"Ladies and Gentlemen," the speaker crackled, "We will be arriving at Syracuse Airport in about thirty minutes. The is sky clear and the temperature is 77..." The mellow voiced pilot droned on about the weather and altitude, things that I did not bother to listen to.

        "Scrott, wake up mate," I mumbled, elbowing the sleeping form next to me. I sat up and rubbed my tired eyes, knowing that this was only the first leg of our journey.

        I heard Ross yawn and stretch next to Trott. "Are we almost there? What time is it?" he asked. 

        I reached for my phone but realized my efforts were futile since my clock was set for England, which was five hours ahead of us at the moment. "Dunno, I guess we'll find out when we land, won't we?"

        "I just hope we make our next flight, what with having to go through customs and all," Ross said worriedly. He grabbed the plastic cup on the small flip out tray and drank the last of his water, beginning to collect his things and shoving them into his carry on bag.

     Trott pushed himself into an upright position, no longer sleeping. "I'm excited to meet Kirbyluvsgaming," he told us.

        "Well, she should be there," I explained, "Her flight should have landed an hour ago". I tried to recall her email; she mentioned that her plane out of Tampa was to leave in the morning. She said  she would have plenty of time to account for delays and that she should be able to meet us there 'no matter what'.

       According to her email, she was interning at Mojang, and as 'junior director of fun and activities', she was happy to hear that talent such as ourselves were to be joining her at Minecon. It was her responsibility to account for us specifically, and to make sure our time spent at Minecon went smoothly and we had a great time. She even offered to pay for our flights and would met us once we reached America. 

        Honestly, I was very nervous to met her; she seemed very enthusiastic and excited in her email, and I wasn't looking forward to a fangirl following us around all week and having access to our hotel room. Admittedly, I should have looked up her videos and gotten a better reading on her before I immediately accepted her offer. Apparently she's a lot more famous than we are in the Minecraft community, but that's the extent of my knowledge.

        After at least an hour of waiting in queues, bag checking, and customs, we finally were able to walk into the main lobby of the airport. There, taxi drivers, family, and friends held signs and searched the arriving crowd. Ross had his camera out, and he was vlogging the entire time.

        I spotted a small girl sitting in front of the crowd, cross legged, and holding an intricately painted sign with Hat Films written across it, logo and all. She rested her chin on the sign and had somewhat wrapped her body around it.

        She had brown hair, wore large headphones around her neck, and was dressed plainly in a grey tee shirt and black skinny jeans. She couldn't have been older than 18 or 19, and I was shocked at how cute and put together she was. I don't know why I thought she would have been an unattractive fat nerd, since I have yet to be exposed to any Youtuber that actually fit that stereotype, but I blamed my premonitions for the image. This was a pleasant surprise, yet did not assuage my fears about her.

        "I assume that's her," I told Ross and Trott, nodding over to the girl. She continued to search the crowd lazily, having not seen us yet. I could see her more clearly the closer we got, and the moment she saw us she scrambled up quickly and brush herself off. Here we go, I thought, bracing myself.

        "Hey guys," she said, smiling nonchalantly. She placed her hands in her back pocket, "I'm guessing you're Hat Films". Her accent was much more nasally than I was used to, but was still pleasant to listen to; it had a soft, shy undertone that immediately made me relax. I was glad that she was neither screaming nor asking for autographs or locks of our hair. 

        "Yep," Ross said, "That would be us," he smiled at her. "I'm Ross Hornby," he continued, "and this is Chris Trott and Alex Smith," he said, gesturing to each of us respectively.

        "I know," she laughed, "I'm Amanda Blackwell". She looked as if she was going to hug us or shake our hands but then thought better of it, running a hand through her bangs. I would become familiar with this impulse as the week progressed.

        "I love this," Trott said, admiring the sign on the floor, "Did you paint it?" he asked.

        She smiled shyly. "Yeah I did. Painting is kinda my thing," she said somewhat nervously.

        "Your'e really talented," Ross told her, and she seemed completely uncomfortable with the compliments. She muttered her thanks and looked at the ground, blushing slightly.

        "Do you," I falsely started before clearing my throat and starting again, "Do you know what time it is? My phone doesn't really work here," I laughed. I suddenly felt very nervous, and was both surprised and disturbed by it.

        "Umm, yeah," she hummed, reaching for the pink phone in her back pocket, "It's 11:47, our flight leaves in about an hour." After replacing her phone she continued, "You guys are welcome to go get something to eat. I'll be at gate E2 when you're finished." She grabbed the luggage behind her and pulled out the handles, gathering her things.

        "Would you like to join us?" Ross asked, apparently the spokesperson for the group.

        A look of concern flashed across her face before the smile returned. "Oh no, I'm fine, I already ate," she told us before turning around and quickly disappearing into the crowd.

        "Well that was..." Ross trailed off, looking at us.

        "I like her," Trott said plainly after a minute of silence.

        "Yeah," I said absently, "Well, let's go eat, I'm fucking famished".

     Authors note (You don't have to read this, I just couldnt fit it into the discription): I had never read fan fiction before. I thought it would be filled with porn and that it wasn't a real form of writing. It was only when I had to write a section of this story as an assignment for my creative writing class was I exposed to fan fiction at it's best. The plots, though a bit cliche, were captivating, and it was one story in particular that caught my attention. The writing was mediocre, the story not probable, and the author was unable to capture the characters at all, yet I couldn't stop reading it until the end. Most of them were trash; I thought 'I could do better' and started writing. It became an obsession for me. With all the stories I wrote, I had never had a challenge like this one. Instead of creating my own characters and their personalities, I now had real people that my audience knew well; I had to capture their mannerisms and speech patterns, imagining what they would say without hearing them say it. I based my story on real events, which means I spent a lot of time watching and rewatching vlogs, listening to podcasts, and googleing other peoples stories to fill in the details. I hope I was able to keep the story true and develop the guys as they would be in real life. I also hope that you accompany me through this journey as I advance my skills and create a story for you to enjoy. I take artistic licensing for changing some things and leaving out others, such as the large time jumps I will include.  

Thank you, happy reading.   

(23 year old Author's note: Alright, 16 year old me, chill girl, you're so dramatic.)