They begin sprinting. I turn to get into the plan. In the door way, I scream to them.
"HURRY!"
"Doors will be automatically closing in 10..."
I begin to sweat, they're too far!
"9"
I turn away.
"8"
I can't do this.
"7"
Without them we won't survive.
"6"
We're doomed to die before we even start.
"5"
I'm sorry mother.
"4"
"THUD"
I look up to a hand on the doorway leading two sweaty and tired people in.
"2"
"HURRY!!!"
"1"
In a flash Asher comes with the rest of his hand behind the new kids. The door shut quickly and tightly down behind him.
They made it. I realized I haven't been breathing, and take an enormous amount of air in. I feel a flood of emotions. I begin to cry.
Asher comes to me and holds to my hand.
"Cleo? Are you ok? Did something happen?"
I look up to him slowly. He gets concerned so easily.
"I'm just so...happy." I say. I smile at him and give him a hug.
"Now introduce me to the new kids and I'll tell you about Bella."
He smiles and nods.
"This is Nathan and Ashley."
I turn to the two, Ashely is sitting in one of the seats out of breath. She seems 4'9 with stubby legs, a thin waist, and a large chest. She has bleach blonde hair in a ponytail and blue eyes. Her face is rounder with full lips. She's very pretty.
Next to her standing is Nathan who looks 7'0ft, a thin structure yet toned and capable. He has black lose curly hair that hits his shoulders with dark brown eyes.
I shake Nathan's had and go to shake Ashely's, but she puts a hand up to refuse my hand.
"I was told this was an all guys group." She says.
"I don't want any competition for these boys since we'll be spending the most important time of our lives with them."
I take a step back, stunned. How on earth did she make it this far already? She's dramatic, rude, and selfish!
"Nobody told you this would be an all guys group."
Asher told her with some sass back.
"If you don't like it you can leave the group once we land."
She glares a mean one at him.
"You are of no interest to me. I officially call Nathan. If anyone goes after him I'll claw her eyes out." She says as she scans each and every single one of us.
"I vote she leaves too." Bella says. "We are literally going to a new place in hopes to pass tests and
s u r v i v e these next 4 years. If you're going to have a bad attitude and sass your team only second in Journey I will not hesitate to leave you off on your own."
Bella stood her ground to Ashely with a stern voice that made even me afraid.
Me and Asher look at each other. I whisper to him.
"Really man? Did you think twice?"
"You pick two helpless twins, let's call it even."
I stick my tongue out in a goofy way and he does it back. I may not like Ashely, but as long as Asher is my friend on my side, I can get through anything.
After just a moment of silence, the plane jerks forward, causing all of us except Ashely to fall down.
"Fools." She says.
We all scramble up quickly into seats that are positioned 4 side by side, split by an aisle, one behind the other, with an extra seat in the back in a v formation. We buckle in and place our survival packs under our seats. Above us all is one intercom.
"The plane has taken off." The intercom begins.
"The ride will take approximately 6 hours. If there are any questions or concerns, on the side of each seat is a pamphlet holding answers to almost every question about the flight and Journey that can be answered. Enjoy the trip and good luck kids!"
"I have a question, when can I get some food!" Nathan said. Everyone laughed. He wasn't wrong though, it was about lunch time now and we were all growing a bit famished.
Bella pulled out her pamphlet and began to search through.
"Says here that there is one meal and two snacks available. To pick one, on the back of the seat in front of you is a small hidden latch that you lift. There will be three buttons with a description of what to eat underneath. That doesn't sound too bad."
She set the pamphlet in her lap and felt around the seat in from of her for the latch. She found it and lifted it up.
"For a meal we can have salmon with rice, snack one is a protein bar, and snack two is jello."
"That all together is a small snack to me." Nathan said. We all laugh.
"So you're going to be the funny guy in the group I see." Said Bella.
"If that means doing less physical work I'm perfectly fine being the funny guy!" He said.
I like him, he's not a too serious guy, that's going to be important to keep us all from going insane.
I find my own latch on the chair in front of me where Asher sits. I push the meal button. Above my head a small square lowers down to reveal a hovering platform with a bowl of rice with grilled salmon on top with a hydration tablet next to it.
"That's so cool!" On of the twins say.
I look over and kindly say, " I actually never got either of your names, and I didn't introduce Bella to anyone."
"Well I'm Layla, and she's Lolo. I'll put my hair up and she'll keep her hair down if that helps." Layla says as she undoes her hair to put it up into a large bun.
"Hey guys I'm Bella, I met Cleo when our survival packs caught to each other. That's how she got separated from Asher."
Asher turned to me. "I'm sorry I walked off and didn't try to find you." He said.
I smiled back at him and mouthed "it's ok."
I liked this right now. This feeling of peace before the storm. For sure things will never be the same.