𝐮𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐢𝐫 | 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐲 "𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫" 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐰 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞

3: first day

the next morning i found myself engulfed in my sheets and the balcony door open letting in the fresh sea air. i smiled as the night before came rushing back to me. bradley had dropped me off a few houses down with his headlights turned off and we spent 15 minutes trying to say goodbye. it didn't matter how old we got, we would always still be like those 17 year old kids we were back then.

i got out of bed and got ready for the day. it was the first day of teaching or rather facilitating at top gun. i drove up with my dad that morning but he was practically asleep the entire ride there. we parked and got out, gathering all of our stuff.

"bet you didn't think you'd be wearing that again," maverick smiled, referring to my flight jacket.

"never imagined i'd be wearing it again," i smiled. "but i always thought if i did, i'd be showing it off to my kids."

he smiled. we both knew that after mom had died i hadn't loved flying the same way ever again. since she died in an aviation accident, i couldn't bring myself to not have a deep fear of flying and my father couldn't bear to see me fly but wouldn't dream of stopping me if it's what i really wanted. that was something i hadn't quite divulged with rooster last night, assuming we didn't have much time to talk with all the kissing we'd been doing. so he assumed i was still the fearless, rambunctious mitchell girl he'd known all that time ago.

maverick and i parted ways when i opened the door to an office with my name on it. the office was beautiful, nothing like i would have ever guessed. i smiled when i found a list of names on my desk. the students of this year's top gun summer crash course class. the names of women pilots were highlighted in pink. out of the 20 students, 7 were women.
it was a vast improvement from years prior when i had been the only female in my class.

when i'd been at top gun, i'd been sexualized, picked on, inappropriate spoken to, touched, and treated. once rooster and i had started officially getting together, it all stopped. one day when i'd come back from a late flight practice, i was heading to shower in the women's locker room. a guy with the call sign idaho had caught me off guard and pinned me against the tile wall in the hallway.

i screamed and he covered my mouth with his promptly. little had he known i'd been out late at flight practice with rooster. rooster clobbered him so badly he passed out right there on the floor. that was the first moment that we looked at one another and i realized i loved him past just hooking up and he did too.

a week later, we were dating.

i examined the names and looked at each file, smiling as i did. the young women of top gun were determined, optimistic, and full of banter and yet kindness to match. i walked into the first class that morning, which happened to be rooster's class: the importance of a team. i walked in and saw the 20 students sitting scattered across the hanger, which was serving as a classroom.

"good morning, lieutenant mitchell," rooster smiled when he saw me enter.

"good morning, lieutenant bradshaw," i replied with a smile.

"students, this is lieutenant (y/n) "jewel" mitchell, the daughter of lieutenant pete "maverick" mitchell. you are to call her lieutenant mitchell." rooster explained.

"i'm here to take roll for the women," i said.

"go ahead," rooster said.

"amanda smith, call sign 'muskey'," i called out.

"present," a pale woman with long blonde hair raised her hand.

"olivia o'brien, call sign 'lynx',"

"present," a woman with auburn hair down to her shoulders raised her hand.