Floating in the Abyss ✔️

Chapter 19

After taking lots of photos and going through my favourites, Laura suggested we be productive and get some stuff sorted before we get home.

"You don't have to worry about school right now. There are only three or so weeks left of this term and then three weeks of holidays so you can go back at the start of next term." She explained. My heart skipped a beat with the idea of school, both nerves and a tad of excitement. I enjoyed school most of the time. "What we can do now though, is put all the boys phone numbers in your phone. That way you'll be able to call and text them, just like you could with Morgan back at the hospital."

"Okay." I smiled. She got me to do it since apparently i would learn nothing if Laura did it for me, so she read out the names and numbers of all 5 boys and Chris whilst I typed them. I already had hers and Morgan's in my contacts from when I got the phone.

"We can text them all later so that they have your number. When we get land, another police officer is going to meet us and then we will get escorted out, just like before. Then we can grab our bags and go meet Chris!" Laura said excitedly.

"Are any of the boys coming?" I asked.

"No. The end of the sport season is this weekend and their school treats it as a huge event."

"What do you mean?"

"So that they can monitor everything the boys do as preparation for the game and all their training, they all stay together at school. There's a special building specifically for this time of yeah where they sleep at school."

"How long do they stay?" I asked. It sounded kind of frightening to me.

"Two nights. All the families go and watch the big game. I was thinking you might like to come?"

"Yes, please." I nodded. I wanted to see the school and I figured it would be the first time I got to really see my brothers. I was also kind of glad that I got to find my way around my new home without a heap of people there. I figured Chris would still be working and I was comfortable enough with Laura.

"The competition is on Sunday and then they'll all be home, but they still have school. Maybe on Monday you, Chris and I can go to the shopping centre and go to Ikea."

"Ikea?"

"It's a big store and we can get all the furniture for your room there. Speaking of rooms, I said a while ago that there was a room upstairs and one downstairs. They're identical rooms, just one is up and one is down. It's up to you which one you would like." I thought about it, but I also remembered her telling me this, and I knew the downstairs one was next to hers. That just felt safer.

"Maybe the downstairs one if that's okay?"

"Of course!" She nodded. "Do you want anything to eat?" Laura pulled the menu card out of the pocket on the chair in front. Together we flipped through it.

"What are those?" I asked, pointing to a colourful brown packet.

"M&M's. They're chocolate, but I have this for you remember." She handed me a Caramello bar, identical to the one I'd had at the hotel yesterday.

"Oh yeah." I smiled. "Thankyou."

"You're welcome. What about these?" She pointed to another packet labelled cheese and crackers, so I nodded my head and she called for the hostess. Not long after, the cheese and crackers were brought to us and I ate them. They weren't super sweet, but I still liked them a lot. After I had eaten those, I went back to slowly devouring the Caramello.

"Not long until we land." Laura told me after taking off her headphones. I figured her movie had just finished.

"How long?" I asked, but before she could respond, the loudspeaker went off again.

"Cabin crew please prepare for landing." The loudspeaker voiced. Lots of people quickly stood up to go to the bathroom and put away bags, but after about 10 minutes everyone was seated with their seatbelts on. Slowly I could feel the plane start to go down and I watched out the window as the ground got closer. A loud rumbling started but stopped, and Laura told me that the noise was the sound of the wheels appearing at the bottom of the plane.

"Get ready." Laura smiled, holding my hand. In a matter of seconds we were on the ground, after a loud thump and rumble. I jolted as we landed but stayed smiling.

I'd had my first ever plane ride.

Getting off the plane took a long time, but it was nice to stand up after we finally were allowed off. It was getting dark here, since we had been on the plane all day.

We walked through and once people started to spread out, we noticed the police officer. It was a male this time, but he seemed friendly. He took us through the same process as we did with Sarah, only you didn't have to go through security to leave the airport. We skipped the queues at immigration and whilst he talked, I waited. Then we were finally allowed through to collect our bag. There was a huge hall lined the massive carousels, some empty and others full of luggage. People surrounded every one and Laura directed me to ours. We waited about 15 minutes before our bag appeared and we were on our way. There was one more bit we needed to go through, so the police officer did some more talking and then we were on our way.

Laura thanked the officer for helping us, and then we walked through on our own.

"Laura!" A voice called, as we exited the hallway. I recognised the voice as Chris's and then my eyes met his. We hurried over to him and he crushed Laura in a big hug. "Hi Ash." He smiled.

"Hi." I smiled back. He gave me a gentle hug and took the bag off Laura.

"Let's go home." He smiled.