Change of Heart

"Are you sure you have everything?" Mom asked me, a worried look on her face. "Your ticket, your luggage...everything?"

"I'm positive," I laughed lightly. Mom was an absolute mess. She was nervous about me leaving home, even if I was going to stay with people who were practically family, and she had asked me if I had what I needed about a million times now.

"Are you absolutely positive? Do you have your allergy pills? You know how bad you react to dust."

Make that a million and one. I rolled my eyes. My allergies were not bad at all. Mom just overreacted too much. Not that I blame her, really. "Yes, I have them. Stop worrying."

"You call me when you get there, okay? Darry's going to meet you at the airport."

"I know! C'mon, Mom. They're getting to the end of boarding, and I'm not on my plane."

She sniffled a little, her eyes getting misty. "I know, I know. It's just hard."

"I'll be back on August twentieth to start getting packed for Stanford," I promised, kissing her quickly. "Don't worry. I'll be back before you know it."

"That's over two months. God, I don't know if I'll last that long." Another tearful sniff.

"You'll be fine. I'll call! Bye, Mom."

"Bye, Sophia."

I hugged her before running onto the plane. Surely enough, right when I stepped on, they announced final boarding call. That was close.

Taking my seat next to a woman with a toddler, I took advantage of the fact that they were occupied and standing up by throwing my curly dark brown hair up into a ponytail.

"David, will you please sit down and be quiet? Mommy needs a second of silence," a woman with dirty blonde hair begged, her hand massaging her forehead.

"But, Momma!" the boy who looked about four with bright blue eyes and black curls whined. "I want my animal crackers and apple juice!"

"You can have them once the plane takes off. Now please sit. In. Your. Seat." To emphasize her point, she reached across the armrest and yanked the boy's arm, forcing him to sit down. That didn't cut his energy at all, since he was still bouncing up and down in his seat.

"Oh, boy... This was a mistake," it sounded like the woman mumbled to herself. I felt kind of badly for her. She didn't really look old enough to be a mother, and this kid was obviously a handful.

Instead of helping though, I pulled out my abused copy of To Kill a Mockingbird and started to read it for the five hundredth or so time. The pages had been skimmed so many times that the binding was just about to keel over and fall off. Poor book.

Though I tried to focus on the words printed on the page in front of me, I was having trouble. I couldn't wait to see Johnny. After all, I hadn't seen him since we were about eight years old. I'd met the rest of the gang then too, but I doubted that I'd recognize any of them. It had been ten years.

There was a commotion, followed by the woman's sad sigh. "Excuse me?" I was thankful that it was the woman that was sitting next to me, and not her high-strung son.

"Yeah?" I asked, wondering what in the world could be the reason she was talking to me.

"Do you have any tissues or napkins on you by any chance?" Her eyes were pleading. When I glanced over at the small boy, David, I think, he was covered in what looked like juice.

"Oh, sure." I reached into my carry-on bag and pulled out a couple of napkins. Okay, so it came in handy that my mother was a control freak when it came to packing for my trip.

"Thank you so much. I don't know how I could have forgotten them, with this tiny terror on my hands." She turned back and started trying to clean up the toddler.

I stared out the window thoughtfully, wondering how anyone had changed. Had Ponyboy finally grown in that front tooth that was still missing when I saw him, even though he'd lost it three months before? Probably. Had Steve's gap closed? Probably not. Did Soda outgrow that crush that he'd developed on that girl in his class, Sandy? Another probably there.

"Everyone buckle your seatbelts. It's time for the plane to lift off," the pilot announced over the speaker.

A few minutes after I snapped my buckle shut, the plane started to accelerate.

"Mommy, I don't feel good," David complained, turning slightly green. Oh, hell.

The young woman grabbed a barf bag just in time for David to vomit into it. This was going to be a long flight...that's for sure...