The Last Song of Me

Chapter 17: Welcome to Cali...

Recap:

“Officer Collins?”’ Nicki asked Logan. She looked confused and took turns glancing at me and then back to Logan.

    “Oh, haven’t you heard? Your best bud over there is a warden. Apparently she’s in control of ‘her house’. It’s princess Sammy’s world everywhere. She‘s ordering a whip or something like that to get her point across too.” Logan replied to Nicki. Her laughter filled the room and she couldn’t stop. Now she was literally on the floor laughing uncontrollably. I rubbed my forehead with my fingertips, leaving my best friend to recompose herself. That’ll be awhile.

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   I finally said my goodbyes to Nicki and Luke. I rode down in the elevator with Logan to meet my dad in the garage. I jumped into the front seat and Logan sat directly behind me. We pulled out onto the main street and got onto the highway, heading south towards the airport.

    The silence during the 20 minute drive was agonizing. I knew Logan felt uncomfortable around my dad, you know after he threatened him. I tried to start a conversation about the most boring thing ever. The weather. It was one-worded answers from both boys and I felt like I was the odd one out. Logan sent me text messages about how weird he felt and I didn’t reply just to piss him off a little. I just put down the mirror and gave him a smirk, that of which he returned with the bird. I laughed quietly and covered it up with a cough when my dad looked over. Logan chuckled lowly at my attempt.

    We finally reached the airport, checked in outside, and said goodbye to my dad.

    “Bye dad. I’ll see you in a few weeks, ok?” I said as I gave him a hug.

    “Ok sweetie. Have a good time. You’ll be great.” He smiled at me. “Kick some ass.” We both laughed and then I saw him go over to Logan who wasn’t standing too far away.

    I didn’t really hear what they said but I did see Logan nodding in agreement to whatever my father told him. Logan motioned over to me, so I stood near him, and waved to my dad as he got back into the car and pulled out of the terminal drop-off area. We walked inside, our guitars in our right hand, and headed to our gate, D8. The security check didn’t take long and we made it right before boarding began. I started to recognize people from our audition day and they waved to us, obviously remembering our faces.

    Logan handed his boarding pass to the lady at the gate with a wink and she blushed a little. I rolled my eyes and handed her mine as well. She gave me a smile that said ‘you’re-a-lucky-one’. I just smiled back to make her happy, although I don’t remotely share that same feeling. I looked at my ticket stub and then at Logan’s.

   I noticed that our seats were located right behind the wing in the middle of the plane and that we had an middle and window seat. Logan put both my and his guitar into the top overhead compartments and I stuck my purse and ukulele under the seat in front of us. Logan whined until I gave him the window seat, leaving me stuck with the middle. To my pleasure, no one was in the aisle seat, not that I had any desire to move.

    The flight attendant started her speech about flight safety and all that mumbo jumbo that you hear every time you fly. Logan started the mock the speech, acting out each part in his own way. I started laughing right when she said “We do not smoke on this flight.” I was given a look of disapproval from her and then I hit Logan’s chest, which seemed to have actually hurt my hand more than him. He chuckled and then turned on his personal TV as the flight took off.

    About an hour into the flight Logan started complaining to me.

    “Are we there yet?” he asked. He let out a frustrated groan.

    “Obviously not. Look out the window. Where does it look like we are?” I replied, annoyed at him. He rolled his eyes at me and then turned back to his TV.

    One of the flight attendants came by with beverages and our choice of meal, since the flight would be over 3 hours. They came back within the next 20 minutes and laid our food on our trays with out drinks. Logan got the sausage lasagna and I ordered the mac n cheese with chicken. Logan gobbled down all of it within less than ten minutes. Drink, dessert and meal. That kid can eat! I finished almost 10 minutes after him. They came around with trash bags and water about 15 minutes later. I was exhausted from the abrupt waking up this morning after a sleepless night. I tried to stay awake on the flight, but I tilted my head back and fell asleep.

    I was shaken awake by Logan. I found my head propped on something and jumped in surprise of where I was. I fell asleep on Logan’s shoulder. He saw my reaction and smirked a little.

    “What? It wasn’t so bad was it?” Logan said, cocking an eyebrow. I still had a sleepy face on. “Did sleeping beauty get her full rest?”

    “Ha-ha, and I’m sorry that I you know…fell asleep on you…” I said, feeling slightly awkward now.

    “No prob sweetheart.” he said coolly. “By the way, we are about to land so that’s why I woke you up.”

    “Oh, ok, cool. That was fast.” I stated while fixing my seat to an upright position

    “It was only fast because you were sleeping.” he replied. I tried fixing my hair a little and shook it out. “Hey do me a favor, and give me a warning when you do that. You need a radius of like 3 feet around you.” I laughed a little and he joined in.

    We finally landed at LAX and went straight to the baggage carousel. Before we could reach it I was greeted by a smiling aunt Sasha.

    “Samantha!!!! Look at you!!” I heard a woman cry out from where people were waiting for family members.

    “Aunt Sasha!!” I handed my guitar case to Logan and gave her a huge hug.

    “How’s your dad and that devil of a brother of yours doing?” she asked, overwhelmed with joy to see me.

    “You know, they’re both fine.” I replied with a smile on my face. My aunt’s glance shifted from me to the boy standing behind me.    

    “Hi, I’m Logan. Sam’s duet partner for the competition.” Logan said with his signature smile on his face. He held out a hand but she bombarded him with a hug which he quickly returned.

    “You’re cute! I’m Sasha, Sam’s aunt.” My aunt was smiling uncontrollably and gave me a knowing stare that I countered with a shaking of my head signaling ‘no’. “Are you Sam’s boyfriend?”

    “No!” We both said in unison. She looked at me, then at him. I looked at her with pleading eyes to drop the subject so she did and walked with us to get our checked bags.

    We picked out our bags and was greeted by a man in a suit with a card that said: Samantha Collins, Logan Edwards, and Accompanying Adults.  

    “I guess that’s us.” Logan said pointing to a man standing next to a limo. I raised my eyebrows in awe and Aunt Sasha had the biggest grin on her face as she pulled us toward the long vehicle. Paparazzi from the Sing It! show bombarded us with photos as I got into the big black car. Am I living the celebrity life already?