CHAPTER ELEVEN
"So where are we going, exactly?" Lilly asked as she, Miley and Vicky hustled through the busy airport terminal toward their waiting flight. The day of their big trip to the Alps had finally arrived, and Vicky was alive with excited energy.
"We'll be flying into Bern, Switzerland," Vicky answered excitedly. "Then we're going meet my friends at the year-round ski resort in Zermatt!" Miley and Lilly exchanged a 'what have we gotten ourselves into' look.
"How long is it gonna take us to get there, Vicky?" Lilly asked her.
"Well, from here to Munich, Germany is about an 11 hour flight… and then it's just a little over an hour from Munich to Bern!" Vicky answered. "We have to take a train from there to get to Zermatt, though. They don't allow cars there."
"Why not?" Miley asked curiously.
"They don't want any air pollution that could ruin the town's view of the Matterhorn," Vicky said, stopping to look up at an electronic departure board to confirm which gate their plane was leaving from.
"Whoa… we're gonna see the Matterhorn?" Lilly gasped. "Like, the real one?!" Vicky giggled.
"Yup," she said with a grin.
"Okay, maybe this won't be so bad after all," Lilly quipped.
"I heard that!" Vicky shouted back. Miley and Lilly laughed.
A little over an hour later, the three friends were airborne, bound for the Swiss Alps and a rendezvous with Vicky's friends from Malta. Not long after they finally settled in their seats for the long flight, Miley – who was sitting between Lilly and Vicky – noticed Vicky was wearing a pretty beaded bracelet she hadn't noticed before.
"That's really pretty, Vicky," she commented. "Where did you get it?"
"Oh, I um… made it," Vicky replied, trying not to blush.
"Really?" Lilly replied. "It's beautiful!"
"Thanks," Vicky said, smiling and blushing even harder. "It's just something I made for myself… to remind me of the people I care about. It's um… well, it's like my promise, to never hurt them, if I can help it." She swallowed.
"I guess that might seem kinda silly…"
"No it doesn't," Miley assured her. "I think that's awesome."
"Tell us who the beads are for," Lilly asked, grinning.
"All right," Vicky replied, smiling back. She truly was proud of the bracelet, and liked the idea of being able to share what it meant to her with her two best friends from America. She held out her arm so Miley and Lilly could see the bracelet and pointed to the first of the big beads on it.
"This one is for my best friend Chanelle," she said. "The one next to it is for my mom, then my best friend Emily, my dad, my best friend Suzanne, my brother Robert, my best friend Luisa, my sister-in-law Tiziana, Martina, my friend Maria, my friend Jeanine, my friend Stephanie, my friend Thea, my cousin Patrick, my cousin Claire and my cousin Andrew."
"Wow, that's really neat," Lilly said softly.
"Thanks," Vicky said, smiling. "I think I might need a bigger one now, though."
"Why's that?" Miley asked her.
"I need room for two more beads now," Vicky said softly. "For you guys."
"Aww… you don't have to do that, Vicky!" Miley gushed. She reached out and pulled Vicky into a gentle hug. "We love you too."
"Yeah we do," Lilly added, "and I'll hug you when I can reach you, okay?" Vicky laughed.
"I'll hold you to that, skater girl," she said with a grin. "We should be leveling off soon."
"This is gonna be one long flight," Lilly lamented. "Anybody have any ideas on what to do to keep from getting bored out of our skulls?"
"Well…" Vicky said thoughtfully. "We could play some cards, I guess. I brought a deck with me from Malta." Her eyes suddenly lit up. "Hey, I could teach you how to play Thirty-One!"
"Is that like Twenty One?" Lilly asked doubtfully. Vicky nodded.
"They're a lot alike, yeah," she answered. "Here, I'll show you." She slipped the pack of playing cards out of her backpack, opened the box and quickly shuffled the deck. Then she dealt each of them three cards.
"Since we can't put our tray-tables out yet, we'll just have to use Miley to hold the deck," Vicky said with a grin. She placed the deck on one of Miley's legs.
"Try not to move too much," Vicky teased her. Miley arched an eyebrow.
"Cute, Vicky… real cute," she said with a smile. Vicky and Lilly laughed.
"All right, so the idea is to get cards with a total as close as you can get to thirty one… and get closer than any of your opponents…"
Half a world away, another group of friends was also boarding a flight bound for the Swiss Alps. All of Vicky's friends from Malta – Suzanne, Maria, Emily, Luisa, Martina, Michelle and Chanelle – made their way aboard an Air Malta jumbo jet, looking for their seats. Unfortunately, they couldn't all sit together on the plane, and instead had to split up into smaller groups. Martina ended up sitting beside Chanelle and Luisa, and three immediately began to chat amongst themselves.
"So, you finally excited about this trip, Tina?" Chanelle teased Martina. Martina smiled.
"Of course I am," she said with a grin. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, you have been in a kind of… funk, lately," Luisa said carefully. "Is everything okay?"
"Sure," Martina replied half-heartedly, meeting Luisa's blue-green gaze. "I'm sorry if I worried you guys."
"You know you can tell us anything, right?" Chanelle said, her dark brown eyes studying Martina carefully.
"We're just worried about you, Tina," Luisa added, brushing several strands of blonde hair away from her face. Martina sighed.
"You promise you won't freak out?" she asked carefully. Chanelle and Luisa both nodded. Not trusting herself to meet their gazes, Martina turned towards the window to stare out at the sparkling waters of the Mediterranean Sea far below.
"It's… about Vicky," she said slowly.
"You two have become really good friends," Chanelle remarked. "You must miss her."
"You have no idea," Martina quipped. "I think I, um… like her." When Chanelle and Luisa didn't say anything for a moment, Martina cringed.
"Please don't hate me," she whispered.
"Tina…" Chanelle said softly. "We could never hate you." She reached out and gently rested her hand on Martina's shoulder.
"There's nothing wrong with liking Vicky, either," Luisa added. She smiled. "She's a great person."
"Does she know?" Chanelle asked quietly. Martina shook her head.
"No," Martina answered. "How could she? I haven't had the chance to talk to her since graduation…"
"Then you should talk to her when we meet up in Switzerland!" Luisa exclaimed.
"I want to," Martina admitted. "I just don't know how. What am I going to say to her?!"
"You could try the truth," Chanelle said teasingly.
"Funny, Chan," Martina grumbled.
"Tell you what," Chanelle continued. "If Luisa and I arrange for you and Vicky to have some… alone time… in Zermatt, will you talk to her?" Martina smiled a little.
"Why are you guys doing this?" she asked quietly.
"We just want you to be happy, silly," Chanelle said with a laugh.
"Right," Luisa agreed. "You and Vicky both." Martina blushed slightly.
"Thanks, Chan… you too, Lu; I don't know what to say."
"That's okay, no thanks are necessary!" Chanelle quipped. "Okay, so what we need now is a way to get you and Vicky alone in Zermatt…"
"Isn't she coming with those friends of hers from America?" Luisa asked. "Missy or something?"
"Miley," Martina corrected her with a laugh. "Their names are Miley and Lilly."
"Well, maybe we can get Miley and Lilly to help us out," Chanelle suggested. "You know what? I think I've got a plan already…" She pulled Martina and Luisa close to her, and dropped her voice to a whisper.
"Here's what we're gonna do…"