Going on a school trip abroad can be described with many juxtaposing thoughts, but should never be linked to fatalities or injury. Juniper Pearl Foxx always had a sheltered, mundane life, when a terrible tragedy occurred and left her stuck in the Am...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Sighing tiredly, I tugged my suitcase along the gravel as we prepared to get on the plane. We were only allowed to take one suitcase and a small bag for hand luggage with us, which was well thought out because the second plane we flew in was a very small private plane – it had only just enough seats to fit us all in! There was a small compartment under the plane for luggage, but there wasn't enough room for all of our cases, so the smaller ones had to go underneath people's seats, squished in with the hand luggage. My suitcase was quite large so it was put underneath with the other big ones. I was a little worried they wouldn't be able to fit mine in, as I was one of the last and there was already a suitcase slightly sticking out, but the co-pilot managed to shove it in. I hoped nobody had anything fragile or valuable in their luggage!
Luckily, the teacher's had eventually managed to get a hold of all the parents, who agreed to us leaving early to Pantanal. I was seriously so excited! As it was early morning, I was hoping that we would be able to see some of the rainforest from above as we flew over, depending on the clouds and how high we flew. Pantanal holds the Worlds largest tropical wetland area, and it is a prime spot to locate jaguars, which I was really looking forward to learning more about.
The ground was wet with last night's rainfall and the sky was gray, promising storms later on. After helping the co-pilot, I hurried onto the plane chased by a cold, keen wind. I was the last passenger to enter, everyone already seated and making excessive noise for eight in the morning. Kimberly was sat towards the front of the plane, next to Persephone, and she mouthed a sorry as I trudged past, as she obviously wasn't able to secure me a seat next to her. That's what you get for being last out of the hotel! In my defence, it was only the ungodly hour of 4:30am. The only available seat was a row from the back next to Chip, who looked like he had pulled the short straw when he saw whom he would be sitting next to for the next six hours; me. I gave him a clipped smile as I squeezed in past him and collapsed into the seat, squishing my small holdall in underneath. The air felt sticky, and I was feeling slightly nauseous, but I blamed it on the impending flight.
The plane itself wasn't giving me any confidence – it looked like it had been pulled out of retirement for this trip! It wasn't much bigger then a child's toy as well, which was definitely stirring my nerves up. It actually reminded me of a less polished version of the plane in one of the original Jurassic Park movies. I knew that one crashed, but there were no dinosaurs where we were going to pull an intolerant plane out of the sky.
"You ok Juniper?" Chip finally asked me after I had belted in.
"Tired, but I'm ok. What about you?" I asked politely.
"Well I hate plane rides, so I'm not really looking forward to it, but hey I'm sure it will be fine!"
"Aww, well I don't like them either. I don't care what anyone says; it is unnatural to be that many miles off of the ground." I giggled.
"That's true Juni." Chip laughed back.
I heard a scoff behind me, and turned around to see James glaring daggers at Chip and I. What was his problem? Just yesterday, we were acting civil with each other, but it seems as if over night he has gone back to being unable to tolerate me. I frown in response to him before swiftly turning back round, not willing to give him the time of day if he insisted on being rude and unreasonable!
