Chapter 11
Vanessa Pov
"So I push this thingie and then the yellowish button and then I go forward?", I asked for the umpteenth time.
"Yes", Cameron drawled, a small, amused grin tugging at his lips. The freaked out girl that's seated on a skimmer a few feet in front of him might be the cause of it.
"And when my front wheel's off the ground I have to flip the blue-ish switch and then the wings come out?", I repeated, frantic.
"Yes, Nessa, then the wings come out and you fly. Just try it!", he encouraged "You're more than ready for it."
I drew in a deep breathe, you can't blame me, I don't even have my freakin driver's license yet! And now I'm gonna go and fly around on this bike with wings. I threw one last look a Cameron, my "tutor"; he gave me a thumbs up. "Okay.", I breathed.
So, push the weird button thingie... The skimmer roared to life. Check.
Now the yellowish button. The skimmer started moving, oh boy, I immediately lifted my legs off the ground and placed them on their supposed places on the flanks of the skimmer. "Great going, Ness!", Cameron called out. The edge neared closer and closer. Okay, check.
Now wait for the right moment. My thumb hovered above the blue-ish switch. My heart was beating like crazy and the imaginary ticking I started to hear when the engine started didn't help.
3..2.. Now. I flicked the switch and the wings popped out just in time. I hovered almost helplessly in the air until the wings caught the wind and I started flying. "Yeah!", I laughed and let out a 'whoop'. So far, so good. Flying on a skimmer was actually pretty neat, the wind whipping through my air. I was perfectly at peace, circling around in the sky.
That was, until I got scared and almost jumped out of my skin. "Boo!", Aerrow yelled from above me. Startled, my head whipped up and I got face-to-face with Aerrow. He was flying upside down above me and grinning like a kid. A kid up to no good. "I see Cameron finally let you fly out, you're doing great!"
I couldn't manage a mere 'thanks' to that. Not after he almost gave me a heart-attack, I swear all of this stuff wasn't good for my health. I nodded and after a while of flying silently next to each other I spoke up "You shouldn't scare someone like that, you know, it's really-"
"Shhhh!", he cut me off. What is it with men and cutting people off in this dimension? I shot him an incredulous look. "Do you hear that?", he asked me, turning his ear towards me. I leaned away and answered "No, what?"
His face scrunched up "This..ticking sound." My mound dropped open, so we were both hearing the same imaginary sound?... I shook my head at my own dumbness, so there was indeed a strange noise. "Yeah, I do, why?", after a while I'd just tuned it out. Cameron had given me an old skimmer, maybe it's normal? I shrugged it off. Aerrow had to worry me again, though.
"Hmmm, that isn't normal, mind if I check your skimmer?", he asked.
"Oh, it isn't mine, but sure, I'll just-", he had already moved though, his skimmer was now flying right bellow mine. I was getting fidgety because of that. What if I suddenly lost altitude and squashed him?
In a split second Aerrow had pulled his skimmer up next to mine, he had a frantic expression "Vanessa, please step over to my skimmer", he said alarmed and carefully.
"What?", I asked warily, "Why should I-"
"Now, Vanessa."
I frowned, what? "No. I will not get on your skimmer. We are flying in mid air, Aerrow, what is your problem?", I noticed the ticking again and it seemed to get more frequent just as I got more angry and annoyed. What was his problem?
The ticking was at an extremely high pace now and Aerrow's eyes widened even more.
It happened so fast, I didn't even register it. One moment I'm sitting on the old, racketing and ticking skimmer, the other I'm seated behind Aerrow. He had pulled me on his skimmer in the blink of an eye and was already turning left, away from my abandoned skimmer. I couldn't even say the word 'What', before the skimmer I was sitting on only moments ago, blew up.
We were about 8 feet away from it, but the blow was hard enough to push Aerrow's skimmer forward and throw me out of my seat. As I fell down, flailing around in mid-air and trying to grab onto something, anything to keep me steady, I couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà-vu.
I desperately gulped in air as my hair whipped around me and I kept falling, this felt like some weird, twisted attraction in one of those amusement parks.
One second I'm falling and the other I get thrown down on something vast and an arm wrapped around me steadily.
"Are you alright?", Aerrow asked me, breathing heavily.
I couldn't answer, partially because I had to get some air in my lungs, but also because Aerrow had just saved my life. Twice. In about one minute. Why did I feel bad about this?
"Vanessa?", Aerrow turned around towards me, worried. I suddenly got highly-aware of his right arm that was still wrapped securely around my waist. Aerrow followed my gaze and rapidly pulled back his arm and twisted back towards the front.
"Yeah, I think I am", I answered quietly, my voice sounded small and weak, it showed my shock. I could've been dead right now.
Aerrow let out a nervous chuckle, he was probably shocked as well "Well, I'll have Piper check you out just to be sure. Hold on tight." He turned back towards terra Atmosia, halfway there Cameron came flying up to us.
"What happened?", he asked.
Aerrow had gone into leader-mode "I don't know", he answered "but I'm going to find out." He looked determined, his jaw set and his eyes narrowed slightly.
A little while later we were all packing, Aerrow and Cameron had called everyone together, but no one had any clue as to why my skimmer had suddenly exploded. I was still quite shaken, but assured everyone that I was fine.
A knock sounded on my door, Cameron stood in the doorway "You ready?", he asked. He had a fairly big bag slung on his shoulder. I nodded "Jup, but how are we going to take along our bags on the skimmers?", I gestured to my bag and then his.
He chuckled "You thought we were going to travel with our skimmers? No, I asked the Storm Hawks and they didn't mind taking us along on the Condor. It would be easier and a lot more comfortable than our skimmers." I paled a bit at the new information, I should have known, but I think I stubbornly pushed the thoughts away to a far place in the back of my mind. "Nessa? Ready to go?", Cameron asked I nodded again and grabbed my bag.
Cameron laughed and threw an arm around my shoulders "Don't be afraid, Ness, the Condor is a steady ship. I promise it wont blow up. I don't know what happened to your skimmer earlier today, but I swear it will never happen again." He has misinterpreted my silence and sudden paleness as angst for flying again. What he didn't know was that I had silently promised myself the moment I got off that ship, that I'd never set foot in it again. I didn't know If he knew about my history with the Storm Hawks and Aerrow. From the looks of it I don't think he did.
"I'm really sorry about that, Vanessa", I stopped walking and looked up at him. He looked troubled and guilty.
"About what?", I asked, I really didn't know what he was talking about.
"About the skimmer-accident. You could've been killed if it weren't for Aerrow, really, I'm terribly sorry. I didn't know."
I smiled "It's okay, Cam, I know you didn't. Let's not mention it anymore." I slung my arm around him and he grabbed my bag from my shoulder. I shot him a look and he just shrugged.
"It's the least I can do", he said. My relationship with Cameron was weird to describe, it was just as if their was a natural bond of trust and friendship between us. No more than that, though, just friendship. He was the only person that knew everything about me –aside from the "from another universe"-thing- .
The front door opened downstairs and Aerrow called "Hey you guys! Is everyone ready? We're going to take off!" The remaining members of the Red Eagles rushed past us and down the stairs. Cameron chuckled and we continued on our way.
"Hey Aerrow, got anymore info on the skimmer-incident?", Cameron asked. We were pretty sure that it couldn't be an accident, Aerrow saw a bomb made of two opposing crystals on my skimmer, but investigating the thing was kind of hard since there was nothing left it.
I looked over at Aerrow, he didn't answer. His gaze first locked on Cameron's arm around my shoulders and then mine around his torso. It traveled further towards my bag and then his gaze ended back on me. For the life of me I couldn't decipher what his gaze meant and what emotion I found in them. Cameron cleared his throat and finally Aerrow blinked and answered.
"Uhm, no.. I haven't found out anything else. Let's…go", he gave a disturbed smile and headed out the door. Cameron and I exchanged confused looks before heading out and locking the door for the coming weeks.
"Finn! Get back here!", a female voice yelled.
"Id dimnt dfo anyfthin!", a muffled voice responded.
"Junko!", someone else yelled.
A chirp from some creature.
The sound of something falling down and then a round of laughter.
Above the commotion a yell of "MINDWORMS!" was heard.
Some more laughing, some yelling.
I groan and pull my sheets and pillow over my head. Why did they have to wake up so early? I sigh and pull my head from underneath my pillow. Opening my eyes I wince at the sudden brightness of the light. With a sigh I dropped my head back down. It was day 1 on the Condor, or technically day 2. I had spent the night in my former room on the Condor.
It couldn't be any earlier than 9 and I absolutely hate mornings.
With a final groan I gave up and pulled myself out of my warm and comfy bed. In my shorts and gray tank top I yanked open my door and slumped over to the common area which contained the kitchen and the living room. It seemed like nearly everyone was up already.
When I walked in the first thing to my left was the kitchen and it was…a complete mess.
It seemed as if someone had tried to make pancakes, but it didn't turn out that well. Piper was standing in the middle of the kitchen covered in flower with a layer of batter covering her pretty, midnight blue hair. She looked pissed. On the other side of the common room, hiding behind the couch, was a scared looking Finn. Cayden and Seth were playing pool and Steven and Radarr were trying to pull Finn from behind the couch.
You should have been there, it was a funny sight to see. I was still in my grumpy-early-morning-mood, though, so I only gave a nod towards Piper and strolled over towards the window. I stood there for a while, looking over the clear blue sky when I heard chatter coming from the hallway. I looked over my shoulder and saw Junko and Cameron entering the room and talking, I was about to turn back when I saw who followed them. Aerrow. Without a shirt on. Damn.
My head whipped back around towards the window. A red-hot blush started to spread on my cheeks and I furiously hoped no one could see it. The whole room turned completely silent and I could feel stares boring into my back. 'Someone please say something', I thought. I hadn't even thanked him properly for saving my life yesterday. After that weird incident at the house that evening, we hadn't spoken at all. A snigger was heard behind my back.
"So V, want some breakfast?", Finn asked. Darn him. I took a few moments to compose myself and hoped my cheeks had cooled down. I'd noticed Finn and Steven were also still in their boxers, but at least they were wearing shirts and for some reason, they didn't bother me that much.
"No, thanks", I replied slightly shaky and turned back towards the window. It's time to sort my thoughts out, for some reason I was starting to act really strange whenever Aerrow was around. I pondered over the reason for a while.
"Hey, I brought you some eggs and bacon, I would have given you some pancakes, but there isn't much left of those." Aerrow grinned and held out a plate towards me. I gasped, glanced to my left and took the offered plate. Aerrow had put on a shirt –I wasn't sure if I felt sad or glad about this- and held another plate in his left hand with a huge pile of food stacked onto it. He followed my gaze "Oh, I didn't think you'd want to eat that much, you know, girls that watch their weight and stuff. But it's cool that you don't care about your weight. I can get you some more if you want!", he grinned at me.
Oh no he didn't…Did he just call me fat? I stared at him incredulously. I know the reason I always felt weird around him. It's because he's such a cocky, arrogant jerk that doesn't care about anyone's feelings. Well, it think it's just mine he doesn't care about. To every other person he's all hero-like and the nicest guy in the world, but me? Me he kicks out of his airship.
Oh look at him, staring at me as if he doesn't know why steam's practically pouring from my ears, he knows well enough.
I was about to lash out at him when Piper suddenly appeared behind me and put her hands on my shoulders. "Aerrow, I think it would be better if you'd stop talking", she told him. I agree.
The whole room had turned their attention towards us, I really wasn't in the mood for any of this. I shoved Aerrow my plate and stalked off to my room. "What did I do?", I heard Aerrow ask Piper. I don't know what her answer was, but it appeared to shut him up.
I lay on my bed, staring up at the ceiling when my door cracked open and Piper's voice piped up "Mind if I come in?" I sat up and smiled at her, she took that as a 'yes' and came in. She sat on my bed as she continued "Hey, so how you feeling?" I shrugged, I didn't really feel like talking, what was there to talk about? "You can't really blame Aerrow, he doesn't know any better." Oh, him.
I gave her a confused look, it was as if there was another meaning to her words, but I couldn't seem to figure out what it was. "What do you mean?", I asked, she just smiled at me.
"Haven't you noticed that Aerrow acts… different around you?", she asked. I snorted, yeah I did. "Well, maybe that's because he feels differently about you", she looked at me with wide eyes as if she was expecting me to give a grand reaction. I just blinked. She frowned "You're so naïve, aren't you?", she asked quietly, gazing at me as if she could make me understand what she meant that way.
He 'feels differently' about me, does that mean he hates me? I couldn't help but feel a little sad at that, although it would explain a lot.
But not why he saved you.
Maybe he just saved me because that's what a sky night does?
She's right, you are naïve. The little voice in my head piped up. I ignored it and said
"But what should I do? Stay away from him? If he really hates me, I might as well save him the effort of trying to be nice to me." Piper just looked at me for a minute, shocked and then shook her head ruefully.
She stood up and said "You shouldn't stay away from him, quite the opposite. I'm sure this will work out one way or another."
"What will work out?", I asked. She just smiled and waved at me.
"Don't forget to bring back the plate!", she called out. I looked down and before me was a plate with a fair amount of pancakes on it. I smiled, Piper wasn't that bad after all, but what did she mean by 'I'm sure this will work out one way or another'?
The next day the Condor had made a short stop on a small, random terra to stack up on crystals and necessities. Cameron had found this a great opportunity to train my skills. We had been training along with the rest of the Red Eagles and Storm Hawks (those that hadn't gone to the village to buy stuff), but now we had travelled a little further from the rest so they couldn't see us. We'd found a little stream near the woods and Cameron instructed me what to do "Lift a small amount of water."
He had started off simple. I pointed my right palm towards the water and closed my eyes. I sensed the water and then silently moved my hand upwards as I made a ball of water detach itself from the stream and into the air. It's weird how waterbending works, it's like you have to feel the water and then make contact with it. Once you've done that, you can mold it with your hands and mind into various shapes and forms.
"Good", Cameron appraised "Now I want you to form it into a spike." I frowned, but did as I was told. "Okay, now you see that fallen tree over there?", I nodded "Shoot the spike with full force at the middle of the bark." I nodded and without thinking, pushed the water in the general direction of the tree. I wasn't even close.
Cameron snickered at my saddened expression "You have to focus and concentrate, then put all of your power behind that blow. I tried another time and I had gotten the water until the tree, but it didn't make that much of an impact. By the ninth time I got annoyed, bending water was quite tiring and the only damage I managed to do to the bark was a little scram.
I focused on the spot, concentrated and then closed my eyes. I built up the energy within me and when I opened my eyes I pushed the water formed into the shape of a spike forward and into the tree.
It cracked in the middle with a loud snap. I squealed and threw my arms around Cameron's neck. "I did it!", I exclaimed. "I actually did it! How do you know so much about waterbending?", I asked.
"Nice", grinned " Well, when we were on Atmosia I went to the big library and read a book about the elementmasters. They explained everything in there", he shrugged. My mouth popped open, he found a book about waterbending? I had scanned the whole freaking library, no way!
"That can't be possible! I searched the whole library and I didn't find a thing about it!"
"But you probably didn't get into the restricted area, it's underground. There they keep the oldest scrolls and books. Only people with special permission can get in there. Unless you're a sky night." He grinned.
I scoffed, so I just wasted my time in there? Great.
We had been at this for a while now, this was the last "exercise" we'd be doing. One-on-one combat.
Basically Cameron would come at me with his blade and I had to protect myself with water. It's a lot harder than it sounds, believe me.
We were at our third and last spar when things went kind of wrong. Cameron had stepped forward, about to make a stab at me when he lost his footing and his left leg slipped away from underneath him. We were training on grass and some of my water had fallen on it, which made everything very slippery. As he tumbled down I tried to catch him, but that just resulted in getting both of us soaked. I then just grabbed onto him and tried to dodge his blade. It was silent for a second until we both burst out laughing.
This wasn't the "wrong"-part, though. It was about to come.
"What are you guys doing?", Aerrow was standing a few feet away, looking at us with wide eyes. Damn, how long had he been standing there? Cameron and I were both laying on the ground, completely soaked and looking at Aerrow with quite similar expressions. I was kind of sprawled over Cameron, so I pushed myself up on my right hand, that was placed on the other side of Cameron and said the most cliché words ever "Aerrow, it's not what it seems!"
But he had already stalked off. Oh god, what if he saw me bending the water. Cameron and I looked at each other, afraid of what Aerrow might do or think.
Aerrow Pov
"Hey, have you guys seen Vanessa?", I asked the guys. They were training and sharpening their fighting skills. I'd just come back from town, Piper and I had a talk and I finally realized what I said wrong to Vanessa. I'm such an idiot, I swear. Piper told me I just had to go and apologize to her and everything would be alright.
Finn and Seth looked up "Nope, haven't seen her since she went off with Cameron", my smile faltered when I heard that "They headed off in that direction." Finn pointed to somewhere over his shoulder, I nodded my thanks and started heading over there.
Vanessa and Cameron seemed to be spending a lot of time together and for some reason I didn't really like that. She'd always be mean and crabby to me, but when she was with him she always laughed and was sweet and friendly. I just didn't get it. What did he have that I didn't? Okay sure, I might have made some mistakes in the past, but I had apologized for those.
I heard some voices up ahead, laughter could be heard, from a girl. I scowled, when was the last time she laughed with me? I can't remember it. I however can remember times she was mad at me. Like when I wanted to be polite and carry her bag for her. She was impossible, but I ended up carrying it anyways. I grinned at myself, but it soon slipped away as I remembered something. She didn't have a problem with Cameron carrying her bag.
I had seen him do it, twice! And she didn't say a word, it seemed as if it didn't bother her. Only two days ago I'd seen them come down the stairs, their arms around each other and him carrying their bags. They were laughing and having a great time. My blood started boiling and I clenched my hands into fists. 'Why didn't she have a great time with me?', I thought.
The noise got louder, I erased all anger and bad thoughts from my system. I was going to give her a sincere apology and make her like me again. Piper said everything would be fine after that. I approached them and pushed away a branch of a tree, I heard a small yelp and then laughter. When I looked over I saw Cameron and Vanessa.
Lying on the ground, sprawled over each other and seemingly having a very good time. Vanessa was resting on Cameron's chest, but when they saw me their laughter died down. Vanessa pushed herself up "Aerrow, it's not what it seems!", she started, but I had already spun around on my heels and stalked off. My nostrils flared and I had the urge to punch something. Preferably Cameron.
After a while I had calmed down and by the time I got to the Condor I knew what I was about to do. I rushed passed the guys and into the Condor. Radarr came running up to me, he looked pissed, probably because I just disappeared like that. Upon seeing my face he hesitated and then just tilted his head to the side and chirped. I shook my head and ignored him, I wasn't in the mood.
When I entered the bridge I saw Stork "Piper?", I asked, he frowned at my attitude and just pointed towards the navigation room. I opened the door and walked in, I didn't let Piper say anything and just said "I need your help."
She heaved a sigh "Oh god, what did you do this time?"
"Vanessa." I explained "I've got a plan." She was about to get a taste of her own medicine.
AN: OOOH, could Aerrow be *gasp* jealous? This chapter mainly showed Aerrow and Vanessa's relationship at the moment. I hope you liked Aerrow's pov, I thought you might find it nice to know what Aerrow's thinking through all of this. I hope you're looking forward to find out Aerrow's "plan", but I can already tell you, it it aint a good one. Oh, will they ever learn?
Anyways, thanks Kina Gray and shadowjinx for the reviews =D and please all the rest of you people, leave a comment as well, it's great motivation!