He had not been halfway when Lisa had caught up with him asking for a race and the Hufflepuff wanted to give the girl a thumbs up but he didn't trust his ability to fly with one hand. "ok" he grinned, finding it somehow less scary now that Lisa was close by. Without another word, the first year moved his body closer to the handle of the broom to pick up speed.

He raced towards the stationary mats on the left with a speed he was certain he had not attained before in any other class and found that this was surprisingly easy to do. As the mat grew close though, the fear that he had felt early came back again and the boy panicked. Daniel leaned backward, pulling the handle of the broom up with such force that the broom came to an abrupt stop a few feet before the upright mat. Way off.

Daniel however didn't stop as the sudden halt caused him to lose his balance and he slid off of his broom and fell on his back on the mat below, the broom landing near his feet a second later. How had Lisa done? He stared up at the sky trying to find her.

When Daniel agreed to her challenge, Lisa’s smile grew bigger. Her whole focus became trying to be the one closest to the mat AND beating Daniel. She wasn’t competitive at all.....

Hey? At least it quieted her fear of..... y’know... heights.

Her heart beat raced. And instead of being terrified by landing or crashing, she was really enjoying soaring so quickly. The only scary thing was the crash mat in front of her but she fully knew that crashing into it was going to be much LESS PAINFUL than crashing on the ground. She fully accepted the fact that she was most likely going to smack right into the mat. And it wouldn’t be once and nail it perfectly. It would be at least a dozen times.

Energized by competition and adrenaline, she continued soaring towards the mat. She didn’t even realize at one point that Daniel wasn’t soaring with her still and that he had broke.

10. 9. 8. 7.... 6.....5...4...3...2.......

She pulled up on the broom, braking as sharply as she could but unfortunately she was a little late and gentle!kerSPLAT! She practically did a body slam into the mat. Hands and feet hitting the mat.

OOOOOFFFFF.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Daniel a good feet away and have him a sheepish smile. Well she felt kinda embarrassed. Daniel Yoon had demonstrated that he was in perfect control while she dramatically hir the mat with her entire body. Oh how the tables had turned, she thought as she rolled her eyes. She was going to keep on going and practicing until she was able to stop in front of Nat perfectly..

She soared over to him, ignoring the tingling feeling resonating all over her body. “Let’s try that again. You were way more in control than me...”

Technically, he didn’t need to do anything with Cambridge. There was no need for him to wrack his brain and waste unnecessary effort on little old her. Emm stood dutifully by the man, not even pretending to listen to information that would have nothing to do with her in another minute.

This whole course was a big no for her.

Emm rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, blissfully excluded from the nonsense the Professor had thought he would be roping her into. This whole shattered arm thing wasn’t so bad. It made turning harder when she danced but that was a small pay off. There were other things she could focus on during her practices.

The Gryffindor waited a few minutes after the activity started, just to be polite, then she tipped her head upward to look the man in the eyes.

“Can I go now, Sir? I’m done learning for today. There’s nothing else I can do and I’ve got all this homework I should probably get started on.” Responsible student that she was. No dancing for her. No ice cream down in the kitchen. Certainly not looking to go find Ezra knowing he wouldn’t be in class either.

“I could go sit in study hall.” And work on her makeup.

She was flexible.

Closer and closer…

Listen, it was unnatural to see that mat closing in so quickly and not panic for even a little bit. That panicking was her downfall for… what was she supposed to be doing again?! Her mind was baffled and blank. Naturally this was no help to her.

CRASH!

Claudine slammed into the mat. Forgetting that the entire setup was charmed for this sort of accident, it took her a few seconds to realise why she had not registered any pain or a broken bone. While the sixth year hadn’t fallen from her broom, she was still shaken and resorted to clutching the handle tightly while she got her bearings together. Claudine hovered on the sidelines for a bit until she was ready to try again.

Then she was off once more, starting from her original position.

Uh, no.

"I don't think so, Miss Cambridge. You're staying to talk to me after class, remember?" Kamran did. He remembered. They could talk now, yes, but that would be terribly irresponsible of him, as the flying instructor, so they'd use her time instead. "You'll just have to stand here and wait until then, I'm afraid. You'll want to have some idea of how this activity is done, for future reference." Something to think about.

Kamran left the Gryffindor with that, mounted his broom, and took to the air to watch the progress of the students from on high.

Call it a gut feeling, but something told Kamran this sort of activity might be up Fox's alley. She seemed comfortable in the air, and comfortable flying full pelt at a stationary object; at least she was going for it. He'd been serious about wanting to see them go as fast as they could. Best way to be prepared. "Good, Miss Fox. You'll adjust to those mechanics soon enough." And know how to counteract the weight enough to avoid a collision. Though, really, what she'd managed there would serve for most emergency situations. Most.

Kamran thought Nam and Yoon pairing up to race made a lot of sense, given they were both beginners and had not taken to flying all that naturally, and that both stuck at it regardless. He watched their race in its entirety, checking the form of both first years as he did so, noting they were both doing well in terms of maintaining control even in flying at a higher speed. The real test would be...

... Ah. Well. Yoon had managed to perform his stop, if a little pre-emptively, and then... fallen. Maybe Kamran could count that... maybe. Yoon had, technically, avoided a collision, but not come to a complete stop. That was fine, regardless, meant there was room for improvement. Nam had attempted her stop just a hair too late, but she would now have learned a little more about reaction times. "Great effort, you two," Kamran called to both Nam and Yoon as they recovered themselves. "Keep at it, you're both getting there already."

He turned his attention to Blaze, who was closing in next. Difficult to know what to expect with manoeuvres like this, where Kamran asked the students to relinquish control a little bit before retaking it, so he tried to have no expectations. All the same, he gave an infinitesimal wince as the Slytherin slammed into the mat without seeming to attempt a stop. He paused, considered, decided Blaze was not at all the type to have done that intentionally. Lapse in attention, judgement, or thought, perhaps.

Kamran was glad to see her get back at it. "You'll get it, Miss Blaze," he called as she finished taking her breather, and went to try again. "I have every faith. Let your reflexes take over, if necessary." If she could. Easier said than done, he knew, and sometimes the reflex was not the best move, but Blaze knew the instructions, and she was now also familiar with the experience of hitting the mat, which might make the next attempt a little more successful.

Ash practiced a couple more times with the stationary mats. Most were successful, a few ended in her slamming face-first into the mat, and a couple were really good. When she was satisfied with her performance, she moved on to the flying mats. Her first few tries were essentially just her getting smacked around. But she eventually started to improve and she had gotten to a point where she rarely hit the mat. Now she could relax a little and focus more on details. This was fun. This was great. This was awesome. Her thoughts today tasted very sweet. They also tasted cold, what with all the rushing air in her face. Ash decided she should fly at least once a day. Maybe it would improve her mood.

Ooh, speed. This freaked her out a little, because she wasn’t a particularly fast flyer at the moment. But thankfully, the required height to fly wasn’t tooooo bad. She wasn’t necessarily scared of heights, but the possibility of falling to your death was very real.

The Gryffindor mounted her broomstick and then lifted herself up to the appropriate height. Phhheewwww, she felt like every eye was on her, even though that likely wasn’t the case.

She leaned forwards and gripped both hands tight on the broom, pushing herself to beat the speed she made on the last practise. However, it wasn’t really fast enough, and her attempt to emergency stop was a bit too much for the speed she had maintained. She swung backwards and fell onto her back, broomstick flying off behind her.

DOH.

Despite her best efforts failing her, she dusted herself off and retrieved her broomstick, her determination shining through. Once stable in the air, a little higher than before, she leaned over and her body was even closer to the broom. This definitely picked up her speed. As she got to the end of the mat, the firstie hoisted her broomstick up and came to a sudden stop. It was a hell of a judder and a wobble, though, and she almost slid off the end but managed to rescue it.

Violet had hoped they were through with on-the-broom practice when the teacher had called them over to sit down, but oh no, there was more. Much more.

She had opted for the stationary side, given her past track record in flying. Good thing, too, because she couldn't even handle that very well. She had already smacked into the vertical wall (which was fortunately as cushioned as Mr. Kazmi had claimed) about three or four times now (Violet had stopped counting). Now she was about done with this for the day, maybe forever, but she was stubborn to a fault, so she was going to give it one more try.

Trudging with her broom back to the starting point, she mounted and took off (at least she was getting pretty good at that, she'd had to do it enough times). She sped towards the vertical barrier in front of her with as much speed as she dared and as she neared it, she shut her eyes and pulled up the broom sharply, and...Miracle of miracles! She'd stopped!! Without running into the wall! This shocked her so much that for a few minutes she just hovered there on her broom, before she finally became aware that she was blocking the way for the students behind her and slowly maneuvered off to the side.

But she'd done it! Well, just the once, but still!

Oh no, Professor. Claudine definitely was not the type to do that sort of thing intentionally. It was just the immense speed with which she had been going and a momentary brain fart that made her crash. You can be sure of that. Kazmi was awfully encouraging, wasn’t he? She highly doubted it was just a ploy to get students to like him. Okay, Claudine grudgingly admitted that she appreciated the encouragement. “Thanks, Professor,’’ she mouthed and flashing him a quick thumbs up.

She was going to completely focus this time. Her eyes were fixed intensely on the mat that once again seemed to close in rapidly upon her. This time, she didn’t panic as much. Closer… closer… Soon enough it seemed that she was practically on the mat and knew that the emergency landing technique had to be done.

The Snakette pulled at the broom’s handle, her brain correctly remembering each bit of the explanation Kami had given them earlier. In the end and this time around, her performance was successful.

Apollo was all too excited about flying lessons this term because it meant he didn't have to use the school brooms!! Thanks to Serena although he'd have a broom regardless of her assistance or not. He was jumping up in down in place, while Mr Kazmi started off the lesson talking about landing and the second was amused mostly cause he knew his family members were always on about the importance of a proper landing. One, it would prevent injuries and well, that was probably the main reason.

With the skill of the family quidditch legacy that had been passed down to Apollo, the twelve year old mounted his broom and kicked off into the air. Looped around the training area and made a graceful dive back down toward the podium. He could probably do that better though? Maybe a little more graceful? A little more light? He was sure there was some improvement that could be made with his landing. Since even though he had the family quidditch background, he himself was quite the novice. He glanced over toward Kazmi for some sort of critique but they were moving on to talking about why else they would use the braking mechanism on a broom. To avoid colliding with other players? To avoid colliding with the stands? Those really seemed to be the main reasons Apollo could think of. Someone mentioning lighting and thunder was an interesting thought though and one the gryffindor hadn't considered.

Emergency stop practice. His eyes widened as he listened to Kazmi explain and Apollo secretly wanted to purposely crash into the mat just because it kind of looked like fun?? Would it be like a trampoline or just a cushion? Also he was totally going fly as fast as he could toward the right one that moved because it definitely sounded like more fun and adrenaline rush. Kicking back into the air, Apollo flew as fast as he could toward the mat .... which seemed to, as Kazmi had said it would, be moving toward him ... and right at the last second ... Apollo pulled up on his broom. And miraculously it was just as the mat brushed against the tail of his broom. Did that count as a crash? Did he make it? Did he get to try again to maybe not have his broom tail touch the mat at all?

Heath blinked. Emergency stops? That didn’t sound very straightforward to him! Nonetheless, he followed Kazmi and the others to the end of the training area, and his eyes widened at the sight of the mats. What? They had to fly at those? That sounded dangerous… Though when he thought about it, it was still considerably less so than diving off a platform toward a kiddie pool surrounded by hooded blood supremacist fanatics. Still, he wasn’t taking any chances! He paid extra close attention to the directions for this activity, repeating them in his mind as he took off for the halfway point.

No way was he starting with a moving target! Maybe he’d try it later if he succeeded with the stationary set-up before time ran out, but for now he was going to play it safe. Setting his sights on the left mat, he urged his broom forward, going faster and faster by the second. As the mat came close into view, he pulled back on the broom handle and… He reacted a moment too late and careened into the mat. The impact knocked him off balance, and he landed on the mat below. Well, that didn’t work at all!

Heath wasn’t injured, but the fall had knocked the wind out of him. After a quick moment to catch his breath, he picked himself up, shaking his dark hair out of his face. Let’s try that again! He retrieved his broom and made his way back to the starting point. When his turn came, he took off again, barreling toward the left mat closer and closer until… He pulled the handle back. This time, he’d managed to stop before hitting the mat; the problem was he’d stopped several feet back from it. Okay, that was better but still not perfect. Maybe if he tried one more time, he could get closer to the mat…

Once more, he returned to the starting point, and soon he was speeding toward the left mat again. Closer and closer it came into view, but he waited until the last possible moment to pull back on the broom handle. He braced for the impact of another crash, but none came. He’d stopped a fraction of an inch away from hitting the mat. Whew, that was his closest stop yet!

At first Atlas thought the professor wasn't going to give him the water. Let that be a life lesson to fly with his mouth closed and all that. And, well, it would have been a poignant one that the Gryffindor would not forget. Might make for a tougher case now that he had the cup of water, which was met with an appreciative smile and chipper 'thank you' before he drank the whole thing in one gulp. He probably should have spit some of it out too, but the last time he had tried to gargle and spit, while brushing his teeth, he had had this thick wad of saliva clinging and hanging off his lower lip. It had been embarrassing enough in the privacy of his own bathroom...couldn't deal with the thought of doing it HERE in front of his peers and people who made him blush.

"So do birds," he pointed out to the professor. "Though I would like not to have one of them run into me either."

Feeling slightly refreshed and sans any crunchy big bits in his mouth, the Gryffindor did his best to pay attention to the professor as class went on. It was hard not to point out that what he had just described was an equal and opposite reaction, by the way, but he did. So broom in hand and hugged to his chest, which meant he waddled rather than walked, he found his eyes fixated on the mats ... and all he could think about was slamming into the mats for fun.

Sooooooo....up Atlas went to wait his turn in the queue, twiggy legs dangling over the handle of his broom while he wiggled in place. And then when it WAS his turn...he hesitated. He really did just want to fall on to the mat and maybe bounce a little, but he had already been warned once about not doing that (twice if you counted the general instructions) and he did not want to put himself in a position where the man accused him of not being able to listen nor retain information. So, fine. He could do this stupid activity...and maybe just pull up a little too late and then crash into the mat anyway.

Perfect plan.

Going into a steep nosedive, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth in concentration, the second year zipped downwards towards the mat. Not yet...not yet...not yet...should have...not yet...NOW! Pulling up hard, there was an equal and opposite reaction he had not accounted for and that was his own grip on the broom - both his legs and hands. Which meant that Atlas had just given himself a wicked amount of backspin, lost his hold on the broom which was now being slung in some direction, and had performed a complete backwards flip so that when he landed...he belly flopped right on to the mat with a SMACK.

...oof...

Fox was still making excellent progress, and either particularly enjoying the activity or determined to improve this particular technique. Perhaps both; they were not mutually exclusive.

It took a little getting used to the manoeuvre, as Gaeltheos was finding out. Really, her first attempt was not so much a failure to stop as it was not quite reaching the speed where such a stop would be necessary. The fact it went better the second go seemed like enough confirmation to him. "Good, Miss Gaeltheos. Keep sticking with it."

Blackthorne was another one who Kamran was pleased to see kept sticking with it. He tried not to define these kids by their houses and house traits too much, but was only human. That was some Slytherin determination he was seeing right there. Again and again she tried, and again and again, Kamran watched, waiting until at last she had found some success before calling down from where he hovered on his own broom. "That's what I like to see, Miss Blackthorne." The determination. Yes.

He returned the thumbs up to Blaze, a sign of acknowledgement of her own gesture, then watched this next attempt. "Great effort, Miss Blaze. Excellent." Another success. Another display of how far you could get by sticking with it. Another Slytherin.

It didn't surprise Kamran too much to see Adara-Stark immediately head for the more challenging set-up of crash mats; as far as he'd been able to glean so far, the boy was long interested in flying, and had a good amount of skill on a broom, evidenced by his near-perfect emergency stop (not that Kamran could see the tail twigs brushing the mat from this distance). "Very well done, Mr Adara-Stark." He was very welcome to try again, although... Kamran took a quick look at his watch. A few minutes yet, but it was nearly time to finish up.

Time... flies.

Another one who seemed determined to stick with it was Jones, Kamran noted with approval. He had half a mind to make a suggestion or two to the boy about timing, but refrained; sometimes it was just better to let them get there on their own, especially the older students. Case in point. A successful stop, but then - there it was - a successful emergency stop. "Excellent, Mr Jones," Kamran called to him. A good display of learning from experience.

As for Flamsteed...

..........

.................... Well. How was that for physics?

"Up you get, Mr Flamsteed," Kamran called to the boy, flying over to retrieve the wayward broom for him. Walk it off. You're good. "An impressive flip, if not quite what I was looking for."

That... seemed as good a note as any to end the lesson on. Kamran came in to land and dismounted, now with Flamsteed's broom in tow, and blew on his whistle once again. No warning this time. "Alright everyone, that's all we've got time for," he called out, beckoning them all in again, and wrapping up, speaking loudly enough that they might all hear on the approach. "A successful activity, I think, thank you all for your maturity in today's lesson, and, as always, for the effort you've been putting in. For our next few lessons, we'll be working on the emergency stop in slightly less-controlled situations." So. Now they were forewarned. "Anyone genuinely interested in flying recklessly at crash mats without stopping, come see me in my office, and we'll talk." Most likely about why. Details. Anyway, they'd probably worked up an appetite by now. "Class dismissed. Go get some lunch."

But for one, whom Kamran had still not forgotten. "Except you, Miss Cambridge. You stick around for a few minutes." They'd just wait until everyone was gone.


OOC: Class is officially dismissed. Apologies for the delay with wrapping up; I had to wrestle some wrackspurts. I'll leave the thread open a little longer if you want to RP leaving, and will be closing the thread tomorrow. Thank you all so much for participating! I appreciate you all uwu