Angel Wings

Chapter 1

The wind whistled outside of the classroom window and sent a flurry of leaves scampering across the flagstones outside. They spun in a small circle like a troupe of ballerinas and a split second later lay lifeless as a breeze blew them along the rest of their journey. Each leaf was a richly saturated shade of red, yellow or green and added a vibrant feel to the walkway; which was already covered in a carpet.

Izzy watched them through the window and imagined that they were fairies – caught up in a mystical, equinox dance. The smaller leaves could easily be the skirts and the helicopter seeds that were hidden beneath them looked almost wing-like.

"You coming?" A voice asked.

Izzy jolted out of her daydream and turned around to face the speaker. He looked back at her with a lopsided grin.

She frowned, "What to?"

Her mind was blank.

"Did you forget?"

She shrugged.

"Damn. The party you idiot."

"Party." Izzy jogged her mind. "Oh! Tyler's?"

"You really forgot about it?"

"I guess."

The wind outside blew again and created a low humming through the vents. Out of the corner of her eye, Izzy could see the strong but cold sunlight that was poking through the grey rainclouds. It would probably start to rain soon.

Her friend sighed and dropped his pen onto the desk dramatically, accidentally knocking a sheet off his desk in the process.

"Idiot." Izzy mumbled, a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Shush." He retorted and stuck his leg under the desk to try and reach it. The heel of his black boot scraped along the floor and produced a loud squeak. Izzy cringed.

From the front of the room the professor turned around and glared.

Some heads of students also turned around to gape.

"Ah, sorry miss. Dropped my sheet." His face flashed with awkwardness.

The professor raised her eyebrows but to his relief everyone turned back around as she began to speak.

"Please keep better control of your personal belongings, Mr Adams." She sighed and turned around to lift a stack of sheets off her desk.

"And on the topic of personal belongings." She continued, "Please can all of you complete these practice questions by our next session together. It's not too much work and I'm sure you'll be ok with them but if not you can always email me using your university email."

"Lord have mercy."

Izzy heard whispered behind her back. She smiled to herself.

☆━━━━━☆...━━━━━☆...━━━━━☆

When they had been formally dismissed and the room was emptying, Izzy bent down and picked up the sheet. The hastily scrawled name "Will" was written on top in large letters.

"Careful." She warned him, "If you died today they could take your worksheet into custody."

"Ha ha." Will mumbled, reaching for it. Izzy handed it over and he shoved it into the top of his bag, zipping it firmly shut.

"I don't know how they'd put French verbs into a funeral but I guess it's worth a shot."

She stared down at the floor and looked at her boots. They moved closer together and she saw her half focused, blurry reflection looking back at her from the shiny black tops.