Young Writers Society

Dear Mia,

Before I knew it, I was on a plane to the USA. An eight-hour non-stop flight, I'm not sure I was ready for that. Nevertheless, our parents decided that it would be better for me to study at Columbia University in New York than at Oxford in Europe. "New opportunity," dad says.

I have no idea why, but one morning dad came to me and said, "What do you think about being an exchange student?" My first reaction was. "No thanks." Why would I ever want to leave? Dad tugged his glasses higher on his nose and said: 'Let that sink in for a while.' He wasn't trying to get rid of me, was he?

I was not the best in the class, but the sevens and eights did it. I never caused any trouble and I always did my homework on time. Yet here I am. On a goddamn plane, on my way to meet my exchange family, the Winters. I exchange with their middle child, Liam. He's also seventeen and will be studying at Oxford.

Guess why? Because his mother was afraid he'd get shot there. You heard it right, boys between fourteen and nineteen are usually the ones who get kidnapped and killed. Father said, "You'll be fine." Fine? Kidnapping and murder! But do not worry, I'll probably be fine. NOT.

Anyways, I should be asking how are things going with my favourite nephew, Shawn and your husband? I hear you guys went surfing last week. Pay dad a visit while I’m away, alright.

Wish me luck!

Stay well,

Your sister

***

I press send and the stewardess walks towards me, her heels tapping on the floor of the plane. I have always admired the way stewardesses dress, that beautiful red tie with the matching blue skirt and shirt, not forgetting the long socks that came up to her knees. It made me wonder if I want to be a stewardess.

"Miss, we are about to take off. All devices should be in aeroplane mode."

I nod and smile at her as I close my laptop and tuck it into my backpack. Despite the air conditioning, my hands are still sweating. Nervous, I guess. This is my first time on a plane without my family. I look out the window and see the runway as the wing of the plane. The plane is moving slowly down the runway, following the instructions of the guy with the funny lights. The plane slowly gains speed and suddenly takes off. I hold on to my seat and look out of the window again. I can see everything slowly turning into tiny pieces of Lego. I feel like I'm leaving everything behind, and it's happening. I'm moving away.

***

"Excuse me, miss." the stewardess says, trying to wake me. I slowly wake up and immediately feel a stab of pain in my neck. Ouch! I think I fell asleep very badly. "Excuse me." she says again. "Um... Hey. Yeah." I answer to the stewardess. "Miss, you should eat something, it has been five hours. I tried to wake you an hour earlier, but you seemed so exhausted. Is everything all right?"

Wait, what's going on? I'm fine. "Don't worry, I went to bed late last night, that's why. I'm fine." The stewardess smiles and hands me a sandwich and a coffee with sugar and milk. "Two please." I ask her. I've always loved the milk they give on aeroplanes, the little packets and everything. Maybe I should become a stewardess, so I can spend my whole life in an aeroplane travelling the world. Still I’m not sure that is what I want.

I grab my neck and rub it for a second. Damn, I really slept wrong. This hurts. Suddenly I see a small ray of sunlight creeping up from under my window. So I reach out and lift the curtain. A whole ray of sunshine right in my face, ouch. I take a second to blink a few times to adjust my eyes and then I look out. And wow, it is so beautiful, I can literally see clouds. We are flying through clouds! The sun makes some of the clouds look pink and gives them funny shapes. I think I see a ... "Hey! Do you mind? Some people are trying to sleep".

"Jeez," I yelp as I spill hot coffee on myself. My eyes immediately shoot to my left and see a guy sitting two seats away from me looking at me. His frown tells me all I need to know and I close the window in an instant. I think I've seen a sheep, that's so overrated. A sheep cloud. Well, my mood is ruined. And why? Because of that overly friendly guy, actually it's my own fault, why do I care? It is in me to be kind and caring, it is one of my strengths but also one of my weaknesses, I suppose. I could have just left it open, but I'm not like that.

I look down at my jeans, which now have a coffee stain. What am I going to do about it? I take the bread and open it, cheese. Cool. I sink my teeth into the sandwich and bam! The thing is as hard as a rock, like for real?

***

"Please turn off all electronic devices as we are about to land in New York, United States of America." the pilot says from his cockpit. We're here.

I turn off the series I am watching. Illegally downloaded Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning onto my laptop. I do this before I take my headphones off. The last thing I want is for the whole flight to hear, "For once, your luck's run out, Ethan." I don't want everyone to think the plane is crashing now do we.

I fasten my seatbelt again and brace myself for the landing. I know nothing will happen, but I'll still be living here alone for four or five years. So yes.

***

As I walk out of the airport with my suitcase and backpack, I see a board with Pamela Winkelson on it. I walk toward the man holding the board. He was checking his phone with one hand and holding the board with the other. His brown hair, Rolex and sunglasses immediately tell me that he is the older brother.

"Hi, Winters?" I ask, trying to get his attention. His eyes instantly shoot up and he looks at me. He looks at the board for a second and says, "Pamela Winkelson?" Gosh, what have they done to my name, "Palma Watson" I state. I can clearly sense the awkwardness this has caused. So I hold out my hand and say, "Nice to meet you," he takes off his sunglasses and shakes my hand, "Dope. Levi Winters, pleasure.”

We walk together to a white McLaren. Damn, what an expensive car! I bet the Winters are very rich. As I was about to head for the door, Levi walked over to a red Lamborghini. Just when I thought nothing could be more exotic…

Levi opens the trunk while I put my suitcase in, then I get in the front seat and Levi starts the engine. As we roll through the streets of the Big Apple, I realise that I'm really here. "So, Palma, are you the eldest or do you have siblings?" Levi asks me reservedly. "I have a twenty-six year old sister." Levi nods and asks me, "I hear you are studying algebra, what study did she do?" “Well, she’s a field nurse in the army, actually. She moved to France three years ago with her husband and son.” Levi suddenly seems interested. “That’s dope. It must be nice to have such a successful sister.” “Yes, it’s inspiring, but it also sets high expectations for my family about me,” I admit, thinking about the constant comparisons people make.

"What about you?" I ask bluntly, it is not as if we have been talking about me and my sister all this time. "What are you studying?" "This will sound lame, but I'm studying History." “That's not lame at all.” I reply, why would anyone think any study is lame.

Levi looks at me briefly before turning his attention back to the road. "I have two younger siblings," he says. Two? I only heard about one brother. “I’m trying to set an example in the house, but I don’t think History did it.” “What do you mean?” Levi brushes the conversation off with putting up some music for the rest of the trip.

As I get out of the car, Levi takes my suitcase out of the trunk and offers to take it inside. The garage looks almost the same as mine at home. The door is opened by Mrs Winters, who immediately gives me a big, warm hello hug. "Hey, Palma. I'm so glad to finally meet you." I smile at her and return the hug.

"My name is Nora and this is Rick." Mrs Winters points to her husband reading the newspaper. When he hears his name, he puts down the paper and looks at me. "Oh hey, Pamela. How was your flight?" As I am about to answer a little girl comes running down the stairs shouting, "Is Ms Winkelson here yet?" Does the entire family except Mrs. Winters know me as Pamela Winkelson instead of Palma Watson?

"Don't run, Eleanor." Nora says to the little girl as she reaches the bottom of the stairs. When she notices me, she runs to Levi and tries to hide behind his leg. Levi nudges her, "Come on. Say hello." She looks up a little and her sweet brown eyes twinkle, she whispers a little loudly to Levi, "She's got green eyes." I chuckle at this remark and decide to bow down to her level, "Hi, I'm Palma. What's your name?" She is so adorable and shy. "Ellie," she says slowly. "Nice to meet you, Ellie."

"Come, Palma, let me take you to your room. I'm sure you're tired from your eight-hour flight. Nora says as she takes me upstairs. Before we get to the stairs, Eleanor runs ahead of us and disappears into her room. "Don't run Eleanor!" Nora shouts as she shakes her head. "Don't mind her," she adds before we enter a room labelled Eleanor. "I hope you don't mind sharing a room with Eleanor, Palma." Ellie starts jumping up and down on the bed, "I'm sharing a room with Pamela! I'm sharing..." Nora gives her a motherly look and she immediately sits down quietly.

Of course I would like to have my own quiet room, but I am the exchange student here, so yeah. I have to get used to it. "That's all right, Mrs Winters. I'm pretty sure Ellie and I will have a nice time." I wink at Ellie as I put my suitcase on the edge of the second, neatly made bed.

"On the other side of this room is mine and Rick's." Nora points out as she opens the door to reveal Liam sitting at a desk playing video games. "Hey Pamela, what's up?" Pamela again. "Hey," I say as I scan the room with my eyes.

We come back downstairs as we enter a corridor with a bathroom, toilet, laundry room at the end and another room, Levi's room.

***

Lying on the bed at night, I think I'm suffering from jet lag. I get up quickly and run downstairs to throw up in the bathroom. I rinse my mouth out with water and open the cupboard, hoping there are some painkillers because my head is killing me.

Nora and Rick have taken Liam to some sort of party to celebrate the last few days with him, as he is leaving for England in five days time. They won't be back until 6am.

All I could see was aftershave, shaving cream, toothpaste, deodorant, dental floss and lots of toilet paper, but no painkillers. I walk over to the kitchen hoping to find some painkillers, but no luck. I don't think I'll be able to go to school tomorrow. I know that if I wake up Ellie, I will feel terrible. I check the toilet again, there have to be some painkillers there, I'm sure. As I'm going through the stuff, I remember that Levi is home too.

I knock slowly on his door, hoping he'll open. "Uhmm....Levi. Are you sleeping?" The door opens to reveal a half asleep Levi, "You do know, are you sleeping is not the kind of question anyone is going to answer correctly." I chuckle, knowing it's stupid. "I was going to ask where I could find some painkillers?" Levi yawns, "Jet lag?" I nod.

I take the painkillers, say good night to Levi and go upstairs. I take two of them and lie down again. Just as I am about to fall asleep, my phone starts ringing. "Hello?" "Hey Palma, it's Mia."

"Mia?" "Yeah, I got your email. I feel so bad that I didn't know earlier, I could have dropped you off." Mia says feeling guilty. "I thought you were camping with Mark and your son. Off-grid." I say, my brain is just waking up, although my head is still killing me. She says, "You sound tired. Do you want to talk tomorrow?" she asks me.

I decide to talk in the living room so as not to wake Ellie. "No, I'm fine. Just suffering from a bit of jet leg. I'm so glad you called, I haven't heard from you in about five months, apart from the occasional email". Mia laughs and says, "Yeah, Shawn's been keeping me busy and so has work. Tell me about your new exchange family.” Mia encourages me to talk, I feel like something is wrong, but okay. "Well, they have two sons and a daughter. 21, Levi, studies history. 17, Liam, the one I'm swapping with..." "Two sons!" Mia cuts me off, "I thought you said boys were killed and kidnapped," she adds in a sarcastic tone. "Hahaha very funny." I add.

"Come on, that was a good one." Mia says, "I would have made the same choice if Shawn lived in America though." "I share a room with the daughter, she is so cute. She's five and her name is Ellie." "Adorable," Mia sighs. "Is everything all right, Mia?" I ask as I hear a glass shatter on the floor over the phone. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a bit dizzy. That's all, I think I'm going to lie down for a bit."

“Is Mark there?” I ask her. Mia says, "No, we had a falling out a couple of minutes before, he’s out now, went to the store to buy me some ice cream.” “Are you sure you're fine?” I'm worried, Mia's always so energetic, what's happened? Now I am the one who asks, "Do you want me to call tomorrow?" "Oh stop it," Mia cries, "tell me more about your study. "OK, I think I'll take up marketing and leave Algebra. I talked to dad about it and he's totally cool." "Well, that's something, marketing can be cool. Palma…Call first aid. I'm having a brain seizure." she says faintly, "Quick…" "Hello? Mia, are you there?" I ask worriedly. "Mia? Hello?" Has she fainted? What happened? "Mia! Answer me!"

***

Please note

When you leave a review, constructive criticism mainly on the content and writing style is highly appreciated. Other things are also welcome.