the song was All-American Girl by Carrie Underwood in the prolouge. (= here is chapter one. i will most likely get two, probably three, and maybe four up tonight. no promises on 4, though. two and three, i can guarentee. (= right now, they're really not much different at all, except i split this chapter up because it was sooo long and had a good place to split it. it's still long, this part of it anyways. but, the point is, later on, things SHOULD get really different. oh, and btw, something you might not notice is i've changed what she can do, because i don't want her to be TOO powerful. if she's too powerful, she's invincible, right?

**EDIT** Taylor's name has been changed to Alex, because somebody I know named Taylor has done something that pisses me off, to the point I want him to fucking disappear. now every time i see his name, i get pissed all over again, so i had to change it. sorry.

Your friends all plead for you to stay
Sometimes beginnings aren't so simple
Sometimes goodbye's the only way

And the sun will set for you
The sun will set for you
And the shadow of the day
Will embrace the world in grey
And the sun will set for you

*Ari*

"Come on, Daddy," I teased before springing from the ground in a stealthy, ninja like way and tackling him. "You're losing again."

He landed with an oof, and the snow covered his black hair like glitter sprinkled over a glue covered piece of paper. Snow flew up, sprinkling me too. He rolled around to where he was on top of me, and I laughed blissfully before flinging him off, a good distance away.

How was it we always seemed to go from playing football to wrestling?

He pinned me against the ground with a grin, but that wasn't enough for me, not by a long shot. I kicked him off effortlessly, and he hit a tree trunk with his shoulder, snapping it out of place. Other than that, he just landed on the ground on his stomach.

I came and jumped on him, laughing again. We played like this all the time, and each time, the fun never seemed to wear down.

Is it weird to say I loved playing with my dad more than I did my mom? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Momma. She's awesome, especially during those awkward sex talks, or the monthly "gift" talk. She was amazing during those, because it meant I didn't have to talk about those things with Daddy. I mean, she's amazing all the time, but there's something about Daddy.

What can I say? I'm a Daddy's girl.

Alex jumped down from the tree Daddy had hit, laughing. His hair was the same light blonde color as Momma's, and his eyes were a beautiful, pure emerald color. "You two are insane."

I jumped up with a grin on my face. "Yep."

He lightly hit my arm. "So, little sis, you pumped? Tomorrow's the big day, in more than one way."

I grimaced. "Alex, don't remind me."

"Yeah," Daddy muttered as he stood up. "Me either. My kids are turning sixteen. How do you think that makes me feel?"

"The big year," Momma agreed as she jumped down the tree behind Alex, the same tree he had been in.

I jumped back a little in surprise at her presence too. "Geezums! When did you two get up there? How long have you been up there?"

Momma laughed. "Ari, we always watch you two wrestle and play football from the trees, remember?"

"Well, obviously not, because every time she asks the same question, and it freaks her out," Alex pointed out, laughing to himself as he thought back to some previous times.

"She definitely got the blondeness from her mom," Daddy muttered under his breath, popping his shoulder back into place with a slight wince.

Momma shot him a dark look that we all understood, and he shrugged innocently.

"I've got all mine still."

"Can't argue that," Momma agreed before hugging him. "Nah, Fang, you're smart...sometimes."

"Can't say I agree," Uncle Iggy said as he walked out. He had his little girl Marie on his back, smiling brightly as she saw us, her ice blue eyes twinkling. She was just two, but her strawberry blonde hair was in French braided pigtails that went four inches past shoulder length. Her bangs were covering her eyes.

She's only two percent avian hybrid, since it was her dad only at first. In my parents' case, since they both were, they made a four percent hybrid.

As awkward as this is saying, Ella still reproduces like a human, despite the light brown wings growing out of her back to match Iggy's and the changes that have gone on inside of her.

For the most part, excluding Momma, only human females could have kids. Nudge and Angel couldn't.

"Me neither," Marie squealed blissfully before laughing. "Unkie Fangy's not smart."

Daddy frowned at her. "Hey, little missy. I don't think your opinion was asked of here."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "So?"

He laughed with the rest of us, but then, suddenly, his eyes moved over to me, while I was still laughing. Before I could stop and brace myself, he leapt and tackled me. "I win."

I kicked him off again, and he flew up into the tree, up high into the branches. "Nope. I still do."

Everyone was laughing now, but he jumped down from the tree and tackled me again, once again while I was still caught off guard.

We started rolling all over again. As we rolled, more and more snow covered us from head to toe. His hair looked mostly white now, and I was sure mine did, even though it was in a ponytail.

He disappeared suddenly, and I crossed my arms as I stood up. My eyes scanned the area around me hopelessly, and I just grunted.

"You're such a cheater!"

Oh yeah. He can move while invisible now.

I heard Daddy chuckle darkly behind me, and as I turned, he took off running again, going back to his invisible state.

"Two can play that game," I whispered under my breath as I set my hands on fire. See, it wouldn't hurt him if I didn't want it to. It would kill him, only if I wanted it to, and it would hurt him only as much as I wanted it to. So, it was very handy.

He appeared by the house, a frown on his lips. "Now, you wanna talk cheating…"

But, this time, before he could react, I tackled him rather gracefully. It sent him through the wooden porch and into the basement. He hit the ground with a loud thud, and panic shot through me.

"Oh my tigers," I said swiftly as I jumped up off him, eyes widened at the power of my own strength. Since when was I so strong? "Are you okay, Daddy?"

He laughed as he stood up. He looked up at the hole in the porch, which was a good ten feet above him, and then back to me. "I'm fine. You on the other hand..."

The four people, other than the two of us, who had been outside were looking down in the hole. The front door opened too, something I'm sure Daddy heard too.

People must've been trying to see what the commotion was.

Angel appeared next, a smug smirk on her lips. "Told you it was bound to happen!"

I stuck my tongue out at her. "It was Daddy's fault! He cheated!"

"Fang, Ari," Momma said disapprovingly as she crossed her arms stubbornly over her chest. "How do you two plan to fix this?"

We both looked at each other with humorous grins, and he rolled his eyes.

"Max, sweetie, you are forgetting one key thing here," Daddy reminded her, still grinning.

"And what would that be?" she asked angrily, eyes narrowed tightly.

There was a pile of stained wood to match the porch in the corner, just in case something like this ever happened or a board broke. Using my ability—I can control things, things like earth, wind, fire, water, objects, and minds—I moved the wood and some nails over, before any of them could blink, to where they were needed on the porch.

Daddy slapped me a high five. "Nice."

"You know," Momma said thoughtfully as she walked into the basement from upstairs. "Next time, I shouldn't let you cheat like that."

"Come on, Max," Daddy said as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "We were just kidding around. It's not like it was on purpose."

She pursed her lips. "Well, that is true." She sighed. "I guess she got that from her daddy."

"Got what?" I asked curiously.

Momma smiled at me. "You're always looking for fun. You don't like being mean to people. You're just a really great, caring person, and you just like being yourself. Well, your dad after we turned sixteen."

I shuddered. Whenever they referred to after we turned sixteen, that was their way of saying, after we mated.

"Geez, Momma," Alex said as he walked down. "Why do you two refer to that all the time?"

Momma laughed with a sheepish grin. "I was just stating the facts."

Daddy smirked at her. I just knew what he was about to say before he even said it.

"She can't keep it off her mind."

Momma instantly tightened her fists, jaw, and teeth as she spun around from facing Taylor to Daddy. Her eyes narrowed, and he just smirked. Then, he froze.

He was locked down here other than one entrance.

I looked at Alex and blinked once. He gave just the slightest nod, so slight Daddy wouldn't have noticed, and before he could react, we were out of there with the door locked.

"Aw, great!" Alex groaned once we were upstairs. "That didn't do what we had hoped! She didn't kill him!"

"Ick," I said as I stuck my tongue out in disgust, shuddering before I let myself really think about what was going on.

Alex could hear better than everyone else, and I was second. I could move faster than everyone, and he was second. He could see better than everyone, and I was second. I was stronger than everyone, and must I say it?

He was second.

So, in other words, he could hear exactly what was going on better than me. I couldn't really hear it, because the basement was sound proof for everyone except Alex and me. If I focused, though, I would be able to hear it.

I didn't want to focus.

The big day was tomorrow, the day I turn sixteen and my first day of school here in Montana.

I've lived in the South my entire life, literally! I've never had snow on a regular basis before. The farthest north I've been is the corner of Tennessee, and it only snowed on occasion there.

Unlike the rest of my family, I was pale. I didn't look like I was from the South. I sounded like it, also unlike any of them.

So, I had a year, starting tomorrow, to find someone to spend the rest of my existence with, forever and ever. I mean, how do you just find someone? How do you know? How will I know when he's the one?

I decided to get a shower, definitely hot, to get all of the melted snow and any not melted off. As I shut the bathroom door and looked in the mirror, I sighed.

It was the same as ever. If I did ever find the one, my mate, I would be stuck looking ugly forever. I look anorexic, dead, and ugly. I mean, sure, I had some color, but I wouldn't be shocked if some of the people here were more tan than me.

Another God-awful thing about me…my boobs are way too big for my taste. According to Nudge, Angel, Ella, Momma, and Alli, I've got a great body and I look perfect. All the guys, including Alex, which gets awkward, tell me I'm beautiful. It gets really awkward when Taylor says he doesn't have to worry about stashing weapons to keep guys away from my "amazingly perfect body" because he's got all he needs in his arms.

How awkward is that? He's my twin brother!

This time, Momma, Daddy, Iggy, Ella, Angel, Jesse, Gazzy, Nudge, Sean, and Alli weren't coming to school, because they just wanted a break. This time, it was just Alex and me. After this time of going to school, once we graduate, we have the option to go or just move and stay out of the world while the youngest two go to school.

So far, the only kid outside of Alex, Marie, and me is Gazzy and Alli have a little boy named Cory.

After taking a nice, relaxing, hot shower, I dried my midnight black naturally curly hair cut a couple of inches past my shoulders, put it in French braided pigtails, like I had decided to do for my first day, and I put on my pajamas. The diagonally parted to the right cut bangs I had were left down.

I walked out of the bathroom after washing my face and making sure I was ready for bed.

I ended up bumping in to Daddy, though, something I wasn't sure I wanted to do right now, although I love him more than anyone else.

He smiled down at me. "Hitting the hay?"

I just wordlessly nodded before looking down. "Daddy, I don't want to turn sixteen. I don't want to possibly have just one year left in life."

When he was silent for a long time, I had no choice but to look up. His face was twisted in pain, and he looked like he was about to cry. He probably was.

I sighed. "Daddy, I'm sorry. I'm just kinda nervous. This could turn out to be the best of many years, or the worst of the last year I've got. Did you have to worry about this? No. You didn't. You already had Momma, and you knew she was the one. Daddy, I've got no one. Taylor is the only one who knows how I feel. Angel, Gazzy, Nudge, Iggy...none of them had to worry. They always had someone before they turned sixteen. Alex's gonna walk through those doors tomorrow at school, and he'll have girls melting everywhere around him, falling head over heels. He'll have girls who beg him to date them, and all he's done is walk through the doors. It won't be that simple for me, Daddy. I don't know if any guy would ever want me." I looked down. "I'm not—"

"Don't. You. Dare," he ground out through his teeth, now tightly clenched together. "Aria Samantha Lawrence, don't you even say it. You are beautiful. You are an awesome person. Ari, you won't have girls falling for you, hopefully, but you will have guys falling left and right. You're worrying over nothing. I'm telling you."

I sighed again. "If you say so."

"Ari, why do you think you're not pretty?"

"Because I've seen a mirror," I said simply, shrugging as if it was no big deal. "But, I've really got to get to bed. I've got a really big day tomorrow."

The first day of my last y—

I stopped in mid-thought. What was I doing? What the heck is being pessimistic about everything going to do? I've got to believe in myself to ever get anything. Cocky? No. Arrogant? No. Confident? Yes. I had to be cocky without even being cocky. For this to work, and for me to ever find Mr. Right, I had to be myself and have confidence in myself. I have to know I can do this.

"You're beautiful," Daddy assured me. "And I'm not lying, Ari. After...well, never mind. You get the point."

I grimaced. After him and Momma turned sixteen.

See? They reference to it all the time!

"After that, I never saw anyone as beautiful. Ella was pretty, Nudge was pretty, Angel was pretty, Alli was pretty. Every female was pretty. Ari, you are one of the two females in this world I'll ever see as beautiful anymore." His face twisted, but he didn't say anything as he looked down.

"It's okay to say it," Momma informed him gently as she walked beside him. "I know she's more beautiful than me. I get it."

"Only in one sense," Daddy argued softly. "I mean, Max, to me, you'll always be the most beautiful thing on this Earth, but—"

"I get it," she interrupted with a smile, putting her finger on his lips to stop him. "I know."

I looked at them, and a small smile spread across my lips. "Well, I'm just gonna go to bed now. Nighty, night you two! Have fun, and please try and keep it quiet."

With that, I spun on my heels and ran to my room. I closed the door, turned on my stereo with a CD full of my favorite songs, and jumped under the covers.

Airplanes by B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams came on.

Confidence, I thought to myself as I lay there, eyes closed and mind drifting off to sleep. Confidence, confidence, confidence…