By the time that Kenzie and her parents reached the airport, Kenzie was well and truly ready to board her plane and get away from all the giddiness her parents were displaying.
Don't get her wrong, she was happy that her parents got to spend time together as they were always busy with work etc. but their excitement was becoming a little, how shall I say it, nauseating, shall we say.
"Well, this is it." Zarah said, feigning tears as she walked beside Kenzie, their arms linked together.
"Yup, Boca, Here I come." Kenzie squeaked, making Zarah chuckle.
"I'll miss you too." Zarah sassed.
"Come on you two." Scott called as he and his wife were already in line to check in.
"Hold on, we're saying goodbye." Kenzie answered.
Scott and Tracy rolled their eyes but it did nothing to hide their amusement at how dramatic the girls were being.
"Oh yes, she's going off to war, you know." Tracy said sarcastically and dramatically as her hand rested on her chest.
"Really?" Kenzie said, giving her mother an unimpressed and annoyed look.
"It's how you are acting." Tracy said with a smirk.
"Alright, I get it but at least I have friends." Kenzie remarked.
"Gee, thanks." Mr. Turner playfully huffed.
Kenzie gave him a very sarcastic smile.
"Sorry Mr. Turner." She told him.
Mr. Turner burst out laughing. He was a jolly man and loved a good joke. He knew that Kenzie meant nothing by her comment but it sure made him laugh.
"Seriously though, please come line up, we need to check in and get to our gate." Tracy said as she glanced at her watch.
"Wait here." Kenzie said as she walked over to her parents and joined them in the line.
Zarah walked over to where her mom was sitting and plopped down next to her.
"You ok?" Victoria asked as Zarah laid her head on her shoulder.
"Yeah, just tired." Zarah said.
In truth, Zarah was going to miss Kenzie a lot. Kenzie was her only friend after all.
"It will be ok, sweetheart. I promise." Victoria said, knowing how her daughter felt. She didn't have many friends either.
A few minutes later, Kenzie and her parents were all checked in. They all made their way over to where the Turners were waiting.
"Well, I guess this is it." Zarah said as she stood up.
Kenzie nodded and started walking toward security, following behind her mom who was now feeling more frazzled and rushed as she never liked being anywhere late and this time, they were all cutting it very close.
"I will text you as soon as I'm on the other side." Kenzie said, seeing the look in her friend's eyes.
Zarah smiled, nodded and hugged Kenzie tightly.
"Is she going to be ok?" Tracy asked Victoria, seeing how Zarah's demeanor had changed within the span of a minute or two.
"I think she just feels like Kenzie will forget about her." Victoria said.
"Well, listen, if she's really missing Kenzie and you're concerned at all, I'm sure Kenzie would love to have a friend in Boca." Tracy said, handing Victoria Jeff's information just in case.
Victoria smiled at the thoughtfulness and generosity of her friend.
"Thank you. I will keep that in mind." The woman said, hugging Tracy.
"Tick tock mom." Kenzie said, teasing her mother.
"Right, yes." Tracy said as she grabbed her belongings, said goodbye to Victoria and Harrison and hurried to where Scott and Kenzie were waiting for her.
=
Saying goodbye to her parents was bittersweet. Kenzie was going to miss her parents but the sooner they boarded their plane, she could board hers and plan out how she was going to greet Jeff when she landed in Florida.
She wasn't sure what she'd say but she knew that for sure she was going to give him the biggest hug she could muster.
Speaking of hugs, Kenzie's mind wandered to Zarah and how she was holding up. She knew that Zarah had a hard time with goodbyes and it made Kenzie feel sad to know that Zarah wouldn't have anyone to talk to while she was gone. I mean sure, she would have Spindles but what good is having a pet bee going to do.
Kenzie sat down in an empty chair and pulled out her phone to text Zarah like she promised.
<<Just said goodbye to mom and dad. They barely made it to their gate. They are good though.>> Kenzie typed out before sending.
Zarah's reply came quickly after.
<<Glad they boarded safely. I'll miss you.>> She said.
Kenzie smiled sadly and opened her camera.
<<I miss you already.>> Kenzie replied, sending a picture of herself making a sad face. Bottom lip jutted out and all, hoping it would make Zarah laugh.
<<Doofus!>> Came Zarah's reply. Kenzie chuckled and was about to reply with a long message when her flight was called and she had to board. That didn't stop her from sending at least a short message.
<<Boarding now. Love you!>> She typed before pocketing her phone and lining up.
=
Roasted Peanuts, how did one discover that roasting peanuts tasted good, heck, who discovered the peanut and thought it would be a good thing to have on airplanes one day?
These were all things going through Kenzie's mind as she tried not to listen to the man next to her aggressively chewing his snack as though his life depended on it. Sure she had her earphones in her ears with music playing relatively loud to block out the sound but the facial expressions he was making and the occasional moans escaping his lips made Kenzie feel sick. It was disturbing to say the least but even she knew that people had their quirks; she figured that eating the way the man next to her did, was his quirk.
Boy oh boy, this particular flight was full of quirky people then if that was the case.
The person sitting behind Kenzie had the weird quirk of putting their shoe clad foot on the back of her arm rest. Kenzie was slightly annoyed at this but instead of saying anything to them, she simply put her arm on the rest far enough back so they had to remove their foot. It worked for at least a few minutes but then, came a sweaty sock clad foot. It was damp and disgusting and made Kenzie want to gag. Again, her response was to move her arm further back on the arm rest but this time, she did it a little more forcefully.
The person behind her let out an annoyed huff and Kenzie rolled her eyes but kept to herself as best she could.
It seemed to work for maybe 10 minutes until a bare foot touched the back of her arm. Kenzie frowned and with all the strength she could muster, elbowed the person's foot, having had more than enough of their travel manner. It was beyond gross at this point and Kenzie had had enough.
Sure, she could have turned around and politely asked the person to stop but she knew that speaking wouldn't get the message across so elbowing the person was the best option and thankfully, the message got through.
Was that all that happened on the one hour flight though? No, of course not, why would that ever be all?
At about 30,000 (most likely higher than that though) feet in the air, turbulence hit and became too intense for Kenzie to handle and normally when things scared her, she would listen to music or turn to her journal for support but unbeknownst to her, she had packed her journal in the wrong bag. It was in her suitcase instead of her backpack. She huffed in defeat and sat back in her seat, turning back to her music.
However, when she went to play her music again to help calm her, the stupid thing had died.
'Great, just my luck.' Kenzie thought to herself.
The next best thing she could do was to close her eyes, grip on to the armrests and breathe as they surfed the turbulent forcefield.
Lucky for her, the turbulence didn't last for too long and she was able to open her eyes again and release her death grip from the armrests and when she was calm enough, she removed her earphones from her ears and put her phone in her backpack before leaning back and looking out her window. She was so thrilled to see Florida down below, for soon she could kiss the ground and thank the travel gods that she had made it in one piece, albeit a little tired from the adrenaline rush.
Soon enough the plane began to descend and Kenzie's smile grew tenfold. This was it!
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our destination of Fort Lauderdale. At this time, the aircraft has not come to a full stop so we ask that you remain seated with your seatbelts securely fastened until your captain has turned off the seatbelt sign. We also want to thank you for flying with us today and we hope that you enjoy your stay." A flight attendant said as the plane landed and taxied the runway, making its way to whatever gate it was supposed to stop at.
Kenzie watched as other planes took off, as people loaded luggage onto other planes etc. It made her so happy to know that after everything this trip had entailed thus far was over and she would soon be at her uncle's where she could take a shower and cleanse herself of peanut breath particles, sweaty foot residue and the smell of air travel from her clothes, body and hair.
"Land ho." Kenzie whispered to herself once the seatbelt sign was turned off. Very quickly, Kenzie got her things together and booked it through the airport to arrivals.
On the way to the arrivals area, Kenzie spotted the restrooms and sighed with relief. She hurried inside and used the toilet. When she was done, she obviously washed her hands but then when she looked in the mirror and saw how disheveled she looked, she rummaged through her backpack to look for her toiletries and her spare clothes.
Once she found what she was looking for, she freshened up and changed so that she felt less tired and less cranky.
She looked in the mirror afterwards and when she deemed herself ready, she packed up and walked to where her uncle was waiting and getting increasingly worried with each person that walked past him.
"Uncle Jeff!" Kenzie shouted as she saw him looking down at his phone with concern.
Jeff looked up and smiled as he let out a relieved sigh.
"There you are kiddo. I was getting worried." Jeff said as Kenzie catapulted herself into his arms, happy to see him after all these months.
"I'm sorry, I would've texted but my phone died on the plane." She replied, pulling away from their hug.
"It's alright. I'm just glad that you are ok." Jeff said as he and Kenzie walked over to the luggage carousel.
=
'Oh sweet journal, how I have missed you so.
I accidentally packed you in the wrong bag and had to forgo writing in you until now. Ok, let me rephrase that....I went a certain amount of time without getting to journal and it was torture. Yeah, that sounds better.
Anyway...
I got to Boca in one piece, praise the heavens above for that. The trip on the plane wouldn't have been so bad had I not been sat next to peanut man and Thing from the Addams family's cousin, sweaty foot *insert puke emoji here*. It was gnarly, especially when we hit turbulence and my phone died. Speaking of which, I'll be right back, I gotta charge my phone so I can call mom and dad after venting to you.
.
.
.
Ok, I'm back. Where was I? Oh yeah, the plane *insert grimace emoji here* I just hope the journey home is a lot smoother than the journey to Boca.
Other than all of that awfulness, getting to uncle Jeff's was fun. We bought so much junk food for the drive to Boca and it was great. I got gummy worms (but not the sour ones. You know I don't like the sour ones), Doritos and uncle Jeff even let me get a coffee. It tasted so good, even though it was decaf.
And before you ask, of course I'm not telling mom and dad about the coffee. They'd flip out and tell me what they always do when I ask if I can have coffee......."Kenzie, you know that stuff isn't good for you. Why don't you have some tea instead or the green juice you begged me to buy for you so you could try it when your friends said it was the latest trendy thing to be a part of."
By the way, that green juice was disgusting! Remind me to never beg for 'trendy' liquid again.
Anyway, moving on from that,
Uncle Jeff and I ordered pizza for dinner and then we decided to watch movies. It was fun until uncle Jeff fell asleep and started snoring. I left him on the couch obviously but I did lay a blanket over him so he could be more comfortable. That's where he is now and I'm in my room....in my very own granny flat!
How cool is that!....It is connected to the house though which is good in case I need anything. I won't have to walk very far which comforting.
With that said, I should probably go and call mom and dad so that I can get some sleep. I'm exhausted after all but ecstatic to be at the beach and of course, with uncle Jeff.
Let the summer break begin......
Ok, Bye.
P.S: I'm looking forward to tomorrow when I can go exploring with Jeff and see all that this town has to offer.