A/N: Hey, it's me again. So here's chapter 2 of the story.
By the way, in case you were wondering how to pronounce Zhifu's name, here it is: the "Zhi" part is pronounced like the "jur" in "jury", and "fu" is like the "foo" in "food". So a rough pronunciation of his name would be "jur-foo" (just think of "jury food" or something like that :P).
I'll probably provide some translations of Chinese words at the end of each chapter, just as I did with my Rescue of Love story.
Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Cars, it belongs to Pixar and Disney. However, all OCs belong to me.
The Misplaced Student
Chapter 2: Flight/Halfway Stop
A few hours passed by after takeoff. I decided to pull out my pocket English dictionary, and a list of national-level spelling bee words. This list contained so many complicated words- some of them not even in your typical dictionary! And I don't mean hard spelling words for the average English speaker like accommodate or onomatopoeia- I mean words like scherenschnitte, urushiye, and isagoge. These words are probably usually only found in the dictionaries that weigh a ton.
I spent a little time skimming the words from Greek, Latin, and French, since those words were very common and hard to spell. I also brought along a list of the lesser known Greek and Latin roots, which I also quickly perused.
I heard a little whispering between two men about two rows in front of me, on the other side of the plane. They were American, not Chinese- I could tell by their accents. They really seemed somewhat suspicious, especially by the way they were snickering, but I decided not to jump to conclusions. Besides, it didn't concern me at all.
The intercom turned on once again, this time to announce that the evening meal was ready to be served in a few minutes. I felt glad about that, since I was actually pretty hungry and didn't pack anything to eat. I continued studying the words I had written on the sheet, closing my eyes and attempting to spell them out to see if I had memorized them.
I ended up spelling my words correctly- almost all of them. When I write words down, I tend to memorize them right away. The ones I ended up misspelling were from Latin and French- so many double and silent letters!
So the food cart came up to my row, and when I got the food, I had to admit, it was delicious. I actually really enjoy airline food, and when you're hungry on a plane, there's nothing better than hot, plentiful food waiting for you.
After the meal, I took a quick break and decided to listen to my mp3 player (its model was the most recent model from Lectrix). And pretty soon, I was falling asleep to a little C-pop.
After a while, the whole trip got rather boring- it was like an endless cycle of reading my dictionary, studying, listening to music, eating food, occasionally using the restroom, and sleeping.
And then some really weird thing happened.
As I headed to the restroom one more time, I saw, right out of the corner of my eye, the same two men staring at me. I took a short glance back at them, but they quickly turned away. I looked at them a little suspiciously and kept them in the corner of my eye until I reached the restroom. I quickly opened the door, got in the small dark room, and closed the latch. The lights illuminated shortly afterwards.
I think those men are spying on me...I have a really weird feeling something is going to happen, I thought to myself in the cramped lavatory. Something they're doing probably concerns me...things might get ugly...
My tires did have a stain of cream sauce on them, so I decided to wash them. As my right tire touched the soap pump, I thought about what those men might do to me- heavens forbid that they would do anything to me.
I cracked open the lavatory door- with the lights turning off inside- and took a small peek. The same two men were whispering to each other- it was audible, but I couldn't make out anything. I was quite curious as to what they might want with me.
"Um, excuse me, kid, but are you done using the toilet?" asked a voice in Chinese. I was really shocked upon hearing it- but as I glanced right, I saw it was just a man- dark blue paint job, probably in his early twenties, waiting to use the restroom.
"Oh, uh, sorry, sir," I said as I slowly left the restroom. "Yes, I'm done. Go ahead." I went back to my seat.
"All right, thanks," he said as he entered. I had almost reached my seat once I heard the door click shut.
I squeezed past the girl who sat to my left. The space was so narrow, I almost bumped into her.
"Duibuqi," I said as I squeezed uncomfortably back into my seat. I looked up at the monitor in front of me. A little in-flight entertainment couldn't hurt, I thought. So I put on some headphones and began browsing through the movies.
And for a few hours, I didn't think all that much about the suspicious men. I just had to keep my mind busy.
DING!
I heard the tiny electronic bell sounding, forcing my eyes open as I awoke from a long slumber. And just a few seconds later, the intercom turned on again.
"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please. The time in Albuquerque is approximately 3:15, p.m. In approximately 30 minutes we will be landing in Albuquerque International Sunport. Please keep your seat belts fastened and your seats and tray tables in the upright positions. Stow away any electronic devices at this time. Also, the inflight entertainment will be disabled shortly. Thank you for flying Red Dragon Air. We hope you choose to fly with us again soon." Afterwards, the intercom turned off with a soft, fuzzy noise.
I quickly tucked away all my possessions, and just sat there for the next 15 minutes. There was really nothing to do except look past the man to my right and out the window, waiting for the ground and buildings of Albuquerque to appear.
Eventually I saw it. It was a somewhat large city, not as big as Beijing, of course. But it looked neat from above.
Then I saw the airport. The buildings came closer to us, and in a few seconds the plane nearly touched the gray runway below.
A one-second bump surprised me when the plane's wheels finally hit the road. For what seemed like a whole minute, it was a bumpy ride that caused everything to shake. I was almost afraid bags would start flying out of the overhead compartments.
Then the plane began to slow. The bumps subsided, until it came to a gradual stop at the gate. Then it was yet another long wait until the seatbelt signs would turn off. It was perhaps two minutes until that happened.
Everyone then got out slowly from their seats, waiting for the people in front of them to get their bags and head on out.
I then remembered that I would have to leave too, because I needed to transfer planes. I was going to fly on another plane all the way to the capital.
Once the passengers around me started to exit, I quickly grabbed my bag underneath and went slowly down the aisle.
"Thank you for flying with us," one of the attendants said.
"Xie xie," I thanked back as I turned left to the jet bridge.
And it was official; that was when I first set my tire in the United States. It felt awesome, like I was going to explore a new land, which I was.
I slowly drove all the way to the end of the jet bridge, and as soon as I got there, I caught my first glimpse of an American airport. The Albuquerque International Sunport was really not like the Beijing airport- I guess there really is a difference between Asian airports and American ones.
I guess I could stay around awhile, I thought. And I don't see those suspicious men anywhere. Well, I might as well exchange my money now.
N/A: Yeah, sorry for not updating this one in a while...I have about three stories on my back, plus life.
I know that, in real life, a plane wouldn't go from a huge city like Beijing to a less populous one like Albuquerque. It would probably stop at Los Angeles or some other huge city. But hey, this is the Cars world, it's different from ours. And besides, it's for the sake of my story. :)
Translations:
Duibuqi- Sorry
Xie xie-Thank you
Hopefully I'll get around posting the next chapter soon.
Au revoir!