Temple of the Rising Sun
"Whoosh" was the only thing I could hear as the plane leaped off the runway and into the air. My ears popped and after a few seconds I held my breath and swallowed it, allowing my hearing to go back to normal. I looked over to my left, to one of my best friends Adalynn Clark or "Abby" for short. Her short blond curly mess of hair jumped all over the place, her sky blue eyes widened and she flashed her killer smile, showing off her wide set lips. Her freckles seemed to be bouncing with her. Abby has always loved being in the air, whether it be sky diving, bunging jumping, parasailing or flying in a plane, something about being in the air made her so happy. Her father is in the air force (they moved to Maryland freshman year from Missouri, Abbey has a total southern twang) she totally inherited her father's love of flying.
I looked past her to see my short red-headed, pale skinned friend Fae Dourity. Her wavy red hair flowed past her shoulders and her light blue eyes shadow set off her deep moss-colored eyes. Fae transferred to my school St. Katharine's Catholic School for Girls from Ireland freshman year, she had the cutest accent and one of the fieriest spirits I have ever seen. Coincidently she is kind of I pyromaniac; she always seems to gravitate to the nearest fire place. Fae is also our schools best martial artist; she can kick some serious butt.
With her hands firmly on the armrest I saw my mocha-colored curvy friend Chantal Johnson. Her black hair has been pulled back tightly against her oval head in a messy bun and she had taken off her Gucci sunglasses and her almost black eyes looked terrified. She was also holding her always-with-her Aquafina water bottle so tight it might burst. Ever since I met Chantal she has always had a water bottle on her, she also loves the ocean, our schools swimming pool (she is the star swimmer on our school team) and standing in the rain, it's amazing that she has never gotten pneumonia.
I felt a smile creep across my face at Chantal's irrational fear of flying and the scoped out the rest of the private jet we were riding in. Next to my seat I noticed a pamphlet of Hawaii, where we were heading to for science class to study volcanic activity, I turned my head and noticed a few guys from St. Paul's, they were accompanying us on this trip, being at an all girls school, any sightings of men who aren't priests are very special. The ones I spotted were all the jockish type, good looking but proubly all bran and no brain, then I saw a few emo/Goth (I can never tell the difference) looking guys with black hair, piercings and black notebooks proubly filled with thoughts of their tortured lives and bad poetry. I turned away, now uninterested in the bad male pickings and focused on my long dark-brown hair and my side bangs that kept getting in my face.
Just as I was tying my mane back into a tight ponytail the plane steadied and a green light blinked, signaling that we could now walk around the plane. "Hey Em." (My real name is Ember Zulu but everyone calls me Em) Chantal and Fae just ran faster than green grass through a goose to the back of the plane, ya wanna go 'en join um?" asked Abby, for all the years I have known Abby I have never understood her southern sayings.
"Sure thing, Chantal looked so scared it's not surprising that she wanted to get to a nice cushy waiting room." I laughed remembering her face.
"I swear on my great grand daddy's life that I have never and will never meet someone as scared of flying as Chantal" she said smiling and crossing her hand over her heart.
I couldn't help but laugh at Abby's southern twang. "Ok, let's go meet up with them." I said grabbing Abby's hand and leading her to the mahogany double doors that blocked our way into the lounging area. I was about to pull the handle when a very cute Asian guy with stylishly messy black hair and light brown eyes stepped out of no ware. "Let me get that for you girls." He said very coolly as he opened the door for us.
"Gosh and they say chivalry is dead, why thank you." Gushed Abby as she did a little curtsy move and moved past me and into the room.
"Thanks that was very nice of you." I said politely, smiling and then totally forgetting about him as I gazed about the elegant room it was decorated with fine landscapes and pretty rose bushes. The windows had wooden framing and carved pictures of birds. The whole room had a very elegant air to it but all the teenagers made it seem a little out of place. They were draped over all the couches, love seats, chairs and a few sat on the floor. There are also a few guys sitting on the floor. There was also a small bar, serving sodas and virgin drinks.
"Ey, lassies ova here!" I heard Fae shout from across the room, Chantal had let her hair down and it was all black waves, held back by a blue cotton headband.
I tapped Abby's shoulder and pointed over to our friends. "Looks like we have a place to sit." Abby smiled and followed me over to our friends. I took a seat next to Fae on a blue, velvet couch and Abby sat next to Chantal on a love seat.
"So Chantal you really seemed to be enjoying the flight!" I laughed.
"Oh yes I have never had such a pleasurable experience on a flying metal death trap." She replied sarcastically, tilting her head back and placing her hand on her neck.
"Ha, speakin of a pleasurable time, check out that cute lil' blond and his friends eyen us!" laughed Abby as she pointed out the "blond" who actually had strawberry blond hair, light green eyes and a muscular body, his friends consisted of that tall Asian guy who had opened the door for Abby and I, a shorter guy who looks Mexican, dark hair olive skin and brown eyes with a fohawk (wow total social) and then my heart skipped a beat.
"Oh My God!" we all seemed to exclaimed in unison. One of the guys who I hadn't really seen because he had originally been standing back a little but I have no idea how I could have missed someone so drop dead gorgeous! He was tall, really tall like 6'2, his black hair was styled a little messily, his piercing blue eyes had a green ring around them and he wore a black long sleeved shirt which totally showed off his long torso and the bulges of his muscles. His bone structure was so strong and his full lips were so beautiful!
We all stared at him, and then he looked up and looked directly into my eyes and smiled. I immediately turned around, feeling my cheeks get off and my stomach started to do flip-flops. I rose my head up to look at my friends and they had flushed faces to.
"Oh my God in heaven that is the most beautiful boy I have ever seen in my short little life." Abbey said in a loud whisper.
"I know! He is finnneee!" Chantal said way to loudly and just as I had thought it every single girl in the room looked at us in astonishment, because they were all thinking the exact same thing. Chantal's cheeks went crimson and I'm not exaggerating at all.
The whole room had a really awkward silence and for some reason I couldn't help but laugh. Soon Fae and Abby joined me and everyone else in the room did to (now I know what contagious laughter feels like) even Chantal joined in.
After Chantal's outburst died away I decided to change the subject to sightseeing in Hawaii. "Ok so since we have two days to relax before we visit Loihi (the volcano we're going to study) so I figured we should hit the local shopping stops such as the Hawaiian Market and The Shell Cove both of these malls are really close together and have over 45 stores in them! On our second day we should go snorkeling or hang gliding at one of the local beaches." I explained pulling a map out of my back pocket with the circled destinations on them.
"Dang girl did you map out this whole vacation?" Chantal laughed poking fun at my obsessive need to know where were going and when.
"Ey I think it's a good Idea, Em, ya really out did yourself this time! As long as you're around lass, we will always have a wonderful time!" exclaimed Fae wrapping her arms around me and smiling.
"As long as I get to go hang glidin' I am good to go, ya'll know how much I have wanted to go hang glidin'. I just wanna fly through the air and be free as a bird in that big blue sky." Abby explained looking thoughtfully into the air, now totally lost in her own little fantasy world.
"Ya we know Abby you have told us about this about a million times." Said Chantal rolling her eyes but keeping a nice, playful smile while she reached into her pocket and pulled out her Victoria's secret lip gloss and applying it to her full lips making them all shiny.
Just then our Mother Superior, Mother Abigail and Father Patrick came through the large double doors. Mother Superior has always been a beautiful woman even though she is approaching 50, her hazel eyes were set perfectly with her light brown hair and high cheek bones. Father Patrick on the other had is short, about 5'4 and balding, he is about 45 and with his large nose and oval face he wasn't the most attractive man but his kind soul made up for that. "Ladies and gentlemen I am Mother Abigail and this is Father Patrick, we are here bid a welcome to the fine young men from Saint Paul's Academy, we are all very excited that you will be accompanying us on this scientific voyage to the beautiful island of Hawaii. A special thanks is given to Mr. Vladimir Cummings for donating the service if this fine aircraft for our voyage." Mother looked gratefully at a really cute, blond, smart looking guy with Gucci prescription glasses wearing really expensive clothes.
"Wow that guy must be filthy rich to be able to let us borrow this jet." Chantal whispered, now cautious about the volume of her voice.
Vladimir stood up, he was really tall to, defiantly over 6 foot. "Your very welcome Mother Abigail and Father Patrick, but it is the least I can do, as you know I have a great passion for science and for the quality it is taught, I just want this trip to be a superlative event for everyone." After he finished his little speech he sat down smiling showing off his blindingly white smile and two dimples. All the girls in the room seemed to sigh at the same time but neither Vladimir nor Father Patrick seemed to notice but Mother Abigail noticed and she tried to stifle a laugh.
As if reading my thoughts Fae leaned over and whispered in my ear "Even with age, all women seem to sense when lasses see someone they like." I smiled at her and whispered back "yea and Abby seems to have seen someone she really likes." At the same time we followed Abby's eye line to a really nice looking tanned guy with hazel eyes and brown skater hair and a well built upper body (the rest of him remained seated). Fae tried very hard not to laugh but let out a small giggle, but it wasn't heard because the room had resumed talking and Mother Abigail and Father Patrick were in conversations with other students in the room.
Everyone remained in a buzz of idle chatter and I noticed that drop dead gorgeous looking over at me so naturally I would make eye contact and then look away repeatedly. The girls chatted about which shopping mall we should go to first based on size and what stores the mall offered.
The captains voice came booming through the loudspeaker "Passengers it looks like we will be experiencing some turbulence as we are entering a storm cloud, please return to your designated seats and fasten your seatbelts." Everyone grumbled and began leaving the room in a big mob.
"Let's go ya'll I don't wanna be tossed all over the plane like a ragdoll." Said Abby jokingly to Chantal.
"Whatever not all of us are as comfy with falling out of the sky as you Abby." Said Chantal speeding up her walk but smiling back at us as she took her seat.
I took my seat next to Abby and buckled my seatbelt, I being next to the window I decided to open it to take a look at the storm. I opened up the plastic window cover to reveal a black abyss with a few flashes of lightning! I looked over at Abby "Hey can lightning damage a plane?"
"I don't think so, why do ya…" was all she said as she glazed out the window, completely taking in the abyss of lightning and thunder. "Ember shut that, if Chantal sees she will freak out."
"Yeah that would be really bad." I said more to myself than Abby as I shut the window and looked over at a clueless Chantal, eyes closed and listening to her iPod.
I closed my eyes and tried to drift to sleep, it worked for awhile but something plastic, like a zip-lock bag hit my face, as I opened my eyes I saw panic stricken on Abby's face, I faced forward and saw the plastic thing was an airbag, I quickly grabbed it and pulled it over my face and felt the oxygen fill my lungs. "Abby what's going on, what happened!" I asked in confusion, feeling fear start to fill me.
"Lightning hit and blew up one of engines Em, were fallen right outta the sky!" she said through her tears. I tightened my grip on the armrest and felt the plane plummet. Everything question raced through my head, will I survive? Will my friends make it? Where are we? Where will we land?
I looked frantically at my best friends "Guys, if we don't make it" I said wiping the tears from my eyes "I want you to know that I love all of you with all my heart and I am so glad that I met you." They all looked at me, tears rained from their faces.
"Oh Em, Abby and Fae I love you girls to, you're like my second family." Chantal blurted out, breathing really hard.
"I'm really scared of loosing ya'll and I love ya'll to death and if we do die I'm glad to die with you, my best friends." Abby whispered, loud enough for only us to hear.
"Ya lassies are the best thing that has ever happened in all me life and I pray that we will survive this." Fae managed to spit out.
With all our goodbyes said, I closed my eyes just as we hit the earth and I passed out.
My eyes fluttered open and I saw only the amazingly beautiful face of a tan, brown haired Goddess with eyes as green as the Earth, a circle of light surrounded her and as she walked towards me grass and flowers grew after every step she took, the smells of hay and pine filled my nose. "Hello Ember Zulu I am Gaia the Goddess of Earth and I am here to grant you a gift, the gift to control my element, to be strong and sturdy in the face of danger and to nurture those you care for and the cause you care for." She spoke in a strange tongue, it wasn't English, the only language I know but I understood everything she said to me.
"Gaia thank you for your… amazing gift but why would you give it to me?" I asked, I am not special or anything so why would a Goddess want to bestow a gift onto me?
"Because Ember you are destined for something great but you will face many obstacles and much heartache, I want you to succeed so I am blessing you with a wonderful gift, Ember this journey will test you in so many ways and I want you to know that I will always offer my guidance and support whenever I can, you are a very special girl and you and your friends have a wonderful experience in front of them." Was all she said before she disappeared and the white limbo world disappeared and I suddenly I only saw the ocean, it's cool and beautiful color washed over my feet. I looked around and saw a deserted beach, no one around, no plane and (thankfully) no dead bodies. I got up and began walking around feeling the cold sad tingle under my bear feet.
Even though I am alone on a seemingly deserted beach, I feel oddly calm, taking in the sea air, feeling the water rush back and forth as I run along the sea side. I ran faster and faster, taking in the smell of the ocean, the way my hair felt in the breeze and how warm the sun felt on my body. I closed my eyes so that I could take all this in better, suddenly I hit what felt like a brick wall.
I fell flat on my butt and when I looked up I saw him, the drop dead gorgeous guy and he was smiling at me.