"Lyne wake up, today's the dayyyy!!" Claudia screamed in excitement. She grabbed the duffel pillows I was leaning on and smacked them playfully on my face. She pulled the light grey blanket I was cuddling and grabbed my hands to haul me up.
I yawned tiredly. Gently I reached for my fluffy gown. Claudia pulled my hand away.
"Stop. It's so hot outside. Are you seriously gonna wear that winter gown. Plus, we kinda need to hurry, cuz we only have three hours before our taxi arrives." Claudia exclaimed.
It was clear she was so excited. She hauled our suitcases out into the corridor and started cooking in the kitchen.
After showering and brushing my teeth, I went to the kitchen. It was 4 in the morning. Way too early for my liking but just as always, Claudia was up extra early, just to make sure everything was organised and ready. She stood in our colourful kitchen and quickly chopped an onion.
"Why are you making breakfast?" I asked. Claudia cracked two eggs into the saucepan.
"Because... it's important to have a healthy breakfast... darling. Take a seat would you?" She grinned patronisingly.
"Well weren't we supposed to just get ready and get breakfast at the airport." I asked wiping my eyes, trying to stop the toxic onion scent reaching my watering eyes further.
"We can have double breakfast, Lyne. We have plenty of time to get ready".
"Oh but you said we needed to kinda hurry... Clauds." I grinned.
Claudia passed me 2 grilled omelette cheese sandwiches and sat herself opposite me. She bit into her sandwich and dropped it all of a sudden. Her face went red and she laughed. Catching breath, she ran to the sink and drank water. I got worried and suddenly realised she had just been foolish and burnt her mouth.
''Don't get too excited, hey.'' I laughed.
After finishing our yummy breakfast, we got ready. Claudia dressed in a floral summer dress, comfortable to wear on the plane and wore a turquoise fedora to match her fancy heeled sandals. She wore her hair into two amazing Dutch braids and wore some pink gloss on her lips.
"Beautiful," I exclaimed. "While you're already looking amazing, I'm here still deciding what on earth to wear." I said sadly.
In the end, (with help from Claudia) I looked just as amazing as her. I wore a leopard printed grey hoodie with comfortable travel leggings. It actually looked nice. I tied my brunette hair into a low ponytail but Claudia braided my hair into a fishtail instead.
It was great how we felt back then, so proud of each other.
We made sure everything was set and we waited for the taxi to arrive outside our apartment building and when it did we were too hot to haul our suitcases into the boot but thankfully the driver was really helpful and just let us sit in the taxi while he sorted out our suitcases.
I looked out of the window and looked at our neighbourhood. It was beautiful. Tropical trees, sun shining 24:7, cars on the boiling hot roads, the sea in the horizon and the cafes and beautiful towers piled up high.
It was nothing like Bradford where I lived with my parents. Bradford was always grey and we didn't have much money to go on holiday. When I got into collage I managed to move to LA and it was amazing. Me and Claudia got our own apartment and it was the best space to live for me.
I had spent the rest of my life there.
Anyways, the taxi sped up onto the the highway as we watched out of the window and smiled at each other. There were absolutely no clouds in the sky and the sun shone down at LA just like always.
We arrived at the airport about 45 minutes later. There were a lot more people at the entrance than we'd expected but we had to barge through in order to make our way into Terminal 4.
We checked in and made our way through security. It was tiring and we felt really hot. We sat down relieved to have been done with security and happily waited for our announcement to come.
It was 6:15 and our flight was going to take off at 7:00.
"Hey... do you want to explore the shops and stuff?" Claudia questioned.
"Yeah. Lets go."
We bought new skincare products that we could apply on the plane to stop our skin from dehydration, we bought swimsuits we could use at the beach, a bunch of hard American candies to prevent our ears from hurting when the plane went through it's processes and some protective sunglasses we could use at Fiji.
We sat down at our seats again and looked out of the huge heavy glass windows at the aeroplanes. It had been so long since I'd sat in a plane. The last time I'd sat in one was when my parents and I had to visit my nan in Iceland. She had cancer and took her last breaths when we were still on the plane, about to land. It was a sickening journey and had made me become thoroughly sick. I had never dreamt of going on a plane again.
But here I was, waiting to go to where my parents had gone to not know they were to... die.
"Lyne! Lyne! Wake up! Our flight just got announced!" Claudia scrambled about, trying to wake me up. I sat up and folded my blanket.
I smiled.
"Let's go!"
We rushed to the last check space and once we had our passports checked we walked through the huge glass tube straight into the plane. Claudia was so experienced and that was so lucky as I didn't know much. We found our seats and set everything up. It was a straight flight to Fiji (11 hours, 32 minutes) and we had to be comfortable.
I'd never been on such a long flight so this meant a lot to me. I peered out of the window and looked at the aeroplane's surroundings. The sun beamed down on the airport, the runway was vast and awesome. This was the best feeling. Once everyone was settled, we adjusted our seatbelts and the plane started taxiing to the runway. It took a good 7 minutes. It was already hot in the plane. I felt sweat on the side of my forehead and gulped. I suddenly got awfully terrible thoughts circling my head.
Bloody scenes, broken bones, and burning bodies, surrounded in raging fire and hot metal pieces of the plane.
I screamed as the plane tilted up in the air. I grabbed Claudia' s arm and cried.
"Claudia! I can't do this! Please! I'm so scared." I cried. I broke down and cried and I couldn't control myself. Claudia patted my back and whispered that if I thought I'd die here she'd die with me. The sun found its way into the plane through the windows. I got up and looked out.
"Clauds, I don't want to sit near the window. Please, I feel sick." I mourned.
Claudia shuffled over to my seat. I sighed and took some deep breaths. I never had the courage that Claudia thought I had. I felt regretful. I was still not strong. How on earth was Claudia putting up with me? I was curious. How could anyone be that patient?
2 hours later, the breakfast was given out to all of the passengers. The main meal was Oat Porridge topped with icing sugar and raspberries. There was a bottle of chocolate milk and a chocolate nut bar. Claudia ate in silence, staring out of the window. She looked fed up but she wouldn't say anything.
"Claudia, do you like the food?" I asked, nervously.
"Yes it's nice. I don't really like the milk though, it's bitter, here you can have it." She mumbled, handing the bottle over to me.
"Hey, the thing is I'm still shook about what happe-" I stammered, Claudia cut me out.
"Lyne, you don't have to say sorry. How many times do I have to tell you not to apologise. I understand what you've been through, okay?" Claudia smiled. I held her hand and said "You really are the best. I don't know what I could do without you."
The thing about Claudia was she was so controlled. She knew how to solve problems and didn't get angry at all, she would get fed up but try not to show it.
I fell asleep for about two hours and woke up when we were going through turbulence. The plane tilted slightly but I stayed strong. My heart skipped a beat as Claudia jumped. She had been asleep and woke up suddenly. Her eyes were red and she wiped them forcefully.
"Claudia... did you have a bad dream?" I questioned.
"Y...Yeah, don't worry it wasn't anything."
The next hours were really long but finally there was just half an hour left. I plugged my headphones and listened to an Audio book.
The plane landed in Fiji airport, but it was dark because it was night but we were exhausted. For the night, we booked a hotel for two in the airport. We would set off in the morning to our villa.
The next morning we got into a boat and we sailed off to our villa.
It was surrounded by other outstanding villas. They were standing on the sea and looked beautiful. We crossed over to the bridge that led to our villa. The sight was beautiful. Just like a dream, you know. Blue skies, turquoise oceans, calm villas, white sand, and relaxing pools.
Fiji was a beautiful place. I imagined what the place would be like if my parents were there with me. Now I know why my parents wanted me to be here.
It was a paradise...
Then we happily opened the villa door and walked around, admiring the fascinating decorations and splashing our feet on the pool. The lights around the pool were graceful and rather elegant. We couldn't wait to see them at night.
We considered sleeping for a while but we changed our minds as we had slept quite a lot on the plane. We sat down and started booking in many activities for the day. These activities included a helicopter ride over the entire Fiji resort, A professional spa hour, turtle hatching, swimming with dolphins, Wind Surfing Lessons, Sunset Cruise, World Class Dive experience and snorkelling.
We got ready to get into Fiji town to eat breakfast and then have a spa hour.
The rest of our days were spent in happiness and filled with fun. I didn't even feel homesick.
It was like a dream.