And because I'm so nice here's the first proper part of the story :)

It was early in the morning when I woke up. The sunlight was filtering through my window and I sat up, letting my sheets fall around me, and stretching. I felt my muscles pull in a comfortable way and once again was thankful that I was waking up in a comfortable bed, not being poked with needles and injected with all manner of disgusting liquids.

I got up and found some jeans and a t-shirt before pulling my amber hair into a pony tail. I knew it was early and the others would still be asleep so I tip-toed out of my room, past everyone else's rooms and into the kitchen. It was so sunny and beautiful outside so I opened the window and let the fresh morning air in.

Looking out I noticed that Ace was outside. He was sitting on the fence and staring out at the trees and hills that surrounded our home. His wings were extended slightly, the black and dark brown feathers soaking up the sunlight.

I opened the door of the house and walked across the yard over to him.

"Hi there!" I greeted cheerfully, jumping up onto the fence beside Ace. He looked at me and smiled. His smile was the kind of thing that can light up the world and stop the sun in its tracks. He has olive-toned skin, black hair that flops in his eyes and eyes of the purest, darkest green.

"Good morning, Rose," Ace replied. He pulled his wings in tightly and closed his eyes, a look of serenity on his face. "The sun feels so good."

"Mmm," I agreed. "I'll never get tired of the sun, the rain, the moon, the stars. All of this. Everything."

"I know." Ace looked at me and smiled slightly. I smiled back. The two of us spent longer than anyone in that hell and we were the gladdest to be out. Both of us felt like we owed Fang our lives but he didn't even know it.

Ace was my best friend in the entire world. I trusted nobody more than him and I just knew that if I lost him, I would lose myself. He was my right hand man and my partner. We helped each other out and told each other everything.

Plus did I mention he's totally gorgeous?

"So, your leaderness," Ace said happily. "What's for breakfast? I just went for a flight and I am starving."

I pushed his shoulder playfully. "You're always hungry, Ace, so that's no surprise." I grinned at him. "It's your turn to cook breakfast anyway."

Ace's expression looked so frustrated and devastated that I laughed.

"Come on, let's go and wake everyone up," I told him, standing up and extending my wings to stretch them out. Ace and I have the same wings: black, dark brown and gold. Our bird DNA comes from wedge-tailed eagles. Apparently Ace came to us from America, some sort of agreement with the School in California but they had injected him with wedge-tail instead of something American.

But I didn't care. The fact was they'd sent him here and I was so happy they had. If they hadn't I would be very lonely.

I jumped down from the fence, tucking my wings in and Ace followed me, looking pathetic. I knew he was trying to con me into making breakfast but it so wasn't going to happen.

I left him in the kitchen and walked down the hall past the lounge room and to the other rooms. I went to Midnight and Zero's room first. Zero was lying on his stomach, his wings extended slightly, his face buried in his pillow. He looked so sweet and innocent when he was asleep. His ash-blonde hair was messy and sticking everywhere. I touched his shoulder gently and he opened his beautiful leaf-green eyes and looked at me sleepily.

"Rose?"

"Morning sleepy-head," I replied. "Time to get up. Ace is making pancakes."

"Yum." He yawned and sat back on his knees. His brown wings stretched outwards and I ducked under his fourteen feet of feathery power.

"Easy kid, you nearly hit me," I scolded lightly.

"Sorry," Zero chuckled and climbed out of bed to find a shirt and some jeans.

I walked over to Midnight's bed and found him curled up under his pillow in his cat form. His amber eyes opened and peered at me as I crouched on his bed and looked in at him.

"Come on Night, you have to come out," I coaxed. He hissed at me and I glared. "I'll dump you in the bath."

He hissed again but crawled out stretching and flexing his sharp claws. I got off his bed and he morphed back into a human and looked at me unhappily with his amber eyes. His black hair was short because if it got too long then his fur got too long as a cat and it annoyed him.

"I was having a nice dream and I was really warm," he complained.

"Ace is making pancakes," I pointed out.

Midnight's eyes lit up. "I am so there!"

I smiled. It was a wonderful bribe. Ace made the best pancakes in the whole world. I left my boys to get ready and went into the girls' room. The house only had four bedrooms so Sakura and Lily and Midnight and Zero shared. Night and Zero were the best of friends and Sakura didn't mind sharing with Lily so Ace and I got our own rooms.

Sakura was already awake, braiding her silvery-blonde hair. She looked at me with ice-blue eyes and smiled brightly.

"Hi Rose!" Sakura finished her hair and threw her almost waist-length braid over her shoulder and stood. She batted her paper-thin wings, sparkly dust falling from them and walked out, down to the kitchen.

I could smell pancakes cooking and knew that Ace had come to his senses and realised that I would never take over his chores. If anything he should take over mine.

I walked over to Lily's bed and found her curled under her covers. I pulled them back and she poked her head up, her bright blue eyes curious. She smiled tiredly and yawned.

"Morning Rosie," she greeted cheerfully. I loved Lily so much. She's like my own little baby. I could never dream of anything bad happening to her and I was so glad we got her out of that place before she even had a chance to understand the hell she was in. She still had most of her innocence left.

"Hi sweetie," I said. "How did you sleep?"

"Great!"

I got her out of bed and helped her get dressed into a cute blue dress and we sat down and I brushed her brown curls until they were bouncy and neat. While I did it she told me about her dream that she could fly like me and Ace could.

I smiled.

She had let her tail stay out today and I poked her furry ears on her head.

"You're so beautiful," I told her as she self-consciously flagged her tail.

"Really?" Lily asked me softly.

"Really," I promised her.

"Not as beautiful as you," she told me. "Your eyes look like chocolates."

I smiled. I was the only one in the house with brown eyes and I really did love my eyes. They were sort of a gold and chocolate colour. I took Lily's hand but she beat me to the chase and disappeared. She does that sometimes. She probably teleported into the kitchen. She was still learning how to use her powers but she liked teleporting. She could also makes things float with her mind.

She's a pretty powerful kid.

We all have powers like that.

Sakura can heal, as I said before. But she can also make plants grow and she can talk to animals. Midnight can jump really high and run really fast. Plus he can control light- make it dark or make it brighter. It's handy when we have blackouts. Zero's telepathic when he wants to be, he can put a block in his mind so that he doesn't hear our thoughts constantly. And Ace can control the elements: fire, earth, water and air. He can conjure lightning and fire and he can control the air and the water as well as rocks and dirt. Plus he's empathic which is really handy when it comes to Zero, who doesn't talk much.

And me? Well I have to admit. My power so trumps Ace's elemental and emotional powers. I'm psychic. All kinds. Psychometric: when I touch things I can see things about the person who owns it or about things that have happened around it left over my psychic vibrations. I can also see visions randomly or when I focus really hard on something. None of my dreams are normal, they're all premonitions but I don't remember a lot of those, only the insignificant ones. Also when I look at people, I can see their souls, their psychic lines and vibrations. That allows me my most powerful psychic ability which is, when I hold someone's hands, I can read things about their future, but it has a lot of rules that I'm still working out.

There are some cool things you might want to know about your soul. It's made of lines, kind of like tentacles. All of the lines are for something different and they're all different colours except a few that are the same. You have a glow that is the colour of your soul and your life and love lines are interconnected and are the same colour as your soul. Sometimes there are other people's lines woven with yours.

If you're really close to somebody their lines will often connect to yours even if they're far away. All my family's lines are connected in places. I see our lines connecting each other all the time. It helps me because I know where everybody is with this sight. What I see also gives me a good indication of how a person is feeling and what they're thinking because it all shows up in their psychic vibrations. It's pretty cool and I can turn it on and off like Zero with his telepathy.

I walked out to the kitchen and frowned.

"Where's Lily?" I asked.

She ran into the kitchen from the lounge room, panting.

"Sorry, Rose, I missed," she said, her eyes sparkling. We all laughed good naturedly and then the front door opened.

"Marie's home!" Sakura said, jumping up from her seat at the table. She and Lily ran around to meet our caretaker while I walked over to help Ace.

"I've got supplies, kids!" Marie called. "Are those Asher's pancakes I can smell?"

"Yes!" Midnight cheered as Marie came in and Sakura helped her unpack all of the groceries.

Marie was in her early thirties and she had a kind face with blue eyes and blonde hair. She was a Dr of zoology and a very avid human rights protector. She looked out for us and loved us as if we were her own kids.

"Smells good, Ace," Marie said, patting him on the shoulder. Ace smiled warmly at her and Marie hugged me.

"How were things while I was gone?" she asked.

"Fine," I assured her. "Not one problem."

"That's my girl."

And we went through one of those wonderful days where nothing goes wrong. Ace and I checked Fang's blog, of which we are both dedicated readers, and then we took the kids down to the river to go swimming while Marie made us lasagne for dinner and some sort of treat for desert. Ace pushed me in while I was still fully clothed and then we chased each other around the sky for a while so Midnight and Zero watched the girls.

It was how most of our weekends and school holidays went. Hell, it was how most of our days went. It was easy and it was fun.

If only it could have lasted.