Intertwined (US version)

The Plane

The hum of the engines of the plane sounded in the background of light chatter of other kids Blu's age. He was struck with terror when his moms chose the 'travel by plane' option for the new students when enrolling him into school. Yeah, it was the only option when traveling from the Hawaiian islands to the mainland, but just the thought of entering an airport gave Blu a heavy feeling in his gut.

Also, plane was an understatement. Blu sat alone in the sectioned off waiting area along with no more than twenty other kids. He nearly fainted as he saw a double decker Airbus painted black, silver, and green (the school's colors) with a large "TUS" on the side. It was absolutely enormous. Blu questioned how the thing would fly as he hastily boarded and found his seat.

So there he sat on a pl- Airbus, a few months later, three columns of seats that sat in the plane in pairs. Next to a strange kid with short ringlets of hair atop his- her?—he honestly couldn't tell—head. On his way to TUS at Austin. His moms knew about this place and told him as soon as the offer landed in their mailbox: the Texas University of Sorcery at Austin.

Kids his age, 14 and 15, all the way up to 21 attended this school, but this Airbus was reserved for Freshmen. All witches and wizards. All insanely excited. All seemingly except for Blu. He was nervous. The excitement butterflies of the others were more like... anxiety moths in Blu's stomach. They only got more fluttery when the plane began to gain speed as it raced towards the end of the track.

Blu reached to the armrest to grip it in an attempt to relieve some of his anxiety, but he was only met with a warm hand that was one step ahead of him. His eyes shot down to see the slightly tanned hand whose knuckles were white with pressure as they gripped the armrest. His gaze was then met with the kid who was sat to the right of him, face as pale as their knuckles.

An quick, unspoken bond between the two formed as the kid grabbed Blu's hand in theirs. Blu was strangely grateful and gripped their back in return. The plane gained more and more and more speed until the front half lifted off the ground as Blu's stomach sank closer and closer and closer to his feet. His and the kid's bodies vibrated as Blu accidentally stole a glance out of the window.

The earth seemed to be tilted at a forty five degree angle and Blu's breakfast threatened to come back up. The kid sitting next to him quickly reached up and is the window shade down, giving a slight nod and a worried smile to Blu. Blu gave the same back and leaned back into his chair, screwing his eyes shut.

Blu hated heights. Blu hated airplanes. He was never going to be ready for this flight. A whole eight hours in the air that he was not prepared for nor will ever be prepared for. The plane left from Dallas, stopped all around the east coast for the whole morning, arrived in Hawaii, where Blu lived, and would now make its way back to Austin, Texas.

One of Blu's mothers, Lacy Yang, was born and raised in Texas, north in Lubbock. The other mother, Iris Hoapili, was born in Hawaii and soon moved to Texas. The two met in school, hit it off, graduated, moved back to Iris' hometown and had Blu. What they passed down to Blu was their magic. His mothers were witches and were quite prepared when he received his acceptance letter after applying to TUS. They were probably more excited than him.

He finally opened his eyes when he felt the plane level out and the seatbelt light turned off with a ding. Blu immediately looked to the kid to his right, who was all around more calm than he was. The kid looked over to him and gave him a smile, gently releasing his hand.

"Sorry about that. I just-" Blu began nervously, but the kid held up a single finger as they reached underneath their seat and pulled out a plain brown messenger bag. They dug around and pulled out a composition book and pen, as Blu watched a bit confused, but thoroughly distracted from the flight. They flipped to a clean page, about halfway through the pad, and began writing. Once finished, they passed it for Blu to read.