It was the year 1995, and Sahar had just discovered that she earned a scholarship to UCLA. She had been looking forward to her first day in college her entire life. Her parents, Jonathan and Lindsay Edmund, were ecstatic. Her brother Saharo, on the other hand, smothered her with lectures about boys and partying, reminding her to stay out of trouble in order to maintain the notable academic reputation she has had since middle school. Sahar didn’t take much of her brother’s lectures seriously, because outside of his work as a computer technician, he would lock himself in his bedroom and be glued to his Sega Genesis for countless hours. In Sahar’s mind, leaving Florida for school was the perfect opportunity to experience freedom from a home overflowing with chaperones.
The sound of her beeper went off at 4 a.m. and Sahar immediately knew it was Jasmine paging her before looking at the number. Jasmine’s family was very rich and moved from Ireland when she was six years old. Her father had inherited a large amount of money left by her grandparents and invested most of his money into opening businesses of his own. When Jasmine moved into the neighborhood, her parents didn’t let her outside unless she was boarding the yellow bus for school. Jasmine and Sahar met during a time when Tamagotchis, a handheld digital pet, became popular and all the students at school were showing them off to one another. Since then, Jasmine and Sahar had been best friends and were about to be roommates in college.
“I can’t believe you’re up this early,” said Sohar, “we’re not going to miss our flight.”
“Well, I can’t believe you’re up this late.” Jasmine countered. “Do you not realize we’re moving out of our parents’ houses for the next four years? Hurry up, get ready, and I’ll meet you at the airport in an hour.” Sahar’s luggage had been packed from the night before, which gave her enough time to soak in all the comfort of her room one last time before all the changes. As she looked around her room, her excitement about leaving for school suddenly felt bittersweet. She heard the honking of her father’s car in the driveway.
“Sahar!” her father shouted. A new chapter in her life was about to unfold.
As her father pulled up into the boarding area at the airport, Sahar spotted Jasmine hugging her parents as they were leaving.
“Right here dad!” she shouted, “I see Jasmine.”
“Make sure you have everything,” her father said. As Jasmine opened the door to exit, he said, “you’re forgetting something,” as he opened his arms for a hug. “Behave yourself.”
“Yes daddy,” she replied.
From the minute Jasmine and Sahar entered the airport, they could not keep quiet. They talked about their outfits, made jokes about their luggage sizes, discussed their interests for joining the softball team as they did in high school, and the endless possibilities of meeting guys at schools. As they sat and waited to board the 8 a.m. plane to California, Jasmine went in her bag, revealing her portable computer. Jasmine always had the newest and coolest gadgets that most kids her age could only imagine to afford. Sahar, peeking over to the screen, noticed the ocean view house in Barbados that Jasmine used as a screensaver.
“If there’s one place you could go to where would it be?” Jasmine asked.
“I don’t know, maybe somewhere exotic, like Aruba,” Sahar replied.
“Aruba? What are you going to do there?”
“I don’t know, relax, like everyone else does on vacation,” Sahar replied sarcastically. “If you want a real vacation, you have to go where they're going,” as she pointed to the long line moving towards gate 88 going to Hawaii.
“We can get on that line if you want,” Jasmine said mischievously. Sahar's face took on a puzzled look.
“What do you mean?”
“C’mon, we have a plane to catch!” said Jasmine excitedly as she took Sahar's arm and pulled her toward Hawaii.
