In The Stage Lights

Chapter 25

I spent most of the next two weeks helping Mrs. Kai with classes, hanging out with Hannah, and breaking up fights between my parents. I caught myself thinking multiple times that the end of the visit couldn't come soon enough.

"Bye Courtney, remember what I told you okay?" I say, hugging her goodbye as my dad puts my bag in the trunk of the car. She nods.

"Call you if I need anything."

"And?"

"Take care of myself and Jake." I nod and smile.

"I'll miss you."

"Me too." I smile and pet Jake before getting in the car, Atlas jumping onto my lap after me. It's a quiet drive to the airport, my dad quietly playing music through the radio.

"Alright kiddo, you have everything you need?" He asks as we pull up to the airport. I nod, going through my mental checklist.

"I'm not a kid anymore dad."

"Okay," He says laughing. "I'll miss you. I'm not sure when I'll be able to come visit again." He says after a second.

"I'll miss you too." I say truthfully, before he hugs me.

"Alright kiddo, you're gonna miss your flight." I nod and clip Atlas' leash on before opening the door. My dad hands me Atlas' crate and I grab it along with my bag. I wave before walking into the airport.

It was a quiet flight, I fell asleep pretty quickly after we took off. I wake up to the guy next to me shaking my shoulder. I quickly realized that there's a lot of turbulence and the air masks had fallen.

"I figured I should wake you, in case anything happens." I nod and sit up a little bit. The flight attendants tell us to not take the air masks yet, and to just relax.

"Um, excuse me?" I say as one of them passes.

"Yes?" She asks, holding onto the back of the guy's seat.

"Will my dog be okay?"

"Did he go with the cargo?" I nod. "He's with the rest of the luggage, so he should be fine. Unfortunately we can't check on him, but I know they take a lot of safety precautions with them so there's nothing to worry about." I nod again and smile, thanking her. She walks to the back and I try to relax. After about 45 minutes the captain comes on the speaker.

"This is your captain speaking, I just wanted to say that we are very sorry about the delay in landing. We hope to land in the next half hour, weather permitting. Thank you for your patience." I sigh and take out my book.

As the captain had predicted, we landed half an hour later. Jonathan was kind enough to pick Atlas and I up. Atlas had not had a good flight. He was shaking in my lap on the way back to our apartment.

"How was the visit?" Jonathan askes as he helps carry everything into our apartment.

"Awkward. My parents are getting a divorce but I don't know when. Mrs. Kai was really sweet though."

"How is she doing?" I'd told him about her and he had actually met her through video a few times.

"Moving a bit slower but still just as sassy and maternal as before." He laughs and tells me to relax and unpack while he takes Atlas out.

The next day Jonathan isn't needed at rehearsal so I skateboard to our rehearsal space. Thayne insists on everyone who had brought their skateboard, which was everyone who owns one, to take a picture. I roll my eyes but let him drag me over and take a picture with the other four.

The rest of the rehearsal goes smoothly, we're mostly just reworking some stuff and getting used to the slightly bigger space. Thayne and I had decided to head over to Central Park as we finished early and it was only about 4pm.