Chosen to Control

The Eruption (Redone)

Chapter 3


The Eruption





“You’ve got to be kidding me!” shouted Nick at the American Airlines representative behind the check in desk.

“I am sorry sir, but it seems that we overbooked the flight and seeing as you arrived later than all the other passengers we do not have space for you on this flight,” said the lady handing back Nick his airplane tickets.

“So what am I supposed to do now?” asked Nick with extreme irritation shoving his tickets into his carry-on bag.

“Well let me see if I can rebook you for another, later, flight today. Let me just look it up on the computer.”

Nick looked up to the ceiling grabbing his dark brown curly hair and in utter frustration asked, “What did I do to deserve this?”

“Well there are only three flights today to Honolulu. There are several connection flights each day to the different islands in the state. The first flight of the day left early this morning, the second flight is the one you were originally booked for, and the third flight leaves tonight at ten at night.”

“So my only option is to take the red-eye flight?”

“We could always reschedule your flight for tomorrow if you would like.”

“Listen lady, I already checked my suitcases and I don’t want to go through the stupid security gates all over again tomorrow. Switch me over to ten o’clock flight.”

“Alright sir. Now just give me a few moments so that I can print out the new tickets for you. I just need to make sure that they switch over your luggage to the new airplane.”

“So what am I going to do for the next six hours while I wait for my new flight?”

“Well, seeing as this has obviously caused a lot of trouble for you, the airline will upgrade you to first class at no cost and you will be able to wait for your next flight in the Admiral’s Club Lounge located right across from your new gate. Here are your tickets, and again, I apologize on behalf of American Airlines for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Nick snatched his ticket from the lady and stormed off towards the Admiral’s Club Lounge. He reached into his pocket and began to dial his house number. “Dad. Hey it’s Nick. Listen, it turns out my flight was overbooked, so they changed me to the ten o’clock flight tonight. They upgraded me to first class though. I am going to call Uncle Jorge now. I’ll talk to you later Dad. Bye.

“Now for Uncle Jorge…” said Nick as he began to dial his uncle’s number.

“Hello.”

“Tio, hey it’s Nick.”

“Yo Nick what’s up with you? Are you about to board your plane?”

“No, turns out my flight was overbooked and they had to reschedule me for the ten o’clock flight to Honolulu.”

“Oh that sucks man. Well just hang in there. I will be at the airport when you arrive. Thanks for giving me the heads up. Well I am going to have to let you go. Bye.”

“Yea, I am arriving at the Admiral’s Club Lounge. Bye tio.” Nick hung up the phone with his uncle and walked in through the automatic doors into the lounge. “Wow this place is nice.” He looked around in awe and saw this beautiful girl sitting over in the corner of the lounge by herself in a small armchair listening to music on her IPod.

Nick made his way over to the short, light brown haired beauty. He sat down next to her and said, “Did it hurt?”

The girl looked over at him and took her earpiece out of her ear and asked, “What was that?”

“I asked if it hurt.”

“You’re kidding me right?” asked the girl starting to give a weak laugh, “I haven’t heard a corny pick up line like that one in a while.” Nick immediately began to turn red and reached over for his bags to move someone else when the girl put her hand on his knee and asked, “Where are you going? You gave me a good laugh and you’re kind of cute. You can stay. Why don’t we start over? What’s your name?”

“I’m Nick and what’s your name?”

“Vanessa. Nice to meet you.”

Nick began to stare at her beautiful almost grey eyes and asked, “So where are you headed?”

“Home.”

“Where’s home?”

“Hawaii. Where are you headed?”

“I’m headed for Hawaii too. My uncle moved over there a few years back. Are you a native?”

“Oh no. Both my parents are from Cuba and I was born and raised here. It’s just that my dad’s job made us move over to the Islands a few years ago. It kind of sucks, but I made friends really quickly. What time is your flight at?”

“Well originally I my flight was now at four, but it was overbooked, so now I am heading over at ten. That is why I am here. They upgraded me to first class because they messed up. It really doesn’t bother me that much anymore. Now I can sleep comfortably on the flight.”

Vanessa began to giggle and said, “I am on that flight too. What a coincidence. Let me see your ticket to see where you are sitting.”

Nick pulled his ticket out of his back pocket and handed it to Vanessa who had just pulled hers out. She held them up next to each other and they looked at the seat numbers.

“It’s one coincidence after another I guess,” said Vanessa laughing even harder.

“Oh wow, we are sitting next to each other on the flight too,” said Nick with a big grin on his face, “Well it’s pretty good that I do not have to sit next to some old lady.”

Nick and Vanessa continued to talk for the remaining hours before the flight and even had dinner together. Then, when the time came, they boarded the plane together and sat down in their seats right next to each other. After the flight took off, they leaned their seats back and raised their armrest. They cuddled up with each other and covered themselves with a blanket. Vanessa had fallen asleep in Nick’s arms in almost no time and they both slept like that for the remainder of the flight.

As they got off the plane, Nick asked, “So Vanessa, which island are you headed to?”

“Well seeing as my home is in Oahu, that is where I will be going,” said Vanessa grabbing Nick’s hand.

Nick turned to look at her with a slight spark in his eye, “Hey my uncle lives in Oahu too! Maybe you can give me your cell number and we can meet up again later in the week.”

“Oh my God!” said Vanessa grabbing onto Nick’s other hand and jumping up and down, “Here, let me give you my number. Why don’t we meet up tomorrow actually?”

“Sounds good to me. What time does our connection leave at?”

“It leaves at nine why?”

“Well, it’s only eight fifty,” said Nick beginning to run and pull Vanessa behind him towards the gate.

“Oh crap!” said Vanessa as she began to sprint in her high heels over to the gate. They made it just in time and got prepared for the thirty minute flight to Oahu. The flight went smoothly and they spent the time getting to know each other better and planning what they were going to do the next day.

When the flight landed, they left for their baggage carousel. When the bags started moving on the conveyor belt, the first bags were bright pink and heart shaped. “Oh good! They didn’t lose my bags!” shouted Vanessa in excitement. Nick walked over to the bags and began pulling them off the carousel.

“Jeez! Why do you have so many bags Vanessa?”

“A girl needs her clothes and accessories!”

“But seven bags?!?”

“The more the merrier,” said Vanessa with a huge grin on her face. They continued to wait for Nick’s luggage for about an hour. Then the conveyor belt stopped. “You’re kidding me! They lost my luggage!” shouted Nick pissed off.

“Yo Nick!” said a voice. Nick turned around and saw his uncle standing there with his baseball cap and sunglasses.

“Hey tio!” said Nick walking over to say hello to his uncle, “Can you believe that they lost my luggage after they overbooked my flight. This airline sucks! After all the crap I went through, they ended up losing my clothes.”

“I didn’t think meeting me was a burden,” said Vanessa walking up behind Nick with a cart full of her pink suitcases and bags, “Sorry about that.”

“Oh no, I didn’t mean that Vanessa!” said Nick with a red face, “Oh tio, this is Vanessa. She lives here, and her parents are from Cuba also. Vanessa, this is my uncle, Jorge.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Vanessa getting ready to shake hands with Jorge who grabbed her hand and kissed it.

“What are you doing tio?” asked Nick pushing his uncle a little bit, “You’re way too old for her. Can’t you aim for thirty year olds or something?”

“Oh Nick, he was just being polite,” said Vanessa smiling at Jorge.

“Thank you Vanessa,” said Jorge, “We have to get a move on Nick. Say bye to your friend.” Nick kissed Vanessa on the cheek and said bye. He then headed off with his uncle for the airport’s garage and hopped into his uncle’s Jeep Wrangler.

“She was cute,” said Jorge, “You have some good taste right there. If I was your age…”

“I know, you would be all over her,” finished Nick, “By the way, we are going to be going out tomorrow. She has this really nice thing planned for us. It’s a surprise though.”

Jorge continued to drive for another twenty minutes before he announced their arrival to his small house. “I’ll make you some lunch Nick, and then we can head over to the mall to get you some clothes seeing as your bags were lost,” said Jorge. After lunch they went over to the mall and bought Nick some clothes. They headed back home, had dinner and then went to sleep.

The next morning, Nick’s cell phone began to ring at four in the morning waking him up. “Hello?” answered Nick pretty much still asleep, “Who is this?”

“Good morning Nick, it’s Vanessa. Listen, I looked up your uncle’s house in the yellow pages and I am out in the front yard. Get dressed so we can head out to my secret spot.”

“Do you always get up at this time?” asked Nick somewhat irritated while climbing out of his bed.

“Only when I want to share a romantic moment with someone special,” said Vanessa before she hung up on Nick. Nick quickly got dressed and climbed out of his window after leaving a note on his bed.

“So what do you want to show me?” asked Nick after he met up with Vanessa.

“Follow me,” said Vanessa grabbing his hand and walking up the volcano the island lies on. After a while, they reached a chain link fence with a gate and a sign that said, “DO NOT ENTER: RESTRICTED AREA”.

Vanessa kept on walking towards it and began to climb over the fence. “What are you doing?” asked Nick, “It’s a restricted area.”

“Don’t worry. They only say that because it is close to the mouth of the volcano, but nothing ever happens. I’ve done this before a few times,” said Vanessa reassuring Nick. Nick seemed worried, but walked over to the fence and quickly climbed over.

Vanessa looked up at the sky and began to run yelling, “Hurry Nick, time is almost up!” He ran up the mountain after her. After a few minutes of running, Vanessa sat down on a large rock and looked straight out towards the ocean. Nick quickly sat next to her and saw a relatively small, clear rock on the large rock Vanessa was seated on.

Nick reached over and grabbed the rock as he sat down next to Vanessa. She put her hand on his knee and said, “Look out into the ocean and watch what is going to happen.”

Nick looked out and saw the sun begin to rise. Immediately, a bright light from the sun came and blinded them for a few seconds. Nick quickly looked down at his stone and saw that a necklace had appeared with a claw at the end like the ones Bobby and Stephanie had. He immediately placed the stone in the claw and placed the necklace around his neck. He then continued to stare out at the sunrise.

“Isn’t it beautiful,” said Vanessa putting her head on Nick’s shoulder.

“Not more beautiful than you,” said Nick as he kissed her forehead. Vanessa lifted her head and stared into Nick’s eyes. Nick began to lean in towards her and grabbed her chin softly pulling her towards him. They kissed as the sun was rising. After a few moments of kissing, they were knocked off of the rock they were seated on by an unseen force.

“Whoa, what happened and what is that smell?” asked Vanessa completely disoriented.

“Don’t know,” replied Nick, “Do you know if this volcano is active?”

“Oh no,” said Vanessa standing up and brushing dirt off of her skirt, “This is not good. The volcano must be erupting. We have to hurry back.”

Nick bounced up and took off running with Vanessa close by. Suddenly another small quake sent them tumbling to the ground. Nick ended up on his back with his face looking up towards the summit of the volcano. “Oh this isn’t good. A bunch of lava just started spewing out of the volcano.”

“Hurry, we’ve got to tell everyone else!” shouted Vanessa taking off in a full sprint. Nick hurried after her and before long they had reached the fence which they quickly scaled. As soon as they got close to some houses, they began shouting and spreading the news of the eruption, although many people were already in the streets because of the quakes that set off the volcano.

Nick turned around for a quick second and saw that most of the area that they had just been on had been consumed by lava and any trees that were in the nearby area were on fire. He stopped and looked down at his stone. He thought to himself, “If Stephanie and Bobby’s stones controlled nature, then maybe this stone can control something too. Maybe fire.”

Vanessa ran over next to Nick and grabbed onto his arm and asked, “What are you doing? If we don’t get out of here, we’re gonna be goners.”

“Trust me. Give me just a few seconds,” said Nick taking a few steps away from Vanessa and heading uphill. He whispered, “Fire on top of the palm trees, rise several feet and then stop burning the tree in ten seconds.” Nick’s stone glowed and the flames atop of the palm trees, and only the palm trees, rose up towards the sky for exactly ten seconds and then suddenly disappeared.

“Since that worked,” said Nick, “all of the lava coming from the volcano, stop coming towards town, stop leaving the volcano’s mouth, and stop burning everything around you.” Nick’s stone glowed and immediately afterward, the fountain of lava shooting up in the mouth of the volcano subsided and the lava that had already left the volcano and was only a few yards from where they were standing stopped flowing towards the town.

“It stopped!” shouted Vanessa beginning to cry with happiness. Nick turned around and she jumped into his arms.

Nick whispered into her ear while he was carrying her, “I’ll let you in on a little secret, I stopped the volcano.”

Vanessa pulled her away from him and looked at him in the eye wiping away a tear and asked, “What did you say?”

“I said I stopped the volcano and the lava.”

“Wait, are you going crazy or something? Oh I knew it was too good to be true,” said Vanessa beginning to cry even more and walk away from Nick.

Nick grabbed her shoulder and said, “No, trust me. You see my necklace. I just figured out it lets me control fire.”

“Where did you get that? You didn’t have that on earlier.”

“I know. I found it up on the mountain. Let me show you what it does,” said Nick pulling out a lighter from his pocket. He struck the lighter and a small flame appeared. “Watch my necklace as I talk and after it glows, look at the flame. Flame, get bigger.” His stone glowed and the flame immediately got a bit bigger.

“I don’t fall for cheap tricks like that. Where did you buy that, Party City?”

“No, look. Can a normal lighter make a flame create a circle with a hole in the middle?” asked Nick. His stone glowed and the flame transformed into a flaming ring right there on his lighter. “I also don’t think that a flame can continue to exist without a lighter or something feeding it,” said Nick as he pulled away his lighter and put it in his pocket while the flame remained suspended in the air.

“Oh my God. You’re telling the truth,” replied Vanessa staring at the ring of fire suspended in the air. Nick made it disappear and Vanessa jumped into his arms. “Oh this makes you that much better. My boyfriend now has a super power and saved my home. This is great!” Nick kissed her and they walked back together to his uncle’s house.

“Where the hell have you been?” asked Nick’s uncle when he came back.

“Sorry tio, we went to go see the sunrise in Vanessa’s secret spot.”

“It’s all my fault Jorge, sorry about that,” said Vanessa taking the blame.

“Don’t sweat it. As long as he isn’t dead, I am happy,” replied Jorge.

“I should head home,” said Vanessa.

“I’ll see you later then?” asked Nick as Vanessa walked off.

“I’ll be waiting for your call,” she replied as she got into her car. She smiled and drove off towards her house in her Mustang convertible. Nick called her as she drove off and said, “Let’s meet at the mall tomorrow for a movie.” Vanessa laughed and agreed.

For the rest of Nick’s vacation in Hawaii, he spent most of his time with Vanessa meeting her friends and having a good time. After the break was over, he headed back home and when he arrived, his dad said, “Nick, good to see you. A few minutes ago, your friend Jessica called and said that you should meet her at her house tomorrow at around lunch time.”

“What for Dad?” asked Nick.

“Didn’t say. She sounded nervous or upset about something though.”