Element

✭ Chapter 13

The next morning, I wake up feeling momentarily happy. I just had a dream about, well, Rhodes. I'm not quite sure what to categorize him as. Friend? Acquaintance? Definitely not boyfriend. Although, that might be nice. I mentally slap myself, and get out of bed.

I remember that it's Friday. The day goes by in a daze until fourth class. Of course. I'm standing with the Advanced group, waiting to see where Rhodes is placed. I see Ms. Benting walk up to him, tell him one word, and I see him walk to the Beginners group.

"Oh no..." I whisper. But sadly, as I expected. He looks mad. I would be. The first half hour of class is spent by Ms. Benting explaining to us the standards we have to reach for each group by the end of the year. The advanced standards don't seem back breaking, but I can't slack. Only in this category is there the requirements to learn some trick moves, some of which I haven't heard of. I know I can handle it, though.

But can Rhodes master all of his standards? I hope so. The beginners' requirements are easy as pie. Altitude control, direction changing, speed, hovering. He can do it, can't he? The rest of class is given to us to practice anything we want before we start on our first standard on Monday. I practice quick direction changing, something requiring a lot of effort and concentration.

When I take a quick break, I notice Rhodes. He's gotten himself to hover stably at two feet. I sigh when as soon as he tries to go higher, he starts getting wobbly. But he's not concentrating enough- that's his weakness. He catches my eye. I give him an encouraging look, and he looks down. I frown, but then see he's closed his eyes. He floats upwards, slowly at first, then a bit faster. My heart leaps to my throat.

"No! Rhodes!" I yell. But then he stops, 20 feet above the ground. He's steady as a rock, hovering there. He manages to open his eyes, and some people look up with me. I beam as bright as a lightbulb, and zoom over. "You did it!" I say, overly happy.

"I guess I did." he says, smiling back. "But, it seems really hard. So- I was wondering. Can you, uh.." he looks around, blushing. "I kinda want to test again next week. Could you maybe help me? After classes, during free time?

I blush bright red, flattered, and so happy. "Yes. Yes! Of course!" I say, and Rhodes takes a deep breath.

"Phew. Thanks. A lot. So, meet you at the willow tree around 4:15?"

"Yeah. See you then!" I say. I rush over to Alanna, just as she's turning around. We crash, and she immediately asks, "woah! Are you ok?!"

"Fine, just fine," I say, laughing. She laughs too.

"Guess what."

"What?"

"Rhodes wants me to help him!"

"Uuuh, with what?"

"His flying!"

"Well, that's a surprise," she says sarcastically.

I roll my eyes. "Mm hmm," I say.

"So.. you're awfully excited about it. Do you, uh..." she gives me a flirty look.

"Oh my god! Nooo..." I say, trailing off.

"Yeah. Right. You do. You like him. Mm hmm. Yup," she says.

"Drop it," I say, my smile giving me away.

"That's it. Of course you do. How did I not see it before?" she says, almost talking to herself. I roll my eyes and sigh. I turn away so she can't see my major blush. I hope I can trust her with that bit of newfound knowledge. I think I can...

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I'm sitting in sixth-class, nervously jiggling around in my seat. "You're excused," my writing teacher says, and I rush out the door like there's no tomorrow. I half fly, half sprint to the willow Rhodes and I hung out at a few days ago. I float to a low branch and wait for him. Five minutes later, he walks up, looking around. "Up here!" I say cheerfully, and he spots me.

"Well hi," he says, flashing that great smile of his. He climbs up to join me. "Thanks in advance for coming," he says.

"No problem," I say shyly. "So, what do you want to do first?"

"I thought you might want to suggest something to work on." I think back to when I was first learning how to fly. I finally got the hang of it at the beginning of my second year, when the teacher told us to think about the winds as a solid thing literally lifting us. I try to convey the meaning to Rhodes.

"Oookkk..." he says. We test it out. Still not really working. We try a variety of things for an hour, and he's still wobbly anywhere above 10 feet. I guess his little flight today in class was just luck. Finally, as he's hovering stably around five feet, I fly up to him. He looks really frustrated and upset.

"Hey, don't give up now. I'm sure there's something we just haven't figured out yet. Everyone's got their little flying quirk," I say encouragingly.

"I just..." he suddenly grabs my hands lightly. I gasp faintly, my heart fluttering. "I don't know if I will ever get it."

"You will. I promise you." And with that, we lift up, higher and higher. I barely even notice, I'm so focused on him. Finally, I look around. We're still holding hands, but we're hovering higher than the tallest building. This time he gasps, and I squeeze his hands. He looks back to me and smiles. I smile back, and we look around.

The sun is setting beautifully over a far-away hill, and the sky around it is yellow, then orange, then pink, and then purple. Rhodes breaks the breathless silence.

"How.. how am I, I mean, how are we doing this?"

"I don't know. I've never been this high up either. It's amazing." We hold hands tighter, and I close my eyes, take it all in for a second, then will the winds to take us down gently. We land a few minutes later, and both lightly laugh.

"That was so fun. Thank you. So much." And then he hugs me. My brain and heart go nuts, and then I remember that it's normal to probably hug too. My arms lightly wrap around his back. And then he lets go, smiles one last time, and suggests we go get some dinner.

Much more updating now that we're done with dance. Almost 400 views! Wow! Thanks again!
Megan and Wien <3