Flight

Coward

"When is the plane going to leave?" Sydney mumbled, rubbing his tired eyes and laying his head onto Noah's shoulder. Noah looked out the airplane window at the shadowy figures of the airport people.

"I'm not sure, but its 5 to 12, we should be leaving soon," he replied as Patrick pulled a small blanket out of his duffel bag and draped it over Sydney's form. Sydney smiled sleepily and drifted off to sleep.

"Hey, you can't go to sleep," Patrick whispered. "Remember code number…5, always be on your guard. Never-"

"Pat, let him sleep," Riley interrupted him. "In fact, you and Noah should get some zeds(1) too. We'll wake you up when we're there."

"Are you sure?" Noah asked, rubbing his now burning eyes.

Rhuben chuckled and leaned over the aisle, musing his hair and gave him a smile of agreement. Noah nodded and rested his head against Patrick's shoulder. Patrick rolled his eyes, although a small smile was on his face and he leaned his head against his head rest and closed his eyes to go to sleep.

"You can go to sleep too," Riley said to her twin. Rhuben looked back at her and held her gaze for a moment before she spoke.

"Sure, but then you're going to need zeds too, I'll wake up and ten you can go to sleep" Rhuben said and rested her arm on the arm rest and held her chin in her palm, closing her eyes. Riley smirked at her twin's stubbornness and looked out the plane window as the lights dimmed and the captains voice crackled over the loud speaker. She checked to make sure that everyone had their seat belts on before snapping hers shut.

Nonstop Flight 2049 to Sydney, Australia is now taking off. Please be sure that you have you seatbelt on, and that you won't take it off until the light turns off.

Riley sighed and placed a ear bud into her ear, putting the other one into Rhuben's. She knew that her sister wouldn't fall asleep that easily and would want to listen to music.

"Dougie, Danny, wake up!" Tom shouted, running down the hallway, putting a jacket over his shoulders.

"What's going on?" Danny asked sleepily as he opened the door to his bedroom. Down the hall, Harry started to pull suitcases out of the closet and Dougie opened the door to his room. "What are you doing?"

"Get dressed," Tom replied hurriedly as he jumped around, trying to tie his shoes. "We're going to be late."

"Where are we going?" Dougie asked in monotone.

"We're going to bring the Jacksons back home," Tom replied and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket as Dougie and Danny went back into their rooms to get dressed. "Yes, I'll accept the charges." He said to operator.

"Hello?" a voice asked sleepily.

"Gen, it's me Tom!" Tom said quickly. When Gen spoke next, it was obvious that she was fully awake.

"Tom! I heard what happened to you guys, I hope that that bastard gets put into jail soon, I-"

"I don't have much time to talk, we're going to go look for them, but we don't know where they would go. And you know the Jacksons better than we do, where would they have gone if they were running away?" Tom asked hurriedly.

"That's obvious Tom, where is the one place they love the most?" Gen asked.

"Is that a trick question?" Tom asked as he furrowed his eyebrows together. Gen giggled softly.

"They went home, Tom. Back to Australia, it's the one place where they feel as if they're the most safe."

"Thank you, thank you so much!" Tom gasped in relief.

"No problem, call me again if you find anything out." Gen replied and hung up.

Tom hung up just as Harry, Dougie, and Danny ran around, throwing clothes and things into their suitcases. He tossed Harry his cell phone. "Quick, book the next flight for Australia, I'll start the car!" Tom said and ran down the stairs and out the front door.

Riley looked down at her MP3 player as a familiar song started to play. Untitled by Simple Plan. She looked over at her siblings and smiled as they snored peacefully. As she turned and looked out the plane window, she thought about all of the good times she had with McFly, from when she first met them, to when they became friends.

I open my eyes
I try to see but I'm blinded by the white light
I can't remember how
I can't remember why
I'm lying here tonight

"Hey." Jake replied with a small wave as four boys walked in behind him. "Oh, this is McFly, the band you're touring with. This is Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter, and Harry Judd" he said, pointing to each in turn, who gave a nod in greeting.

"And these five are the DarkElements, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney Jackson" Robert said, motioning to his children. "I'm their father and their manager"

"Must be rough if your dad is chaperoning you all of the time" Danny commented.

"It's not that bad, he helps us get even more famous. I don't mean to brag, but we're famous half around the world" Sydney commented and then he cocked his head to the side. "You have an accent, what is it?"

"British" Harry replied, and you.

"We're aussies" Patrick replied as if it were obvious.

"We're Australian" Noah added to clear things up.

"How old are you two?" Tom asked, turning to Riley and Rhuben, who turned back to them with suspicious looks on their faces. "And how can you tell each other apart?"

"Why does it matter?" Riley asked I a cool tone. Robert cleared her throat and she rolled her eyes. "I'm Riley and that's Rhuben. You can tell because I have a red streak of hair, and Rhuben has a purple streak. We're 15, almost 16"

"I'm 12" Patrick and Noah said in unison "Almost 13"

"And I'm 7, almost 8" Sydney added with a cheeky grin to McFly's shock.

"You must be….really talented" Dougie said slowly. Sydney shrugged and looked down at his hands, as an uncomfortable silence went throughout the room.

"Uh, well, I think that we should go to breakfast or something so you guys can get acquainted. You're going to be with each other for a while" Jake said nervously.

"Great" Rhuben muttered as she rolled her eyes…

And I can't stand the pain
And I can't make it go away
No I can't stand the pain

"Right hand blue" Jake declared as he spun the needle again.

"Liar" Rhuben exclaimed, her arms quaking from holding up her weight. "I think you'll find that says right hand green"

"No it doesn't" Jake denied, swiftly moving the pointer over the blue dot.

"You cheater!"

"I can't cheat. I'm the spinner remember, so my word is law. Now come on Rhuben. Right hand blue." Reluctantly Rhuben did as she was told, so she found herself leaning forwards onto her right hand.

"I can't hold myself much longer!" Patrick cried out and collapsed to the ground, bringing Noah down with him. Noah sighed in relief and the two boys pulled themselves off to the sidelines where Riley, Tom, and Sydney were watching Harry, Dougie, Danny, and Rhuben battle out the win.

"Right foot red" Jake said as he spun the pointer. Sydney has stood next to him to make sure that he wasn't going to cheat again.

Luckily for him, that only required Rhuben to slide her foot sideways to find an empty red space. Doing this, she turned to check what she was doing, and her eyes focused on Danny's face. Him, quite that close, with his gaze fixed on her face made her go dizzy, and she had to lock her joints to stop herself collapsing.

"Dude, there's a spider" Patrick said loudly.

"SPIDER, WHERE?" Danny shouted. His elbow gave way from the continued pressure of having his entire body weight on it, and the fact that he was thrashing around to make sure the spider was off of him, and he fell down, pulling Rhuben with him.

"Oops" he said, not sounding sorry at all. "Did I bruise? Here, let me kiss it better."

"Don't even think about it!" Rhuben declared and pushed him off of her, joining the others on the sidelines.

"And Harry Judd is going against Dougie Poynter to see who will last the longest" Noah said in an announcer voice.

"SHUT UP!" Dougie shouted. "I'M TRYING TO CONCENTRATE!"

"Left hand yellow" Jake said as he spun the pointer.

"Do you dare me?" Riley murmured to Tom as she cocked her head towards Dougie. Tom grinned and nodded. Riley got up and pretended to move to the other side of the twister mat to get a better view. Carefully, she stuck her foot out and swiftly kicked Dougie in the butt, causing him to fall over. Tom, Danny, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, Sydney, and Jake burst out laughing.

"OH YEAH, I WON!" Harry shouted as he punched the air and did a victory dance.

"Hey, that's not fair, she knocked me over!" Dougie replied.

"Hey, it's my birthday, I can do what I want" Riley replied and smirked smugly as she crossed her arms over her chest.

How could this happen to me
I made my mistakes
I've got no where to run
The night goes on
As I'm fading away
I'm sick of this life
I just wanna scream

Riley shookher head and turned off the MP3, resting her head on the cool glass of the plane window. She and Rhuben vowed that they would never run away from what they were going against. But they also vowed that they wouldn't endanger their brothers. It made Riley feel stupid, to be running away from something, it made her feel like a coward. But in actuality, she was a coward, she was always fighting, fighting for her life. And because of this, she and her siblings had never had a normal life.

"At least we're helping out brothers, you shouldn't blame yourself" Rhuben said sitting up straight, as if she had read Riley's mind.

"You know I hate it when you do that," Riley said with a small smile.

Rhuben couldn't help but smile back. "I know, that's why I do it," her smile faded and she pulled Riley's cell phone out of her pocket and dangled it in front of her twins' face. "Call him, or Text him, whatever. Just tell Dougie how you are. Then he'll stop worrying long enough for us to fix this, and then we can go back."

"I don't think its as simple as that," Riley sighed.

"Wow, you really are a coward" Rhuben sighed in a belittling way. Riley turned and glared at her fiercely, snapping her cell phone out of her hand.

"I hate you!" Riley snapped to her twin, who grinned in reply.

"Love you too"

How could this happen to me

Australian Words/Phrases

1. Zeds: Sleep