• Leslie: (point of view)

    Hi, I’m Leslie. There was a writing contest in our high school school, for different categories. The prize for each first prize winner was two tickets to an all expenses paid trip to the Himalayas. My friend Jacob wrote about music. He won the tickets and decided to take me along. One of Jacob’s friends, girl named Ava, won first prize for fiction, and took Jacob’s cousin John. I heard that the smart girl in my class, Adriana won first prize for nonfiction, and invited my friend Tory. Josh, the captain of the soccer team, wrote an essay about sports, and won 2 tickets. I heard that Carl, Josh’s best friend, is really excited about going with him because he knew Adriana would be going. Only problem is, it didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to.

    “Students this is your captain speaking, we are approaching the Himalayas and will land in 45 minutes. If you look out your window you will see the great Mt. Everest,” said the captain over the loud speaker.

    “I still cannot believe we won a trip, this is so cool,” exclaimed Tory, flipping her golden hair back.

    “I know, and we get a chance to get to know each other better,” Adriana added.

    We were all just hanging out in the private jet we won along with the trip, all 8 of us; Tory flirting with Josh, Carl talking to John and Jacob, Ava writing her soon to be novel, me just listening to music and staring out the window, and Adriana reading. Then it happened. There was a loud crashing noise and we all fell out of our seats because we weren’t wearing seatbelts. Tory let out a terrified squeal. “May Day, May Day,” said the pilot over the loudspeaker. We all put on our jackets and stuffed important things into our pockets, trying not to panic. Everyone held hands, but I was in the corner, so no one noticed me. There was another crash, and the plane rolled backward. I shut my eyes and curled up into a little ball, prepared for what I was going get. The plane’s hood flew off completely, and the plane flipped over. We all fell out. I tried to keep everyone’s screaming out of my head, I think I was the only one who didn’t scream. I held my head so I wouldn’t get hurt, and held my legs in. My life flashed before my eyes. I saw my mom, my room, my dead sister, and Jake, with his dark hair and gray eyes. Jake? THUMP! I hit the floor, back first. I felt a sting in my back and everything went black.

    Jacob:
    I was to busy thinking about my own life to realize that Leslie wasn’t holding anyone’s hand, until the plane overturned. I saw Leslie fall over a ledge, with her dark brown hair waving in the wind, and disappear into the mist. The shock numbed every muscle in my body, and my hand slipped away from Ava’s. “JAKE!” she cried. I shut my eyes, suddenly angry with myself. When we hit the ground, I heard a bone crushing crack and a heart stopping scream of pain. Tory. I had fallen on my face, and flipped over to my back. My head hurt like someone had thrown a rock at it. I heard Tory scream again, but it was distant. My entire body ached. “Tory!” I heard someone say. I felt like I was in a different world, I was too weak to fight sleep, and I slept.

    I woke up in the snow, there was nothing but darkness, and I wasn’t even cold, actually I felt warm. I saw a blinding light, and an angel emerged from it. “Am I dead?” I asked. “Jakey!” said the angel. No one except Leslie called me Jakey. “Leslie?” “Jacob help me,” she said. “Leslie!” I reached for her. “Jacob!” said a voice, but not Leslie’s.

    Suddenly, I was in a cave, next to a fire, the sun was burning outside. “Jake? Are you alright?” It was Ava. I sat up. “What happened?” I asked. “Well…” she replied, “After you let go of my hand, we all landed. You hit your head on a rock and passed out. Tory broke her arm. We landed in front of a cave, which was ironically lucky. Adriana stuffed a first aid kit bag under her jacket. We bandaged you up and dragged you in here. John found a plank, which we tied to Tory’s arm with a rope that Josh had stuck in his pocket. I had some matches, so we sent Josh and Carl to find wood to make a fire with, John refused to leave us...” “To leave you,” I interrupted. She rolled her eyes and continued. “While you were sleeping you started screaming Leslie, and I got worried and woke you up.” “Where is Leslie?” I asked. Ava paused, and then said, “We don’t know, the pilot is missing too.” “Oh,” I said coldly. “Jake, we’ll find her don’t worry.” “What’s for breakfast?” asked Tory. “Let’s go fishing,” said Carl. “We’re stuck on Mt. Everest. Where are we going to find fish?” said Adriana. “I have some frozen lunch I stuffed into the first aid kit” Adriana took out a small box that looked as if it couldn’t hold anything but lunch for one person. There were 3 chicken breasts inside. I watched as she heated it over the fire. I put my head in Ava’s warm lap; she was like a sister to me. “Sleep,” she said, and I couldn’t resist the invitation.
    Leslie:
    I woke up in a bright light. I was covered in frost, frozen to the bone. How had I survived the night? My guardian angel was near I guess, Loretta, my fraternal twin sister. She died in a car accident along with my father. I never cared much for him. My parents had been divorced 3 years ago before her death. I always felt they liked her better. My back hurt a lot. I shut my eyes. “What are you doing?” Loretta said. “Lorey? Why did you leave me? Can I come visit you?” “There are people out there looking for you, people that need you Lili,” she said. “Like who?” I replied. “You’ll find out. Now get up, don’t sleep, it’s not you’re time yet. Look to the sun for your answer.”
    I opened my eyes, and forced myself upward. “WHERE DO I GO?” I shouted? “Look to the sun for your answer.” That’s what Loretta said. I stood up, and looked at the sky. I saw smoke. Fire. PEOPLE! Despite the pain I felt in my back, I sprinted in the direction toward the smoke.

    Jacob:
    “Jacob! Jacob! Where are you. Jakey?,” Leslie. I sat straight up, leaving behind my dreams. “Jake. Oh my gosh, you are never going to believe what John and Carl did. They found blankets and pillows from the plane. They found my notebook too!” said Ava excitedly. “I’m not sure what you’re excited about Ava, we’re stuck on Mt. Everest,” I replied. She gave me a, why are you always so pessimistic, look. “Jakey!” I heard someone say. I looked up and thought I was going crazy, maybe dreaming. There she was, the angel in my dreams, and she was running to me. I stood up. “LESSY!” She ran straight into my arms and hugged me. I think I missed about 3 beats with her touch. I held tight and wouldn’t let go, as if she would disappear in a moment, and I would never find her. “I’m sorry,” I said, stroking her straight, velvet like hair.

    Leslie:
    I saw the fire getting closer. There was a cave ahead. The fog was thick and the wind kept blowing my hair into my face. The snow was almost knee deep. Then I saw them, everyone. Tory, John, Ava, Josh, Carl, and Jake. I started running. “Jakey!” I cried. He looked up and got up on his feet. “Lessy!” he shouted. I ran into his arms and held him tight, feeling his biceps through his jacket. The pain in my back disappeared. “I’m sorry,” he said. For what? I thought to myself. “Leslie!” screamed Tory. She hugged me from behind. I turned around and hugged her. I felt Jacob’s unwillingness to let go. Everyone ran up to me in a big group hug. “Move Josh,” I heard Ava say. She appeared in front of me, her natural red hair was tied back, and she was looking at me with her blue eyes. I gave her a hug; she helped me after Loretta had died. She kissed my forehead and said, “I feel ashamed for forgetting you.” “No,” I said, “It’s ok, things happen for a reason.” She let go of me and said, “Jake really missed you, he would talk to you in his sleep.” I felt blood rise to my checks. I turned to look at Jake. His hands were in his pockets, and he was looking at the ground, smiling. I notice the bandage on his forehead behind his hair. “What happened to his head?” I asked. “He hit his head on a rock,” replied Tory. Everyone started walking out the cave, I bet to leave us alone. Tory stayed next to the fire, and fell a sleep within a few minutes. I sat next to Jake and we warmed our selves up. “Aw you poor baby,” I said jokingly. Jake gave me a playful shove. I stared into the flames of the fire while thinking of something to say. There was long, awkward pause. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he said, “I love you.” I was shocked, speechless, but not really. It was a weird feeling, like I’d expected it. “Take care of yourself, for me.” Loretta’s words repeated themselves in my head. “So…? Are you going to say anything,” He asked. I thought for a moment, and said nothing. Instead, I leaned in and kissed his cheek. When I pulled my face back, he turned his head and kissed my lips.

    John:
    Hi. This is John here. I’m going to tell you what happened to us the rest of the way, after our lovely friend known as Leslie finished her part.

    The next morning we decided to start moving. Adriana boiled some water using snow and we packed what ever we had. “If we stay in one place with no food, we have no chance for survival,” said Carl. We held hands while walking so we wouldn’t get separated. The air was thick, the winds were crazy, and the snow was deep. We started walking down the mountain. After two hours of walking, I saw something ahead. I strained to look, but the snow was too heavy. “The plane!” shouted Adriana. The roof of the plane was totally torn off, and the wing was ripped off. It was so crushed we were all surprised at how we had survived. We all gasped and started to run. “WE’RE SAVED!” cried Carl. We spilt up and searched the plane. Jake, Josh and I checked the middle. Ava went to the front, and everyone else went to the back, where the food might be. I found a few blankets and a couple of pillows. I heard Ava scream from the front. I ran to the front, and there I saw him. It was the pilot, crushed under debris. I was shocked, the view was too terrible to describe. Ava cringed and hid her face in my chest, she sobbed. Soon everyone was looking over my shoulder. “Oh… my… gosh!” said Adriana, shocked. Tory quickly turned away.

    Josh searched for something, but I didn’t pay attention to what. “YES!” he shouted suddenly, “WE’RE SAVED!” He showed me a radio. Adriana took it and headed outside. She took her cell phone out of her pocket, and took out the battery. Adriana’s father was head of some super secret computer company. They worked on trying to make our computers faster and more efficient, so Adriana is pretty much a genius with this kind of stuff. She did something with the wires and turned the radio on. We were all shocked at how quickly she was able to do it. “Hello, hello? Can you here me?” She continued like that for a few minutes then said, “Yes, please can you help us. We were in a plane crash and we’re stuck on Mt. Everest, there are 8 of us. Ok, thank you so much.” Adriana took the headphones off and said, “The guy that answered said that the crash had been detected and that there’s a rescue copper about 3 minutes away from us. We had to flag our scarves to catch attention.” At that, no matter how cold we were, we all whipped off our scarves and laid them in the snow. We all stood on the scarves so they wouldn’t fly away. Ava was under my arm, I couldn’t resist. I turned her around and pressed my lips against hers. “You… you,” she mumbled. I swallowed her words with another kiss.

    Suddenly, we heard the whipping of a chopper. “OVER HERE!” We started waving our hands in the hair. Ava’s hair whipped into my face when the chopper came over us. A ladder was lowered, and a man came and took us in one by one. First Tory, then Adriana, Ava, Me, Leslie, Jake, Carl, and lastly, Josh. We were taken to a hospital where we met our parents. We did enjoy the free trip we got, with all expenses paid because of the crash. The plane was checked out, and we later found out that the left wing had not been properly inspected. Our parents made sure that the inspector was fired. On top of that, they all sued him. Adriana and Carl finally got together, and Tory obviously got Josh. The family of the pilot was informed of the sad news. We all attended his funeral. Even though something so tragic happened because of that crash, I know that things always happen for a reason, and after such events our perspectives in life changes with our experiences.