CIMORELLI : All Powered Up

EIGHT : One song, free coffee in Hong Kong

"AaaaaaauuuuuaaaAaaauuuUUarrrghhhaaaaaUUuuaaAaafggghhkkkgh! Dyyyyiiiiiiing!"

"Daniiii, the heck?" Lauren said sleepily, rubbing her eyes and shifting herself up on the La-Z Boy. I stretched my arms out towards the ceiling, "Well sorry! I needed to stretch out.." I answered, barely whispering.

"Shush, everyone's trying to sleep. And stretch what out? You sounded like you were being murdered." she replied.

"My sore muscles might as well be murdering me."

Gaaahd, I'm going nuts. Nope, too late, Im already insane. How many more hours of this?! Nuuuuuuuu.

I needed to move big time. Once Lauren fell back asleep, I quietly, well as quietly as I could, stood up and did the little exercise thingy that you do on planes; touch the toes, bend side to side, rotate the hips, maybe a dab here and there all that swag.

Looking around in the dim lighting, I could see all my family, cozied up in their individual seats, fast asleep. The quiet hush of slow, sleep breathing could still be heard over the obvious and sometimes random plane noises.

We were flying through some clouds so looking out the window was pretty futile... I continued to do my stretches and then caught a glimpse of the cockpit door. Hmmm, maybe I could hang out with the pilots for a bit.

Tiptoeing proved to be even more challenging when your toes were numb and your family members had long legs stretched out at random across the little aisle and after a few whispered apologies, I was able to knock on the small gray door.

"Yes miss? Anything I can help you with?" he said, flashing his pearly whites which contrasted with his very tanned skin even in the dim lighting.

I looked at him, thinking, aaah, the co-pilot.

"Hi, no I don't really need anything, I was just bored...and, uh.." I paused for a bit, his smiling face totally making me lose my train of thought, "I, uh, don't think we've met. I'm Dani." extending a hand.

He looked at me, and took my hand in his. "Hey, Dani. My name is Rey. I--"
He was cut off by Anthony.

"Do you wanna see the controls? He sorta has to get back to his post, but you're welcome to join if you want, we have plenty of space. Come on in, Rey give her the headgear."

And by headgear, he meant a pair of the hugest headphones I had ever seen.

"Whooooa, this is amazing!" I said, taking it from Rey, disregarding the blatant fact that the army green color it sported totally clashed with my outfit. I let go of his surprisingly smooth hand and fully walked in.

What greeted me was a beast of a dashboard with waay too many buttons and flashing lights people were allowed to show children without them risking any random button pushes and/or fatal switch flipping. All I could think of was DeeDee in Dexter's Laboratory and her not being allowed in. And I could definitely say that I was NOT allowed in here. I'd totally forbid myself.

But nevertheless, I sat in between the pilot and the co-pilot on a small backless seat. It was a slightly snug fit, but I had about an inch and a half of space on each side.

Note to self: Thank the Lord at church for blessing you with small hips.

Then, Anthony and Rey seemingly formed a tag team for explaining or attempting to explain what the buttons, switches and flashing lights were for. I did my part of trying to listen, but instead I resorted to timed nodding and making intelligent noises, occasionally asking a well-placed question, but I couldn't for the life of me, pay attention right now.