Teal Eyes
“For God’s sake mom! It’s not even gonna be sunny in England! There’s a reason they call it the rainy, grey city...” I trailed off, seeing that my mom wasn’t gonna take any notice of me, and just let her shove another bottle of sunscreen into my suitcase. Today was the day. I was moving to England for my Junior and Senior years. Or sixth form, as they called it over there.
My name’s Tess Walker, and I’ve lived all my life in Milwaukee, America, with my single mom. My dad is British, David Cepheus Wykeham, and I haven’t actually met him before... he left before I was born. But for some reason, he wants to be a part of my life again. (You can’t see me, but I’m rolling my eyes right now.) So now it’s off to London for me. He’s got me enrolled in this posh academy in the countryside near London, and I’m already regretting agreeing to this. It really doesn’t help that my mom keeps giving me bottles of sunscreen and other stuff to take!
One thing you should know about me: I’m kinda really talkative. I guess that’s two things now... well, I’ve never really been too good at making friends though, so I don’t know how I’m gonna manage after moving across the pond and joining a school where everyone’s already known each other for a couple years....
Anyways...
“Honey, I know that you’ve never travelled this far before,” started my mom, “So I was thinking that I could come visit in the Christmas and Summer Holidays! I know they have them at different times compared to here, but I can take some leave off from work and work it all out later... Are you ok sweetheart?”
“Umm...“my vision blurred, and I could just make out some dark figure reaching for me. I threw out my hands, trying to find my bearings. “Uhh, yeah just, just give me a minute?”
This wasn’t the first time this had happened to me. It had become a part of my daily life now. My eyes would sometimes just blur, and I would see this figure reaching for me. The doctors had run all kinds of checks on me, but none of them could figure out why this was happening.
“Y-You were saying?” I managed to blurt out.
“Oh, sweetie, are you feeling ok?” said Mom.
I managed a slight nod type thing in response. Breath in, Breath out. Breathe in, Breathe Out. Slowly, my vision got back to normal. I gave Mom a thumbs up.
She went back to rambling about taking time of from work, whether I’d need a swimsuit or not, and if I really needed the numerous mystery novels I had crammed into my suitcase. I rolled my eyes at that last one. Of course I needed mystery novels! I’d fallen in love with the likes of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot ever since I’d read A Study In Scarlet. Mom looked over, her face full of hope that I’d tell her to unpack them. Nope. No chance of that. As if she could hear my thoughts, she sighed and went to find another suitcase. I smiled as she left. Last minute packing may be a bad idea in some people’s eyes, but me and my mom aced it. Before we knew it, night was falling, and all my bags were packed. I was all set.
I woke up the next day, energised and all ready to go. If I was totally honest with myself, I was kinda looking forward to it... Not to mention that I wanted to know why David had for some reason been too busy to call me even once in sixteen years.
I jumped, yes jumped, out of bed and rushed downstairs, hungry for food. Mom was in the kitchen, frying some eggs.
“You need to have a good heavy breakfast, because we all know that no one can actually eat the flight food. I’ll give some snacks as well.” she said, sliding the eggs onto our plates. I got out a carton of orange juice and poured out two glasses. We made our way to the dining table. “Okay, yes,” I said, distractedly. I was hella nervous. What if he didn’t like me? What if he thought I wasn’t posh enough? What if... What if...
The thoughts kept swirling around my head. I had to be perfect. First impressions were everything.
“Tess? Tess, honey? Are you ok? Don’t worry, it’s going to be great. You’re gonna have so much fun in England! You’ll love it.” Mom interrupted my crazed trail of thought.
I smiled at her, and took a deep breath. It was going to be fine. I was gonna be perfect. It was gonna be perfect.
I turned my attention to breakfast, and proceeded to swallow it all down at an alarming speed. I swear my mom got scared for a second. But there was so much to do. I had to freshen up, pack my handbag with my passports and boarding tickets and whatnot, I had to get all the suitcases downstairs, pack some snacks, and make sure my phone was charged. Not to mention [pack my neck pillow and some earplugs. It was a 10 hour flight, and I needed my beauty sleep.
I got to work running around the house and ticking things off my list. Before I knew it, I had finished all my tasks, and it was time to go. The taxi pulled up in front of my house, and I made my way down the steps, pulling my baggage behind me. My mom grabbed the other suitcase and helped me. We loaded them into the trunk, and mom ran to lock the door. I sighed, realising that this was gonna be the last time I saw my house for the next two years. Swallowing down my fears, I got into the car. Mom made followed me in, and we both put on our seatbelts and told the driver to go to the airport.
I don’t know how or exactly when, but at some point in the journey, I must have closed my eyes and fallen asleep.
“Tess? Tess, honey, wake up, we’re at the airport” I heard mom’s voice, faint in the background. I’d been having such a weird dream... There was- there was- crap. I’d forgotten... All I remembered was there was this hazy figure and some red... stuff? I shook myself, and followed my mom out of the taxi. I’d have time to think about my dreams later. Right now, I had to catch a flight.
We yanked my baggage out of the taxi, and I went to grab a trolley while Mom paid the driver. I came back, and loaded up the baggage as the taxi rolled away. Mom helped me, and then we started for the terminal entrance. It was surprisingly less busy than usual. Probably because the holidays had already ended here, though they were still going on in England. Anyhow, the line moved quickly, and before I knew it my mom was waving me goodbye at security. I’d dropped off my baggage at the check in, so all I had with me now was my handbag and neck pillow. I made my way to the security checkpoint. There was barely anyone else there. “Strange,” I thought to myself. I unloaded everything onto the conveyor, and started through the metal detector.
“BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!” the machine deafened me. A lady, with these really bright teal eyes, made her way towards me. I stood frozen, not sure what to do. She motioned for me to come to her, and so I jerked my feet back into action and inched towards her. I was wearing tracksuit bottoms and a hoody... nothing metal there. So why the heck was that metal detector going crazy over me?! I followed the lady to this curtained room. She proceeded to scan me with this wand-like thing. Nothing. No beeping. I blinked in surprise. She smiled at me, “The metal detector probably glitched sweetie.” She had a strong southern drawl. “Uh, Ok, thanks...” I stumbled past her and rushed out of the room, and into the baggage collection area. Still dazed, I quickly grabbed my stuff and hurried through the shops. Eventually I found my way to my Boarding Gate. Just in time too, as they were beginning to load everyone onto the plane. I pushed my way into the line, and followed the stream of people onto the aircraft. “Feel free to collect a pair of earphones,” I heard, as I neared the actual plane. I looked up. The same lady from before smiled down to me. I blinked hard, and looked again. This time I saw a young Filipino woman smiling at me and gesturing towards the earphones. “I’m imagining things,” I thought to myself, and grabbed a pair, mumbling my thanks as I boarded the plane.
It wasn’t long before we were all seated and the plane was taking off.
