The Flier (Patrick Stump)

8 - Progress

/Chapter 8\

"Hey Zenna," Pete exclaimed as he walked past me to his seat next to the wall. I cautiously smiled at him. Only a few hours before, Patrick told me to be careful, and as much as I want to trust Pete, I don't know if I can.

"Hey," I replied.

"Did we have any homework last night?" he nonchalantly asked.

"I don't think so."

"Good, because I didn't do anything." Then, he began to laugh, and I suddenly got a bad feeling. What if he wasn't really as innocent and dorky as he seemed? Calm down, a voice inside me murmured. You're just overthinking what Patrick told you. I invisibly nodded to myself. It was right. I couldn't help but overthink things. "Hey, you alright?" I blinked a couple of times and glanced up at Pete, who was staring down at me.

"Yeah, I'm alright," I answered, smiling again. He accepted it and smiled back, finally sitting down next to me. The bell rang, signaling the actual beginning of class. Mr. Roban strolled into the room a few seconds later and slammed the door shut behind him as he always does.

"Good afternoon, class," he exclaimed as he clapped his hands together. A few students muttered greetings in return. "Today is going to be a pretty boring day. You'll need to get out a piece of paper and a pencil, because you are going to take notes. Now, this concept that I am about to teach you is a little hard for most to comprehend, and that's alright because I had a hard time with it too. It's probably one of the most important things you will ever learn in this class, by the way. This concept, of course, is imaginary numbers."

"God," a kid across the room groaned, dramatically throwing his head back. I recognized him. I didn't know where from, but I knew him somehow. I looked back up at the board to find Mr. Roban smirking.

"I see Mr. Hurley remembers exactly what I'm talking about," he chuckles.

"Remember? These things completely ruined my grade last year!" the kid's high-pitched voice loudly stated.

"Well, we'll go through it slowly this time around, just be patient," Mr. Roban assured him before turning back to the board and picking up a dry erase marker. My notebook and pencil were already there in front of me. As Mr. Roban began writing, I saw Pete lean a little towards me out of the corner of my eye.

"So, have you heard about my friend Joe's party?" he whispered. My eyebrows furrowed. I didn't know he and Joe were friends.

"I have heard of it, yes," I quietly responded as I scribbled down the notes on the board. Pete nodded and hesitated for a second.

"Are you going to go?" he timidly inquired. My mind started racing. Should I tell him that I'm going with Patrick? Should I say that I'm not sure if I'm going?

"I don't know yet," I decided on, because technically it was correct. I hadn't asked my dad yet. He was probably going to say that I could, but I wasn't going to tell Pete that.

"Well, you should. Maybe we could hang out," he suggested, getting rid of that timid little voice he had a second ago.

"I'll try," I promised. He grinned.

"Cool."

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Guard Practice That Night

"So how is that toss coming along?" Kamryn asked as she walked over to Patrick and I, who were again sent to the corner to work on our toss. We had made some progress on it, thankfully. However, we still did not have the running into the toss down-pat yet.

"It's alright," Patrick quickly answered.

"How much do you guys have done so far?" she asked, and Patrick and I glanced at each other.

"The toss and the catch, but we haven't figured out how he's going to be able to throw me after I run to him," I explained. She nodded thoughtfully after a second and walked over next to Patrick.

"Alright, here's what I think we should do here. Patrick will be here, and you will be over there. When you - gracefully - run over to him, Patrick can already be crouched and waiting for you. Once you get to him, you'll slow down a little and quickly step up onto his hands, and then he'll toss you. It'll be really fast, so both of you be careful. Patrick, when she jumps up, she'll have a lot of momentum going, so you will need to redirect that momentum upward."

"What if I'm not able to step up correctly when it's time?" I mumbled.

"We'll get it worked out. With enough practice, you'll be landing in the exact same spot every time," Kam assured me, smiling. I nodded and glanced over at the smiling Patrick again. To tell the truth, the smile on his face somehow always comforted me. There was something about it that made me feel safe. "So, can I see this toss so far?"

"Sure. Should we start from Zenna running or from the toss itself?" Patrick asked.

"Just start from the toss for right now." Patrick and I nodded, and I walked over to him.

"Ready?" Patrick inquired as he crouched down and put his hands together for me to stand on.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I answered, and I heard him laugh a little. Taking a breath, I stepped up on his hands and waited for him to start bouncing his hands up and down.

"One.." he began to count, bouncing his hands down once. "Two..." Then again. "Three!" Suddenly, air rushed past me as I was thrown into the air, and the same old rush of adrenaline that came with the toss flowed through my veins. I twisted into the position I was supposed to be caught in before the adrenaline could temporarily paralyze me, and once I safely landed in Patrick's strong arms, I felt the strong rush slowly begin to seep out of my system.

"That was pretty good. We'll keep working on the catch and the running over the next couple of practices. There isn't a lot that needs to be fixed besides emotion displaying," Kam stated. "You two need to come review the flag feature though, and once we're done with that, Patrick, you need to go with the other rifles to work on the rifle sections."

"Yes, ma'am," Patrick exclaimed loudly, saluting a chuckling Kam.

"Hey, pretty boy! Stop screwing around and get over here! We're working on the flag feature!" Emily shouted from across the gym. Patrick immediately stopped and turned around, starting to jog to the main group of people.

"Coming, Em." Once again, Kam laughed.

"Oh, if there's one thing that boy is afraid of, it's Emily."

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AN: this was more of a filler, but it is kind of important. the whole part with pete and the show practice. anyway, i want to know whose POV you guys want to see in the future, so if you would like, please leave a comment saying who (if you have someone you want to see)!

GOAL: 15 votes and 7 comments that aren't mine? that would be absolutely amazing and i'll give everyone a free hug.

have a lovely day/night, everyone.

(p.s.: i don't know who the guard is in the gif above. if someone does know, though, please comment so that they can get the creds they deserve.)