Flying Lessons (Witch-in-Training, Book 1) Read online

  Jessica’s heart was racing as Miss Strega explained what she had to do. “Hold the Moon-Vault twig lightly with your right hand but don’t squeeze yet. Zoom forward until you can see Earth and Venus lined up exactly, one on your right, one on your left.”

  As Jessica zoomed, her broomstick strained and bent like a bow. Then as the lights of Earth and Venus lined up on either side of her, she felt a tremendous thud as if she had hit an invisible launching pad. Her stick began to straighten up.

  “Now!” called Miss Strega. “Go for it!”

  Jessica squeezed the Moon-Vault twig. Then she was off, arching up into space like an arrow. The moon grew huger and huger.

  “Oh dear,” Jessica prayed, “please don’t let me crash.”

  But the broomstick hurtled on, somersaulted over the curve, only just clearing it, then gathered speed as it plummeted down the dark side of the moon.

  “That was BRILLIANT!” Jessica yelled into space as she tumbled towards the familiar blue globe of Earth.

  Miss Strega was waiting for her on the roof of the shop. “Congratulations,” she said as Jessica dismounted. “By the way, did I mention your flying test is tomorrow?”

  Chapter Seven

  Jessica was in a flap. She had been flying over the town for ages searching for the Coven Garden Test Centre. Her test was at five o’clock and it was three minutes to five already.

  “Miss Strega will be furious if I miss my appointment,” she was thinking. “Actually, she’ll be furious anyway. I’m never going to pass.” She had almost decided to find somewhere to hide for the rest of her life, when she spotted a small roof garden where three old witches, huddled around a large black steaming cauldron.

  “That must be Coven Garden,” Jessica decided and she zoomed down to the parapet. At the stroke of five o’clock, her name was called out: “Jessica Diamond!”

  “Good evening,” Jessica said politely, but the three witches ignored her and kept on stirring their brew.

  After a very long pause, one of them peered over her half-moon spectacles, winced at the sight of Jessica’s torn plastic bin-liner cloak and sucked her teeth.

  “I’m Shar Pintake of BR(EATH),” she said, “the Examiner-Witch, and these are Observer-Witches who will be making sure that no magic spells are used in this test.” She sucked her teeth again and fished a piece of paper out of the cauldron. “First of all,” she said, “we’d like you to answer a few questions and then we’ll move on to the practical flying exercises. Shall we begin?”

  Jessica’s mouth was so dry she couldn’t speak but she nodded. Underneath her cloak, her lucky mascot, now called Berkeley, gave her knee a comforting ruffle.

  Shar Pintake cleared her throat. “Very well. At Milky Way junctions, who has the right of way, those already on the Way or those entering?”

  That was easy. “The riders on the Way,” Jessica answered, “have the right of way at all times except when the phoenix is rising.”

  “Excellent, now tell us, if you can, the difference between ducking and diving.”

  “A witch ducks to avoid an obstacle by bobbing and dipping the broom in a sideways direction. Diving is avoiding a crash by leaping and free-falling.”

  “Mmm,” said Shar Pintake. “What is the braking distance for a broom travelling at two Earth centuries per witch minute?”

  Jessica gulped. “Six broomstick lengths?” she suggested uncertainly.

  Shar Pintake noisily sucked more air in between her teeth. Her colleagues looked up, quizzically.

  “Oh dear,” thought Jessica, “that must be the wrong answer.”

  Next the three witches began to circle their cauldron, chanting:

  “Broom riders, broom riders,

  Hither, thither, they must fly,

  Never failing to observe

  The ground rules of the sky”

  Then Shar Pintake plunged her hand into the pot and pulled out a pack of cards. “What does this road sign mean?” she barked, holding up a circular sign with a ring of witches.

  “That means there’s a witches’ coven in session at the next roundabout.”

  “And this?”

  “A dragon in a triangle means you should expect slow-moving traffic with heavy loads.”

  Shar Pintake sniffed. “A cauldron lying on its side?”

  “Slippery airspace because of a spilt brew?” Jessica guessed.

  The questions came thick and fast with the three examiners taking turns to pull cards from the pack. Jessica’s head was spinning as she swivelled to face each of them in turn. If only she had spent more time studying the W3 Rule Book.

  “And finally,” Shar Pintake said with a loud sigh, “can you identify this hazard?”

  Jessica peered at the sign. It was very peculiar. It could have been an old-fashioned pointy witch’s hat lying on its side. Or it might have been a jelly bag flying on a pole. Jessica hadn’t the faintest idea. She chewed her bottom lip.

  “We’ll come back to that later,” Shar Pintake announced after a long embarrassing silence. “Now go to chimney pot three and we’ll start the flying exercises.”

  Jessica flew off. Things were not going well at all.

  “I’ve failed,” she said to Berkeley. “Miss Strega will never forgive me.”

  Berkeley gave her a cheerful silvery whistle. “Don’t give up!” it trilled. “Don’t give up!”

  Jessica was more confident once she was in the air. She performed a perfect emergency stop. She ducked, dived, zoomed, did an excellent diagonal lift and reversed around the dark side of the moon. It was a faultless performance. She could see that the Observer-Witches were quite impressed. Even Shar Pintake had stopped sucking her teeth.

  There was just one tricky moment on the way back to Coven Garden, soon after they had passed Miss Strega who was flitting about on some night errand. Jessica had started her descent towards the landing strip beside the chimney pots when she noticed the sign of the pointy hat and jelly bag. The three witches saw it too.

  Shar Pintake did her thing with the teeth. “Has that always been there?” she hissed at the others. Neither had time to answer for a nasty hot little breeze suddenly blew up from nowhere, whipped through their broom twigs and carried all three of them off to one side.

  “Ah-ha,” thought Jessica, tapping her nose. “It means beware of crosswinds!”

  Once Jessica had given the correct answer to the crosswinds’ road sign, Shar Pintake asked her to wait a few moments while she and her colleagues had a quiet word.

  Jessica sat on the chimney pot stroking Berkeley. The witches seemed to forget all about her. They laughed and cackled and drank some of their brew. Eventually they called her back.

  “Jessica,” Shar Pintake began with a sniff, “I am pleased to tell you that you have passed your test. You are now entitled to call yourself a Graduate Airborne Spinner and Pilot. Congratulations!”

  “I’m a GASP of BR(EATH).” Jessica’s face broke into a huge smile. “Cool!”

  Chapter Eight

  The Witches’ Annual Air Show was not just about flying displays. It was the witchy social event of the year. Witches came flying in from north, south, east and west to meet their friends, catch up on each other’s news, buy new spell books or exchange charms. There were all sorts of sideshows – the Zooming Foursome Trick Fliers were astonishing – and there was a mock battle between the Wrong-Way-Ups and the Right-Way-Ups in memory of the Besom War when the W3 introduced the twigs-in-front rule for broom riders.

  There were stalls selling the very latest cauldrons, broomsticks, hats and cloaks. Jessica looked wistfully at the cloaks – she was beginning to be quite embarrassed about her shabby bin liner – but she didn’t have any money and Miss Strega just wobbled her chin and said, “Moonrays and marrowbones, just look at those prices!”

  At the Mascot Rescue Society, Jessica was looking longingly at a jet-black kitten and two barn owls when there was a sudden outbreak of cheering and clapping outside. A glamorous witch
was swooping towards the air show grounds, bobbing dramatically up and down on her broomstick and blowing air kisses to the crowds beneath her. She was tightly surrounded by a retinue of minders and a posse of photographers with all their flashes flashing.

  “Hello! Hello everyone!” she cried as she cruised stylishly to a halt, dismounted and threw her cloak over one shoulder. “It’s so lovely to be with you all.”

  “Runny mustard and feather dusters!” Miss Strega exclaimed. “It’s one of my old pupils, Heckitty Darling. She’s now the most famous actress of all the Witches World Wide. I wonder what she’s doing here?”

  They soon found out when it was time for the prize-giving ceremony in the BR(EATH) marquee. Shar Pintake began by asking everyone to give a warm round of applause for their distinguished guest. “On behalf of BR(EATH),” she said, sucking her teeth, “I’d like to welcome the legendary Heckitty Darling who has flown all the way from Scotland to present this year’s flying trophies.”

  The crowd went wild, cheering and waving their brooms in the air. Heckitty loved every minute of it. She bowed and laughed and enthusiastically hugged all the winners – including the Best Zoom in a Room and the Synchronized Ducking and Diving Fours. She wiped away a tear as she presented the W3 Bravery Award to a witch who had been cast away alone for three months on a desert island without a working broomstick.

  “Finally,” she said, “this year only one witch-in-training has successfully completed her Flying Lessons and I am told by the highest authorities in BR(EATH) that she shows enormous promise. They predict a magical and charming future for her – Miss Jessica Diamond, the latest GASP”

  As Jessica hovered in front of her, Miss Darling hung the licence plate on the front of her broomstick. “And now,” she appealed to the audience, “let’s give our new witch a traditional W3 welcome. Witches arise!”

  With that, the whole assembly rose together on their broomsticks. “All hail to Jessica. GASP of the year!” they shouted as one voice.

  Jessica, who had now turned a bright shade of pink, looked down from the stage at the sea of hovering, cheering witches. Miss Strega was in the front row. She was clapping so hard her nose was jerking from side to side, her chin was nodding up and down and she was scattering tears in every direction. Jessica dipped a little curtsey at her.

  “Moonrays and marrowbones,” Miss Strega mouthed. “What a lot of hurly-burly.”

  When the cheering had finally died down, Heckitty Darling came to the centre of the stage again. “It’s been such fun,” she said, “but sadly, my dear friends, I must take to the air immediately.”

  As the crowds howled and roared their disappointment, Shar Pintake joined Heckitty in the spotlight.

  “Ladies, ladies,” she called out, “I have a suggestion. Let us all see Heckitty on her way. Jessica, Miss Strega, will you please escort Miss Darling to the departure runway and we shall all follow.”

  As Jessica and Miss Strega flew to either side of Heckitty and the audience fell into line behind them, Shar Pintake read out the flight plan. Then the flaps of the marquee were drawn back and the entire world-wide web of witches sailed out into the airy night and up on to the Milky Way, twirling and spinning, clucking, diving and zooming. At the left turn for Scotland, Heckitty paused to say goodbye. “I wish you the very best,” she told Jessica, “and I don’t use wishes unwisely. The three of us must meet again.”

  Miss Strega rubbed her nose and looked quite overcome with emotion.

  “Buck up,” said Jessica when Miss Darling had whizzed off. “Let’s take the short way home, over the moon.”

  Together, they zoomed forward until they had Earth and Venus lined up exactly to the right and left.

  “Now!” said Miss Strega stretching out her hand to take Jessica’s.

  And hand in hand, they vaulted over the moon and came tumbling back down on to Jessica’s back garden.

  “Now, sleep well tonight, Jess,” Miss Strega whispered, “and, don’t forget, tomorrow you start your Spelling Lessons!”

  If you enjoyed Flying Lessons, check out these other great Witch-in-Training titles.

  Buy the ebook here

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  Other titles in the Witch-in-Training series

  Spelling Trouble

  Charming or What?

  Brewing Up

  Broomstick Battles

  Witch Switch

  Moonlight Mischief

  The Last Task

  Copyright

  First published by Collins in 2002

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  Text copyright © Maeve Friel 2002

  Illustrations by Nathan Reed

  The Maeve Friel asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.

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  Source ISBN: 9780007133413

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