Flame paced around the campus, trying to control his anger. He mumbled things to himself like, "the stubborn pig" or "stupid bitch". Di sighed next to her younger brother. She knew she wasn't coming either. After all, Di was just a first aid kit. The aspirin. The morphine.
The healer.
And Ree did bring the two with the more important powers, and for the first time, she didn't bring Flame. No wonder he was angry.
She sighed dreamily. He was very attractive when he was angry. Very.
Her little brother gave her a look, as if he knew what she was thinking. But she didn't care. Everyone except Ree and Flame himself knew that she was in love with him.
"Ree will kill you when she finds out you love him," he whispered.
"She won't kill me, she'll just be very angry," she said back, smiling.
The one of many statements Gazzy had told them was to never, ever fall in love. Gazzy had seen what love could do.
And it was not a pretty picture.
He told the kids that Max had lost the willingness to live when Fang died. She said she was nothing without him, just half a person. But Max knew she was needed in the world, she was essential for the world's rebirth.
So she didn't kill herself.
She ran away.
Di remembered how serious twenty-five year old Gazzy looked when he told the flock that. That was until; he farted so loud that Scout and Chas actually ducked for cover, thinking it was a bomb alarm. Di giggled slightly at the memory, earning herself a even stranger look from Scout.
Gazzy had told them to never fall in love. And Ree carried out this rule, as did everyone else in the flock. But Di couldn't help herself, Flame was too irresistible. His extreme tallness, the five pack, the dark, yummy, color of his skin.
And his eyes.
Di once remarked on how beautiful they were to Em, but she looked Di like something was wrong with her.
"They're brown," she said, stating the obvious.
But Di saw more than that. They were a mahogany with black and yellow flecks. They were beautiful, just like his mother's.
"So in other words… they're brown," Em said surely.
Di sighed. If only Ree would break that one rule. Maybe she would tell her about her love for him and try to convince her. But Ree wasn't there.
She was on an extremely important mission that could determine the life or death of the flock.
Why wasn't she ever here when Di needed her?
Suddenly, a thought struck her so suddenly that she nearly fell backwards onto the dirt ground. Ree wasn't here.
She was free.
