Love Soars

Chapter 2

Victoria’s POV

While Flora headed to her first class in the greenhouse, which was a building a short walk away from the main school building, I headed to my first class, called “Flight in Weather.” I couldn’t help but wonder why all my classes sounded so unappealing. The class was only for a semester, but still, how many types of weather could we possibly talk about?

When I got to class, I sat down in a desk towards the front of the class. In previous years, I had to learn the hard way that there were some tall people who could fly. I had to make sure I sat somewhere close to the front so I wouldn’t get stuck behind them. That had happened to me on a few occasions during freshman year. Not only could I not see the board or the teacher, usually, the teacher could not see me. One class period early first semester of freshman year, I was marked absent because the teacher could not see me behind a taller male student.

I had had the Flight in Weather teacher during in freshman year. He was a kind man, probably in his late-40s. His hair was graying, but his face was always kind. Many students took advantage of his kindness, but I was never one of them. He walked in with a bright cheery smile on his face and set his bag down on the desk in the front of the room. He leaned against the front of the desk, observing the students pouring into class.

Once everyone had taken their seats and the bell rang, he stood up straight and, while still smiling, addressed the class.

“Hello flyers! Welcome to junior year. As you may already know, this class is called Flight in Weather. Who thinks that this class is going to be boring?”

We all sat silently, staring up at him. No one else was going to own up to their opinions, so I silently raised my hand, receiving stares and incredulous looks from many other students in the class.

“Ah, Victoria, thank you for being honest. Indeed, if I were in your position and I saw the name of this class, I would be groaning aloud. But let me assure you, I will do all I can to make sure that this class is not boring, even though the topic doesn’t seem to lead to that conclusion. Alright, let’s get started.”

He pulled out some chalk from his bag and headed to the chalkboard at the front of the room. He wrote down his name, Mr. Williams, in big letters, and then turned around to face us again.

“Alright, let’s make a complete list of all the types of weather. Just shout out types of weather and I’ll write them down.”

When no one said anything in response, he sighed loudly and said, “Alright, you all are juniors. I had you all freshmen year. You’re definitely not the shy students I once had, and I know that for a fact. I see you interact with your peers, and none of you are ever this quiet. I’m simply asking for types of weather. That’s hardly a demanding task.”

I shouted out the first type of weather I could think of. “Rain!”

He nodded in my direction and wrote down “Rain” on the board. “Very good Victoria. Alright, give me some more, students.”

We spent the rest of the class period coming up with any possible type of weather we could come up with, and by the time the bell had rang, we had a list that took up every inch of the chalkboard. It covered all sorts of conditions in which we may have to fly in, and Mr. Williams had a big smile on his face.

“Very good students. I’m going to type up this list, and we’ll discuss a couple things in depth tomorrow. See you all then!”

We all poured out of the classroom, and as I made a move to exit the classroom, Mr. Williams called me back. I walked over to him and his smile widened the closer I got.