SF Chapter 173: Flight
A few days later, Dani, his family, and friends gathered at LAX, the airport in Los Angeles, to fly to Houston, Texas, where the Super Bowl would take place.
He was on his phone, talking to Prudence.
"Hey, I'm pretty sure it's way bigger than the one we used to fly to New York in January," Dani remarked, looking at the plane in front of him.
Jay, who was standing beside him, snorted. "It's a Boeing 757-200, Daniel," he explained. Jay was a huge fan of airplanes.
Dani looked at his father as if he were dumb. "How does that help with anything, Dad?"
He gestured toward his phone. "Not even Prudence knows the model of the plane."
Jay just stared at him and decided not to retort. He was more interested in seeing the inside of the plane, even though he was trying to contain his excitement.
Dani continued the conversation. "You nicknamed the plane 'Little Eagle'?"
He made a dumbfounded face. "But the mascot is a Seahawk! It literally says Seattle Seahawks on the front." Dani looked at the writing on the front of the plane.
"That was before my father acquired the team and put those 'stickers' on the plane," Prudence defended herself.
"Now, have a nice trip," she wished. "Make yourself at home on the plane, use it to your heart's content."
"I'm already in Texas, waiting for you. Miss you." She made a kissing noise.
"Miss you too, Prudence," Dani said. "Now more than ever!" he added, clearly implying it was because of the plane.
Prudence just chuckled and hung up the phone.
Lindsay Lohan approached him. "So your girlfriend has an airplane?" She raised an eyebrow in astonishment.
"Oh yeah, you didn't meet Prudence, Lindsay," Dani turned to her. "She also has a superyacht!"
He pointed his finger at her accusingly. "Which you would know if you weren't a traitor! A horrible friend!"
Lindsay rolled her eyes. "I was in Australia, spending the holidays with my family."
"That's even worse! You chose kangaroos and koalas over my awesome birthday!"
She ignored him and went to board the plane.
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Everyone started settling into the plane, with Phil, Jake, and Luke already disappearing to explore.
Dani was fastening his seat belt. He was sitting near Lexi, Mischa, Lindsay, Haley, and Amanda.
On the other side, Charlie, Lisa, and Alan were sitting together.
"Ha," Dani exclaimed, turning to Alan. "Now I understand you a little, bro."
"About what?" Alan asked. He had a smug look on his face, clearly enjoying all the luxury the plane provided.
"About Alanomics - using other people's stuff for free!" Dani replied. "Do you know how much it would cost to buy and maintain a plane like this?"
"But now I can't help thinking, why buy one when I can just use Prudence's?"
Charlie burst out laughing while Alan glared at him.
"Prudence's dad is going to love meeting you," Mischa remarked dryly.
Dani looked at her. "Absolutely! We'll totally be buddies!"
"You're beyond delusional," she scoffed.
"Maybe not," Amanda chimed in. "Rich people are a little eccentric. Maybe there's a miraculous chance that he likes Dani."
"Too bad. Prudence told me her father is normal," Lexi revealed nonchalantly, showing him her phone. She was texting with Prudence.
The girls chuckled, making Dani pull a face.
Meanwhile, Manny was looking envious again. But there was still a bit of hope on his face, since he'd only been rejected by half of the girls in Dani's group (Mischa and Lindsay).
Judging by what he was thinking, though, he was strongly aiming for the hundred-percent rejection rate...
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The plane had taken off, and they were talking when Alex walked past them.
"Alex," Dani called out, having just remembered something.
"What?"
"Warner called me. I got the Harry Potter tickets. They even went beyond that and offered us a tour of the movie set," Dani revealed.
"Whoa," Alex muttered, surprised.
[Dani commentary]
"Oh, well, Warner wants to be on my good side," Daniel commented on how they were treating him.
He went on, "Next week, Dad and I have a meeting with them to negotiate the Percy Jackson adaptation."
"Even though we have enough cash at H&P to finance it ourselves, Dad is very much against doing that."
"And I'm okay with it. Even if we don't maximize our profits, the most important thing is that we get an awesome movie out of it!"
"And with that in mind, out of the Big Six studios, the two most suitable ones in terms of technical capabilities and execution, according to our specialists, are Warner and Disney."
[Commentary ends]
Dani looked at the girls. "If you want to come to the Harry Potter premiere in LA, just ask. I have plenty of tickets!"
Alex groaned and told them how Dani had gotten them.
"You just asked Rowling... for twenty-five?" Amanda stared at him.
"Yep," he replied without the slightest bit of shame. "But I actually have 35 in total. So, Alex, you have ten for yourself. You can use nine of them to dominate your school!"
"What?" Alex exclaimed.
"I asked for ten more while I was talking to Warner's representative."
"Of course you did!"
Haley made a disapproving sound. "That's so nerdy, Dani-"
"Oh," he interrupted her. "Then you can stay off the list of people going to the official first premiere, Haley."
Haley didn't think much of it until Mischa asked, "Isn't it premiering in London first?"
"Yes," Dani confirmed. "That beautiful city where you were born."
"We'll have to put up with that depressing weather and horrible food."
Mischa just rolled her eyes.
"Wait, wait," Haley exclaimed. "We're going to London?"
"Not you..."
"Nooo way!" she whined, making everyone else laugh.
Then Lindsay asked something she'd been curious about. "Dani, I was talking with my friends when you got nominated for the Oscar."
"I realized I didn't really know much about it. How did it all start, really?"
He looked at her. "Oh, it was kinda normal story, so I usually don't talk about it much. But alright. To understand it, it all started with Wimpy Kid."
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