Jordan's POV:
"Jordan wake up... Jordan come on I'm bored"
"Fuck off I climbed a mountain yesterday let me sleep" I heard footsteps leaving the room, only to hear them return again minutes later and hear some paper rustling
"Right, are you going to throw the dart or am I?" I sat up suddenly, my eyes still adjusting. I looked around the room I'd called home for the past week, wondering for a second where I would be waking up tomorrow.
I took the dart from Lauren's hand and threw it at the map she had stuck to the wall. Australia.
"Urgh throw it again that's boring" Lauren could never settle for anything mediocre
"I don't know, I'd quite like to go" I replied hoping that would be enough to change her mind. Nope.
"It's expensive, and who goes to Australia on a gap year? We're meant to be going to cool places that no ones ever heard of! You expect me to go from Nicaragua to Australia? It's going to seem so boring after this place"
"You know the rule Lauren, wherever the dart lands, we go"
"Fine, I guess there are snakes there, that's kinda cool" Lauren walked out of my small square bedroom in the house of a really sweet family who'd let us stay here for free, and into hers right next door.
I could hear her singing as she stuffed all her stuff into a backpack, and some other stuff into the suitcase we shared. We were trying to minimise the amount of stuff we took: a hiking backpack each, all our hiking gear, and a suitcase full of our regular clothes and supplies that we would need if we found ourselves in a more developed country - which we hadn't planned on doing, but here we go.
So far we'd had a place to stay in every country we'd visited so we could leave the suitcase there while we were on hikes and camping or whatever.
We were only nearly half way through our gap year and we'd already visited 18 countries. We weren't spending a set time in each one so I guess only staying a day in some meant we fit a lot more in - we just left when we got bored.
I rummaged through my drawer to pick up my phone and the slip of paper with the Nicaraguan airport phone number on that I'd collected on the way through.
"Hi, are there any flights out to Australia any time soon?" I asked as the lady picked up
"Umm, don't get your hopes up, we don't often fly there..." The lady had a thick accent so was quite hard to understand, there was a moment of silence "you're in luck, there's one at 3pm this afternoon?"
"That's great, I need two tickets. If I get to the airport soon will they still be available?"
"It's not a busy flight, I should imagine so"
"Great, thank you!" I hung up and started to pack
"Lauren, there's a flight at three we should get there as soon as possible" I shouted into the other room. Lauren appeared in the doorway, making me jump as she spoke
"I'm packed, I'll go ask Nana whether she knows the number of a cab service" Nana was the lady we were staying with, I'd miss her.
I finished packing, which didn't take long and dragged all the stuff outside to wait for the cab Lauren had called, then gathered all of our important stuff like passports and money.
The cab pulled up and we had a hour journey to the airport
"I'm still not happy about this" Lauren moaned
"It'll be great! There's loads to do there, maybe we could master surfing"
"The only good thing about Australia is the guys, and the warmth"
"Well maybe you'll finally meet someone" I smiled with the corner of my mouth and Lauren fake laughed.
The airport was small and busy, we got our tickets which weren't as expensive as we thought since we bought them 2 hours before the flight, so Lauren was happier now.
"Right, I need breakfast" I said as we walked into the departures lounge
"It's lunch time now mate" Lauren was trying out her Australian accent-it wasn't too great, I laughed. We looked around and Lauren's eyes light up when she saw a pancake shop she turned to me, smiling
"Pleaaaaseee" I nodded and we went to get our pancakes.
The 2 hour wait went really quickly and before we knew it we were on the plane.
"I better not get a baby, next to me I swear if it starts crying I'll murder it"
"Calm down, Jordan." Lauren laughed "if you do I'll swap places with you" Lauren was good with kids seeing as she had 3 younger brothers and possibly the biggest extended family I'd ever seen. I'd never had much experience with kids as my only brother is 2 years older than me and I have the most disjointed family ever.
The plane had just about finished boarding and the seat next to me was still empty when a girl who looked just a little older than us ran down the isle. She checked her ticket and then checked the seat number and sat down next to me.
She was pretty, black hair and hazel eyes, wearing a black vest top with dark green shorts, the sort of thing we wore hiking, and black vans.
She put her stuff under the seat and dropped her hat whilst doing so, it fell on my lap so I handed it back to her,
"Thanks" she smiled "I'm Hollie" she was clearly Australian
"Hi, I'm Jordan and this is Lauren" I said gesturing to Lauren who was trying to find her book, she turned as she heard her name
"Hi" they said simultaneously, I laughed, we all went back to our business.
Throughout the flight we had a few short conversations with Hollie, returning to Australia to surprise her boyfriend (she'd gone travelling for 2 years and they'd decided to stay together, he thought she was coming back in six months, but she wanted to surprise him). We told her about what we were doing and she said we were welcome to stay in her flat for a while if we didnt mind sharing a bedroom cause she had extra space, we didnt have any other plans so accepted the offer. Never thought I'd say yes to staying with a stranger who I'd met on a plane, in a country the other side of the world to my own but hey, life's about adventures.
Hey :) hope you enjoyed the first chapter, sorry it's boring so far but it'll get better I promise! thank you for reading x
