Outlast Me

Chapter One "The Family"

"Lydia Hunny did you pack your toothbrush?"

"Yes mom!!"

"What about toothpaste?"

"Yes mom!! I'll only be gone for two weeks!"

My mother was pretty much an ordinary mother. She was a typical worry wort. Mom worried so much that she wouldn't allow me to cross the street when I walked home from school until I was twelve. As most mothers do she did all of the cleaning. Everything had to be done a certain way so no one in the family could even help her out, which I guess is a good thing for us kids. And of course moms always manage to overwork themselves. One night she stayed until two in the morning at her office tying

up "loose ends." She is a lawyer. But the only thing she failed at doing, was cooking. Heck, I've seen her burn water.

Dad was always the one doing the cooking. Although he couldn't tell sugar from salt, he could somehow manage not to mess up chocolate chip cookies. But that was because they were from a box. His specialty spaghetti did get boring once in a while, but at least we could choke it down.

Last Christmas Mother made blueberry pancakes for the family and just to make her happy my brother and I ate them. Although they were raw on the inside, blackened on the outside, and the blueberries were still frozen in the middle. The smile on her face was worth it.

To get my mother to agree to let me go on this trip was nearly impossible. I wanted so badly to escape our boring old Wisconsin town. And when my aunt made the offer for me to come to her new house on the small, relaxing island, Costa Luna, that was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The offer was irresistible, for me at least. Every night at supper I would bring it up.

Dad thought it was a great idea. My brother thought it was the best idea ever, but that was because he wanted to get rid of me for two weeks so he could play his annoying drums with out me telling him to shut up. But my mother wouldn't even consider the offer. She was as stubborn as a mule.

"My baby halfway across the world! For two entire weeks!"

"Mom I'm thirteen. And aunt Lynn will be with me!"

Eventually my mother gave in, because dad convinced her. And now here we are driving to the airport at 2 in the morning in the middle of a snowstorm. Good old Wisconsin weather! The only thing that is keeping me awake is adrenaline and a vanilla frappe Fromm Starbucks.

The two hour drive from our house to the airport in Milwaukee was brutal. The roads weren't plowed well and it was very icy.

I will have to take two flights. One from here to Mexico. Then from Mexico a straight line out to the Pacific Ocean. It will end up being an eight hour flight. Yay...

When we were finally arrive at the airport it was a ghost town with zombies. Everyone walking like they they were in a daze. People were waiting by their flight area, or in comfy chairs sleeping. And there were business men in suits typing so fast on their keyboard their hands were all just one blur.

Then I heard a voice come over the loudspeaker. Flight 218 boarding. That's when I really started to become nervous.