Aj: Yay I finally got my computer back. To celebrate I'm posting this kind of spur of the moment one shot. It's much lighter than the majority of what I write (Does that indicate I have a problem) but I'm in a good mood. An article I wrote for newspaper got the feather award from the editor in chief so I'm doing good.
The grass was a thick shade of green, the sky was a brilliant baby blue, and the sun was shining down upon the flock without a cloud in the sky. I guess that should mean that I was happy to be outside in the warm spring air. But I would be lying if I said I was.
Sure, we weren't being catapulted with erasers, but this alternative was much, much worse.
We were flying kites.
"Remind me why we have to go to all this effort to make kites and then fly them when we have wings and can fly ourselves." I drawled, lying face up in the meadow Angel, the manipulative little demon, had dragged us to.
Angel turned around to face where I was currently basking in the sun, "Because my friends from the school in Virginia wouldn't shut up about flying kites and now if I can't fly one I'll die!"
Ugh. It was a wonder peer pressure could affect her so much when she's faced actual life or death situations.
"Max! You promised we could fly kites! You pinky swore!" Nudge added, siding against me. That had been happening more and more frequently lately and I didn't like it one bit.
"Can't back down on a pinky promise, Maxie." Iggy chimed in, grinning devilishly.
"Tough talk coming from the boy who pinky promised not to add any bombs onto his kite," his mouth dropped open in surprise, "Iggy, just because you can't see the bomb on the bottom, doesn't mean the rest of us can't."
I used my forearms to push myself into a sitting position as Iggy kicked his canvas kite behind him, red and blue wires sticking out from the underbelly.
"Whatever Max, you can be a party pooper if you want, but we're ready to test these babies out." Gazzy cackled, beginning to take off at a run, his poorly made kite trailing behind him.
I rolled my eyes as the others cheered and ran off, racing down the meadow with their over decorated (and in one case, over explosive) kites. Crossing my legs, I silently counted the speeding forms. 1...2...3...4...where was five?
"Yo." I jumped about a foot in the air, before whipping around. Fang.
"Are you ever going to stop doing that?" I hissed.
"Are you ever going to stop yelling at me for it?" He countered, a barely there smirk gracing his lips as he sat down beside me.
"No." I grumbled.
"Then no." I whacked him in the arm.
He flinched, only for a second, but it was enough to satisfy me.
We sat in silence for the next few minutes, enjoying each other's company in a way we had done since we were kids. He was tugging on the grass while I analyzed our surroundings. If erasers were going to pop out, I would be the first to know.
"They don't blame you, you know. They understand." Fang broke the silence, turning to look at me.
"Huh?" I didn't even attempt to mask my confusion, now pausing from my observation of the meadow to look at him.
"They don't blame you for being so against flying kites. They know that you aren't trying to ruin their fun." He said
"Really?"
"Yeah," he answered truthfully, "They know that you don't want to fly kites because you can't work a kite."
"What!" I screeched, probably loud enough for all of the flock to hear me. Fang held a straight face, but his eyes were practically glowing with amusement.
"Sorry, Max. But if i couldn't fly something as simple as a kite, I would be embarrassed too. It's understandable that you wouldn't want to look like an idiot, well...more of an idiot, in front of the flock." Oh he was so dead. Deader than dead. He was dead times infinity.
I would kill him so many times he wouldn't remember what life felt like.
"I can too fly a kite! Hell, i could outfly you anytime, anywhere." I defended, the anger rushing to my head before I could think about what I was saying. How did I know if I could beat him at flying a kite? I had never even flown one before!
Then again, neither had Fang.
"Careful what you say, Max. Last chance to back out of certain doom." He taunted, only baiting me more into destroying him. He may be my best friend, but he was going to feel my wrath.
"Aww. Is Fang afraid to lose? Because that's exactly what's going to happen." I taunted, leaning in closer to his face.
He paused, his eyes flickering to the shortened distance between us, before recomposing himself.
"You're on, Ride."
Grinning at the challenge, I hopped up from my sitting position, snatching the mangled kite I had crudely put together and taking off in a run at the same time he did.
Somehow I imagined a picturesque scene where the diamond shaped cloth billowed in the air behind me, magically drifting towards the heavens as I ran. It only took five minutes for me to realize how wrong I was.
OOF! I fell to the ground for the second time, my legs being strangled in the vice like grip the kite's string had managed to wrap. As I struggled angrily with the thin string that wouldn't come off, sitting on my butt pathetically with the kite tossed a few feet away from me, I heard laughter.
Fang was standing above me, trying not to let his laughter interrupt his already soaring kite, a black dot amongst the rich blue. Jerk.
I don't know why I continued to put up with him.
"Oh shut it!" I grumbled, finally managing to untangle myself from the heap on the ground. His laughter subsided, transforming into a mere smirk. I tried not to pay attention on how the sunlight made his raven hair glisten, and instead on how angry I was at the doofus.
"I hate to say I told you so, Max, but—"
"This isn't over! I can still fly a kite way better than your little show." I interrupted, crossing my arms defiantly.
"Max, there are twigs caught in your kite. My kite is up in the air and the closest yours has gotten off the ground is when you tripped on it. I think I win." I looked away from his superior smirk, turning my eyes to look up at the wide open sky. I had a way to win.
"Nope, not yet. See ya later, loser." With that, I unfurled my powerful wings from beneath my windbreaker and, with a powerful gust of wind, soared straight into the air, the gnarled kite flowing behind me. My eyes narrowed in determination, willing my wings to beat faster, faster, faster…until…
I overcame Fang's kite within seconds, only going higher and higher up through the air.
It was a minute before I stopped, beating my wings to hover above the meadow, looking down at the specks below me.
1…2…3…4…but where was five?
"You cheated." A voice came from behind me. Startled, I dropped about a foot in the air before recovering to face him. Fang's wings fanned behind him, the very image of grace and vengeance merged into one package.
"I won." I retorted, staring him down, daring to prove him wrong.
"No, you cheated because you knew you couldn't win." He drifted closer, refusing to give up. Most of our competitions since we were kids ended in a stalemate, but that didn't mean we ever stopped trying.
"The kite is in the air. Nobody ever said specifically there was only one way to do it. I merely used my skill sets to my advantage." I stuck my tongue out at him. He rolled his eyes.
Whatever. I still won and he couldn't unjustify my justification. So there.
"No matter how you put it, you still cheated."
"Oh yeah, well what are you going to do about it?" I challenged. He grinned devilishly.
"You'll see."
Aj: Let me know what you guys think. Working on getting back into the swing of posting with a new story. ;)
-Aj.