The next morning I walked into the kitchen to find Dad in a very animated conversation with Corey.

"Hi, Ember!" Corey greeted me as I appeared. "Your dad was just telling me about you."

I shot my dad a look.

"What were you telling him?" I demanded.

"Nothing horrible or embarrassing, I promise," Crystal put in, "Not that he didn't want to; I just made sure he couldn't." She demonstrated how she'd managed to "freeze" Dad's overactive mouth. He demonstrated how well he faked passing out.

I gave her a grateful look before turning to Corey.

"Can I offer you some breakfast?" I asked him.

"No thanks, your mom has already supplied me with enough food to last an entire army a year," he told me with a laugh.

"It wasn't that bad," Mom told me, pretending to be hurt. Then her fake frown turned into a grin. "He didn't complain and practically inhaled it."

Corey made a face at me. I grinned back. It was nice that the first person I brought home, or in Corey's case, met, got along with my parents.

"You ready to go?" Corey asked when I'd finished my own breakfast.

"Definitely. See ya!" I called back to my family as I grabbed my backpack and followed Corey out the door.

We walked down my street to the bridge over the river and ducked underneath it.

"How fast can you fly?" Corey asked as I shifted my backpack to transform.

"Faster than most super sonic jets," I told him, "And I can talk to you in my Shape shifted form so it won't be a trip of silence." With that I concentrated for a moment. My clothes and backpack shifted and changed, morphing into bright orange and red feathers as my body changed. My legs shortened into scaly legs with sharp talons on the ends of my toes. My arms bent and twisted into strong wings. My head was the last to shift as my nose grew hard and sharp, my upper lip melding with it and my lower lip forming the lower portion of my beak.

I looked up at a surprised Corey.

"Wow," he whispered, "that was wicked."

"It kind of freaked Mom out the first time I did that," I admitted. I shook my feathers experimentally. It had been a long time since I'd flown on them.

Corey smiled he began to hover over the dirt.

"You ready?"

"Absolutely."

I launched myself into the air as Corey darted off at an incredible pace. I followed him easily with my raptor eyes. I met up with him again as we got above the cloud cover.

He teased me and I teased back as we soared over the earth. It was strange. I felt as if I'd known him for years instead of just a few hours.

I was disappointed when we arrived at school. My whole body shivered as the transformation reversed and I became human again.

"You want to fly home together tonight?" he asked.

"Totally," I answered, "I'll see you later." I waved to him and started for my first class.

I turned to see where I was going just in time to see the leather clad body I was about to run into. Before I could tell my feet to stop, I'd hit the person.

"Sorry," I muttered quickly. I wasn't really in the mood to fight with anyone at the moment.

"Watch it," the person snarled at me, shoving me backwards.

"You watch it, buddy," I growled, shoving him back. I was irritated. I was in a perfectly good mood and Mr. Rude Asshole had to ruin it.

"Don't push your luck or I'll roast you alive," the guy standing in front of me sneered.

I put on my best bored look, sank onto one hip and examined my opponent briefly. He was tall, a good head or so taller than me but shorter than Corey. He was certainly more muscular than Corey though. His black leather jacket hugged his torso, the cuffs were unbuttoned and sleeves rolled up to reveal flames tattooed on his wrists. His dark brown, nearly black, hair hung loosely around his face, a bright red streak stood out at me.

"Let me guess," I said sarcastically, "Your power is over fire. Sorry, fire is my specialty as well. So unless you want to get your ass handed to you in the middle of school by a girl you had best back off."

His response was what I had expected from a guy like him. His hands were engulfed in flame.

"Bring it, bitch," he roared.

I grinned evilly. I hadn't wanted to fight originally, but this guy had pissed me off so much that I would be happy to hand him his ass on a flaming platter. My blood was running hot and I burst into flames, scaring the crap out of everyone around me. A ring began to form around us and a chant went up.

I raced towards him, my entire body crackling. I slammed into him with superhuman speed. He fell backwards into a wall, but was up in a second, fire balls flying past me. I dodged most of them, hitting him with a ball of fire right to the chest. He caught my next ball and tossed it right back at me. It knocked me off my feet. A fire extinguisher was suddenly being emptied in my face. The flames vanished and I was left covered in that disgusting goop.

Standing over me was the same Will Stronghold I'd met on the bus the previous day.

"Stay out of this, Stronghold," I sneered. I got to my feet and transformed for the second time that day. The boy made a grabbed for my feet as I took off. I slashed at his hand.

"I told you, stay the fuck out of my way." I let out a high-pitched shriek before swooping to attack the still flaming boy across from me. A wall of vines appeared to entangle me.

The girl called Layla gave me an apologetic look as she twisted them to attack me. I spit a ball of flame out of my mouth and the vines disintegrated. I got hit with another fire extinguisher, courtesy of Will Stronghold and fell back, shifting back to my human form. I saw the boy Will and Layla had been defending racing towards me, his arms flaming. Before he could reach me he was hit by a blast of ice, dousing his flames. I shot Crystal a grateful look.

Before the fight could go any further, Principal Powers appeared in the middle.

"Detention, now," she growled angrily. Warren was the first to follow with Will and Layla flanking him. Crystal and I slipped silently through the halls at the rear.

We entered the completely white room and were left in there on our own. I sank back into the white detention chair and closed my eyes.

"I'm sorry, Ember," Layla said, "I just didn't want you to hurt Warren."

My eyes flew open.

"Warren? As in Warren Peace?" I asked her.

"What's my name to you?" Warren asked from his side of the room.

I was on my feet, anger in my eyes. Crystal was there, gripping my shoulders and pulling me back into my seat.

"Let it go, Ember," she whispered quietly, "He's not the one."

I settled back against the hard plastic and leveled a glare at Warren Peace. Gods, how I hated him. More accurately, how I hated his father. It was because of his father I was stuck in an adopted home with six disgusting "sisters."