The Wrong Misfit

Welcome to England

"Flight 102 to Heathrow Airport, now boarding" The overhead speaker said. The time was 5pm which meant that we would arrive in England at around 7am. But luckily school just ended so I was free to what I want which included sleeping all day as soon as we arrive at our new home. My younger sister, mother and I rose from our seats, getting ready to board the plane. I was the only one not excited about this. We were moving from Manhattan all the way to England because my mother got offered a very high paying job somewhere near London which happened to include a fully furnished home. 

I begged and pleaded with her to let me stay so that I don't have to go to a new school, meet new people, and become familiar with a whole new city. Not to mention I'll stick out like a zebra in a flamingo flock because of my American accent. But she claimed that moving to England would help me with learning new languages. Bullshit. How the hell am I supposed to learn new languages in a country where everyone speaks English? 

As much as I pleaded, she disagreed and here I am boarding the 7-hour flight to England. I guess some good things about moving are that I FINALLY get to get out of the US since I've never been and there will plenty of hotties with cute accents (even though I'm technically not supposed to be on the lookout for them because it would infringe upon my modesty as a Muslim...oh well).

I threw my backpack over my shoulder, grabbed my small carry-on pink suitcase, and walked over to the rest of my family in line at the gate. As we were in line, I decided to look at my ticket to see where my seat is on the plane. Well, at least I get a window seat. Finally, it was my turn to get on the plane. I got my ticket scanned, dragged my suitcase down the weird hallway thing and stepped onto the plane. As I walked down the aisle, I got so many funny looks, well I thought they were funny. I must've had something on my face. Oh wait, they probably think I'm about to blow this joint up because I'm wearing a hijab. Pricks.

I rolled my eyes with a smirk on my face and finally reached my seat. After about 5 minutes, a man who looked in his 30's and a girl who looked about the same age as me fill in the empty seats beside me. They gave me a small smile which I returned and then sat down. The girl then pulled out her iPhone to play Temple Run and the man pulled out his New York Times newspaper. Since everyone else was busy, I decided to take out the book I was reading, The Things They Carried (which is an excellent book by the way). 

I was halfway through completing a chapter when the captain informed us we were going to be leaving soon. I clasped my seatbelt and continued to read my book. A few moments later, the plane began to vibrate and started turning to face the runway. I looked out of my window as the plane began moving faster and faster. My face was glued to the window even after we were above the clouds. It never ceases to amaze me as we rise farther and farther into the atmosphere, obscuring the world below us from sight. Soon, the TV screens lowered down and began a movie which I believe was Inception. Since I am absolutely in love with the movie, I decided to plug in the earphones to hear it.

The movie finally ended and we weren't even halfway there. This is gonna be a long ass flight. Another movie played and it was the first X-Men movie. I've seen the movie a thousand and one times so I thought I should catch up on my reading. After about a half-hour of reading the book, I got kinda bored. So I plugged in my headphones into my iPod and listened to a variety of music. I laid on my arms and head on the pull-out tray on the back of the seat in front of me. I closed my eyes and focused on the music. As I was drifting asleep, I turned off my iPod, looked out the window showing a dark blue sky once more, and laid my head down to sleep.

"Hello passengers. We will be landing at Heathrow Airport in 15 minutes" the captain informed over the loudspeaker. I looked out the window to see that the sky was light blue and the sun was rising. I stretched my legs and gathered my things. The man next to me was folding up his newspaper that he must've read about 20 times since we took off. The girl at the end had her head down but I knew she heard the announcement because she shifted a little, turning in my direction and opened her eyes a little until the announcement ended and closed them once he finished talking. 

I soon began to feel a little anxious. So many mixed emotions were running through me. Am I excited to be here? Am I upset to be moving somewhere foreign? So many questions we running through my mind and I was brought back into reality when the plane hit the pavement of the runway." We have now landed in London. Thank you for flying United Airlines." Let the party begin.