Young Writers Society

Avery was looking out his living room window, waiting for Alex. He was at his parent's house for a few days and he had made sure to let Alex know so that she wouldn't go to his apartment instead.

He tapped his foot, shifted around, stared out some more, checked his watch, et cetera et cetera.

Izzy walked in to the living room, a bowl of strawberry ice cream in her hands. She raised her brows and flopped onto the couch. "Aren't you supposed to get lost now?" She smiled.

Avery rolled his eyes, smirking. "Yeah, Alex is on her way I think."

Right then, a familiar car pulled up in front of the house. "Ah, and here she is."

Avery hoisted his suitcase off the armchair - he didn't know why he put it there in the first place - and secured his baseball hat on his head. It was sunny out.

As he was about to leave the house, Izzy jumped up on him from behind and pulled at his hair. "You didn't say bye!" she said loudly in his ear.

He flinched and crouched down so she could get down easily. "I was getting late, I'm sorry."

"Yeah yeah whatever now hug me goodbye." Izzy put her hands on her hips.

Avery pulled out a chocolate from his bag, gave it to her along with a one-armed hug. Izzy grinned. "Thanks, did you say bye to Mom and Dad?"

"They left early for work, but I was up so I did then."

Izzy nodded, pushed her brother out of the house and slammed the door shut. "Bye!" she yelled.

Avery grinned. "Don't annoy the maid!"

"I won't!"

He jogged over to Alex's car and patted the trunk so she'd open it. He set his suitcase beside Alex's and jogged back to the front of the car sat in the passenger seat. "Hey, sorry I took a while, Izzy was getting 'emotional.'" He made quotes in the air and laughed.

Alex laughed as well, "That sounds like Izzy."

She quickly buckled up and pulled out of the parking spot, "How are you? Excited?"

"Yeah, I was freaking out just yesterday because I didn't pack anything, and spent all night packing up. That's why I 'woke up' early." He laughed pulling out his phone. "What time is our flight?"

“11 o’clock! We’ll arrive there about midnight local time, which is unfortunate,” Alex suddenly sped up to make a light before it turned red, “But we’ll have a full day afterwords to do whatever we want!”

An idea suddenly popped into Alex’s head, “We should go to the beach!” It was a simple idea, but she had never been to a beach before, and was looking forward to it.

"I was thinking we could go to some museum or go to some fancy restaurant because, food, y'know?" He grinned. "Beaches are good too - won't it be too cold, though?"

Avery did a quick search on his phone and pursed his lips. "Never mind. It's supposed to be springy and summery. Not freezing cold. I like the sound of that." He bobbed his head.

“That sounds amazing,” Alex said, “I really need to relax after New York. It’s weird to think that was supposed to be a vacation.”

Alex took a sip from her water bottle, “Maybe we could go to a museum, the beach, and then some fancy seafood place. I bet the food in South Africa is delicious!”

Avery scrunched up his nose. "You know how much I hate seafood but okay," he said. "How much did Charles give us for helping him with his whole kidnap thing? We could spend some of that money in Cape Town or use it for another vacation."

He shrugged and zipped open his backpack and looked through some of his belongings. Taking out a bag of chips, he offered some to Alex.

“I think he gave us,” Alex took a handful of chips, “Thanks.”

After eating them, she continued, “I think he gave us, like, 15,000 U.S. dollars. We could go scuba diving or something with the money, but I don’t really want to spend it all.”

Avery pursed his lips. "Let's just keep it for emergency purposes."

After a moment of silence, he groaned. "How much longer? I feel like we might miss our flight."

"Good idea," Alex said, "We're super close, so get ready to exit the car."

Sure enough, after Alex took a sharp right turn, they were in view of the airport terminal. She pulled into the parking lot, chose a spot medium-distance from the doors, and parked the car, "You ready?"

"I was ready ever since we got the news." Avery grinned. He picked up his backpack and rushed out to the trunk. Alex opened it for him and he took out both their suitcases. He took his and dragged it into the airport, Alex on his heels.

Alex and Avery went through security and proceeded to gate B-3. Since the flight had multiple layovers in popular destinations, the gate was packed with people. They moved through the crowd and found two seats near the window.

Alex looked out the window at the approaching plane. It wasn't like the normal Boeings or Airbuses she usually rode on, but it was a Dash 8, a Canadian plane. This would be cool.

Alex turned to Avery, "How long is the flight again?"

"Thirty-five hours," Avery answered.

Alex groaned. No matter how excited she was for this vacation, she couldn't stand long flights. At least there were some layovers. Soon enough, the lady at the check-in desk started calling people to board the plane. After about two minutes, they called Avery and Alex's section.

They showed the woman their tickets and were allowed onto the plane. Alex and Avery were able to find a row to themselves near the center of the plane. Alex set her carry-on bag near her feet and buckled her seatbelt. Avery did the same.

Avery watched as an elderly woman and young girl, who looked about fourteen, sat in the seats in front of them. He was about to take out his Harry Potter book he had brought along to read, when a woman who looked to be in her thirties ran across the plane, giggling like a two-year-old.

She did not look okay.

Alex shifted uncomfortably and so did Avery. “Um,” he said. “I-I'll go get a -”

Right then, the young girl who had sat in front of the two, waved over an air hostess. The woman had a bright smile on her face and nodded at the girl. The girl said something to her in a hushed voice. The air hostess looked grim and walked towards the woman.

“Do you think she’s drunk?” Avery whispered to Alex.

“Maybe?” Alex said quietly.

The two watched as the air hostess ushered the woman out of the plane. Avery felt better knowing he wasn’t going to be in the same plane as a drunk woman. It would have been the weirdest flight of his life.

The air hostess came back and said something to the young girl. The girl nodded, smiling, and sat back down on her seat.

Two minutes later, when the pilot told them all to put on their seatbelts over the intercom, Avery slid deeper into his seat and opened up his Harry Potter book. It was the longest book in the series - it should last him a day, right?

Alex looked out the window and gripped her seat's handles as the plane took off. This was her least favorite part of flying. It always scared her that the plane would run into something, or have some problem, and they wouldn't make it out.

She slowly released her grip as the plane climbed higher into the air and eventually let go for good when the stewardesses came around with refreshments.

"Would you like something, ma'am?" The flight attendant asked after she served Avery.

"A coke and some pretzels, please," Alex responded.

The flight attendant sighed, "Why does everyone assume we have coke?"

Alex pointed to the coke symbol on the side of the stewardess's cart, "Because of that. Pepsi's fine, if that's what you have."

The flight attended just nodded, gave Alex the smallest glass of Pepsi she had ever seen, and moved on to the next row. Alex pulled out her Calculus textbook out of her backpack. She might as well make use of the time on the plane.

Avery and Alex were both still doing their own stuff - reading and doing calculus homework - when they landed in the Toronto Airport two hours later. The flight attendant came back with a garbage bag and she took Avery's empty cup of OJ and Alex's empty cup of Pepsi and threw it in.

As soon as the flight attendant left, everyone started rushing out of the plane. Avery was shocked at how fast everyone was moving so he decided to wait till the end rather than getting trampled. Alex poked him. He waved his hand at her.

He looked over the seat to see how many people were left.

There were a lot.

They could miss their flight.

Avery slipped out of his seat and stood up, straightened his backpack on his shoulders and took out his and Alex's suitcase from the overhead locker. The old man behind him cleared his throat, indirectly asking Avery to get out of the way. He didn't.

Alex and Avery took their bags and followed everyone out silently.

As soon as they got out, the cold wind stung their faces. "We should have brought coats," Avery said, rubbing one palm on his jeans.