Start of Rio for Bia, Tiago, and Carla

Epilogue

"Come on Blu! We are going to be late for the tours!" Jewel said as she flew to the lodging area; I was following after her at a fast pace to keep up. We soon reached the building. Landing safely, I and Jewel ran into the building to see only three rather young looking blue macaws.

One had a laptop on her lap, her wingtips flying over the keys as she typed; she was typing at a speed of at least ninety-five words per minute, a very impressive speed. She was around waist height, but she did look young for her being here. When she closed her laptop, I saw it do something that I thought was wicked awesome. She freaking folded the lap! It folded till it was about half the size of a sheet of paper, which I thought was simply amazing. The macaw put her laptop in her book bag before strapping it on.

The second one looked a little chubby, but in a good way. She was scrolling through her IPod, humming to a song I did not know. Speaking of her IPod, I had never seen one like it. It was about six inches long and about as thick as four sheets of paper, unnaturally thin. The back was blank, so I knew that it was not an Apple product. When she noticed us she spoke a command and it shrunk to the size of a pendant; it even came with a thread! She put it around her neck as she looked at us with some interest.

The third one seemed to be average, until I looked at him more closely. He had his backpack on, but it looked like a metal case for something. He was wearing goggles, something that I thought was normal till I saw them. I noticed that the backpack had wires going into the back of the goggles and that the glass of the goggles had pictures on them that were moving! It looked confusing to me, probably because I was looking from the outside. After a minute or two, he shouted victoriously "Yes! New high score; take that Pac-man!" as he took off his goggles, a proud smile on his face before he realized what he did; the other two shot him glares. "Sorry" he said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head with his wing. The one with the IPod smiled and asked him what the score was. "989,590" he said with pride. The one that asked whistled before telling him that he was close to breaking the world record of 1,254,690; she seemed impressed. "Getting closer and closer everyday" he said with a smile before he remembered something. Putting on his goggles, he entered his name for his score. "T-BRD" he spoke as the letters flashed on the screen of his goggles. He took off the goggles as he noticed us, a smile on his face.

"Welcome to Rio University! To what do we owe the pleasure of you coming to this school?" I asked them. "We all heard of this schools engineering program" The one with the book said. "Before we get started, can we know your names?" Jewel asked them; I guess she was curious as well, because she also asked for their ages.

"My name is Carla and I am sixteen" the chubby one said. "I am Tiago and I am fourteen" the one that played Pac man said; I was blown away at their ages. "My name is Bia and I am twelve" the one with the laptop told us; I nearly passed out with shock when I heard that. "There is no way" was all I got to say before they all shot me a glare that said 'shut up or we will make you'. I shut my beak and took a step back nervously, deciding to shut up from now on. "Okay! Let's get started with the tour shall we?" Jewel said after a moment of awkward silence.

As we walked out of the building, the new students told us they already knew their way around the campus. "Okay. Out of curiosity, what classes do you have?" I asked them. "Since we all want to stay together, we decided to take every engineering class this school has to offer" Bia explained. "Great! See you three around then" I and Jewel told them as we flew away, minds blown from what we saw.

Chapter one: Bia

I and my siblings made our way back into the lodging area to get our rooms. We lined up from oldest to youngest, our height going down as well. "Name please?" the receptionist asked Carla. "Carla Dove" my sister told the lady. After checking the database, she told her that she would be in room 102. "Thank you" Carla said as she got the key to her dwelling. "Next" the lady said. "Tiago Dove" my brother said before the lady could ask. Looking at the screen, she told him he had room 103. "Great!" Tiago said excitedly as he got the key. "Bia Dove" I told her kindly. As she looked up my room number, she asked me how old I was. "I am twelve years old" I told her; her eyes flew open from what I said, her mind clearly blown. "Your room is 101. Here is your key" she told me as she handed the key to me. Noticing her accent, I decided to surprise her further. "Xièxiè shànliáng de nǚrén" I told the woman with a bow; when I looked up, she bowed back.

I walked back over to the 100-199 hall to see my brother and sister waiting at their room doors. "Okay guys, do we want our parents to bring the project we worked on all summer; you know, the one that we each built one for us" Carla asked me and Tiago. I and Tiago exchanged a look before breaking out in grins, knowing that the projects would make the teachers here cry. "Most definitely!" I exclaimed as Carla took out her phone (She built it herself) and spoke her command to call mom and dad; all of her works were voice activated, so they would only work for the three of us. As she spoke to our parents, Tiago put on his goggles and started to play a game; from the sound, I guess he was loading up Centipede; he really liked the classics.

After a minute of talking, Carla hung up and told us that our parents would be here tomorrow; someone else will be controlling the third one. I and my siblings made our way into our rooms; Tiago had stopped his game when he noticed Carla was done talking to our parents. I immediately loved my room as soon as I walked in; it was fantastic! In my room, I had a bed that could have slept my family comfortably, a desk with a computer (which I doubted I would use), a window looking out to the main field of the campus (I could already see parties being held there), a mini fridge and a doorway leading to my own bathroom. I made my way to my bed and placed my book bag on it, its weight not being missed. I decided to go to The Canteen, as it was lunch time. Opening my bag, I took out my purse and put it over my shoulder; I had sold one of my works to a company (Sony I think) and had gotten quite a bit of money from it; mind you, I had put 99% of it in savings, but I kept $2000 dollars in case I needed it at the house. I had put $300 dollars in my purse before we left, knowing that it would be enough to last till the holidays. I walked out of my room, Carla soon doing the same. "Going to The Canteen?" Carla asked me; I saw that she had her purse, a brown leather one. "Yes I am. I guess you are as well?" I asked her. "Yes I am as a matter of fact" Carla said before her stomach growled, her face blushing a slight red as I chortled to myself. "Let's go!" I told her as we continued our way to The Canteen.

We reached the building three minutes later, our stomachs rumbling at the sight of food. "Meet back at that table?" Carla asked me as she pointed to said table. Nodding, we went to separate lines; Carla went to a line that served Subway while I went to a line that sold snack foods with salads. As I moved up the line, I saw a group of jocks make their way over to the line I was in, no doubt for the snack foods. I grabbed a tray as they reached me, talking about soccer or something like that; I really did not care for sports that much. "Hey, what are you doing in line? Only students and teachers are allowed to eat here" one of them said in a really stuck up tone; I silently cursed him as I ignored him. I reached for a bag of my favorite chips as the jock from before turned me around, startling me from the closeness of his face to mine. "I said only students and teachers are allowed to eat here" he said in a relatively pissed off voice. With a stuttering voice, I told him that I was a student. "Yeah right" he sneered as he pushed me to the ground, causing me to lose my grip on my chips as I fell. "Why did you" I said angrily before he slapped me, immediately causing tears to form from the force of the hit. "Don't speak that way to me you bitch!" he said as he hit me. I started to cry as all three of them attacked me, laughing at my misery.

One grabbed my purse and was about to open it when I heard my saviors voice. "Hey! What the hell are you doing to my sister you jackasses!?" he yelled as he approached us. "Look guys, another one" the head one said with a sneer. "Pick on someone your own size: as a matter of fact, pick on me you cowards" Tiago said while eyeing all three of them; the head one squawked with rage as he flew at my brother, the other two holding me down as if to make sure I did not escape. The bully was twice as tall as Tiago, but that did not matter; when my brother was angry, there was no stopping him. Tiago smirked when the bully moved to punch him, the attack coming an inch from his face before my brother seemed to disappeared into thin air. Before the bully knew what happened, a leg swept under him and caused him to fall down. The bully quickly recovered, getting up to glare at my brother who stood there with a bored look on his face. "Is that your best? I had more time to react than a snail dogging a motionless brick" Tiago told him; this got a pissed off hiss from the bully as he swung again. With a yawn, Tiago dogged the attack and retaliated with a move of his own; a punch to the stomach. Gasping from the force of the blow, the bully fell to his knees holding his stomach; Tiago then punched him in the face, forcing the bully onto his back with a bloody nose. I cheered my brother on, hopping he would show no mercy. After a swift kick to the bullys privates, he eyed the other two as he stood in a karate stance, asking them if they were ready to fight. The two tried to run away, but my brother caught them. He fought swiftly as Carla ran over to me and picked me up, asking if I were alright. "I'm fi-OWW!" I yelled when my sister touched my wing, it feeling horrible and filled with pain. When my sister looked at it, she cursed in Spanish four times; my wing had a cut on it that was bleeding slightly, but getting worse. On my wing were several brusies, each one making my feathers a darker shade of blue.

At that moment, Tiago walked over to us, dusting off his wings like they were dirty; I guess in a way, they were. "Why did they-what the hell!" he yelled when he saw my wounds; glancing back at the bullies with the devil in his eyes. "Tiago! I have to take her to the nurse; get her something to eat please" Carla told Tiago urgently. After telling him what I wanted, I and my sister made our way to the nurses office; I cried the whole time there. When we landed, Carla carried me on her back to the office, running as fast as she could. "My sister needs help!" she shouted when we entered the office, her voice shaking slightly. A nurse ran forward, her yellow eyes flashing with concern. "Put her on bed one" the nurse told Carla when she saw my wounds, a determined spark in her eyes. Carla did just that, whispering comfortably that it was going to be alright as the nurse approached us with a first aid kit. The nurse stood on the left side of my bed as she opened the kit. "Okay dear; I am going to need you to open your wing for me" the nurse told me. Whimpering with discomfort, I did as she said, knowing that it would only be for my own good. Carla never left my side as the nurse worked on my wing, holding my good wing as she comforted me, telling me that it was going to be fine. I cried out as tears fell down my face; the nurse had put disinfectant on it, making the wound sting a lot. She then began to bandage the wound tightly to make sure that nothing would get in it, telling me that she was done when she finished. Taking out a ice-pack, she told me that I would need to put this on my brusies for at least a hour to help with the healing.

"You can stay here all you need" the nurse said as Tiago walked in the room, a sealed container in his wings; in the container was a salad, a bag of chips, a soda and a chocolate bar, all of which were my favorite. On his shoulder was my purse, in the same condition as I left it. Tiago made his way over to us, a smile on his face that spoke a thousand words. "Here is your food dear sister" Tiago said as he handed her the container of food; he put my purse on another chair, claiming that it had everything in it. "What did you do to the bullies?" I asked as I opened my container, the food smelling fresh and enticing. "I went two more rounds with them, making them pay tenfold for the pain they caused you. Also, I threatened them in German, making sure that they will never mess with you again; I am pretty sure I sounded like a terrorist back there" Tiago told us with a thoughtful look. I smiled my gratitude. "Do you know if anyone recorded the fight?" Carla asked. "Yeah; about ten birds were recording me wiping the floor with them, cheering me on as I did so" Tiago told us. "I hope it goes viral; those crap-heads deserve to be humiliated" I said as I ate, the food tasting great.

We all talked for a while, discussing what we should do about the bully situation. "I can teach you how to defend yourself, after you get better of course" Tiago offered; with six years of karate, I was pretty sure he could. I nodded, knowing that I may need it later on. The nurse soon told my siblings that I needed rest if I were going to get better. "See you later" Carla told me as they both walked out of the office, closing the door behind them.

I finished eating my lunch a few minutes later, savoring every bite. I threw the container in the trash as I heard a faint scream, as if it were coming from far away. Shrugging it off, I put the ice pack on my wing, the cold feeling good. A few minutes later the three bullies from before were carried in here on stretchers; all of them looking horrible, but the head one looked the worst. I felt anger at them rise first, but then a warm feeling washed over me; they got what was coming to them. "What happened to them?" the nurse from before exclaimed, her eyes filled with worry. Before the birds that could answer, I told her with a smug look on my face. "Those three were beating me up because they thought I was not a student eating at The Canteen, thinking that they and teachers could only eat there. They were laughing at me when my brother, Tiago, showed up. When he saw what they were doing to me, he yelled at them to pick on him instead; he is half their size, as am I. When that one moved to attack Tiago, all hell broke loose; sorry for my cursing. My brother took on all three of them at once, never once being hit in any form, as you saw" I told the nurse.

Nodding, she told me that I have a good brother. "Yes I do" I said happily. Taking a second look, I noticed that the head bullies leg was at a unnatural angle: I guessed that Tiago had broken it (how I did not know). After the nurse patched them up as best she could (she even put a cast on the one with the broken leg), she told them that they would have to stay here for a few weeks, maybe even a month or two. The bullies looked over to me as I smiled at all of them, making them squawk with fear as they moved as far away from me as they could; this caused me to smile bigger.

I talked with the nurse for the hour I was there, learning a little about her as she did with me. The nurses name was Julie and she was thirty seven, a little young for me. She loves to work with children; she wanted a elementary school position, but they gave her this one. Julie also plays the violin in her spare time, something that I would like to hear; she says that she used to play for a band back in her days as a teenager.

I told her about me in exchange, telling her about my life and about my family. Julie was interested about my parents the most, thinking that our parents were proud of us getting into college at such a young age; I was sad to tell her that she was wrong. "Our parents have this… crazy idea that being too smart is a burden, almost as if it was a bad thing. The only time they have ever been proud about us being smart was when we repaired things around the house, from a bad light switch to the T.V's around the house. When they realized our gift, they started to ask us to build them things that would have us brought to area 51 for testing. We have built them jetpacks, x-ray goggles and our personal favorite, invisibility devices that allow them to become 100% invisible at the press of a button. When we could not build them a operational cloning device they disowned us, saying that we were not good enough to be there children. So, after many tests, we managed to get ourselves here" I told her, struggling to hold back tears at the last part; we had loved them, but apparently, that was not good enough for them.

Noticing my sadness, the nurse left me in peace, a grim smile on her face; little did I know that she was about to do something that would cause pain later on. When I felt better, I left the office after telling her thanks for her time as I grabbed my purse. Smiling at me, she wished me good health and a swift recovery. I flew to my room, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I landed in the lodging building as I saw my siblings in the lobby; also in there were a lot of other birds that seemed worried about something. Carla noticed my entry and announced it to everyone in the room, smiling like I was coming home for the first time in years. "Bia!" all of the birds in the room exclaimed as they made their way over to me, seeming relieved. "It's good to see you back in action" a sophomore told me, his eyes sparkling with a light of their own. "You had us worried!" another one said, her voice sounding very motherly like. With a smile, I told them that I did not mean to do that to them. I laughed when a blue and gold macaw asked me where the bullies were. "Ask my brother; he will tell you what happened to them" I told him as everyone turned to my brother expectantly, glad to be out of the center of attention; I never really liked the spotlight. Tiago started to tell the tale, even reenacting some of the parts.

I made my back to my room stealthily, hopping that no one noticed me escape. I was turning the key to my door when a scarlet macaw made his way over to me, a rather weird look on his face. I watched him wearily, my wing on the doorknob if I needed to get in my room quickly. "Hi there!" he said with a voice that triggered a memory of mine that caused me to scream at the top of my lungs.

My siblings were the first ones in the hall, each one wearing a look of concern; they only heard me scream twice, once for the incident and the other when a spider crawled out of my sandwich at a restaurant. "What happened?" Carla asked me with worry before glancing at the macaw, a suspicious look in her eyes. "He reminded of… of… him" I told her while shaking, my pupils contracting to dots. My sister glared at the macaw while my brother stood in front of me in a defensive karate stance, flames in his eyes. "I advise you leave our sister alone" Carla told him as she looked into his eyes, her own flashing disbelief as if she recognized something. "enfermo hijo de puta! que iban a violar a mi hermana! Manténgase alejado de ella!" my sister told him in rapid fire Spanish after she slapped him, the hit landing hard enough for all to feel.

The bird left holding his cheek, glaring at my sister as he did so. When he was out of the hall, my siblings turned to me and asked if I were alright. Nodding, I told them that I just wanted to be alone. With a understanding look, they left me in peace. I turned the doorknob to my door and walked into my room, ready to got to sleep despite it being five in the afternoon. I threw my purse against my bed as a few tears fell, the traumatizing experience still fresh in my mind. I crawled underneath the blankets, away from my window. I soon fell asleep, unaware that my siblings were watching me.