Forever Young

Chapter 6

I was woken up by a female voice over the loudspeaker.

"We will be landing shortly in Palo Alto, California. Please make sure that your seat belts are properly adjusted and there may be some turbulence."

I slowly picked up my head and rubbed my eyes. My neck was sore because of my awkward sleeping position.

"How long was I asleep?" I asked groggily.

"Like four hours." Whispered James.

"Good."

I was still really anxious because of the way my parents died. I decided to sleep so I wouldn't have to think and I guess it had worked.

"We will start our descent shortly. Please fasten your seat belts." Spoke the Captain.

My heart started racing when I felt the plane lurch forward. I gripped the arm of the chair and closed my eyes. I then realized that we were just descending and took a breath. I looked out the window and saw the beautiful city of Palo Alto. As we got closer I could see the buildings, people, cars and trees.

As we landed, the captain spoke.

"Welcome to Palo Alto, California. I hope you've enjoyed your flight."

"Finally," I mumbled.

As everyone started getting up and reaching for their belongings in the compartments above them, I reached under my chair for my bag and placed it on my lap. Kelly, James, and I decided to wait until most people had got off the plane so that we could gather our stuff. I unlocked my phone and turned of "airplane mode."

Once most of the people had left, I shuffled out of my seat and reached up at pulled out the two small backpacks that belonged to Kelly and James. I handed them their things and we all quietly exited the plane.

As we walked out we searched for the signs that pointed towards the luggage claim. The signs pointed to the left so we turned left and sure enough, we ended up at luggage claim.

My luggage is grey, James' is a dark blue and Kelly's is purple. We had all tied at pink ribbon at the top so we could quickly identify our luggage. We scanned each of the passing bags until we found our own. James found his first, then me, then Kelly. As soon as we had all pulled out bag from the conveyor belt, we made our way towards the exit outside.

"Wait whose picking us up?" I asked.

"I might've forgotten to mention; I also have a roommate, but don't worry, there'll be plenty of room in our apartment for you guys. She'll be picking us up." Kelly assured with a smile.

"Okay." I replied, returning the smile.

As we stepped outside into the fresh California air, we scanned the crowd for Kelly's roommate, who would be picking us up.

"She'll be in a black Toyota, and it's not an old and ugly car so keep an eye out." Kelly reminded.

"Got it. Nice, black, new Toyota." James said.

We stood there for about 10 minutes until Kelly found her roommates car. Kelly started to wave and started walking towards the car and James and I followed. When she reached the car, the window went down revealing a girl in her early twenties, probably Kelly's age.

"Courtney!" Kelly squealed as the girl, whose name was Courtney, stepped out of the car and gave Kelly a hug. Courtney was tall and blonde. She had straight, shoulder-length hair and bright blue eyes. She had on a pair of sunglasses on top of her head, a pair of high-waisted, dark-wash, denim shorts, and a light pink v-neck, with a pair of flip flops. I have to say, she was really pretty.

After they released each other from the hug, Kelly introduced us,

"Courtney, this is Taylor" she pointed to me, "and James." She pointed to James.

"Hi, Taylor," she says with a smile as she holds out her hand.

"Hi," I say with a smile as I lightly shake her extended hand.

"Hi, James," she says, also with a smile and while holding out her hand.

"Hey," he says while also shaking her extended hand.

"Here let me take your bags." She says to all of us.

"I'll help." Says Kelly as she takes our bags. She drags them over to the trunk of the car and plops them inside.

"Why don't you two hop in the back, I'll be right there." Says Kelly.

Jeremy and I do as we're told and get into the back of the Toyota.

A few seconds later, Kelly hopped into the passenger seat and Courtney hopped into the driver's seat. She checked the mirrors and changed the gears from "parked" to "drive" and stepped on the gas. We drove in silence as me and James admired the California scenery around us. There were tall Palm trees, modern looking buildings, parks; it was beautiful, practically everything I thought California would be.

After about a twenty minute drive, we passed a entrance to a neighborhood called "Palm Tree Grove." The apartments looked a lot like townhomes. They had a beachy look and were at least two stories.

Soon after, we pulled into a parking space in front of a two-story, blue beach house looking apartment.

"Welcome to our humble abode." Kelly said warmly as she stepped out of the car. Me and James followed her and Courtney into the left side of the building. We walked up a few steps and waited for Courtney to unlock the door.

As we stepped in, we felt a rush of cool air, being that it was a bit warm outside. When we stepped inside, we faced the stairs to the second floor on the left and the living room on the right. We faced a large sectional white modern, fabric couch with a white armchair next to it to our right. It had a small, rectangular, wooden coffee table with a vase in the center holding a few sunflowers. In front of the couch, there was a large flat-screen TV on top of a tar matching the coffee table. When we looked to our left, there was a semi-small kitchen with white marble countertops and dark wood cabinets with fairly new stainless steel appliances. South of the kitchen was a small dining room with a round glass table held up by dark wood supports. The dining set had matching chairs with brown leather seats. There were pictures hung up on the grey walls all around the apartment.
We walked up the stairs and through the hallway which led to three rooms and a bathroom in the middle of the hall.

"James and you will have the room on the right, Taylor you will have the room on the left and me and Courtney will share the center room." Explained Kelly.

"Okay, sounds good." I replied, taking a few steps towards my room.

As I walked inside, I was pleasantly surprised. I thought the room would've have been very small, yet the room had a full sized bed in the center, a white dresser with a mirror above it, a white nightstand, white shelves placed all around the room, and a large, gray, square carpet, placed over the wooden floors. The room also had a decent sized closet with shelf at the top, and a "shelf" of some sort at the foot so that I could have two rows of shoes instead of one.

I placed my suitcase and backpack against the wall next to me that separated the doorway from the closet. I walked back out of the room and found Kelly in the living room, seated on the sectional.

"Kelly, when do we starting school here?" I asked nervously, as I wasn't really looking forward to the end of our summer break.

" Oh, school starts on August 17th for high school students." She replied. ( by the way, it was already August 9th)

"Wait so school starts in like a week?! What high school am I going to?" I asked as a wave of panic washed over me.

"Calm down," Kelly laughed. "Oh and you're going to Mountain View High School."

I took a deep breath. "So I'm going to a school called Mountain View High School and it starts in a week. Is it a nice school?"

"Yea, it's fairly new and very modern and the kids and teachers seem really nice. "

"Doubt that." I muttered.