First Flight
Amorie hated PE, especially cross-country running.
She stumbled after the rapidly disappearing gaggle of girls. The longer they ran, the more the distance between her and the rest of her PE group the distance seemed to lengthen.
The faraway voice of their fitness teacher shouted and echoed instructions from all sides. “Five more laps of cross country before the bell goes!”
Her cheap trainers stuck in the sludgy, unmoving mud, which sloshed back and forth as she stopped.
Her shoelaces flapped uselessly, untied, stained brown. She began to retie the stubborn laces, which kept coming undone.
While she was doing this, a brief cool breeze whistled through the clearing of the wood she had stopped in. Her back started tingling, the cool air making her feel light headed. Amorie abandoned the helpless case of the shoelace, and straightened up, breathing in the crisp air.
She closed her eyes.
Without realising it, her arms fell gently to her sides, and the rigidness of her body began to unfold, relaxing her instantly.
It feels right, it feels like all her worries and all her fears were slowly peeling away like wafer-thin layers of an onion. She feels extremely lightweight, like she could float up into the sky, her feet off the ground…
Her eyes snap open. Her feet are off the ground.
She stifled back a scream. This can not be happening. Amorie turned her head, slowly. Startled, the full shock of it caused her to nearly tumble out of the air.
Long, slackline, turbulent silvery structures stretched from her back like massive butterfly wings. Two twin tears appeared at the back of her t-shirt, and she felt along the small of her back. That must have been where the wings had sprouted from. Now, all she can feel is the fine, sleek firmness of the wing.
It was real, and thankfully, the rest of the t-shirt was intact. Her breath caught in her throat. Without thinking, Amorie experimentally flapped these new body parts, the wings elegantly spread open, and suddenly she soared upwards, the sheer force of the acceleration popping her ears. And, it only took a matter of seconds.
Bleak, and colourless, the gloomy grey sky seemed to spin towards her, as she accelerated in speed, her wings narrowing close together, making her body completely streamlined. She was enjoying herself so much, her mouth wide open with untampered joy, it came almost out of nowhere, the whiplashed rain slapped her face, stinging like needles. But Amorie didn’t care. She loved it.
Swooping through the sky like a hawk, she glanced down at the shrinking pinpoint tops of luscious pine trees below, which seem to look more like prickly green bushes. This high, she can see the whole of the woods that had expanded below her.
To the right, the mesh of trees parted revealing a squat grey looming building that even looked menacing from that high up. Amorie watched as a thick plume of smoke shot out of the top of the building. The rest of the woods seemed to flock around the despicable building. She turned her attention back to the trees that she was gliding over, and with a start, could make out a few moving shapes darting around and in the bushes. The rest of her PE class.
This is unbelievable, she thought. Here I am in the sky! And I thought today was going to be boring. Dipping lower, Amorie looked to the other side of the forest where — -hopefully, the male PE group was running the cross country. Yes, she could see another line of moving dots — like ants crawling across sand. She knew her best friend was probably running amongst that group, but knowing him — he was probably miles behind.
She was now low enough that the toes of her trainers scraped the tops of the trees as she glided across. She peered closer, her eyes darting to and fro as she searched for the distinctive bobbing blue head of Rico Scotts. He was her best friend, commonly known as the school misfit. His distinctive dyed blue hair, his insane lopsided grin, made him impossible to miss. There. A few metres behind the group, a boy struggles along, with long gangly legs that pumped to and fro like mechanical levers, his long blue fringe flopping crazily over his eyes as he ran. His face had turned the colour of a ripe tomato. That was Rico all right.
Amorie waited until the last boy from the group passed through the clearing she had stopped in earlier, hovering a few metres above, her tanned legs dangling, her wings flapping gently, supporting her, keeping her aloft. If she was going to tell anyone about — what was happening to her — Rico would understand. Somehow, she managed to start slowly lowering herself downwards towards the tea-coloured, enlarging ground — -
A deafening squark erupted by her ear, taking her by surprise, all concentration she had before was lost. She spiralled downwards, arms flailing, completely out of control.
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Yelling, she winces as the spiky fronds come rushing towards her. Instinctively, her arms come up and shield her face as she comes crashing through the branches. Brittle and prickly and snapped easily at the impact of her body. After what seemed like ages of falling through pine branches, Amorie lands on the icy, sticky mud.
Amorie lies there, completely still, her eyelids still.
The boy with the dyed blue hair, heard the thud, beforehand the racket of snapping branches as a heavy object crashed through them.
Rico approached her, running faster than he ever had when he had done the cross-country.
“Amorie!” He yelled, recognising her immediately. “Amorie, are you alive? Why were you in that tree? Why aren’t you answering me?”
Amorie’s eyes snapped open, and flashed at him.
“Rico, I’m fine.” She sat up, annoyed.
Her friend stared at her.
Amorie sighed. Of course he didn’t know. She would have to tell him.
“Rico,” She interrupted, standing up in the mud. “I’ve got something I need to tell you and you can’t freak out.”
Rico stopped talking and stared at her, mainly because most of her p.e kit was soaked a green-brown colour and her once orderly head of plaits stuck up in angles. She shifted uncomfortably as the wet clothes clung to her body.
And took a deep breath. Slowly, she unfurled her delicate translucent wings, and in the warming afternoon sun, a rainbow rippled across each wing, as the light hit them. Rico couldn’t take his eyes off the wings and kept gasping and whispering awesome.
Finally when they fully spread out, Amorie gently flexed her shoulders, and the wings began gently flapping, her trainers were once again off the ground.
“That’s incredible!” Rico exclaimed, “How long have you been able to do that?”
Amorie shrugged. “Today, a few minutes ago, I guess.”
Rico walked forward and stroked her left wing. His finger tracing the delicate designs seemingly etched on the surface.
“Wow.” He breathed.
Amorie’s vision had started spinning for a second, and then stopped, she focused on Rico’s pale, freckled face. She fell to her knees. Her eyes opened, as all the energy drained out of her. Rico had been yelling her name. He stood in front of her, gripping her shoulders and helping her to her feet.
He concluded. “Let’s get you to your Uncle before you collapse.”
“One more thing.”
“What?”
Amorie narrowed her eyes.
“We are not telling him.”
