Chapter One
Kara jumped, startled. "You scared me," she said, looking up to see not only Becky, but Margie, Laura, and Claire standing around her.
"Sorry we scared you," Becky apologized, "but we've gotta get on the plane before it leaves without us."
"Oh," Kara stood up and grabbed her carry-on. "Let's go."
"It's about time. They've been letting passengers on for almost ten minutes now," Laura griped.
"So?" Margie replied. They're not gonna leave without us, and nobody's gonna take our seats."
"I hope we're not sitting way in the back. The bathrooms stink, they're so disgusting," Claire spoke up.
The four other girls groaned. "What?" Claire asked. confused. She looked around at everybody. Claire was something of a priss, you might say. Not that she was stuck up, because she was far from that, but she never left her house without making sure she looked perfect, and she hated to be around things like smelly bathrooms, and you can't really blame her for that one, although sometimes her friends wondered, because she tended to blow things out of proportion.
"Nothing," Laura replied. "Let's go already."
The five girls went through customs, and boarded the plane. They made their way to their seats, which were in the middle of the plane, much to Claire's relief. Kara took the seat closest to the window, and Becky sat next to her. Laura, Claire, and Margie sat across from them in the center aisle.
Kara set her bag on the floor by her feet, and stared out the window. She absently brushed a strand of long auburn hair off her face. As it had earlier, Kara's mind went back to thoughts about her ex-boyfriend, Paul. Three weeks ago they'd broken up, after Kara had found out that Paul had been cheating on her. It killed Kara to learn this, because they had gone out for over a year. But he decided he liked the other girl better, and left Kara high and dry.
Kara's friends had encouraged her to find somebody else, but it wasn't that easy. She was still hurting from Paul's rejection of her, and she was afraid that the same thing would happen all over again with another guy.
"Here," Becky's voice jolted Kara back to the present. Kara looked at Becky questioningly. Becky handed her a piece of gum. "It'll help the pressure in your ears when we take off," Becky explained.
Kara nodded in understanding, and unwrapped the gum and put it in her mouth. "You're awfully quiet," Becky said to Kara. "Were you thinking about Paul again?"
Kara nodded. "Yeah, I can't seem to get him out of my mind. I don't know how I'll be able to enjoy this trip."
"You will, don't worry," Becky said confidently. "Maybe you'll meet some handsome Spanish guy, and forget all about Paul."
"Yeah, maybe," Kara smiled at the enthusiastic tone of her friend's voice. Of all her friends, Becky was her very best one. Becky was the first one she'd told about Paul, and she understood the best.
Kara and Becky, along with the other three girls, had just graduated from high school. Laura, Margie, and Claire were all starting college in the fall, but Kara and Becky were taking a year off. They were gonna get a house together somewhere, although they didn't yet know where.
Becky and Kara were exact opposites, and everybody was amazed at how long they had been friends. Becky had chin-length blond hair, which more often than not she wore in a headband or barrettes, and clear blue eyes. She was really tall, at five feet, eight inches. but she was really thin. Becky was very athletic, in high school she played soccer, softball, and intramural basketball, and she went jogging every morning.
Kara had long wavy auburn hair, and green eyes. She was a little shorter than Becky, at five feet six inches, and she was petite, rather thin, she thought. She wasn't as athletic as Becky, although she was captain of the varsity cheerleading squad, and she did either aerobics of yoga every day to stay in shape. Kara was very musical. She sang in the church choir, and in the chorus in school, and she played several instruments. She also wrote some of her own music.
Despite how different the two were, they were the best of friends. Kara was once again brought abruptly back to reality, this time by the voice coming over the intercom. "Please fasten your seatbelts. We will be taking off in five minutes."
The girls all did so, and began chatting excitedly. "I can't believe we're going to Spain!" Claire exclaimed. "It's going to be so much fun!"
"What city are we going to again?" Margie asked, as the plane took off.
"Malaga," Laura replied. "It's on the Costa del Sol," she said the phrase with a perfect Spanish accent.
"I'm glad at least one of us know Spanish. I can't speak one word of it," Becky declared.
"That's okay, you probably won't need to know much anyway. There are so many tourists that come here that most of the people there speak English fluently," Kara, who had gone to Spain the previous summer with a group of students from school, spoke up, surprising everybody, for she hadn't spoken much since boarding the plane.
"So you are awake over there," Claire commented. "I was beginning to wonder."
"I just have a lot on my mind," Kara replied.
"Like Paul?" Margie asked. Kara wouldn't answer, so Margie knew it was true. "Girl, you have got to get over him. Find someone else to go out with."
I just told her the same thing," Becky said. To Kara, "See? I'm not the only one who thinks we need to find you a new man. Let go of Paul and find someone else to love. Someone better than him."
"It's not that easy," Kara said angrily. "You don't know what it's like to go out with someone for over a year, and have him dump you for a girl he's only known for a couple weeks, who is a well-known tramp." Kara brushed tears off her cheek. "I'm gonna take a nap. Wake me up when they bring the food around." With that she turned her head to stare out the window, pointedly ignoring her friends.
