Reluctance

My mom wrapped me in one last bear hug.

"Yes, Mom, I'll be fine. I won't talk to strangers or accept drugs from anyone, I promise." I said quietly. 

"Felicia, I'm just so worried about you, but I guess I'll have to be strong, huh?" Mom  laughed softly while saying the latter part of the sentence, but still dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. 

I didn't understand why Mom got like this, since it was her idea to send me off to a boarding school in the first place. 

The stewardess called the final chance to board the plane, which was my escape from my mother's extremely tight embrace. With one final wave, I walked with my escort (given that I was sixteen years old and still counted as an unaccompanied minor) until I reached the plane. Stopping right before I stepped onto the plane, I knocked the cold metal side of it, a good luck charm my dad taught me when I was young. After being given an impatient look from the escort, I boarded, found my seat quickly, and sat down. I set my small denim backpack by my feet and clicked the seatbelt into place, because hey, safety first. Sinking a little more into the seat, I thought of my mother. I really loved the doughy woman that always seemed to have her hair in a curly knot, and a little too much blush on. She never would call me Felix, my preferred nickname. 

"Oh, darling, Felix is a boy's name, Felicia is so elegant! I'll never understand why you ask people to call you Felix…" she'd say. I didn't really care though, but only my mom could call me Felicia. 

Once Mom heard of this special school for extra-talented kids, she just had to send her only daughter off to 'fulfill her true potential' or something like that, which really lowered the awesome mom title I had given her. I had never even been to summer camp, and would have loved to just stay home and play video games in my basement. But no, send your daughter off to the other side of the country for a year instead of getting her a normal birthday present, like a regular person would do, why don't you? I could hardly refuse this so-called 'present', since it was paid for already, and Mom was already so happy about it. All I could do was smile and feign excitement. But now that I was out of Mom's range, I could drop the facade. Hot tears started welling up in my eyes, but before they could fall, a little golden-haired girl was sat next to me by an escort. The girl seemed to be about 6 years old, and judging by the pink monogrammed coat she had on, her name was Haley. 

I nonchalantly wiped my eyes, trying to get rid of the wetness that had collected there. I hated crying in front of other people. It was pretty silent for a couple of minutes, except for the murmur of other passengers settling on the plane. I decided to people-watch until the plane took off.

"Are you an albino?" The little girl named Haley asked.

"Excuse me?" I replied, sort of surprised.

"You look like one of those albino people." Haley said with a bright smile. 

"No, I'm definitely not."  I giggled, returning the smile. This actually wasn't the first time I had been asked that question. My platinum-blonde hair and complexion of white-out led a lot of people into believing that I was albino, but if one paid attention to my cherry lips and dark green eyes, they would see that I was not, in fact, a freaking albino. But I decided to let this one slide, since the asker was an adorable little child.

"Oh." Haley said, a disappointed look forming on her face. "I was kinda hoping you were."

"Sorry kiddo."

A couple of moments passed until Haley spoke up again.

"Why are you dressed like that? Aren't you supposed to be comfortable on a plane?"

"This is comfortable." I said looking down, rubbing my jeans.

"Oh." Haley said again. "Okay."

I spent a while with Haley asking a question, me giving her an answer, and Haley responding with "Oh."