Diane

I stood at the front of the plane tapping my patent leather shoes on the disgusting floor. I glanced at my watch for the third time in the last five minutes. Any second they should start arriving.

They or them, that’s what I use to describe our passengers. Those dirty and greedy scheming people devoted to making my life wretched. I flipped open my compact checking my lipstick as I heard them coming down in a stampede.

I stuck on a crooked, faulty smile and greeted every one of those terrible soul suckers. One women paused and turned to look at me.

“Can I help you?” I snapped. She shook her head quickly and ran off to her seat.

“I hope some little boy left chewed gum in your seat.” I sent off a little blessing to her. Finally when they were situated, which seemed to take hours, I walked up and down the aisle trying to live through the chaos. A lady attempted to shove her coat in an almost full overhead bin.

“Excuse me Miss, can you please wait for everyone to stow their luggage before shoving your coat in there?” I asked from behind her. She seemed to not hear me and continued on her business pulling out a large newspaper.

“Thank you very kindly for directly following the flight attendants’ orders.” I lost it. She still seemed to ignore me as she began flipping through the Sports section. I headed to the back of the plane to regain my composure as I made an announcement.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, can you please wait for all the luggage to be stowed and then we can assist you in stowing your coats.” I took a few deep breaths before a man turned back towards me.

“Could you please help me store my coat?” He asked. I smiled and took his coat and threw it in the overhead bin.

“Thank you for following our instructions!” I leaned forward and shouted at the back of the lady with the newspaper. The guy whom I had just helped laughed. I smiled and headed off to take my seat as the plane was about to depart. I reapplied my lipstick again out of boredom. I didn’t have to sit too long before I had to be up serving them again. I took out the beverage cart and began pushing it twards the first class cabin. The plane hit a bit of turbulence and then I felt something odd. I looked down and grape juice was dripping all down my uniform.

“Oh, sorry!” A girl gasped. I shot a glance at her and stomped off. I heard muffled giggling as I continued up the aisle.

Marie

My family and I had run up to the gate as they were almost done boarding. The airport gentlemen who had checked our luggage had given us the wrong gate so we ended up sprinting to make our flight. I was stressed and tired but happy to finally be on the plane. All of my stuff was situated so I simply took out my grape juice and watched as the flight attendants went around doing their last checks before takeoff.

The lady in front of me decided to quickly put away her jacket in the overhead bin. I watched as a stingy flight attendant with way too much red lipstick came up and asked her to wait. Due to all the conversations going on around the plane the passenger lady didn’t hear her and continued about her business.

“Thank you very kindly for directly following the flight attendants’ orders.” The flight attendant sarcastically sneered as the lady pulled out a newspaper. I was appalled. How could someone who was that mean work in a job where she was supposed to help everyone?

“I think she’ll be really upset when her hose rip because she rubbed against my binder.” I whispered to my mom, gesturing to my binder in the seatback pocket in front of me. It was old and battered so the corners were cracked and had really sharp edges.

“Then you’ll end up going to jail for assault.” My mom whispered back. I rolled my eyes and played the scenario in my head and the plane took off. When we had reached cruising speed I uncapped my grape juice and took a sip. Unfortunately we hit a bit of turbulence as I set it on the tray table and it flew off into the aisle, but it didn’t make it too far. I watched as it hit a ladies’ skirt and dripped all the way to her patent leather heels. I looked up and immediately saw the face of the rude flight attendant with too much lipstick.

“Oh, sorry!” I gushed and wondered if I should run and take cover. The flight attendant ran off and I couldn’t help but start laughing. After the lady was out of sight my mom joined it.

“That was positively terrible!” My mom hissed between her teeth between laughs.

“I swear I didn’t plan on doing that, but I totally wished I had!” I told her. A male flight attendant that looked to be Puerto Rican came running up with a stack of the airline’s napkins. He threw them all on the floor and they immediately began to take on a dark purple-red color.

“Can I help in anyway?” I asked. He just shook his head and continued to sop up the mess. I flipped open my binder, pretending to be totally engrossed in my school notes. Finally he left and I held my breath trying not to giggle again.

Leandro

“Leandro! I’ve made enemies already! Isn’t it wonderful?” Diane ran up to me laughing, but I could tell she wanted to cry.

“What happened?” I sighed as I sized her up. What looked like grape juice was dripping down her uniform.

“Some teenage brat spilled juice all over me! I do not want to go back out there, will you mind cleaning up the mess for me?” She moaned.

“Calm down Diane, I’ll see to it.” I reassured her. I grabbed a load of napkins from her cart and walked down the aisle until I saw a huge puddle seeping into the carpet on the floor. I threw the napkins down and began trying to soak up all the juice.

“Can I help in anyway?” The teen girl asked. I shook my head and dabbed at the floor. Later, I looked up surreptitiously at the teenage girl. She was staring into a broken binder and didn’t look at the mess even once. I finished up and returned to the front of the plane to throw out the dripping napkins. Diane was sitting in one of the flight attendant chairs sipping one of the glasses of wine we sell for six dollars.

“Are you alright?” I asked her.

“Positively marvelous!” She crossed her legs and swayed a bit. Unfortunately she continued, “These stupid passengers don’t know what we go through.”

“Life’s a bitch,” I shrug and take the glass of wine from her. I tip it back and finish it in one gulp. “Now, let’s get back out there and continue to serve those slobs.”