Flying Solo {Completed}

Chapter 26: 1:10 P.M. Enrichment

        Wendy stared out the window, looking past the field to the patch of woods beyond. She had heard that deer lived in those woods and she liked this ides because deer were her favorite animals. A deer knew how to make itself invisible by using camouflage and silence. Deer made no bark, no whinny, no growl, no sound. They were mute. 

          Or were they? Wendy wondered if silence might be something that deer chose. Maybe they had everybody fooled. Maybe they had invented their own secret language to communicate when nobody was around. 

           A few large raindrops splattered against the windows. For a minute she sat watching the rain. She guessed that it would be hard to fly a plane in the rain, especially a small plane. (Did planes have windshield wipers, like cars? She should know that, but she sadly didn't)

           And landing in a rainstorm would be a lot trickier. That rain would cut down visibility. 

           Wendy looked past Stan Marsh's face to the window where droplets were bouncing off the glass. The rain was starting to fall harder now. She thought of the silent deer getting wet in that patch of woods.

          Jason jumped up close to the windows. "Hey, we've got to go to enrichment" Heidi announced. 

           "Thank you, five points below genius" Token rolled his eyes. 

          "Shut up to troglodyte" Red shot back. 

          "What's that?" Token asked her. 

          "Look it up" Red told him smugly, sticking out her bottom lip. 

           "Look it up" Token mimicked, mocking her and waving his hands in the air, causing a couple of the other students to giggle. 

          Enrichment was the program for gifted students. Early in the school year Wendy had gone to enrichment too. But when she stopped speaking, Mr. Mackey dropped her from the program. 

           "I don't want to go to enrichment" Heidi groaned. 

          "I must go to enrichment" Clyde said "I must feed my brain! I'm gifted!"

           "Shush" Kyle growled. She looked at Heidi. "You know, I really don't feel like going, either" Kyle sighed. 

          "But we have to" Heidi replied "Mr. Mackey will have to come after us if we don't"

          "We're getting all the enrichment you can ask for right here" Kyle snickered "Let's skip it today"

          "Skip it?" Clyde asked, raising a curious eyebrow "How are you gonna manage that?"

          "Just watch" Kyle announced, going to the phone behind Mr. Garrison's desk. She picked it up and dialed a number. 

          "Order me a pizza while you're at it" Kevin suggested, smirking and propping his feet up against his desk. 

          "Mr. Mackey?" Kyle asked, speaking into the phone, turning towards the class "Hi, this is Kyle Broflovski in Mr. Garrison's eighth grade class. We were wondering if we could maybe miss enrichment today... Yes sir... We're going a project here in Mr. Garrison's class... Sort of an independent study"

          Jenny Simon giggled at that. 

          "No, sir, Mr. Garrison is absent today" Kyle said again. Pause. "Yes, sir" another pause. Kyle smiled, flashing a thumbs up to the class and winking, "Okay, I'll tell them, Thanks, Mr. Mackey"

          He hung up the phone and stuck it back on the receiver. 

           "That was a close class" he said grinning widely "For a second I thought he wanted to talk to our sub. Anyway, it's all set. We're staying right here"

          "Amen" Lola winked. 

          Then the entire class cracked up. 

          "Shhh!" Lola said, but she was laughing too, bent over, screaming in laughter. 

            She opened her eyes wide and, still laughing, pointed to Wendy Testaburger. The whole class looked and saw what Lola had seen: a small smile on Wendy's face.