One Winter Night

Chapter 3

Casper's P.O.V 

"Yes, mom, I'm walking into the airport right now," I say, struggling to keep my phone against my ear and carry 3 luggage's all at the same time.

"Okay, honey. I can't wait to see you! I've missed my little Casper the friendly ghost so much!" she says into the phone a little more loudly than I would have liked. I look around to make sure no one from my class had heard her.

"Um, yeah. I'll be home in a little bit. Bye mom," I say, slamming my thumb on the end button. I put my phone back into my jacket pocket just as my friends, Aidan, Jase, and Caleb, come sauntering up behind me.

"Man, that was the best school mandated trip ever!" Aidan says with enough sarcasm for at least 20 people. His sarcastic smile instantly fades and his eye brows furrow into almost a straight line above his thick rimmed glasses.

"Yeah. Totally. 2 weeks in Lakewood City to try to make it more beautiful. Whoopie," Caleb groaned.

They're not wrong. Although, it kind of was our faults. We decided at the beginning of the year to join clubs and get more active since this was our junior year of high school and we have done pretty much nothing up until now. First, we tried out for the football team. We were the first ones cut. Then, we went and joined the art club. And even though their sign said "everyone welcome," they kicked us out in the first week for "lack of skill." We tried everything. Dance, theater, workshop, auto, and nothing prevailed. So now here we are, 1/4 of the semester over with and we haven't found a single club yet. Until, we saw the sign for the NHS club. After school that day, we signed up in the front office. Everything was going hunky-dory. Meetings once a month, little to no effort really required. Basically the perfect club for us. That was until the latest meeting. We were just about done with everything on our agenda when Mrs. Matteson, our supervisor, starts talking.

"Alright, students! This is our last meeting of the year!" Everyone cheered, especially me. "Yes, I know, I know we are all very sad to see NHS come to an end. But, it's not over yet! Your 360 hours of community service is due to me by New Years day!"

My heart stopped beating. 360 HOURS!?!?!?!?! Is this lady insane? I don't remember signing up for this. My buddies and I ran up to Mrs. Matteson's desk after the meeting was officially over.

"Um, hey Mrs. Matteson. So, we need to actually drop this club," I said, drawing little circles on her grey desk. She looked at us over her glasses.

"Well, it's a little late for that, Casper. If you wanted out of this club, then you had to do it before we got too deep in the semester, or else it will go on your permanent record," she said, packing up her millions of papers. I smiled my classic TV announcer smile at her.

"Okay.... Well, say that, oh I don't know, 4 ignorant, dumb, lazy..," Aidan elbowed me in the ribs, "..students decided to wait until the last minute to get their community service hours done. What would those students do in a situation like this?" She pursed her old, wrinkly lips.

"Considering the circumstances, the only possible way that these boys could get their hours done in the time frame would be the 'Beautify Lakewood' trip coming up in a couple weeks here." she said.

That's how we ended up here. At John Wayne Orange County Airport on Christmas Eve. Going to get on our plane back Mineral County, Colorado.

"I'm going to go get everything checked in," Caleb said.

"Yeah, we should probably do that," I grabbed my 3,000 pounds of clothing and essentials. I could see Aidan struggling to pick up his laptop case sitting on the floor.  The heavy luggage once again drops from my arms and I go to help Aidan.

"Thanks, bro," he says.

"No problem. I'll meet you by security," I said. Picking back up my luggage, again, I see the automatic doors open. I stand up, luggage's in hand, when I am completely knocked over by a girl in a full on sprint.

"Sorry!" she yells back, her curled brown hair flying in her face. She's not even stopping to help me up. Some people are so rude.

For the 1,000th time, I pick up my damn luggage's and walk toward the security gate.