fandomhigh | Flight- Monday- 3rd period

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flight and flying

Flight- Monday- 3rd period

The students had been instructed to meet in the Danger Shop, where they'd find themselves in a large field with hot air balloons in front of them. They'd also find Jaina, who was back to her correct gender and was shielding like woah, because sdhsdhs, basically.

"I did tell you you'd by flying all sorts of craft, didn't I?" she began. "For those of you who don't know, this is a hot air balloon. People get in these, fly through the air, and let the wind take them where it will. I think it's crazy, personally, but as long as we're in the Danger Shop, that's sort of the place for crazy."

She gave them a short lecture on how to actually work the things- most importantly how to get down- and said, "I want you to pair up in twos or threes if you want and take one of these things up for a while. And please, no one push anyone else out of the baskets, that's just uncalled for."

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"It's a simulation," Evan pointed out. "If it's anything like the Danger Shop at my last school, it uses alien technology that--" And then he was biting his tongue. "I mean... there are failsafes built in so that we don't die or anything if we crash, just like the Flight Shed. It'll work fine."

Could he just... hide in the basket now and never come out? Could that be a thing he could do?

How about he went up in the basket and she stayed on the ground? Would that get them full marks?

... Probably not, damn. Damn.

"My world doesn’t need alien technology to build a simulator," she shared. Because... how else was she supposed to cope with that? Aliens. God. And it was true anyway. So there. Okay, deep breath.

No, that didn’t really help. She shook her head. "Let’s just do this."

Evan just kind of blinked at her for that. Was she trying to one-up him? But he hadn't been bragging, he'd just tried to explain how the Danger Shop... No. He wasn't going to dwell on that. He was just going to take another deep breath and then climb into the basket, offering her a hand if she wanted one.

Somehow, he didn't think she would.

She stared at the hand for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of taking it and then actually took his hand to get in. Karina didn’t need it, not even remotely.

But it was proof or whatever that while she had her problems with him, she wasn’t scared to touch him.

So, he’d thought wrong.

"This seems pretty simple," Karina said, dropping his hand as soon as she was in the basket and checking out the controls (such as they were). "Like she said, pretty much."

"It's all a simulation, but Professor Solo wouldn't want us to find a way to crash a balloon anyhow, I'm sure," Evan agreed, looking at the setup inside the balloon. "We should be able to handle this without any problems at all, I'm sure."

There was no way it could be more complicated than, say, rocket boots.

Probably not, no.

"I’m sure someone will manage to crash," she said dryly. "If only for the novelty of it. But I agree. We should be okay."

Karina glanced at him, then away. "Last chance to switch partners."

Evan's eyes didn't move from the controls for the balloon, but he was taking a deep breath and shrugging his shoulders all the same.

"If you want to so badly, I won't stop you."

"You’re the one that started this," she pointed out. "Seemed only right that I’d give you an out."

But that was the only out she was going to give him because, with that, Karina started up the balloon. Well, if he really wanted to he could jump.

Or... or... stretch. Okay, she wasn't thinking about that.

"I just want to do the assignment," Evan said softly, sitting back in the basket. "That's all. And you were there, and I just..."

He shrugged.

"We probably won't crash."

That was kind of like a reason.

Karina didn’t sit. Not because she didn’t want to sit near him, which would be silly since they were stuck in a basket together, but because she wanted to be able to watch the ground get further away once they began to rise.

The giddy glee she felt at that would be almost enough to make this bearable.

"Well," she sighed, "at least you remembered my name."

So he was one up on the other blue person she knew. Though Karina liked Jono better despite that.

"You were kind of memorable."

Evan didn't need to look. He knew what the ground below looked like. It looked like... ground. His toes, on the other hand, were apparently new and exciting.

It was awful, wasn’t it, that him saying that made her laugh? Not a cruel laugh or a grumpy laugh either but a laugh that was high and clear and happy.

Karina grinned down at the ground.

"I suppose so, huh?"

He probably thought she was a lunatic for that but, well, Karina liked being memorable. Even if it was for the wrong reasons.

Evan had to blink up at her for that, yeah. What was there about their fight in the library that was worth being so happy about?

"That was something you want to be remembered for?"

Whelp. Color Evan confused.

She was still smiling when she looked over at him, though the ridiculous joy had faded slightly.

"Not really," Karina admitted honestly, stretching her arms up over her head and finally sitting. "But it’s nice to be remembered, isn’t it? The guy who runs the theatre couldn’t remember my real name yesterday, so I was feeling down about that; I’m in his improv class and have been for a month, so..."

Well, she'd take being remembered for a crappy reason over not being remembered at all.

"He won't even look at me, so I guess you've got me beat, there," Evan noted, tracing little circles on the bottom of the basket. "I'm sorry he couldn't remember your name, though. It doesn't feel very good to be forgotten."

His own uncle hadn't called him on his birthday. Evan knew a thing or two about being forgotten, too.

Karina tilted her head and gave a second’s thought to if it was a good idea or not to ask and then...

"So I’m guessing he’s not your big brother?"

She had to ask. Shut up. They looked related! It was a totally plausible thought and even their last names being different just meant they’d had, like, different dads or moms or something.

"I'm an only child," Evan explained with a little shrug of his shoulders. "There's a resemblance, I can't deny that, but I don't know if we're related or not. And nobody really wants to talk to me about it. All I know is that he looked way different when he was teaching at my last school."

Spoilers, Evan.

"That’s nice and disturbing," Karina said because her brain-to-mouth filter was basically non-existent. She was just glad she’d never seen Jono stretch. Could he stretch? God, Karina, don't think about it. "Doesn’t that bug you?"

It would drive her up the wall.

"I hate it," Evan admitted, ducking his head a little more. "He's never spoken to me, he doesn't even know me... So I don't even know why he won't. I didn't do anything to make him try to block me out like he does."

Which was an interesting thing to be telling Karina, of all people, admittedly.

"I wish I knew what about me has him so scared, but nobody will tell me anything."

Not here, not at his old school. All he had were cruel taunts from other students back in Westchester to go by.

She sighed, leaning back more solidly against the basket, and just looked at Evan.

Honestly, he looked pretty pathetic.

"I could ask," Karina offered, not even sure why she was offering something like that. "Ask him if you’re related and see what he says. He’s not going to know I already asked you and you said no."

She shrugged, looking away and toying with a strand of hair. So sue her, she had a heart. Evan wasn’t her favorite person but if Jono was family... he deserved to know.

Evan glanced up at her at that, wide-eyed, blinking.

"You'd do that for me?"

Oh, and confused. There was confusion in there, too.

And now she was blushing slightly, embarrassed.

"It’s not like I’d have to go out of my way," Karina said, resisting crossing her arms over her chest. "I’ll be seeing him twice a week anyway once he gets done with auditions."

"Still," Evan replied, tilting his head a little as he looked up at her, "we... really didn't get off on the right foot or anything, you and I."

He drew another few little circles on the floor with his finger, and then pulled himself to his feet, turning around to look down at the ground.

"That would be... really great of you to do," he added. "Thank you, Karina."

That made her look at him. He seemed taller when she was the one sitting down. His back looked kind of lonely to her, not that she was going to say that.

"What does having gotten off on the wrong foot have anything to do with being decent?" she asked, confused. "No one will tell you something you have a right to know. Why not help out?"

"I... don't know," he admitted. "I've just been trying to figure out the answer for so long, I guess I maybe wasn't expecting it."

Okay, the ground below was actually kind of breathtaking from up here, wasn't it?

Flight- Monday- 3rd period

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