Fly High and Go Far

PHOENIX-Chapter Five: W.I.T.C.H. by Devon Cole

Sam sat behind Hangman the next day, her right leg over her left that was planted on the ground. She bounced her right foot, sitting there thinking about meaningless things. Phoenix came in and patted her friend on the shoulder.
"Morning, Kazansky,"she said with a big smile, holding out a smoothie. "I brought you something."
"Thanks, Trace," Sam replied taking the smoothie from Trace's hand. "Is this payment for breakfast from yesterday?"
"I don't want to be indebted to you, Sam," Phoenix chuckled, and headed to her seat with a smoothie in her other hand.
"After all we've been through?" Sam joked back.
"I'll take your smoothie if you don't want it," Rooster walked past Sam, ruffling her hair.
"Shut it, Bradshaw. You are not getting this," Sam said defensively, sipping her smoothie aggressively. "Did you add protein powder to this?" She smacked her lips trying to put her finger on the flavor.
"Yeah, vanilla protein powder, you dummy," Phoenix replied laughing. "That's how you like it."

Sam eventually finished her smoothie and prepared for class to start. Maverick eventually walked in and greeted the class. He stood at the front of the class pointing at a landscape on the screen. He explained their trajectory and their goals. Sam sat there, brow furrowed, and confused as to how that was even possible. Her classmates mirrored her confusion, looking at the sheer amount of mileage they had to cover in such a short amount of time. The class bantered back and forth with Maverick, scared that this was way bigger than they could handle. Sam agreed, doing quick math in her head.
"Sir," Sam raised her hand a bit. "We'll have to be going at least 550 miles per hour in order to get there in time. 20 miles? In two and a half minutes? With tight turns? This is nearly impossible. We'll hit some serious G's, sir." Sam piped up. Maverick pointed at her.
"Exactly. You've all flown at high speeds. All of you went to Top Gun. This is about your reaction time. Your plane can handle this. Can you?" He asked, staring at Sam. She breathed deeply, staying silent.
Sam got lost in her thoughts on how they were even going to be able to flip a quick turn at high speeds. If they slowed down, they wouldn't even be able to make up lost time. No, it wasn't impossible, this was just extremely stupid and dangerous. But the other option was to fly above the Hornets didn't have the capabilities to take down that many SAMs or even enemy aircraft. She sat there, recalling all of her flight ops. She had flown at fifty feet above the sea level once. She had flown at top speed of 900 miles per hour, above the speed of sound at 770. She's done right turns. But all at once? She started doubting herself instantly the more she thought. But when Hangman decided to take a punch at everyone, bringing up pasts of certain teachers, Sammy was instantly involved.
"Maverick was there when he died—," he got cut off by Rooster launching from his speed faster than a dog with a steak. Sam got up, looking confused and stared at Hangman and then at Rooster. The two of them were at each other's throats, most Rooster at Hangman, but Sam took it upon herself when Hangman said "I'm cool," to just straight up stand in front of him.
"Do you pick fights with people just for the fun of it?" Sam asked. Hangman stared at her, placing his cocky attitude right into his smile.
"I don't know? Do I let my wingman die?" Hangman jabbed at Sam. Her heart sunk and her brow furrowed. "Oh yeah. I know about Grenade. Don't you worry." Sammy had no response but a straight punch to his jaw. She felt hands grab her after the sound of bone crunching. On her left was Phoenix and the right was Bob. Maverick placed himself between the two of them as Hangman started to wind up for a punch back.
Sam panted and ripped her arms from the grips of Bob and Phoenix, pointing at Hangman.
"I'll make sure you're out of this program," Sam angrily spoke, clenching her jaw. Hangman held his cheek, rubbing it, staring angrily.
"Yeah? What are you going to do about it?" He asked. Good, his jaw isn't broken. Sam stared at him, still panting from her adrenaline rush. She felt a pat on her shoulder that pulled her back eventually. Maverick stood there, staring at everyone before looking at Sam.
"Everyone can go. Kazansky, you stay," he said, at a loss for words. Sam looked at Phoenix and smiled sorrowfully at her before everyone began to leave.