Barely Visible

Chapter 11

Esme POV

I kept looking back over my shoulder at my mom, Aileen and all my friends who were waving merrily. I waved back uncertainly and chucked my water bottle in the garbage. I took one last look and marched through the grey rimmed glass doors.

“Must not freak out, must not freak out.”I muttered to myself,  “Nothing bad is going to happen, it’s just an airplane and then a school. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.”    I dumped my carry-on, shoes, sweater, iPod and headphones, change and anything that has metal on it into a plastic white bin on a conveyer belt. I did not want to embarrass myself by setting off the metal detector, I had even made sure to wear sweat pants. I took a deep breath, closed my eye, and tentatively walked through the metal detector. I didn’t hear any beeping and let out a huge sigh of relief. After the man said I could leave, I grabbed my stuff and rushed out of the room.

“One thing down. Next up, passport control.”

A helpful young guy from security had directed me towards passport control after asking me to repeat myself, twice. Since I was nervous, all he probably heard were squeaks. I rushed along the white tiled hallway past hundreds of windows showing a bright blue sky over more and more airplanes. I came to a dead stop at the end of a line in front of a fat, surly man in a boring gray uniform behind a ordinary counter. When I came to the front of the line he checked and stamped my passport, grunted then hollered for the next in line.

“Alright,” I said to no one in particular, “Now all I have to do is find gate 11.” I twirled around searching for a map. Spotting one, I made my way through the packed hallway, over to the map and scanned it for the bright red ‘You are here’ dot, then for gate 11. It read; Estimated time of arrival at Gate 11: 15 minutes.

“It’s probably going to take longer than that trying to get through all these people,” I glanced down at my boarding pass, my flight left in half an hour. “I’m going to be fine.”

 When I finally got to the gate I checked with the lady at the desk, since I was only 13, I had to be watched. I was mentally begging her not to make me sit next to her doing absolutely nothing, luckily the lady at the desk was nice enough and said I could go anywhere I wanted as long as I stayed within her sight. I thanked her and skipped over to the vending machine.  I was so hungry; it was clawing at the inside of my stomach and I was dying for one of those chocolate bars.

Yes! There were Crunchie bars! My favorite! I cheered silently and did a little happy dance. I hastily dumped some coins in the machine and punched in the number 107, I waited impatiently crouching at the bottom. I heard the familiar ‘thunk’, grabbed the chocolate bar and wolfed it down. I sighed with pleasure, it was so good. The sweet, delicate, sponge toffee melting beautifully on my tongue, lightly encased in a soft milky chocolate coating making its sweet way into my stomach. Having finished the first chocolate bar already, I bought another one along with some sun chips and a coke to take to my seat to wait.

As I munched on my second Crunchie bar, my iPod blaring “You Belong With Me”, I glanced at the people around me.  Some were working on their laptops while others were quietly flipping through the pages of magazine. One little girl in a pastel blue and purple striped dress ran around, arms held out like an airplane. The lady at the desk cooed over the little  girl and continued gossiping with her  mother.The buzzer rang out “10 minutes until gate 11 closes.”

“Why don’t you just go board the plane now sweet?” asked the lady. Normally I would have to wait until everyone else had gone being 13 with no parents with me.

“Sure, thanks.” I replied eager to board the plane. This was it.

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