Max watched me stare.
"I know," she smiled. "It's a lot of different shades of brown."
"Max, I think this is all the different colors of the flock's wings," I blurt out.
She looks confused for a minute. But then her eyes narrow. There's Nudge's tawny brown, Iggy's whitish blonde, even my white with light brown tips.
"I think… you're right," Max says slowly.
"But how is that possible? That she knows our wing colors?" Questioned Fang.
"I don't know but let's be on alert, it could just be nothing," Max said.
Since when is Max not suspicious of anything? She thinks everything is a conspiracy out to get us!
Then Gazzy and Angel walked in, admiring the room. And the "meeting" started.
"I call this Flock Meeting to Order," Max announced, pounding her fist down on her dresser like a gavel.
"Can't we just go outside? There are pigs and animals everywhere it's cool!" whined Nudge.
Max rolled her eyes. "We can do that after this meeting."
"So anyway we have to decide some things. How long will we stay here? How should we find our parents? Should we keep trying to find our parents?"
"Yes!"
"Not now Nudge." (so Nudge obviously said "yes!", then Iggy said those three words to ma left. Kay?)
"So like I was saying," Max continued with a pointed look at Nudge. "How are we going to do this?"
"We look up stuff until we find my mom then we fly there and I meet her," offered Nudge.
"Well then what are we going to do?" Gazzy asked Nudge.
"You can find your parents too!" She smiled at him.
"I don't want to find my parents! They sold me and Angel, and I love Max!" Gazzy declared.
"We're not leaving Max," Angel promised.
"Me neither," Fang said quietly.
"Or me," I added.
"I have nowhere better to go," sighed Iggy. I glared at him.
"I mean, Max I love you like a sister how could I ever leave?" Iggy corrected himself, fumbling over the words.
Max smiled at that. "Iggy I know you only said that because Snow glared at you but it was sweet anyway. Thanks everybody."
Nudge looked pained. "Oh Max, I love you like a sister, too. I just really want to meet my mom." She looked guilty.
"Don't feel bad for wanting your real family," Max told Nudge, hugging her. "We'll find your mom and if you ever need us, we have two mind readers that you can call." Max grinned at Angel and I.
"MIND READER BUDDIES!" I yelled and Angel and I fist-bumped.
Max grabbed Nudge by the hand, lifting her up. "C'mon, let's go explore nature a little."
….
"Look Iggy, a pig!" Gazzy was scratching a pig under the chin, smiling at it in awe. Iggy came over and Gazzy guided his hand to the pig, who oinked with joy.
Iggy's face broke into a smile as he scratched the pig behind the ears.
"Anne's quite the animal lover," Fang commented as I looked around. "Pigs, cows, sheep."
"I wonder who's for dinner," Max smiled.
I grinned. I just…. Loved my family. They were my family, more than Cindy and my insane grandparents because I knew them, we were similar in our wings and we understood each other. We were a merry band of mutants and I loved it.
I love everyone. The scientists see us as experiments, but we're real people. More deserving to live than those motherfuckers who kidnapped us as babies and made us into bird kids, although it wasn't that bad.
I loved flying, and I had a bunch of super cheap powers, like a superhero in a movie.
"Kids! Dinner!"
Oh, food! What was I talking about?
DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER THE WOMEN HAS FOOD.
"C'mon guys!" I call and start to walk back, past a giant pond.
"Whoa!" Gazzy exclaims. "Look at that pond! Oh please Max, can we go swimming?"
"We can tomorrow Gazzy," Max replied. "Let's just eat dinner for now."
"Okay…." Gazzy mumbled reluctantly.
….
After dinner, the flock piled into Max's room.
Nudge sat in a chair, Fang stood, Iggy and I laid down on the bed,(good god, all you perverts out there) Gazzy sat on top of Max's dresser and Max and Angel sat on the rug, which was shaped and colored exactly like Max's wings, except the rug was only 6 feet long. All together, we formed a little circle.
"Okay, let's see what we have here," muttered Max, going through some files they had taken from the Institute while I was in NJ. Fortunately, they were about us and our families. Unfortunately, they were in code, and we didn't know how it worked.
"Everyone take two pages, look through them, see if you can find any patterns," Max said thoughtfully.
We all nodded and took two.
"You know I'm-"
"Yes Iggy, I know you're blind, I'll read you out some numbers, kay?" I told him.
He nodded, smiling. "Guess I'm getting too predictable."
"Well you do whine a lot," I pointed out. "And it's an easy thing to whine about."
He looked insulted, but couldn't keep a straight face for long. Smiling, I started reading some numbers and he focused.
…
"9, 7, 7, 2, 3," I read quietly.
He nodded. "Wait, say those again Snow?"
"9, 7, 7,2, 3?" I asked, confused.
"That's my name!" He exclaimed. "That must be about me! It's not 9,7, 7, 2, 3! It's 9, 7, 7, 23! That spells Iggy using what number it comes in the alphabet."
He was right. "Iggy! You actually might be right!" I exclaimed, catching the attention of my fellow flock members.
"You cracked the code?" Max asked, while Iggy made a mock annoyed face at my comment.
"No, but we found something about Iggy I think," I said.
"Well let's see it," Fang reached his hand out for the paper.
I pointed to the spot where Iggy's name was, and then handed it over.
"Hmm,…" Fang mused as he looked at it.
"What? What does it say?" Asked Max.
Fang threw it down. "I have no freaking idea."
We all groaned as Anne came in.
"Guys? It's kind of late, you want to go to bed?" Anne asked.
We looked at Max. She nodded.
"Yeah, we were just about to crash," Nudge nodded.
Anne smiled. "All right, Kate, Krystal, Zephyr, Ariel, you want anything before you crash?"
Kate is me, Krystal is Nudge, Zephyr is Gazzy, and Ariel is Angel. In case you didn't know.
"Nah, we're good," Gazzy smiled.
"All right," Anne smiled back as we walked back to our rooms.
As we walked down the hall, me, Nudge, Anne, Angel, Gazzy, and Total, Anne looked to Angel.
"Ariel, how about letting out Total one more time?" She suggested.
"Okay," Angel agreed. "Let's go Total." She snapped her fingers as she started walking down the hall, and Total followed obediently.
"Good night Anne," I said to her.
"Good night Kate, Krystal, Zephyr," Anne gave us each a hug, and she went after Angel.
We walked into our room, and got into our own beds. It felt like a slumber party or something.
I had almost drifted off to sleep when I heard Nudge's soft voice. "Snow?"
"Yeah Nudge, what's up?" I said, just as softly.
"I've just been thinking, I want to meet my parents and everything but I don't know if I could leave you guys….I love Max and all of you," Nudge whispered.
"Well Nudge, I can't tell you what to do, if you really want to meet your parents, than do it, if you don't, then don't," I told her.
"But that's the thing! I can't leave you guys, but I really want to meet my parents!" Nudge sounded exasperated.
"Look Nudge, if we find them, I think you should meet them. If you don't, you'll have us, right?" I suggested.
With my raptor vision, I could see her nod in the darkness. "Okay."
"Good night Nudge."
"Good night Snow."
