Falling into Flight

[Nikolai Allen]

Falling into Flight: Ducks, Duels, Best Friends, and Doors

Never Tear Us Apart

I told you
That we could fly
'Cause we all have wings
But some of us don't know why ~ Songwriters: Daniel Denholm - Performed by INXS

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Ducks

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024

Nikolai Aristotle Vevea-Allen woke up to the sound of an alarm. Well, it was the sound of a duck really, it just happened to be what came out of the clock on his nightstand. It had been a birthday gift four years ago, and though he remembered that because it coincided with starting his lessons in swords, he couldn’t remember who had given it to him if his life depended on it. It had been fun when he was younger, the thing started with little quacks, just a duck just moseying along, but it rapidly became a tumult of sound as the duck seemed to grow more and more disturbed. The first time it had woken him up, Niko had jumped a foot off his mattress. That was yesterday, today he managed to keep it down to right around six inches. The alarm had been his idea, there weren’t a lot of people who knew exactly how badly his father had been burned just a few nights before Nikolai’s challenge. He’d sworn that the alarm clock would wake him up, and expressed how, now that he was twelve, he was responsible enough to get up on his own. He pressed down on the middle tail feather on the duck to silence the alarm, and sat up. It was much slower than normal, he was sore and his face hurt. He’d figure the reason out when he went to brush his teeth, that would come after the waffles.

The past year had seen a drastic rise in the amount of frozen waffles in the freezer. If there was anything that could be said which was more true, Nikolai didn’t know what it might be. That is of course unless you commented that the toaster the waffles went into had seen far better days. The cord had been repaired, in three different spots, and there were marks on the reflective metal that spoke of smoke and fire. Toasters could be very fussy appliances now that he considered it. He didn’t mind the waffles, it made it really easy to grab a snack whenever he was hungry, and you didn’t always have to toast them. Sometimes when it was really hot outside, a frozen waffle was just the thing to help you cool off.

Along with the waffles came an assortment of syrups, jellies, jams, sauces, and creams. He had sampled them all, his current favorite was the blueberry syrup. He didn’t use that flavor though, it always turned his teeth blue. That kind of thing was okay if he was staying home, or spending time at his uncle and aunt’s. It was even okay if it was just him and Abby, because she laughed with him, not at him. The kids at school, well mostly Jaime Reyes, took particular delight in finding reasons to laugh at him. Mostly he managed to avoid Jaime, especially this year. The new school was much bigger and had students from all of the other elementary schools. He had more than one classroom too. He felt kind of grown up at needing to travel from room to room.

Nikolai spotted the bruises on his face and neck in the mirror when he went to brush his teeth. He didn’t remember getting hit in the neck. He still had a little mark on his shoulder from where Anubis had gotten him with the point, but no memory at all of being hit on his neck. Maybe it was from when Anubis had picked him up off the floor by his hood? That seemed like it might be possible. He traced the outside edges of the injuries, they were pretty tender. He’d get all the sympathy from the girls today. He took an obligatory shower, one of the things he’d said he would do was shower in the morning, whether he needed it or not. Sometimes the price of being a grown up was hard to deal with. He never really had to worry about what to wear to school. At least the uniform was in his favorite colors of green and gold. He always made sure to keep from doing his tie more than what it took to pull over his head. He didn’t want to wake his dad to help him with the knot. He pulled on the uniform coat, grabbed his backpack from the hook next to the door. A quick self pat-down reminded him that he didn’t have his phone on him. Aunt Tahlia had taken it away from him. She’d found him texting Abby when he was supposed to be sleeping. Abby always made him laugh, that was probably what gave him away. His head spun very reminiscently of an owl’s as he scanned the main room for it. It was near the radish people in the front window. He ran over, unplugged it and shoved the charger deep into his pocket. He picked up his text message that had been interrupted the night before.

Text to The Red Baroness: Because they’re always spotted!

It had been a reply to the question: why can’t leopards hide? It had been his reply to his own question, and while he would say that Abby made him laugh, he seemed to tell a large percentage of the jokes.

[Nikolai Allen]

Duels

The bus stop was one of those places that he couldn’t avoid Jaime. They rode in together, unless he could get a ride from someone. There had been some sleep overs where Maggie had driven them to school. This didn’t win him any points with Jaime, for some reason the kid just hated him. He went out of his way to cut down everything in Nikolai’s life.

“Did’yer dad beat ya up for being a loser, or because he’s one?” Jaime’s question just proved that today wasn’t going to be any different.

It wouldn’t be the first time that they’d gotten into it before the bus came. Although that had been happening far less recently. Niko barely subdued the growl in his chest, wanting nothing more than to make Jaime whistle anytime he said a word containing *S*. He opened his mouth to say something just as hateful back, but the words never made it out of his mouth.

“Dude! I nearly crapped myself when he picked you up last night!” Joel Hirschoff thudded into Niko’s back with one arm. His fingers latched onto Nikolai’s shoulder and directed him away from Jaime. “Jeez he really did a number on your face. I hear that Miss Stuart likes a guy with bruises and scars.”

Nikolai thought it unlikely that his mythology teacher would care at all about them. At least not on his face. There was a shifting of the crowd at the bus stop, the majority of them now following Joe and Nikolai all demanding answers to questions.

“You know she’s engaged, Joel.” That was pretty common knowledge, and all the girls in class had swooned when her fiance had shown up to class. Personally, Nikolai thought he looked boring. Maybe that kind of thing didn’t matter if you were good looking? He certainly never planned to be that boring.

“I’m just saying Nicky, if I looked like you right now. I’d be looking forward to getting treated special.” Joel always said this kind of thing, but he never really explained what treated special meant. Nikolai had a pretty good imagination, and thought it might be nice to be able to have two juice boxes in class instead of one. That was about all the special he thought that Joel would get no matter how bad his face was bruised. There were calls from the group of “the bus is coming.” They shouted it to Nikolai, Joel, and their entourage, as if they couldn’t see for themselves.

“Then again, you’re into redheads these days.” Joel’s punch tagged Niko in the shoulder, just before he took off running toward the bus. It wasn’t the first time Joel had said it and ran. That might be because the first time he hadn’t run, was the first time he picked himself up off the grass with a bewildered look on his face. Today though, Joel had managed to find that spot where the point of a blade had bitten into his skin. Nikolai rubbed the ache out of his shoulder on the way to the bus.

[Nikolai Allen]

Best Friends

Nikolai had declined for the fourth time to engage in the game of Kill the Man with the Ball. It was one of his favorites. He honestly preferred to be the man with the ball and have every boy in his grade chasing him to try and tackle him. He wasn’t the fastest kid on the playground, and if he were going to be honest that honor went to Jaime. What he could do was go up and over things that the other kids would need to go around. It was a regular rule change whenever he put his hand on the ball that there was no using the playground equipment. It made him laugh, but only because he could just about run up a tree. Being treed was usually his endgame. Once he was up there he’d toss the ball back out to the others.

Today was different, he just didn’t feel up to the games. He sat with his back to the fence watching a frisbee get tossed around. Joel hadn’t been too far off, not that Miss Stuart had given him any special attention, unless you counted the way she shook her head when she saw him. There had been a lot of staring at him today. It wasn’t the first time, the same thing had happened after he’d won that tournament for the Talon of Redwin. That time, he’d just acted kind of goofy and grinned inwardly at the way the giggles made him feel inside. He pressed the back of his head against the chain links of the fence, not even caring that it was likely to pull his hair when he got up.

Sliding his phone out of his pocket, he reopened the text messages between himself and Abby. He smiled at her reply of, That was so awful, I had to laugh to keep from crying!

Text to the Red Baroness: I don’t feel so good.

Text to Firebird: Can I help?

The sound of the bell going off forced Nikolai to pocket his phone before he could read the response that he felt vibrate the device against his leg. He heaved a great sigh, pushed his fingers through the holes in the fence and pulled himself to his feet. On odd days lunch was followed by choir, he was kind of grateful for that, because even days was art, and he just didn’t feel up to trying to draw the perfect bowl of anything today. He wasn’t feeling up to singing either, but he could probably fake that and not get caught.

As it turned out, when he arrived at the music room, his voice was only coming in fits and spurts. Mrs. Queensley looked at him for several minutes before putting the inside of her wrist to his forehead and promptly sending him to the nurse’s office before he infected someone else. He walked away from the door as the piano started to play, and Jenny Paloma started to sing the words from Never Tear Us Apart. They’d been practicing this one for a couple of weeks now. He thought along to the song, mentally adding his part in the choir as backup for Jenny. They were going to be singing the song along with the orchestra, it was supposed to be a big production. He figured, as long as he wasn’t in actual class that it would be okay for him to do some more texting. He considered Abby’s question before responding. He’d have sent something funny back if he’d felt up to it. Instead he gave her serious replies.

Text to The Red Baroness: idk. I just don’t feel right. On my way to the nurse now.
Text to The Red Baroness: I wish we were someplace else. It’s a bit too quiet here.

Text to Firebird: Camping is someplace else! Let me know what the nurse says.

Nikolai pushed open the door to Nurse Canmore’s office. She was expecting him, it seemed that Mrs Queensley had called down to let the nurse know he was coming. He wasn’t sure if that meant his teacher didn’t trust him. It seemed a pretty good possibility. Nurse Canmore gave him the same look that all of his teachers had today, but then she also looked into his eyes. After squinting once or twice, she put a thermometer into his ear until it beeped.

“A hundred, I thought so. It’s all in the eyes you know.” The device in her hand was put away. “I’m going to have to call your parents to come in.”

“Please don’t call my dad.” Nikolai’s voice was a hoarse whisper.

“Well, I can call your mum to come get you.” She was looking at her computer screen, likely at his contact information.

“She’s in Greece.” He looked towards the door. “I can tough it out, or if you really have to send me home, I don’t live so far. I can walk.”

“Grease, eh? I haven’t seen that in a long time.” She shook her head at him. “Fraid not deary, has to be a parent or guardian. If your mum’s out of town, then…” She was dialing the phone as she was explaining though she took the time to close the door when the call went through.

He could hear the phone ringing, it reached the third one before the voice of his father was heard.. Hello? She had him on speaker, she must be doing something with her hands, but Nikolai could hear his father clearly through the closed door.

“Mr. Allen? It’s Nurse Canmore at New Haven Middle School?” The way she said the school’s name was like she wasn’t entirely sure that’s where she was. “Your son, Nikolai, is running a slight fever, and we’re going to need you to come and get him.”

I’m on my way. Niko lowered his chin to his chest. He could hear things in his father’s voice that the nurse was oblivious to. He mouthed the words I’m Sorry even as he was fighting to hold onto his own emotions. His eyes, once he raised his chin, were glued to Nurse Canmore’s door.