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Billie couldn’t help but bounce her little leg as her mom hoped in the driver seat, ready to go to the airport. She barely slept the night before, it was probably a mix of excitement and nervousness. She didn’t know why she was nervous, maybe because she hadn’t seen her grandpa in person since she was a baby. That was probably it, nothing more.
Well…she supposed she didn’t like the way her ears popped when they were landing. That always hurt her, her mom always brought gum for her to chew when that happened, it helped the pain go away a little.
She wished that lived closer to California, that way they could just drive. Mom drove when she was by herself but when others were with her she booked a flight, saying that she didn’t want everyone to be trapped in a car for days when they could just have a five hour flight.
Billie was jolted out of her train of thought when the car started moving. She looked over and tried to meet her momma‘s eyes in the top mirror. She wasn’t sure what it was called, she thinks she heard her poppa refer to it as a review mirror?
”Billie? Honey, are you okay?” Her mom asked
“Mmhmm. I’m okay Momma” Billie told her, yawning a little
Her momma chuckled “You can sleep, I’ll wake you when we get to the airport”
She didn’t really process what else her momma said after that, dozing off a little as the car moved. Billie always got sleepy during car rides, the rocking of the car just put her right to sleep.
A part of her wished that Poppa and Aunt Tara could have joined them this time. It had, apparently, been awhile since they saw grandpa in person, according to momma at least. She also wished that they didn’t have to travel so far to see her grandpa. According to momma they had to go to a…pri-prison! to see him because he did some bad things in the past and hurt lots of people.
She felt that momma was hiding something from her and tried asking her for more details. She won’t budge though, just saying that he did bad things. Billie gave up and finally let herself fall asleep in the backseat, ignoring the rapid beating of her heart.
“Billie, Sweetie wake up” Momma spoke, shaking her shoulder
“We here?” Billie mumbled, her speak and grammar a little off from just waking up
Momma just smiled “Yeah we’re here”
They grabbed their luggage, Billie’s just being a small paw patrol backpack, and walking into the airport. The reason they brought luggage was since momma had a few other places in California she thought Billie would like, so they decided to make it a long weekend, anyway. It didn’t take long for them to get their luggage checked and for them to get to security afterwards. Billie never like going through security, it made her nervous for some reason. Even though she knew she had no reason to be, she supposed it made her feel like that was the mostly likely place she could be harmed. Who knew what kind of people were trying to get into the airport after all.
They had two hours to kill, one reason why she hated going to the airport so early was because of how long they had to wait before their flight. She did like going to Dunkin Donuts and getting a chocolate glazed donut and peach passion fruit refresher.
*Whatever a refresher is* Billie thought as she took a sip, it was good she decided
Even after eating her donut and drinking her drink she couldn’t help but still feel nervous. Looking over at momma she saw that she was on her phone scrolling through YouTube.
”Momma! Can we watch Blue’s Clues?” Billie asked
Momma snorted “Sure Pumpkin”
She didn’t even notice that momma wasn’t really watching the show after handing over the phone. Instead she was glancing over at her every now and then before staring off into space for a little.
She didn’t like it when momma told her that she won’t be able to watch blue’s clues on her phone on the plane and they were boarding now. She did promise her that she would be able to watch over show once they took off though. Apparently their plane had their own internet connection. Wasn’t that something?
The flight felt sooooo, long and Billie could’ve sworn that she was losing her mind. She began kicking the seat in front of her, which ended in a scowling from her momma. She couldn’t help but feel her heart begin to pound again, she didn’t know why she was so nervous to see her grandpa. Maybe it was because this was the first time she’d be seeing him in person since she was a baby. Maybe she didn’t like the idea of walking in a prison, it sounded scary.
The movie she was watching wasn’t long enough to last for the entire flight. Which Billie bored for another 2 hours and 30 minutes and scribbling in her coloring book. She was grateful when the plane started landing but still hated it when her ears popped. She always liked it when they hit the runaway when landing. It felt like she was on a rollercoaster, well she guessed takeoff was like that as well, but that wasn’t the point!
Momma led them through the airport and to the exit that led to baggage claim. Once she had that she led them outside where the Uber driver was supposed to meet them.
The drive was nice enough, she had a playlist of Disney music and played it as they drove to the Woodsboro prison. Billie felt as if her heart was still going to explode however, she didn’t know why she was this nervous about seeing her grandpa. She wasn’t scared to see him, just nervous, and it was starting to frustrate her since she had no reason to be nervous.
Getting out of the car, Momma tip the lady with her phone and grabbed their luggage from the trunk. Billie hated the fact that there was another metal detector and hid her face in her Momma’s side.
“It’s okay sweetie” Momma whispered “It’s just like the airport.”
Billie nodded and took her backpack off, standing on her tippy toes so she could put it on the guards table for him to inspect it. Then she walked through the metal detector with no problem, Momma passed through with no problem as well.
“Hey girls!” Max greeted
“Hey Max” Momma greeted
“Hello Mr.Matthews!” Billie greeted, a small shy smile on her face
Max smiled back down at her and Billie blushed, she always did when people she didn’t see often gave her attention. She didn’t know why, her momma said she was just shy and would get over it when she got older. Mr.Matthews gave them a Room number and told them they could leave their luggage with him until they were ready to leave, so they did.
Billie knew that most people would be terrified to meet their grandfather if he had hurt a lot of people in the past. She wasn’t one of those people however, Billy Loomis has been a part of her life since she was born and she knew that he cared. Even if he had an odd way of showing it sometimes. Still she couldn’t help the rapid beating of her heart as she walked towards the room where her grandpa waited for them. When they got there momma wasted no time opening the door and stepping inside, Billie close behind her.
He aged well, her grandfather, he didn’t have many wrinkles at all and if it wasn’t for his ever so slightly silver hair, she’d believe he was still in his forty’s. She wondered half-heartedly if that ran in the family, her mom was 31 years old now and she still looked very young.
“Grandpa!” Billie yelled, all her nervous, anxious energy from before gone at the sight of him
“Hey Kiddo!” He laughed, smiled down when she ran to him so she could hug his leg
Momma laughed “C’mon Billie”
Billie went back and sat on her lap so she could actually see over the table. She couldn’t keep the smile off her face now, showing off her slightly buck teeth. She’d since photos of her grandpa sure, but this was the first time seeing him in person that she could remember.
She let her momma and grandpa talk for a little bit, she seemed surprised when he brought up that he was given the opportunity for something called parole. Billie didn’t know what that meant but that seemed to make momma extremely happy, so it made her happy as well.
Of course she got bored of the grown up talk real quick and butted in on the conversation with her own questions.
”Hey grandpa! How did you learn that momma was your daughter?” Billie asked
Momma and grandpa both seemed stunned for a moment before he began to laugh while momma looked mortified.
”Well you see” Grandpa began
“Billy, please” Momma muttered, making Billie look up at her for a moment until she realized she wasn’t talking to her
“On her seventeen birthday she stormed in her and demanded that she see me” Grandpa laughed, a cheeky smile on his face “At first I didn’t who this spitfire was and thought she was just some random person that walked into the wrong room.”
”Wait, you never told me that!” Momma interjected, grandpa ignored her
“So she just stood there for a few moments while I tried to guess who’s daughter she was.” Grandpa admitted “Never thought that your momma would be my daughter.”
“Are you happy she is?” Billie asked, childlike innocence filling her brown eyes
He smiled at her “It was the best news I had ever gotten.”