Chapter 4

"BOOM!" Rachelle yelled, trying to wake up Bita.

The three friends were at the airport alone – Mr. Vilner had left before their flight so he could "attend to more important business" – and Bita had fallen asleep waiting for their flight to be called for boarding.

But now, their flight had been called for at least ten minutes, so everyone who was going on the same flight was already either in line to have their tickets checked or already on the plane.

"I have an idea," said Tiffany, slowly bringing her foot back and bringing it forward it again to make contact with Bita's shin. Bita continued snoring and had no reaction.

"Oh the hell with this," said Rachelle angrily, bringing her own foot back, but bringing it forward much faster than Tiffany had and kicked Bita very hard.

"DAMN YOU WAFFLE PUDDING!" cursed Bita as she shot up out of her chair in pain. "Ow," she added as an afterthought.

"Wow. Bita cussed," Tiffany said, astonished.

"Ok, let's go. They called our plane a long time ago and if we miss the flight I will personally strangle you, Bita," Rachelle said, grabbing her bag and rushing towards the gate with her two friends.

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On the plane, the three girls each found a different way to entertain themselves. Tiffany didn't take off her CD player for the same reason Rachelle didn't put down her laptop – they were both worried about what it would be like at Hogwarts without their beloved electronic friends. Bita, on the other hand, found more primitive ways of entertaining herself, such as playing with a lose string in the back of her seat and playing with the window shade.

All three girls were surprised when the pilot came on the intercom, announcing the decent of the plane and the need for the passengers to put on their seatbelts. It had been a very long trip, yet the girls felt as if they had just boarded the plane minutes before. Rachelle glanced at her watch and noticed that it was 8:00 A.M.

"Wow. It's already 8," she commented.

"No, it's 2 P.M.," said Tiffany matter-of-factly.

"How do you…" Rachelle began. She watched as Tiffany smiled smugly and pointed to the intercom speaker over their heads, which was emitting the sound of the pilot's voice continuing to say "And remember folks, put your watches six hours ahead."

"Oh, yeah," Rachelle said, rolling her eyes as she remembered that Tiffany was clairvoyant.

"We better go," said Bita, gesturing to the rest of the passengers filing out of the plane.

"Ok, now, we're supposed to use this money," began Rachelle when they were inside the airport as she pulled a small wad of bills from her pocket, "to take a cab to King's Cross Station. This is the only time we'll need money, so we can use it all."

Rachelle hailed a cab a few minutes later outside of the airport and the girls squished into the back seat.

"Where to?" asked the cab driver.

"King's Cross Station," said Rachelle, not wanting to try and figure out how many bills she should give him so just thrusting the whole wad into the man's hand. "Keep the change," she added at his shocked look at all of the money.

The driver stared at the money until the cars behind him began to honk and he began driving, still glancing over at the money (which he laid on the passenger seat when he started driving) every now and then.

"Here you are ladies," said the cab driver, grinning five minutes later when he dropped the girls off at the station.

"Wow, that must have been a lot of money," said Bita as the driver sped away, not wanting to give time for Rachelle to return to her senses and take back most of the money.

"No, Mr. Vilner wouldn't have given us $500 for a cab ride. He knew we wouldn't need the rest of the money…" Rachelle said with a nervous laugh, trying to convince herself as much as Bita.

The three girls entered the station and suddenly stopped in their tracks.

"Oh no," said Rachelle as the three girls stared at platforms nine and ten.

"Yeah…that could be a problem," Tiffany said, reading Rachelle's mind (literally).

"I know!" said Bita, suddenly frustrated. "I don't know where Waffle Pudding lives either!"

Rachelle and Tiffany completely ignored her and concentrated on more important matters…such as how in the world they were going to get on platform 9 ¾ (which, according to Mr. Vilner's instructions, was the platform that the Hogwarts Express was on. At the time when Mr. Vilner was reciting the instructions carefully, they were too nervous to realize that he was directing them to ¾'s of a platform) when it didn't exist.