airplanes

Boarding the plane, my thoughts were muddled, fear of flying, nervousness of how the trip would go, who would I share my room with? Whom would I sit next to on the plane? I was not exactly the most popular girl in the class. I found my seat 35-B window seat, I would probably let the other person sitting next to me have it since I would not be looking out much. I put my small carry-on luggage in the top, and got myself comfortable, took my jacket off, got my book out of my purse, and tried to focus on the words on the page. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched, as the plane got fuller, I knew most of the students, just because they were in my classes, just acquaintances, acquaintances who borrowed a pencil or scantron. They were classmates who I would be in a group with for a project. I did my part and they theirs, we presented our finished _______ and went our separate ways.
Then I saw someone who I had known for so long, but still didn’t have the guts to have a full conversation with. His name was Jake; our fathers worked together at a law firm and had been good friends for years. They had gone to high school and college together and now practicing at the same firm. We would have them over for dinners, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, but Jake and I had never really clicked. Our parents would have liked it but we were in two different worlds, in and outside of school, I was more of a bookworm and he was a jock. Every girl fantasized about being his girlfriend; even just have him say “hey” was a big deal. I on the other hand did not really care. Ok maybe I did, but not anymore. I had given up on the dream that he would notice me, talk to me at the family dinners, sit next to me in class and talk to me, say something more than “what page are we on?” Eventually I realized that he and I were far to different and such things would never happen.
But I was snapped out of my thoughts when I heard someone say “hey Emily” I looked up and saw Jake standing there. “Mind if I sit with you for a few minutes?” My mouth suddenly went out of order, so I just nodded, and moved to the sit next to me. Your dad told me that you have a fear of flying and asked me to take care of his little girl” Jake said in a joking manner, I turned bright pink and wished I could hide under my seat. He was asking me something but I didn’t hear him. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“So why do you have such a fear of flying?”
“Well, when I was about six years old my dad built the treehouse in our backyard. I helped with the painting, if you would call what I did painting. Then one afternoon I was trying to get down, but my foot slipped so I fell pretty hard. I broke my leg and a bit of a head injury. So ever since then I never went in to the treehouse and feared heights, I know flying is different, but I figure that at this great height one little mistake we are goners.”
“Well, you wont have to worry about anything like that” Jake said so sure.
“I hope you are right,” I said. Then Cindy Flantine walked up to our row and said “Jake, I’m afraid that this my seat, unfortunately.” She and I had been enemies since elementary school. She picked on me for years, about my hair, my clothes, and everything else she could think of. You would think that as she got older she would mature and stop but it was the complete opposite, she just became dumber. I had already embarresed in front of Jake one time thanks to my dad, now I was humiliated, and not just in front of Jake but in front of the other students, who had heard her and began to laugh. I turned my head towards the window and waited for Jake to start laughing to and get up so that which could take her seat, but instead he said, “Cindy, do you mind if we switch seats, I don’t really like the middle seats.”
Cindy, me and everyone else on the plane were shocked that Jake Sanderson would want to sit next to me, whether he liked the middle seats or not. She grabbed Jakes seat ticket and went to find her new seat. I didn’t know what to say so I just kept quiet and looked out the window. I saw other planes begin to take off, and head for the skies, which we would also be very soon. Jake sat back in his seat, adjusted it to his preference and waited for the plane to begin to take off.
The seatbelt sign turned on, and the plane began to move. I closed the shutter (change) and sat back in my seat. Jake could probably feel my nervousness because he put his warm hand over my mine and said “relax, everything’s going to be fine.”
My heartbeat quickened even more, I tried to show that I was relaxing but how could I? Jake Sanderson was holding my hand! After a few minutes, which to me felt like eternity, we were airborne. Jake slowly let my hand go and said “see you did it.” I thanked him and tried to read my book that I had saved for this trip. My mom had gotten in for me for Christmas; the author autographed it. It was the third of the trilogy.