Maybe The First Date

Jack had successfully parlayed with his mom Melanie to go on this trip with Layla alone. As a mom, she did it like most moms would do: be overprotective. He'd packed his suitcase for a three-day-vacation. Melanie always said things like "Ooh, you two are such a cute couple!" or "Your date is going to be exciting!", often ended up in Jack snapping "Mom!", and she would give up. He wore Nike shoes, which went with trousers and a red t-shirt. His mom drove him all the way to the airport. The moment he got out of the car, Melanie recontinued her overprotective spree.

"Jack, dear, did you bring your phone?"

"Yes I have." he said, raising the phone which he drew out of his pocket.

"And your laptop?"

"It's in the bag." he gestured toward the backpack he wore, which was an extra to his suitcase.

"Don't forget to email me tw--"

"Mom!" Jack snapped, blushing from embarrassment.

"Alright alright." Melanie shrugged, before driving the car away. Then Jack noticed a familiar face in the crowd. "Layla!" he called out to his 'girlfriend', rushing toward her with the suitcase pulling behind him and the backpack on his back.

Having been terrified to call a cab, I had woken up at 5 am and walked all the way to the airport which was, luckily, quite close to the camp. A bag gripped tightly in my one hand and the other in a fist inside my coat pocket, I realised as soon as I got to the airport that this wouldn't go well. The place was filled with people and I felt my panic rising just as I set eyes on the large building.

Almost having been ran over twice on my way here, I rushed carefully inside the building to avoid any other outside dangers. But nothing could prepare me for the dangers within. A huge crowd, all chattering and all staring at me. Or at least that's how it seemed to me. Lowering my gaze to the ground, I found a quiet corner that was quite hidden and protected from the people, from where I could see who came in but not be seen.

After a while, or it may have been hours, I noticed a familiar face among the terrifying crowd. Releasing a sigh of relief, I rushed towards Jack and dropped my bag on the floor by his feet as I hugged him tight, hiding my face in his shirt. "Thank God you're here. I'm going crazy! There are so many people!"

Jack was quickly grabbed and hugged by Layla, and she leaned onto him. He smiled gently, holding her by her hair. "I'll be your personal guide today." he said assuringly. "Now c'mon." he broke the hug and grabbed her hand, dragging her along. "We'll have to check in first." Jack led her through a large crowd of citizens, toward the check-in gate. He'd stopped by the desk, and pulled out his wallet. It was dangerous to carry one around New York City, as you would most likely get it stolen. But since he kept it in his pocket, and he was a sensitive person, if they manage to get it, they wouldn't walk three steps before falling to the floor yelling from his fear inflicting powers. And all he had to do was leave them to scream in pain. End of story.

"Your passport?"

"Here." Jack laid the passport on the table, which was in a pack that comprised of all the documents he had, that also contained his driver's license, his VISA and credit card. After checking the tickets promptly, the employee looked back up at him.

"Are you with someone, sir? These are two tickets."

"Yeah, she's right here." he said, turning to Layla. "Passport, please." he asked.

As soon as he started walking towards the desk, I tried to stop him by tugging on his shirt, but I was too late. I observed their conversation from behind his back and watched him take out a pack of papers from his back pocket. I took me a few minutes to realize that it was something essential and I tapped on his shoulder in warning but to no avail. When the lady asked for a "passport" and Jack turned to look at me, I stood on my tiptoes to whisper in his ear. "I don't have one. I have nothing"

He should've figured that out sooner. Of course she didn't have a passport! She was like 300 years old. That's 60% as old as America. If they look into her passport they're gonna go "Is this a joke?" Jack stood there thoughtfully, with the people behind him losing their patience. Then he dug through his backpack, until he found something that might just save their arses. His mom's passport. This was once her backpack, so she must've left it by mistake. He quickly took out a small, but fitting picture of Layla, took some glue (which Jack thought was unnecessary but now found it useful), then pressed the photo on it, securing it before giving it to the employee.

"So, you are…Melanie Casillas. Age 37?"

Before Layla could whimper, he intervened. "She's my sister. Younger than she looks. She used a lot of cosmetic products."

"Right…" she stuttered. "This photo seems wrong."

"Of course it's legitimate." he smashed both his fists on the table. The employee began screaming, gripping her temple and fell to the floor. Jack looked at her with his eyes fiery red. Then he snatched the signed papers from the table,without her noticing. Others began to panick, but Jack led Layla through the crowd, toward the boarding gate. He didn't say a word, as he was consumed by anger inflicted by his powers. He squeezed Layla's hand.

Once they arrived at the boarding gate, he gave the man at the desk his documents, but when he spoke, it became a different voice. "Hurry up." The man was terrified by the threatening Jack threw at him and quickly signed all the papers before allowing Jack to pass. As they pass the security door, his Celestial bronze machete alarmed them and the man controlling the machine was about to order them arrested when his voice became a whimper and he screamed, collapsing in his chair. Jack grabbed their luggage and headed toward the duty-free shop, where the two of them sat down by the table. His eyes lost its wildness and it became the normal eyes he has. He sat back in the chair and gripped his temple. "Wh-what just happened…" he said weakly, leaning onto Layla.

As Jack got angry and people started to scream, I realized something was wrong. That thought was confirmed when I saw his eyes. Blazing red like the fires in Tartarus, Jack was enraged and his powers out of control. I couldn't say I wasn't scared myself, but not because of his power. I was terrified for him. From what I knew, he didn't like using his powers very much and he would be terribly upset when he came back to reality.

As we moved through the airport, I had to practically sprint to keep up with him. I held his hand at all times, trying to reassure him and calm him down from his rage. As soon as we sat down - I hadn't even seen where we had gone - his eyes returned to their light blue color and he exhaled. I squeezed his hand and rubbed small circles with my thumb on his palm. "You got angry. But it's alright, you didn't hurt anyone"

Jack thought about it, horrified by what he'd done. He knew he did hurt somebody. Mentally. "I-I-I'm sorry…" he stuttered, squeezing Layla's hand. He felt ashamed of using his powers in front of her. He felt like he was the weak one. He leaned closer on Layla's shoulder, and for a moment, she was the only person capable of comforting him.

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders in a close hug and nuzzled my face into the crook of his neck. "It's okay, Jack. Everything is fine. No one's hurt and you're alright. It's going to be fine, don't you worry"I whispered as I rubbed his back in a comforting gesture

Jack cracked a smile. A few weeks ago it was him in Layla's position. Now it was her comforting him. Then a voice boomed through the speaker, the cool voice of a lady. "All passengers of flight 401B please be at port 16."

"That's us." he said, standing up nd grabbed their luggage. "Hope you don't have jetlag." he said, but his voice was trenbling from the incident. The duo rushed to the gate, where they stepped in line with other mortal passengers and fortunately, Jack didn't have to terrorize the ticket checker this time. He'd boarded the plane, Layla accompanying him. Theirseats were A3 and A4. He crammed the backpack into the seat beneath, before sitting back in the chair as the plane to Hawaii began to maneuver out into the runway.

"I don't know what that means" I squeaked as we practically run to the plane. I followed his initiative and pushed my bag under the front seat. "So, uh... Where are we going?"I asked curiously, gripping the seat as the huge metal car-like construction started moving

"Hawaii. It's one of the only island groups in the entire Pacific Ocean." Jack said, strapping his seatbelt. "And you better strap yourself, and maybe," he pulled the throw-up-bag out of its location and handed it to Layla. "If this is your first time flying, then grab this." he said.

The plane made its way out into the runway, and then it began to gain speed and lift off the ground. Jack gripped the chair, as he had problems with heights. Maybe Layla did too. Then once they flew above the clouds, Jack unstrapped his seatbelt.

I nodded and grabbed the bag gratefully. It took me a while but I finally managed to figure out how the seat belt worked and I tied it quite tight because it helped me feel safer. As the plane took off, I gripped Jack's hand in fear and closed my eyes tightly. Before I knew it though, it had stabilized, as if the engines had stopped in mid-air. I was feeling a little nauseous, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle."What's wrong?"I asked Jack, concern evident in my voice

Jack pointed his finger upward, where the symbol of seatbelts had turned off. "I don't wanna sit tied to the chair for the whole flight." he said, pulling out the laptop he brought. A few months ago Melanie won the lottery, and she bought three laptops and told him to give Deimos on the solstice. Jack insisted not to, stating that gods don't really care of mortal technology. But parlay does not favor him all the time. The moment he connected to the internet, an email appeared from his mom--sent 15 minutes ago. He sighed and turned it off, then continued his HTML5 practice. Jack was studying this incase he created a blog on Tumblr. It was rather useful.

"No, I mean, what's wrong with the plane? And how can you be so relaxed? It just stopped in mid-air! We're probably going to die one way or the other! What are you doing?! We have to go see the pilot or jump or something!"I exclaimed, looking around panicked as I tried to unfasten the belt

Jack halted Layla before she could actually go complain to the pilot. "It's the balancing system. Basic laws of physics. A person inside the plane looks out and feels like they are freezing in place while they not. And those on the ground would see us moving. So to recap, we are moving. If you peer outside, you observe closely, you can see the cloud moving faster than they are meant to. That's because we're flying at 500 MPH. So don't panic. Besides, I'm just doing some stuff with the coding here." he said, turning back to the screen and drum his fingers on the keyboard.

"Oh"I muttered and sat back down, still anxious but willing my best to relax. "What is that anyway? Coding? What does it do? Do you encrypt messages you don't want other people to see? And why would you do that?"

"Well, no. It's the structure of a website. It's the foundation and the construction of everything you see. As for the encryption message--I think I can do that with a few randomize commands, the block commands and access deniability command. I'm not a genius in this, but I suppose I can code a few things from HTML. Only a bit." he explained, forgetting that a 18th century demigod doesn't have HTML5. Their system back then might be HTML-78. "Right now I'm creating a nice facade for my blog on Tumblr. Which is about Call of Duty and Slender Arrival. Nothing interesting." he said, saving the coding for today.

"Would you like somethin' to eat?" From out of nowhere a flight attendant appeared with a trolley and offered with a clearly Southernish accent.

"I'll take a lunch special." then he looked back at Layla. "You?"

"Same"I answered quickly and returned my attention to Jack. "Can you be a bit more specific? I understood nothing of that. What is a website? And what are the block and access deniability commands? And what is that HTML thing? Or that weird named Turtle-something thing? And who is this Slender guy? Why is it so important that he got where he wanted to go?"

Jack laughed quietly. He slid in his seat, closing the laptop and tucked it into his backpack. "Layla, if I explained that to you then we'll be dead by the time I'm done. So I'll recap it for you some other time." he said, pulling out his iPad. iPad Air 2, both HD and fast whilst also being light. He flipped the cover open and pressed the long password sequence: 11121955100400 (I'll give you a candy if you guess the significance of these numbers correctly). The screen was filled with various things like video games or applications. It was operating on iOS 8.4; he didn't find the time to update it, since it would take a bazillion procedures to backup then delete his Jailbreak. "Here. It's…an iPad." he tapped his fingers on Safari. "Click here." he pressed on the search tab. "You can find anything you wanna read about. Just type in the keyboard."

"Oh" I mumbled as I look at the machine in awe. "It looks pretty, I guess"I added as I carefully took it from his hands. It seemed to be quite expensive and I would hate to ruin it. "So, uh... What was that first thing? Website? Alright"I slowly tapped that on the little keyboard, sometimes touching so lightly I had to double tap to get the letter written down. I pressed the button with the ENTER written on top and the image changed. There was still the white background but there were various letters on it. "What do I do now?"I asked Jack for advice

Jack chuckled, as he pressed on one of the websites and the view went blank, promptly before it flashed back on. Wifi on the plane was always awesomely fast. Then he swiped swiftly, flipping from page after page of the website. "Just keep in mind that you need to read the letters on the screen and choose what you like. But just remember: if you see an advertisement banner that says win something for free, then don't click on it. They're scams." he warned, his finger pointing to an ad that says "A Free iPhone 6S is Waiting For YOU to Claim." "See?"

"Oh"I nodded and grinned. I took the machine from his hands greedily and started tapping on the screen, reading and searching for a variety of stuff I had wanted to know about. I had seen a lot of these machines at camp but no one had taken the time to explain them to me. Not like I asked anyone, not with my issues. "Thank you"I said, never taken my eyes of the small screen

Jack smiled, sliding down the chair. "Just--" he said, yawning. "--put it back on my lap if you finish it.". He leaned over and kissed on her cheek, before falling asleep in the chair, waiting for the flight to end.

A FEW HOURS LATER

Jack woke from his nap. Layla curled up against him, but the plane no longer moved. Chatters broke out, people rushing around. They'd landed. Finally. "We're here." he said, nudging Layla. The plane had parked by the airport.

I groaned and opened my eyes slightly, glaring up at Jack with a pout. "No, I want to sleep more"I whined and buried my face into his shirt. "Do we really have to go now?"

"Of course. Otherwise they'll force us off the plane." he insisted, packing up his iPad and laptop. "Which won't be pleasant."