Airplanes // Ashton Irwin

1 - Airplanes

"Last call for flight AU1784 to Sydney. Boarding at gate number 5" the robot-like woman says over the airport tannoy. My grandmother is fussing over my twin brother's collar but calls us all over for a hug. She tells us all to behave and if she hears of any problems she'll be 'over in a jiffy'.

"See you soon Nan" I hug her and move over to the pile of our bags so my little sister could say her goodbyes.

We hurried up Nan's fussing and grabbed our bags, giving her a wave as we rushed towards the gate. Once sat in the plane we were finally able to relax; the last few weeks had been pretty stressful with all the packing and saying goodbye to relatives and friends etc. I plugged in my earphones and shut my eyes.

I'm moving to Australia.

I'm actually moving to Australia...I should be a lot more sad to leave England than I am. I will obviously miss my friend Emma from school, and maybe Nicola a bit, but I didn't really have many friends at school. I usually just sat by myself all day, writing songs and playing music. No one particularly wants to be friends with someone like that. I hope I can make friends at this new school though.

When the over-glamorous flight attendant had finished her safety briefings and we were about to take off, my mother held my hand and smiled at me. I linked my hand with my sister who was sat on my other side, and she linked hands with our brother (my twin). My dad had already gone to Australia, he left over 2 weeks ago to make sure everything was okay for us to come out there; I can't wait to see him again.

****

Airplanes cut through the clouds
Like angels can fly, we'll never die
Sirens cut through the night
Like screams that are fire, rising up high
Like I've got something to prove, nothing to lose
In this city, in this city, ohh

We had been on the plane for almost 6 hours now and most people were asleep but I couldn't sleep, I had too many song lyrics and chords running through my head. Sometimes I get like this, when I'm bored my mind wonders to music and I have to get my thoughts down on paper. My laptop had already run out of battery so I couldn't model the sound so I'm completely going by how I think it should sound on paper.

Once I had completed the chorus I reached over and rescued my sister Beth's iPad which was slowly slipping off her lap while she was asleep. I pulled the blanket back over her and let her sleep. My twin brother Tom was curled up in his chair and sucking his thumb, I quickly snapped a picture and chuckled to myself: 16 years old and still sometimes sucks his thumb! Mum was asleep slumped to her side with her mouth open, I just let her be.

Make believe words make us all feel alive, live

I've had that line for a while now and I finally have a place for it in this new song!

Embers and neon signs paint up our sky, sky

Okay I'm on a roll now.

Within 2 hours I had all the lyrics written and a mental image of how I think it should sound in my head. I finally started to drift to sleep, my mind clear, and the gentle rocking of the plane lulling me to sleep.

***

"DAD!" Beth yelled running towards a man who lifted her up and spun her around.

"Hey Dad," Tom and I said hugging him together.

We let Mum and Dad say their hellos then piled our suitcases onto a trolly and wheeled them to the car. The warm air hit me as soon as we got outside. Australia was going to be fun.

The whole car ride to our new house was filled with excited chatter. Beth doing most of the talking about her school and her friends, then Mum and Dad excitedly telling us about how the new house is amazing and right by the sea. I couldn't wait to see it.

Despite all the excitement, I let out a loud yawn. Although it was 8am here in Sydney, it was 11pm back in England. Jet lag is going to screw us all over for the next few days.

We pulled up to a large grey house and I gasped, it was a lot bigger than our one in England was. Once out the car Mum told us to go inside and that Dad had already decided who got which room so there were no arguments.

The three of us raced inside, quickly acknowledging the spacious double height ceilinged downstairs before running upstairs to find our rooms. The first door had a pink sticky note stuck on it with Beth's name written on it, the door opposite with Tom written on it. Which means my room was at the end.

I turned the handle and pushed the light blue washed wooden door and smiled as I saw a huge white double bed with matching dresser and bedside tables. I had a huge built in mirrored wardrobe, but best of all, there were double doors leading out to a balcony with the most beautiful view. The light dappled on the horizon of the beautiful Australian sea and I sat on the floor and leaned against the railing.

"I am in Australia," I spoke into the wind letting my words swirl away.

***

We spent the rest of the day slowly unpacking some of our things, Dad had done most of the family rooms but left our bedrooms for us. A lot of my clothes were creased because of being in a box so I spent a large chunk of my afternoon ironing them.

By the time dinner came Mum, Tom, Beth, and I were all so tired we could barely stay awake so we all went upstairs to bed straight after.

I found a large t-shirt and pyjama shorts and crawled into my new bed with the new sheets and blanket, and fell asleep.

a/n: Hey guys, I hope you liked this first chapter. If you spot any spelling errors etc. please let me know, I am very dyslexic so your help would be much appreciated. I've had this idea to write this story for a very long time so I decided it's finally time to write it.

This story is set wayyyyy back in 2012 before the boys really got discovered, they're all grown up now (still age 5 inside tho) so I thought it would be nice to go back.

Thanks,

-H