Wings of Fire as Humans

No more push-ups! YAY

Qibli sat quietly in the principal's office chair, waiting to be incinerated. OK, maybe not incinerated, but definitely punished. His mind flashed through all the possible outcomes: suspension, week long detention, missing homecoming, cleanup duty...maybe Kestrel will fail me in gym for what I did! OK, Qibli, breathe. You can find a way around it if that happens. But what will Moon think of me if I fail gym? Does she know I did what I did for her? I just wanted to make her smile...he thought. Great. now it doesn't even matter WHY I did it, because somehow I screwed up.

Just then, Principal Thorn and Kestrel walked into the office, both of them wearing stern looks. Yes, Principal Thorn was Qibli's  adoptive mother, but he had learned long ago that she was impossible to corrupt and treated every student the same. She sat down on the seat in front of him. "Qibli," she began "I am very disappointed in you. You're a smart kid, so why did you do something as incredibly stupid as this?" He looked up at the two adults in the room. Qibli trusted Principal Thorn, but he knew that Kestrel would not hesitate to tell the whole school everything that happened in this room. "Well," he began "I heard that we were being tested on our physical performances tomorrow, like push-ups, and 1 mile running, and everyone said that it would be great if we didn't have to do the tests so...umm"

"So you stole 6 push-up sensors, 2 stopwatches, and other expensive sport equipment?" finished Thorn. Qibli looked down and touched his index fingers together. "Well...Yes." 

*sigh*

"But I was going to return them after a few days! I just wanted to delay the tests until some people could prepare more!" he added hastily. "Qibli, it doesn't matter. You now have detention all this week to reflect on your behavior," Said the Principal. Qibli exhaled with relief.  Detention was much better than many of the other choices. But unfortunately, Kestrel did not seem to  agree. "What do you mean??! HE DESERVES TO BE EXPELLED!!!" she shrieked. "Is this the example you want to be setting for your other students? That criminals get off easy?!"

Her words cut deeper than she probably realized. Criminal. Just like my mother.

Qibli's biological mother was Cobra, a notorious big city thief and hustler. Rumor had it, that if the price was right, she could be hired to do anything you wanted- even murder. She'd abandoned him one day, in the middle of Times Square, where he'd sat helplessly for hours, waiting for her to return. Thorn had met and adopted Qibli in when he was 9, and they had moved to Pyrrhia, New Jersey. Now he lived with her and her family- from the sidelines, one might assume that Thorn had some sort of soft spot for him, seeing how he go off easy with misbehavior sometimes- but Thorn really tried her hardest to treat all the students equally, meaning that Qibli never really knew what to expect from her.

Thorn frowned at the gym teacher. "Ms. Kestrel, I'd appreciate it if you'd give us some privacy." Kestrel muttered something angrily under her breath, storming out of the room and slamming the door on her way out. "Qibli, I know you really want people to like you, but this is too far. Who made you do it?" The Principal asked. He raised his head to meet his adoptive mom's eyes. "No one. There's just this girl and she's new here. She said at her old school they didn't do fitness tests and she wished she had time to prepare...I wanted her to feel like she fit in and didn't feel like an outcast..." he whispered, the like I did  left unsaid.

"Okay...First of all, you may think it's romantic, or justified to break the rules to help someone, but you need to get it together, and understand that doesn't always apply. NO MORE STEALING! You are not a dishonest person, Qibli. You don't have to pretend to be someone else so she will like you- and if she deserves you, she'll appreciate you for who you are."

There! chapter five is done! I would love it more than literally anything else if readers would interact with my book, by voting or commenting, but showing support is up to you...