Summer school 6/9

From then onwards the trip home was easy; after all she’d only recently made the same flight, when she’d floated back to the home a few weeks back. What a bit of luck! She headed off in the right direction as quickly as she could, keeping an eye open for anyone following her.

After five minutes she noticed Eroin turn out of his circling pattern and come after her. He seemed to be slowly catching up and she tried hard to think of some way to try and make her broom go even faster.

Streamlining seemed to be the answer, so she lay as flat as possible on her broom handle and stretched her legs out behind her, crossing her ankles on the bristle part of the broom. It wasn’t very comfortable, nor could she see if Eroin was still catching up, but she certainly seemed to be flying more quickly.

She looked up only just in time to see the Witches’ Home hurtling towards her. She was going so fast, that in spite of sitting up and trying to get down to ground level as quickly as possible, she still overshot the drawbridge and had to turn back to land.

The teacher was having a chat with the witch on guard duty and looked round in amazement as she heard the broom whistle past. “Congratulations my dear, you’re the first one back. You’ll get your prize after supper tonight.”

At that moment Eroin landed his broom beside the teacher. He walked over and shook hands. “Congratulations Jennifer Jane,” he said loudly, “that was a very fine effort, the best person won.”

Jennifer Jane was just about to say something nice in reply, when he turned his back to the witch.

“That should have been my prize, you horrible little human,” he whispered, “just you wait; I’ll get my own back you’ll see!”

Jennifer Jane waited a little while longer until Maddy arrived. She’d come in fourth and was quite pleased with herself.

“Don’t take too much notice of Eroin’s threats,” she said, He daren’t do any thing really serious, or the witches would punish him.”

After the meal that night, Jennifer Jane was presented with a small cloth star to be sewn on her cloak next to her flight insignia.

The witch who’d taken them on the flight, called her up to the top table and made a short speech. “And finally I’d like to point out that this is the first time that a human has ever been given a navigational star. Congratulations!”

The whole of the Witches’ Home refectory burst into wild applause. Jennifer Jane felt very embarrassed because everyone was looking at her. The only people not clapping were Eroin and his friends. He looked straight at her with a nasty expression on his face, pointed his finger at her and waggled his thumb.