Ella's Other Side
Part 4
"Good Morning Ella," said her mom.
"Hi" Ella said as she walked into the lobby of the hotel. Everybody was sitting at a table eating breakfast. Ella looked around the room to see who was already awake. Max was probably still asleep, since she wasn't at any of the tables.
Ella smelled coffee and couldn't resist. So, she went up to the counter where all the food was sitting and got herself a cup of warm coffee. Most kids her age didn't drink coffee, which she didn't understand. She loved how it would just wake you up in a matter of a few minutes. Usually in the mornings, Ella practically got dressed, and did her hair, with her eyes closed. Yet, she still turned out looking better than max. Ella hated the fact that whenever she woke up, she felt like crud. sometimes she wished she could be like angel and just wake up, happy and full of life.
Ella sat down on the big soft chair in the middle of the lounge and listened to the news that was playing on a big flat screen up on the wall.
It was broadcasting a story about the air show that had gone on the night before in the staples center.
uh-oh... thought Ella. eh... it's probably no big deal... i doubt they caught me and fang hugging... they probably just interviewed my mom or something.
But she was wrong. As the picture-perfect lady appeared on the screen talking with an intense voice she said, "The CSM came to Los Angeles today to perform an air show, with the somewhat in-famous, genetically mutated children with wings."
somewhat infamous? she said. the crowd loved them last night! maybe, the flock's not really as cool as they think they are. Ella let herself give a little grin then quickly took a sip of her hot coffee.
The newscaster 'passed on the story' to a handsome guy, she called 'Bob'. he was the same as her, obviously wearing too much make-up and with a huge, ear to ear, smile. "Thank you Rachel. Yes... infamous was the word she used, folks. these bright eyed children trying to make a difference in the world may seem like they are tying to help the planet, but for some reason, is there something hidden behind the scenes of their shows?" he said. OMG. OMG. OMG. Please don't talk about me... thought Ella.
The TV turned to a city street with another broadcaster holding a microphone up to a fat lady who had been at the show.
"Well, while I was at the CSM's Air Show, I noticed how there were these strange looking people sitting in the stands. And they all looked exactly alike. like secret service or something. i would find it strange that these five young children would need security guards taking up perfectly good seats."
"interesting," said the broadcaster. "so that brings the question, why would these young, mutant bird kids need white-house quality security?"
then an adult male came up to the microphone and said, "I'm not really sure about that, but i was at a Dallas cowboy's football game about a year ago, and i remember seeing these exact kids show up on the big screen. they were really beat up, and looked as if they had been living as run-aways for months." he said."then, for some reason, all the security guards all around the stadium went in their direction and the bird kids suddenly, just FLEW AWAY!" he said. "they were definitely running from something."
OMG. these people are so weird... they're taking stupid little incidents and turning them into a huge deal as if these bird kids have a secret to hide. but they don't! duh! they're just 'real people' according to the show... i wonder if they've got somebody from the show where the dumb-bots attacked the stadium. thought Ella.
well... they didn't. After the broadcast ended, Ella realized that everybody in the flock, and the CSM were gathered around the lounge area listening to what was just on the news.
then, all of a sudden, Gazzy and Iggy started laughing their guts out. everybody turned to look at them, until fang went over and banged their heads together to get them to shut up.
"what did you guys do..." he said between gritted teeth.
"we didn't do nothing!... "said Gazzy.
"yeah, we just can't believe how paranoid these people are about us being mutant bird kids... i guess some people are just too stupid to realize that those weren't security guards, they were dumb-bots." said Iggy.
"YOU GUYS KNEW THERE WERE DUMB-BOTS AT THE SHOW AND DIDN'T TELL ANYBODY ABOUT IT!" said Max. she stomped over to Fang and Gazzy and virtually had smoke coming out of her ears.
"INNOCENT PEOPLE COULD'VE GOTTEN HURT!"she said.
"well Max... we only didn't tell because we didn't want anything to cause distraction or cancel the show... we can kick dumb-bot butt any time... we decided we would wait until they made a move, but they never did. so we guessed it was okay."
"NO! IT'S NOT! NOW THEY PROBABLY HAVE SOMETHING... I DON'T KNOW WHAT... BUT SOMETHING THAT THEY WERE THERE TO GET THAT WILL HELP THEM DESTROY US!"
Gazzy and Iggy looked stunned, surprised that they didn't think about it this way, but then they realized "what could've that possibly been? i mean really... we have nothing to hide!"
"I don't know, but for all we know now, Mr. Chu himself could've been inside the stadium!" said Max.
"C'mon max... relax... I'm sure if he was, we would've found out. He would've DEFFINITELY made a move."said Gazzy.
"Ummm... Max?" said Angel
"Hang on a bit, Angel..." Max said.
"But-"
"Not now, Angel!"
Angel turned around and gave Ella a majorly-angry pout.
Angel's golden curls had caught Ella's attention when she turned around.
"What?" Said Ella
"I don't know exactly why you're so angry, but keep your dirty thoughts to a limit about Max. You were thinking some pretty harsh stuff there, missy." bossed Angel.
Ella tried to think as little as possible at that moment... especially... well, you know what.
"Actually, no I don't." said Angel. "but I'm sure going to find out..."
Now you listen here you little brat, I'm not up to anything, me and Max just got into a big argument last night, but I just can't seem to get rid of my grudge. It doesn't matter though. We agreed we would never tell anybody about it. And I know, Max will be able to keep her thoughts to a limit, so don't try anything on her. You tell her about my grudge, and you can say good-bye to your innocent identity of a little girl. I can convince Max of Anything... watch me.
As Ella walked away, she realized that she had to be extra careful about what she thinks, because Angel was probably going to be stuck to her thoughts like gum on the bottom of a middle-school desk. And that wouldn't be good.
Trying to keep her mind distracted from her get together tonight, she asked her mom if it was okay if she could go looking around downtown LA. Her mom said yes, of course. Ella loves her mom, she lets Ella do all kinds of things most mom's would never say yes to. Probably because she's usually in the middle of talking with someone else, and just says yes to get the issue out of the way. Ella tried to remember the last time she actually got to talk with her mom, one on one.
So, Ella managed to slip out the spinning door of the hotel without Angel or any of the flock noticing.
"Finally!" she said as she let out a breath.
She looked down at her watch. It was just past noon. She slept in later than she had planned to. Therefore she had only 4 hours to get to her meeting place to see charlie.
Ella was very excited. She had been waiting for them to finally meet. They've been talking for quite a long time now, and she wanted to see him face to face.
As Ella navigated through the crazy, traffic-filled, streets of LosAngeles, the sun started moving from over-head to the west of the city.
Ella finally arrived at the pub where charlie told her to meet him, the other day.
Oh god... now what? thought Ella. She was at the door of a small bar called "Premier Pub", with a big-honkin' sign that said, NO ENTRANCE IF UNDER 21 YEARS OF AGE.
She thought for a second and wondered if Charlie wasn't 15 after all. What if he was over 21? Did he go to college in LA? That would be so cool.
Just as Ella decided to hang out across the street, a Man came up to the door. He was tall, tan, with blonde hair and blue eyes that could make any girl fall in 'love'. Well, luckily Ella wasn't the kind of girl that obsessed about pop stars and surfer dudes. She looked away and pretended as if he was a bag of trash... totally disgusting, across the street.
Ella was wearing her favorite dukes, with a tank top that had an E on it made of rhinestones with all kinds of sequins and swirls on it. She had her hair up in a little bun with the ends sticking out. She looked like she was dressed for a walk in the park, not hanging out by a bar, in a bad part of LA with a bunch of dudes staring at her. She didn't care though, she was used to adult men driving by slowly and turning around when they pass her. She always dressed a little skimpy. She was proud of her body, and she like to show it off. Hey... what's so wrong with that?
She saw the blonde dude exit the pub and walk to the street corner where he was in the beam of a street light. Well, okay... he is kinda hot... I'll give him that... thought Ella.
She saw him take out a cell phone and start pushing buttons. When he put it back in his jacket, her phone started vibrating in her back pocket. She got out her phone and saw there was a text message from charlie, she looked at the guy in the street corner and saw he was looking in her direction, but he had put sunglasses on, so she couldn't be positive.
It was almost dark now and she read the text message, it said: GLAD U COULD MAKE IT :). she looked up from the text and saw three big guys standing around her. They weren't drunk... she could tell. They didn't smell like they had been drinking anything, and they were standing steady. Plus, they didn't have any of the signs that usually gave it away like drooping eyes, slightly twitching muscles of their hands or face. Then the blonde dude showed up between a couple of the guys, and they moved to give him room. Ella, was almost squished against the wall, and could see that he had two beers in the pockets outside of his jacket. He put his hand on the wall above her head and leaned in close, the other guys surrounded them and faced outwards.
"Hi Ella, you're late...' he said. "The name's Charlie. I'm sure you've heard it before?"
"Yup," she said looking up at his eyes, but staring at him hard, sizing him up. She can look into deep blue eyes and avoid drowning. When she means business, she means business.
"You're one pretty young lady," he said. Then he snapped his finger above one of the other man's ear and the guy held a phone up and over his shoulder. The blonde guy took it and showed it to her.
"This is the phone you use from now on okay?" he said.
"sure, I guess." said Ella.
"Then, she heard a car pull up along the side of the street. The big guys opened up and surrounded Ella, with 'Charlie', in front. He got in the car along with Ella. The other guys didn't even bother to join them.
"Want a beer?" he said.
Ella tried to sneak a look at the person driving the car, but couldn't manage to do so, in time.
"Sure." she said, and gave him a little grin.
"So, you're the Charlie I've been waiting for huh?" she said as he handed her the opened beer bottle.
"No," he said. Ella turned to look at the man and tried not to look surprised. He didn't show any sign that she had done so, so she figured she managed to stay cool.
"Then, where is Charlie? And how'd you know my name?" she said. She took a sip of the beer and it tasted smooth and cool as it went down her throat. She took a couple more sips, delighted with the taste.
"good stuff huh?" he said looking at her face as she drank the beer.
"stop changing the subject" she said and looked him in the eye, she gave him her 'don't try to mess with me' look.
"I'm taking you to meet charlie, he lives in Seattle, at least, that's where he's living NOW." he said.
"That's cool. Do you know much about Charlie?" she said getting more comfortable in the seat of the car.
"Yes, he's a good... young man." he said. Ella noticed that the driver was a guy with some sort of ear piece in his ear, like the secret service usually wear on TV. She looked Mr. Perfect in the eye.
"so what's your real name?" she asked.
"My Name is Dylan" he said.
"Oh My! Dylan! Since when have you gotten so big! You must be what... 7? 8 months old now?" she asked. Now she felt safe to fall into his eyes. She gave him a big smile and hugged him.
"I miss the old times, Ella. They want me to join the flock now... get rid of fang..." he said, Ella took off her seat belt and leaned into his arms. Dylan, of course was another bird kid. He was created less than a year ago, and Ella got to see him once he fully matured about 4 months into his life. At least that's what they had told her. He looked a lot more mature now...
"But isn't it my job to get rid of fang?" she asked and gave a soft laugh, as Dylan wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead.
Ella took another sip of bear and held it up for Dylan so he could have some, then caught the drops he missed after they dribbled off his chin.
"They want to give you a break for a while... plus... I need to work on my flying." he said.
Dylan pulled Ella onto his lap, and they leaned in close and spoke to each other softly between kisses. She loved Dylan so much, he felt like he was Ella's other half... the missing piece to everything she had broken in her life.
The car stopped, and they were at the LosAngeles, airport, but by all the private jets, instead of the public terminal.
"I got us a plane, he said... And we'll be alone..." he said.
"No body guards?" she asked.
"yeah, just me, and you..." he said... he carried her onto the plane like he did before. She rubbed her hand across his arm. He'd gotten a lot stronger since last time she'd seen him.
"They've built you up well," she said. "You're really strong," she said.
When they entered the plain she saw that there were, no seats, just a bed. She looked at Dylan, and saw that sexy little grin he puts on his face when he's in the mood to 'have fun'.
He set her down on the bed, and she finished typing up a text to her mom saying that she's all right, and not to worry. She lied, saying that she had met a couple of friends and they were willing to let her sleep with them, until tomorrow.
But as Ella read her mom's reply, she started crying-OK... TELL THEM YOU'LL NEED TO STAY FOR A COUPLE MORE WEEKS, MAX AND I ARE ON OUR WAY TO AFRICA.
"What's wrong?" said Dylan. They were both laying down on the huge, soft bed together, he was leaning in close and hugging her trying to get her to calm down.
"My mom only cares about Max! She's going to freaking Africa with her OTHER daughter, and now I have nowhere to go after this." she said. She felt lost, abandoned.
"It's okay," Dylan whispered in her ear, "you've got me, and Charlie." He pulled her in even closer. "you're the luckiest girl in the world right now because of that..." Then he kissed her. She felt his warm lips, felt their tongues meet, she loved the way he kissed, she loved how her body fit like a missing puzzle piece into Dylan's. They didn't go as far as she wanted to last time. Maybe now, he'll make her sorrow go away, by going to the limit. Tonight. In this bed. With her. She needed someone she could trust in her life, and Dylan was it. She wanted to be a part of Dylan.
"And I want to be part of you too," he whispered as he slowly unbuttoned her dukes.
"Forever?" asked Ella.
"Forever," said Dylan.