Cass was lying on her bed, looking up at the ceiling. It was summer, and she’d been looking forward to it, but this year, there was nothing to do. She heard her parents’ footsteps as they came up the stairs, so she slid under her duvet. The door opened and in walked her father, followed by her mother.

Let me take a minute to tell you a bit about Cass. She was a seven year old girl who had flame coloured hair and sparkling green eyes. She wasn’t very tall but she was quite slim.

“Cass?” her father called out.

Cass poked her head out from under the duvet. “Yes?” she grumbled.

“We have a surprise for you,” her mother said, as she sat down on the end of Cass’s bed.

Cass’s eyes lit up at the word ‘surprise’. She loved surprises. “What is it?” Cass questioned, sitting up properly in her bed.

Her mother smiled. “Well, we knew how excited you were about this summer, and we wanted to do something special, seeing as though it was your birthday last month. So we decided that the three of us would take a little trip to Vienna in Austria!” Cass jumped out of her bed and hugged her parents.

***

The next morning, Cass was packing. She had packed all of her clothes and some other essentials. She was excited about Vienna. She was excited about the plane. She was excited about everything. When she finished packing, she started to read a book of German phrases that she might need to know while she was there. Her father was already fluent in German as he was a languages teacher in a secondary school, but for Cass and her mother, things were not so easy. Cass had already learnt phrases like ‘Guten tag’ and ‘Ich hei β e Cass’, but that was about it.

That afternoon, the family got into a taxi to go to the airport. It was almost sunset when they arrived. Cass and her parents were in the waiting room. There was a large window in one wall, and Cass gazed out of it and saw the huge planes, with their giant wings and tiny windows. Soon, it was time for the family to board their plane. They got into their seats quite quickly, but it took a while for the plane to set off. In this time, Cass was looking out of her window. It was quite dark. She could see the other planes and workers at the airport running around in their high visibility jackets. Before she knew it, the plane was ready to set off.

Cass did up her seatbelt and continued to look out of her window. The plane began to move. It was turning on the runway and soon, it was going in a straight line. Cass could feel that the plane was going faster and faster, and then she felt that the plane was no longer on the ground. She was on her first plane ride. She looked out of her window and saw millions of lights, glistening down on the ground. She could see some green rectangles (which she assumed were football stadiums) and different colours wherever she looked.

When she had got bored of looking at all the lights, Cass sat back in her seat and realised how slanted the plane actually was. She was at an awkward angle, but after a while, it wasn’t too bad. Soon, the plane was horizontal again. She looked at the small screen in front of her, which showed a map of where the plane was. She used a small keypad on her armrest to change it from a map to a selection of games. She played on a game called ‘KerPlonk’ for a while, but soon it was time to eat.

The food on the plane was alright. Cass sipped from a small cup of cola as she continued to play KerPlonk. After a couple of hours, it was time for the plane to land. Her ears hurt slightly because of the pressure when the plane was going down. The plane landed, and they arrived at the airport. The family went through security, and soon had their bags. They took a short ride in a taxi to their hotel and they unpacked. They decided to go down into the café. Cass skipped ahead, and fixed her eyes on a selection of cakes and pastries in the café. She scanned the items with her green eyes, and that was when she noticed it. It was beautiful. It was fantastic. She wanted it. It was the one, the only, cake of Austria, the Sachertorte. She eyed the chocolate covered beauty, with its white chocolate lettering reading the word ‘sacher’.

A man had come up next to Cass and had realised how fascinated she had become because of the sachertorte. “Would you like me to pay for you?” he asked her. Cass thought that the man seemed friendly enough but she wasn’t meant to talk to strangers. Especially not foreign strangers. “No thank you,” She replied as she waved a 5 euro note at him. Cass’s father had now arrived at the café.

“Drei Obstsalate bitte,” her father said to the lady behind the counter. The lady nodded and went to get something. Cass looked up ‘Drei Obstsalate bitte’ in her phrases book. It meant ‘Three fruit salads please.’ Cass was furious. They hadn’t got the sachertorte. They hadn’t even got ein apple strudel! They were having horrible healthy food. She silently ate her halved grapes and sliced pear. There weren’t even any bananas or peaches in it.

Cass stomped her way back to their room, only to be disturbed by her mother.

“We’re going to have a look around the city,” her mother said quietly. “Do you want to come?”

“Not particularly,” Cass replied, still thinking about the sachertorte. After a slight bit of persuading, Cass’s mother and father were joined by Cass herself, still in a grumpy mood. They saw many fantastic sights and buildings, but Cass wasn’t talking much. She just grumbled to herself, with a picture of the sachertorte fixed firmly in her mind. She cheered up slightly when they saw a small kitten that came up to them and purred, but was still not in her best mood. She didn’t even cheer up properly when her parents bought her an ice cream.

“This isn’t like her,” Cass’s father whispered as Cass solemnly licked her melting ice cream.

Her mother frowned. “She’s probably just tired,” she suggested.

Her father went up to her. “What’s the matter Cass?” he asked, as he sat next to her on the bench.

Cass didn’t look up. “Nothing Daddy, I’m fine, honestly,” she replied, trying not to sound disappointed.

“Is it the ice cream?” he asked. “Did you want a different flavour?” Cass looked at him. “Daddy, I don’t care about the ice cream.”

“Really? So you wouldn’t mind if I took a big lick of it?” Cass took the hint and held the ice cream out towards him.

“There is definitely something wrong with you Cass! You would never, ever in your entire life offer your ice cream to me!”

“There’s nothing wrong daddy,” Cass said as her father took an enormous lick out of the ice cream. “You would just think that I’m being silly if I told you.”

“There! There’s something wrong and my own little girl is too embarrassed to tell me what it is!” her father cried out, not noticing that a large blob of ice cream had splattered onto the floor. “Come on Cass, you can tell me. I won’t think you’re being silly, no matter what.”

Cass finished telling him. He looked at her. “You were being grumpy, just because we didn’t get the sachertorte?” he asked her.

“You said you wouldn’t think I was being silly,” Cass said grumpily. Her father gave her a squeeze.

“Cass, I don’t think it’s silly.” Cass looked at him with her green eyes.

“Really daddy?” she asked him. “Of course I don’t,” he replied. “I just think that you should have told us, that’s all. We would have got it for you. In fact, let’s go back to the hotel right now and get it.”

The three of them entered the hotel café and Cass went up to the counter, with her five euro note in her small hand. She opened her phrase book. “Ein sachertorte bitte,” she said carefully, replacing the word for fruit salad for sachertorte. The lady behind the counter put the sachertorte inside a small cardboard box. Cass went and sat down at a table with her parents. She picked up a small table knife and divided it into quarters. She was about to bite into her quarter when she saw the man who had offered to pay for her that morning. She picked up the final quarter.

“Would you like some sachertorte?” she asked him, with her parents keeping a close eye on her from their table. The man looked at her and smiled. “I’d love to, little girl, but I’m not allowed to accept food from strangers.” He winked at her and walked off. Cass giggled as she sat back down and cut the remaining quarter into three small slices.