Cresswell: The Lunar Chronicles

Chapter One Hundred and Three

"Hey, Damsel?"

Cress sucked in a breath.

"It's 7, we gotta be at the airport in a half hour," Carswell murmured as he snaked an arm around her waist and leaned some of his weight against her.

"Oh aces," Cress groaned.

"I know." Carswell kissed her cheek. He squeezed her waist and his warmth disappeared as he got out of bed.

Cress forced herself up, keeping the sheet wrapped around her shoulders. It was freezing and the last thing she wanted to do was get up and go outside. Giving herself to the count of three she stood up and darted to the bathroom where she'd set out her clothes. After brushing her teeth, washing her face, and raking her fingers through her hair she quickly gathered her tablets and computer, port screen, stylus pens, a few granola bars--

"Aces are you planning on hacking the national guard?"

Cress giggled. "No, Kai asked me if I'd help with the security network at the palace in the Commonwealth."

Carswell lightly frowned. "Why, what's wrong with it?"

Cress shrugged. "Dunno. But clearly nothing important cause he said it can wait until we all meet up."

"Oh, nice."

Cress meticulously arranged everything in her bag, adding her wallet and some other stuff from her purse. "Are we gonna eat on the plane?"

"Yeah."

"Good cause I'm hungry."

"Well grab a snack or something cause it might be a while."

Cress nodded. She grabbed a few pop tarts from the cabinet and tossed them in her bag as well, then stopped for her hoodie hanging by the door.

"You ready?" Carswell asked as he slung his bag over his shoulder.

Cress nodded, taking his hand when he held it out to her.

Traffic was oddly light so they made it to the airport in no time at all, managing to get throwing security and checked in with forty five minutes to spare.

"You wanna grab something to eat here?" Carswell asked, nodding to a small food court just down the corridor.

Cress nodded. "Yeah, I'm hungry."

Carswell grabbed both their suitcases and started toward the string of fast food places. "Feel like anything specific?"

Cress grinned sheepishly. "Honestly pancakes sound really good. Ooh and maybe some sausage?"

"Works for me, wanna just do McDonalds?"

Cress nodded. "Oh then I'm getting hash browns too."

Carswell laughed.

While waiting for their turn to order, Cress checked the status of their flight.

"Ugh, we're not supposed to get in to New York until 7:35 tonight. The time changes really mess me up."

"I know." Carswell shook his head as he got in line, placing their orders when it was their turn.

Cress leaned into him, excitement beginning to build. She'd been flip flopping the entire week, alternating between being over the moon excited, and ready to throw up with nerves. She liked flying though, and getting to take a seven hour flight to New York was exciting.

"Order up," he said, reaching for the bag that was slid onto the counter. "Let's go back to our gate and we can eat there."

Cress nodded, taking their bags.

Once they were settled back at their gate, Cress made a small spreading of their food complete with napkin place mats.

"Fancy," Carswell smirked.

"Well we gotta get in the mood," Cress said as she shoved a bite of hash browns in her mouth. "Okay, I downloaded the blueprints to your parents house so I'll know where everything is and won't get lost--"

"You downloaded the blueprints?" Carswell asked, his eyebrows shooting up.

Cress turned her tablet around. "Yeah while we were ordering."

"I don't know why anything you do still surprises me," he added with a head shake.

Cress grinned to herself. "Okay, give me the tour."

Carswell nodded, taking a quick bite of pancake. He scooted over so he could look over her shoulder. "Okay, so this is obviously the foyer. A maid or footman will be there to take our coats and suitcases, mom will probably greet us and take us up these stairs to our room--or rooms--where we'll hide until dinner."

"Where's the dinning room?"

"Here. Well, this is the dinner dinning room. The breakfast room is here and the kitchen is through there, but we'll never see it. Oh and the living room is massive but we'll probably spend most of the fun socializing time in the library. Except for the Christmas Eve party, which will be taking over the entire downstairs."

"Oh aces."

"Yeah. Don't worry though, we won't be there long enough for you to need to memorize the whole place."

"Yeah that's true."

"Come on, finish eating. Looks like we're gonna board soon," Carswell said.

Cress nodded, finishing her breakfast and then throwing all the trash away. She leaned back against the wall, studying the tablet in front of her. She couldn't imagine having this much space to live in. Although it would be fun to have a bunch of different rooms. She could have a dance room or a sewing room... ooh, it would be nice to have rooms for Cinder and Kai, Jacin and Winter, and Scarlet and Wolf for when they were all visiting.

Maybe if she and Carswell ended up using the house in LA they could do that!

Carswell stood up, grabbing their stuff.

"Where're you going?"

"To board. Wanna come?"

Cress laughed, nodding. She quickly stuffed her tablet in her bag and stood up, taking Carswells hand and hurrying to keep up with him. Excitement bubbled once again as they walked through the narrow tunnel and onto the plane. It seemed as though inside the plane was way colder and she was glad she thought to bring an extra sweater.

"You want the window?" Carswell asked.

Cress nodded, grinning as she slid in and sank down. The leather was soft and warm--were there heaters in the seat? She shoved her bag under the seat. "Should I wait to keep eating until we've lifted off?"

Carswell nodded. "Or just eat really fast."

"I'll wait." Cress heaved an excited sigh as she peered out the window. Rain was splattering against the glass and she thought it would be cool to fly during the rain. It felt like they sat there for hours but it was really only a few minutes or so before the plane started to taxi out to the runway.

Cress clenched the arm rests as the engines revved to life and the plane picked up speed. She peered out the window, watching as the rain smeared across the window and the clouds blurred. In a matter of seconds they were shooting up through the darkness and into sunshine and blue skies.