Daring to Hope (Standing Up to Life Book 2)

Chapter 27:

Part III: Movie Stars

EVENTUALLY I MUST have fallen completely asleep, because Dad came in and did this, "Tiffany it's time to wake up," thing that drove me nuts! Though this morning was a little different because I realized just what day it was. With that thought I quickly hurried through getting ready to go on the trip.

We had all been told that we'd need to wear 'dressier' clothes for the trip today, Friday, and Saturday. Sunday could be casual, but the rest of the days we needed to be wearing nicer attire. Again, no one really gave us any real reason for it, just that we should do it.

Of course, this didn't bother me a bit. I could be as pretty as I wanted to be! I had a cute dress I decided to wear for today, had a skirt and blouse combination for tomorrow, and another skirt and blouse for Saturday. I really enjoyed getting my hair just right that morning since I loved my new hairstyle. By the time I got into the car to drive to the airport I was bouncing off the walls.

When we pulled up to the airport parking lot, I put my backpack on and rolled my two suitcases behind me. Mom was carrying the bag that had our dresses in it, as well as dad's tux, and pulling another bag. Dad in the meantime grabbed the last two bags along with his extraordinarily heavy briefcase bag. I'd tried to pick it up to move it earlier and had barely been able to move it across the room, let alone carrying it on a trip!

I had peeked in there and saw that he had his new laptop in there that he got last week. It was an IBM laptop that was running the windows version that had been released a few weeks earlier. It was definitely a shiny new toy, and I was more than a little bit jealous of him having it. The laptop was a lot lighter than one of the old 'portable' computers he used to have for work. This was actually light enough to carry around – but it still added up in his bag.

Next to that he had two gigantic parts catalogs that he was looking through for some project he was doing. He also had notebooks and other things; all in all, it easily weighed fifty pounds! I had told him he should leave some of it at home – but he didn't seem to agree. As long as I didn't have to carry it, I guess I didn't care that much.

We were just getting ready to walk towards the counter when I heard footsteps running up behind me. Amy was positively bouncing too as we all went up to the counter together. Amy's dad had everyone's tickets – his friend had sent them to him. He handed my dad all of our tickets for us to check in with. Once the clerk printed off the boarding passes, I asked my dad to see mine.

"We're in first class?" I asked my dad incredulously.

He smiled, "That's one of the cool things that Mattel set up for us on this trip."

"Cool." I said to him. "Amy did you know that we're in first class?" I said as I walked over to her.

"Are you serious?" I nodded. "Oh, this'll be so much better than the Florida trip then. I've only gotten to fly first class once, but it was really cool!" she told me.

The two of us just began talking about nothing while we waited for the rest of the group to show up. We didn't have to wait long since Ashley and Nikki arrived with parents in hand shortly after that.

"Tiffany, I love your hair!" Nikki told me. "Ooh and you two got your nails done too?" She asked jealously. Ashley and Nikki both looked at both of our nails in admiration.

"Next time you two get your nails done you have to invite us too, okay?" Ashley said.

"Okay," I told them.

As their parents checked everyone in, I asked Ashley, "Where are your sisters staying while you're gone?"

"Oh, they're staying at home. Dad said he thought he could trust them. They were given instructions to not have any 'wild parties' this weekend." She then whispered to me, "they are going to have some friends over tomorrow night though." She giggled a bit with that.