When I Met Alysa

8. There's Only So Much You Can Do On A Plane

There's only so much you can do on a plane, and after about three hours of watching cats do hilarious things on YouTube, I'm exhausted. But however hard I try, I just can't get to sleep - maybe it's the sound of gentle talking, or the guy snoring two seats away, or the sound of loud music pumping through an incorrectly-plugged-in iPod. 

Alysa's content, eating Haribo and playing online chess with some seventeen-year-old maths geek in China, Daniel is playing Zelda on Ally's 3DS and Charlotte's filling out an online survey on makeup and flirting with the steward - he keeps coming over to top up our peanuts supply. 

Charlotte takes me up to the meagre buffet at the top of the plane, and we fill our plates with Doritos and chips (sorry, should I call them fries?) as it's lunchtime. I start to feel a little bit sick around two o'clock, and Alysa and I start bugging Daniel ("Are we nearly there yet? Are we three-quarters of the way there yet? Two-thirds then? Half? One third? Five-sixteenths? A quarter? An eensy-weensy teensy-") and at that point Daniel got up and went to the loo, and didn't come back for half an hour. 

'Halfway there,' Charlotte informed us at three o'clock. 'Listen, which do you think is better; No7 or Chanel?' 

We both sighed, and shrugged. 

I played Minion Rush for an hour (six tenths of the way there now!) and got a high score, seventy thousand bananas and three hundred tokens... changed my profile picture on teenagescommuni.com twenty-four times... posted 'Status Updates' on Facebook every thirty seconds... cartwheeled up and down the plane until the steward informed us icily that 'even though we were in the middle of the ocean we can still evict you'... ate all the Haribo... was sick in the toilet twice because of too much Haribo... and finally nine hours and forty-eight minutes had passed and the woman speaker informed us our flight would be touching down in twelve minutes. 

I've never been so excited in my life. 

At half six on the dot (British time), the plane touches down in Los Angeles, California, and my heart leaps up into my throat, out of my open mouth and straight into the American skies. 

Daniel and Charlotte are so well-prepared that they've rented a car, and it's waiting for us outside the airport with a friendly man named Greg. The car has plush seats, and, well... EVERYTHING. 

In California, it's half-ten in the morning, and we have the whole day to get to our house, unpack, and wind down. I spend my whole time in the car (an hour and a half) staring out of the window, open-mouthed. I feel like there could be a theme tune playing as we speed through the city streets - and there even is, as Daniel switches on the radio and it starts playing 'Hooray for LA'. 

We arrive at our house, a mansion on the outskirts of the city, where it's vaguely quiet and surrounded by a large meadow. Alysa is immediately out of the rented car, stealing the key from Daniel and running past the dolphin-shaped swimming pool, into the house. 

It's amazing. The downstairs is open-plan, with the kitchen and the living room joined, then down the passage is a large room that Daniel and Charlotte will have. Upstairs is just as nice - one room has a wallpaper decorated with flowers, the other with Winnie the Pooh - you can guess which one I choose!

Nobody can face another lunch, even though it is twelve o'clock - in fact, everyone feels like just going to bed. But Charlotte is firm - 'Beat the jet-lag,' she says. 'We're going sightseeing until four - but don't worry, you can miss out on lunch.'

With a sigh, Alysa and I come downstairs and unpack the car, then pile back in as we head back into the city centre. Los Angeles is bright and beautiful and perfect and full of unexpected things - palm trees, dancers in the streets, the mingling smells of deliciousness wafting in the air. I could stay here forever. 

We visit the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the first on the list of Los Angeles Landmarks, but give the second one a miss, Walt Disney Studios, because of Ally's 'phobia'. We go to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. We check out the Hollywood sign, and take photos, ready to send to classmates on teenagescommuni.com later. We leave Disneyland for another day, because we all agree that Disneyland is more of a day trip than a 'pop in, pop out' as Charlotte put it. 

Exhausted, we finally head back at six o'clock, two hours later than Charlotte intended, and eat a small meal of cheese sandwiches. We fall into bed, feeling like we'll never get up again, but - stupid jetlag! - I wake up at midnight. 

I pad into Alysa's bedroom. She's sitting up in bed, playing on her laptop. 'Did you know that computers emit blue light?' I say, sitting down next to her. She looks up and hurriedly closes the window. 

'Yeah, Mad, actually I did know that.' 

'And blue light is really bad for you,' I continue, as if she hadn't spoken, 'especially when you're trying to sleep.' 

She looks annoyed. 'Madsy, I'm not trying to sleep, I've already been asleep. I'm busy, okay?' 

'Okay! Sorry to disturb you, your Highness. I was just coming to offer you the last in my packet of Haribo, but...' I get up off the bed and make towards the door.

'Wait!' calls Ally after me. I turn back. 'I'd like it... please?' 

I smile, and hand it to her. 'I'm such a pushover,' I say with a sigh. 'In fact, I should stop being a pushover.' I grin, to let her know I'm joking.

'Oh, no!' says Alysa, a gleam in her eye. 'Please just be a pushover for this holiday, Maddi... I need all the sweets you buy and then give to me because I've got my mournful expression on!' 

I pretend to think about it, hand on my chin. 'Hmm...' I say. 'Well... only if you show me what you were looking at!' 

She goes very, very quiet. 'Go away,' she says. 'I'm going to sleep now.' She closes the lid of the laptop and shuts off the bedside lamp, leaving me to wonder what I did wrong.