Don't Look Down

Chapter Four: Bagman (derogatory)

"What's going on with you and Rooster?" Halo asked, breaking the silence the three of us were in as we got in our flight gear. "You guys looked pretty cozy last night at my place."

    I turned to look at her, jaw dropped. Nat turned around too, dumb grin on her face. "Yeah, Sunset, tell us about what's going on between you and Rooster."

    I scoffed and finished up with my boots. "Are you both teaming up on this, now?" I asked them. Halo's grin told me they were. "Nothing, okay? Besides, like I've said, he's a teammate and we're about to do a super huge mission. There's no need to get feelings involved."

    Nat rolled her eyes as she closed her locker door. "You're killing me, Lia. He totally has a thing for you, too! You've just gotta creep outta that shell of yours and go for it! Even if it's a hookup- though he totally feels more than just that for you."

    The other two laughed at my reddening cheeks. I stood up from the bench and closed my locker door, then fled the scene. "You two are awful!" I called behind me, then heard a high-five before I could fully close the locker room door.

    "Hey." I spun to my right and saw Rooster standing there, smiling. "Wanna walk to class?" he asked, and I could hear the joke behind it. "If we're gonna keep up the seating charts, might as well keep up other school habits, you know?"

    I nodded as I smiled, showing my teeth. "Sounds like a great plan, Rooster. And I'd be happy to walk with you to class."

    We fell into step as we walked together. Our arms closest to the other swung at our sides while the other held our helmets. "Can't wait to hear what the mission actually is," I said, not wanting to fall into silence.

    Rooster nodded as he said, "Must be something really dangerous if they've got all of us here." My heart stopped momentarily as I remembered Baywatch.

    "Baywatch!"

    "Yeah, can't imagine it'd be some routine thing with all of us. It's gotta be something pretty big and pretty bad. Maybe even illegal- we like to check in on those not following the rules," I joked and I did an internal cheer when Rooster laughed.

    God, maybe Nat and Halo were right to poke fun at me.

    We walked into the room, different than yesterday's, and sat together in the second row on the right. Rooster let me in first, so he sat in the aisle and I was in the seat next to him. "I wonder what we'll have to do, then. Flying wise."

    I wanted to say 'might be something fun' but couldn't do it. Because I didn't see a lot of fun in the danger anymore. In the TOPGUN days, I was thrilled at every time I went in the air because it meant another opportunity to do crazy stunts.

    That was before reality hit (literally) and I lost what felt like everything. Now, it scared me to do anything too risky. My fight against Maverick yesterday was a great return, but I'd be lying if I said my heart wasn't about to tear through my chest when I had to pull a few crazy moves to best him.

    "You all good?" Rooster asked, and I snapped my head to look at him. "You kinda went all quiet and spacey for a second," he explained further.

    This was easy to cover up. "Yeah, just thinking about what the mission might be. Trying to be ready for all the possibilities, you know? At least mentally." He nodded along, and I thought I was in the clear with him.

    At this point, everyone had come in and was in their seats. After the attention and sitting back down, Maverick got right to business.

    "Time is your greatest enemy. Phase one of the mission will be a low-level ingress attacking in two-plane teams." We all watched the visual on the screen as he continued. "You'll fly along this narrow canyon to your target. Radar-guided surface-to-air missiles defend the area. These SAMs, they're lethal. But they were designed to protect the skies above, not the canyon below."