Wings of Fire As Humans

Three Words, Eight Letters-Starflight

Starflight entered the classroom alongside his friends, glad that they were together this year. Last year, he and Glory had been in 11A, while the other three were in 11B. It was also nice that this year Starflight's dad wouldn't be his form teacher, unlike last year. That hadn't been much fun.

"Sit down, students," Mr. Mangrove, their form teacher said , motioning at the desks which were arranged in pairs. Groups of two were definitely not Starflight's favourite set-up because when your friend group was an odd number of people, twos meant that someone had to sit by themself. And Starflight was that person. For some reason, Glory and Tsunami were sitting together, even though they bickered non-stop, and of course, Sunny and Clay chose to pair off. Starflight definitely understood why Sunny preferred Clay's company over his, and it was impossible to harbour any kind of bitterness towards Clay, but Starflight couldn't help being a little jealous. One day, he thought, one day, I'll do it. I'll tell Sunny that I love her. That I've always loved her. But I have no idea how I'll ever have the courage. Starflight had no idea how some people just seemed to radiate confidence, and seemed to have no problem sharing these big, important feelings. In fact, one such person had just entered the classroom.

"HE WAS A BOY, AND SHE WAS A GIRL, CAN I MAKE IT ANY MORE OBVIOUS!" He was sauntering into class just now, skateboard over his shoulder, grinning out of under his early-2000s-scene-kid fringe that obscured most of his face.

"Ugh," Glory and Tsunami said in unison, as he came over to their table, pointing dramatically.

"HE WANTED HER, SHE'D NEVER TELL, BUUUUUT—finish the line, Glory?" he winked. She rolled her eyes.

"I would have thought that my response was pretty obvious, Deathbringer. Although you probably can't see from under that idiotic fringe." Glory snarked, leading to laughter from the rest of the class.

"You'll come around, my queen," Deathbringer said, "One day...you'll fall for me...just wait and see!"

"One day...you'll fall off your skateboard...and break your nose hopefully!" Tsunami shouted. She did not like Deathbringer.

"He won't break his nose," Glory said, "His nose is protected by a fringe that has been reinforced with half a kilo of hair gel. But I can see why the idea would be appealing." Starflight suspected that Glory actually liked Deathbringer more than she let on, however Glory was never one for being open about her feelings. Deathbringer went to the back of the class, and took his seat. Class was about to start and there were only two seats unfilled—the one next to Starflight, and the one next to Riptide Salter. Starflight considered moving to sit next to Riptide but held back. He knew Riptide alright, as Riptide's father was one of the orphanage coordinators who'd helped raise Starflight and they had a few subjects together. Besides, Starflight would be willing to bet money that Riptide and Tsunami would be dating before the end of the year. But he just wasn't sure that he wanted to just go and sit down beside him—he and Riptide just weren't close enough that Starflight could be sure that it would be fine.

"Hello students," Mr. Mangrove came to the front of the room, "Welcome to your final year of high school. And I'm not going to lie to you—Year Twelve is pretty hellish, but it's just something you'll have to roll with. Now, let me take attendance." Mr. Mangrove was pretty grumpy as a teacher, but he was fair, and at least he was better than Starflight's dad. Suddenly there was a knock on the door, and the secretary, Miss Orchid, popped her head through the door.

"Really sorry to disturb you, Mr. Mangrove, but I have some new students for you," she said. Mr. Mangrove didn't look overly impressed by the idea of new students, but there was a marked change in his expression upon seeing Miss Orchid.

"Well, welcome in," he said as two new kids came in. One was a short girl with huge round glasses and wild curly red hair, and the other was a short, skinny boy who looked like he would rather be literally anywhere else in the world right now.