Endless Roads

Chapter One - Flying Home

Five years it had been since she last saw a glimpse of her hometown, and five years it had been since she last saw her friends. It was all the girl could think about as she sat on in the plane flying from Florida to Angel Grove, California. She stared outside the window, as the sunlight beamed upon her face, watching the peaceful scenery formed by clouds that surrounded the plane. She sat there silently, thinking about what on earth she was doing. She was flying home to see old friends that she hadn't seen for five years. She hadn't really kept in touch that often and it made her think if they would actually be happy about her return. Especially for a certain someone who she believed wouldn't be happy at all of her presence. It wasn't until the pilot announced that they'd be landing soon, that she started feeling nervous. Her palms started to sweat and her knees started to shake. She looked outside the window again, looking down at the ground. All she could see were little lines and squares as the plane approached the airport. Within minutes she would be on that ground, greeting the ones that she spent her whole childhood with. A little smiled formed on her face, as old memories of her making constant visits to the mall with friends and walking down the school hallways with big, thick text books in her arms, entered her mind. She quickly snapped out of her thoughts when a little beep from the intercom alarmed her.

"This is the captain speaking. I would like to please ask everybody to remain in their seats and buckle up their seat belts, as we are soon approaching the landing terminal. Thank-you."

Her heart started beating faster, as she hurried to put her seat belt on. This time, her hands were the ones that shook. She took deep, long breaths to help her calm down. Her anxiety was overwhelming as she continued sitting there. She looked out the window again, and noticed the ground looking closer than before. The plane was going to land, she was going to get out of the plane, and she was going to meet all of her friends again. She imagined this day in her head for years, but she never imagined that she would ever react this way. It must have been the most nerve-wrecking thing. She shut her eyes tightly, trying to focus herself. "This is no big deal. You'll do fine." She thought to herself, as the plane inched more towards the landing area. She sat there patiently, fiddling with her thumbs. "Everything is going to be fine. They are going to be so happy when they see me." Suddenly she felt the plane shake from the impact from the landing. Her eyes widened. Her heart beating faster. "I'm here. I'm actually here." She thought to herself. "Kim, you're actually home."

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Jason had been standing at the arrival's gate patiently waiting for his "Little Sis" to come out. He hadn't seen her in over a year, after leaving Florida to move back to Angel Grove. Six years before, he left Angel Grove to travel through Europe. It was a great opportunity he just couldn't refuse, so he had made the decision to leave. The experience he had in Europe was indescribable. He had seen everything there that Europe had to offer. He went to Paris, studied French, and took pictures of Eiffel Tower. He went skiing in the Alps and went mountain rock climbing. He spent a few months in London, went to Scotland, and even wore a kilt. It wasn't until a year later that he heard that Kimberly had left to pursue a gymnastic career in Florida. The two kept in touch with letters and phoned each other from time to time. But after three adventurous years, Jason decided to go down to Florida and spend time with Kim. Jason had never intended in spending a long time in Florida, but there was just one thing there that kept him: Lacey Chastenburg. Lacey was a close friend of Kimberly's that she had made through gymnastics. They had become the greatest of friends that the two decided to buy a place together. Kim let Jason stay with them, during the time he was there. The chemistry between him and Lacey grew, and lead to the blooming of a wonderful relationship. Unfortunately Jason knew that he had to leave sooner or later, so he broke up with Lacey on good terms, and left to Angel Grove.
Now it was a year and a half later since he had left, and it was Kim's time to return home. He stood there waiting with the others: Aisha, Billy, Adam, Kat, Rocky Tommy and Tanya. Out of all of them, Tommy was probably the most nervous. To the others, their friend was returning home, but to Tommy his ex-girlfriend, his first love, his inspiration of life was returning home. He stood behind the rest so he wouldn't look obvious to the others. His knees started to tremble and his muscles started to tense up. Thoughts entered his mind on how he would react to seeing Kim again. It had been five long years without a word from her after the letter she had sent to him, saying she had met someone else. Tommy wouldn't deny that it was heart breaking to hear the news. Never did anything in his life feel important to him than Kim was. Tommy was a foster child, constantly moving around the country into different homes. It wasn't until he moved to Angel Grove and met Kimberly, that he actually started to appreciate life. And that meant the world to him. Soon after, the two grew to be really close friends and eventually he and Kim started an incredible relationship, which unfortunately ended the wrong way. After the letter, he was devastated and couldn't really feel good about himself. A couple of months before Kim had left for Florida, a new girl named Katherine moved to Angel Grove from Australia. She became a really good friend with the group and a really good friend of Tommy's. When Tommy was depressed from his break-up, Katherine or Kat, she would be called, helped him through it. She planned vacations that her and the group could go together for, to get Tommy's mind off Kim. And eventually his mind did, and feelings started to form between him and Kat. Soon enough, Tommy and Kat started a relationship and had been involved to this present day.
Kat walked up to the nervous wreck standing behind her. She linked her arm to his and rested her head on his shoulder. Kim was coming back to town and she didn't know whether to feel happy or upset. An old friend that she hadn't seen for years would be coming home; but then again she couldn't ignore the fact that her boyfriend's ex was also coming back. She stood there; looking at the excited faces on her friends as they continued to stare at the arrivals slowly came out of the gate one by one. She could feel Tommy trembling as she held onto him. She could see on his face that he was really nervous, and a slight jolt of jealousy hit her. Kat's worst fear was to hear, see or feel that Tommy was still in love with Kim. From the very beginning when she came to Angel grove, she had envied what Kim and Tommy had. Day after day as she saw the two walking down the school halls together, she had this slight feeling of jealousy towards Kim. Her jealousy grew more and more with every hug she saw Kim give to Tommy and every kiss and every present. Even when she saw Tommy put his eyes on Kim, fumes of jealousy would explode inside of her. And Kat couldn't help but feel guilty. She never had these bitter feeling towards a person like she had towards Kim. Never in her life did she feel to actually kill some one. Then we she learned that Kim was leaving for Florida, Kat was the happiest she had ever been. She was even happier when Kim sent the letter to Tommy. And after seeing Tommy depressed over the breakup, Kat decided to take advantage of it. She was by Tommy's side, constantly helping him feel better, doing everything that she could to make him forget about Kimberly. Then finally one day, things between her and Tommy started to bloom. They were hanging out together day after day, having six-hour conversations over the phone late into the night. And then one day, Tommy just kissed her. Kat had finally gotten what she had wanted for a long time, and the feeling was just incredible. Soon after, their relationship became more serious; Tommy moved into Kat's apartment.
Now it had been three and a half years into their relationship. They had even talked about marriage. But now that Kim was coming back to Angel Grove, it scared the hell out of Kat. The thought of Tommy even eyeing Kim made her feel like exploding. It even went as far as having the urge to make Tommy leave with her before Tommy even had the chance to get a glimpse of Kim. But Kat stood there patiently, as did everyone else. It was nerve wrecking.

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Kim's POV

After I made through customs, I placed my entire luggage onto one of those huge airport carts. I was overwhelmed on how much junk I had collected over the years in Florida, and I guess I had to suffer the consequences coming back here, carrying, pushing and pulling all my heavy cargo. I joined the stampede of passengers making their way through the arrival gate. I could already here the shouts and cries from outside the gate, as people greeted each other. As soon as I saw the big "Arrivals" sign, my nerves got to me again. My palms started to sweat, making my handbag slip out of my hands and drop to the floor. I quickly picked up and hurried my way over. As I walked through, all I could see was a huge ocean of people. There was no way I could make out my friends from the huge crowd before me. Suddenly I heard someone shout out "Kim!" But there were too many people in front of me, I couldn't figure out which direction it was coming from. I turned my head in each direction, but I still couldn't see anyone I knew. Then out of no where, Jason jumped in front of me. He wrapped his arms around me and lifted me up in the air.

"Oh my god, I have missed you so much!" Jason exclaimed.

"Nice to see you too." I replied.

"So how's Lacey?" He asked. I laughed at the immediate question, because I knew that he still loved her, and that he would never stop. It was just so sweet how he still cared about her after all this time.

"I so knew you were gonna ask that." I giggled. "She's fine."

"KIMMIE!" Someone squealed behind me. I turned around to see my best friend Aisha running up to me. She had a huge smile on her face, with her long black braids waving in the air as she made her way over, and let out her arms for a hug.

"Aisha, oh my god, I haven't seen you in like… Forever!"

"Oh my goodness, I can't believe you're actually here." She replied, hugging me tightly so that I couldn't breathe. "You so have to fill me in on what's been goin' on over in Florida!"

I chuckled. "I'll make sure I will."

"Kim, how's it going?" Rocky replied walking up from behind me. He bent down, gave me a hug, and went off to help out Jason with my luggage.

"I'm doing good." I smiled, and turned to Billy and Adam to greet them. I looked behind Billy to see an African-America girl standing there looking at me. I asked Billy who she was. Apparently, the girl was Tanya Sloan, Adam's girlfriend. She had moved to Angel Grove about two years ago from Africa. I thought it was cool, 'cause I got to meet new person. She was really nice and polite, and quite humorous.
As I finished off introducing myself to Tanya, the dreaded happened. I turned towards my luggage to see what was left to do, when my eyes immediately met the eyes of the one and only Tommy Oliver. My mouth wet dry, as I got caught in his stare. He had a blank look on his face, and I didn't now what it meant. It kind of scared me at first because I thought he was angry, but it wasn't that. I used to be so good at reading his facial expressions, but this one left me thinking. I tried to collect myself together and say something. I went as far as opening my mouth, but I was stuck at the wording part. Not a single sound would come out.

"Hey." He softly said, as my eyes widened, shocked at the fact that HE said something first.

"H-Hi." I stuttered. With just the two words that we had exchanged, I could already feel the awkwardness between us, which forced me to move on.

"Hi Kat." I turned.

"Hey Kimberly. Glad you're back." She smiled looking almost as if it were forced, making me feel that she didn't mean what she said. I smiled back at her.

"So… what are we going to do now?" Billy asked.

"Well…" Jason managed to say lifting up another one of my suitcases. "Why don't bring all this crap over to my place…" He said letting it back down onto the ground. "And we can order some pizza and hang out." He sighed.

"Sounds good to me." Adam answered, holding Tanya's hand.

"Cool." I mumbled, walking over to the cart and started pushing it towards the exit.

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Tommy's POV

That evening we all stayed over at Jason's apartment, where Kim would be staying. At times I was glad she was staying at Jason's than Aisha's or somebody else's, because I made way more visits to Jason's place any way. Back at the airport, I remembered the awkwardness I felt when I took the courage to say Hi. I still couldn't get over how different Kim looked the first moment I saw her there. Five years can do a lot on girl, and I meant that in a good way. She looked sophisticated, more mature and more… beautiful. I quickly shut my eyes regretting I even thought of that. "More beautiful?" I thought to myself. "Get a grip Tommy." Yes, seeing Kim did bring a lot of old memories, but I had to remind my self that those "old memories" happened a long time ago. I sat on Jason's couch, with Kat beside me, as we all pigged out on pepperoni pizza. Aisha, Jason and Kim were constantly chatting away about what was going on in Florida like Jason's ex-girlfriend, and Kim's reason for leaving gymnastics. She said something like how it wasn't cut out for her or some crap like that, so she spent two years just chilling and enjoying life in Florida. I was shocked to even hear that she had given up on gymnastics. That was something I did not expect to happen. All of the years I had known Kim; she had always been about gymnastics. The balance beam, the floor exercise and the uneven bars… everything. She could do everything. And then to here that she gave it all up, that was like seeing a whole new Kimberly. And something made me think that maybe the Kimberly sitting in front of me wasn't the same Kimberly that I saw went she left five years ago.