Amnesia

Chapter Thirty Five - 'pepperoni in the water'

The impact of the plane hitting the runway jolted our seats. We all grunted a little from the seat belts grip round our waists.

Once we had for through security we called for a few taxis. They arrived quicker than we realized and before we were properly aware of it, we had pulled up in front of a massive villa.

I couldn't help but wonder how much this all cost and why I hadn't had to pay. Surprise or not, I felt guilty.

We dragged out bags into the hallway and everyone began to explore. Charlotte, Adria and I raced up the wide staircase and gaped as we viewed the living room from the landing. There were some wooden poles which formed a fence like barrier, we overlooked the couches and the large flat screen tv in awe.

Then we burst into several of the bedrooms, a couple had twin beds and the others had double beds. All of them linked to either a shared, or singular ensuite. All of them of an extremely oversized nature.

Back home in Italy our house was quite similar, not as many bedrooms, but the size of them. The difference in the architecture and other features surprised me. For example, the bottom floor was quite open plan (apart from the bedrooms down there) joining the kitchen, laundry room and living room together. Where as in Italy, walls separated them.

Everyone called dibs on the rooms they wanted and then got changed. Everyone gathered next to the back door which lead to the pool. It reminded me of the scenes in the classic American movies, where rich popular teens would hold pool parties.

Once everyone had arrived at the door, we burst through as a massive crowd and most of us plummeted in the pool. The people who didn't jump in seemed to only be girls. There were only about five other girls in the water, the rest had sat down on the sun beds and were applying tanning oil.

"Aren't you getting in?" I called, trying to stay up in the water.
"Just need to top up my tan." Hannah called back.
"Hannah, we're all pretty tanned already, how can you waste hours just lying there?"
She shrugged and so did I.

Charlotte and I began to pretend we were cheerleaders, neither of us were but other girls there were. She stood on my thighs and on the count of three I hurtled her into the air, her doing a flip before smacking the surface of the water.
Adria stood on my thighs and I tried to make her fly. She did, but belly flopped on the surface of the water. Everyone winced at the noise. She reached the surface and laughed, before running her red stomach.

The sun began to set and we ordered a few pizzas from the home phone in the villa. When it arrived, we took it to the poolside and ate it in the water watching the sun set.

I swore someone dropped some pepperoni in the water, but I wasn't scooping that out of the pool.

Besides, it was my birthday and the only birthday I could remember, but I had a feeling it could be one of the best ones yet.