Ready to Fly

School Daze

Chase walked to the end of his street, and waited for his bus at the bus stop. A few other kids were already there - Abby, a nerdy sixth-grader named Peter, and his best friend Andrew, unfortunately in the other fifth-grade class this year.

"Hey Chase! What's up?" Asked Andrew.

"Not much, my parents have been fighting a lot."

"I thought they got all that sorted out, will you have to go to those counseling sessions again?"

"I'm not sure, maybe if it continues..." Chase trailed off.

"Well, I hope you're doing alright. We should hang out this weekend!" Andrew beamed.

"Yeah, I think so. Oh the bus is here!"

The boys climbed onto the bus and took their seats.

Once Chase got to school he walked into his classroom and sat down, ignoring all the other kids laughing and talking around him.

Their teacher, Mrs. Ryan called the class to attention.

"Okay class! April is a special month here at Aspenridge Elementary! This is the month where we celebrate..."

Chase didn't really care about whatever Mrs. Ryan was talking about. Instead he stared out the window looking at the park across the street. He saw a squirrel wandering around lonely, and it reminded him of the creature he saw the night before."

"So we're going to get out our notebooks..."

Chase barely heard what Mrs. Ryan said. He began thinking about the strange land of Xenaria.

All of a sudden, he found himself transported back to the creature roaming the meadow. The creature was bird-like, with large, strong, wings. It was tall, majestic, and green; it roamed the land confidently, and with purpose.

The bird was called an Esah, and Chase realized that it was searching for its eggs. He yearned to find out more about the bird, but Mrs. Ryan interrupted him

"Chase, you haven't even started the assignment yet. That's unlike you, you always do all of your work. Is something going on?"

"Sorry Mrs. Ryan, I got distracted. What are we doing again?" Chase responded.

Mrs. Ryan explained the assignment and Chase forgot all about the bird.