Walt E. Disney High

Chapter 45

ESMERALDA

We landed in the early morning, and I was shaken awake by Kida to watch as we soared over the sleeping city of Paris. "All right, Disney students! Listen now!" the Fairy Godmother piped, standing up in the front of the plane and getting all of our attention. I stifled a guffaw as Ms. Hearts's head popped up from her seat, glaring at us with a gloppy face mask covering her skin. "We will all file off quietly and in an orderly manner. Once you are off the plane, please stay in place in one group. Remember to take all of your carry on luggage. Right now, off we go!"

I stood up, stretching my legs and arms and yawning. "Excuse me," Phoebus said from behind my ear. I felt his hands slide over my waist as he squeezed past me uncomfortably.

"Excuse you -- get your hands off me, please." I didn't know how I spent the whole flight with him, but luckily Kida was in between us. I gave him a stink eye as he reached up to get his luggage.

Getting off the plane was slow, but we eventually made it onto the dark, freezing tarmac, where light snow was falling. I threw my hood on, my black puffy hair gathering in front of my face. The administrators herded us into the airport, which was warm and bustling with all kinds of people, even though it was 3 AM.

I glanced around at my fellow students, practically zombies. Aurora seemed to be sleeping standing up, leaning on Cinderella's shoulder with her hand in Philip's. Anna's red hair was frizzy and Kristoff was laughing as he thumbed some drool off her chin. A familiar face appeared at my shoulder. "Hey, Esme," Milo said, grinning.

"Oh," I said, exhaling. "Hi Milo. How was the flight?"

His eyes brightened. "Actually good! I got a lot done. I interpreted this Atlantian document, it turns out it was a weather report -- sunny day, a high of 58 degrees! Isn't that so cool?"

I could barely understand what he was talking about. I knew he had a fascination with the mythological city of Atlantis, but he was crazily obsessed with it. I sometimes worried about his faith in it. "Yeah," I said, faking enthusiasm. "That's great."

"Oh, Kida!" he called to my friend beside me. "Did you look at that alphabet chart I sent you?"
What?

Kida's eyes brightened, and they nodded, moving closer to me so that I was in the middle of two Atlantis nerds, leaning over me to converse excitedly. "Yes, I did! It's very interesting how we have written symbols for 'ch,' 'sh,' and 'th,' like Greek."

Milo perked up and I rolled my eyes. "Do you know Greek?"

Kida said, "Yes! Yes, I do, and I'm finding a lot of similarities between my written language and written Greek."

I furrowed my eyebrows, putting my hand on Kida's arm. "Wait, wait, wait, your language?"

They looked at me and nodded. "Yes, the language of Atlantis."

"Kida, you actually believe that?" I asked in shock, laughing a bit.

They frowned. "Of course. It's my ancestry, my entire home village is Atlantian peoples."

"I didn't know you actually thought -- what proof --?" I continued, waving my hands about.

Kida crossed their arms and said, "Look, Esme, if you're going to be rude about it, maybe you should go talk to someone else."

I scoffed. "Fine! I don't want to hear about your magical city anyway."

I hoisted up my green messenger bag on my shoulder and quickened my pace, leaving Milo and Kida behind. I was alone for a few steps, before I spotted him. "Quasi! Quasimodo!" I called, shouldering through a couple of people to reach him. He looked up at me with a smile.