She's going on a trip to Europe for summer break with her friends.

"Come on, Erica! Get the lead out of your ass!"

Why did I agree to this? Lisa, Carrie, and Alicia had approached me the other day when I was at school. A mysterious benefactor had given Lisa four first class tickets to a city of her choice. For reasons that escaped me, Lisa had selected me for the fourth ticket. I didn't even consider her a friend. Why was she giving me a ticket.

Even stranger, when I asked my parents to deny me permission to leave the country, they handed me my passport and simply said that it would be a good experience for me.

Which was why I was struggling with my luggage whilst having Lisa yammer at me that I was going too slowly. Even worse, Lisa had refused to tell me where we were going.

We didn't have any trouble checking in, but Lisa wouldn't let me hold my ticket. The luggage drop-off was on the way to security, so we had to carry our luggage a little further after the clerk gave us the check luggage handle stickers before dropping off our luggage and clearing security.

As we made it to the gate, I collapsed into one of the seats. I would much rather have preferred if we could have gone a little slower so that I wouldn't have gotten so tired.

"I'm so excited," Carrie gushed. She and the others were standing together waiting for the call for us to seat. I turned my head and checked the monitor to see where we were going.