Retarded In Love

We arrived at the airport shortly after. Jeff helped me with my bags, and we got everything sorted and got aboard our plane. It was a decent flight, about five hours or so. I sat with Jeff, because he said he wanted to talk to me, and Dunn sat with Bam. A voice came over the intercom, and I buckled my seatbelt, trying to relax.

"So, are you excited?" Jeff asked me. I could tell he was.

"I guess." I smiled weakly. "A little nervous. I'm not sure what to expect."

"Well... The cast is primarily you and... nine guys, including Bam and Dunn there..."

I nodded. "You know, Bam only told me about this two days ago."

He chuckled a little. "I'm sorry."

"It's cool..."

There was a slight silence as the plane took off, then Jeff broke the silence.

"So, Ellie... Tell me about yourself."

I looked at him wearily. "Like what?"

"Whatever. I'm just trying to get to know you a little better, seeing as we're going to work together for a while. Hobbies? I guess any fears would be important. How's your pain tolerance?" He chuckled slightly.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Alright. About me. My name is Elanore, but people call me Ellie. I'm eight-teen years old, almost two years younger than Bam, who's 19. I'm 5'4'', and abnormally thin and pale, in case you haven't noticed. I've been in a relationship with a boy named David for four years. I spend most of my time reading and taking pictures. I was actually supposed to go study the English language and be a teacher, before this was brought up. And lastly, not to sound cocky, but I'm almost fearless and can take almost any hit you can imagine."

He looked at me and smiled. "Awesome. Eight-teen, wow that's young."

"I know. I'm turning nine-teen soon, though."

"When's your birthday?"

"June four-teenth."

"Yeah, just a few weeks. Cool."

I nodded. "Anything else?"

"Well... Tell me about your worst injury ever."

I thought for a while before answering. "When I was fifteen I got hit by a car. It sucked, mostly because I broke my leg and couldn't walk."

"You got hit by a car?" He seemed shocked. "Tell me more."

"Well, Bam and I and some friends were hanging out at some dude's house, skateboarding at night. Some dude was drunk and took a turn too fast and didn't see me. I didn't have time to move, so I tried to jump but the hood clipped my foot and I fell and somehow my leg ended up under the tire. Broke it in two places."

"Wow. Crazy."

I nodded once more.

+ + +

The conversation went to movies we liked, bands we listened to, sports, books, jobs, friends, every conversation worthy topic you could think of. It seemed like no time at all, and the voice came over the intercom once again to say we had landed. I looked over to see Bam was sleeping, and I took this as a perfect opportunity. I told Dunn not to wake him, and as soon as the intercom voice gave the ok for us to start getting off the plane, I reared my arm back and slapped Bam across the face as hard as I could. On instinct, he sat up swinging and caught my jaw. I reeled back and fell into Dunn, and Bam's eyes grew wide.

"Oh my god, Ellie. I'm so sorry! Are you ok?" Bam stood up in the isle, not paying any attention to the people protesting for him to move.

All I could do was laugh. I was sitting on Dunn's lap after a five hour conversation with my new boss, and my brother just punched me in the face and was being pushed by an angry mob of plane passengers. 'Maybe this is going to be fun...'