Carpe Aestatem (original)

Chapter 16

Sam

We were now on the jetway with our carryons and guitars. "I hope they help us with our guitars." Avery said, "and take care of my bass."

"They should."

As we got to the door of the plane, there were three flight attendants waiting. "Hello! Welcome!"

"Hi, we need help finding a spot for us to sit with our guitars." Jenna said.

"Good thing you chose pre-boarding! Where would you like to sit?"

"Towards the front, if possible."

"Lovely!" She replied, leading us to rows 4-6. "Sam, can you put the acoustic guitar in the overhead compartment?" Jenna asked me.

"Of course!" I said, putting the guitar up by our seats.

"Then how about in row 4 we have one person and two guitars, then row 5 we have two people with a guitar between them, then we have someone in 4D."

"Thank you so much!" I said.

The plan was that Avery would sit alone with the bass and Olivia's guitar, I would be in 4D right across from her, then Jenna and Olivia would be sitting in 5A and 5C with Jenna's guitar in between them. There were two college-age students in my row, both who would be attending UCLA in the fall. I told them I had deferred for a year, then pointed to the guitars across from me. Then one of them looked at the Demoni hoodie I was wearing. "Were you that band that was selected?" One of the girls asked.

"Uh...yeah. I'm part of it."

"We were at your concert on Thursday! You did really well!" The other girl said.

"Thanks. I'm kind of nervous about performing in other countries, though." I admitted.

"You'll do great!"

Then another announcement was made when the doors closed. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen on Southwest Airlines flight 168 with service to Chicago. We have four special guests on board today..."

Oh no... "Please welcome Jenna, Sam, Olivia and Avery as they are going on tour in Europe this summer!"

There were a lot of rounds of applause, and we were eventually in the air. For most of the flight I watched a movie on my tablet. It was Mamma Mia!, my favorite movie of all time. Avery was reading Red, White, and Royal Blue, Olivia was listening to her Joker Out playlist and trying to learn Serbian at the same time (because she knew Bojan spoke it, as both of his parents were Serbian, but was born in Ljubljana), and Jenna played a game on her phone. And then just before we landed, Michelle sent me a text.

Michelle:
You in Chicago yet?

Sam:
Not yet, we're about 5 minutes out from the airport now. Why are you asking?

Michelle:
Mom and Dad wanted a status update. You filmed any clips for the vlog?

Sam:
I have, yes. I'll film some more once we're on the ground.

And then we landed. "Welcome to Chicago O'Hare, local time is 12:43PM, temperature is 67 degrees with mostly sunny skies. Please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened until we arrive at the gate. You may now take your handheld devices out of airplane mode, and welcome to Chicago. We will be arriving at Gate Martin 12, bagage claim 6. Thank you."

After 5 minutes of taxiing, we had arrived at the gate. We unbuckled our guitars and stepped off the plane.

Sorry this chapter was so boring. Thanks for reading!