Disclaimer: Do not own Ant Farm

Chapter 8

Getting off the plane wasn't a problem at all. Skidmore had gotten out first, yes, and then she had to wait for Olive, who was sitting back in middle class with everybody else. Still not a problem.

Olive had made sure that she was the first out of that cabin, and when Skidmore laid her eyes on Olive, she ushered Olive alongside her quickly. "Shoo shoo," Skidmore kept saying. "Giddy-yap." They made record time as the two zig-zagged out and about the crowd before the rest of the Ants had set foot off the off ramp. So that part went well also.

The problem was when everybody was waiting for their bags.

Thankfully, Olive's keen memory diverted the problem. She noticed that Gibson's bag and Skidmore's bag were right next to each other, moving along the conveyor belt, from a mile away. Chyna had mouthed to her "Are you sure?" but she didn't have to. Olive remembered exactly how Gibson's bag and Skidmore's bag looked like.

Olive and Chyna moved out without saying another word to each other. Chyna to head off Gibson and Olive to head off Skidmore. Olive envied Chyna. Gibson was definitely the easier assignment.

She managed to cut off Skidmore, which wasn't easy. Skidmore was like a streaking missile as she made off for her luggage.

Skidmore looked at her with supreme annoyance. "What, is it?" She bit out.

Olive panicked, and thought of the first thing that popped into her head. "I think I left something on the plane."

Skidmore didn't look concerned at the least. "So?"

"No, you don't understand. It's my allergy medication. I'm allergic to seafood," Olive lied.

Olive could see Skidmore doing the math in her head. A minor with an allergy to what was probably the most common cuisine in Japan, without her allergy medication, was a lawsuit waiting to happen.

A look of fire burned in Skidmore's eyes, and suddenly the objective was changed from the luggage to the medication.

"Well," Skidmore smiled tightly, "we can't have that." And off they went back to the plane, which was the start of what Olive couldn't have predicted to become the biggest commotion that the Narita International Airport had seen in quite some time.

The employees refused outright to let Skidmore back on the plane. It had started off ok enough but things escalated quickly.

"Listen, ma'am," one employee said in perfect English, "I'm sorry but once the next group of passengers have boarded for the next flight, we can't stop the flight for any reason except suspected terrorist activity."

Skidmore laughed a harsh, bitter laugh. "Well, first of all, mister, you need to work on your English-"

The eyes in the employee's otherwise polite stare flashed a little.

Very quickly, Olive could see the situation go from good to worst really fast. She tried to head it off. She only wanted to distract Skidmore long enough for Gibson to get her luggage anyway. "You know what, Principal Skidmore, I'm sure we can find a local pharmacy-"

Skidmore made a snapping gesture with one hand, signaling to shut up, which silenced Olive immediately. She stared meekly at a spot on the floor, hoping for the worst to be over fast.

"Terrorist schmerrorist. I don't really care what your rules are, but as far as my daughter here is concerned, all the rules go out the window. We need her medication and we need it stat."

An onlooker couldn't help but put his two cents in. "Madame, you're talking about derailing a multi-million dollar operation for medicine. Like your daughter explicitly has said, Japan has plenty of medication to provide. My daughter herself has allergies. You can get Benadryl over the counter anywhere."

"Well, my daughter's allergies are special," Skidmore lied. She was beyond reasoning with now. It was a matter of principle that she get inside the plane. Nobody says no to Principal Skidmore! "I thought you Japanese people liked to mind your own business. But you're just like Americans. How about you take your personal business," she dug her finger deep into the onlooker's chest, "and move along and take it somewhere else." She smiled a self satisfied, sweet smile at the onlooker's disapproving frown.

Olive imagined that Skidmore must've thought herself pretty intimidating. She was twice the size of the man she stared down in the face.

Olive hadn't noticed the onlooker motioning to the security guards, and in ten minutes, everything was chaos.

Crowds and crowds of people gathered by the minute as they all looked on at the spectacle of a 5"2 old lady single handedly keeping a whole squad of security guards at bay, the whole time ranting things like "Get your hands off of me. I'll have you know that this is not how they treat people in the United States. Over there, the passengers are treated with dignity. Dignity, I tell you, dignity!"

Olive felt red in the face and just wanted to leave the scene. It was then that the original onlooker seemed to have remembered Olive. He turned to her and said, "Your mother will be detained for a little while. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but you'll have to wait until she's finished in the holding area."

"She's not my mother," Olive blurted, and she didn't know why. At the curious look on the man's face, she continued, "She's my principal. We came here, sorta on a school trip. I'm with other students and you know what, I think they're actually waiting for me."

The man thought this explanation much more likely than the mother-daughter relationship.

"I knew a young lady as nice and polite as you couldn't have been related to one of the rudest people I've ever met in my life."

Olive smiled. "So how long are you keeping Principal Skidmore?"

"A little while. We have reason to believe she's connected with suspicious terrorist like activity in the area," he chuckled as if telling himself his own private joke.

"She's definitely not a terrorist-" she began to defend her principal.

"I know. I just feel like giving her a hard time."

Olive shrugged. "Ok sir," she said, not having a problem with that at all. "So if you don't mind?"

The man nodded. "Yes. Go be with your friends."

Olive ran off to find the rest of the Ants, who by now had finished gathering all of their things together.

Chyna and Fletcher looked so relieved to see Olive.

"There you are! So where you been?" They asked simultaneously.

"Oh nothing much. I headed off Skidmore, she asked me why, I made up a story, but then I practically got her arrested…"

"Wait, what?"

"Ok, let me start at the beginning."

She told her friends the story on the way to the hotel. By the time she had finished, the Ants had rolled through the parking entrance in front of the main hotel lobby in a long line of cabs. By the end of the story, Fletcher laughed while Chyna smirked, "I wish I could've seen the look on her face."