Five

The next week, I met my friends at DFW, which was the airport closest to our town. Since we were too young to fly by ourselves, Ms. Chang, Emma’s mom, was coming with us for our trip.

“I’ll be staying with Emma’s aunt, who lives near Chinatown,” she said. “That way I’ll be relatively close in case something happens or if you girls need anything.”

Even with Ms. Chang there, I was super nervous since it was my first time flying without my family. The only other times I even rode on an airplane were for family funerals in Korea. I was glad today was for a much happier reason, at least.

The airport was full of all kinds of people. Some even wore cowboy hats and boots like people do in the old Western movies.

“You know, I always forget that we live in Texas,” Emma said. “But then I come to the airport and see people who still dress like that in real life.”

Ms. Chang smiled, and we giggled as we got in line to go through security. Back home, I’d triple-checked my bags in case I somehow accidentally packed something bad. When it was my turn to walk through the scanner, I anxiously watched my bag disappear through the X-ray. Even though I knew I had nothing bad in the bag, I couldn’t relax until my bag safely made it to the other side.

“All right, you’re good to go,” the TSA agent said as I walked through the scanner.

Whew. I was just about to relax when Emma yelled, “Hey, that’s my bag!”

Ms. Chang stayed on the other side with Emma while Carolina and Zeina came through and stood next to me. We all gawked as the agent lifted Emma’s bag from the scanner and started going through it.

“What did you put in your bag?” Carolina asked. I was wondering the same thing.

“I don’t know!” Emma exclaimed. “Nothing that bad, I think?”

At that moment, the TSA agent pulled a bottle of pepper spray from her bag.

“This is definitely not allowed, young lady,” the agent said.

Emma slapped her forehead. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”

Ms. Chang shook her head. “Emma! I thought you said you could handle packing on your own.”

“You were going to bring pepper spray on our flight?” Zeina asked. “How come?”

Emma shrugged. “We’re going to NYC! It might get dangerous. You never know what’ll happen!”

“That is true, but I’m still going to have to take this from you,” said the TSA agent, tossing the pepper spray onto the pile of other confiscated items. “Next time put it in your checked luggage. Hope y’all have a good flight.”

We stood there for a moment, horrified. But then, slowly, we walked away, laughing as we headed to our gate.

“I can’t believe that just happened,” I said. “I was so scared we’d be arrested before we could even get on the plane!”

“I was sure they were going to take Emma away from us!” Carolina added.

“Luckily that won’t ever happen,” Ms. Chang said. “Not on my watch.”

We laughed even harder. We weren’t even on the plane yet and our trip was already becoming a memorable one.

We’d gotten seats next to each other on the plane, with Zeina and me sitting together in one row and Carolina, Emma, and Ms. Chang sitting beside one another across the aisle from us. It was fun at first, but once we were up in the air, the flight wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. There wasn’t free Wi-Fi, and the movies and TV shows available kind of stank. They didn’t even give us meals like they did for international flights.

So all my friends and I did was talk, catching one another up on our lives and plans for the summer as Ms. Chang watched a Chinese drama on her iPad.

“I probably have to stay home the rest of the summer,” Carolina said. “The baby is a handful right now. And since I’m the older sister, my parents expect me to help out.”

“That sucks,” Emma said. “My parents and I are probably going to Paris after we get back from Starscape. My mom promised to take me to a fashion show there.”

She tapped Ms. Chang on the shoulder, and her mom took off one of her earbuds. “Yes?”

“We’re still going to Paris, right?” Emma asked.

“Definitely!” Ms. Chang said before going back to watching her show.

“That’s awesome!” Zeina exclaimed. “Bring us back cool stuff!”

“Already planning on it,” Emma replied, giving us a thumbs-up. “I have a list of all the stuff I’m going to get everyone.” She looked at both me and Zeina. “What are you two going to be up to?”

“Aya got into Stanford, so we’re doing a big family trip to California to help her move in,” Zeina replied. “I’m pretty excited!”

“Wow, congrats to her!” Emma said.

“Yeah, that’s amazing!” Carolina added. “Stanford is my dream school.”

Since the Hassans were our neighbors, my family and I had already congratulated Aya, Zeina’s second-oldest sister, on her great news. But I still smiled and said, “Congrats again to her! I hope you guys have fun on the trip.”

“Thanks, everyone!” Zeina said. “I’m looking forward to being an only child for the first time in my life.”

“It’s amazing,” Carolina said with a groan. “I miss it every day.”

“It has its good and bad moments,” replied Emma, the only remaining only child out of the four of us. “Mostly good, though.”

“That’s true,” Carolina replied. “I don’t miss having one hundred percent of my parents’ attention on me. I couldn’t get away with anything.”

Zeina gulped. “I’m not sure if I’m ready for that.”

Emma waggled her eyebrows. “Oh, trust me, there are ways to get away with things. I’ll give you some pointers, Zeina.”

We all glanced at Ms. Chang, who removed one earbud and said, “Hm?”

We all giggled.

“Thanks, I guess?” Zeina said with a nervous smile.

“What about you, Gigi?” Carolina asked. “What are you doing this summer?”

All my friends turned to stare at me.

I looked around. The only plan I had was the camp, since my parents were usually too busy with the store for our family to go anywhere over the summer. Besides spending time with my family, all I usually did during breaks from school was draw and hang out with friends. I was hoping I could continue tutoring kids through the Ace Squad this summer, but it sounded like everyone else was going to be busy.

“Um, I’m still keeping my options open,” I said, my voice coming out higher than normal because of the lie. “One day at a time, you know? I want to enjoy the camp first and figure things out later.”

Carolina and Emma nodded, but Zeina gave me a confused look. As my oldest and closest friend, she could always tell right away when I wasn’t telling the truth.

Before I knew it, we were almost in NYC. The captain said, “All right, folks, we’re going to start our descent into LaGuardia. Please buckle your seat belts if you haven’t done so already. Flight attendants, prepare for landing.”

“Look!” Zeina whispered, and pointed out the plane window. I followed her gaze to see beautiful, glimmering skyscrapers standing tall against the horizon. Even from this high up, I could see that NYC was way larger than Dallas, the city closest to where we lived. It looked more like Seoul than any city I’d ever seen in the US.

“Wow,” I said, my voice coming out hushed like Zeina’s.

“We’re really here,” Zeina said. “We did it, Gigi. In just a few minutes we’re going to be in New York City!”