Blue Skies

ii. En route London

Lia's POV

"Lia Hastings, where the hell are you?"

I pushed my messy bed hair out of my sleep encrusted eyes and held the phone away, wincing. "Oh jeez Sky, burst my eardrums, why don't you?" I replied, yawning widely. My best friend shrieked into the phone, "Do you even know what the time is?"

I sat straight up in bed. My eyes went to the clock besides my bed. "7:30! Oh my god, oh my god, we have to reach by7:45! Crap! Bye Skyler!" I hung up on Sky and rushed out of bed into the shower.

I was out in a record breaking time of five minutes. I hurriedly blew dry my chestnut-brown hair and tied them up into a high ponytail while trying throw on a pair of black skinny jeans, a red tank top and a light jade colored hoodie. I screwed my tiny heart earrings into my ears and clasped my lucky owl necklace on my neck. I checked my suitcase once more, making sure I hadn't missed anything. Before leaving, I grabbed my duffel bag containing my passport, phone, money and all the important stuff, and put on my black converse shoes. I rolled my suitcase and my duffel bag down to the huge kitchen.

"I was just about to come and check if you were awake, its 7:40, you're running pretty late," I heard my mom say.

I looked up and smiled sheepishly, "Whoops, I guess my alarm forgot to ring."

My mom shook her head, and gave me a kiss on my forehead. "Make yourself a toast or sandwich, your milkshake's waiting in the fridge," she called, before walking upstairs to call my brother.

I made myself a toast and took out my milkshake and smiled at my dad as he walked in.

"Ready to go, Lia? Have you kept your inhalers and all the medicines?" he asked, concern showing on his face. I nodded, reassuring him that I had.

My father and my grandmother both had asthma which had been passed down to me and my brother as well. I didn't have that bad a case of asthma as my brother did, although his was getting better. Unfortunately, I also had a very low immune system. I got sneeze attacks as I liked to call them at random moments. They aren't really harmful, just leave me sneezing my head off until I take some medicine.

As I sat at the counter, waiting for my family to appear, I thought about my house and back to the 1st of May when our hosts in Paris were announced

Our Manhattan apartment was on the top floor of many of the high rises of New York City and had a view that never failed to amaze me. My room was obviously my favorite out of the numerous rooms in the house.

My bedroom had a skylight on the ceiling, with fairy lights hanging from the top. The windows were huge and reached the floor. I had my own reading corner in my room, directly under the skylight. It was an alcove in the wall, just big enough for a couch and window behind it. My bed was across the reading corner with the floor to ceiling window parallel to it on the left. My small personal library, closet and bathroom was on the right side of my bed with my desk cluttered with books and papers parallel on the right to my bed.

I'd had the same room ever since I was seven years old as my parents bought our house then. My room was my sanctuary and haven. My parents had worked really hard as doctors to raise a family in a comfortable environment, their hard work finally paying off as we all lived a comfortable enough life.

My mind abruptly switched subjects and traveled back to the first of May when we'd been told who would be hosting us in Paris. I'd been given a girl my age named 'Olivia Hayes'. Her form showed that she loved reading like me, and seemed pretty sporty because she liked badminton, tennis and swimming. She was a straight A student too.

"Lia, let's go!" shouted my little brother, Aaron from the door. I looked up, startled, not noticing that everybody was near the main door and waiting for me.