Chapter Text
“Is… is this really the only one you have…?”
“Yeah, Alto, she’s a real flying machine. Super clean,” Mirabel beamed proudly, giving the vacuum cleaner a nice pat.
Alto just sighed, running a hand across his face as he grimaced at the cordless machine.
He had been trying to fix his broken skateboard since yesterday but was unsuccessful, the skateboard blowing up in his face multiple times already. So, he decided to come to Mirabel’s house to borrow another one of her aviator devices, but unfortunately, this was the only one she had.
“You can’t be serious,” Alto gestured at the vacuum machine. “I can’t take this to school.”
“Hey,” Mirabel frowned at him in disapproval. “I’m not the one who snapped their aviator device racing Hero after school. So, it’s either you take Vacula all the way to the academy, or you’re walking there.”
“You named your vacuum cleaner…?”
Mirabel shushed him harshly with an overly dramatic gesture of her hands that frankly resembled something between a fully grown duck learning to fly for the first time and a magician doing some sort of spell before promptly smacking him on the arm.
“Ouch!” Alto exclaimed, rubbing his arm.
“Vacula is not just a thing. She’s a very sexy, state-of-the-art cleaning companion!” To prove her point, she turned the vacuum cleaner on, creating an undignified vroom sound with it as if it were a motorcycle. Alto watched the display in disbelief.
“More intelligent than your dumbass,” she added, rubbing salt into the wound—or the cracks of the broken skateboard Alto had been trying to fix before he came here.
“Thanks, really appreciate it…” Alto mumbled sarcastically. “Can’t I just ride with you?”
“Sorry, I gotta stop by Holly's,” she said as she took her bag from the ground and slung it over her shoulder. “I’ll see you around at school, though!” Mirabel waved Alto off, hopping onto her broom.
With the help of a little magic, she took to the skies, Mirabel sitting on the handle of the aviator device easily. “Have fun with Vacula!” Then she took off.
“Hah…” Alto sighed, glaring at the vacuum cleaner. “Now what will I do with you?”
It’s not like he had anyone else to borrow an aviator device from. His brother took his broom to work, and Hero…
Alto shook his head. Hero wasn’t really an option anymore. So that only leaves Pace. But he left his house early to meet up with his partner from the mechanics department.
Wait. Mechanics department.
He could ask them for help. Pace mentioned once during their meetups after school that they were good at making things. He forgot exactly what Pace had said about them, but he remembered being quite distinctly surprised.
If his partner was any good with a screwdriver, then maybe they could fix his aviator device for him. Snapping himself out of his thoughts, he headed out the door, vacuum cleaner in hand, and flew off to school.
The trip to school was humiliating. Many of the people he passed had stopped to gawk and stare at him while he flew on the vacuum. One child in particular who saw him had pointed at him from the ground saying, “Mommy, look at that sad, ugly man. He looks stupid.”
He pretended not to hear the kid, partly because fighting a six-year-old boy would prove the kid’s point, and stopping would only draw more attention to him and the vacuum. So hiding his face behind his bangs, he rode to school as quick as lightning.
Or as quick as the vacuum could go, anyway.
When he finally arrived at school, he landed carefully, quickly tucking away the vacuum in his ring with a tap on the emerald. His cheeks were dusted pink in embarrassment and he glanced around to see if anyone was looking.
Luckily, nobody bothered to look in his direction, all minding their own business. Alto gave out a sigh of relief, then spotted Pace seated on a bench in the near distance.
As usual, Pace wasn’t doing anything interesting. He just sat on the bench, scrolling through his phone with the same blank expression he always had. Alto walked over to him and sat down beside the blonde. For a second, their eyes locked onto each other. Pace acknowledged his presence with a glance, and then returned his attention to the screen. Neither of them spoke for a few seconds, a familiar silence—typical of Pace—surrounding them.
It was like that for a while until Pace spoke up, eyes not leaving his phone. “You’re here later than usual.”
Alto responded with a huff.
Another beat of silence followed them.
“So…” Alto started, “Your partner is in the mechanics department, right?”
“Yeah,” Pace simply responded. And once more, Alto found himself sitting in silence with the blonde. The sound of Pace’s fingers clacking on the keyboard of his phone filled the air between them.
“...It’s about your skateboard, isn’t it?”
“It’s about the skateboard,” Alto groaned. He didn’t know whether he was grateful or embarrassed for Pace's intuitiveness, or maybe he was both. Sure, he broke his skateboard yesterday, but at least he could have asked why he was asking for his friend. He wasn’t that obvious, was he?
“If it’s just the skateboard, I think she’d be able to fix it but…” Pace’s expression grew severe, his eyebrows tense and a look of apprehension made its way onto his face. “Are you sure… you want it to get fixed… by her?” he said slowly, as if Alto was supposed to know something about the girl.
“What do you mean?” Alto asked, raising an eyebrow.
Suddenly, the bell rang.
“Do you have your skateboard?”
“Yeah.” Alto tapped on the emerald ring on his finger, a flash of green light emitting from it as his aviator device materialized from thin air. “Here,” he handed it over to Pace.
Pace sighed in exasperation, taking the skateboard from him. “I’ll text you if she finishes fixing this.”
“Thanks. See ya,” Alto said, as he stood up from the bench to walk to his next class.
“Oh, and good luck with the flying test,” Pace said behind him.
Wait. Flying test.
He whipped his head back at Pace. “That was today?!”