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“…Are you sure, Coco?”
Being encouraged to jump off the school roof by Coco of all people was something Maya almost never expected — though, to be fair, she had been a real jerk enough times that it wouldn’t be completely out of the question.
This encouragement, however, was not with murderous intent.
“I know you can do it! I’ve seen you do it when you were younger!”
“That’s ridiculous!” She was 100% certain that Coco had finally lost her mind, and was only going along because falling off the roof and dying wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. Who was she kidding, this was purely for the spectacle. Besides, Coco had put a large trampoline below, as if that would stop anything.
“Maya, you only lost the ability because you didn’t believe in yourself. With your fading self-confidence, your aerodynamic capacity dramatically reduced. Have faith in yourself, you WILL fly!”
She gulped. The distance to the ground was… definitely a lot.
“Coco, this is crazy! What if I kill myself?!”
“You won’t! There’s the trampoline, and Mymy and Kiki are watching!”
Oh yeah. Those two gremlins were waiting on standby, phones ready. They had a first aid kit, but Maya was pretty certain they didn’t know how to use it.
“Yarrgh, come on, Maya!” Kiki screamed.
“Yeah, stop being such a Belgian coward!” Mymy followed.
Do they really believe that I will fly? No, they can’t possibly be that dumb. Coco, yes, Kiki, maybe, but Mymy??? She’s stupid but not dumb.
The skies were clear, the sun was shining, and the wind was especially strong today. Coco had planned this way in advance to ensure the optimal conditions.
“I-I’m scared…” Maya put her hand on her arm.
Coco reassuringly put her hand on her shoulder. “Believe in yourself. Believe that you are special, that you are the chosen one. Let that faith carry you.”
Maya took a deep breath in. I can fly. I can fly. I can… what the fuck am I thinking? Have I really lost it? Holy shit, all that anime must have rotted my brain. I wish I had taken one more shot before this…
She breathed in again. “I can fly.” As she was about to step forward, however, another thought came into her mind. “Wait, what am I even supposed to do? Do I just…?” She made a weak flapping motion with her arms, like a chicken who had its head cut off.
“No, no, silly! You have to move them confidently! Like this!” Coco demonstrated.
Maya scoffed. “It’s easy for you! You have the arms of a rugby player!”
“That means nothing! It’s all in the effort.”
“Hey, are you going to do it or what?” Mymy called from below.
Maya sighed. “Well, um… if I don’t make it… right, my last words… um, well, adios, eh?”
Coco gave her a thumbs up. “You got this.”
She breathed in once more. I believe in myself. “I BELIEVE I CAN FLY!” She jumped off and started rigorously flapping her arms. Unfortunately, nothing happened. She was now barrelling towards the trampoline.
SHIT! IF ONLY MY TERMINAL VELOCITY WAS THAT OF A FEATHE—
She landed belly first right in the center of it, immediately propelling her back up. She was still flapping her arms, waiting to meet the ground again. Her eyes were tightly shut.
GOD I’M SORRY, I’LL NEVER WATCH THAT STUFF AGAIN! As she waited to make contact with the ground, however, she heard the delighted screaming of her sisters and Kiki. What are they so excited about? And why haven’t I landed?
She opened her eyes. To her complete and utter shock, she was soaring through the sky, rushing by with the wind. “WHAT THE TYPHUS?!?!?!”
“I told you you could do it!” Coco yelled.
“COCO, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!?!?!”
“You’re flying! You’re really flying!”
By now, word had spread about this shocking feat, and students flooded out of the school to get a glimpse of the flying girl.
Maya changed directions with the angle of her body, and controlled her speed with how fast she slapped her arms. She had the grace and poise of a flying goose. She made a few passes over the trees, and even stooped low enough to nearly touch the heads of the students below. She had even managed to snatch Mymy’s phone.
“HEY! THIEF!”
“HAHAHAHA! THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME! HOW DO I STOP?!”
Coco, who had now run down the stairs and onto the field, moved her arms like an air traffic controller. “Slowly reduce the pace of your flapping and angle yourself towards the runway!” The runway, in question, was a long strip of dirt crudely marked with chalk.
“ALRIGHT, HERE GOES NOTHING!” As she slowed her arms down, she began to descend like a glider at first, and then like a falling rock. “Fuck fucK fuCK fUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK! LOOK OUT!” She faceplanted into the dirt, which was soft enough to absorb the impact.
She pulled herself out of the dirt. Her favorite hoodie was completely ruined, and her face would likely never recover from all the acne she was about to get. But the experience of flying felt almost… liberating. As if the bounds of natural reality could no longer contain her. And if natural reality couldn’t, social reality definitely couldn’t.
A crowd of students came screaming and cheering. They lifted up Maya and began parading her around.
Well, this was… unexpected.
She passed by Coco, who was giddily clapping.
“Did you see that, Coco??? I flied! Flowed?”
“I’m so proud of you, Maya! I told you you could do it! You can do anything as long as you believe in yourself!”
“Yeah, such as giving me back my phone, you thief!” Mymy added.
“No way! I’m downloading everything I can from this first!”
“Hey, your call, I’ll just leak your browser history full of—”
“NOTHING! Um, on second thought, you can have it back, hehe!” She tossed the phone back to Mymy.
“That’s what I thought.”
Being carried by students like this made her feel almost like a queen. Maybe she truly was... special?