Chapter Sixteen: The Course
That fact that Curtis had returned was big news for the first week back at school at the very end of the year. But it seemed that with the New Year came a new focus of getting prepared for exams and no one had time for gossip. Catherine and Curtis seemed to be getting along fine. For an outsider, the two appeared to be as they always were, joking and laughing and doing almost everything together. But Bea knew them both very well and she could feel the icy edge to everything Catherine said and felt a huge distance grow between them with each day despite sitting right next to each other. While Bea didn't want to take sides, she couldn't help but think that Catherine was being silly.
When Bea would feel sorry for siding with Curtis, she would reassure herself that this was the best way to do things since Catherine already had someone in her corner. Steven wasn't there on the island, but the two communicated all the time. Most nights Bea had gone over to the Royce's to study. Bea felt a little leap of joy in her heart when she would go over and find that they were working in Curtis' room that night. That meant that Catherine was on the phone again. Bea loved having Curtis to herself and having Catherine gone. When Catherine was in the room, that icy feeling would return and everything seemed so strained. Bea knew that Curtis felt stressed when his sister was both present and gone. But after a little prodding from Bea he would let his guard down a bit and have a good time with her.
There really was very little time for anything but classes and then studying for their exams that would be upon them in two months’ time.
To add to all of this studying, a new stage of flying practice began. Until that time, Ms. Hill had the girls practicing at school and had created pieces of the actual obstacle course that they would come across in the race. But Ms. Hill had promised them that with the new year would come a new practice schedule. The girls were going to be continuing their usual after school practice of two hours and Sunday was still six hours in the morning. However, Saturday's practice was going to be held at the actual field where the competition would take place. Bea could barely contain her excitement when she discovered that they she would be traveling by stone to the field every week. It didn't matter that she had to share this experience with Veronica; she was set on enjoying it no matter what.
The first Saturday in January the girls all met, not at school, but at the Hall at 6:00 a. m. The three of them followed Ms. Hall as she walked swiftly through the Hall to the garden and waited only a moment for the girls to catch up before stepping on the stone that would take them to the Great Hall. Bea wanted to kick herself because she had made a promise to herself that she would keep her eyes open this time. This kept proving to be more difficult than Bea imagined it would be. The first time she had taken a stone was when she traveled to the Ancients with her brother. She had readied herself for the trip but was so scared that she had her father pull her up into his arms just in time as the stone melted away. On the return trip Steven had made so much fun of her that they fought and he was stepping on her toes as they took a stone home. When she had visited the Ancients when she was eight she had been too scared on the way to the Great Hall and had closed her eyes tight. The return trip she was so excited about the results from the visit that she only thought about opening her eyes as she was nearing the end of the trip between stones and couldn't force her eyes open. This time, Ms. Hall was in such a hurry that she barely found her feet on the stone in time before the sensation had left and they had arrived at the Great Hall.
Ms. Hall guided the girls to the side of the large stone garden at the Great Hall. The field was located on the same island as the Academy for fliers. This was the first time that Bea had ever gone to another island and she was nearly shaking with excitement. Ms. Hill led them over to a fairly large pale blue stone and they all stepped onto it gingerly. Bea's voice inside her head was screaming at her and this time she got it right. She willed her eyes open and was so surprised at what she saw that she wanted to grab someone's arm. The same sensation of falling had come and yet the air around her was still. The scenery, if that is what it could be called, was blurred beyond recognition. Brilliant colors and flashes of light dashed by and then suddenly things would twist this way and that. There seemed to be a sort of protective barrier surrounding them as Bea saw light catch along its surface and shimmer. She drew her eyes from the view and turned to see what Veronica and Laura thought of everything only to find both of them standing stiff with their eyes tightly shut. Bea's eyes found Ms. Hall's though and they shared a brief smile before the falling sensation stopped and the blurred scene drew itself together to present Bea with another stone garden rather similar to that at the Great Hall, but a little smaller. Ms. Hall led them briskly out of the garden and Bea's eyes darted every which way, trying to take in her surroundings. The three girls and Ms. Hall had stepped out into the center of the island. All the islands were set up similarly. The Hall was found at the center of an island that was the size that was meant to occupy the ideal number of inhabitants, 888 fairies. On Bea's family island, the occupants were families and children attending the two schools on the island. There were some small shops branching from either side of the Hall at the center and the Gold and Silver lines ran in opposite directions for the pods. This new island was very similar and yet Bea couldn't help but smile at the differences. This island was specifically for training. When Bea graduated from prep this is the island she would be moving to with her friends. The children from her family island would be joining the children from seven other family islands to come here and train in their various fields. Studies were separated into two categories: government and industry. Although being a flyer was considered a part of the government branch, there was a separate building dedicated to flyer training on this island. There was also a building each for industry and government careers. There were small houses scattered throughout the island that served as housing for the students. Most students would live four fairies to a house. There was also a stadium where flying competitions (like the one that they were all training for) were held. Bea's eyes couldn't even take in all the details as she whipped her head around in every direction. Ms. Hall had already tossed Bea a pod bubble and ordered her to take the gold line to NE4, which was a stop directly in front of the stadium. Bea watched as Ms. Hall and Laura leapt into their pod and set off towards to stop. A feeling of dread hit her that slowly doused her excitement of being on the new island. She was left to take a pod with Veronica.
Veronica snatched the pod bubble from Bea's hand and sneered, "Stop staring around like an idiot. We're going to be left behind." Veronica tossed the pod bubble into the air and deftly shot a line of dust to it. She was already in the pod when Bea got herself together enough to fly up inside. Bea was secretly relieved to find that Veronica had already pressed the button for the NE4 stop since Bea had realized that she hadn't heard Ms. Hall properly at all. The stop by the stadium was nearly the last and so the two girls faced a long four-minute ride. Bea imagined that Veronica was so excited about seeing the stadium and the course that it had made her silent for the trip as she failed to utter a single rude comment the entire time. When they arrived she did push Bea a little harder than necessary when they jumped from the pod. Bea landed all right and stared up at the huge stadium before her. It was breath taking. It was made of the same dust as the halls were and it seemed even more amorphous than the other buildings had been. It was shaped like a sort of large bowl with uneven sides. The walls seemed to ripple with light. The girls tripped along after Ms. Hall, all three of them staring in awe. Once they had entered the stadium and gone through the entrance, they stepped out into the center field. It was massive, at least four times larger than the field at the prep school that they were used to. The entire field was littered with the pieces that made up the obstacle course. There were two long stretches of straight course that ran the lengths of the field. Then along the sides there were some obstacles that Ms. Hall had recreated for the girls during their practic
es. But there were also some parts that were new. Bea's eyes ran along the track and she tried to imagine herself flying through those obstacles. Then Bea looked beyond the course and saw the thousands upon thousands of seats that filled the stadium. It was amazing for Bea to even think that the stadium could ever be filled with that many fairies. She had of course known that there were other islands with other fairies all around the world, but she had yet to be around that many of them. Families stay on the family islands. The only chance to leave for the younger fairies was when they bloomed or turned twelve, or if they want to be a flier and then came to participate in the competition like today.
Ms. Hall turned to them abruptly and said, "So, this is it! We have had a chance to go through a few parts of the course at school, but you will notice that there are also a few parts that are new and the straight track will take some getting used to. We have been flying just as far, but that had been as we circled around our track. This is a straightaway and you will all need to adjust to that accordingly. I notice that there are a couple of new obstacles that I have not seen put into the competition in years past. They are obstacles that you meet with later in training. So, it is clear to me that they have raised the bar a bit on this competition. Because there are so many obstacles we are going to be spending the bulk of our time here working on those. Go through the course now slowly to see how things go. We will warm up and cool down with runs on the straightaway. Got that?"
The girls mumbled a yes and continued to stare at all the strange and somewhat familiar areas of the course.
"Well, go on then! Take a look!" barked Ms. Hall.
The three girls each set off at different points. Bea purposefully lagged behind so that she could leisurely look at the course. Right from the straightaway there was a barrier that led to the first set of obstacles. Bea knew that she would have to shoot that down with some magic dust. This was something she had yet to master and seeing it here at the real course serving as the first obstacle made Bea's heart beat faster than necessary. Bea shot a feeble line at the barrier and was pleased to see it drop out of the way. She went on past the barrier to the next obstacle, a series of smooth cloud shaped objects that Bea had to fly up and down through to the other side. Bea was not very good at these either. She always seemed to misjudge where her wings were and would often catch them on the objects above as she tried to come up inbetween. Bea was wondering if she would find any part of the course that she could feel confident about when she saw the next obstacle waiting for her after the clouds. It was a long, narrow tube. Bea had so far had success with this. The trick was to make ones wings small enough to allow your body into the tube and shoot through it as fast as your smaller wings could take you. Bea made it through fine and she felt a little bit of hope rise in her chest. The next obstacle was new. Bea found herself actually stopping to observe. Out of nowhere, large shimmering balls were falling down through the course and then disappearing just before reaching the ground below. They fell at a fairly alarming rate and Bea realized that she was supposed to get through the area by ducking, turning and dodging the balls. She waited and waited and watched ball after ball drop but couldn't get the nerve to jump in. It's just a practice run, she thought to herself as she closed her eyes tight and leapt into the area. Her eyes open again her instincts kicked in and she made it through to the other side. Here was another obstacle they had already practiced at school. Tall, smooth, treelike structures shot up out of the ground and Bea deftly wove in and out of them. She was feeling excited to get passed these last obstacles on the left side of the course when she saw another barrier waiting for her. She shot dust at it, but this time her focus was off and it didn't work right. She tried again and finally got it to disappear and saw the long straightaway before her. Bea flew. She flew as fast as she could and it was heaven. But it was also over sooner than she wanted and she had to clumsily drop her speed as the next set of obstacles loomed before her. This set didn't seem to have any barriers, which made Bea much happier. But then she saw that they were so much more difficult. The cloud obstacle on the other side of the course was repeated here but with a rocklike substance that had long shards of pointy rock jutting out in all directions. The space for a fairy to get through was much tighter than on the other side and Bea slowed considerably to get through without running into anything. The sinking feeling in Bea's stomach returned as she looked ahead of her at the new obstacle. Again she had to stop as she tried to assess what it was she was looking at. There was nothing there for a stretch of course and Bea could see beyond that the rotating obstacle that was familiar from practice at school. She hesitated a moment and then head off at full speed. But suddenly something was making her fly much slower. Air was rushing at her, tossing her hair back behind her and making it much harder to get her wings moving the way she was used to. It was wind, something that the fairies on the island had never experienced due to their controlled environment. Bea tried various positions and angles and finally, after much struggle, stumbled out of the wind obstacle. Bea took a deep breath and readied herself for the next obstacle that she had seen beyond the wind area. There stood a large fan with blades that turned round and round. A moment to adjust her timing was all it took for Bea to make it safely through to the other side. If Bea wasn't mistaken the obstacle now facing her was the last. Just like the smooth, treelike obstacle from before she now faced another area to zigzag through. This time though the trees were full of long sharp branches that made the space very tight and uncomfortable. At one point Bea felt a little stuck but then she let her wings shrink a bit and she was able to make it out of the course and meet up with Veronica and Laura who were waiting with Ms. Hall.
Ms. Hall looked over the three girls and said, "Well, what did you think? You'll notice that there are two versions of the up-down obstacle and the zigzag obstacle. The more difficult parts are on the right side of the course. These will take some getting used to. You will also have noticed the two new areas that are usually saved for later when you are in training. We have the falling ball obstacle and the wind obstacle. You all three seemed to struggle in some spots so we will work to find your weaknesses and improve them before the competition. There is not much time so let's get started. Let's just practice on the straightaway and try to get used to that!"
The girls had an incredibly fun time flying on the straightaway. It was a real chance to see how fast one could go without needing to worry about turning corners. But they were ordered back down to reality when Ms. Hall told them all that they were acting like idiots flying as fast as they could.
"Speed is important, but control is essential! If you three just go out like that at top speed what do you intend to do when you do have to corner to get to that first obstacle? Any ideas? Beatrice! Veronica! You both, especially, need to get a grip. I want to see optimum speed at the center of that straightaway, but then adjusted speed for the end to lead up to that obstacle, OK?" Ms. Hall's voice was getting horse from all of her screaming and they had just started practicing. Bea tried to focus and do as Ms. Hall asked because she wasn't particularly looking forward to an entire day of screaming. Veronica and Bea must have improved because Ms. Hall simply grunted an approval and told the two girls and Laura to go again. After about 10 runs of the straightaway the girls were ordered back down to where Ms. Hill was waiting. Ms. Hill wanted the girls to focus on the parts that they were familiar with from school before moving on to the new ones. Bea felt her heart sink as she looked longingly at some of the new challenges. Her lack of enthusiasm showed as she ran through the familiar obstacle. Bea's mind was going numb with all the screaming from Ms. Hill and all the shock of seeing so many new things. The day seemed to have gone by so quickly and yet it felt as though they had been there for days practicing. Bea unknowingly glared at both Veronica and Laura. Laura had continued to be a consistent flyer. It was almost as though nothing could cause her to falter. She had allowed herself some moments of awe when they had arrived, just like Veronica and Bea.
But even from that first run on the straightaway, Laura had cleared her mind and performed equal to her standard at school. Veronica had taken her shock at seeing the course and that stadium, and the island for that matter, and pushed it all into a new intense focus that was a little unnerving. Bea told herself angrily that she was not going to let either of them out-fly her next week.
Ms. Hill told the girls that she had some work to finish up there at the training island and so they headed back to the hall on their own. Ms. Hill had given the three girls two pod bubbles and sent them on their way. Bea hadn't been able to shake her anger at how poorly she had performed at practice and she kept silently wishing for the other two to just offer to ride a pod together and leave Bea to her thoughts. Unfortunately Bea was slow to speak her wish and Veronica beat her to it. She snatched a pod bubble from Laura's hand and made a barely audible goodbye as she tossed the pod bubble into the air and flew up into it. Her pod dashed away back around and around the island to return to the Hall. Laura gave a little sigh and turned to look at Bea with a smile.
"So glad I didn't have to get stuck riding back with her."
Bea couldn't help but smile and she quickly found her frustration from practice leave her as she found a new place to focus her energy, complaining about Veronica.
Laura returned her smile and said as she tossed the pod bubble into the air with a high arch, "I don't get why she is always so mean to you though. I mean I know she is mean. She is mean to everyone at school, but you really get it a lot you know?"
Bea shrugged her shoulders, "Yeah, but you know, I am a little used to it. Today was weird; she didn't bug me much at all."
"Yeah, she seemed really focused," Laura agreed as the two girls settled into the pod. Laura then turned herself towards Bea more and dove into a much different topic. "So, your mom is a flier right Bea?"
"Yeah, why?" Bea asked in surprise.
"Well, I don't have any fliers in my family and I was just curious, you know what it is like. I mean, I guess I am going to do this. It's just sorta new to me. I mean I know about the missions and all that, but does your mom like what she does?" Laura asked timidly.
Bea laughed. "Does she like what she does? Yeah, she loves it. She is the entire reason I wanted to become a flier. She comes home every day having had so much fun on the missions."
"That's cool to hear. I was a little worried you know. I wanted to ask someone too, but I feel like I can't really talk to Veronica, you know? Her mom is a flier too, right?" Laura asked as the island's landscape dashed all around them.
Bea nodded in agreement and Laura continued, "Isn't she always on some special missions. I mean, I don't think I have ever seen her."
"Yeah, my mom always says that Mrs. Iverson is called upon for special tasks and at random times and that is why she isn't around much."
Laura's face wrinkled up in concern. "It must be hard for Veronica, not having her mom around much, you know?"
Bea found herself laughing suddenly. "Yeah, I guess. Still don't think that gives her an excuse for being a jerk though. If it was my mom I would be proud to know that she was doing something important."
Laura nodded and the two girls found their pod slowing down at the Hall. They flew out and walked together to the Hall to take the stone back to their own Hall. Bea hated to admit it to herself, but despite her anger at Veronica for always harassing her, Bea couldn't imagine what it would be like if she never got a chance to see her own mother.
She was determined to find out a little more about things when she got home so the first words out of her mouth when she came home were, "Hey mom, have you ever had to do special missions?"
Mrs. Featherstone was in the middle of making lunch and didn't seem to have heard Bea at all.
"What? Oh, hi Bea. How was the first day of practice at the training field? Was it huge?" Mrs. Featherstone gave an awkward little twist of her wrist and some misshapen sandwiches formed from the dust that had shot from her fingertips. They fell one on top of another making a rather precarious tower in the middle of the table.
Bea sighed. "Yes, hi mom. Yes, the place was cool. But what I wanted to ask you was about special missions, have you ever been on one?" Bea sat down at the table and realized how exhausted and hungry she felt. But she did her best to wait until her father came into the room to join them for lunch. The minute he sat in his chair Bea grabbed a sandwich and stuffed into her mouth. The usual sweetness spread to the corners of her mouth and she felt suddenly much better.
Mrs. Featherstone shared a quick look with her husband and then smiled at Bea. "What do you mean, special missions?"
Bea rolled her eyes. Her mother was always so slow to talk about these kinds of things.
"You know mom, the missions that Veronica's mom goes on all the time." Bea made sure to add a little venom to Veronica's name as she grabbed another sandwich.
"No, I have never gone on a special mission. Veronica's mom is one of the few . . ."
Mr. Featherstone suddenly cut in. "That's why they are special missions. If everyone was doing them they would just be normal missions." He gave a small laugh as he smiled at Bea.
"Dad, don't be silly. I'm serious. I mean, I guess I was just wondering, you know? I have to spend so much time with Veronica lately and she is always such a loser. I don't know. I guess maybe I thought she was being mean to me because she is jealous or something." Bea's focus was on the leaning tower of sandwiches. She didn't like admitting that she was worried about Veronica, but what Laura had said made sense. When she looked up her mother had suddenly risen from the table and gone to the kitchen to get glasses for juice. Mr. Featherstone gave her hand a little pat from across the table.
"You know, I am sure it is just that, jealousy. I know Veronica is mean to you sometimes, but you have to just ignore it. And try not to be mean back. That never solves anything."
Bea nodded. Mr. Featherstone cleared his throat and said in an excited voice, "So, tell us all about practice today. What was the course like?"
Bea felt relieved to have something to talk about after the awkward silence that had fallen when discussing Veronica. She couldn't stop talking as she described the course, even getting some paper and pen to sketch out some of the areas.
The True Stories of Dream Fairies: Bloom Page 16