Away

7.

Isabella

I woke up to the sound of ruckus coming from around the house. I groaned and flipped over, pulling my pillow over my head. My door was open, something I accidentally did because I stayed up too late doing that drawing. It was the weekend, and it was also Christmas break. I didn't know if the Hollands celebrated Christmas because there wasn't much around decorated.

I rolled my foot out of the covers and onto the floor. Instead of the soft carpet, I felt something cold on the edge of my foot. I peered down. My foot hit the edge of the plate that was once filled with sausages and mash potatoes. My eyes were a little blurry. I thought it was because I was sleepy, but then I realized I left my contacts in, and my eyes were dry.

I ran to the bathroom, still not fully awake. I carefully took my contacts out and placed them in their case. I found my eye drops nearby and dropped some in my eyes. I then put my glasses on.

I went back to my room to see what a form of a mess I made in my daze last night. If it wasn't for Paddy's note telling me where dinner was, I probably would have gave up on eating for the night.

I picked up my flopped open sketchbook to see my drawing from yesterday. I had drawn the picture on the home page of The Brothers Trust website. It took up the whole page, something my drawings did often. I had started with Tom's sweater; that way I could do each of the brothers' forms in the sweater without having to worry about if I spaced them too close or too far away. I even added what little color was on the original imagine to my drawing with watercolor.

All in all, the drawing was the longest I ever took do draw anything. I wanted it to be perfect; which I think it was.

A knock at my door made me slam my sketchbook shut. "Izzybella, are you awake?"

The door was open and anyone could see in, so I don't know why Paddy knocked.

"What's begins your back," he questioned.

I hadn't even realized I put it behind my back. I turned it over so he could see. "A sketchbook."

"Okay, well, what's in it? What'd you draw yesterday that took you hours into the night to finish?"

"It wasn't hours into the night." Actually, it probably was closer to midnight. I did a lot of erasing and redrawing to get it the way I wanted.

"I can only assume it took you hours because of how late in the morning it is right now. In fact, we have thirty minutes until we're leaving for London."

My eyes widened. I guess today was not a day a washed my hair. "Okay. I'll be ready by then. Promise."

As Paddy was leaving the room, he turned back and said, "By the way, I like your glasses. Makes you look more . . . wise."

I blushed. I heard some of his conversation with Brianna yesterday. Bits and pieces. I did, however, here him say he liked me. And, after lots of thought (maybe even the fact that I took the longest to draw him yesterday because he needed to be perfect), I realized I liked him too.

I quickly took a shower, not washing my hair but accidentally cutting my legs when trying to shave in a hurry. I brushed my teeth while keeping a towel wrapped around me and put my glasses on. Afterward, I changed into black skinny jeans with holes in the knees, a black crop top like shirt that I covered with a jean jacket, and black combat boots. I found the black, leather, mini backpack I had packed. I put my wallet that held my ID, passport, and all my money that was changed into pound sterling.

I hopped down the stairs. I grabbed a granola bar from the pantry and walked to the back where Paddy was. He kept kicking the soc--football into the goal, then would walk to the goal, retrieve the ball, and repeat the process all over again.

"Were you really that bored waiting for me?" I asked with a laugh.

He continued to hit the ball in the goal. "And my mom." He tossed me the ball. "Show me what you got."

A cold breeze blew; I wanted to pull my jacket tighter instead of holding the ball. He walked to the goal.

"No," I said. "You didn't get a goalie, therefor I don't get a goalie."

He threw his hands up in surrender and walked to the side. I placed the ball on the grass and kicked it.

Would I be proud to say it went in the goal? Yes. Yes, I would. Did it go in the goal? No. No, it did not.

It ricocheted off of the gate to the side of the goal and bounced into the flower bed. Paddy laughed while I tried not to smile at my fail.

"I don't have good coronation," I tried to cover up.

"Clearly."

"Paddy," Nikki said behind me. Judging from how far away her voice was, she was at the door. "Be nice."

I turned to look at her. "It's okay, Mrs. H. I know I suck."

Paddy stood beside me. "We ready to go now?" he asked.

"Why are you so excited to go to London? You act like you haven't been there before," said Nikki. She did have a point.

He shrugged then padded my back lightly. "Maybe I just can't wait to show Bella around."

I couldn't wait for him to show me around.

"Well then. I guess this means we can leave now."

Getting to London didn't take long. In fact, we got there in thirty minutes. I thought it was going to be a lot longer. We helped Nikki set up for her photoshoot she would be shooting. Then she set us free. We were near the big Ferris wheel, which Paddy laughed when I said, "Let's go to the Ferris wheel."

"It's called the London Eye," he had said.

We were now in line. With it just opening for the day, there was already a small line. I kept looking up at the wheel.

"Are you afraid of heights?" Paddy asked.

"No. Just I keep thinking about how a Ferris wheel could topple over if a villain comes to London."

"You mean . . . like in a movie? Like in Far From Home?"

I realized I made that reference. "No, no, no. Like in Shazam! How the wheel toppled over after getting struck by lightning."

"You watch too many movies that have those types of scenarios."

We moved forward in the line. We would be on the next buggy. "So what if I do."

We walked on to the buggy. There was about fifteen other people in with us. We clung to the part that over looked the river so we could get a good view of what was on the other side of the river. From here, I could already see the Big Ben. I took a deep breath as the wheel started moving, moving on to fit more people in the next cart. I didn't take a deep breath because we were moving rather because of what I said next.

"Paddy, I need to tell you something."