Chapter 28- "You stole Joey's Huggsy!"
SCARLETT POV
The flight from Chicago to Orlando is two and a half hours long. That is like 150 minutes of flight time. 9000 seconds of sitting still. OHMYGOD, it is torture!
It is crazy to expect any sane person to keep sitting in one position for so long. For me, it's also physically impossible. I don't know why that is exactly, but I can't sit still for so long. I just have to get up and stretch my limbs a bit and just sort of keep moving around. I have no clue how I'm gonna cope with international travel if this is how I am reacting to a domestic trip.
Eh, I guess we should probably just cross that bridge when we come to it.
But for now, I'm just stuffing in books and a couple of other things like my rubix cube into my small, purple, duffel bag. It's sort of a trick to try to distract myself. I know Allie and I have adjacent seats and if I dare to move around more than necessary, she will not hesitate in chopping my non-existent balls off.
No, I'm not even kidding. She hates how fidgety I get and try as I might, I couldn't get any other seat. So now, I'm stuck next to Allie Jones, who has probably already thought of a thousand and one different ways to glare at me in order to keep me calm.
Or so she thinks.
I mean, I don't think even her glares will work this time. I mean sure, they're scary as hell and all, but I've never been to Orlando. And I've heard there's this special Harry Potter themed park at the Disneyland over there. And I'm dying to go there.
So, although, I'm gonna try my best to keep calm and sit in one place, Allie sure is going to have her hands full with this one. Humming merrily, I finish packing all my stuff and throw the bag over my shoulders. Hazel, who's also coming along for the trip, is also almost done packing.
I run down the stairs and grab an apple from the counter before loading all my luggage into a cab we've called. Hazel comes down and after double checking that no electrical appliance except for the refrigerator is switched on, locks the door. She takes the spare key from under the porch as well and stuffs in her pocket. She trots across the street and hands the other one to our neighbor, a sixty something lady called Mrs. Ashman, incase of any emergency.
Finally, she slides in next to me as well and we instruct the driver to stop by the Cullens' house. As I had already texted Lauren to be ready when we left home, she and Nathan are by their front door and they quickly dump in their luggage into the trunk of the car before hopping in.
Nathan shoots me a smile while Lauren is way too excited about the trip herself to tease Nathan and me. Hazel is texting someone, probably Matt and is too engrossed in her phone to even notice us.
Before I know it, we're already at the airport and Hazel is paying the fare, despite Nathan's repeated insistence to split it. Finally he gives in and Hazel shoots him a triumphant smile before wheeling her suitcase to the terminal. Matt walks in from nowhere and throws an arm around his girlfriend. Blushing, Hazel just turns around long enough to tell me to stay safe and not bother her unless necessary. I roll my eyes at her speech but give her a smile all the same.
Nathan laces his hand in mine and we walk into the airport, trying to find Coach Brown. Since we're all freshmen, we're required to report to him before we can board the airplane. Nathan spots him near one of the checkout counters and we run to him, seeing as we are already about 40 minutes late.
Coach is a little short with us, but besides that he doesn't snap or anything and Nathan heads for his flight while Lauren and I make our way to ours. As "open-minded" as our school says it is, they've refrained from putting boys and girls on the same flight. I guess they think we're all animals, so hungry for sex or something that we'll just do it then and there in front of so many people, on an airplane that is filled to its capacity.
Rolling my eyes at the stupidity of our school, I quickly start searching for my seat. Allie waves a hand towards me and I walk up to her and slide into the window seat. Allie is texting Evan and the girl sitting to her right is a sophomore who we don't happen to know. Since all four of us girls couldn't fit in one aisle, we decided to split into two. Adrian and Lauren are sitting about a couple of rows ahead of us.
As the usual flight routine begins and the flight attendants brief us with their safety talk, Allie sighs and switches off her phone. Then, she turns over to look at me and tells me that I should sit still if I want to make it out of the plane alive. Suppressing a giggle, I merely nod at her.
A second goes by with the blink of an eye, and you'd think that 9000 seconds would go by with 9000 blinks of an eye. Apparently, that is not the case. Because even after I had blinked my eyes about a 100 times, only 30 seconds had passed. Doing some serious math, I realized that if I kept this up, I'd have to blink approximately 30000 times to get through the journey.
And boy, was that not happening.
As a varied approach to distracting myself, I opted for reading some Harry Potter. Although it definitely kept me entertained, it didn't lessen my jumpiness a bit. And turns out, I was wrong about Allie's glares being her way to keep me still. No, she went a whole, big, Hulk-sized step ahead. That idiot thought it would be funny and appropriate to pinch me in the stomach each time I moved unnecessarily.
Bony hands pinch the hardest and needless to say, I was pretty disciplined for the whole flight.
Now, as I roll out my luggage from the baggage claim, my stomach is slightly sore from all the pinching, but mostly I'm just glad to have made it out of the flight alive. On the way back, I'll sit next to a sophomore, a junior or a senior. Hell, I'll sit next to Amy and her squad. I'll just sit anywhere but right next to Allie.
As we walk out of the airport and pile into the school bus, I start to fully appreciate the pleasant weather in Illinois. Florida, apparently, is a state of the extreme. While walking around here in summer is equal to walking around with a stove up your arse, walking here in the winters seems tantamount to walking around with a refrigerator set to about -12C.
And honestly, I can't even decide which is worse. Although I suppose having frostbite is definitely more bearable than showering in your own sweat every day. On the other hand, it is much easier to breathe when your nose isn't blocked and about 4 layers of clothes aren't sticking to your body.
And would you believe me when I said that even that wasn't enough?
Shivering slightly, I close the window and hop in between Adrian and Lauren to conserve some body heat. Allie's seated on Lauren's right and the boys, are, ofcourse, in another bus. Thankfully, the drive to the hotel is pretty short and I haul my duffel bag over my shoulder and wheel my suitcase into the heated lobby as fast as Barry Allen.
Okay, maybe not that fast. But suffice it to say that if I ran like I just did everyday in gym class, I'd have made the track team in a jiffy. Miraculously, my body had its shit together and I was more coordinated than I generally am, resulting in me getting to the (mercifully) heated lobby without a scratch.
Once everyone is in, Coach Brown explains that there will be four of us to a room seeing as how the rooms are pretty big and all. He gives us about five minutes to choose our roommates. For me and the girls, it doesn't even take a second and we're amongst the first to be assigned a room.
Coach gives us the evening to relax and tells us that the actual trip begins from the next day. Hearing this, we all collapse on a plush couch in a corner of the lobby, waiting for our boyfriends.
As we sip on some water, there's a commotion at the other end of the lobby. Always up to hear and see weird stuff, I get up from the couch and walk to the other end. When I get there, I can hardly control my laughter.
It seems like Emmett does have a knack for getting himself in the worst of situations. That idiot picked up someone else's luggage from the conveyor belt and his excuse for the same is that the suitcases were apparently quite similar. He just realized it as they walked into the lobby when his key wouldn't open the lock on the suitcase.
However with what Emmett pulled off a few nights ago at dinner, I wouldn't be surprised if the suitcases turned out to be poles apart.
Evan suggests opening the suitcase to try and find out who it could belong to and although that would clearly be invading someone's privacy, having no other options, the guys agree. Ricky, who, according to the other three, seems to have quite a flair for this type of stuff, asks me for a bobby pin.
Since I had worn my hair down and all my pins were in my duffel bag, I gesture for the other girls to come over. Sighing, they make their way to us. On hearing Emmett's predicament, Adrian and Allie burst out laughing while Lauren has turned purple (Again) from trying not to laugh.
Whether or not Emmett teaches anything else to his girlfriend, his idiotic tendencies have already taught her how to control her laughter if needed. A skill much desired and lacked by almost 99% of the human population, and our in-house doofus Emmett Martin has successfully taught it to someone!
Adrian removes a bobby pin from her hair and gives it to Ricky, who kneels down next to Emmett's suitcase and tries to pick open the lock. The way Ricky gets down to it, I assume he'll be done in a few minutes.
However, thirty minutes pass and the only thing that's changed is Ricky's expression: It went from one of intense concentration to one of pure annoyance. As I look around to catch sight of my friends, I find that only Emmett is here, sitting cross-legged on the floor.
A solid ten minutes later, Ricky finally gives up and calls Adrian to ask her where she is before disappearing away to her. Although both Emmett and I try to get him to wait and give it another go, he adamantly refuses before walking off in the opposite direction. Emmett looks at me with a curious expression. I nod at him. I know what he's thinking.
We watch a YouTube tutorial that gives us a quite detailed idea of how to break the lock, and after a few attempts, Emmett and I get it right. As the lock opens, I tell Emmett to look away, just in case it is a girl's bag. I am sure he would jump at the chance to see some bras but that would just make things uncomfortable for me.
For a change, he's mature about it and agrees. I zip open the suitcase and thankfully there's a nametag inside. I sigh with relief as I read it, 'Susan McKenna, Freshman year, Westridge High'. The suitcase belongs to one of our friends Susan!
As I tell the same to Emmett, a look of visible relief crosses over his features, which, just seconds later, is replaced with dread, "Scar, please check if she's got my suitcase, and if she has just go make the exchange before she opens mine! There's some personal shit in there! And I can't go because, well, let's just say I won't be able to face her if she's opened my suitcase!!" he pleads. One look at his face tells me he's not lying just to get out of finding Susan and I agree to go check for him.
Although I want to know what it is in his suitcase that he doesn't want Susan to see, I decide it can wait for later. As I wheel the suitcase out of the lobby and towards the elevator, (I know Susan's in room 307), Emmett tells me that his suitcase a sticker of a football on the front and I should check for that.
I nod and head into the elevator. When I get to Susan's room, I am relieved to see that she's not unpacked yet and she hasn't even touched her suitcase. That girl is sitting cross-legged on her bed, ogling over Dylan O'Brien, as Teen Wolf is on.
Not that I blame her, I mean if it weren't for Emmett and his situation, I'd have probably joined her. After I drool over Dylan's jawline for a minute or so, I realize I'm here for a reason. I explain the situation to Susan, who totally understands, and thankfully doesn't seem too mad at the idea of Emmett breaking her lock.
As I spot an identical suitcase at the foot of her bed, I realize Emmett's mistake was a valid one. I check the suitcase for a sticker and sure enough, there's one. I thank Susan for her help but that girl is so busy checking Dylan out that she just nods her head.
Grateful that I avoided any questions and got Emmett's bag out of there in time, I quickly let myself out. I roll the suitcase into the elevator and back into the lobby where I spot Emmett sitting near my luggage.
He looks up and grins at me as he sees me approaching. I can literally feel him sighing with relief as he pulls me in for a hug. I pull back pretty quick seeing as I'm not really good at hugging people anyway. Emmett attempts to snatch his suitcase from me but I give him a smirk and look at him questioningly.
After giving me the puppydog face for 40 seconds, Emmett accepts defeat and hands over his key to me. I snatch it from his hand and quickly insert it into the lock. As I am zipping the suitcase open, I expect to see something like the latest issue of Playboy or Emmett's SpongeBob Squarepants boxers.
In what can be described only as a stroke of luck, it's neither.
It's something way, way, way more embarrassing.
Lying on the top of a pile of haphazardly packed clothes, is a soft toy. The soft toy resembles a penguin and Emmett's name is scrawled across the snowy white belly. If I'm being honest, it is kind of cute. Not that I would tell Emmett!
"OHMYGOD! Emmett, you stole Joey's Huggsy!" I fake-scream, referring to Joey's favorite soft toy, which he refuses to share even with Emma.
Emmett looks ashamed and his ears turn red, a sure sign he's embarrassed.
"Um, Scar, it's actually Cuddles...." He says, his voice trailing off.
I immediately burst out laughing at the candid confession. Emmett looks even more ashamed and I am really enjoying this.
"I am so telling everyone else about this!" I exclaim. Emmett shakes his head and almost falls at my feet to keep it a secret. Amused by the power this would give me over him, I snicker, but in the end agree. Emmett looks relaxed.
Just then, we spot the rest of the gang walking in through the doors. As Lauren makes her way towards Emmett to check if his luggage is safe, the rest of the gang looks at me questioningly. Emmett surmises the whole tale, obviously leaving out the part about Cuddles, and everyone just starts to chuckle amusedly at our badass, yet ingenious idea to open the lock with the help of a YouTube tutorial.
Clearly fed up of all this attention on him, Emmett suggests that we should all grab a bite to eat. I agree and then look at him knowingly.
"Alright Scar, I'll pay for you!" he says, a little dejectedly. I smirk. Lauren asks me why that is, an amused expression on her face.
"Well, Lau, I'm pretty sure you'd find out yourself if you just cuddled with your boyfriend!" I shout at her, the end of my sentence drowned by the sound of my laughter.
The rest of them just look confused while Emmett scowls at me.
I send a smirk his way before running over to the restaurant, all for the idea of ordering as much food as I possibly can!!
A/N:
This was funny as hell and you guys will just be lying if you say you didn't enjoy reading it!
I have cousins over so there might not be an update the next week although I'll try my best.
MY SIXTEENTH BIRTHDAY IS 10 DAYS AWAY!!
On a slightly sadder note, my IGCSE results come out on May 19th, so I'm just sorta anxious about that.
The next chapter will be every bit as fun!
Hope you enjoyed the chapter!!
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