Hello and welcome back to another chapter of "Over Time." I hope you enjoyed last chapter and also I hope you enjoy this one. I tried to put as much detail into this chapter. Thanks for staying with me.
-Twix
I woke up drowsy and sweaty. The warm atmosphere filled the entire room and I sat up with a sore back. I rubbed my back and walked over to Lena's bed. I put my hand on shoulder and shook her a little bit.
"Hey, get up." I kept rubbing my back and then to my eyes. Cleaning out all the goop from them. I guess I really didn't get a good sleep.
I saw Lena was face up and looking at the chipped ceiling. "What time is it?"
"I'm not exactly sure." I guess I really didn't care about anyone or paid attention to much because I looked around the room to see it completely empty. My heart started to race as I ran to my bed and started to change into the uniform. My cloths was very comfortable and comfy. I could wear it every time if I could. I set my cloths under the tiny bed and cleaned myself off. I looked over to see Lena ready to go. She leaned against the door, tapping her foot, impatient. I looked over and shrugged as we went on our way to where ever everyone was. On the way there, this place looked deserted without every running around or just talking to each other. I then just realized that we were late to morning attention. I looked over at Lena in a scared look and we both started to run towards the hanger where we all meet. The sight of every standing in line looked frightening, especially when they aren't talking and just standing there like a stone wall. We rushed up, looking worse as can be and went in the line, then the general began to speak.
"Can you two explain why you are late?" He had a straight face when he said it. I was honestly scared on what was going to happen next. I couldn't get the words out of my mouth and just gave a reason.
"We spelt in and didn't wake up on time. I'm sorry, sir." Responding sounding confident.
"Do you know what we do to those who are late?" Walking around the group and saying with a stern face. His voice began to rise, "Do you know what we do to those who are late?"
Shaking our heads, we recoiled when his voice rose. We tried to stand still but he looked scary.
"Get down and fifty right now!" Now his voice was louder than before. We both fell to the hardened stone ground and did the exercise. We struggled to keep going, barely finishing fifth-teen. I could feel the stares of the rest of the group; I can hear the giggling of the group of boys from before. Sneaking a peek at Lena, I saw that she was on the ground, panting and trying to pick herself up but continuing to fall. I kept trucking on until I finally finished fifty push-ups. Standing back up in the position, trying to get as much oxygen in my body as I can. I stared at Lena trying to finish the push-ups. Seeing as she can't continue, I spoke up.
"Hey, give her a break. She clearly can't continue on."
"Excuse me." He looked at much with a disgusted look.
"She can't continue."
"Say that again and you will receive a consequence I for sure know you don't like." Getting closer to me, looking on me.
"She can't continue." This time I knew I messed up.
"Charles, come and take over. This one doesn't want to listen." The anger in his face made him seem like a monster.
I was grabbed by the collar and pulled into the mess hall. He shoved me on a chair and began to talk and point at me. "Do you want to continue in this academy? If you do, you better shape up and get your attitude together, because this crap doesn't run around here. Got it?"
"Yes sir." His voice reeked of the smell of cigarettes. We proceeded to go back to the line when I see a ruckus happening. Charles was trying to calm everyone down. The group was standing around in a circle, laughing and pointing.
"What is going on?" He let go of me and started to walk faster towards it. I quickly follow after to see Lena on the ground still trying to complete the fifty pushups but being held back by one of the kids putting his foot on her back. "I leave you for a minute and there already doing this." He gestured to what was going on.
"Okay, stop it.!" His voice was as high as before. He went up to the kid who put his foot on her, "Touch her again and you WILL be sorry." He got up close the kid then backed away. He left a smirk on his face, I feel like he didn't care as much as he wanted to. He walked to Lena and said, "Alright you can get up now. At least you didn't give up. I like that in a pilot. Determination, you didn't finish but you tried. Everyone better be taking notes from this young girl right here. Next time it might be you. Alright let's get on with the first exercise." We started walking to another hanger, when I caught up to Lena.
"Hey you alright bud?" I tried to get her to look at me but she looked at the ground, panting.
"Yeah, I ok. Fifty push-ups is a lot though. We better not be late again." We started walking towards the building where everyone was headed when we felt like we were being followed. I turned around to see the group of boys behind us.
"Hey, looks like we got a little fighter." He looked at Lena in a foolish way. "I mean next time don't be late."
"Please leave us alone."
"What? I didn't hear you, say it a little louder." Trying not to get the general's I just ignored him, hearing him joking with his group. By then, we got to the room.
"Since you most of you probably don't know how to fly a plane. We are going to watch a short film on flying." He shut off the lights and turned the film on.
It was basically what you would expect. A famous pilot flying his own plane with shots from another plane, explaining the basics of a plane. I already that Lena knows this stuff but when I looked over at her, she was engrossed in the film.
"Hey, don't you know this stuff already." I tried to get her attention but she wouldn't budge. I guess she really didn't like planes. After it was over, she leaned over at me.
"Hey wasn't that cool?" She acted like she just figured what planes were.
"It was, but don't you know all about planes though?"
"Yeah, but its planes. Kind of hard to not be amazed." She had sarcastic tone to her voice.
"Ok everyone, silent down. Now you are going to be put in a group and given a set of cards. You are going to put in on the cards in where you think they should be. After you've done that. List what you think you have to do to get ready for a launch."
Charles, from before, walked around and gave everyone a card. Everyone eagerly looked at their cards to see who they would be paired up with.
"Hey what card did you get?"
"I got an ace of hearts." She said cheerfully
"Oh I got a seven of diamonds."
"Oh well, good luck." We all looked over to see who we were with. I was with two others and Felicia.
"Oh, look who it is." She looked at me in a different way.
"Uh, yup, it's me."
"Alright how are we going to do this?" The kid said with a nervous voice. He had glasses on and looked of Asian descent. I guess he didn't really want to be here. The other one was another boy but looked to be a part of the other guys group.
"Hey, aren't you apart of his group?" I looked and indicated the guy. He nodded but he seemed different. It looked like he didn't really like him, but forced to join him.
I feel like the project went well. We put the cards in where we thought was right. We got a third of the answers right.
"Hey, good job Sean." She looked at me like with a charming look. She walked away, I shook my head, trying to figure out what just happened. I walked over to Lena and she was laughing, enjoying her group I snuck up behind her.
"Hey, how did you do?"
"Didn't do too badly. Got half of the answers right." We continued to sit back in our seats and listen to the general speak about history and a little more into the first steps into flying. I might not like him as much but I feel like he would be a very good teacher at school teaching history. He had such an intriguing voice. The hours went by in a breeze. The bell rang indicated that it was lunch time.
Most of the kids rushed to the mess hall to see what was for lunch. We got our lunch and sat down in our usual spots but had an unexpected visitor at our table. It was Felicia.
"Hey baby." I didn't think she would say that. We both gave here weird looks.
"Hello." I didn't know how to respond.
"You like this place?"
"Uh its fine. It's just you some friends to be with or this would be boring." I looked towards Lena who just smiled back.
"True, true. So what make you get into this flying and planes?"
"Well I didn't really think about planes until the general came to our school and said 'who likes planes' and Lena here made me join here and I'm not really regretting it." We continued to talk until the lunch period ended. I didn't think I would like her but she knew how to continue a conversation. I couldn't hear what Lena was saying, no matter how loud she was. I was in the middle of talking when I look over to see Lena getting a little ticked. She threw her fork down at her plate and proceeded to throw her food away.
"What's wrong with her?" She asked with a "confused" look.
"I'm not sure." I turned to Lena who was looking out the window, pretending to not notice what we said.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Yeah." When she responded, she looked out the window trying to hide her anger. By then, the bell rang and classes resumed. I still sat by Lena but her cheery mood was gone. She slumped back in her chair and crossed her arms. She had a pissed look on her face and proceeded not talk to me the rest of the day. Every change I had I tried to talk to Lena but she wouldn't budge. That night was also silent. We hadn't spoken a word since lunch but I hope that changed sooner or later. I poked at Lena trying to get her attention, finally I got it.
"What?" Her voice was low and in a rude tone. Clearly she did not want to be bothered, but as the good friend I am I had to see if she was okay.
"You okay? You know I'm sorry but for whatever I did, I am extremely sorry." I looked at her but she continued to have her back to me.
"Okay." The rest of the night was silent and I found it harder to sleep than usual. The feeling of Lena and I not being as good as friends as before is heartbreaking. The next morning was silent. The whole day was silent, Lena and I didn't speak a word. Even at lunch, we didn't sit by each other. Lena decided to sit at another table across from Felicia and I. We talked on and on for a week. The same thing happened. No talking, just silent expressions given off by Lena and I.
After a week though, the silence was finally broken when Lena and I were put together in a group to go around to one of the planes to take notes on its features than give a report on the plane. We actually talked in a week, about the longest that we hadn't talked. After we got put together in the group we were back to being the bestest of friends. We started sitting by each other at lunch. Felicia started drifting away too. She went back to her old friends and started talking to them more than me. Although it was pretty odd that she talked to me out of all people. My assumption was that she tried to get me and Lena to not become that good of friends. It worked but only for a week and I'm glad that's over. At night we started doing something else different. Apparently Lena found out how to get into the hanger during the night, so she got up at midnight to go check out the planes. I found this out because one night I looked over to her bed to see that she wasn't in her bed. I just shoved it away thinking that she may be in the bathroom or something until one day this was frequent. So being the curious person I am, I pulled the sheets off and tip-toed trying not to wake anyone. Until I got out of the bunk room, I wondering for a good twenty minutes looking for Lena until I found a door that was left opened. It seemed unusual that they would leave doors open so I walked up to the door. I peaked in and looked around. It was really dark in the hanger. I could barely see, only having the light of the night to guide me. I searched around moving boxes and other junk aside when I turned to see a figure, running around a plane. I thought to myself "Who else could it be?" I was pretty sure it was Lena but I was cautious about just going up the person and say "what you doing?" I sneaked up to the person but hid behind another box to see it was Lena running around. I looked at her to see only a white shirt and a pair of polka-dotted panties on.
"Lena, what are you doing and where are your pants?" I stared at her with a weird look.
"Just checking out these planes." Saying as she climbed the ladder. She proceeded to look inside the cockpit. "Man, imagine flying one of these things."
"I mean we will later, but for now we have to get to bed." I tried to pull her off the ladder, but she resisted.
"No stop, stop it. Let go of me." She actually tried to kick me but I managed to dodge it. We were trying to keep quiet when I heard footsteps behind us.
"Well what do we have here?" We both turned around to see the general with his hands on his hips looked at us with a funny look. "It's funny because weren't you two the kids that got in trouble earlier?"
We both looked at each other with nervous looks. We knew what we were in trouble. Then we heard a laughing. We turned to see the general actually laughing at us. "Man, you two just crack me up. Young girl, you really like planes huh?"
"I wasn't lying to you." She said confidently. It seemed to be that Lena was mimicking him. She also had her hands on her hips.
"Hmm, I'll take that into consideration and what are your guy's names, surprised I didn't ask that."
"Lena"
"Sean"
"Alright then and why aren't you wearing pants Lena."
Lena chuckled a little, "I don't know. I guess it feels comfortable to me."
"Okay, put some pants back on and go to sleep." We did as he said and passed out as soon as we got into our beds. Maybe this won't be so bad after all.
After a few weeks of hearing preaching, watching films, and taking tests, we were finally ready to get on to the good stuff, the actual planes. The day we lined up was the day I knew that we were going to get in or look around the planes.
"Alright everyone silent down! Silent down! Today, as many of you guys will know, is the day we take a look at the planes. You will be going in the planes and seeing what everything looks like." The general walked from side to side observing us. Lena and I were standing tall and proud. The general looked at the both of us and giggled a little.
"As before, we are going to split in groups again but this time you can choose your partner. Have at it."
I loved when we got to choose our partners. I hated when the teacher picked our partner for us. Sometimes I would get with someone that I didn't really enjoy. Obviously everyone picked who they would talk to everyday. Lena and I immediately put our arms around each other. I guess symbolizing that we were together.
"But here's the catch. You will have a quiz at the end. So study the controls hard. Three. Two. One. Go!"
Everyone rushed to one of the planes in the hangers. Lena and I ran to the one that was right next to us. This plane happened to be in maintenance for something. There were no other planes so we had to stick with it. I guess this plane was chosen for some experiment. I read the sign hanged on the wing and it said "In Progress: Boosting." That seemed a little odd. They started working on this now? It seemed really ahead of its time but whatever, I mean a teleporting plane would be cool.
"This is so exciting! I actually get to sit in the cockpit of a real-life plane!"
"Alright Lena, calm down, we need to pass this quiz, so let's memorize the controls first before we-"
"Done."
"What?"
"I got the controls down."
"Already? Man how did you memorize it that fast?"
"I told you. I love planes. I don't just like it because I like it. I research them to you know."
"Yeah but-man, you sure."
"One-hundred percent sure."
Sure enough when the quiz came around we aced it. The crew was surprised to see us ace it. We were the first ones to ever not miss one. They started to think we were cheating but we assured them that we weren't
"I really underestimated you but good job you two." Hey came in for a hug and we said might as well and went in. Everyone else got either fifty-percent or three-fourths of the answers right. We were proud. I was proud to have Lena as a friend. Ever since the school incident we really bonded with each other. I was nervous to say this but I had to say it.
"Lena?"
"Yeah?"
"I love you…" My face got red as an apple. I never really thought I would say that to a girl at this age.
"Aw, that's so cute. I love you too, Sean."
We both went in for a hug, no matter how everyone else laughed at us, we didn't care. We had each other. We would always have each other.
"Aw, look at these two love birds." The group leader said.
"I don't care what you say Derrick, at least Sean has a girl. Who do you have?"
"How do you know my name?"
"A little someone told me." She looked over at Felicia who did a slight wave. Lena waved back. It's nice to see that two enemies got to be friends. I didn't know that they got to be friends that quickly.
Derrick and his gang just left, shaking his head.
The next year or two was still just learning the controls of the plane, eating, talking, and sleeping. It was really boring because the first few months I already got the controls down like most. But the general wanted us to go over it for a while so when it comes to moments in pressure we would automatically go to our instincts, which made sense. Then we actually got to fly. Well not really of us. You see the plane we choose for the quiz was the plane that we had to fly. Remember how we got the experimental one, yeah we couldn't fly it, which was really disappointing to us until one day one of the leaders of the group of the experiment came out to talk to us.
"Hello, are you two the kids with the experimental plane?"
I turned to Lena for confirmation and responded, "Yeah."
"Now, we are terribly sorry that we had to use your plane for the experiment, but we choose this plane a long time ago. Once again, I am truly sorry."
"It's fine, when are we going to fly it though?"
"I'm not sure, maybe soon though, we are actually very close to finishing it. Please, come with me."
We decided to follow him to another small room. The room was very dusty and muggy in there. A bunch of water bottles were scattered throughout the room. Papers spread throughout the whole floor. We looked at the man to see him, writing down something furiously. There was a blueprint pinned on the wall, it was the plane we had and had a contraption inside it.
"Hey, what's that thing inside it?" Lena said.
"That is a button that makes the ship move faster. You see at this academy we like to think that speed is key right? So we decided to put some boosters in the back and when you're in a jam or needed to just go fast just press it and away you go. This will actually go so fast you might be able to teleport. That we are unsure of, but are you willing to test are theory?"
"Absolutely." I tried to stop Lena from answering but it was too late.
"May we have a minute?" I was holding Lena's arm before she said anything else.
"Sure, take your time."
"May I remind you that this could mean life or death for us?" I dragged Lena to a corner.
"Yeah, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, we have to take risks sooner or later." Lena said.
I nodded, assured that this will go well.
"Alright, I think we are ready to go."
"Coolio! Go grab your gear and get ready. It's about to get fast." His eyes got bigger like a mad scientist, but he looked smart so we trusted him.
While everyone else was flying in formation and being guided by a leader in the academy we just had just gotten our gear on. Our goggles, gloves, and other accessories that we had to put on.
"Alright you two ready to go?" The general fixed my goggles and patted me on the back.
"Yeah. Ready as I'll ever be." I was really nervous but I was excited. I was going to be a part of the experimental plane. We were actually going to test a plane if it worked or not, which was scary but I think it would be alright.
By the time we got to the plane, everyone came back from flying. It was the first time flying for them so I expected them to have a short flight, but for us, I guess we had to have a longer flight so they can get an idea if they should improve the plane or not. Everyone saw that we had gotten ready to board.
"Hey, why are they just getting in?"
"Because they are going to test the new plane out. Apparently that plane has a booster to make them go faster. They, I guess, got chosen to test it out. I guess everyone, let's watch them take off."
We got in the plane and sat in the seats. They seats were not as comfortable but that really didn't matter. We sat there for the longest time, while the crew who made this thing looked around the plane making sure that everything was ok before we did plane check like in the cockpit and wings and stuff.
"Alright, close the cockpit." We heard a man talking to us through the headset.
"Alright closing." Lena looked up as the cockpit slowly closed us in. It started to get a little warm inside but it would be fine.
"Check wings."
"I got that." I turned side to side looking at the wings making sure that nothing was stuck and the flaps moved slowly.
"Check weapons."
"Got it." We need weapons? I guess we might get ambushed, so this is a good idea. This barrel started to rotate and the missile were on the wings.
"Alright get ready, goggles on, gloves attached on tight, everything spick and span?"
"Yep."
"Yeah." That was an unsure yes but I had hope.
"Alright, have fun up there. Remember that the objective of this flight is to test the plane out. Nothing else got it?
"Got you, loud and clear." Lena was looking at the buttons, making sure that she knew what they did.
"Alright, move her slightly. We need you to get to the runway."
We did just that, the plane was moving out of the hanger. The sun was beaming down today and made this plane shine. Once we got to the runway, we had a moment of silence. Clearing out minds of everything and got ready to go.
"I hope they don't get into any trouble up there." Felicia said biting her nails.
"Yeah. I hope." The general just looked at the beauty of the ship.
"Alright Lena. Let it rip."
At that, the engines roared and we were off. We gained speed and soon the ship was off the ground. This is everything that I think Lena hoped for. This was going to be pretty fun.
"Alright, for now, get used to the controls a bit but, soon we are going to test it out."
"Gotcha."
In about ten minutes or so, we got the controls down. We did everything so efficiently and smoothly. Soon we got the call to press the button. The moment we pressed the button, the jet went lighting fast, it would on stop after a five seconds.
"Whoa!" Two seconds later. "My tummy hurts." I looked at Lena and she was holding her stomach.
"Okay, one flaw, a little too fast for us. Your stomach will turn if you aren't used to fast-paced things already."
"Okay, got that down. Next, what I want you to do is-"
"We're under attack!"
"What? By who."
"Uh." She was frantically looking around in the sky looking for the enemy. "Looks like two jets."
"Crap, they found us. I hope you know how to use that thing, because it's going to take some time to get the other planes ready." Then the microphone on his end cut out.
"Uh, Sean, do you have good aim?"
"Somewhat."
"Well, now's your chance to shine."
They two jets were not slow either. They were faster than us, even when we used the booster.
"Lena, they're on our tail."
"What do you want me to do?"
"I have an idea. Fly in a straight line and just stop."
"Are you crazy?"
"Yes. Just trust me. I got this."
"Alright." Then in an instant, the plane stopped and the two jets couldn't slow down enough to try shoot at us and just passed by.
"Go now!"
Lena pushed on it. We were soon right behind them, on their tail. I pressed on the trigger and shot the behind of the jet and it went down fast. But there was still one left. He also stopped and we passed right by us.
"Crap! How are we going to get out of this? He has missiles too." Lena was worried. So was I but I didn't want to freeze up, I tried to stay calm.
"Just use the boost. We need to get out of here."
"Pressing!" Lena slammed the button but before she couldn't the enemy jet shot at us.
"Sean!" I tried to respond but I felt a stabbing feeling, but before I could look at what happened my vision went white.
Again, thank you all so much for reading this chapter. I tried to make this one longer than the rest. My goal for this one was to get about 5,000 words on this. Hope to see you in the next chapter.
-Twix