Violette

Chapter 12

The plane ride was smooth as we left the airport. I looked out of the window at the ground below, resting my head on Vinny's plush ears. I sighed heavily again.

"Hey Claude?"

"Hmm," he just hummed as he also watched out the window with me.

"How long will it take for us to get to..." Wait, where were we going?, Obviously realising this Claude thankfully answered my question.

"It'll take anywhere from 10 to 13 hours to get to Los Angeles. We should be there at about 8pm." Wow, Los Angeles, I had no idea where it was on the map of America, but I had seen it in movies. It looked very beautiful.

We proceeded to just talk for a while. Claude told me a little about what school was like in America and the different places we could visit. Apparently, there were really amazing Christmas markets near Los Angeles.

"So Los Angeles is in California?" I asked, not quite sure where it was.

Claude nodded.

"So does this mean we can go to Miami?" It would be great to visit as many new places as possible whilst I was there.

Claude looked at me a little confused

"What do you mean?"

"Florida is next to California, isn't it?" I gave him a quick answer as I was quite sure of myself.

Claude looked at me, stunned, and then laughed. I obviously missed the joke as I sat there seriously.

"Munchie, Miami is at least a 40-hour drive from LA, We would need to get a plane ride,"

"Oh." I felt like an idiot as I felt my face go red from embarrassment. Me and my stupid geography. The laughing continued for a while as I buried my face in Vinny.

"Seriously though, did you ever study North America in Geography?" Claude had finished laughing and was wiping some non existent tears from his eyes.

"No," I mumbled quietly into the teddy.

"Right first things first, you need a geography lesson." Claude got up and went to Vincent.

"Papa, Ou est la carte?"(Papa, Where is the map?) Vincent looked up from the computer that he had been occupied with for the last hour or so.

"Demandez au pilote, ils devraient avoir une pièce de rechange." (Ask the pilot, they should have a spare)

I wasn't quite sure what they were saying as Claude vanished to the front of the plane. I was left alone for a few minutes with Vincent. I wondered what he was doing on the computer. He did look very busy. How did Vincent even get wifi in an aeroplane? But I got caught watching him as he looked up.

"Are you okay, Violette?"

"How are you using wifi in a plane?" Being honest was better then letting him think I was staring for no reason.

"It comes with the plane, I had it installed for business work."

I nodded, that made sense. At that moment, Claude returned successfully from his hunt, brandishing a fold out map of the world. We then spent an hour or so studying the map. I couldn't believe how big North America was. I thought it was smaller than Europe, but it was not. The furthest I had been was Italy by train so the size of the USA felt incomprehensible.

I told Claude how I had been to France, Germany and Italy. I also told him about the places I wanted to go to. I pointed them all out on the map, just to show that I did know some geography. At some point, the tapping of the keyboard in the background stopped.