Flying Lessons

Miss Hardbroom walked out into the fresh morning air. However terrible the night before was, she had pushed it aside and was ready to face the day. Her positive mood shattered when she saw Miss Drill waiting for her on the courtyard. How had she forgotten the plan to share her flying lessons with the non witch? She had a habit of pushing bad things to the back of her mind and forgetting about them. Constance scowled at the smiling PE teacher, hoping it would in some way hurt her. Of course, it did not. Miss Drill was used to her stand offish behaviour and could now ignore it or on her best days fight back with some positive attitude which really annoyed her.

"I'm glad you're here early Miss Hardbroom," beamed Miss Drill, "I wanted to pass on some ideas I had to make your lessons more enjoyable, not that they're not enjoyable just that..."

"What," Miss Hardbroom interrupted," Is wrong with the way I teach?"

"Nothing, nothing. It's just Miss Cackle instructed me to change the lessons so it's not so focused on just flying and perhaps more sporty and a bit more competitive," She tried to word her reply very carefully so not to offend the potions teacher. Never the less, Constance felt undermined and wouldn't have any of it.

"Competition brings out the worst in people as you should know Miss Drill," Miss Hardbroom said, "But I will let you explain your ideas to me considering I am a fair person." Miss Drill couldn't help but laugh a little at that. When had she ever been fair?

"I thought we could have a competition to see which girl can fly the highest in 5 seconds. Then we could let them practice tricks on the brooms and judge them. The winners could have a prise," she explained. Even if she had liked the idea, nothing would let Constance give in to the mere mortal.

"That is absolutely ridiculous! Did you not consider the safety of our girls? Furthermore..." She exclaimed.

As they continued arguing, a figure could be seen from not very far away. She had been listening to the entire conversation. She knew what she would do and she knew exactly what would happen. They were really setting themselves up. Thump!

"Oh I'm so sorry Celeste," apologised Miss Cackle quietly. She didn't know what the girl was doing standing in a doorway but she would let it slide considering she had just walked into her.

"Go on your way now dear. I'm sure you have a lesson to get to," Celeste went off to the broom shed to get ready for her lesson. Miss Cackle headed over to the arguing teachers to see what all the commotion was about.

"What is going on here!" shouted Miss Cackle.

"Oh Miss Cackle I am terribly sorry" said a startled Miss Hardbroom.

"We were arguing about my plan for the lesson. Miss Hardbroom here will not let me implement any of my ideas," explained Miss Drill.

"Constance, you will implement any off Miss Drill's ideas into your lesson. I don't want any excuses. I am not in the mood for your bickering or your frankly childish behaviour. I want no more words on the matter," and with that Miss Cackle stormed off. Miss Hardbroom glared at the non witch, staring daggers into her soul.

Out came the girls, ready for their first flying lesson. She stared off the lesson like she normally did, talking about how to stay safe on a broom and what you must never do. Once she was sure the girls wouldn't mess around she guided them through the flying process. They managed to get their brooms up by at least the third try. It was quite a dismal attempt but she had seen worse. Once they had all practiced flying and hovering for a bit, Miss Drill chimed in with her ideas.

"Right girls, instead of just flying in these lessons we will also be doing tricks. These tricks will be used in an end of term performance to show off how great you all are," Miss Hardbroom rolled her eyes. There was no benefit in false flattery. All it caused was inflated egos and over confidence that could lead to injury and boasting.

"For this lesson you can practice standing up on the floating broom. Don't push yourself too much, we don't want any accidents," said Miss Drill. The girls started to practice. Miss Drill turned to the still scowling witch.

"See? I said they would be fine," she announced.

Celeste looked down at the two teachers. None of them were looking in her direction. Now was the perfect time. She stood up straight on her flying broom and jumped. She fell onto the hard courtyard floor and screamed her lungs out.

Miss Hardbroom heard an ear piercing shriek of pain. She turned to see Celeste lying on the floor. She must've fallen off. Miss Drill ran over to her to sort her out. Constance couldn't move. She couldn't get herself to help the girl but had no idea why. Luckily it was the end of the lesson so she sent the other girls away to go to their next period so they would stop gawking.

After Miss Drill had brought Celeste to the medical room she bumped into Miss Hardbroom.

"What were you doing?" Constance shouted, "I told you it wasn't safe! Now look what's happened! That girl could have easily died! You got away lucky! If she had died it would have been our jobs on the line!"

"Don't go blaming me. You are just as much to blame as I am! If you were watching them instead of belittling me, then you would have seen her fall and could have done something about it!" Miss Drill retaliated.

"I wouldn't have had to do anything it you hadn't told them to do something so stupid!"

The arguing continued, much to Celeste's delight. This was going to be fun.