I woke up as Miss Seleca shook me. "Up and at 'em," she whispered. "Breakfast in 20." It reminded me of a better time. It was the exact same thing Max said the morning I was- nevermind. It's too complicated to explain. I sat up, hitting my head on the ceiling as Miss Seleca made the rounds in my dorm room. I would never get used to that.

Our dorm consisted of 10 people, all wearing the same flannel gray pajamas. I knew one or two of them better than others, but they were all great friends. Who wouldn't be best buds with them after seven years?

Each of the girls was the same age as me, 7, and we had slept in this same room from age six.

The room consisted of five bunk beds, two closets, and a bathroom with a miniscule shower. This didn't really matter to me, as I was only four foot nine. A miniscule shower for a miniscule person.

I wasn't always so tiny for my age. I used to be pretty tall, actually. But when puberty came I was changed in...different ways.

Instead of acne, or growing spurts, I stopped growing and one of my powers went out of control. You see, I can change my appearance. But my eye color is not up to me anymore. It changes every morning, so I can never know what will come next.

Today they were violet. Not exactly a natural color. Sometimes my eyes did that. Some people have blue eyes, or brown eyes, or green eyes, but I have purple eyes. Lucky me.

Hailei and Em, my two best friends, did not fail to notice this. In fact, they were the ones to point it out. "Hey Angel, you're eyes are kind of-" Hailei was cut off by Em, who finished with "Purple today."

"Really? At least they're not pink anymore. That was sooo weird," I sid. They nodded in agreements. The rest of the girls, Remy, Lucelia, Vicky, Eleanor, maya, Liz and Cathie were waking up now. We all know each other's secrets, ALL of them, and were as close as close could be.

Miss Seleca exited the room, and 80% of us were wide awake by then. Namely, all of us who hit our heads on the ceiling. I hoped the others would wake up soon, because we couldn't leave for breakfast until we were all dressed and ready. If not, all the fresh food in the cafeteria would be gone and I would be stuck with yesterday's porridge.

Miss Nelly's Home for Children was nicer than most orphanages, but it was still an orphanage. We still had no real parents and no real home.

Miss Nelly was a not-exactly-thin-as-a-stick woman who had a problem with makeup and an obsession with chocolate truffles (remind you of anyone?). She was fairly nice, but would still hit you with a ruler if you cussed or misbehaved (Fang always had a problem with that, so did Ig and Gaz).

My dorm mates and I filed into a line and briskly walked out the door. I was in the back, looking up at Hailei's head. I was about to tell her about my dream, but decided it would be better table conversation.

Lucelia led us down several flights of brick stairs. Our blue flats clicked loudly against the stone floor. Judging from the silence, we were either the first ones up or the last. Apparently is was the latter, because Miss Nelly cuffed us all on the ears the moment we walked into the cafeteria.

"You know what this means," she said snidely, sneering at us. "You have clean-up duty today. Then she looked down on me. "Except you." She walked away quickly, stopping only to say, "Meet me in my office after you finish breakfast. We have a special SURPRISE for you.

I swallowed slowly, walking towards the food line. Yesterday's porridge indeed.

TIME LAPSE

"Don't worry guys. If I don't come, the punishment will just be worse. I'll come back alive, maybe a bit bruised, but I'll be fine. I have to face it sometime," I comforted my friends. There were many whines of protest, but I just said, "See ya," and strode out of the room.

I walked with my chin held high. I had endured years of merciless experiments and tests and needles poked into me. Surely I could endure a few brief moments of screaming and slapping

Still not sure what I was being punished for, I carried on with a skip in mystep. THE SOONER I GET THIS OVER WITH, THE BETTER, I thought.

My wings shuffled a bit in the loose fabric of my dress. No, I'm not a fairy. Or an angel. Well, maybe a little bit. I grew up in a science lab called the School. I was lucky, as I was rescued by Jeb Batchelder. But the thing is, he kind of betrayed us and kidnapped me. The rest of my family-or Flock-came to save me, but their mission never succeeded. Max died a few weeks later.

I escaped at one point with Fang Iggy Gazzy and Nudge, and we stumbled across an orphanage. We cautiously walked in. Maybe we could find someone who could love us for who we were eventually.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts of this, as if I could actually shake off thoughts by doing that. Finally, I reached Miss Nelly's door. The rest of the Flock was waiting outside. "Are we all in trouble?" I asked."

"I don't think so," Fang answered. He'd been really depressed since Max...you know. Out of all of us, he took the hardest hit from that.

"Will you all come in now?" Miss Nelly's voice came from inside her office.I straighened my dress and hair, only then turning the knob and leading the Flock inside.

A woman's unfamiliar thoughts ran by me. Something about a young boy my age and a large stone mansion, scattered with thoughts of two identical little boys. I stopped my mind from wandering into her head. Long ago had I realized that invading someone's privacy was not the correct thing to do. Only once in a while, for fun, would I allow the random thoughts to swirl around my head.

As we entered the room, I noticed several unusual things. Miss Nelly was smilling, her desk was actually ORGANIZED, and there was a blonde-haired woman sitting in the seat across from hers. I took one look at Miss Nelly's face and without reading her thoughts I could already tell that she had been saying some nasty things about us.

The unfamiliar woman turned around in her chair, grinning pleasantly. "Nick, Jeff, Zephyr, Krystal, Angel," the orphanage owner said said slowly. "I would like you to meet your new adoptive mother."