Twisted (Editing)

Chapter 32

We arrived at the Kansas city airport that afternoon. The first thing I noticed was the cold. The air blew and I tugged my sweatshirt tighter. "I need a coat."

Iris looked at me in the rearview mirror. "Wear two sweatshirts until we can buy one. Or wrap a blanket around your shoulders."

We exited the truck with our stuff in tow. With any luck, we'd be out of the country today and never see the worn down thing again. "So where we going?" I said, shuffling my feet alongside them. I shivered as I balled my hands into fists. Not even Thanksgiving and it was already freezing.

Nia's teeth chattered as she spoke. "What foreign languages do you speak?"

"I've taken four years of Spanish. What about you?"

"Four years of French although Iris took Spanish too. I'm sure I could start learning."

"But we're not going to Mexico. That's too close to the U.S."

She moved her red braids out of her face. "Spain then?"

"Let's stick with a place where they speak English. New Zealand is pretty far."

"How long can we stay without Visas?" Iris said as we entered the glass doors.

I bit my thumbnail, thinking. "I don't know, a couple months? I was born in the U.K so I can probably stay longer. We can apply for student visas when we get there so we can go to school and that'll give us more time in the country. Maybe even a couple years."

"Sounds good."

I pointed at the ticket counter. "I have my mom's debit card on me."

Nia shook her head and pointed at the cash register. "If we pay for the tickets with the card I bet someone will be able to find out where we're going. Let pay in cash."

We walked over to the machine and I inserted the card. I turned to Iris. "How much money do you think we need?"

Iris yawned and looked at me through the corner of her eyes like the answer was obvious. "As much as you can take out."

The options for bills came up on the ATM screen.l I tapped other and typed in the digits for five thousand. It denied me and on the screen popped a message about the three thousand dollar limit. I sucked my teeth. "Is there another ATM in this place?"

"On the other side of the airport."

I went back and typed in three thousand. Thirty a hundred dollar bills came out of the machine. I placed it in my front pocket. "Let's go but the tickets and then go to the other ATM." I looked over my shoulder nervously. Being in there so long was making me jittery. The longer we stayed, the closer Jonah could get to us.

The woman at the ticket register smiled at me. "Three economy seats to Auckland, New Zealand. Any airline, just give us your cheapest tickets."

"Round trip?"

"Nope."

She raised her eyebrows. "Well, we have three eight hundred dollar tickets. I hope you're okay with not sitting next to each other."

"We are, just put us on the same plane."

The woman leaned the counter. 'So what are you girls traveling for?"

"School."

"Is that so? Isn't it the middle of the school year? Did you girls get expelled?"

"It was a family emergency." We didn't look similar, the twins and I, but it wouldn't be hard for me to pass as their older sister or cousin.