"Paper Planes" [Eremin]

Part ~ 1

Armin looked out the bus window as he sat down and looked up at the clouds. A plane was passing over head, high in the partly cloudy sky above. One day he'd be the one in the plane and then he'd look down and see a bus and wonder, "Are any of those kids like me?" One day...

Once Armin got into the school building he headed towards his locker with his heart pounding in his chest. He had all but forgotten the notes he had been finding recently. At first he thought it was a prank of sorts but now... Who was saying these things and how did they have time to sneak a paper plane into a locker? How did they know that he liked the sky? How did they know his locker password?

He'd find out eventually.

Armin put in his password, "The sky is the limit" and looked at the neatly folded paper plane sitting on his geography text book. With a deep exhale he slowly opened the plane and read what was on the white copy paper.

"Me again, sorry that these notes are so cleshe. I saw you the other day in math class looking out the window again. I'm sorry if you don't like people to say this but your absolutely adorable. Your smile makes my stomach fill up with butterflies and then I can't help but smile too. I'll get the guts to say that to your face one of these days... maybe."

Armin smiled for a second before looking around to see if any one was watching him. This handwriting seemed to familiar... and the use of "your" instead of "you're" and the fact that whoever it was shared his math class could help him figure out just who was leaving these.

Armin folded the note back into the plane and made his way to class. His first class of the day was history, which went by slowly as normal. Second was English, which he had to write a short story from a random picture. When it came time for lunch is when he went outside and sat on one of the hills where he had set up a box. He pulled out several sheets of copy paper and started to try and make a paper plane that would fly.

Most of Armin's designs would fly a foot or two, but he wanted them to go on a bit longer. At least ten feet. They just never seemed to go farther than four feet, his current record.

Armin took out one of the planes he had worked all night on designing. He carefully stood up on the little box and faced to where the wind was blowing his hair. He carefully aimed the airplane before letting it slide out of his fingers and propel forwards.

It went two feet and then sank nose first into the ground, crunched up now.

Armin sighed in defeat and went to step down, though his foot slipped and he fell. He fell back against something that clasped around him, defiantly not the ground.

"Are you alright?"

Armin slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Eren, whose eyes were searching him over for any signs of damage.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks." Armin said with a small smile. Eren nodded and set him back on his feet. "My new model isn't though... oh well." He picked up the ruined plane and looked the damage over.

Eren bit his lip in thought and eventually sighed as if defeated. "Can I see a piece of paper?"

Armin shrugged and handed him one, "What are you gonna do?" He asked curiously.

Eren started to fold the paper. Once finished he showed Armin the new plane. He had seen this design somewhere before... but where?

"Give this one a throw," Eren said with a smile, "I'll make sure you don't fall."

Armin nodded and climbed back on top of the box and held the plane gently. Once the wind picked up the send it flying.

The paper plane went on for several feet and kept going on for a solid fifteen seconds before it neatly landed on the ground. Armin raced after it with his measuring string behind him. Once he reached the plane he looked at the marks he had made on the rope and his jaw dropped.

"It went thirty feet! You made my goal look like nothing!" Armin called to Eren and raced back to his friend with the plane in hand.

"This is awesome! It went farther than anything I've tried to make! How did you come up with this design?!"

"I'm not sure. I just know how to make them." Eren said with a shrug.

"Let's give the plane a name!"

"A name?"

"Yeah, like how boats have names?"

"How about the S. S. Armin?"

"But you're the one who made it!"

"You're the one who flew it."

"Then... let's combine our names... How about... the S. S. Eremin?"

Eren nodded in agreement and watched as Armin wrote the name on the wing of the plane in neat cursive.

"Ta-Da!" Armin said brightly once it was finished.

Eren laughed lightly and gave Armin a high five.

"Let's head back inside before the bell rings. Wouldn't want to be late for math."