"Daaaad!" I screamed up the stairs for the third time this morning.
"El, I swear if you yell at me one more time, I'm cancelling this trip."
"I just don't want to miss our flight."
"We're not going to miss our flight; I'll be ready in ten minutes. Make sure you have your shoes on."
I rolled my eyes. "I've been ready for fifteen minutes, and we're late for everything," I mumbled to myself.
My mom sighed from the other side of the kitchen, where she sat at the island doing work. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, but after nearly eighteen years with him, you shouldn't expect much more."
"Yeah, well." I drank the last bit of water in my cup and brought it over to the sink.
I heard my dad coming down the stairs. "El, let's go. I've been waiting for forever," he tried to joke.
I clenched my fists and internally screamed. "You're not funny. We're gonna be late!" I spoke to him tersely, and my mom laid a hand on my shoulder as she tried to calm me down.
"Say goodbye to your brother," my dad reminded me.
"Goodbye, Lincoln!" I yelled from the side of the house opposite of the one he was on.
"Yeah!" I heard his muffle voice yell back.
"Okay, let's go!" I ushered my dad out the door with my bags.
My mom, dad, and I climbed into the car as we drove to the airport.
"You're sure you have everything you need? Socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, underwear, pajamas, clothes, hairbrush, phone, charger, music, headphones..." My mom looked at me through the rearview mirror.
"Yes, mom." I said, annoyed.
"I'm just making sure. And you have everything?" She turned to my dad, and I tuned them out as they began their own conversation.
Our ride to the airport wasn't terribly long, and we were there faster than I had expected. My mom got out and helped us with our things but said goodbye while we were still in the parking lot.
"Have fun, and be safe. I love you." She hugged me tightly.
"Love you too. We'll call when we land." I hugged her back.
She said goodbye to my dad, and we were on our way. We walked into the airport, and, of course, my dad needed to go to the bathroom because he couldn't have gone while we were still home.
We finally made it to security and got through without any problems until my dad's bag was randomly searched. I ran my hands down my face in frustration and pulled him to our gate as soon as he was free to go.
"El, we're on our way to California; you shouldn't be this stressed out," he tried to calm me down, and I took deep breaths to assure myself I didn't explode.
"You're not really helping the situation. Our flight is already boarding, and we're still not at our gate." I picked up my pace, and he followed.
Making it to the desk as our group was boarding, we handed our tickets to the woman working and boarded the plane.
"21A and B," my dad reminded me from behind.
"I see that; thank you." I put my carryon in the overhead compartment and took the window seat.
It was still early in the morning, but there's no way I was going to sleep, though my dad was practically snoring before the pre-flight announcements were over.
About an hour into the flight, I took out my journal.
"Eleanour Forbes, 17.
Left Wisconsin to fly out to California for a tour of UCLA tomorrow. Dad and I are making a long-weekend of it and staying until Monday. We are currently 33,182 feet in the air, flying at 512 miles an hour, and it is -66 degrees outside. The moon is very large, and I am emotionally conflicted.
Pretzels are decidedly the best free airplane snack.
I want to drop, but I'm not sure I want to die."
I closed my notebook and returned it to its previous residing place in my purse. Courtesy of our airline, I flipped throught the movie choices for thirty four minutes before deciding on an episode of Parks & Rec I had already seen.
For the remaining hours of the flight, I switched between attempting to read, writing, and watching parts of various movies and shows. My dad conveniently woke up just before we began our decent and then proceeded to complain about how sore his neck was until we landed.
We made our way through the airport to baggage claim where we gathered our things and then began to the bus, which will take us to our hotel.
"Well this is a nice change of pace," my dad remarked, referring to the weather.
I nodded in agreement as I took in my new surroundings. Though I've been to more mild climated places before, this is my first time in California, and the tall palms were definitely different from the snow-covered evergreens I was used to this time of year.
"El," my dad snapped me out of my thoughts. "Hand me your bag, and I'll put it in the shuttle."
"Oh, yeah. Thanks." I handed him my suitcase and watched him walk it over to the bus. I spent the next fifteen minutes similar to any other school day: gazing out a window. Don't get me wrong, Wisconsin is pretty and all, but California is something else entirely.
When the shuttled stopped at a hotel, and people began to depart, my dad had gathered our things, and I almost choked realizing that this was our hotel. This brilliantly tall building with gorgeous windows and a breath-taking entrace would be my home for the next five days; if it's this beautiful outside, I can't wait to see our room. I'm just wondering how we could afford something like this.
"Let's go, kiddo." I cringed as my dad unknowingly patronised me, but I'll forgive him.
I followed him inside to the lobby desk. I'm pretty sure I audibly gasped at the interior of this building. Let me tell you, this is like HGTV meets Beauty and the Beast, or maybe I'm just a small-town girl from Wisconsin.
"Alright, El, it looks like we're on the fourth floor in room 357." My dad grabbed a luggage trolley and lead us to our room.
"And how many floors are there?"
"I believe there are seven," he said as we walked into the elevetor. "Yup, seven." He pointed to the numbered buttons.
Handing me the room key, I pushed open the door to a lavish room. The beds looked like they could fit four people each, and if you lay on them, you'll probably sink to your asphyxiated death.
"Dad, this is so nice. What the heck?" I turned to him with wide eyes.
"Merry Christmas, happy New Year, happy Easter, happy birthday until you're twenty five, and you payed for both of our plane tickets." He laughed a bit at himself.
"Plane tickets are nothing compared to four nights here." I stated, still in awe of the beautiful room.
"Well, thank your mom. By the way, you should probably call her." He placed our bags on the floor and checked out the room himself.
After I got off the phone with my mom, I asked my dad what we were going to do now, and we both agreed to settle for an hour or two and then we could explore a little bit.
"So like fifty minutes?" As great at this place was, I was giddy to see the city.
"El, please," my dad pleaded.
"Yeah, fine." I turned over and browsed my phone. Turns out this place is just barely four stars thanks to new renovations, and I am, in fact, just a sheltered girl from the Cheese Land.
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thanks for reading :)
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