Flight

Playground Games

Chrissie dreaded every single break time, because the bullies would tease and mock her. And she would sit, self-conscious in the corner. Not eating her snack. Or her lunch, just throwing it in the bin, I urged her not to, but she didn't listen. But one day, I had news. We sat there like usual on 'our' bench. "So, I asked my Mum last night." I said slowly, Chrissie looked at me with her big, blue eyes, she knew what I was talking about. "And? What's the total so far?" I looked across the playground at some of the younger kids. "Just enough to take us to disneyland Florida and back!" Chrissie's mouth fell open and she jumped up from her screamed screamed. "This is amazing!! I can't wait!" I jumped up too and joined the girly excitement. "Me neither! My Mum booked it for May half term, so we have three weeks to get packed, plan our trip and go!"

So as I said, I'm Benjamin Hartley, and my best friend is Christiana Woodman, or Chrissie for short. I am an only child with a single Mum, and Chrissie has a younger sister, she's six and her name is Caterina. And Chrissie has two parents, but for this trip only her Mum was coming. For us, this was like a milestone in our lives. A massive event which we'd been preparing for since forever. I was practically packed from the word go.

Three weeks later, we were ready, it seems like I'm rushing through this story pretty fast, but the disneyland part isn't even the story. There's something much more important. We had no idea what was in our way. It was like our milestone was standing there, but an even bigger boulder was standing in front. But we didn't no yet. If only I could have seen into the future, I could have stopped us. But you have no idea what I'm talking about, so I shall carry on. We had to get up at 4:00 in the morning to catch the plane, but we didn't mind, would you mind getting up early for something you'd been waiting your whole life for? I didn't think so. I woke up and got out of bed, thinking that we could finally empty out the 'SAVING FOR DISNEYLAND' jars. It was an end of an era. You know that feeling you get when you get up early for a holiday, or a day out and all your clothes are laid out and you get a sudden burst of excitement, well I had that. I literally sprung out of bed that morning and dove into my clothes, then rushed down for breakfast, grabbing my phone along the way. My Mum was in the kitchen, doing jobs and such having been up for hours before me. "Chrissie, Cat and Jen will be here in like ten minutes, you need to be ready by then." She told me, handing me a bowl of corn flakes she had obviously had ready for ages, due to the lack of crunch and more, sog. If that is a word. "Sure thing, my bags are packed and everything. I can't wait!" My Mum smiled and ran her fingers through her hair. "Let's just hope it lives up to expectations." I heard a knock at the door and my Mum looked confused, "they're early." My eyes widened and I pushed past her to get to the door first, I took the door off the latch and it swung open, for a few seconds all I could hear was Chrissie screaming. Her Mum (Jen) and my Mum both had the same 'are we going to be dealing with this all the way' look on their face and Caterina (Cat) just had her hands over her ears. "We're going to Florida!" She yelled at the top of her voice, Cat started laughing, clutching her teddy bear in one hand, and trying to laugh and suck her thumb at the same time. Everything suddenly calmed down slightly and it was time for the Mums to do serious talk, the way they do. "So what time are we leaving" asked Jen, my Mum looked at her watch then out of the window, as if she could tell the time by the sun... Which wasn't even up yet. "Benjy are you all packed?" I nodded and collected my suitcase from the porch, where I'd left it. "Ready as ever" I smiled. My Mum rolled her eyes at my enthusiasm. "Give me ten minutes to collect passports and such. Then we can go!"

I loved airports, to think everyone there is going somewhere new and being excited. It was in the air. We'd passed through customs and were now waiting in Duty Free, having breakfast at long last. It was now about 8:00 in the morning. So I was starting to get hungry. I cut up my bacon and started eating. "So" said Jen "I hear you have the trip planned out?" Chrissie and I both looked at eachother, nodded, and smiled in sync. "Yep!" I said "it's going to be amazing.. If we follow the itinarary." My Mum frowned. "Just joking, just joking. But we do have a vague plan." Now the adults nodded.