Chapter 1
It was dark, I was asleep in my bed, and all of the sudden, KAPOW!! A chocolate- chip cookie hit my face. “Sam!” Stupid James. It’s totally typical of him to get me up like this. “Your were supposed to be up 30 minutes ago.” Oh yeah. We’re moving today. I’ve had it engraved in my brain for a month, and then I forget when I really need to remember.

“What time is it?” I just barely mumble out.

“It’s 4: 30 in the morning! We’ve got to leave for the airport in 50 minutes.” Pause. I can feel the anger coming off of his skin. “And you’re still not packed!”

“FINE!” I shout loud enough for Kyle- Kyle is our dad but we call him by his first name- to hear. And he’s outside packing the suitcases and bags into the truck. “James, go tell Kyle that I’m up. And by the way, I hate you. Don’t forget your cookie.” James is my older brother sadly. He’s 19 years old and totally annoying. But he’s also very protective of me since I am his younger, and only sister.
Kyle probably put him in charge of getting me up this morning, so it’s not a big surprise that he threw something at me. So thanks to Kyle and his plan to move, I am up at 4: 30 am, on my 17th birthday, January 17, 2009, dragging my feet to the bathroom to wash up before we head to the airport to see out new house in Spokane, Washington.

Chapter 2
It’s now 4: 50 am and I’ve showered away all signs of sleep and cookie from my body. Half my clothes are packed and I’ve got another half to go. My backpack is packed with a thin blanket, 4 books, 2 notebooks, and my iPod. I’ve got 20 minutes left before we have to leave, and I can’t find my right shoe. It’s 5: 05 and I’ve found my shoe at the bottom of my suitcase. I have 3 minutes to get my clothes re- packed and then I’ve got to haul my two suitcases and my backpack down the hallway then out to the car. I don’t think I’ll make it.

“Sam Alexis Hale! We’ve got to leave in five minutes!”

“I’m coming Kyle!” Total lie right there. I hate lying to Kyle but he’d be totally mad if he knew I wasn’t ready yet. “I’ve just got to put together my backpack!” In less than a minute, I’ve got a third of my clothes thrown into my first suitcase. In the next minute, I’ve got my second suitcase packed and out by the truck, and I’m ready to go.

“Kyle, James. You guys are so slow! I can’t believe I’m ready before you guys.” I tease them now because they are in the kitchen, drinking Dr. Pepper, waiting for me to finish.

“Sam, we were waiting for five minutes. You can’t blame us for wanting a soda while we wait.” Kyle makes sure that he gets the message to me that they we waiting. Message received.

“Well, yes I can blame you. Because we’ve got to leave in like, 30 seconds if we want to get to the airport on time.” I love my timing. It makes me feel like I’m ready before them.

“Sam, relax. We have at least 2 hours before we have to check in our bags.” Kyle chuckles. Now I’m mad.

Chapter 3

Have you ever noticed that everyone in airports is rushing to get somewhere when they have like and extra ten minutes to make it? My family is never like that. We took our time checking our luggage in, going through security, and now we’re here at the airport, looking for a place to grab snacks.

“Sorry. Excuse me. Can you move please?” Every 10 seconds I’m apologizing or asking someone to move. “Kyle, there’s to many people.” Oh did I mention that I’m totally claustrophobic?

“James, walk next to your sister. Make sure she’s ok.”

“Kyle, she’ll be okay.” I could hear the anger in his voice. He hates walking next to me, but he still comes to my side. He knows I wouldn’t be able to make it through the crowd without help.

“Thanks James. I’m sorry that this always happens to me.” His face softened as I said this. Being my only brother, he feels like it his job to protect me from everything. But we both know that he likes his job.
**

“Whoa! It smells like a hospital in here! Do all the terminals smell like this?” Kyle hates the smell of hospitals because of how often I’m in and out of them. My whole life starting from the day I could walk, I’ve been an accident waiting to happen. I have the worst hand- eye coordination; I can just barely walk in a straight line. I’ve twisted my left ankle twice from just walking alone. “Don’t they have air freshener or something they can use?”

“Kyle, can you stop complaining about hospitals? I haven’t been in one in almost 2 months.”

“Yes, I know but I still worry.”

“Hey,” James always has perfect timing. “Lets get something to eat. I thought I saw a little kiosk a few yards back.”

What? Did he just say kiosk? “What did you say? James, no guy knows what a ki—RYLI, JENNA!”
Chapter 4

“What are you guys doing here?” Ryli and Jenna have been my best friends since 1st grade.

“You didn’t think we’d let you leave without saying good- bye, did you?” The best sound in the world. Jenna’s voice is almost like listening to wind chimes.

“Oh my gosh you guys!” No one has ever done something this nice ever. “You stupid chicks! I’m going to miss you.” I don’t cry, but you can hear the tears in my voice. You can see my arms getting ready to wrap around myself to keep me from crying.

“We’ll talk about how much you hate us while we’re walking to the ‘kiosk’. What kind of guy knows what the word kiosk means. Let alone know how to say ‘kiosk’.” That’s why Ryli and Jenna are my best friends. They have just as much fun as I do when we bother James. And because they were the first ones in my 1st grade class to notice that my hair is and unnaturally, natural red color, and that my eyes are purple. But there are many other reasons that we’re best friends.

Chapter 5

7: 32: 05: 28 am. That was the exact time that I fell the 4th time in the airport. And of course Ryli, Jenna, Kyle, and James laughed at me. But soon after I fell, James fell. We laughed at that much louder than my fall. James rarely falls and when he does, we get to remind him that he’s human to.

“Ok, ok. I’ve got to pee now. Sam, Ryli, come with me to the bathroom.” Here is a tip from me to you: never drink coffee, a soda, then water and laugh for three minutes straight. It is NOT a great combination.
**

WOOSH, RUMBLE, GRUMBLE!!! “I hate how loud the toilets are!”

“Ryli, why don’t you wait until you get out of the stall to yell at us?” I love Ryli, but sometimes she’s just blond. “But you’re right! They should get like a muffler for the toilets or something.”
“Maybe we three could invent one and make like, a lot of money.”
“Jenna, sweetie. I don’t think anyone would buy it. I mean, a toilet muffler? I know I though of it but it’s kind of a bad idea.” But maybe people would buy it? Maybe we should make one. Wait, what am I thinking? A toilet muffler? Come on Sam, snap out of it!
**
“Excuse me miss? I don’t know you and you don’t know me but my sister is in there, and her name is Sam, and I was wondering if you could ask her to hurry up. Please?”
“JAMES! What do you think you’re doing?” Gosh! This is almost as embarrassing as the time he told everyone that I can’t use the school bathrooms. “You don’t just go around asking people to get your sister out of the bathroom. Jenna, Ryli, lets go find something to eat.”

“Sorry to tell you this but, you spent like 15 minutes in the bathroom and we’ve been for almost an hour and we’ve got to leave for the plane. They’re going to start boarding in 30 minutes.”
“Kyle, that means that we have 20 minutes to find something to eat and an extra 10 minutes to make it to the plane. Just chill.”
“Yeah, Mr. Hale, we’ll probably find something to eat in like five minutes, eat it in ten, and you’ll make it to your plane with an extra 15 minutes to spare.”
“Sam, I thought you trained your friends to call me Kyle?”
“I tried. Sorry. Well anyways, lets get going girls. I’m starving, that kiosk food didn’t do squat for my stomach.”
**
“THIS ISN’T FAIR, KYLE!”
“Sam, calm down! We’re going to be out here to visit soon.”
“Yeah, and we’ll come out and visit you.”
“Last call for flight 29 to Washington.”
*Sniffle. “I don’t want to leave you guys. This isn’t fair at all. Jenn, Ry, what can I do?”
“You can cry all you want but it’s not going to change the fact that you’re moving.” It may sound like Ryli is saying depressing things, but they actually help.
“We’re going to come out to Washington in like a month, and we’ll keep in touch over e-mail.” Jenna talks like nothing is going to happen with our friendship. So it must be true.
“We’ve got to go.”
“Just one more second, James. Unlike you, I actually care about saying bye to people. -Sigh- Sorry James. Well, I guess I’m leaving now. –Sniffle- I’m going to miss you guys.”
“We’ll miss you to. Bye.”
“I love, Sam.”
“I love you Ryli. And I know you’re weird about it but I love you Jenna. I’ll see you soon.”
**
Now I’m on the plane. I wish I didn’t have to move. But I guess it’s a good thing to have different experiences in different places. Good- bye, Arizona. I’ll miss all the fun times. But I’m off, for a new adventure.