
"Sup." He said, and looked down again. So antisocial.
"Well well, how 'bout that? They speak." He said, smiling. He sat down in the seat next to me and pulled out a book.
"No freaking way." I said. The book was To Kill a Mockingbird. The same book I had brought to read. I pulled it out.
"Since when do cowboys have good taste in literature?" I said with a smirk.
"I could say the same about teenage girls." He replied. "Now why don't you shut up."
"Oh my god." I whispered franticly to David ignoring the cowboy. David turned to where I was looking. "I thought my neighbor was bad." Walking towards David was a huge muscular Arab man.
"I don't mean to be racist but come on…does he have a family with him. No. Damn."
"Shut up Lily. He might hear you" David whispered as the man sat down. "I'll introduce myself. I'm sure he's nice. Not a blow up the plane type."
"No!" I squealed a bit too loudly. "Don't look at him! We're so obviously Jewish!"
David rolled his eyes and turned toward the man.
"Hi, I'm David. Thought I should introduce myself considering this is a 23 hour plane ride with one stop for gas."
"Nice to meet you David. My name is Sayid." He replied. He then turned away with an uninterested look on his face.
"You see!" I whispered again. "He doesn't want to get to know the people he's about to blow up!"
"SHUT UP LILY!" Said both David and my blonde friend simultaneously.
"That was rude." I said quietly. Sayid was giving us all an odd look.
"So cowboy," I continued. He groaned. "You never mentioned your name."
"It's Sawyer. Like I'm going to Sawyer head off in a minute."
"Oh haha I get it." I said. "Good one." I added with an unamused look on my face.
We began to move. Soon we had taken off and the long flight had begun. The beginning of the end.
About four hours into the flight I had to pee. But of course, Sawyer had fallen asleep. That's ok, I thought. I'll squeeze past. He looks pretty knocked out.
I got up and began to try to push past his legs. Of course, disaster struck. I started to wobble, and before I knew it…
"Ah!" I yelped as I fell backwards.
"WHAT THE-" Came from Sawyers mouth as he woke up to a 108 pound girl falling on top of him.
"Hello." I said. I was now perched on his lap in an awkward yet actually quite comfortable position. "Would you like a breath mint for that after-nap taste?"
"Thanks, but I'm…GOOD." He grunted this last word as he hauled me off of his large lap and into the aisle.
"Heh...sorry about that." I said sheepishly. "Had to pee."
I hurried down the aisle and into the toilet. I had not been in there for long when I began to feel some turbulence. And I mean that in a non-bathroom related way. The problem is, I take quite a while to wash my hands after going to the bathroom. I have a routine. But when the plane slammed me against the bathroom wall I realized I should probably go buckle up. I exited the stall to see many very worried faces. I rushed to sit down and buckle up, just as the plane gave a violent shake. A stewardess fell flat on her face. I was officially quite worried.
The pilot came onto the loudspeaker.
"We are experiencing some violent turbulence. Please stay seated and fasten your-" But before he could get out the rest of it, the plane went berserk. Suddenly everyone was screaming. Someone was flung across the plane and hit the wall hard. Complete chaos ensued and the air masks came down. But before anyone could put them on, the lights of the plane completely went out. More screams. I couldn't think straight, the plane was shaking so violently. I heard a deafeningly loud noise. I knew what is was when I saw the first glimmer of light.
"DAVID!" I cried. He grabbed on to my hand, and I felt as I felt the tail end of the plane rip from the front, taking my parents with it.
Then, perhaps from the pressure closing in on me, the inability to breathe, or some mental factor, I passed out.
A/N: I know the plane was going from Australia to the US, but I didn't feel like doing the whole vacation. Also, this won't stick to the plot of the TV show very much…somewhat thought.