Free Falling

The Arrival

When we finally landed at LAX, I found my aunt and cousin waiting for me. I tried to look for Zayn in the crowd, but I lost him in the sea of people.

"How was your flight?" Andrea asked.

You'd think she was my cousin, and not my aunt. With a blond pixie cut and a cute outfit, she looked 24 instead of her real age of 39. Shay, my cousin, looked a little like me. Waist length curly brown hair, blue eyes, and a tall stature; she knew she was beautiful. I've only met her a few times, and she seemed nice enough, but I don't really know her well enough to form a solid opinion yet.

"It was good, but long. The guy beside me was really cool, so I wasn't bored." I answered.

We grabbed my luggage, and got into Andrea's Lexus. Apparently, she got quite a bit of money out of one of her five marriages, she and Shay always had the best of everything. As we made our way through the maze of downtown Los Angeles, I thought of the boy on the plane. Would he really be at CAFA? Would he remember me? I wondered if he had a girlfriend; he certainly didn't act like it. After what seemed like a century of driving, we finally pulled into a gated community.

"Okay, so, like, your room is down the hall from mine. We've got a pool and a hot tub, and I'm pretty sure Justin Timberlake lives down the street. Not that it matters, because he's, like, old, but yeah. And we'll go shopping this weekend, and there's going to be this big beach party/bonfire next weekend. We totally have to go to that, I'll introduce you to everybody and it'll be awesome. I'm so excited! This is going to be so much fun!" Shay babbled.

Their house was huge. How could three people live here? Shay showed me to my room and I started to look around. The bathroom was huge, with a mirror that covered half of one of the walls. I stared into it for a few minutes. Could I do this? Am I ready? My dark brown, wavy hair tumbled down my back, and my green eyes were wide and scared. I'd just left my entire life for something I wasn't even sure would work out. Could I make it through the modeling world?

"Hey, Lila, I was just thinking, like, you know, since you're new here and all, we should, like, totally find us boyfriends before school starts. Like, there's this one guy, and he's totally dreamy, but he's kind of, like, a hipster, and what if I'm too mainstream? I mean, it's not like there's not other guys who wouldn't day me, but this one's just so amazing, you know?" Shay had appeared at my door, going on about what all we had to do before school started. I've never really had trouble with boys, but I usually want what I can't have. And right about now, I want Zayn, the boy from the plane.