Gabi's Walkman Monologue

Gabi and Cecilia sat together on a vinyl seat at Detroit Metro airport. Other passengers glanced at them as they leaned towards each other, bopping their heads and mouthing the words to a song they were listening to on Gabi’s Walkman.
Homeward bound,
I wish I was,
Homeward bound...
Home where my thought's escaping,
Home where my music's playing…
Gabi was surprised to see tears in her best friend’s eyes as she sang along to the song.
Usually Cecilia was the strong one, the funny one, the one who had all the friends. Gabi felt a pit in her stomach as she sang along with her friend. For as long as she could remember, Cecilia had been her best friend. Their families lived across the street from each other, and Gabi had known Cecilia basically since the day she was born.
Now they would be apart for the longest stretch of their lives.
Of course, each family took vacations each summer so they’d been apart for seven, even ten days at a time, but a full month apart was something they’d never experienced. Gabi looked at her suitcase and her teary-eyed friend and wondered why she had decided to spend a full four weeks in Germany, when she could have spent the summer home working at the movie theater and swimming with Cecilia.
As the Simon and Garfunkel song faded out, Gabi noticed her friend Katie walk towards the gate. Katie was in her German class, and soon a few more classmates neared the gate, all looking around for familiar faces and wondering if their teacher, Frau Meyer, had arrived yet.
Katie came and sat next to Gabi and Cecilia, and started talking about the last time she was at the airport, the flight got delayed and they almost missed their connection. Gabi had never been on an airplane before, so all this was new to her, and she would have no idea what to do if their flight was delayed or if there were any change to their itinerary, which she had printed and placed in her backpack.
Just as their flight was being called to board, Frau Meyer arrived, to everyone’s
relief.
She rounded up all the students, made sure everyone was there, and then asked everyone to make sure their had their passport and ticket.
Cecilia knew she wouldn’t be getting on the plane with her friend, so she hugged Gabi goodbye and gave her a letter to open when she arrived in Frankfurt. Gabi smiled and waved bye as her friend walked away.
Gabi and Katie had seats next to each other on the plane, and walked next to each other as they boarded the plane. Gabi could hear the powerful plane engines running, and wondered how the massive airplane would be able to carry all these people and luggage across an ocean.
Her nerves continued to build as she and Katie took their seats and strapped themselves in. Katie was telling a story now about her family’s trip to San Diego last winter, and how the airplane food had made everyone sick. Katie pointed out where the barf bag was, tucked in the seatback in front of her, and told Gabi she looked like she might need it before the plane even took off! Katie continued to tell, in detail, how gross the chicken had been on that flight, and how her family had all gotten sick at the same time in the hotel. They couldn’t go to the beach for the first two days because no one could leave the bathroom.
Gabi tried to calm herself by closing her eyes and breathing deeply. With her eyes closed, the smells and sounds of the plane came into focus -- the jet fuel being pumped into the plane, mixed with the brewing coffee only made her feel worse. In addition, she could hear passengers around her speaking German, and to her horror, she couldn’t understand a word they were saying. She’d studied German at school for the last two years, so how was it possible she couldn’t understand anything? How would she survive four weeks at a German high school?
Gabi was so distracted with her thoughts that she hardly noticed that the plane had started taxiing down the runway. Suddenly the plane began to pick up speed, and she opened her eyes to see the airport whizzing past her. He stomach dropped as the plane left the ground and she saw the trees and buildings getting smaller and smaller below. Her friend Katie was laughing and having a grand time, explaining this was the best part of the flight. Seeing her friends and teacher around her, everyone excited and grinning, allowed Gabi to relax into her seat and enjoy her first airplane ride.