Sloping Down

Chapter 3

"Flight 91 to Sochi, Russia, is now boarding." The flight attendant says over the intercom. We had just arrived to the gate when she began loading passengers. Shaun and I both hand her our tickets and find our spots on the plane.

"234, 234, 234..." I mumble to myself. I find the seat and shove my carry-on bag in the overhead compartment. A young girl with dark hair and young man with blonde, curly hair take seats 233 and 235, sticking me between them.

"Meryl Davis," The girl offers me a hand to shake. "Figure skater." She smiles. I shake her hand.

"Maddie Dunlap. Snowboarder." I smile.

"I'm Charlie White, Meryl's partner." I shake his hand also.

"Hi there." The flight attendant smiles at the front of the cabin. "We are going to begin our ten hour journey to Sochi, Russia." I rested my head back on the seat. She continued to talk about all the safety precautions. We have all heard the steps before, we knew what to do. I disregarded what she said and began to doze. She was apparently finished talking because Meryl leaned over me to talk to Charlie. They began talking about their last performance and what they were going to do this year. "Does that sound good?" Meryl says.

"Huh?" I say, my eyes still closed.

"Does our performance sound good?" I opened my eyes when I realized they were asking my opinion.

"Yes, of course. It sounds nice." I smile. "Charlie, do you mind either letting me out to get my bag or grabbing it for me?" I sat up a little.

"Here, I'll just grab it." He reached in and grabbed my bag.

"Thank you." I pulled out my old copy of Anna Karenina.

"What book is that?" Meryl asked, looking up from her own book. I showed her the cover.

"It's an old Russian book. It's actually pretty good." I smiled. I began and finished the whole book during the flight.

"We are descending into Sochi, Russia. Please turn off all electronics and fast your seat belts." After we had touched down she regained her spot in front of the entire cabin. "Thank you for flying Delta. Have a nice vacation." Vacation, pfft.

"Maddie?" I heard Shaun call. I caught up to him. He was standing with a different man. He was about twenty years old. "Maddie, this is Sage Kostenburg. He'll be in the slopestyle event." We shook hands.

"Have you seen Ty? I'm supposed to go with her." Both men shook their heads. BuzzBuzzBuzz! "Never mind, she just texted me. I'm gonna go find her. It was nice to meet you, Sage." I turned to walk away. "Oh, Shaun, come find me when you get to the hotel. I have some stuff m mom made you."

Shaun's POV

"How'd you manage to find a girlfriend?" Sage said jokingly.

"She's-no, we're not dating." I answered. My face felt hot now. What he said made me think of Vancouver.

"But you wish you were." He laughed. "If you're not with her, do you think I have a chance with her."

"Nope." I picked up my bags and found our shuttle to the hotel. Sage shrugged and picked up his bags. We both boarded different buses according to last names.

"Shaun!" Someone called from the back of the bus.

"Ty?" I squinted a little, making sure I had the right person. "Maddie is looking for you."

"Yea, I found her. She's on the first shuttle." I sighed.

"Okay. Well, I'll be seeing you." I walked outside to the first bus.

"Mr. White, you are supposed to be in the second shuttle." The driver said. Maddie sat up from her position on the seat behind the driver.

"Oh, yea, right." I turned around and went back to my bus. I smiled over at Maddie just to see her turn away. This is going to be a long trip.