“Can you believe we are actually here?!” I said to my best friend Emma.
To start off, my name is Lisa and I lived in Florida. It had always been my dream to go to Australia, even if it was just for vacation but I knew that eventually I wanted to move there. It was beautiful. The scenery was absolutely amazing, the people were so nice and the boys… don’t even get me started! They were HOT! The weather was pretty warm, but I was from Florida where it’s ALWAYS hot, so I didn’t mind the heat in Australia. I was so excited to be here. I’ve been telling my mom ever since I was little that I desperately wanted to come here, but she usually blew it off. This past Christmas, I told my mom I wanted to go to Australia this coming summer. Christmas morning, I opened my gifts to find two plane tickets to Australia! I jumped up and screamed and hugged my mom as tight as ever. These tickets were for two days after Christmas. “Why did you get them for now though?” I asked. “Well, its winter here so in Australia it will be summer.” “Oh my gosh, I never thought about that. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Aren’t you excited?!” “Why would I be excited?” I started to get confused… “Well there are two tickets in here. One for me, one for you right?” “No. I’m too old to be making those kinds of trips anymore. I want you to bring a friend. And I want you to be SAFE. I know you are 17, but you know I am going to worry.”
I couldn’t believe it. My mom was trusting me and my friend to be alone in a completely different country on the other side of the planet. I thanked my mom a billion more times, picked up my phone and ran to call my BEST friend, Emma. I told her about the tickets, and I asked her if she wanted to go with me. At first, she was a little reluctant but eventually she gave in. Who could pass up this once in a lifetime opportunity?
We arrived in Australia, and we were super jet-lagged. The 14 hour time difference was going to kill me. Thankfully we got open ended tickets, meaning we could go back whenever we wanted and we could take our time recovering from the long plane flight. Surprisingly, I got used to the time change pretty quickly, about 2-3 days is all it took. For Emma, it took a bit longer. On the days we were still jet-lagged, we went and saw the sights everyone should see at night, and after we got over the time difference, we were finally able to see the day time attractions. We met a ton of really nice people, some even our age. I knew I was going to like it here.
“Have you ever heard of Luna Park?” Emma asked me.
“No actually. Where is it?”
“It’s right around the corner, do you want to go?”
“I’d love to!”
We walked to Luna Park, and it didn’t take long at all. It was about 3 in the afternoon, so there were quite a few people there just hanging out. Emma and I walked around most of the time, but eventually we found a bench to sit on. There were 3 boys about 50 feet from us playing soccer.
“Soccer is really popular in Australia, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’ve never personally been a fan.”
“I’d like to try it someday.”
I continued to watch the boys play. They were spectacular, and they were cute which also helps.
“Hey, I’m going to run to the restroom real quick. Stay right here.” Emma said.
I stayed and I noticed the boys who were playing caught me staring at them. I looked away quickly when my eyes met with theirs. They began walking towards me.
Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. OH MY GOSH. ARE THEY COMING OVER HERE!? WHAT DO I DO!? WHAT DO I SAY?!
“Hey there.” Said one of the boys.
“Hi.” I replied with a smile
“Did you enjoy the show?” said the other one.
“Oh right, you guys are just really good at soccer… sorry for staring. No one really plays too much soccer where I’m from. At least not as good as you guys.”
“Oh yeah? Where are you from?”
“Florida.”
“Really? That’s so cool. Well we got to go. I don’t believe I caught your name?”
“Lisa, yours?”
“Jai.”
“And I’m Daniel, but everyone calls me Skip.”
“It was really nice meeting you guys.”
“Can we get your number? Maybe we can hang out before you go back home.”
“That’d be awesome. I think my friend would really like to meet you guys too. She’s not here right now… obviously… but call me later and we can all meet up.”
“That’d be great!” said Skip.
I gave them my number and they saved them into their phones. I couldn’t get over how cute Jai was, and I think Emma would really like Skip. He was just her type.
They left, and Emma came back. “Did you miss me?”
“Of course.” I replied.
“Who were you talking to before?”
“It was those boys that were playing soccer. They came over and started talking to me. Their names were Jai and Daniel… well he said everyone called him Skip.”
“LISA! PLEASE tell me you gave them your number!”
“Yeah, why?”
“COME WITH ME!”
We ran back to our hotel room, and she pulled out her laptop. She went on YouTube and showed me a video titled “Awkward Train Situations”. Then Skip showed up on the screen.
“Is that him?” Emma asked.
“Yeah, and that’s Jai.”
“No, that’s Luke. That’s his twin brother.”
“There is two of them?!”
Then the phone rang. It was a number I didn’t recognize, so I knew it was either Skip or Jai.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Hey Lisa, its Jai. I was just wondering if you and your friend wanted to meet me and Skip at the movies tonight. How does that sound?”
“Sounds perfect! What time?”
“How does 8:00 sound?”
“Perfect, we’ll see you guys then.”
I hung up and Emma was staring at me.
“Please tell me that was either Skip or Jai.”
“It was Jai. How does the movies at 8:00 sound to you?”
I thought Emma was going to faint. She was way too excited. I knew tonight was going to be perfect.
Until Jai brought his girlfriend…
