Chapter 10

Mariah's POV

‘Dear passengers aboard the QANTAS Flight #32, we will be landing at Dulles International Airport in 30 minutes. Please be seated with your seat belt on. You may unbuckle your seat belt when the seat belt sign turns off. Hope you enjoyed your flight with us. Have a safe stay. Thank you for flying with QANTAS. And if you look out your window, you will see the top view of the country. Welcome to the United States of America.’

I sat up straight. I looked outside my window. We were indeed flying over USA. I looked over to Serena to see her as still as a log. The girl slept the entire flight. I would think that she was dead if she didn’t keep mumbling “Are we there yet?” every 25 minutes. Which reminds me… she’ll ask that in 3… 2… -

“Are we there yet?”

“We’ll be, in 25 minutes.”

“Well, then. Time to clean myself up. Who knows what kind of men we’ll meet as soon as we step into the country.”

“Serena, could you wait until after we settle?” This was said by Isaac who was sitting behind us with Lina beside him.

“No can do, honey. This tiger’s out for her prey.” And then, she proceeded to imitate a tiger’s roar.

I literally face-palmed. Someone calm this girl’s hormones.

We experienced a bit of turbulence which caused the ‘tiger’ to shriek – Serena. The seat belt light turned off overheard. We got off, went through the whole waiting and immigration, and before we knew it, we had already got our luggage and we were on our way out.

I was literally bouncing as I walked. I was so excited to meet Dad. Before I could walk out to look for my dad, I was pulled by my coat to a stop. Lina and Serena each stood by my side and Isaac stood in front of me. Then we continued to walk.

It then clicked to me. There’s going to be a lot of people at the airport – those who just arrived and those who were waiting for the arrivals. And I don’t like skinship. No, I fear skinship. After the whole incident.

We walked out and I tried to spot my dad but there was a giant in front of me. Isaac blocked my view of the people waiting. We walked a bit further and then Isaac stepped aside.

There he was, standing with a big smile on his face. He looks old. He must be overworking himself again.

“Dad!” I ran to him and gave him a big hug. I waited for the panic to attack but no… he’s good. I can touch my father. He hugged me back just as tight.

“My precious gem. Oh, how long it has been,” he said softly while holding me.

“Let me take a look at you. Oh! You have grown more beautiful since the last time I saw you.”

“We’re here also,” Serena chipped in from the side, shoving me to Lina.

“Of course. How could I forget? Our little princesa has grown into a reyna,” dad said, hugging the so called princesa. (princesa – princess / reyna – queen)

Serena had this phase in 4th grade where she was a princess and the world was her kingdom. Not anymore, though. Now, she’s a ‘tiger’ and men are her deer.

“Yeah, right. More like nakakatakot na pusa,” I whispered to Lina. Isaac heard and snickered with Lina and I. Apparently, the pusa heard. (nakakatakot na pusa – scaredy cat / pusa – cat)

“Don’t start, ipis,” she remarked. (ipis – cockroach)

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In case you were going through google to search for what language we were name-calling with, it was Tagalog – Serena’s mother tongue. Since our group has different language speakers, we took it upon us to learn each other’s language. Serena’s mother tongue is, of course, Tagalog. Mine is Spanish, French and English. Lina’s is Spanish and Isaac is full British so, English. But these are the languages we can speak in:

ME: Spanish, French, Tagalog, I-taukei.

SERENA: Tagalog, Spanish, French (not that well), I-taukei.

LINA: Spanish, Russian, Tagalog.

ISAAC: Russian, Tagalog, French, Spanish.

And, of course, we all speak English.

Isaac is like a walking-talking google translator. We all can speak Tagalog. And Lina picked up Russian from her old school.

Now, about I-taukei. It’s an official language of one of the small islands in the Pacific. I came across it when I was in 8th grade. I learnt the language and decided to teach Serena. So that it was like our code-language. It was fun to talk in it around Isaac. He would get so frustrated that he didn’t know the language so he tried learning it but then I would do sh*t to stop him from learning it. And then, he gave up. Heehee!

Now, back to the pusa – I mean, Serena. Oh, and she just called me a cockroach.

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“Yeah, yeah. Now, move it. Hello, Mr. Anderson. I’m Lina, Crystal’s more tamed and self-controlled bestie. It was-“ she was cut off by… you guessed it, Serena.

“Self-controlled?! You were not saying that when you had your tongue… you know what? You weren’t saying anything at all because you were busy sucking…. hmphmph phapme oomph.” I muffled her mouth, but she clawed it off and then Isaac muffled her mouth again.

“Serena and I are gonna go load the suitcases.” Isaac tried to drag the cat away. But my dad stopped him.

“How ‘bout I help you instead? I don’t think Serena knows where I parked the car. It was nice meeting you, Lina dear. We’ll get to know each other during your stay. Let’s go, boy.” He patted Lina on the head before patting Isaac on the back and they went with the trolleys.

Lina and Serena followed after, bickering, leaving me smiling to myself. Oh, and Serena was talking about Lina and Isaac kissing – more like, making out -, not ‘that’. Get your heads out of the sewer.

I was already feeling okay. This could actually be a not-so-bad trip.

Little did I know, what was gonna hit me.