Attention riders. We are landing at our destination in 10 minutes. Please buckle your seatbelts.
Luke sighed a breath of relief, a hint of joy and anxiety flickering inside him. The joy of getting off this ten hour plane ride was getting him; so was the anxiety of meeting his temporary new family.
He put his tray up, disposing his cup in the cart that happened to come by. He didn't need to buckle his seat belt; he had only unbuckled when he went to the bathroom; he didn't feel safe unbuckling it otherwise. Soon enough, he felt the weight of the plane shift downwards, then go in a downwards motion.
The motion made him jump, despite the tight seat belt; this is the first time he'd ever been on a plane, the first time he felt that downwards motion underneath his body. It felt foreign to him; everything about planes did. He didn't think planes were this dense, or moved this gracefully through the sky.
Luke looked out his window, for the hundredth time today. Like for the whole ride, he saw fields, splotches of different colors, but he also noticed to glimpse of the ocean in the distance, and that the plane was a bit lower than before.
As the minutes passed by, Luke could feel his ear pop, making him cringe as the ground became closer and closer. Lucky for him, his ears didn't pop anymore on the rest of the way down. The plane started to come down a little faster, making buildings barely visible to the naked eye.
Before he knew it, Luke felt his stomach drop as the plane dropped elevation faster. His ears popped again, but this time he held back his cringe.
The plane landed on the ground, and Luke could hear the wheels scraping on the concrete, going just as fast as it did in the sky. Slowly, the plane slowed down, slower, slower, slower, then went into a stop.
You may now unbuckle your seat belt. Please pick up your entire luggage before exiting the plane. Thank you, and have a nice day.
Luke unbuckled his seat belt faster than intended and immediately got up, his vision crowded with blur and black for a second, causing him to feel dizzy. He blinked rapidly before catching his balance and stepping out of his seat. He reached for the handle above him, pulling it upward and standing on his toes to reach the bag. His legs shook as he placed it on the ground, amazed his arms didn't give out. He had just entered adolescence; his muscles weren't developed enough to carry it properly. Despite the long line in front of him, it didn't take long for him to get to the front of the plane and go into the tunnel connected to it. He started to run, but suddenly realized he shouldn't.
Gentlemen don't run in public, Luke thought. Well, unless it's necessary, which it's not.
The thought of behaving like a gentlemen made memories flood into his head; he remembered how Professor would remind him all the time about acting like a gentlemen, all the puzzles they solved together, all the places they've been too…
It feels so strange all that happened only last year, he continued thinking. It feels so recent, yet so long ago at the same time…
Luke came out of the tunnel, rows of chairs in every square of rug, TV screens above them. A hallway was in the middle of the room, busy with people pulling or carrying their luggage. He walked out of the walkway of the tunnels into the rows of chairs, then down the hall.
After what felt like hours of walking and going up and down staircases, he could see circles, the center black with an outer circle a few feet below around it, covered in gray shutters. Each circle said "LUGGAGE PICK-UP" with a black screen filled with flights underneath, shown in an irritating shade of red. However, Luke didn't need to check the flights on any of them; he brought his two medium sized suitcases on the plane.
He strolled by the big circles, looking at his surroundings, not positive on where he was going. He sat in a convenient bench, hoping to gather his thoughts and to figure out where he was going.
And that's when he had to go to the bathroom.
He grumbled and got up, having to lag his luggage with him. He suddenly felt weaker; his legs tripped over themselves, causing him to lean to his side before catching his balance, but he couldn't save his luggage, as they dropped on the ground with a thump.
Luke's joy and anxiety got replaced with displease; it was enough he was in a foreign country with only the sun with his back, and that he wasn't sure where he was going. Trying not to break down in public was making it worse.
He didn't pay much attention to him surroundings as he got up and fumbled with his stuff. All he cared about was finding a bathroom.
Within a couple minutes, a hint of his joy went coming back as he saw some bathrooms. He walked as fast as his legs were willing to, feeling like he was accomplishing something for some reason. Before he could react, he felt another body ram into his.
"Aaag!" Luke yelped, stumbling back and dropping his items once again. He let out an annoyed huff before bending down to pick up his stuff.
"Sorry!" a deep feminine voice exclaimed, bending down, picking up one of his suitcases.
"Don't sweat it," Luke said with as little annoyance as he could manage, getting the suitcase he picked up into his arms, taking his other one from the girl he bumped into. Luke stood up fully, seeing who the heck bumped into him. She was obviously a teenage girl, but was hard to tell her exact age; Luke was guessing she was his age. She had short messy auburn hair that that stood out in the bland gray and tan walls of the airport. She had rich brown eyes that were mostly neutral-expressional, but if you looked carefully, there was a little annoyance mixed in there. I hope it's not because of me.
Near the bottom of his vision, he could see the girl holding a big white sign under her arm. He couldn't see all the letters from where he was standing, but he could spot out 'LU' with "TRI' underneath. He wanted to ask what that sign said; both words had the first letters of his first and last name. It's probably just a coincidence. Why would a teenage girl be wondering around, looking for me?
Deciding not to ask, he started to walk off. "Sorry to bother you even more," the girl said, touching the front of his shoulder with the edge of her fingertips, "but have you seen any 14-year-old boys around here? To be more specific, English ones?"
Luke shrugged. "Yeah."
The girl let out a breath of relief. "Where did he go? Or they go? I don't know..."
Luke smiled a little bit when he said, "Actually, you're looking at one."
"...Oh," the girl said, her eyes widening a hint, her body leaning back just enough to be noticeable. She then looked dumbfounded, as if she didn't understand a joke until 10 minutes after hearing it. She stood there awkwardly for a few seconds before a look of realization sprouted on her face. "Gah, I should have known earlier. After all, you have an accent, and there's a low chance of other 14 year old English boys being around here..." the girl said.
Luke raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
The girl made a little sigh, almost too quiet for most people to hear. "What I mean is I should have known that you're Luke Triton the second I heard your voice because of your accent."
Luke raised both of his eyebrows. "Accent? Just what are you talking about?" The girl looked like she was holding back a laugh, her lips creasing into her face. "Oh, never mind," she said quickly. "Anyway, I'm Serene. You're going to be living with my brother, my mom and I."
Luke nodded. "Nice to meet you. I'm Lu-oh wait, you already know who I am."
"Well, duh," Serene said, motioning him to follow her. "Hey, do you want some help carrying your things?"
"Oh no, I'm sure I can take them," Luke reassured. Coincidentally bumping into Serene had caused his bladder to forget it was filled up; Luke then remembered his rush to go to it, feeling happy it was willing to wait.
Serene lead Luke all the way to the front doors of the airport, where a woman tucking her hair behind her ears and a boy that looked a little younger than Luke were waiting. I'm guessing those are her mum and brother.
Serene stopped next to her family. The woman stepped up first, holding her hand out. "Luke, this is Kaylene. Kaylene, Luke," Serene said, standing in between them.
"Wow. I didn't know children called their parents by their first names in America!" Luke said, shaking Kaylene's hand. Kaylene shook hands with Luke before rolling her eyes at Serene and whispering to him, "We normally don't. Serene just calls me by my first name to get on my nerves."
The boy went up next and shook hands with Luke. "Tyler."
"Luke," Luke said.
"I know," Tyler said. "My sister covered that."
Kaylene shot Tyler a glare. Luke didn't want to say it, but he found her glare somewhat amusing; he hid back a smile the best he could.
"Sorry Mom," Tyler muttered.
Serene picked up Luke's bags, shoving one into Tyler's arms. Tyler was clearly about to hand it back to her when Luke said, "Don't worry. I can carry them."
"I'm sure you're sick of carrying them after all this time," Serene said. "We're letting you have your arms free. Right, Tyler?"
Tyler didn't answer, walking off, carrying the bag so low it was almost dragging on the ground. Luke heard Serene sigh as he followed her outside. He almost grinned as he went through the glass door, taking a deep breath, but coughing when he realized how polluted it is in front of an airport.
Serene turned her head about one hundred eighty degrees. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Luke said, coughing a few more times before getting all the polluted air out of him.
Luke's very small grin turned into a frown when they stopped at a sign with the number 8 on it. "Why are we stopping?"
"Let's just say it took a long time to find a parking spot, and we ended up being farther from the entrance than we intended," Serene said.
"Sorry," Kaylene said. "We know you're tired enough, from the plane and time cha-
" "No worries!" Luke said. "It's okay, really!" Luke frowned again, remembering more of Professor's words; Gentlemen do not interrupt a lady.
Darn it. I hope she didn't mind my interruption.
Fortunately, Kaylene didn't look offended and said, "Oh, but…if you say so."
The bus came a few minutes later, and because if the bus being next to empty, everyone was silent as the bus went down to the parking lot. In the beginning it was a reassuring silence, but Luke felt awkwardness prick at him as time wore on. He wanted to say something; he just wasn't sure what to say.
The bus made an irruptive stop in front of a several story stone lot, making Luke's stomach jump. The shock didn't last long; Luke stretched his legs and followed his temporary family out, Serene and Tyler still carrying his bags.
"What floor is your car on?" Luke said as they stepped in the low-ceiling building.
"The fourth floor," Kaylene answered, pressing the button on the elevator. Luke having the thought of going into an elevator made his legs more jumpy; he then wanted to dash up the stairs, run around the lot, do something that involved his legs moving. But he knew it would be rude to just suddenly start to run; he patiently waited for the elevator to come down.
"Hey Luke, do you want to race up the stairs?" Tyler said, walking away from the elevator entrance.
Luke gave an asking look to Serene and Kaylene, wanting to say yes to Tyler's request more than anything. Both girls glanced at each other, then shrugged. Luke's grin returned. I take that as a yes. "Absolutely."
"Okay!" Tyler said. "3…2…1…Go!" He took off just as Luke stood in the same place he was.
"That's not fair! You got a head start!" Luke exclaimed, taking off.
For the first story of stairs, Tyler was ahead of Luke, but for the next two Luke caught up to him.
However, the fourth was different. The holding feeling in his bladder returned, making it harder to run. Damn it! How did I forget I had to go? You don't have to run much longer. You can hold it, Luke.
But when he finally got halfway thought the floor, he wasn't so sure. Luke felt a wet drop soak his knickers. No, no, no!
He ran faster, using his strength to hold his bladder. He was using so much strength in his bladder he started to slow down. He heard Tyler mutter a 'yes!' as he sped ahead of him.
When Luke reached the last step, he let go of the strength a little bit, feeling more wet in his knickers. He got his strength a hold of his bladder once again, amazed how well he was pulling through.
"I win, slowpoke!" Tyler said, jumping up.
A few seconds later, the elevator door opened, and Kaylene and Serene walked out. "Did you win? Good job." Serene said.
Kaylene frowned. "You didn't let our guest win?"
"It was only a friendly competition," Luke reassured her, trying not to jiggle his legs. "On a completely different topic, is there a bathroom around here?"
Kaylene looked around before saying, "I'm afraid not. You'll either have to go back to the airport or wait until we arrive at the house."
Luke held back a cringe, biting his lip. Kaylene must have noticed because she said, "Do you have to go badly?"
"Yes!" Luke exclaimed a little more desperate then he wanted to.
"We'll get home as fast as we can," Kaylene said. "Serene, Tyler, let's go!"