I closed my door with a sigh before I turned around to make my way to school. "What are you doing here?" I asked Brooklyn who was standing at the bottom of my steps. He hugged me quickly and we began walking towards the tube station.
"I'm helping out tonight as well," he said with a grin. "My sports teacher made me do it."
"You never mentioned it," I said with a suspicious look on my face. "Shouldn't you have a sports kit with you?"
"It's all in my locker at school," he said with a shrug. "Anyway, how are you? I hardly saw you today or yesterday."
"I've been oversseing that everything is set up properly for tonight," I said. "It's takes a long time, especially when your main team of workers are thirteen and from detention."
"Sounds like difficult work," he said with a sigh. "My parents will be there though."
"Really?"
"Yeah my brother is moving up in September," he said as we jumped onto the tube with seconds to spare. "You can impress them with your speech."
I buried my head in my hands and fell into Brooklyn as someone pushed me. He put his arms around me and I didn't move for the rest of the journey.
The rest of the journey wasn't too bad, apart from the bitter cold London weather of course. I quickly made my way into the hall where people were starting to arrive.
It only took another thirty minutes and suddenly I was standing in front of a hall full of people. I spotted Brooklyn's parents, they were in the front row next to Mrs Jones. They smiled at me as they saw me looking around.
"Welcome to the last open evening that you will have with us before your child moves up to us in Septmeber," I began. "Tonight, you will be given a tour of the school where people from different departments will show you the work that they do." I heard a door close in the hall and I locked eyes with Brooklyn who was tiptoeing his way to a seat. I smiled at him before carrying on.
Surprisingly the rest of the evening went well. I didn't mess up on my speech and nobody got hurt. It was a good evening. Brooklyn even got the chance to impress me with his football skills. Well, until his father stole the ball off him.
"I will speak to you later," I said to Brooklyn as I stood outside James' car. His family were only a few cars away so he kissed me quickly before walking away.
"I will text you," he said as I climbed into the car.
"Your clothes have finally arrived from Dad's," James said. "Mum wants to speak to you about your plans."
"I know," I said with a sigh. "I want to go to Dad's but I don't want to hurt her feelings."
"I didn't tell you this alright," James said as we got stuck in traffic. "But she's got you the tickets to fly out there. I'm coming as well. Tyler wanted to stay in London so they're staying here but flying out for the New Year celebrations. Her and Jessica arranged it a few days ago."
"Are you serious?" I asked. "Christmas in New York City. I can't think of anything better. When are we flying?"
"Tomorrow evening," he said and I almost choked on my water. "She's packed everything for you. She did it all today. She's put some presents in your case but couldn't fit them all in so she said we could have them after we all come back. It's the same with me."
"I won't have time to say goodbye to everyone," I said quietly.
"You will be fine," he said. "All of my friends have already gone home for Christmas, you will survive."
He pulled into a parking space outside of the house and I ran into the house to find Mum. I know I wasn't supposed to know but I couldn't contain my excitement.
"Thank you so much," I said to her as I hugged her. "You don't know how much this means to me."
--
"I will see you after New Years," I said to Brooklyn. "Open your present early and I will murder you." I laughed before turning to Evie. "Same goes for you." I hugged her once more before her mother beeped the car horn.
"Enjoy," she shouted as she ran to her car. "I'm so jealous."
"Keep in touch," Brooklyn said to me as he embraced me in a hug. "I will miss you."
"I'll miss you too," I said to him. I rested my head on his chest and listened to the sound of his heart beating. "It's a shame you're not coming out there this time."
"Have a good Christmas," he said to me before kissing one last time and walking away to where his Dad was waiting.
"You too," I shouted down the street before I climbed into my car where everyone else was waiting for me. "Don't say a word." I plugged my earphones in and relaxed against the car window for the rest of the journey to the airport.
Our goodbyes were rushed because we were running late as per usual. I managed to give Tyler and Mum a quick hug each and tell them that I loved them but then James and I were running for our plane.
"Better late than never," James said as we handed the cabin crew our tickets. They directed us to our seats.
They spent what felt like hours going over the all of the boring things, during which James and I both fell asleep and ended up waking each other up.
Thankfully I wasn't sat next to anyone. I had the window seat and James had the seat next to me but the other two people on our row didn't turn up at all. This meant we had the row to ourselves so, I lay down and read three books. It was amazing what you could do in six and a half hours if you put your mind to it.
James slept the entire time which resulted in him almost falling off his seat and snoring very loudly. I felt sorry for everyone on this plane.
Once we had our luggage and were set to go we got into our cab and gave him the address. Dad and Jessica were both in work so couldn't pick us up but I didn't mind.
"This is beautiful," James said as he looked at the views from the window. "I could get used to these."
"I certianly could," I said. "I just want to live here."
The trip could only be made better by one thing - snow. And it happened. Just as we were walking to find food for ourselves it started snowing.
"This city is perfect," James said. I agreed with him completely.
