Violet Hill

Chapter 3: Training

Laura woke up with a smile on her face. That smile quickly turned into a weirded out frown after she noticed that her bed sheets were wet. "Ewww, what is this?" she said out loud while lifting up her sheets. She looked over to the open window on her left to see that it was raining outside, which was rare for Cloudcroft, and some of the rain had gone through the open window and soaked her bed. "Why would it be raining here?

The weather was very gloomy outside, but at least it was not as cold as the day before. It was warm enough for rain, but just barely. When she stuck her arm out the window to feel the raindrops she could feel how cold they were. Since she was a Weather Lady back in Nashville, she could figure out that it was only about three degrees above freezing point. "Why?" she asked. "Why today? Why on my first day of training?"

Just then she received a knock on the door. She opened it to see Angel, who said, "Good morning, new recruit. How do you like the weather outside today?"

"It's a little weird that it is raining in Cloudcroft. I don't even remember it ever raining when I grew up here," Laura replied.

You're going to meet Soar up on the roof to begin your first day of training for shows. You will have to perform in many different climates when you finish training, and that includes even in horrible weather."

"That's pretty cool actually. I feel pretty special, I mean I am here with the real Blue Angels." Laura said with a little bit of cockiness.

Angel said harshly, "Don't get ahead of yourself. The best qualities of a worker in training is their ability to listen, learn, and admit they don't know everything. If you are willing to do that, as well as deal with a little bit of embarrassment from your mistakes, you'll become a fine Blue Angel. Go up to the roof. Soar is waiting for you in this rain. You will train for a little bit and then come downstairs for your first breakfast with us." Angel then left to go finish some other work that she had to do. A good portion of her work was signing posters and pictures for the team's many fans.

Laura went to her dresser to put on her Blue Angels uniform. It slipped on smoothly with a perfect fit. The suit was a natural fit for her, just like the job that came with it, at least she hoped. She put the goggles on her head and ran up the 3 flights of stairs to the rooftop access and into the rain. The rain was bitterly cold, but Laura knew she needed to prepare herself for any kind of weather. When she opened the door she saw two jets that were F25 series on the roof. They both had the classic colors of blue and gold and one of them had Soar painted on the tail fins.

On the roof she could see all of Cloudcroft, including the stadium where she won the Best Young Flyer competition a few years ago; the time she made her first impression to the Blue Angels. Soar was standing there in his suit with his goggles over his head. He was already soaked just from waiting up there for a few minutes. "I'm really sorry if you were waiting long, Soar," Laura said.

Soar replied, "No worries, Laura. We're only going to train in the rain for one day. It's actually very hard to get used to all of the controls so let's go over those." After about 30 minutes Laura knew the controls. Soar then walked over to the edge of the roof and nodded over to Laura to let her know that she was supposed to join him over there. He then described what they were going to do next. "What you need to prepare for is high speeds in horrible weather. Today there is cold rain and heavy winds. Do you see the clock tower over there?" Soar pointed over to the clock tower that was the 3rd tallest tower here, and continued, "We're going to race there and back. However, it won't be in a straight line. You will have to dive all the way down to as close to the ground as possible, and then pull straight up. Then you can continue flying to the tower. You spin around the tower and fly straight back here as fast as you can. You ready?" Laura saluted in agreement.