Off to Seek a Wizard... -3- Not-So-Great Planes by Erin Halfelven

 
We get on the plane and my seat is 12A and George's seat is 12B, right next to me and we're both in first class -- how cool is that? But it worries me a bit to think I'm going to be sitting with a boy who's trying to hit on me for almost 2000 miles. This could get crazy-making.

He offers me the window seat when he finds out I've never flown before and we trade. Somehow while trading my butt gets in the way and he apologizes for rubbing up against it. I just giggle because I have no idea how else to react.

I didn't just win the contest, go home and put on a dress and catch the plane. Mom and I spent two months practicing while she told me all about how I should react in public. But not a word on how to behave after I had rubbed my bottom on some boy's chest.

The worst thing about it was when I got seated and looked at him, he seemed to be enjoying himself. I could just die!

I'm slender and not that tall, five foot three and one hundred pounds, more or less. It's always been a problem for me growing up because I have what some consider a girlish face. Until I started learning magic from my dad, I got beat up more than anyone would really like to have that experience. And a lot of them told me right straight out, that they were beating on me cause I looked like a girl.

Actually I have a substantial nose and too much chin, but Mom says I make a very pretty girl and Daddy called me his princess. He also said I'm to call him Daddy whenever I'm Stephanie and not to forget or he'll take away my Barbie dolls.

I don't have any Barbies, by the way. Well, just one. She has a cute little mermaid costume and I've never taken her out of the package but every girl, even someone who's not a real girl should probably have a Barbie doll to be more authentic.

See, that's the secret of magic. It has to look authentic, unless you're doing a comedy act. A set of rings that don't look as if they are all made of solid steel isn't going to fool anyone when you thumb the secret catch and make them pass through one another.

Anyway, I started doing magic in the classroom and the bullies started leaving me alone. Maybe they were afraid I'd turn them into neuts. No, I didn't misspell that.

So we sat on the runway for a half hour more, while I thought about outwitting bullies and such. The tower still hadn't cleared us for takeoff, I guess and someone who claimed he was the captain of our plane came on the intercom and said something about windstorms over the Great Plains.

"I don't think this is such a Great Plane," I said aloud and George laughed.

We were flying Emerald Air which is headquartered in Seattle but flies all over the west and has a hub in Kansas City. The planes are a pretty shade of green that almost matches my eyes and Daddy said that's why I picked them for my first ever air plane flight but it isn't true.

I look out the window and we still aren't moving. I look back and I catch George looking at me. He smiles and pretends to be playing a game on his phone.

A little later he catches me looking at him. I could just die.