Despite the few clouds in the sky, the group of friends entered the airport with smiles on their faces. Well, almost everyone in the group.

The seven friends were taking a plane to New York City. Mr. Maellard had given them all tickets. Originally, he was only taking Pops, but his lollipop son had insisted his friends come along. "Besides, now I can show Bean-teen what a real park is supposed to look like," Mr. Maellard had said, referring to Central Park. The group was going to stay there for two weeks, which was time off that everyone needed.

"Looks like our flight will be taking off in an hour," said Skips, reading off the giant billboard with the list of times.

"Sweet, enough time to grab some grub," said Rigby, "C'mon Mordecai."

"Right behind you, dude!" said Mordecai as the two friends ran off towards the food court.

"Don't cause any trouble!" Benson shouted after the two, "Because if you guys get arrested, I'm not bailing you out again!"

But secretly, Benson did hope the two did get into a little bit of trouble. Because if they did, there was a chance they would miss their plane, and then have to drive to New York, which was perfectly fine with Benson.

"Oh, I can't wait to ride the big metal bird all the way to the Giant Apple!" Pops said with glee. The last time he had been on a plane was when he moved from Lolliland to the states, and it would be exciting to be on one again.

"You know who else can't wait to ride the big metal bird all the way to the Giant Apple?" Muscleman asked.

Benson rolled his eyes. 'As if we didn't already know.'

"MY MOM!" High Five Ghost gave his green friend a high five and Pops giggled, while Benson and Skips just rolled their eyes.

With that, Muscleman and HFG ran over to the food court to stuff their faces along with Mordecai and Rigby. Skips had walked over to one of the stiff airport chairs (Not that he really minded with all his soft fur) and began reading a newspaper, leaving just Benson and Pops.

'I just need to relax,' the gumball machine thought to himself. He looked over at Pops, who was looking at a stand that was selling balloons and magazines. "Pops?"

"Yes my good man?" Pops asked.

"You wanna go over to the souvenir store and see what they have?"

"Oh yes! Yes! I'm always up for a little shopping."

The two friends then walked over to the souvenir store. Benson picked out a magazine and bought a coffee for himself, while Pops bought a small toy plane for himself and a snowglobe with a plane in it for his father.

After forty five minutes of trying to kill time, the plane to New York was still right on schedule, and Mordecai and Rigby had ended up watching a mini tv and not causing any trouble at all. 'Great,' Benson thought, 'when I actually need them to cause trouble for me, they're saints.'

Once all seven friends were together again, they took their place at the back of the line for the plane. While everyone was calm, Benson was shaking.

'Stop being stupid,' he told himself, 'You've been through worse than this, it's no big deal!'

"Whoa, Benson!" Rigby said in awe, "I didn't know your gumballs could turn green!"

"Crap," Benson muttered. Everyone in the line turned to look at Benson. "They're not green, they're just...pale. I've been sitting inside all day, so what!"

"No dude, they're totally green!" Mordecai said.

"Shut it, both of you," Benson snapped.

"Yeah, they're definitely green," Rigby said, taking a closer look at Benson's glass head, "Like you're gonna puke or something..."

"Rigby! Say one more word, and you're fired!" Benson shouted. The raccoon backed up a little bit.

"Okay okay, gheesh, yell at a guy for noticing a color," said Rigby, crossing his arms.

Benson then felt two hands grab his metal arm. "Benson, please calm down. Boys will be boys, right?"

The gumball machine turned and saw Pops concerned eyes. He instantly calmed down, his gumballs a little more pink now. "Right, sorry," he muttered. The lolliman smiled, and then noticed the people in front of them start to move forward.

"Oh look, the line's moving!" Everyone stepped forward, and Benson's gumballs turned a pale green again. Everyone handed the official their tickets and stepped through the metal detector without any trouble at all, and with that, they were ready to board the plane.

Benson and Pops had gotten first class seats, Skips had a 2nd class seat, and the rest of the group had coach seats (You could imagine how happy Mordecai and Rigby were at that). As more and more people began to board the plane, Pops got more and more excited.

"Isn't this exciting, Benson?" Pops asked.

"Yeah, exciting, sure," Benson mumbled. It was then when Pops got a good look at his friend. He had sweat rolling down his glass face, and his gumballs were indeed green like Rigby had said. In his hands, the magazine he had bought was now twisted and crumpled.

"My good man, are you alright?" Pops asked.

"Y-yeah Pops, I'll be fine," Benson replied, not looking Pops in the eye.

Truth be told, he wasn't fine. He was scared stiff. Being a gumball machine with a head that could easily break and weak plastic and metal parts that could easily break, the poor guy was terrified of heights.

He didn't mind small falls like one or two feet. You couldn't stop those, and besides his head was at least strong enough to survive that without even getting a crack. But try eight feet, or twelve feet, or twenty, or fifty thousand. That's when things got scary.

Not only that, but Benson had no desire to be on a plane. He was surrounded by people (Maybe he was also claustrophobic, he wasn't sure), and there was no exit (or at least a safe one in his opinion) that he could use if something went wrong (which it usually did).

'Stop it! If you can survive a trip to the moon, killer hotdogs, a giant business woman and a whole bunch of other crap, you can survive a two hour plane ride.' But Benson still had trouble convincing himself, especially with those gray clouds outside the window...

()()()()()()()

An hour and fifteen minutes later, Benson was feeling a little more relaxed. He had survived the take off, and over half the flight time. He could do this.

"Oh, what a exciting moving picture show!" commented Pops, as he watched an animated movie that the plane was showing in first class.

Benson smiled at his friend. Everything seemed like smooth sailing for now.

Suddenly, the tv screens went black, and Benson's heart dropped.

"Sorry about that folks," the pilot's voice announced over the loudspeaker, "I'm afraid we've entered a small storm. We'll try to find a place to safely land, and in the meantime just relax."

"Easy for you to say," Benson muttered.

"Oh my, I do hope we're not too late to get to the Giant Apple," Pops said. Benson didn't care if they were a whole week late, he just wanted to get there safely.

'It's just a small storm, relax you idiot,' Benson thought, scolding himself once more for acting childish. But then, everyone in the plane felt a small bump.

"Oh, did we hit a cloud?" Pops asked innocently. Benson didn't answer, he was still trying (and unfortunately, not succeeding) to calm himself down. He took a couple deep breaths, but he still felt as if he was running out of oxygen.

In a flash, the lights went off. Everyone in the cabin let out a gasp, and began talking, making it seem more crowded than ever. As stroak of lighting flashed out the window, and everyone felt another bump, but this time it was a big one.

Pops looked over at his friend, and saw him hunched over. Screw trying to stay calm, he was just trying to keep himself from having a heart attack.

"Oh god oh god oh god," he said to himself, in a quiet but panicking tone, "I'm going to die in a plane crash, I'm going to die in a freaking plane crash. Oh god, is the plane tilting, oh my god we're nosediving right into the ground! Oh god oh god oh god..." He could already see his dead body on the ground, broken glass, metal and gumballs everywhere. Hot tears began to sting his eyes.

Pops looked sympathetically at his friend, who was now rocking back in forth. Of course Pops was frightened too, but Benson was practically scared to death. He would have to be brave for his friend.

The gumball machine heard a crash of thunder, and could only imagine the crash of the plane against the cold, wet ground. But then, he felt a warm arm wrap around his cold body, and pulled him towards a source of warmth. Like a security blanket, Benson stayed close to the warmth, and held onto it.

"There there," a soft British voice said, "We'll be fine. You don't need to be afraid."

Benson was calmed by Pops voice and touch, and while he was still afraid, he felt safe with his friend's arm around him. After a couple minutes, light filled the cabin once more.

"Okay," said the pilot's voice once again, "Looks like the storm has passed right through us, and we'll be in NYC in about half an hour. Thanks again for choosing our airlines for your travel, the safest against thunderstorms."

It took a moment for Benson to realize that he was still holding on to Pops. Embarrassed, he moved away from Pops, and tried to wipe the dried tears off his face as nonchalantly as possible.

"Here," said Pops. Benson looked and saw the lolliman holding out a yellow lollipop to him. "You can eat it, butterscotch ripple is sure to settle your stomach, and don't worry about paying me back. I still have plenty to buy sovie-nees at the Giant Apple with."

Slowly, Benson reached out, took the lollipop, and took a couple licks of it. "Thanks Pops," the gumball machine said with a small smile. The lolliman just simply smiled at his friend.

()()()()()()()()()

The trip to New York was great. It was fun, there were plenty of great sights, they had managed to see two of the most popular musical in New York, and the group almost got killed only twice (In the span of fourteen days, only two brushes with Death was pretty good for them).

"So, when do we have to leave for the airport?" Mordecai asked Pops as they were eating their complementary hotel breakfast.

"Oh, we're not flying back home," said Pops. Everyone was surprised.

"Aww, why not?" complained Rigby, who was not looking forward to being in a car for several hours next to Muscleman's pits.

"Because, I ordered my car to be taken here so we can drive home," Pops explained, "after all, a lovely drive home is a wonderful way to end our holiday. Wouldn't you agree, Benson?"

It was then that Benson realized Pops had made it so they wouldnt' have to ride the plane, just for him. He couldn't help but smile at his friend. "Yeah, a drive home would be nice."

"Yeah, easy for you to say," said Mordecai, "You don't have to sit next to this guy (gestures to Muscleman) for hours."

"You know who else has to sit by this guy for hours," said Muscleman, smiling.

"STOP TALKING!" Rigby shouted.

Despite Mordecai and Rigby's complaining, and Muscleman's stench and 'My Mom' jokes, Benson still kept himself in a good mood during the drive home, just for Pops' sake.

'Thanks Pops,' he thought with a smile, 'I owe you one.'