Princess is No Name I Deserve

The plane landed without much turbulence. Of course, it wouldn't have much of a big deal. I was pretty used to it, given how much I flew in my previous life. But this was a new life; I could start all over here.

I went to baggage claim, watching for a red suitcase with black spots to come around. So many of them were black. Seriously, did everyone buy the same suitcase set? A green one. A black one. Black one. Black one. Blue. Black. Black. Red. No dots. Black. Blue. Pink. Black. Black. Another clunked down the ramp. Good thing no one puts their breakables in there. Red with black spots. Finally. I grabbed it and walked to where pick ups happened.

Ping ping. I look at my downgraded phone. "From Veta" I say quietly. "So sorry I was running late. We're parked way back int the pick up lane. Hope you're not blowing me off."

I walked outside. This was the first time most people had seen my new face. My little nose that stuck up just a little bit. My tiny chin. I'd stayed out of the tanning booth I once used to blend in ever since the plan was put into action. Up here in New York it was chilly in the fall. Nothing like my main home in California. The breeze felt harsh on my face, causing my eyes to tear up a bit.

Holding my hair from my face, I saw a tall girl in black waving at me. Her twiggy arms flailed the closer I got to her.

"Veta?" I started running to her. My suitcase bounced unsteadily, threatening to topple over. The closer I got, the more excited I got. "Veta!" I yelled after her. Now my suitcase was just being dragged, no longer rolling. I realized that the girl wasn't tiny just because she was far away. She was just really really skinny.

I hugged her as soon as I reached her, allowing my baggage--both literal and metaphorical--to fall to the ground. I wasn't just embracing a person, but the possibility of a new life! My fingers landed into the slight curvatures of her ribs.

Feeling the bones under me, I began to wonder if I'd crush her. I wasn't fat by any means, nor was I strong. By Hollywood standards, I'd been both obese and anorexic. Veta... Veta was just skinny beyond belief. I wondered, for a minute, could she afford food? I'd thankfully stashed a little cash in my suitcase, to last me until I found me a job. I could contribute at least that much until I found something. I made a deal with my mother that if I ran out of money and didn't have a job, I would go back home, wherever that was at that point in time.

"So what do we do now?" I asked, praying that she wasn't going to take me to a dark alley and kill me.

"Let's get you home." Veta's voice was so reassuring. "To new beginnings!" She threw my baggage into the back of a taxi. It was just the two of us in the back seat.

"Where to?" said the driver in a thick accent. It made me realize a little more how different things would be. I'd never had a driver with an accent. I barely understood him. Was this common?

"Just back to where you picked us up," Veta said. She was apparently used to it.

"So..." I wondered out loud. "You don't have a car?"

"You pretty much walk everywhere or take a bus. It's just easier. Traffic is bad enough. Not a lot of parking," Veta answered. "Is that weird?"

"To me, yeah," I didn't give away anything.