I stared down at the clothes scattered along my bedroom floor, a mess of colours spread out along every inch of what was once a spotless floor. I had only one hour left before it was time to leave for the airport. Nerves and excitement battled inside my mind. This was the trip of a lifetime going to London with 26 of my classmates for three weeks was something I’d never imagined I would be doing this winter break.



My phone started lighting up with the familiar personalised ringtone I had set for my best friend. I hesitated before answering it bracing myself for her deafening screams.



“We’re going to London!” were the first words that came out of her mouth, and as I had suspected they were not spoken –rather shouted loudly straight into my poor ears.



“I know.” I replied quietly. I wanted to contain my excitement as much as it was humanly possible.



“How can you stand to be sane at a time like this?” she asked me. I was packing my suitcase one handed, trying to balance the phone between my ear with my shoulder just so I could have use of my second arm.



“Trust me, on the inside I am the complete opposite.” I chuckled to myself just thinking about ridiculous this whole thing was. Me in London? ME? How crazy was that? My whole life I had never been out of this country, never been on a plane even. But now as a 16 year old Advanced English student here I was merely hours away from flying to the other side of the planet!



“Kate? You’re fully freaking out now aren’t you?” Mel started to giggle; I nodded before realising that she couldn’t actually see me!



“Maybe just a little,” I admitted biting my lip in embarrassment.



“You totally are!” she exclaimed laughing even harder.



I shoved the remainder of my warm clothes into my already full suitcase, making sure I could actually fit everything inside.



“Wait I just have to sit on my suitcase.” I warned her putting the phone down on my bed. I bet she could even hear as I jumped on the darn thing desperate to zip it all the way up. It took a hell of a lot of struggling, a ton of groaning and sore hands in the process but I finally closed the thing successfully.



“Okay I’m back.” I said into the phone, waiting for her response



“Did you pack your mittens?” she asked me, horror stuck on my face I couldn’t believe that I had forgotten something so small!



“Hey don’t worry you can pack it in your carry on.” She snapped me out of my miniature freak out.



“Thank goodness for carryon luggage.” I sighed with relief. I could hear Mel laughing in the background but I didn’t mind one bit, I was packed for London and that’s all that mattered.







***







“Katherine Dion” My teacher Mrs Campton shouted down the line.



“Here!” I called back to her and she started to call out some of the other names. I was so desperate to get on that plane and to take off as soon as possible. The nerves were slowly rising because of this brand new experience.



“Psst. Kate.” Mel whispered from somewhere behind me. I turned to locate her and realised that she wasn’t that far behind me.



“What?” I asked her curious as to why she was desperate for my attention.



“Look over there! It’s that soccer player from England.” She sounded excited, I looked over towards the direction her finger was pointing in and noticed who she meant.



“Beckham,” I gasped. I wasn’t a mad soccer fan but my brother was pretty keen on the sport. “I think they call it football over there.” I corrected her not wanted to seem star struck.



“Who cares what it’s called we’re in the same room as a famous person.” Her whispered were becoming louder with every sentence.



“Ladies, do you care to share?” The teacher interrupted our conversation.



“No.” we both sang at the same time, giving her our best impression of an innocent student.



“Good, because it’s time to board the plane.” She informed us and the whole class started to murmur rather excitedly.
--

“Wake up!” Melissa whined, and I sat up completely startled. I had fallen asleep not long after we’d taken off into the air. I wasn’t a fan of the whole flying over the sea thing so sleeping seemed like the ultimate distraction.



“I’m awake.” I murmured angrily turning to face her. She was wide awake –most probably hyped up on coffee, she always scared me when she had caffeine especially in confined spaces such as an aeroplane!



“Good, can you believe it? We’re half way there!” she near but shouted those passengers around us grumbled in annoyance before turning back over to sleep once more.



“Girls, others are trying to sleep please respect that!” Our teacher whispered, her sleeping mask rested upon her head in a mess with her bed hair. I had to stop myself from giggling the sight was just unbearably funny,



“Sorry.” We both whispered back to her. It was an unbreakable habit one where the two of us said the same thing at the same time, I don’t even know how we did it but it seemed to have been happening a hell of a lot lately.



“Hey Kate are you going on the writing tour?” James, who was sitting across the aisle from me, whispered when our teacher turned back to her slumber.



“Yeah, are you?” I asked with a smile. I always had a feeling James liked me, or as they say in the UK he fancied me. Somehow I’d never seen him in that way, I mean he’s really hot and all but we were just mates.



“Course” He smiled once again, my cheeks started to heat up this trip was going to be awfully interesting with him like this.



“Awesome.” Was all I said before putting my headphones back in as a distraction.







***



We landed in the Beijing airport for our stop over, we were all aching and tired and grumpy. I really needed to stretch my legs, I’d been sitting down for hours and walking was the best feeling ever.



“One more stop till LONDON!” Mel exclaimed right in my ear.



“Bring on the British boys” I cheekily nudged her, and we both started to giggle, ignoring our teacher’s glared.



“Everyone stay together, if you are to go off please tell me where you are going and who you are with. If you get lost remember you have my number, you know what that’s for” I loved our teacher I really did but all this pressure and responsibility had really changed her and it was only the first day!



She ushered us all down to a waiting area, where we all dropped our carry-on bags, and waited for our next flight, I could smell the coffee brewing and the subway sandwich meats from where I sat. Everyone in our class was either yawning or high off the caffeine in their systems. All I wanted was to get to London and sleep in our hotel!



“So James huh, do you think he’s gonna finally ask you out?” Mel nudged me and quietly whispered. He was over the other side of the group of chairs laughing and mucking about with Cameron, he looked absolutely gorgeous in his grey beanie as his chestnut coloured shagging hair hung out from the bottom, his black hoodie wasn’t zipped up completely and he’d rolled up his sleeves to reveal his muscular arms. Why oh why did I not like him like that? He seemed like the perfect guy yet somehow I wasn’t attracted to him. It just didn’t make any sense!



“I don’t know, but I hope not.” I admitted and she rolled her eyes at me.



“He’s so hot.” She groaned, holding her heart to add effect.



“Trust me. I know that.” I informed her sighing as I plopped myself down on a vacant chair.



“Then I don’t see the problem.” Neither did I.