Painting a Christmas Miracle

CHAPTER 1
ZOEY

          I woke up to the smell of something in the kitchen. Then I heard a noise – and not just any noise, but the sound of a school bus. I had to leave. Why didn't my parents wake me up? I got out of bed and went to my closet. I opened the closet and shards of glass spilled off the mirror attached to the closet door. I had gotten the mirror in the dump. Sometimes I went to the dump to find nice things because we did not have much money. I looked at myself in the mirror, and saw my brown eyes staring back at me beneath brown bangs. Purple braces were stuck to my teeth, and my glasses were as blue as the sky. I was short for my age (11 and in the 5th grade at Lake School). I got into my school clothes.  My room had wooden walls and a wooden roof and parts of the wood were missing, and the wall was very simply decorated with a single word made out of painted plastic: ZOEY.
         I went to the kitchen and grabbed two bags from my mom. Mom said, "Be careful at school and have a good day. Oh and here is your backpack." She held out a brown tattered backpack. I responded "Thanks, Mom."
"Bye, Zoey! In one of those bags is your breakfast, by the way. I walked slowly out the door, and looked up at the clock tower about three blocks down the street. It read 7:28. I lived in a trailer park in Houston, Texas. I ran all the way to school and was almost late. My first class was math I was not that good at math but I was decent. I waited for my teacher, Mrs. Roxstile. While I was waiting I talked to my friends Mia and John; we were really good friends. The class was over quickly and the rest of the day flew by. I got home and my dad said, "Zoey! I have great news! I found a really good new job, but...we do have to move to London."

I felt happy but then sad as I processed what Dad had said. "We have to move to London? But my friends! And my school! And how will we get there? Where will we stay?" I hollered.

"My new job will provide us plane tickets and a house. We will leave tomorrow, so start packing," said my dad. "I am really sorry that you have to leave your friends here, but this is for the better and I think you will like London. This is a very big opportunity for our family so I cannot just throw it out the window."

I stomped to my room and started to gather up my things. It did not take that long because I did not have that much stuff to pack
CHAPTER 2
LONDON

The next day I woke up to hear my dad yelling into my room, "ZOEY! COME TO THE DOOR! IT IS TIME TO GO! " I responded with, " COMIN'!" I got out of bed and began getting dressed. As I opened my wardrobe, I saw the clothes hanging there I had planned to wear on the plane today. I also saw a small paintbrush.  For some reason I felt it was important to bring the paintbrush with me, so I put the paintbrush into my backpack.
As I got into the taxi my dad said," It will be sad to leave this place". I nodded in agreement. l was so sad I couldn't talk. As we arrived at the Houston International Airport, I realized I had never been on a plane. As I went through security my nerves grew tighter. As we arrived at our gate I went to one of the large, floor-to-ceiling windows and looked out at the plane we would be flying on. My stomach filled with knots. I saw 224 feet of length and 197-foot wingspan, and my dad said," Zoey, that is a 787 Dreamliner."
"A what?" I said. But before he could answer a woman's cheerful voice came through the overhead speakers to let us know it was time to board. I was to sit in seat 3A, a window seat. I was now so nervous that I immediately covered my face with my pillow. But as the plane backed away from the gate and headed for the runway I saw that my dad and mom looked scared. After a minute of waiting on the runway the engines roared to life, sounding as if a lion had his food taken away. TIMES 10. Then, before you could say "Oh No", the plane zoomed forward and then we were lifting off the runaway and higher and higher into the sky. I felt like I would vomit but I held it down. Soon we were cruising along 10,000 feet above sea level. Nine hours later we landed at Heathrow airport. I would say the worst part was the landing. It felt like the plane was in a nosedive, and then pulled straight and just plopped onto the ground. As we entered the airport I was starving. I just wanted anything to eat, but we had to wait.  My dad said, "Zoe you can wait 30 minutes". Then we went to get a cab.