Anna lugged her carry-on bag down the aisle, hunting for an empty seat on what would be her sixth plane ride in six years. She specifically searched for two empty seats with the intention to sit alone and just relax until the plane arrived at the destination she was headed.
Having had her fair share of annoying passengers on her previous trips, Anna definitely was not in any mood to sit beside snotty children, snoring old men, or an overly chatty person. Her first time flying she ended up sitting near a mother with five unruly toddlers, one of which happened to sit in the aisle seat beside her. The child had one finger constantly up his schnoz and he kept working it like there was no tomorrow. She had to sit for two hours pressed as close to the side of the plane as she could possibly get so none of the kid's gross boogers would get on her.
Then there was the second time she flew on a plane. She thought when she plopped herself into the seat next to a wrinkly old man the ride would be uneventful and she would be able to get some much needed rest. That, of course, didn't happen. The man she sat beside was pleasant enough when he was awake, but when he was sleeping his snores were like some kind of wild beast snarling. Also, it seemed as if he only snored when Anna herself was trying to catch some Zs. Every time she closed her eyes he released a tremendous, loud, grating snore that rattled through her whole body. She was forced to remain awake on that trip and left the plane with eyelids drooping, stumbling like a drunken fool.
The third time she ever went on a plane she had the misfortune to choose a seat next to a rather hefty woman. The woman had smiled at her as she seated herself... and then she proceeded to launch herself into a monologue from hell. She talked nonstop, telling Anna her whole life's story unasked, filling Anna in on what she did every day, the random people she'd met and conversed with, etc. Anna felt ready to jump out of the plane in the first hour alone. She had her eyes fixed on the emergency exit door on the opposite side of the aircraft the entire ride, imagining herself opening it and leaping out to escape the blabber, and her hands gripped the armrests so hard that by the end of the flight they ached and it hurt to bend or move her fingers.
Her fourth and fifth trip had been entirely worse-hellish- and she disliked dwelling on them for too long or else she'd develop a brain throbbing headache.
Crossing her fingers, Anna hoped her sixth ride would be much better than her past ones. If she could just find two empty seats directly beside each other so she could sit by herself with no disturbances...
From the looks of it she didn't have much of a choice. There were no empty seats next to each other so she had to settle with either sitting next to a boy with piercings all over his face or a very pale, almost sickly-looking middle-aged man who appeared to be suffering with a terrible cold. Sit next to a possible show-off/loser, or endure hours listening to the sweet music of a person sneezing every five seconds while smearing their mucus on their shirt sleeve and, if she was really lucky, spewing up their last meal. Tough choice, but she went and chose the former. How much of a problem could a guy with rings and studs sticking out of his face possibly be?
She couldn't help but stare at the studded boy as she approached. His red hair was up in a long, spiny Mohawk with neatly trimmed sideburns bordering his face. There were two hideous nose rings, one hanging from each nostril, and too many eyebrow rings and ear piercings that she didn't bother to count. She didn't want to think about the non-visible places that a ring or two might have been placed.
He met her stare with an emotionless expression, leaving her with some hope. After she placed her luggage in an overhead compartment right above her seat, she swiped her fingers through her fiery hair and wordlessly sat down, plugging her headphones connected to her iPod into her ears.
She listened to her music as the rest of the passengers finished boarding and wished she'd had an iPod that time she had to sit next to the chatterbox. She wouldn't have had to sit for hours listening to the woman drone on and on about cleaning her ears or shaving her legs or-
Anna shuddered at the memory and blocked it out, turning the volume way up and making her eyes close shut. She was lost in the music, drumming her fingers methodically against the armrest, bobbing her head to the beat. And then her eyes snapped open and she ripped the plugs out of her ears as someone stepped on her foot. She looked down and spotted the dirty smudge on the side of her shoe, then she lifted her head to see a girl with whitish-blond hair and who looked to be about her own age walking by.
She didn't have the decency to glance back once to offer an apology.
Anna waited a full five seconds to allow the girl time to realize what she'd done and say sorry, and once those seconds were up and the girl still hadn't said a word of apology, she snapped unkindly, "Excuse me!"
The other girl didn't acknowledge her existence. She was busy swiveling her head around, her immaculate thick, single braid swinging freely behind her, appearing to be searching for a seat. Anna clambered to her feet and repeated in a much louder tone, "Excuse me!"
Finally the girl turned curiously. She saw Anna was glaring at her and raised both her eyebrows. "Are you talking to me?"
"Uh... yeah!" Anna pointed down at her shoe and the girl followed the direction of her finger. "You scuffed my shoe!"
The girl shifted her weight and a strap of her black backpack slid down her shoulder, causing her bag to slip halfway down her back. She shrugged it back in place, and that was when Anna noticed the name scrawled in barely noticeable gray magic marker on one of the backpack pockets. The sloppy writing said "Elsa". "It's a shoe," the girl, presumably Elsa, said amused.
"It is not just a shoe!" Anna fumed. She lifted her leg to show Elsa her shoe in full view. "These shoes were a gift from a family member! They are brand new and they're not cheap, you know!"
Elsa looked at the shoe for a moment and then brought her blue eyes up to meet Anna's fierce green-blue ones. "Let it go," she said simply, and with a roll of her eyes she strolled on down the aisle as Anna shouted explicit words at her back.
Once Elsa was seated and all Anna could see was the top of her blond head, she flopped back into her own seat with her arms crossed, her bottom lip sticking out in a babyish pout. "That bitch is going to pay for the damage she did to my shoes," she muttered angrily under her breath. She turned her head when she felt the boy's eyes on her and growled, "What?"
"Dude, they're just shoes. Get over it." And with that he turned to look out the window as the plane prepared for take off.
Anna had dozed off right after the plane left the ground. She had been listening to her iPod and thinking up ways to kill the girl named Elsa who had ruined her shoe when her eyes inched themselves closed without her even realizing it. She was out like a light in a matter of minutes, which was quite unusual for her on a plane trip. Rarely did she get a chance to get a good rest while on a plane…
Her rest was short-lived. Eyes snapping open, she felt something stabbing her on her bottom and yelped in pain, reaching underneath her to remove whatever it was beneath her. It turned out to be one of Mohawk boy's piercings.
"Oh. That's where that went!" he declared and snatched it from her hand to insert it back into his face.
Anna looked away in disgust, so she didn't see its original placement. She turned back around once she thought he was done putting it back and snapped, "What the hell was that doing in my seat?"
He cracked open a bag of peanuts and popped a few into his mouth before downing the entire bag in one shot. Wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his arm, he snorted through his nostrils and said, "It just fell out. Gosh, take a chill pill. You have such a 'tude."
Grumbling, she kicked her feet up, placing the bottoms against the back of the seat in front of her and folding her arms over her chest. She started to resume sleeping when there was a boom that came from the right side of the aircraft, the same side as her but a little further up, and the plane wobbled unstably in the air. Instantly her feet dropped and she sat up as far as the restraining seat belt would let her as shocked gasps and fearful screams permeated the cabin all at once.
"What was that?" Anna heard herself say to no one in particular.
Mohawk boy pushed his face as close to the window as possible trying to get a look outside to see what might have happened. Someone towards the middle of the plane screamed loudly, drowning out all other noises, that the wing was gone. The explosion, or whatever it was, had ripped the piece cleanly off. Several people started to get up to see for themselves but the plane lurched to the left as the weight of the left wing made the aircraft roll, and those who were standing were thrown hard into the seats on the opposite side. The whole plane was filled with screams of terror as the plane tipped, and if the Captain said anything over the intercom it was drowned out by the wails.
Anna's screams were stuck in her throat. She couldn't believe this was actually happening to her! It crossed her mind that planes for her were bad luck. She should have realized that after all her trips turned out terrible. Her hands held on to the straps of her seat belt, glad that she hadn't taken it off, and she found herself staring out a window on the other end of the plane, which was now below her, at the rolling waves of the ocean. The plane, usually horizontal, was now flying vertical, and it was no longer actually flying but falling, descending at a rapid rate toward the sea below.
Beside her, Mohawk boy clung to the seat in front of him due to the lack of a seat belt. His had snapped while the plane had started its roll. His grip on the seat was not strong enough or maybe clammy hands had made the seat too slippery, but Mohawk boy lost his grip and tumbled down to what was now the bottom of the plane, his foot hitting Anna in the side of her face as he went. The blow made Anna see stars and she closed her eyes to clear her vision.
The plane's descent increased as gravity pulled the craft down. Elsa ducked her head as bodies flew her way and thought about getting to the emergency door somewhere behind her. Except there was one small problem with that idea. If she released herself from the seat harness she would end up tumbling aimlessly around the plane just like everyone else. Staying put was her only option, and though her chances of surviving were probably low, they were ten times better than the result she would get if she tried to do something.
"This sucks," Elsa thought to herself as the plane spiraled uncontrollably and all she could do was hope for the best.
It reached ground level seconds later, the tip of the wing that was still attached skimmed the water's surface and then sliced through it like a knife cutting into a soft-baked cake. The nose of the airplane crashed into boulders protruding out of the sea, crumpling and bursting into flames immediately on impact. As the front was devoured by flames, the remainder of the aircraft, middle to back of the plane, detached and flipped end over end through the air, sending parts and pieces of the aircraft-as well as bodies-flying in every possible direction, some landing in the ocean and others landing on the shore of an uninhabited island.