Long blue ribbon

                                      
             Today was the day! I had finally come of age. the sun was shining and I would fly to my aunt's castle on the back of a green scaly flame spitting beast, a dragon. I could learn to be a wizard... "Bella. Bella," the smack of Mr. Franklin's ruler on my desk brought me back to reality "I do NOT care if it is the last day of school you young lady will not daydream in my class. Are we clear?" I could hear the already building rumors being mumbled across the classroom.  It is not what he says that is bad it is what other people say even though I have his horrible class last period by the time I get on the bus to get home someone I don't even know walks up to me and says "Oooo you got in trouble again!" you would think that that kind of stuff would stop after elementary school but somehow it gets worse"Are will clear?"He repeated as if I did not hear him.
"Crystal, Mr. Franklin." He was the strictest teacher in all of South Way Middle School.  So for the rest of the 55 minutes I had him for I acted as though I cared. At the end of that gruesome 55 minutes the crashes of the bell felt like music to my ears.
Unfortunately one part of my fantasy was real since my dad had passed away in a car crash and my mom recently got arrested and put in jail for a few years I would be spending my summer far away from northeastern Tennessee at my aunt's house in Alaska , I think somewhere near Fairbanks , until they figured out what relative to dump me with and write up all of the paperwork so it would be a while. It was going to lamer than my usual summer sitting on the couch watching old TV shows. My aunt meg was 48 years old and only ever saw me in real life as a baby when she lived next door to us but moved to Alaska to follow her dream or something sappy like that.
Even with 3 exciting horror novels to read on the plane ride it took forever because I was dreading this summer so much but after an hour or so of looking out the window I fell asleep and when I woke up with a thud when the plane hit the runway I knew the time had come. I carefully took my stuff from under my seat and slowly opened the overhead bins annoying everyone behind me but I did not care I was used to that kind of thing. Then as I left my terminal and went to pick up my luggage I saw her standing there smiling how could she smile, she was ruining my life but I was polite I smiled back and said
"Oh hi Aunt Meg nice to see you."
"Well same to you Bella I hope you like it here." Yes, I would love to stay 20 miles away from anything and get eaten by a bear. When we started the long car trip from the airport to her house everything was well mostly as I was used to long paved streets, a McDonalds right around every corner, and cars on every road then there were taller trees and more spacing in-between houses until all people kind of faded away and for miles there was nothing but trees, sky, and a long dirt road. Then I saw a huge bird soaring right over our car.
"Whoa, Aunt Meg what was that thing." I shouted.
"That was a golden eagle. I see you already started pointing out the wonders in this beautiful place. I just love it here." And now you get. I think Aunt Meg tells herself this sappy I am so happy here stuff so she won't feel bad she left us and never got to talk to her brother. Well even if I am stuck with Aunt Meg at least I would not be in this ugly old rusted pickup for the rest of my life I thought as we pulled into her yard.
"So where do you get all of you food from, it must be a long drive to get to the grocery store? "  I asked as I got out of the car.
"I have a little garden with broccoli, beans, beets, carrots and a lot more. Along with a chicken coop behind the house if you want to see you can check it out after you unpack."
"Cool."I said as I walked into her cabin. that was not a lie I grew all kinds of plants in my backyard with my dad and after the crash I still did now with more of a passion. So to have a garden will make it feal like home.
Her cabin was pretty large with a small kitchen on the left, a door on the right, and a living room with a huge stone fireplace. 
"so where do I sleep?" I said
"Your room is over to the right down to the end of the hallway." She told me holding open the door to the hall way.  I started down the thin passage way and it gave me an idea of what aunt meg did she was most likely a nature photographer and took a lot of very stunning shots of eagles.
"Wow, you can see every feather on the birds."
" If you like those wait to you see the one in your room. "I stopped in front of my soon to be room I paused what if I did not like, it what if It was babyish and pink? I had to find out so I pulled open the door making it creak to reveal a bright blue room with one black wall, a tall rustic white post bed with a handmade black and blue quilt, and a crystal clear picture bald eagle soaring over the tree line and just under the mountains. I loved it but I did not want to say so I wanted to hate it because I did not want to be here.
"Cool, when's dinner?" I wanted to sound like I did not care that much.
"Dinner's at eight but we can have it sooner if you would like, and by the way we are having lasagna your mom told me it was your favorite."
" l will just set my stuff down and then can we have dinner. I am starved, lunch was at 11:20 and all I had since then was peanuts on the plane."  I found the closet and opened the door it was a walk-in! I just set my stuff down and quickly made my way to the dinner table between the living room and the kitchen. when I sat down knew it was going to be a long meal, the white napkins were folded nicely on top of the two plates and in front of me was enough food to feed a high school football team, there were two pans of lasagna a big basket of warm buttery dinner rolls, everywhere I looked there was more food."how are we going to eat all of this food?"
"we are not going to eat it all now,I make a lot so there will left overs for lunch tomorrow or another dinner."I noded my head to show that I heard her because I was running out of pointless additives to reply with. At the end of dinner all I could do was sigh I was to full to talk I did not know how good of a cook my aunt was until I had her food. When I was done being overwhelmed by what I had ate I got up and said
"Well,I am full and exhausted I am heading off to bed, when is breakfast?"
"it is at 7:30 see you then." I did not stop and look at the photos my aunt took I did not even put my pajamas on.
I woke up at seven in the morning and was still tired but I did not want to miss breakfast so I changed my clothes and started to unpack soon after I putting my suitcases up on the top shelf of my room, I was done. It looked a lot smaller but it felt more home like. When I was doing that I did not bother to check the time it was almost 7:45, I hope that I did not miss breakfast.was what first came to mind but there is only one way to find out and that is to go check so I did and Aunt Meg was just starting to make pancakes I am glad I came out when I did this looks good better than the granola bar I stuff into my face every morning.
You could just start to smell the handmade batter cooking on the hot iron pan. I may not like Aunt Meg but I love her food. those pancakes were as good as they smelled I do not know how I am hungry after all of the food I ate last night but I was I think that I had about four  of those pancakes and they were bigger than the plate.
"After breakfast we can go down to the lake Just down my road and fish if you want, I think that you are about done I am running out of batter." Aunt meg said with a laugh  as she was washing the dishes from this morning and last night.
"Sorry about that I am just hungry from all of the travel and fishing sounds great." It was a long hike down to the lake but it was worth it. On the lake where two long docks one had some sort of barn on it the other was just a plain old dock that was the one we went out on and fished on. At what I think was about noon I finally asked "hey what is in that old barn thing?"
"That is where I keep my plane."
"You have a plane?"
"Yes."
"Can you fly it?"
"yes, I just renewed my licence."
"why do you keep it over the water?"
"that is because it takes off and lands over water."
"cool!"
"maybe we could take it for a ride tomorrow and I will show you alaska from the air."
"yes can we pleeeeease!" as soon as those words came out of my mouth I regretted it I sounded like a toddler asking for a lollipop not a teenager that hates it here. I hoped that Aunt meg would not comment and pretend that that did not happen.but instead she said
"If you really want to we can go for a ride tomorrow but today we are fishing and don't have time to fly." I was so happy I was going in a plane tomorrow over Alaska! now this was cool. I could send a picture to my friend and show them that this was not that lame that I was having fun even if I was not and that for the first day I stood on a dock for hours only to catch one fish. If that sounds like fun to you than you are crazy it was so boring I did not even have a chair to sit in.
Finally after what felt like forever Aunt Meg said "Well the fishing is not that good today how does going back to the cabin sound." That sounds great. This is lame let's go home at last. were what first popped into mind but none of these things was that nice so instead I said
" That sounds good I still have some unpacking to do." It was not entirely a lie I still had to put away my prized possessions or in other words what my dad gave me when I was littler. As soon as I thought about him tears almost came to my eyes I did miss him but I did not want Aunt Meg to see me cry at all. 
The hike down seemed short compared to the hike back, now we had been standing all day and just wanted to go home, but when the long winding path did stop I was so tired I almost just wanted to lie on the ground and take a nap and we still had to walk back to the cabin. that small walk back to the cabin seemed the longest even with warm weather singing birds. When we did get back it was only 6:39 way too early to go to bed but I was to tired to do anything else so I went to my room, took out my backpack, and found my sketchbook and started to draw I didn't know what I was drawing at first but after ten minutes or so it started looking like a ferris wheel so I finished up the ferris wheel and started to add a hot dog stand, stars, a boardwalk, and other features that I had seen in pictures. It looked beautiful and I wanted to show it to my friend, Izzy but the only way to do that was through the mail which would take weeks for it to arrive it was not worth it but I was going to send her a picture of me in an airplane.
When I did all that I did not realize how hungry I was but when I was done I could feel the pain in my gut slowly getting stronger and I knew that I had to eats something. I looked at the clock and it read 7:42! The last meal I had had was lunch at 12:16. so I got of my bed and made my way to the kitchen where my aunt was standing
"Hi bella, I am so sorry after we came back from fishing I forgot to feed you you must be starving; but don't worry I am making some ham sandwiches right now."
"ok,when will they be ready?"
"In just a couple of minutes." seeing food being made made me even more hungry but after only  one minute there were five sandwiches on the counter with chips and they looked delicious.
spam on whole wheat bread never tasted so good, so good I had three of those five sandwiches they started to tasted like spam on whole wheat after the third so I stopped eating  and started to get ready for bed in the bathroom of the hallway that leads to my bedroom. it had an older design with dark green countertops and light wallpaper but It was mine and had a shower and tub. And after only 30 minutes in there I was in my bed half asleep and even sooner after that I was snoring so loud the house could shake.
When I woke up it did not seem real, I Was going to have my aunt fly me around alaska to see mountains, small towns, rivers, and trees all from the air it was going to be spectacular but I was worried about the hike it was very tiring last time but I did not care that much I was to excited, so I quickly got dressed and went to see what aunt meg had made for breakfast maybe this summer would not be so bad my aunt loved me, was a great cook and made three meals a day,she could fly a plane around beautiful scenery, it was warm, and I loved my room but today all Aunt meg had made for breakfast was toaster waffles but it was better than making toaster waffles for myself.
"since we did a lot yesterday and you are probably pretty tired we can take my utv to my barn."
" whats a utv?"
" a utv is also called a Side by Side and mine is a small 2 person four-wheel drive off-road vehicle."
"cool!" and after we finished breakfast we walked out on aunt meg's back porch and walked down her creaky wooden steps and under them was a mat black two person utv.  I helped Aunt Meg push it out from under her porch then she reached into her pocket and took out the keys for it. I did not think it was go that fast but when I got in and buckled my seat belt I had different ideas the speedometer went up super high.
I was right, we speeded through the trail that once to us a long time with the wind rushing through my hair it was fun but it was not as good as my thoughts on flying. we pulled up right beside the barn after only ten or so minutes and aunt meg put in the combo to open the lock on the small metal barn it was bright inside with led lights mounted on the ceiling and windows that I did not notice that much before and I was all set on getting in the plane taking off and flying but there is this huge checklist you have to do first like if all of the gages were working if the engine is working properly  and more it was boring but after a long time it was over.
when Aunt meg said that she was done with the checklist and that I could get in I was like ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! but I only said
"Ok, is there like a headset or something that I have to where?"
"It is on the seat but sit in the back please am having my friend, Lily, come to be the copilot most of the time I fly with her because it is safer with two people on the controls." I crawled to the back seat it was not as wonderful as the front seat seat that I was hoping for but there was a window next to me and I would have a good view.
Aunt meg's friend took a while to arrive but when she did I was never happier to see her face because that meant take off! I was only excited unlike some people I know I do not get how heights are that scary it is only how high you are off the ground it does not matter that much, you have about the same chances or greater of something going wrong on the ground like a car accident or big storm. When we took off on the water it was way cooler than sitting in those big gross airplane seats and carelessly looking out the window when you take off and when we were in the air it felt as if we were really fling like a bird aunt me and Lily had so much control over the plane it was just as I imagined it was beautiful. I had thought that Alaska we pretty from the ground but in the air you feel like you know Alaska you can see a whole lake swoop under you and have a bird fly over you.
Then I started to get worried a tiny bit a small red light started to blink on the massive control panel and in all of the moves I have watched a flashing red light only means bad things." Aunt meg?"
"Yes dear?"
"Is that red light supposed to be bliknking like that?"
"no it's fine." replied lily I was hoped aunt meg would have told me I trusted her more than some random lady I had never met or even heard about. so with only a little doubt in my mind I leaned my head back against the window. For the next minute all was fine we passed a small town than speeded up as we soared above the woods and after a little bit my view started to look hazy i thought the window had just clouded up but then when I looked again the "haze" was as black as the night,  it was smoke from the engine! I was about to tell aunt meg and lily but it looked like they were already doing something aunt meg was frantically pushing buttons on the control panel and lily was messing with something under her seat it seemed odd that aunt meg was doing all of the work. than I saw what lily was trying to get a personal parachute and when I looked under my seat to see if I had one I did not I heard a click and when I looked up lily had buckled the chute a was about to leap out of the plane I was about to yell at her for being so selfish when a gust of wind closed my mouth and left me blinded with my dark brown hair pressed against my face by the wind. Aunt meg did not seem to notice any of this happening she was to focused on all of the buttons on the control panel. I struggled to get all of my hair out of face to see and when I did lily was no longer in the plane and the blue puff of her parachute being deployed was the only color I could see when I looked out into the black.
"Aunt meg are we going to crash?" I asked, I did not care if she heard the fear in my voice.
"I don't know sweetie. Just sit down and buckle you seat belt,ok?" She was talking to me like I was five. Even when she did that I was way to scared to come up with some witty comeback of why I was not five. then even with all of the work aunt meg was doing she lost all control of the plane and it started to plummet towards the ground in the time aunt meg was messing with the panel she got the planes chute to deploy but not all the way. at the moment it was just fluttering behind us like the colorful tail of a kite.
as the ground came closer and closer the more scared i became I was not ready to die. so I tighten my seatbelt and braced for impact. It came faster then I had expected but everything was the opposite of what I was expecting it was like time was frozen the ground was reaching out towards the plane which was crackling like a warm fire on a cool winter's night. but it had to crash no matter what tricks my mind could play on me it happened a wing flew off first then the front crumpled like a empty can of soda and pain shot up from my legs. life was around my but death was echoing in my my it all felt weird and unnatural. finally the plane slide to a stop after making a large crater behind it and I got out to assess the damage and it was bad so i just leaned against a tree and cried I had never cried like this since my dad had died on that warm spring day..... 
my mom had just woken me up and started to say something about breakfast I just yawned and fell back asleep but I did get out of bed and started to get ready for my day at school. I was in 6th grade then. I cared a lot more then so I made sure that my hair was perfect and i looked nice. then i went to eat whatever protein slop mom had made
"yum, it's peach flavor." then faked a smile quickly while my mom was not looking I put it down the sink. I know only like three year olds do things like that but you have never tasted what my mom mom makes. After that I quickly gave my dad a hug, my mom had already left for work, and then not knowing the terrible events that were going to take place left for the bus stop with smile on my face. At school it was a normal day up until about sixth period when the phone rang and Mrs. Wolfe said that my mom was here to pick me up. The first thoughts to go through my head were that my dad usually picks me up from school and  that I never planned to go anywhere but I just walked up to the front of the classroom like it was normal because mostly it was but as soon as I got in the car I knew something was very wrong my mom gave me a bag of chips it might seem normal to most people but my mom is one  of those junk food is death parents and she also had a grim face very unlike her usual smile. Then she told me what would change my life forever. " I can as soon as I heard on his way to work your father was in a car crash and...and" her eyes started to tear up so I knew it would not be good "he... Um...he died." My mouth dropped open. My father and what we did together was the only thing that made me happy and now they were gone.
...My aunt was dead too. I will never fly again I thought, no I will always fly in her honor. I DON'T KNOW. All I want is my dad to be with me to tell me what to do but that will never happen can never happen. In a random act of frustration I smashed my fist into the trunk of a tree. Pain then came rippling up my hand. The odd part was the tree looked dented. I of course went to have a closer look and when I put my hand on it slowly it opened reviling a small wooden box.