Mounting up

Chapter 17

Friday; the dreaded day had arrived. Today, we were flying home to Seattle.

I heard suitcases being slammed shut, as I furiously packed all my belongings in, making sure to double check the room before leaving.
I grabbed a spare bottle of sunscreen on the way out, and left the safe passcode under a paperweight on the dresser where it was left.

I closed the door and rolled my suitcase downstairs, calling out a time check as I went "2 hours before our flight leaves! Hurry up guys!" As soon as those words left my mouth, I heard a flurry of zippers being zipped up and people stomping downstairs.

I made sure the downstairs of the house was spotless, and made sure that the pools had been left free of debri. A crowd of people looked at me expectantly. "Shall we go?" Taylor asked. "Yes, let's go. Make sure everything's gone from the house!" I reminded them and grabbed the house key.

Everyone filed out of the house, and I closed the door, locked it and hid the key in the mail box. The taxi was already waiting for us. We piled into the taxi. The taxi driver was different, which was unfortunate. I wanted to prove to the guy that horseback riding was a sport. "I'm kinda happy to be going home. I miss Speedy." Kayden commented wistfully.
There were small murmurs of agreement as I thought of Elle, Mom, Finley, Kinglsey and Avalon.

During Nationals, Mom adopted two new animals, a chocolate lab named Kingsley and a tortoiseshell cat named Avalon. She had shown me pictures over text and they were really cute. I missed all of them. "We're gonna have so much school work to do when we come back." Alyssa said as we pulled into the airport. "Eleanor and I's teachers excused us from all the work so we won't have any, but if you need help on anything Alyssa, come up to our dorms in Parker hall, and we'll help you." Paige said cheerfully.

Alyssa nodded, a small smile of thanks appeared on her face, as she looked to Paige and I. The taxi pulled up to the airport, and as we exited the taxi, Kayden said "take a final look at the palm trees, it'll be a while before we see them again." We took a couple minutes to the last great rays of sunshine to seek into our skin, then we went inside the airport.

After security and baggage check, we went to Starbucks to grab a drink and a small snack. Kayden and Alyssa both grabbed a bottle of water, while Taylor, Paige and I opted for some lemonade. We all got a sandwich though.  We were just throwing the wrappers of our sandwiches into the garbage when an announcement was made. "Flight 254 to Tacoma, Washington is now boarding rows 10-15. Please board in an orderly fashion and thank you for flying with American Airlines."

"Guess we'll have to eat these on our way!" I joked softly and grabbed my carry on. I took big mouthfuls of the sandwich and by time we had reached our boarding gate, everybody had finished their sandwich. The lady checked our tickets and smiled politely whilst she wished is a good flight.

We nodded and rolled our suitcases down the alleyway, and much too soon, we had reached the airplane. I hated flying, the airplane was much too small. I self-consciously sucked in my butt, and tried to walk sideways. My suitcase kept on bumping into the arms of people. Finally, we reached our seats. I found 13B and stood up on my tippy-toes, and shoving the suitcase into the overhead compartment. After grabbing my phone, earbuds, blanket and neck pillow, I sat down taking the window seat. Taylor and Alyssa sat down beside me, Kayden and Paige sat a couple rows behind us.

Slowly as the plane took off, I enjoyed the bliss scenery of Maui one last time before I closed my eyes, and the abyss of sleep enveloped me.
5 hours and some odd minutes later, the captain came on the intercom. "We have arrived in Tacoma Washington. Thank you for flying with American Airlines and we wish you safe travels in Washington." The plane touched down, jolting me awake. I slowly grabbed my carry-on, still half asleep. Taylor and Alyssa helped guide me off the plane, my eyes were still encrusted with sleep.

Though I had awaken fully by the time we reached the baggage claim. My thin fingers grabbed my pale blue suitcase as soon as it came around the carousel. I dragged it off the carousel and placed it on the floor beside me. Mr. Rossi approached our group, and called happily "Hello Windsor Preparatory! How was Hawaii?" We turned around and we all smiled gladly. "Super fun! Thanks Mr. Rossi!" We enveloped him into a giant bear hug. We walked out of the airport, our suitcases rolling it behind us.

Life was good.

A/N; sorry about the short chapter!