flipped. charlie conway

36

whilst preparing to arrive at the junior goodwill games in los angeles, adam was a nervous wreck.

"lee, i don't feel like we're ready." the blond boy shook his head, collapsing into the airport gate seat with his head in his hands. leah frowned, knowing she felt the same back in edina and only agreed to come to los angeles for her brother's sake. adam peeked up from his hands, observing his excitable teammates around him. "what are we going to do?" the boy whined, desperately asking his sister for reassurance.

leah shrugged with a pondering sigh. "what we've always done, i suppose."

"and if that's not good enough?"

leah froze, recalling the words she heard from the team captain just the day before. she knew their duo was far from perfect, but leah was sure they'd spent more than enough time training on their beloved pond to be decent enough that coach bombay would invite them to the goodwill games.

the female counterpart of the banks twins gaped, struggling to know what to do if they weren't good enough this time. adam released a frustrated and horrified sigh, shaking his head as it dropped back down.

"i hope you're joking," julie gaffney tilted her head as she paused on her novel's page, "because you sound ridiculous." from julie's seat beside leah, the gaffeny girl rose her eyebrow amusedly and shut her novel.

adam shuffled his feet on the carpeted floor, slumping into his sister's side as he collapsed further into the airport bench. "you know this is the junior goodwill games, right?" adam sassed. after so many years, adam still only felt comfortable spilling his worries to his sister and had mastered the ability of lightening the mood when someone else came along.

julie let out a light-hearted scoff. "if you're asking me," the girl quietened as she leaned closer to the two, "you two are the best players on that ducky-wucky team." leah smiled at the compliment but shook her head.

"thank you, but you heard charlie yesterday," leah felt her eyes flicker over to the boy as she thought of him, "we've got a lot of work to do."

"you shouldn't listen to him." julie narrowed her eyes, "he doesn't know what he's talking about."

"and he can be rude to you, lee." adam chimed in, elbowing his sister.

leah quickly pulled the negative comments on charlie out of their little conversation. "if it means anything, julie, you're the best goalie i've ever seen. i get why they call you 'the cat'." leah smiled encouragingly, grinning wider as julie smiled thankfully and purred jokingly.

soon enough, ms mckay and coach bombay were ushering the team to the boarding gate and handing out their boarding passes. the team chattered eagerly for their upcoming arrival in los angeles.

all was well, at least until the team were seated. with julie, adam, and leah last onto the plane before ms mckay, charlie was not expecting to be sat beside none other than leah banks.

"you have got to be kidding me." the boy mumbled, shuffling closer to fulton on his other side. charlie held back a scream of terror as the girl shyly sat down in the isle seat, tucking her bag beneath her and holding her water bottle in hand.

"hi fulton, hi charlie." leah kindly greeted, giving a small wave.

fulton's cheeks pulled into a lopsided grin, waving back at the girl enthusiastically. "you excited?"

"i'm almost bouncing off the walls!" leah joked, releasing a light chuckle as charlie balled his fists from between them.

charlie huffed, already annoyed by the banks girl. "don't do that." he sneered, rolling his eyes.

leah immediately blushed, frazzled by the sudden eye contact and conversation with the boy. and to think leah found the close proximity almost too much.

fulton shook his head. "no, charlie," the tall boy laughed, "it's a figure of speech. she's obviously not going to get up and bounce off the—"

"yeah, whatever, fulton." charlie scoffed, slightly embarrassed that he took leah banks' words seriously. in his defence, everything that came out of her mouth was absurd, so it wasn't unpredictable for her to seriously say such a thing.

leah chose to stay quiet, noticing charlie's irritation. whether it was the middle seat or four hour flight, leah figured it would be easier to try control her raging butterflies and pumping heart of conversation with the boy was left out for now.

as the girl pulled out her own novel, fahrenheit 451 by ray bradbury, charlie didn't hesitate to let out yet another scoff. of course leah banks was reading.

leah peered up at the scoff, suddenly feeling overly concious of her novel choice.

"surprised you're reading a book," charlie explained condescendingly, "didn't know your birdbrain could read." his eyebrows rose in faux grimace, elbowing fulton as he laughed to himself.

leah was glad adam was sat a few isles back with jesse and luis, because if adam heard that comment, she knew he would have said something to charlie about the continuous chicken comments.

with a bit of embarrassment, leah gave a tight-lipped smile, clearly unamused by charlie's so-found hilairious comment, and put her head down to read.

to charlie's surprise, the flight beside leah banks was far easier to endure than he expected. well, as easy as a flight sat beside a supposed chicken-smelling girl could be. he was bored out of his mind once fulton dozed off, with his head lightly hitting the plane window every now and then, and waiting for the moment that leah banks began chatting up an insanely unwanted storm.

but when charlie glanced over, she too was fast asleep. if relief translated to joy, charlie could have shouted from the rooftops. her obnoxious novel was gently closed in her lap, and her hands were just as neatly folded upon the rumpling pages of the book.

charlie wished he hadn't celebrated so soon, because only fifteen minutes later, some light turbulence caused fulton's head to bang harshly against the window, effectively waking him up, and for leah's body to sway toward the conway boy in the middle. and as her head gently fell onto his shoulder, charlie panicked.

"get off!" he exclaimed in disgust, shoving the girl upright and causing her book to fall to the floor.

in her daze, leah picked up her book and blushed profusely out of embarrassment. "sorry, charlie." she mumbled, trying to hide her burning cheeks by opening her book and vowing not to let herself doze off again.

to no one's surprise, charlie muttered a few angry comments of his own, feeling his irritation toward leah banks build back up again. man, he could not wait for this flight to be over already.