The Mismunandi

Chapter 10

I can not believe my eyes. Richard is a Mismunandi? How did he know I am? That whole 'going on tour' thing must be his coverup, but why make the whole band get in on it? Why not just find a new guitarist? Unless...

"Rich, who's this?" Nicole Hannister walks up with the rest of the band. They're all Mismunandi. I should have put that together. Noticing everyone waiting, I find my voice.

"I'm Scarlet." I turn around to see my sisters curiously waiting a few feet behind me and I wave them over. "And these are my sisters, Nora and Brighton."

"I'm Nicole and this is my brother, Michael. The quiet one here is Logan and I see you've already met Richard."

"Call me Rich," Richard, or Rich, says.

"It's nice to meet you," I say. "We, um... we saw your performance last night," I continue.

"I thought you looked familiar," Michael says.

"You're a really good drummer!" Nora gushes from behind me.

"It's too bad we had to end the band, but you've got to do what you got to do, right?" Logan jumps in.

"Yeah," I sigh.

"How are you gonna explain to your fans that you're not actually going on tour?" Brighton asks.

"We'll just say we had a big fight last night and the band broke up. Its tragic, but it's the only way," Nicole says.

"Something tells me you didn't choose to be here," Rich says softly.

"We didn't know about it 'till a few days ago. Our mom told us about it and now she's shipping us off," Brighton says. It is in that moment that Dr. Paver walks up to us.

"May I talk to the Bells alone?" He asks and they all nod and go sit down, except for Rich, who stands by the coffee stand, stirring his coffee and staring blankly into the sea of people.

"I'm not going there with you, I am only here for the time being. There are things I must quickly tell you before you leave. MTA is a place for training, but it's much more than that. You will understand when you get there. Scott, your brother, works alongside Matthew, my son. They are in charge, but there are other leaders too. After the first week you will be put into different houses based on your skills. There are many different houses and if you don't all end up in the same house, it's okay, you will still be able to see each other and train together. There is more you need to know, but you will learn everything when you get there. Do you all have your boarding passes?" Dr. Paver asks and we show him our passes.

"Good. Alright, I guess this is goodbye," He begins to walk off, but turns around halfway to the door and looks at us with a serious expression. "Good luck," He says and leaves.

"I'm tired," Brighton complains. "I want coffee."

I look over to the coffee stand which is now vacant. Rich is walking toward his friends to sit with them. I nod and we walk over to get coffee. I make mine with lots of cream, because I've never liked plain black coffee, and we find three empty chairs to wait in. We drink our coffee in silence until the airplane is ready for boarding.

"All passengers: please get your boarding passes ready before boarding the plane," A woman's voice says over the intercom. We gather our carry ons and get into the line. Rich slips in right behind me.

"I guess we'll have to sit by each other now," he says.

"You know there's assigned seats, right?" I ask sarcastically. He just smiles showing his perfectly straight, white teeth. His perfection even makes me smile back. Realizing how awkward I must seem, I turn back around only to see another familiar face. Silver is walking towards me and waving.

"Scarlet! Thank God I found you! I don't know anyone here," she says.

After we get on the plane we find our seats. Silver is sitting in the row right beside mine, Nora is sitting in front, and Brighton is sitting next to Silver. I am surprised that me and my sisters didn't get placed together, but I look at this as an opportunity to make new friends. As I await my neighbor, I pull out my cell phone. I have a new text from Marilynn saying: 'Miss you already:*' and I send her a kissy face. I put my phone on airplane mode and slip it into my purse right as someone sits down next to me. I turn to see who it is and my face goes blank.

"How do you predict the future like that?" I ask Richard who is sitting next to me. He gives me a confused look.

"Predict the future? How would I do that?" He says, amused and gives me a smile. I face forward, feeling small. Another person sits next to Richard in the last seat and I turn my face to introduce myself, but as soon as I see the girl's face, I already recognize her and it seems like she recognizes me too.

"Hey, I know you!" She says. "You're the girl from the mall a few days ago. Your friend was flirting with my boyfriend?"

"My sister actually," I say pointing to Nora. "And I'm sorry about that."

"No worries."

"Is Austin a Mismunandi too?"

"No, just me."

"What did you tell him when you left?"

"I told him I was moving to live with my dad in Costa Rica." She chuckles and shakes her head. "We're going to try a long distance relationship. What did you tell your friends?"

"Boarding school."

"That's right, you're a senior."

"Was. I didn't want to come here, my mom just kind of laid it all on me over the weekend."

"Sorry. Well, if you ever need help with anything or just want someone to talk to, I'm Maria."

"Scarlet."

"Richard," Rich says leaning forward so that he is blocking our view of each other.

I open the window shade and see that is is still raining. I hope someone here knows how to generate a force field around the plane because it looks like the rain is coming down hard. I turn to comment on the weather to Maria, but she already has her headphones on and her eyes are closed. Rich looks over to me.

"Don't worry. We'll get there safely," he says and sticks his earbuds in his ears. How does he know that? We could go down into the ocean and nobody would even be able to rescue us. His reassurance does calm me down a bit, though. I lean back in my chair and stare out the window at the airport that is dark and wet from the gray clouds. The small square TVs on the backs of the seats come on and tell us about the safety precautions and everything. I put my seatbelt on and grasp the sides of my chair with white knuckles. Rich looks over to me.

"Never been on a plane?" He asks. I shake my head no.

"Actually, once. A long time ago, but it was super short and I was a baby, so it doesn't really count," I say.

The plane shifts forward to take off and I clutch the seat tighter and I shut my eyes. I try to think of something else like Marilynn and my mom, but my mind refuses to let the sound of the rain go unnoticed. I try to ignore it, but my hearing is better than a normal person's. It gets louder and louder each second until I feel Rich put his hand on mine and the sound of the rain stops. Now all I can hear is the hum of the plane's engine. I open my eyes to find Rich looking at me. Something in his eyes tells me that everything is going to be okay. That as long as he's here with me, I won't be harmed. I release my hand from the seat and turn it over so that his fingers can easily slide in between mine and there we sit. Two strangers, who had some kind of weird, soulful staring contest the night before, holding hands as we fly off to Super Freak Camp.