by Aubrey Dark
“I want to shoot!” I said quickly. I relished the thought of unleashing a tirade of laser fire on Mia and her cohort.
“Great,” Piers said. “I want to pilot. That means I get to do as many loops as I want.”
I shot a warning look over at him.
“You only get to loop if it means we can shoot them better,” I said.
“If you put us into a dangerous turn,” the instructor said, “or you get too close to another plane, I will take over the controls from back here. If you don’t want to pilot anymore, let me know and I’ll take over.”
“Not a chance,” Piers said.
“Tower to fighters, ready all fighters. Blue team check in.”
All I could hear was the hiss of static.
“Red team check in.”
“Red one check in.”
“Red two check in,” the pilot said. I grabbed the joystick as the rest of the team checked in. My heart was beating through my ears.
“Piers, you tell me if you’re planning on doing a loop, okay?” I said. “I want to be ready.”
“Every time?”
“Yes, every time!”
“Alright,” Piers said.
“Tower to fighters. Ready all fighters,” the headset crackled. “Your fight starts… now!”
“Loop time!” Piers said, and pulled back on the control. My whole body was pressed back against my seat, and blood rushed up to my head.
“Piers! What the hell are you doing?!”
“That’s actually pretty smart,” the flight instructor said, as calmly as if we were at a tea party instead of looping a fighter jet a mile up in the air. My heart thudded in my ears as my body lifted in my seat. “Get behind the rest of them, you can get a better shot.”
“See?” Piers said. “I know what I’m doing.”
The sky was turning above our heads, and then I saw ground. We started to pull out of the loop and the pressure of acceleration increased. On the cockpit screen, I saw a bunch of red and blue blips appear in the target monitor.
“Get ready to shoot,” Piers said.
I hadn’t let go of the joystick, and now I aimed it ahead toward the nearest blue-winged plane.
“Bam! Bam! Bam!”
I unleashed hell, and the screen in front of me lit up as I hit my target.
“Pew! Pew pew pew!”
“Are you going to make noises every time you shoot?” Piers said.
“Shut up and fly, pilot boy!” I cried. “Pew pew pew!”
Ahead of us, the blue-winged jet tilted its wings and turned sharply out of our path. Piers turned, too. I was still shooting when the screen lit up red.
“Shit!” I cried, realizing I’d accidentally hit a red plane that had dipped in front of us. “Sorry! I didn’t mean it!”
“Got another one to the right!” Piers said. He turned, and I waited until the gun was pointed at the right jet to shoot.
“Pew! Pew!”
Our screen flashed red again with a word in large type: HIT.
“HIT? What does that mean?” I cried.
“It means we’ve been hit!” Piers shouted. “Hold on!”
The plane turned sideways, and Piers crushed me with his body.
“Why are we flying sideways?!”
“Evasive maneuvers! Evasive maneuvers!” We swung the other way, and this time I was the one crushing Piers.
“That’s good,” I said. We weren’t getting hit anymore.
“Oh? You like being on top?” Piers smirked at me.
“Look out!”
I pulled up the joystick and started shooting at a blue jet that had suddenly appeared in front of us.
“PEW!” I shouted, the screen lighting up blue. “PEW PEW PEW!”
We were hit again. My heart sank and the jet nose swung upward.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m looping!”
“You have to tell me when you’re going to loop!” I yelled, my stomach rising into my throat.
“Alright! I’m going to loop!”
“Ahhhhhhh!”
Chapter Nineteen
When we finally landed, I stepped out of the jet plane with shaky legs. Piers helped me down the ladder.
“How do you think we did?” I asked.
“Pretty damn good. You’re a natural.”
“Thank you. You were quite the pilot yourself.”
“And for someone who’s anti-fun and scared of flying, you sure do have the biggest, goofiest grin on your face.”
“Do I?” I grinned even bigger. “Maybe I’m not anti-fun after all.”
“That was awesome!” Kate shouted. She came over to me and high fived me. Dylan beamed at both of us as the camera crew circled around us. I’d gotten so used to them being around that I didn’t even notice them half of the time.
“Go team blue!” Dylan shouted.
“Boo!” I shouted, sticking my tongue out at him. “Go team red!”
“Wait, you were team red?” Kate asked. “You traitor!”
“Glad you guys had fun,” Julie said, sidling up next to me. “I had to listen to Mia scream any time the plane moved at all.”
“I had to listen to Lisa shout Pew Pew Pew every time she shot a laser,” Piers commiserated.
“How are you all doing?” The head flight instructor popped over to our group with a tablet in his hand.
“Awesome!” Dylan shouted. “Who won? Red or blue?”
“Looking at the hit count, it seems like… the blue team won.”
“BOOYAH!” I shouted, as Kate and Dylan shouted “NOOOOO!”
“But—” the instructor continued. “It looks like the winning plane was actually a red plane.”
“HA!” Dylan shouted.
“Tallying up the winners… in third place, with twenty-seven confirmed hits, was a blue team, with Rosalita and Tanya!”
“Yay!” they said, jumping up and down.
“There were only five teams,” Mia snapped at them. “That means you’re third place loser, too.”
“In second place,” the flight instructor continued, ignoring Mia, “we have another blue team. With thirty-three confirmed hits, Piers and Lisa!”
“So close!” I said, giving Piers a medium-high five.
“And in first place, with a whopping fifty-two hits… Dylan and Kate!”
“We won! Ahhhh! We won!” Kate threw her arms around Dylan and he picked her up off the ground in a bear hug. Mia stared hatefully at them.
“What about us?” Julie asked.
“Uh, Julie and Mia? You were in fourth place with thirteen hits.”
“Thirteen? That’s it?”
“Guess you’re even more of a loser than I am,” Tanya said to Mia.
“Great insult,” Mia snapped back. “So who lost?”
“The solo rider, Heidi, got only four confirmed hits,” the flight instructor said.
“Aww,” Heidi pouted.
“It’s alright,” Dylan said. “April was already kicked out during this round. And it’s not fair to make Heidi lose, since she was flying alone.”
“Really?” Heidi asked. “Thank you so much!”
“But—but—” Mia sputtered.
“Now we’re all going to ride back,” Piers said. “And the winner gets to ride back… with Dylan!”
“But she already got to fly with him!” Mia whined. “She gets to ride with him too? That’s not fair!”
“Life’s not fair,” Piers said. “Some people starve to death on the street. Some people aren’t allowed to vote. And some poor souls have to ride back to their penthouse apartment in a limo with me instead of a billionaire. Suck it up.”
“She’s right, though.”
All heads turned to Kate, who looked completely adorable in her jumpsuit and blonde ponytail.
“I had a great time with you, Dylan,” she said. “But you should get to know somebody else. I vote that Lisa gets to ride back with him.”
All heads turned to me.
“Me?” I asked.
“Yes,” Kate said firmly. “You were in second place. That seems fair to me.”
“Sure,” Dylan said, shrugging. “Sounds good.”
“But—but—” Mia sputtered again, trying to come up with another objection but unable to find an argument that would work.
“No buts,” Piers said. “The billionaire has spoken.” He turned away from me, his face expressionless, and for a moment I wanted to let Mia take my place, to ride back with him. I felt like he was abandoning me. Stupid, I know. I was here to win a date with Dylan, not Piers. But he didn’t look back.
“You’re so lucky not to get thrown out with your four stupid points,” Mia hissed at Heidi, shoving her way past the group to follow Piers.
“What happened there, anyway, Heidi?” Julie asked.
Heidi blushed.
“I got paired up with that cute blond flight instructor,” she confessed in a whisper. “And we spent the whole time flirting. I even got his phone number!”
“Yo! Lisa!”
I turned to see Dylan waving me his way.
“Come on, Lisa!” He unzipped his jumpsuit and pulled the lapels apart, showing his Superman T-shirt underneath. “Check it out! I’m the man of steel!”
“You are really the lucky one,” Heidi sighed. “Have fun!”
I smiled a pinched smile and turned away from the group. My superhero billionaire was waiting for me.
“Isn’t this awesome?”
Dylan had the convertible top down as we whipped along the curved back roads in his Ferrari.
Yes, a Ferrari. I was well aware of the irony.
“Yeah,” I said. “Totally awesome.” I tried desperately to keep my hair brushed back out of my face as the trees whizzed by us.
“I love coming out back here and just riding around for hours. Like Batman in his Batmobile. Really takes my mind off of things.”
“Sure,” I said.
I wondered what things he had his mind on in the first place. Dylan Chase did not seem to be a man who ever had much on his mind.
“Did you have a good time at the spa?”
I blushed as I thought of Piers coming into the massage room that morning. I was thankful that we were going so fast that Dylan couldn’t take his eyes off the road. I didn’t want him to see my red ears.
“Sure did,” I said. “It was super fun.”
“That was my idea.”
“What was?”
“Spa day!” he said proudly.
“Really? I wouldn’t have pegged you as the spa kind of dude.”
“Yeah, well, I was watching the tapes, and it seemed like a lot of you were on edge.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“So I was thinking, what’s the best way to get everybody relaxed? Whenever my mom gets stressed out at my dad, she goes and spends the day at the spa. So, walla.”
“You mean voila?”
“That’s what I said. You speak French, too? That’s crazy. You’re crazy smart.”
He yanked on the steering wheel, and I braced myself with both hands. What was it about rich men and driving erratically? The Ferrari zoomed off of the paved road and thudded off onto a dirt track that disappeared around a bend into the trees.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“You’ll see,” he said, winking at me. His tousled blond hair flew in all directions as he revved the car up a hill. I couldn’t help but grin back at him. He looked like a kid having the best time of his life. His good humor was infectious.
At the top of the dirt path, we came out of the trees and into a large opening. Dylan gave the Ferrari one last rev and turned sharply, skidding to a stop. When the cloud of dust dissipated, I looked around in wonder.
We were on the top of a mountain lookout, surrounded by low sloping valleys of pines and oaks. When Dylan turned off the Ferrari engine, it was so quiet that I could hear my heart beating fast.
“This…this is beautiful.”
“Isn’t it?” Dylan looked around proudly. “This is my favorite spot to come out when I’m driving. Sometimes I just sit here for hours looking at the trees and thinking.”
“Really?”
Dylan looked over at me, a smile quirking the corner of his mouth.
“I know what you’re thinking. Big old dumb lugnut like me, what’s he have to think about?”
“I wasn’t… that wasn’t…” I didn’t know what to say that wasn’t insulting.
“Look, I know I’m not as smart as you. You’re a smart lady, I can tell. Always got something running through your brain, right?”
“It’s a curse,” I said, laughing softly.
“See? And you’re funny, too.”
Suddenly Dylan had his hand on mine. I froze, watching his big thumb press against the outside of my wrist.
“That’s why I like you,” he said. “You’re smart, you’re funny. And I don’t just want to date some pretty airhead girl who can’t put two and two together.”
“Well, you got me. I’m definitely not as pretty as the other girls,” I said, choking out a laugh.
“That’s not what I meant,” he said, squeezing my hand and shifting in his seat to face me. “You’re all pretty girls. You and Kate especially.”
“What about ex-supermodel Mia?” I asked, half-teasing.
“Uh… well…” He seemed uncertain of how to answer.
“Pretty on the outside?”
Dylan burst out laughing.
“You said it, not me. I mean, she’s pretty. I knew you were all going to be pretty. It’s TV, right?”
“Right,” I said. My mouth was dry.
“But I’ve dated a lot of pretty girls. I mean, a lot.”
“And you want something more?”
He looked up at me, his brown eyes dark and soulful under his rumpled blond hair.
“You get it.”
“Yeah,” I said, swallowing hard. “I get it.”
“I’m glad you’re here, Lisa.”
He turned forward in his seat and looked out at the forest. He was still holding my hand, but now that he’d broken eye contact, I was able to breathe again. For a moment there, I’d thought he was going to kiss me. And for the life of me, I didn’t know what I would do if he tried.
“Look at that,” he said. In the distance, three hawks circled over the tops of the trees. “How do they even fly like that?”
“Like what?”
“They’re not flapping their wings at all.”
I watched the hawks glide in rising circles, their wings outspread.
“Must be the air currents,” I said. “They’re just catching a ride.”
“That’s so cool.” Dylan leaned back in his seat. “So they just float along forever?”
“Maybe.”
“Just letting the wind take them wherever it wants to take them. Must be peaceful.”
“They don’t have places to be.”
Dylan squeezed my hand again.
“Neither do we.”
We sat there for twenty minutes, watching the birds circle up and down on the invisible currents. Dylan’s hand was warm over mine. It was oddly comfortable to sit there, holding hands and watching the hawks glide through the air. They didn’t worry about whether they were heading in the right direction. They trusted the wind to take them where they needed to go.
I took a deep breath and let it go. Dylan was right. I didn’t need to flap my wings. There was nowhere I needed to be.
Nowhere but right here.
Chapter Twenty
“Arlen, look! Bubbles!”
We were at “picnic day” in Central Park. Dylan had reserved a large chunk of the park just for the contestants and our families. I pointed up at the iridescent bubbles floating overhead, and Arlen waved her arms wildly. One landed on her nose and popped. She started to scream.
“Alright, let me take her.” Emma hefted the little girl in her arms and tried to distract her. “Arlen, look! Another
bubble!”
“Oh my gosh, is this your niece?” Kate came over. “She is so adorable!”
Arlen turned her pout into a huge grin.
“She loves showing off for strangers,” Emma said.
“Can I hold her?”
“Of course.” Emma handed her over. “My arms get so tired now. She’s almost two and big for her age.”
“Hey there, cutie pie,” Kate gurgled at the little girl.
“This is crazy,” Emma said looking around.
“Which part?” I asked. “The swan boats on the lake? The horse carriage rides? The catered picnic lunch?”
“I was going to say the cotton candy machine,” Emma said. “But all of that is pretty insane, too.”
“I’m glad Arlen got over her cold in time for this,” I said. “It’s so nice to have you here.”
“Where’s your family, Kate?” Emma asked.
“They… they couldn’t make it,” Kate said.
“I thought they lived in New York. Are they not around this weekend?” I asked.
“No, they are. It’s just… they work. A lot. They’re too busy working.” She had a guilty expression on her face, and I didn’t press it.
“Well, I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet them,” I said.
“I’m going to tell them they missed a perfectly wonderful magic demonstration,” Kate said. “And a petting zoo.”
“How’s Mac?” I asked Emma.
“He misses you.”
“You have a son, too?” Kate asked Emma. I burst out laughing.
“Mac’s our cat,” I said. “Although he’s definitely part of the family. We should have brought him to the picnic.”
“Oh, I’m sure he would have loved the swan boats,” Emma joked.
“Everybody’s sisters and brothers are so young,” I said. “I feel like I’m the only one with a grownup sibling.”
“Half of them are Julie’s brothers,” Kate said. “She told me her parents have eight kids! The oldest one isn’t here, though, he’s in Europe right now. They seemed very proud of him.”
“Do you have any brothers or sisters, Kate?” Emma asked.
Kate looked down at Arlen.
“Um, I have a little brother,” she said.
“Where is he?”
“He’s with his, uh, his nanny right now. I wish—I wish he could be here.”