The Earth's Secret - The Hidden Island - Book 1

Chapter 1 - The Crash

"All passengers, please be warned that we will be flying through bumpy winds in a few minutes- a storm system that we have to fly around is in our path." The pilot's voice crackled over the intercom. The seat belt sign dinged orange over my head, and I glanced at it before looking pityingly at my friend Charlie. He was struggling to put on his own seat belt, and I dropped my book completely to watch him. It must have been too tight because when we were taking off, he had pulled it as tight as it would go. When he had taken it off, after we had gotten into the air, he had popped it off. Now, he couldn't get it on because he didn't know how to loosen it. I clucked my tongue. His head jerked up and he saw me glancing over. His annoyed face colored quickly.

"Don't judge- I hate mechanisms!"

I rolled my eyes and stuck my nose back into my book. On the seats in front of me and Charlie, mini T-V screens showed a documentary on Egypt. For the first twenty minutes, I had paid attention, but I had studied Egyptian history as a hobby for years, and the documentary just repeated all that I had learned. My book was better than the show, so I had grabbed that as soon as the seat belt sign had turned off and I had been reading since. The book was really good- it was about a man who finds a portal to a mythical land, but somehow, he lost his memory while going through. All that he knows is that he belongs somewhere else, and a friend from his past lives in this mythical land. I was at the part where he finds the man from his past, and he tells him, 'I know I come from somewhere else, and you were there, too.' The friend had lost color in his face- and then the pilot had spoken over the intercom.

I flipped the page to find out what he said back, but something tapped my leg, and I glanced up to find the source of the disturbance. My other friend, Sarah, nudging my leg from the seat in front (the seats were two by two- Laura and Sarah were up front, Charlie and I were in the middle, and our teacher and a student helper were seated behind us). I leaned forward to hear what she had to say, huffily putting my book back in my backpack.

"Hey, Nicole?" Sarah said, a little breathlessly. "How much longer? 'Cause Laura is saying that she really needs to go to the bathroom. Ah, um, I didn't tell her that there are bathrooms on the plane, you know, for a prank. And now I have to look like I am telling you," she added quickly, glancing over her shoulder at the frowning Laura.

I rolled my eyes, checked my watch, and leaned forward more so that my head was sticking between their seats. "Laura, there's a bathroom in between first and second class, and it is around 5 more hours."

Sarah snickered under her breath, and Laura, who had jutted her chin out, was swelling in anger. They started bickering about who was right and who was wrong. When Laura found out about the prank, I pulled my head back. Otherwise, Laura would have taken out my eyeballs. Except for a few scuffles, nothing was audible from the seats in front of me.

I went back to my seat and stared at the documentary. I had always had a hard time reading while being jerked around. In air turbulence, it would be just as bad.

Charlie was still muttering under his breath, and I turned to help him. It was funny to watch him struggle for a little while, but he could get in trouble for not having it on if a flight attendant saw him.

A jolt hit the plane so suddenly that I hit the back of my seat and felt a flash of pain race up my back. When I looked out the window, I saw dark storm clouds gathering, slowly surrounding our plane. The winds buffeted the airplane so hard that I couldn't see straight. The passengers were either yelling, trying to see outside, or as still as stone. Somewhere behind us, a baby was bawling. Charlie fell off of his seat and cursed. Mrs. Sanders, my teacher, and the student teacher, Ms. Kelly, were talking fast and angrily about the storm while somehow comforting a couple across the aisle at the same time. Laura and Sarah had fallen silent. I quickly unbuckled my seat belt to help Charlie get back into the seat and put on his seatbelt. In these winds, we could be seriously thrown around without them on.