Our Lives
January. The start of a new year, new resolutions, and new beginnings. Yippee. Basically, I'm just glad all of us survived another year. Another year of beating up Erasers, running for our lives, and escaping nasty situations. Fun…
"Do you have a two?" asked Iggy again.
Gazzy gave a long sigh.
"Yes…" he muttered, begrudgingly handing over another card.
"I win. Again," declared Iggy for probably the fifth time.
We were currently in a sweet hotel room that I had purchased with another one of my mysterious but handy credit cards that we had found this time half under the snow.
However, I hadn't let anyone out of this room since we got in it. I'm not trying to coop them up or anything but seriously.
I haven't had a rest in forever.
So, relaxing in a suite was a pretty nice deal, something that comes about once a year knowing our lives, and I wanted to enjoy it.
"Maaaxx…I'm bored," whined Gasman, gathering up the cards for another game.
"Here's an idea. Why don't you play something else other than Go Fish?"
Gazzy pondered over this for a moment.
"Hm…Bet I can beat Iggy at charades."
Iggy rolled his eyes.
I tried not to let my mood show as the flock and I slipped past the crowd into an elevator, trying to escape out of the frenzied mob of people, ready to start celebrating the New Year. I had promised the flock to spend a little time wandering the streets, shopping (Nudge made me), eating (Gazzy's request) and "exploring the concrete jungle" (definitely Total's quote) And so, being a magnificently great leader, I agreed.
"I feel like a sardine…" muttered Gazzy, as he shuffled around in the elevator, squeezed between Iggy and me.
The packed elevator rattled my nerves more than ever. Claustrophobic already, I was now crammed against several random strangers, a living nightmare. An elevator suddenly seemed like a disastrous idea.
One, I could suffocate. Two, the elevator might get jammed and we'd starve to death. Three, I could be beside an Eraser right now and I couldn't even turn my head to look at him, much less attack. Four…
"Psst. Max," whispered Nudge. "You're muttering again."
I was suddenly jolted into reality and realized the strange and worried looks I was attracting that clearly said "what-the-heck-is-she-taking?". Complete silence filled the elevator as the uncomfortable quiet stretched longer and longer. Really…really…quiet. Awkkkward. Only the elevator music filled in the emptiness.
And the weather outside was frightful…Frightful. That was one way to put it.
Ding!
The little bell threw everyone back into their normal pattern as the crowd scurried to get out of the elevator. And probably to get away from me.
"Well. You sure know how to kill a mood, Max," said Fang, on the verge of grinning.
I gave him a shuddup-right-now look before we headed outside.
Snow thickly layered the ground and the chattering of excited people filled my ears.
"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!" sang Nudge loudly.
"Where to first?"
But before I got a chance to answer, loud music with the rhythmic tapping of several feet caught our attention and I turned around to see a large line of dancing people, laughing and smiling while moving to the music. The women tossed their feather boas around while the men flipped their hats in the air. For a moment we stared in awe at their perfect synchronization, just admiring their dance. They passed us quickly, still tapping up and down the street. Nudge broke the silence.
"Could we…"
"No."
"We would be the first avian Americans to start our own—"
"NO."
"Oh Max…
"When I grow my third leg, we can. But until then, no. Never."
Fang chimed in.
"Max dancing? With her balance, she's going to need a third leg."
I turned to give him an icy stare while Nudge chuckled.
Suddenly, something purple caught my eye. And seriously, this thing was bright purple, if that's even possible. I found myself face to face with a colorful frumpy snowman beside the light pole, its carrot nose staring me down.
"Ooh!" squealed Nudge. "Look, he even has little mitten things!"
She pointed at long purple socks draped on the snowman's stick arms.
"And check out this sweet hat!" cried Gazzy excitedly.
"I love this pretty scarf. It's so soft! Feel it, Max!" said Angel.
The rest of the flock then began to fawn over the snowman's "fabulous sense of fashion" according to Nudge. And then I was suddenly aware of a sweet large pair of puppy dog eyes in front of mine.
"Max….please…we never get to have clothes like these….and its only a snowman…in the middle of nowhere."
"Well…this is almost like stealing…" My conscious twitched.
"Oh right," Iggy cut in. "Because, you know, this poor defenseless snowman might freeze to death or something. Heaven forbid the little guy get hypothermia after this cruel deed," he said dramatically with a hand to his forehead.
I rolled my eyes and sighed. "The rest of you ok with this?"
Fang shrugged. "Only if I get the socks."
This little incident ended up with six mutant bird kids plus one dog, each of us wearing at least one purple article of clothing, strolling down the street. Yes, we got some interesting stares, but by this time, we're all used to it.
"Nice hat," sneered a random boy, snickering at Gazzy's bright purple hat.
All right. Just because I said we were used to odd stares did not mean you get to mess with my flock.
"Yeah, nice socks. Wanna make sure they actually match next time?" I snapped.
The surprised bully quickly glanced down and I took this as an opportunity to give him a nice shove. He stumbled backwards, quickly losing his balance and almost landing flat out on his back. The rest of us laughed as the boy quickly walked away, avoiding eye contact, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like "ducking glass hole."
"Hey, Max," whispered Angel, tugging at my sleeve.
"Yes, sweetheart?"
"Max, what's that mean?"
"…Nothing, sweetheart."
Continuing on our journey through the snow, my mind wandered as we trudged down the street. Most of us were too busy laughing and trying to catch a snowflake on our tongue. Most of us, meaning everyone but me.
My paranoia and sulky mood at not being able to stay in our cozy safe hotel room was still irking me but I tried to put on a lovely, and also very fake, smile. However, I was given absolutely no time to sulk when I was suddenly pelted with a freaking COLD snowball.
I couldn't help letting out a small pathetic squeak after being doused in freezing water. I flipped around, eyes glaring for a culprit. Fang, doubled over laughing, was undoubtedly the one who threw the snowball.
"Y…y…you…" I shivered violently.
"Ooh. Icy. Frigid. Hard core. I like it," grinned Fang, preparing another snowball.
My hair dripping wet, the wind bitterly whipping against my frozen face, I swear I had icicles hanging off my nose.
"Don't. You. D…dare." I chattered through shivering teeth, as snarky as possible, which really wasn't much.
"Or what? You'll stutter at me?"
He laughed again.
"Like a little chipmunk! M…M…Max the chip—"
A snowball thrown at the speed of light thwacked him in the face mid sentence. This time it was my turn to laugh.
"Oh, all right. Now it's war."
Boys against girls, snowballs flying everywhere, we had a quick little snow fight, resulting in all of us soaked to the skin with cold wet slush.
"Using my superior logic, I conclude that going back to our warm cozy hotel room would be a great idea right now," I suggested, shivering.
Fang nodded and said, "I call— "
"I call first shower!" I blurted out, cutting off Fang's sentence.
"Hey! I called it first!"
"Fine. First one in the room gets it!"
"Not if I can beat you there!"
And suddenly, all of us simultaneously shot toward the hotel room, racing towards the door. Sprinting up the stairs, Fang had the lead and he turned back to smirk at me. That was his big mistake. His foot missing the final stair step, I got a brief glance at him tripping over his own feet before I skid to a stop in front of our hotel room.
"Ha! I win!"
"You tripped me!"
"I did not. Don't blame me that you're clumsy!"
"You—"
Both of us stopped and turned around at Iggy, who was already inside the bathroom, grinning at us like an idiot.
"See ya guys later!" he laughed before sliding inside and locking it firmly shut.
A chilly silence fell as Fang and I both stood there, freezing.
"Great," I muttered as the rest of the flock came through the door. I flipped on the TV while waiting, still glaring furiously at Fang who was directing his glare toward the bathroom door as if trying to shoot laser beams through it.
"Where'd Iggy go?" asked the Gasman.
I jerked a stiff finger at bathroom door.
"Oh! Oh crap…I left them in the bathtub!" yelped Gazzy, leaping toward the door.
My questioning stare was suddenly answered when we heard a soft muffled boom.
I stared at Fang helplessly as he gave a tired shrug.
"…I don't even wanna know."