Katie's POV
Finally a week had passed, and I was sitting at my laptop anxiously waiting for the website to post the winner's photos.
I refreshed the page a billion times, but nothing had shown up. I got bored and eventually waited a few minutes before trying again, and finally the site had updated.
I quickly scrolled down to find the post and I began to read it:
To all of our photo/story entry contestants: thank you very much for participating! All of your photos/stories were wonderful, and it was a difficult choice, but we made our decision.
This person's entry had gone perfectly with the theme of our contest, and the photos were very creative and unique!
We would like to congratulate Katie Donnelly on winning our photo/story entry contest! And thank you to everyone else who entered, it was quite a difficult choice because all of your entries were truly magnificent!
I read through the remaining part of the post and almost screamed once I saw my name. I won?! I then quickly printed the post on the site.
"I'm going to California!" I exclaimed as I wheeled myself into the living room.
"You won?" Mom and Dad asked excitedly.
I nodded with a grin. "Yep!"
"Yay! Congrats, Kate!" Mom exclaimed as she hugged me.
"Thanks!" I said.
"So, when are you going?" Brennan asked.
I shrugged. "I don't know, hopefully soon. I can only fly out with one other person, though."
"I can go with you," Mom offered.
"Okay," I grinned again. "I'm going to check my email to see if I got any information on that."
I headed back to my room and found that there was an email sent. I could get two plane tickets and I could fly out anytime, and hopefully I can get to California and meet Caleb!
"Mom, when can we go to Cali?" I asked a little while later once she came into my room.
"Whenever you want," she said.
"How about on the second?" I asked as we scrolled through flight days.
"Sure, sounds good," Mom said.
"Thanks!" I gave her another hug before she left the room and I ordered the tickets.
I couldn't wait to meet Caleb!
•••
Two days felt like forever, but finally it was July 2nd. Our plane left at nine, but I woke up at six because I could barely sleep from excitement.
I woke up and quickly got dressed and did my hair and some light makeup before trying to quietly go into the kitchen to get breakfast, but Mom was already in the kitchen.
"Morning, Kate," she smiled. "French toast?"
"Sure, thanks," I said as she handed me a plate. "What are you doing up so early?"
"I could ask you the same thing," she said with a slight laugh. "But I just wanted an early start this morning."
"I couldn't sleep because I was so excited," I replied.
"You're excited to go to California or you're excited to meet Caleb?" Mom asked. I had told her about Caleb after we ordered the plane tickets, but because she's all about "internet safety" and not giving out your phone number and such, I just told her I met Caleb through Instagram.
"Both," I said.
"You've finished packing right? You double checked that you have everything?" Mom asked once we finished breakfast.
"Yeah, I checked last night," I answered.
"Good, because I'm going to go put our bags in the car before we leave, which we will in about a half hour," Mom said as she pointed to the clock; it was already almost 7.
I nodded and wheeled back into my room. I double checked my carry on bag as Mom was taking my other bags to the car, and while I was checking my phone buzzed.
When I ended my conversation with Caleb it was exactly 7 on the dot, which meant it was time to go. Mom helped me to the car and because I was getting a little bit stronger, I was allowed to use crutches for a certain amount of time a day.
We finally got to the airport and I tried to help Mom as best as I can with our bags. Since we were still about an hour early, Mom and I checked out the little shops at the airport before boarding our plane.
"We're off to California!" Mom exclaimed with excitement once the plane took off.
I grinned and recorded a small clip of the plane taking off and posted it on my Snapchat story captioned: "off to cali! 💘✈️" and sent it to Caleb. He replied back with a selfie of him smiling captioned: "awesome!" and then he told me he was on his way home from camp. With the whole contest thing, I honestly forgot he was at camp.
Finally a few hours passed and we landed in LAX in California. I stared out the window in awe as we landed on the runway.
We got out of the plane and went to get our bags when I felt a tap on my shoulder.
"Yeah, Mom?" I asked as I turned around, but I saw a tall curly haired boy standing behind me with a huge grin on his face.
That's when I realized that Caleb LeBlanc was standing right in front of me.
"Oh my god," I gasped as I covered my mouth. My eyes started to water; this felt unreal.
"Aren't you going to hug me?" he asked with a slight laugh, his voice occasionally cracking.
I laughed and wrapped my arms around him as my crutches fell to the ground and the tears in my eyes began to shed. I had never been more excited to meet someone in my entire life.
"I just can't believe you're here, right in front of me," I smiled as we pulled away, and Caleb bent down to pick up my crutches.
"It's great to finally meet you, Katie Donnelly," he said with a small bow. I laughed again.
"Right back at you, Caleb LeBlanc."
"Oh, so you must be Caleb!" Mom said from behind me with our bags in her arms. "I'm Ms. Jill, Katie's mom."
"It's nice to meet you too, Ms. Jill," Caleb grinned. "Mind if I help you?"
"That would be lovely, thank you," Mom handed Caleb a couple of bags. "So, did you come here with your parents?"
"No, but they know I'm here, I drove my car over here," Caleb explained.
"You can drive?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'm 16, almost 17," Caleb replied. "I can drive you guys to wherever you're staying."
"Thanks," Mom and I said. We followed him into the parking garage and to his car. It was a black Buick SUV, and it made a little sound as Caleb unlocked the doors.
He helped Mom put the bags in the trunk before helping me into the middle row. Mom sat next to me and Caleb got into the driver's seat.
Mom told Caleb where our hotel was and we were on our way. To my surprise Caleb was actually a really good driver, although he would slam on the breaks a little too hard, and every time we stopped we would all jolt forward a little bit.
We arrived about 20 minutes later and Caleb helped Mom again by carrying our bags to the elevator. I went in first and pressed the second floor button, our room being 205. We went down the hallway and used our key before walking inside.
"Thank you so much Caleb for the help and ride over here," Mom said as she placed the bags on the couch.
"Of course! It was my pleasure," he smiled. "So, how long are you two staying?"
"A couple weeks," I replied. "We want to see as much as we can here in LA."
"Awesome! I could be like your designated tour guide," Caleb offered. "I could take you anywhere."
"That would be cool," I said.
"Great! We can start tomorrow, since I just got back today from camp and you just got here after a long flight," Caleb said.
"Yeah, okay, thanks," I said with a smile.
Caleb smiled back. "Of course. See you tomorrow then." He came over and gave Mom and I each a hug before leaving.
"I like Caleb, he's very nice," Mom said.
"Yeah, me too."
•••
A/N: wowza how long has it been since an update? two and a half months? i'm such a great wattpad writer 👏👏
lol heyo guys, how's it going? i've been working on this draft for like a month and then i kept leaving and coming back and wnskakka it was just a mess, and i've been a mess.
school makes me want to s c r e a m and a lot has been going on lately, including the shooting at marjory stoneman douglas high school last week, which is less than 6 miles from my school. we actually walked out on wednesday to protest gun violence, and i was really proud to be part of this :)
buuuut besides that, not too much has happened in my life. how about you guys? how's it going?
anyway i hope you enjoyed this chapter! if so please don't forget to vote comment and share because i love your feedback!
thanks, until next time ;)