Lovesick Witches

A Dreadful Flying Lesson

It was the following morning and I had flying class with Miss Drill. Miss Drill was the sports teacher at Cackle's, but she also taught the odd flying lesson. As you could imagine, from that very stressful journey my mind was on whilst trying to sleep the previous night, I was feeling pretty tired. That was two nights in a row of getting the bare minimum amount of sleep.

It was a surprisingly sunny day as we prepped our broomsticks, ready for flying. It was a lot warmer too. I felt a sort of pleasant tingling sensation from the beams of sunlight as I looked up to observe the lack of the usual grey clouds. 

I'd had the same broomstick since my first year at Pentangle's. It was quite plain and considerably boring, but I liked it. As I picked it up from the ground, a saw the shadow of a girl walk towards me. I turned around. 

Ethel Hallow. Great. What did she want to say to me now? I'd only been at Cackle's for a few days but based on what my friend's had told me about Ethel, I had decided I didn't like her. If she hurt my friends, she hurt me. And besides, she was so unnecessarily rude. 

"Ana," she said. "Miss Drill wants to see you." 

Oh. So she wasn't here to be rude to me. Maybe I was slightly presumptuous. So, I left my broomstick and headed over to Miss Drill, who was standing at the far end of the field. 

"Well met, Ana," she said to me, bowing her head. 

"Well met, Miss Drill," I replied, doing the same. 

Miss Drill was quite short, with dark hair. She seemed to be a kind and pleasant looking sort of person. Quite a contrast from the strict nature of Miss Hardbroom. Thinking about Miss Hardbroom suddenly made my stomach clench, giving me a feeling of butterflies, so I returned my focus to Miss Drill, standing in front of me.

"I hope your first few days here have gone well. Welcome to flying class. I'm sure you have done lots of flying at Pentangle's already, but if you are unsure of anything or something is new to you, feel free to ask for help." 

"Thank you, Miss Drill," I said with a smile. 

I headed back over to where I had left my broom. Although, I was almost certain that I had placed it standing upwards against the fence before running off to Miss Drill. Now, it was lying on its side, on the ground. Oh well, someone probably just knocked it over by accident. 

I picked it up and walked back over to the spot on the field in which the other students were lining up with Miss Drill. 

We all got on our broomsticks and began to fly. Miss Drill instructed us to complete a lap around the outside of the school for a warm-up. So, we did so. 

I passed Maud and Enid near the east wing of the school, so we decided to fly together, chatting happily as we completed the warm-up. As we landed, Mildred came over to us and joined in our conversations. 

Miss Drill then instructed us to do a figure of eight pattern around the turrets of the school. 

"Ethel, you shall lead," she said. "Girls, follow Ethel. Fly carefully, always look ahead of you and stay in single file. This should test your technique, co-ordination and concentration. Go." 

We hopped back on our broomsticks and the class lined up in a single file line, Ethel at the front. I went behind Felicity, Enid behind me. I'd done this many times at Pentangle's, so although the route was different, I felt confident in what I was doing.

We flew quite high but went at a comfortable speed. It was pretty fun, actually. It was warm, but breezy, and the fresh air felt nice on my skin. Woke me up a bit.