Chapter 34 - Flying on Broomsticks

-Skye-

 

“Everyone, get on your broomsticks,” Ms. Everly instructed us.

 

Everyone listened. I threw my leg over the thin wood and then sat, letting the stick catch my weight. I watched as Dean did the same right next to me.

 

“Now, in alphabtetical order I want you to fly across the field and back. I’ll be marking you on how straight you can fly.”

 

The class grumbled to themselves, but Ms. Everly plowed on.

 

“George Abramms.”

 

George took off and flew nice and straight across the field. Everyone watched Ms. Everly write in her blue coil-bound notebook, the one she wrote all of her notes about classes in.

 

“Hannah Caden,” she continued when George landed.

 

The process continued, and Dean and I chitchatted while everyone took his or her turn. I tried to keep my mind from Andrea, but it kept circling back. What if she wasn’t home yet? What if she was hurt? Or worse, dead?

 

Ms. Everly called my name and I snapped back into attention. I planted my feet firmly, then pushed off. This was always my favourite class: you got to fly around in the air and I always felt free. I think I did a pretty straight fly, but I can’t be sure. Ms. Everly made a note in her book when I landed, then moved onto the next student.

 

When we all finished, the teacher gave us all a congratulatory clap. “Well done, all of you. Now we can play a game.”

 

I loved games with broomsticks. This may sound like it’s beginning to take a turn into the realm of Harry Potter, but its not. We play tag, not Quidditch. A girl named Mina was the first “it” and we all mounted our broomsticks and took off.

 

Now, this may seem like a fun little game that our awesome teacher let us do for no reason. But if you thought that, you’re wrong. We get graded on our performance in these broom games we play. We get marked on how much control we can have over our sticks, how fast we can go, if we can balance enough to lean over and tag someone and if we can escape getting caught by making intricate and snappy moves.

 

So when Mina decided I would be a great target, I booked it and took off in the opposite direction. She didn’t chase me for long before she got tired of being too far behind and started going after someone else. The nice thing about broomsticks was that you weren’t really getting any exercise, so you didn’t get out of breath. It felt like I was breaking the rules of moving fast.

 

I saw Dean start to approach me out of the corner of my eye. I spun my broom around before he could tag me. He threw up his hands in a sort of surrender and I let him approach.

 

“Chill, Blue,” he said, smiling. “I’m still on your side.”

 

“Oh, are you?” I asked.

 

He grinned. “Of course.”

 

I saw Mina start speeding towards Dean and I. I decided it’d be funny to wait until the last second to move out of the way to mess up Dean, and it was. When Mina was less than a meter away, I dashed to the right, leaving Dean confused and an easy target. Mina tagged him effortlessly, and I laughed as he narrowed his eyes and started chasing after me.

 

We played a sort of team tag, so when “it” caught someone, they were both now “it.” Dean chased me around the field until I was the fourth last person left not it. By that time, there were only fifteen more minutes of class. Ms. Everly called us all down to put away our broomsticks.

 

“Now, next class we’ll be inside in my classroom and I’ll be teaching you how to make nose-dives, and how to not smash into the ground while doing them,” she announced.

 

I smiled. I’ve been wanting to learn how to do nose-dives for a while now. Class was dismissed, and we all headed inside to our rooms to get ready for dinner.

 

“Meet you in thirty,” Dean said and started jogging to the guy’s dorms.

 

I walked nonchalantly up to my dorm, and pulled out my phone. No messages. That could be good or bad. Maybe Andrea got home after all, or maybe she didn’t. I called Pricilla, but there was no answer. After two more tries, I gave up and chucked my phone back in my bag.

 

When I pushed open the door to my dorm room, Penelope was on the computer.

 

“Hey, Skye! Check this out!” she called.

 

I sighed and walked over to the laptop she had on her desk. “What?”

 

“Look at this cat! Look at it! Just look at it!”

 

I had always found it interesting how easily amused Penelope was with stupid cat videos. She was like a six-year-old. In this video, there was a cat “playing the piano.” It was completely obvious someone was moving the cat to make it look like it was playing, but it wasn’t.

 

“Penelope, this is so fake. Why do you like it so much?” I asked her, but I silently saw the fun in watching the poor cat.

 

“It’s adorable. You just have no heart.”

 

I laughed and dumped my bag onto my bed. Then I wandered into the bathroom to fix my hair; it usually got pretty messed up from flying really fast in the air.

 

Half an hour later, Penelope and I went downstairs for dinner. Dean was sitting at our usual table with Carlos, and they waved when they saw us. I didn’t like Carlos much, but Dean and him were roommates, so I had to pretend to be his friend. Mostly just during mealtimes. Dean didn’t like Carlos too much either, and was working on covertly switching roommates with someone. Apparently it wasn’t going well.

 

“Hey, guys,” Penelope greeted. She hated Carlos. He tried hitting on her every other day, and it pissed her off and made her feel uncomfortable. But she did a spectacular job hiding her hatred.

 

“Hi,” Carlos said, his mouth full of food.

 

Dean smiled. “Hey.”

 

I sat down beside him, forcing Penelope to sit beside Carlos. But then she saw Kimberly--her best friend--from across the cafeteria, and waved to her.

 

“Oh, sorry, Kimberly is calling me. I gotta go,” she said and rushed away.

We all sat in awkward silence for a few minutes until Carlos finished eating and excused himself, using the excuse that he had to study. I slid over to the other side of the table so I was facing Dean.

 

“Please tell me you’re working on switching roommates so we can stop pretending to be his friend,” I said. “It’s obvious he doesn’t even like us, either. I think he’s ever getting tired of Penelope.”

 

Dean smiled. “I’m working on it. It’s a slow process, though.”

 

We made small talk for a few minutes before I started talking about Andrea.

 

“Her grandma didn’t call, and I’m worried. I was thinking we should go to her house again tonight,” I suggested.

 

Dean made a face that clearly implied that he did not like that idea. “Skye, I don’t think I should.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“Everyone hates me. Chase and Nate kept giving me dirty looks, and I guess I understand. I don’t even know Andrea, so its weird that I’m as dedicated as you are to finding her.”

 

I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in my chair. “Since when do you care what other people think of you?”

 

He shrugged. “I guess since now.”

 

I shook my head. “Don’t come if you don’t want to, but it’d be nice to have company . . .”

 

I knew I’d reel him in with that. He sighed. “Well, I guess you’ll just have to go alone because I’m not going.”

 

“What?”

 

He grinned. “You thought you’d be able to suck me in that easily? You naïve girl.”

 

I smiled, despite myself. “Whatever, maybe Penelope will want to come.”

 

“I doubt it. Has she ever wanted to before?”

 

I growled, “No.” I hate being proven wrong.

 

“Well, the stats show you’re probably going alone, then.” Dean thought for a second, then added, “Or you could just stay here.”

 

“No! What if she’s not okay?”

 

“Even if she isn’t, what are you going to do about it? Nothing. You might as well just leave it to her grandmother for tonight. Maybe tomorrow will be better.”

 

I eventually gave in and decided he was right. So after I ate, I went back upstairs to my room. I didn’t get a wink of sleep, though. Too many thoughts rolling around in my head, and not one of them good.

Author's Note

don't really have anything to say down here . . . so enjoy. and stay tuned.

Reviews

[AK]

Awesome story!!! I could have written a review after every chapter, but I seriously don't have sooo much to say. Your story was just super interesting! I am such a fussy reader I couldn't have read a page if I hadn't liked it. Keep writing I can't wait for the next chapter!
It would be nice if you mention a little more about when this story takes place and how it's related to our world. Other than that it is PERFECT!!!

[selkietales]

"It was completely obvious someone was moving the cat to make it look like it was playing, but it wasn’t."
By using the word "but" you make it sound like you're contesting the obviousness. Maybe switch it with the word "when"?
“Please tell me you’re working on switching roommates so we can stop pretending to be his friend,” I said. “It’s obvious he doesn’t even like us, either. I think he’s ever getting tired of Penelope.”
do you mean "even"?
Anywho, great chapter!

[Sarah E. Pearson]

Dean---sweet, not looking like a jerk to me.... C: lovin' it!!

[Jasmine Thousand]

oh my gosh!!!! it's turning into a criminal minds episode!!! how will they find her?! Send me a read request for the next chapter please. Thanks!!! :)
~Jasmine Thousand!

[Ness of Love]

Andrea missing must be tough on Skye :(. But still, can't wait to read the next chapter!

[BloodyMary]

Exciting! I wanna ride a broom!

[SwagMaster]

AAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!

[emma]

to Broken Dreamer: thanks:)! i'm aiming to at least make it as long as a novella. i'm pretty close!

[No name]

I like this chapter... This is a long book, i am so happy :D

[13ReasonsWhy]

how the hell do you write looong chapters.... i cant! it just doesnt go in my system. anyways, AH-MAZ-ING. moreeee. im waiting for them to find Andrea already!