Despite the challenges

1

Addilyn

I looked back at the New York airport one more time before the employee took my ticket and ushered me to the plane. I would miss New York, but I was ready to live in Australia and see my cousins again.

I stepped inside feeling a weight lift off of my shoulders I was finally free from this place and ready to start my life on a whole new continent.

I looked for seat B4 and was happy to see that I was by the window. There was nobody in the other seats yet, and I was thankful, I still needed to digest and take all of this in. I put my carry on in the overhead before taking my seat and taking a deep breathe.

I tied my wavy black hair with purple highlights into a high ponytail and pulled out my compact mirror. I looked over my brown skin complexion and dark eyes and smiled a little to myself.I reapplied a little lip gloss and got comfortable as the pilot announced that we would be leaving shortly and embarking on our sixteen hour journey.

My parents sent me off to Australia to live with my mom's sister, my aunt Sarah and her husband Nicholas. My parents were getting tired of my "attitude" and thought I would be better off with them. Being sixteen I was a little upset and hurt that they would send me off, but they never really spent time with me anyways so I was use to it.

I was excited to live with my aunt and uncle and my cousins Braelynn and Blaine. I visited them every summer and they were like my best friends. They were twins and we were all the same age. We were the inseparable whenever we were together.

A girl who looked to be about my age came and sat next to me offering a little smile. She was really pretty was her blonde curly hair and gray eyes. I smiled back and introduced myself.

"I'm Addilyn" I said looking at the tattoo on her wrist.

"I'm Ember" she mumbled. I figured she must be shy or scared.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm just a little nervous, I've never been on a plane before."

"It's not that bad, it's fun actually, I love flying. Why are you traveling to Australia anyways?"

"I'm visiting some family for the summer, what about you?"

"Same, except my parents are shipping me off to move there." She offered me a sympathetic smile.

I'm still a little bothered that my parents could just give me up so easily. They've probably been planning this for a while, they think I never caught their side comments and all the whispering about me.

I knew they never really wanted me, but tried to pretend that I was making it up and they actually did, but deep down I knew they didn't.

The plane slowly started to roll down the lane and take off as my ears popped. I hated this part of the flight cursing myself that I forgot to bring gum with me. I pulled out my phone and quickly sent a text into the group message that Braelynn, Blaine and me had saying I would be arriving at eight fifty in the morning there.

"Hey give me your number so maybe we can hang out during the summer you seem like a nice girl, and I could use a friend seeing as I'll only know my family there." She said taking out her phone and handing it to me. I programmed my name and added some emoji's and handed it back handing her my phone as she did the same.

I leaned back in my seat, and closed my eyes waiting on my arrival.

******

I felt tapping on my shoulder, and slowly looked up at Ember.

"Hey, sorry we're about to land." She said slowly looking out of the window.

"Thanks." I said distracted by the beautiful scenery of Australia. I felt the plane begin to land as my ears popped again. I'm excited to be back in Australia I thought with a smile thinking about my cousins and the fun times we would have this summer.