For Your Eyes Only: HS

1. Fire for a Heart

Today is the day. I'm finally fulfilling my dream. Well, part of it. Dad's finally taking us to the UK! 

My dad was born in England and his whole family is English, but he and his parents moved to Victoria when he was 15 years old. Then, you know, he went to university, met my mum, and here I am! As well as my sister, Cheryl, who is 17 years old now. You may be thinking, oh what a happy little family, travelling to England to have a cute little holiday with their relatives. Well, that's not exactly the case.

As lots of parents do, mine got divorced when I was a bit younger. Dad re-married, and it's not like I hate Sally's guts, but she likes to claim Cheryl and I as her own. Luckily I moved out of my mum's house last year, so I'm not still going back and forth every few weeks. I live in a tiny apartment with my friend, Louisa.

Anyway! Back the to present.

Dad and Sally are taking us to England today, and I'm all set, I just finished packing. It's around 12pm, and dad told me he's picking me up at 12.30. I'm really excited to meet all my second cousins and other relatives! I'm friends with them all on Facebook but I've never met them, so it's all a bit nerve racking. 

"I'm going to miss you so much! Please, please, please meet a hot, rich guy and bring him back for me!" Louisa squeals. I swear to god, there is never a time where she isn't talking about guys. She gets just as much boy action as me - and that, my friend, is zilch. I haven't had a boyfriend since high school, but does that even count? I mean, I know guys, but just not in a romantic way. It's good that I can relate to Louisa, though. 

"I'm going to miss you too, but hey, if I find a hot, rich guy, I'm keeping him all to myself!" I cackle, jokingly. 

"No fair...Oh! I know! You can find a hot rich guy, and then give me his twin brother, who is equally as hot and equally as rich!" I throw a cushion at her and she laughs in hysterics. "On a serious note though," Louisa continues, "I don't know what I'm going to do without you. How long is it that you're going for again?"

"We're staying in Shropshire up until the 30th of December, and then we're going to be in Paris for New Years, and then up until the 6th of January. Dad said we might also go back to England for, like, two more days, but we'll see. I'm so excited now that I'm saying it out loud again!" I check my phone for the time. 12.21pm. "Oh my god, dad should be here soon!" I scream with excitement. 

"I wonder if you'll come back with an accent, that would be sick!" Louisa's eyes widen at the thought.

"I don't think I'll pick up an accent in that amount of time, Lou, but you keep your hopes up, why don't you?" I giggle and this time, Louisa is the one the throw the cushion at me, but I dodge it just in time.

I suddenly hear a toot from outside, and I look at Louisa nervously. We hug each other as tightly as possible, say our goodbyes, and I head downstairs with my luggage. 

I approach my dad's four wheel drive and notice that they've already picked up Cheryl, so that means we'll be headed straight to the airport!

I open the door of the car and hop in quickly, after I've put my luggage in the boot.

"Hi, darling, you excited? Was Louisa sad to see you go?" Dad asks me, looking turning to face me from the front seat.

"So, so, excited! Yeah, she was being pretty over dramatic, but that's just her, I guess!" I laugh.

"Wanna pick up something to eat? Or just head straight there?" Sally asks me, with a sweet smile.

I look over to Cheryl. "You hungry?" I ask her.

"Not really, I think I'll wait till we get to the airport," she says.

"Same here," I say, and then we head off.

I decide to put my headphones in and listen to some music that I have on Spotify. You know when a sad song comes on and you look out the window like you're in some kind of music video? Well, that's what I'm doing right now. 'Wait' by M83 is the saddest song I've ever listened to - I've actually cried while listening. I decide to skip when it comes on, because today is a happy day. I don't want to randomly cry.

"You're humming," Cheryl nudges me. "What song are you listening to? Can I listen?"

"Oh, sorry, um...'Walking in the Wind'," I reply, handing her one of my headphones.

"One Direction?" She asks with a knowing smile, and I nod. Of course it's One Direction. Most of the time it's what I'm listening to. Mainly their most recent album, 'Made in the AM'. It's top notch.

We both end up humming away, it's too good a song.

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I wake up from my nap in the backseat of the car and realise we are pulling into the airport carpark. Cheryl's still asleep so I nudge her awake. We both almost squeal with excitement.

"When's the flight again?" I ask Sally.

"2 o'clock," she tells me. "We'll grab some lunch and then head to the gate! It's almost 10 past 1 now so we actually better hurry," she looks at dad, worriedly. 

"Don't worry, loves, just parking now," dad replies, and then we all jump out of the car and grab our bags hurriedly. 

After a couple of minutes of speed walking, we reach the check-in and check in our bags. Then we go through security, and to be honest, I always get really nervous, even though I'm not carrying anything illegal. It's stupid, I know.

"What do you want to eat?" Dad asks Cheryl and me. "Sally and I will go find a table while you go look for food." He hands me a $20 note. 

Cheryl and I walk off, and she says to me, "can we get some dumplings or something? I'm not that hungry, and I'm sure they'll have stuff on the plane."

"Yeah, sounds good to me," I reply, and we go to the nearest Chinese shop in the food court. 

After eating our food, Cheryl and I make our way to the book shop, as Cheryl wants to get a magazine and I want to get a book. I'm trying to get back into reading, I used to be a really enthusiastic reader, but I stopped a while back.

I come across 'The Great Gatsby'. I'd always heard really good things about it, and I really loved the movie, so I decide to give it a go. I take it up to the register and realise it's 1.45pm. Shit. Better hurry. I look over to see that Cheryl's already bought her magazine, and she's waiting for me impatiently. I mouth the words, 'I'm coming', and then hurriedly get my change and slide the purchased book into my carry on luggage.

Cheryl and I meet Sally and dad, and we all head to gate 12. The lucky thing is; we're first flying from Melbourne to Dubai, and then from Dubai to London, so at least we have a bit of a break in between, but I really just want to get there, like, right now. I like flying, but my ears always pop when we are ascending and descending, and it's so painful and uncomfortable. 

Once we reach the gate, we see a queue of people, so we hop into the queue and grab all of our tickets out, making our way onto the plane. I'm going to be sitting next to Cheryl, but Cheryl wants the window seat so I have to sit in the middle, next to a random. Ugh. Kill me. 

Cheryl and I squeeze into our seats - luckily nobody is sitting there yet. "I'm so excited!" Cheryl says out of nowhere.

"Oh, me too! I can't sit still!" I bounce around in my seat to prove my point, and Cheryl laughs. 

"Don't look now, but there is a major hottie coming through - what if he sits next to you??? OMG, if he does, we HAVE to swap seats. He looks closer to my age anyway," she says excitedly, and I look over. Damn. He actually is really hot.

Too bad, he walks straight past us without even a glance, and I can't help but feel disappointed.

Soon enough, someone does fill the empty seat next to me. An old lady. How terrific. I really hope she's not one of those ladies who talks all the time, because I need silence.

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