Skywards - I

Chapter 1: Bird Caravans

Noah stared up into the sky. The endless blue that seemed to become part of the sea somewhere far away fascinated him. He had always dreamed of such a place, though he never would have thought that he would come to it the way he did. People were flooding around him like the waves on the nearby beach. He caught different languages, saw figures that he never knew before and believed to only exist in films. Growing up in a small village had never seemed hard to him until now.
Between two of the few white clouds, the next planes started to land, spraying the white flocks across the sky and minimizing them to invisibility. He felt like one of these spots in between the crowd. These people seemed to know what they wanted, and he was trapped in between them, trapped in his averageness. Silently he sighed, then followed the crowd towards the airport exit, not ready, but required to explore a whole new world he never wanted to know.

Only a few meters behind him, Amaury exited the second plane and took a deep breath, casually swiping back his black hair. His intense eyes followed the crowd while he ignored the people trying to push him forward. This would be his last year at a place he felt comfortable at, a place that at least resembled a home. Suddenly, someone threw his arms around his neck. "Amaury, chéri!" The voice belonged to Aline, a girl he had been trying to avoid throughout the holidays, though she seemed to follow him everywhere. Brusquely he shoved her back, ignoring once again the complaints from behind. "What a surprise to see you once again. How did you manage to find me?" The dripping sarcasm in his voice and the cold in his eyes made her flinch, but she steadied herself. "I didn't know you took the flight from Paris", she answered, steady and indifferent. "I thought they kicked you out by now." Amaury laughed, but it was a dry sound cutting hardly through the tropical air, then he finally set food on the islands, moving as a king and leaving behind another cracked girl.

Above his head, Miu's fingers nervously tapped against the freezing window pane. She would have expected that the school finally realized her fear of heights and stopped giving her seats where she was forced to look down, but this turned out to have been an illusion. Once again, she was trapped in between a fat Thai oblivious of his surroundings and with earphones that carried a techno beat to her and the fall right into the waves. Dizzily she leant back, trying to relax. Only a few more minutes.... Inevitably, her thoughts wandered back to the holidays. They had been one big disappointment. Her parents had been caught somewhere in Africa and couldn't come to Tokyo, so she had to pass the time all on her own. Knowing nobody in particular in a city as big as it was and - even worse - being forced to stay there with her uncomfortably traditional grandmother had annoyed her for the last eight weeks. Even though the school never felt like home to her, it gave her back the freedom she craved for. If only it wasn't for the flight... Her stomach twisted as she took another look outside the window and saw the plane about to land, racing towards the Airport Isle. "We're almost there! Finally!" The first years directly before her managed to make her smile. It was high time indeed.

Silently, Allison took her place in the row of students lining up to exit through the gangway. Her eyes swiftly touched the people surrounding her. She knew most of the faces, but had difficulties with the names. These people bored her, except for those she could use for bringing her music to life. She had already started to toss some notes in her head, trying to form melodies on the impressions she had collected during her New York stay. She added a bass line to it, but threw it out again, shaking her head in frustration. Last year, the school hadn't helped her a bit, yet she hoped for some change this time. The heat hit her like a spell while she gazed up into the sky. A bird's tune came to her mind, the ugly chant of a sparrow. Hurriedly, she drew out her phone and made a note. She would have to include that into a composition sometime soon. She made her way through the crowd with a vague idea in mind, eager to go and try it out. Someone tried to greet her, a photographer she had to work with last year, but she didn't even see him. Disappointed, yet not surprised, he fell back when another girl, looking astonishingly similar to Allison approached him. "She's just a weirdo, you know that she never talks." He let out a sigh, following the energetic line of Allison's pace pushing through the crowd.

A waving hand greeted Mascha as she finally managed to get out into the open air. Her hair bounced as she came to a halt and quickly took a photo of her roommate's joy. Elaine laughed and threw her arms around Mascha's neck. "Good to have you here again." The Russian girl grinned in response. "Good to be here again", she answered, then wove herself free from the hug and took a look around. The crowd around her had gone crazy, euphoric laughter and shouts flew around her. "How was Edinburgh?" The dark beauty next to her rolled her eyes. "Do you mind if I show you the shootings later?" Mascha laughed while her friend pulled her towards a group of boys from their year, mostly actors and dancers. One of them gave both a long glance, and Mascha frowned. This was getting tougher every year, obviously. She didn't remember half of the names. Elaine's lips eagerly longed for a blond, stern-looking guy named Juan. "Great to have you here again, sweeties", one of his friends laughed. Mascha didn't answer, but simply took out her camera again. Finally, people didn't mind.

Juana's eyes scanned the crowded place before her eyes. This all seemed merely real to her. Was this really her standing in between these people? Was it really her feeling the heat surround her like it did in Mexico? The thought of the country made her flinch, but she fought back the worries. Her family could look out for themselves. She took a deep breath and tried to find some orientation, but soon gave up again. The place was enormous, and everyone seemed to be in a hurry to greet friends. She finally spotted a group of Asian girls who looked just as lost as she felt. Making her way to them, she felt a smile draw up as the planes took off behind her and went back to where they came from. A year of adventure and of stage light was lying ahead of her. She just couldn't wait.
"Hey there, are you new?" The Asians turned to her, surprise in their faces, then one of them slowly nodded. "Me too", Juana explained, then introduced herself. It turned out she was talking to a fashion designer, a sculpturist and a dancer, the four of them getting into an amazed talk about flights and their different hopes. After such a start, the school time couldn't be any greater. At least, that was what Juana thought before knowing the rest of the grounds.