Sorry for the long wait. It's just that something really bad happened.…...…I'll tell you at the end of this chapter. Anyway, here's another chapter! :D
Thanks:
FloridaGirl11 (ikr! He needs to make up his mind about Max's hair color. Personally, I prefer dirty blonde :) and I'm not so sure about him mixing up Devin and Dylan, but it could be a possibility. Thanks for thinking about my 'theory' and reviewing :D)
PatonxJulia (HAHA! Please do give me the directions to Mount Doom, I could use that ;) and 'You got mud on your face, you big disgrace, kicking your can all over the pace, singing!' Wow, you and I have very similar music tastes :D)
boxtoplad999 (I answered ur question! :D Anyway, many many thanks for reviewing :))
ChocoAddict (You bet it! Gracias for reviewing :D)
Bdminniehearts (THANK YOU! And I'll try my best on that…..I tend to go overboard *looks bashful* :))
Rikku3198 (Haha, thanks, Rikku! That was a really kind thing to say~! :D and thanks for taking the time out of ur busy day to see if my 'theory' was correct! :))
SliverStar121 (HAHAHA! I totally agree! Isa just has to realize it ;) And thanks for favoriting and reviewing!)
U.S.123 (Mhmmmmmm. Don't kill me! :D)
BlueAndSilverWings9 (Thanks for favoriting :D)
Sodapop5353 (Seriously? Thank you so much! 8D and wow, u just read my mind ;) *wriggles eyebrows and epicly fails* :D)
BookWorm2011 (Hahaha, thanks! Thank you so much for the awesome support you gave me through the entire story! :) I wouldn't have continued this if u weren't supporting me in the earlier chapters :))
Ava (Keep reading, you'll find more! :))
lilylolo (IKR! Fang is the definition of cute AAAANNNNDDD hot xD and gracias! I will definitely keep it up cuz of your fantastic support :D and wow really? I'm sorry for making you cry, I never knew my writing would make a reader cry! Does that mean my writing is good?)
Nudge POV
Why am I in 7th grade? At least, I could be in 6th grade and say that I dropped a grade. None of the flock is here. If I were in 6th grade, I could at least be with Gazzy and Angel.
I scurried through the hallways bending my head down. I made a lot of 'friends', but they're not that….into me, Well, I can't blame them, it's only been the second day I've been here. I woke up late (MAX FORGOT TO WAKE ME UP! I WISHED FOR SO LONG FOR MAX TO FORGET ABOUT WAKING ME UP, BUT THIS IS SO NOT THE CORRECT TIME!)) and grabbed whatever shoes there were there. They were too big sandals that looked like the belonged in the Victorian Era or even ealier. I scowled every time I looked at them. They made big flopping noises every time I stepped on the smooth floor.
Why didn't I grab my cute pink sandals with that adorable white flower on top? It would have suited my pink top with flashes of white and dark blue skinny jeans. Gosh, why did I wake up so late?
Before I could move, I passed the girl who insulted my shoes yesterday, Anna Feynman. As if someone kept a timer, my shoes flapped and made a noise that sounded like fish flopping on the dock. Anna slightly smirked as she looked down and I walked a bit faster.
Does she have to keep doing that? Yesterday, my shoes were fine, but she managed to sneer at them. I never met anyone that mean….. I wish I can tell someone how hurt I feel every time Anna does that.
I sighed and my books almost fell off. It was a bit hard as I carried two textbooks with a notebook (along with a lot of loose papers), but I managed. Today, my science teacher and math teacher just declared we have homework in the textbook. Let's just say I wasn't the only one groaning.
This is hell…... OHMYGOSH, Max is so gonna kill me if she hears that.
I was in a bad mood. Yes, me, Nudge, the nicest girl in the flock (Aw shucks) was in a bad mood. The flock will laugh and possibly die from laughing if someone told them I was in a bad mood. Oh, but believe me, I was. I was late to school and first period, I almost collided with the wall when running (hehehe, too fast), second period, I almost killed my guppy fish by the high levels of pH (whatever that is), third period, cracked the computer code without the teacher telling me (she must think I'm a weirdo or something the way she looked at me afterward), fourth period, had to solve tooo many math problems (what the bird is the Inverse Property of Multiplication?), fifth period, had to watch the movie 'The Outsiders' which was painfully slow (but one of the guys was so cuuute!), and now finally lunch, sixth period. You don't know happy I was to hear that L-word.
I stopped by my locker to get my lunch and forgot the combination code. Again. But thanks to my bird-kid skills, I cracked it by listening to the faintest click of the lock. I opened it and grabbed my kinda big lunch box. Only Max would give me the most boyish lunch box ever. Although power rangers looked pretty cool, it wasn't exactly…..stylish. I sighed and slammed the locker (got a bad habit) and went my way.
"Nicole! Wait up!" A girl yelled from behind.
I cautiously turned around and saw a girl from my science and English class, Kelsey.
"Do you remember me? Kelsey? Kelsey Lee?" She chirped.
She was one of the few kind friends I made yesterday. She had cute brown eyes with long eyelashes and had long dreadlocks all the way to her waist. She was also African American like me.
"Yeah, I remember you." I smiled.
"Let's walk to the lunch, 'kay? You can sit at my table again if you want." She grinned.
"Oh….thanks." I grinned back.
My mood got better and I started chirping along with her. But then my stomach grumbled and then my mood got worsened. I speeded up my pace so we can get to the cafeteria. But there was a small problem: Kelsey was at least a head shorter than me and so her walking pace was….…slow. Very slow. It was like we were strolling or something. It didn't make my stomach feel better.
Just then, God decided I should bump into some colossal body. I felt an emotion or memory almost touch me until the contact broke off. It was fuzzy, but it did come. It showed a little boy crying a lot. Then it totally broke off making me go back to reality. I didn't fall down, but my papers did and so did the person I bumped into. The papers and the other stuff fell down and were scattered everywhere. Along with that, I was too lazy to pick them up so my anger flared a bit.
"What the…." Was the person's muffled reaction.
Finally, the person stopped moving and I saw a tall guy on the ground looking at me with his eyes wide open. The person who was next to him looked at me as if I were having a seizure. The guy who fell down was tanned and had his short, black hair in tight dreadlocks. The guy next to him had pale blond hair with hazel eyes.
"Are you okay?" I asked looking down at him.
Was he the boy who was crying? They really do look familiar…..
I scanned the boy to see if he was hurt, but he wasn't, as far as I can see.
I hope he's not too hurt otherwise he'll find me…..'strange'
"How the heck did I fall down and you didn't? That's like impossible" He said in surprised tone.
I gave him the Look and he flinched.
OH I don't know. Some mad scientists messed with my DNA and made me a bird-kid and these nifty powers came with it. Double offer. Just the usual.
My stomach was hurting and wasn't in a good mood and the boy was pushing it. Still surprising for me, Nudge/Nudge Channel, to say, huh? (Nudge – Food) + Bad Attitude= No fun. That's a little math for ya, Mrs. McHill.
"What do you mean by that? Girls can be strong too, y'know? I mean some girls can be really strong. We have more flexibility and agility. You guys only have endurance which won't exactly help when you're stretching your calves off. So don't underestimate girls cuz one, it's rude, plain rude and two, we're more than you think we are. And besides, why did you bump into me? I'm starving and I have to get to the cafeteria. I. Need. Food. Can you at least pick my stuff up? At least? Please?" I said in one breath.
I did a silent pant.
Was that too much? …..Naaaah, barely needed a breath.
The guys blinked. That's all they did. And so did Kelsey. That's the only thing they did after my long rant. Oh and speaking of Kelsey, she kept signaling and waving her hands rapidly behind the guys. She looked really pained in the face.
I don't speak sign language.
"Ummm….." the guy said slowly getting up.
I winced.
Maybe I was kinda too mean. I should say sorry. It's the right thing to do.
He picked my stuff up and handed them to me. I almost opened my mouth to apologize until I saw the hazel-eyed guy smirked. It looked like the ones Iggy used to make when he made 'That's-What-She-Said' jokes. I don't even know what those jokes are, but I knew that if Iggy smirks while saying them, they must not be…...good. Besides, Max always scowls at him whenever he says it. Except this guy's smirk was ten times worse.
"Nice shoes." He snickered.
I turned red with embarrassment (no joke, I had pink patches all over my cheeks).
Getting smirked by a girl is no problem, but with a guy? This is just plain humiliating….
My anger kinda sparked by my embarrassment. I didn't want to cause anything bad so I silently counted to ten and moved on whipping my head around to not look at the two guys. Before I left, I saw an amused look on the tall guy. I sighed rather deeply and shook my head.
"Do you know who just laughed at you?" Kelsey said as we entered the cafeteria (Finally!).
I said in a sarcastic tone, "What the most popular boy in the school? Smartest? Hottest? Cutest?"
Kelsey shook her head, "Nope. That would be so cliché. He's an eighth grader. This school is famous for the two grades absolutely not talking to each other. It's ridiculous. We're gonna be eighth graders next year and what if we have some friends in seventh grade then or now in eighth grade?"
I twitched my eye as we sat down on Kelsey's table, "Oh…."
"Seventh graders don't mess with eighth graders. That's like a rule, principle, precept, whatever." Kelsey said nodding her head rapidly looking like one of those bobbing dolls.
I shrugged and my stomach grumbled again reminding me to eat. I immediately smiled at the delight of food. The moment you keep it in your mouth just made me drool. And then the creaminess of the food swirling in your mouth when you're chewing it. It just made me giddy with happiness.
I'm not weird. Pscchhhh.
I quickly grabbed for my lunch box and then abruptly stopped smiling.
Eh?
I patted again feeling nothing, just the table, and then I slowly turned my head around to see the empty spot of where my lunch box should be. I started hyperventilating silently.
"Nicole? Are you…..?" Kelsey started to say until I started to wail.
"My lunchbox….. it's….gone. GONE! It's gone! It's gone! Gone like the wind!"
Kelsey looked confused, "What? ….Didn't you have it with you when we were walking to the cafeteria? …OH! Maybe when the famous collision happened, your lunch box was thrown somewhere! Go check out the place where it fell."
I instantly grinned, "THANKS KELSEY! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!"
I quickly got up and my tummy rumbled.
Yeah, yeah, just wait a second, tummy!
I finally got to the place and searched the place like a detective. I almost started crying when I didn't see a familiar power rangers lunchbox in sight.
NO! I lost my lunch!
I stomped back all the way to the cafeteria. Kelsey gave me a confused look as I looked furious when I came inside. I sat down in a huff and kept my head down and groaned.
"Wow, you really are a food-lover." I heard Kelsey say.
"If you really want it, you can have some of my pizza…." A girl, name's Ellen, offered.
"No, it's fine. I don't want you to be hungry." I said muffled.
I need that ham sandwich, that juice box, that fruit rollup, that banana, that apple, and that dip n dots ice cream or I'm gonna die! I'm too young to die!
"Um, I'm thinking this is yours?" A voice asked.
I peeked from my opening of my two arms. I never thought that seeing a green ranger winking at me would make me so happy. I almost jumped up and started squealing nonstop. I sat up and grabbed the lunchbox and did the biggest sigh ever.
Am I dreaming?
I pinched my arm and the lunchbox. Nope. When I turned around to thank the person, I saw the tall, tanned guy who bumped into me. I slightly scowled and sat a muttered 'thank you'. Kelsey and Ellen and the rest of the table froze. He smiled.
Well, he did come all the way to give to me when he can just be mean and keep it making me starve till death and then the flock has to come to my funeral and then Max will cry and will very likely kill Jack and Angel will be heartbroken. I DIDN'T EVEN FIND MY MOTHER YET! I CAN'T DIE JUST YET! OHMYGOSH, THANK YOU!
"Than—"
"Nice lunchbox." He said letting out a small chuckle.
He left making me look like I ate a raw lemon. He walked a few tables behind my table and sat next to that blonde kid.
"Jack Boldt crossed the cafeteria's prime meridian to give a seventh grader her lunch box back. THIS IS THE BIGGEST SCOOP YET!" Ellen squealed.
Everyone looked at her. Just plain looked her at her. She was standing on her seat holding her pen up high. She had this 'conquering' look on her face. Did I mention she was a writer for this school's newspaper? Did I also say she's the only person who writes the most in that organization? 4 pages, front and back. Only thing I can say: 'Wow'
Is this how Max feels when she looks at the overdramatic me?
"Ellen, chill." Kelsey said tugging on Ellen's sleeve.
Ellen, finally noticing everyone, sunk back down into her seat looking pretty modest. We heard a loud laugh come from behind. The blonde guy laughed and Ellen turned bright red.
"Whoa, Ellen, chill, you look like a hyperventilating apple." A girl laughed.
"Don't write anything about this, Ellen. You know what happened to that article you wrote last time and almost got in trouble for that." Kelsey warned.
"But, but, but this is such a big scoop. I don't want anyone else writing about it." Ellen said pouting.
The girls didn't fall for it. Instead they rolled their eyes and laughed. I kinda smiled to myself.
My puppy-dog face is better!
I glanced up to see an entertained look on the tall guy's, Jack, face. I looked away and sighed heavily. Ellen was chatting away and trying to persuade the girls so she can write it.
"Nicole Adams gets approached by and eight grader, Jack Boldt. I can just see the headlines right now on the front page!" Ellen squealed making her blond pigtails swish in happiness.
"Can you please not write about that?" I said looking directly at Ellen straight in the eye.
"But why? It'll be an awesome—"
I touched her hand softly and she blinked her eyes, "Please?"
I felt a rush of hyper-ness from her touch. It felt electric and was a bit shocking. Her memories flooded into me. Her first award for writing a short-story, her dad divorcing her mom when she was ten, her mom remarrying and she the flower-girl, a new baby sister and brother. All her emotions and memories flooded into me and suddenly I felt her every single feeling and thought. I did this not too many times. I never tried this technique on anyone else beside the flock and some other people, but it felt amazing every time I felt a sudden rush of someone else's memories, feelings, or thought rush into me. It was not talking or brain control or anything, but I wanted to respect their privacy, so that's why I was no touchy to anyone else. Some of my emotion must have buzzed her too because she was speechless. I let go and she went back to her real self.
"Oh…..alright. I'll do that." Ellen said sounding like a voicemail person.
The girls looked at me as if I did something super-duper awesome. Well, I actually kinda did, but they looked at me as if I had three head growing out.
"Whoa, that's a first." A girl said.
"Ellie?" Kelsey said shaking Ellen.
"What?" Ellen said looking at Kelsey confused.
"Oh…nothing." Kelsey said shaking her head.
From there, it was silent. I never knew silence could be this loud.
When we got up to throw away our trash (with my tummy full!), Kelsey asked me, "Yo, what did you do to Ellen?"
I shrugged, "I asked her and then she started acting all weird and stuff. I just asked her."
Kelsey looked at me wide-eyed, "Wow, this should be like a memorable moment. Ellen was actually listening to someone."
I laughed and Kelsey laughed with me. But I knew it didn't reduce the awkwardness by a lot. I got some stares and a lot of murmurs.
Oh well…. Max did tell me not to attract attention and if she did she'll kick my skinny butt all the way to Florida, but I think it's okay… Hopefully.
Gazzy POV
I was in science when it all happened. We were measuring different densities of different stuff. I grumbled as my partner forced me to do all the work. Does anyone else have to bear this in the world? But why does it have to be me?
What a lazy bum.
Derek was his name and he thought he was so cool with his blue Mohawk hair. He was considered the coolest guy in the fifth grade.
Can he make a bomb with plastic, sulfur, and Band-Aids? Nope, nu uh, I don't think so. Why don't people find pyros look cool? WE CAN MAKE BOMBS! Things that can explode? Ring a bell? What can possibly be cooler? Hair! Now that's a boy Nudge for ya. Pyros look cool; I mean they look cool on TV. I mean, Iggy looks cool while doing it, why can't I look cool? I want to look cool too sometimes….
I glumly placed my hand on the triple-beam balance. It weighed some weight. I peered at the lab book and the letters just flew right by me making me roll my eyes. Reading wasn't really my hobby. It was something else and you guys know it very well what it is. It's not like I have a reading problem, but reading has a problem with me. It doesn't like me. Oh well, it's not like I'm gonna cry about it.
Jeb did teach me reading, but, ugh, who reads nowadays? Nowadays, we make BOMBS!
"Do you need any help….Andrew? Derek will never change, I guess." A girl with dirty-blonde hair asked.
She was a bit shorter than me, not that much and she kept pushing her big glasses up far too many times. Two dirty-blonde pigtails, too many freckles on the face, and looked like she belonged in fourth grade instead of fifth grade. She looked like a country girl in the movies the flock watches together or something.
"Uh… No. I can do it by myself." I said scratching my head.
She blinked her eyes and pushed her glasses up, "Oh….. Okay."
She left and I sighed and placed the Pepsi can on the triple-beam balance and measured the weight. I sighed and rubbed my back against the chair. The only clean shirt I had was making my wings feel bundled up. Normally in the house, I would have slits in them to make air touch them, but I didn't have them this time. Hence the word 'clean shirt' which basically means it doesn't have slits in them. 'Clean shirts' for you guys probably might mean shirts that haven't been stuck in your closet for weeks. Not to us bird-kids. We need air. It's our element. It's what we need to do. Speaking of what we need to do, I then got a devious idea and smiled to myself. I did what I had to and just sat there thinking of the special 'machine' that I kept under my bed (Iggy was working on it too, y'know?) and what to do to make sure it's gyro-blaster is capable of working in ultra—
"Hey you, are you done yet?" Derek asked finally turning away from his 'girlfriends'.
About time, Derek…
I gave him a sour look, "No, this is a group project which means more than one person works. I only see one person working which is moi. So either you work or we both get a bad grade which I really care less."
Derek's mouth formed an uppercase 'O'. I smirked to myself.
You told him, Gazzy. I bet you had someone doing all the work for you all this year long, didn't you?
"How hard is it to weigh a stupid Pepsi can? You don't need to have a stupid attitude." Derek spitted out taking the Pepsi can.
I really want to shake it more now.
Derek took the can and slammed it angrily on the triple-beam balance making the can burst into a fountain of soda. The Pepsi sprayed at least three yards from the place it got slammed which is almost the entire classroom. It got me the most, affecting the only clean shirt I had. But man, it was totally worth it. Totally. The look on Derek's 'perfect' face was EPIC. He looked like you shoved five bombs down his throat. Eh…...bad analogy (According to the flock), but that's how I describe it. Some other students were sprayed too and pscccccccch, even the teacher got splashed. Poor Mr. R, the old geezer got sprayed and his bifocals was covered in foaming Pepsi. At least the air smelled good.
"What the heck?" Derek said wiping the Pepsi quickly away from his hair and face. He glanced at everyone and everyone was staring at him only and he was turning redder than Max when she sees Iggy and me with a bomb. And that's a LOT of red there.
"Mr. Warrens, you better have a good excuse this time." Mr. R said taking off glasses making it look like the Pepsi specifically hit everywhere on his face except for his eye area. It looked funny, but I tried not to laugh. Instead, I looked innocent and serious, like the looks I give to Max when Iggy and I aren't doing anything mischievous with certain equipment and certain wires.
"Umm….Andrew Owens must have shaked it and kept it there like it was nothing and I picked it up and I was angry for…some reason… and banged it on the balance thingy and then it burst." Derek said sputtering a lot with Pepsi dripping down his shirt.
Sounds exactly like the plan, Mr. Warrens.
"One, it is shook. The past tense of shake is shook, Mr. Derek. Not 'shaked'. Wow, I know that much English and I'm a science teacher. Whoopee for me. Two, are you sure the new kid would do such a terrible thing to you? He looks pretty much shocked as you." Mr. R said looking at me with his face full of pity.
HA! HA!He fell for it!
I nodded my head agreeing with him.
"WAIT!" A voice yelled grabbing everyone's attention.
It was that girl who offered her help, I didn't know her name. Everyone turned to her.
Whoa, tell me she didn't see me. Oh what am I thinking? She sits right behind me!
"Anne, I trust you. Tell me the truth. Did Andrew shake the can?" Mr. R asked the girl, Anne.
"Ehh….." She said looking between Derek and me.
The jerk or the nice guy? The jerk who has a short temper or the nice guy who wanted to get the jerk?
"It was….…" She said eyeing me and I instantly knew her answer, "Andrew."
I scowled, but not at her, at myself for being so careless. Anne still winced.
Why didn't I do it somewhere else?
"Andrew?" Mr. R said making me look up.
I looked right at his eye and still wasn't scared. Hey, I've seen Erasers the size of Godzilla, I can't possibly be scared of an eye contact with a teacher.
"Yes?"
"Did you do this?"
I looked away and finally nodded.
"Derek and Andrew. Detention after school." Mr. R declared.
My pulse quickened.
After school? But—
"After school? Why not some other time?" I said.
Mr. R shook his head dismissively, "Today or extended detention. I know you're the new kid and everything, but in this classroom, you need to have suitable behavior. So you both have detention."
"But why me? What did I do?" Derek cried out.
"Who's the one who slammed it, sir?" MR. R said looking at Derek raising an eyebrow.
Derek flinched and slumped. The heavy atmosphere loosened while everyone turned back to their work. Derek scowled at me and I rolled my eyes trying to look bored like Max, Fang, Iggy, and Isa when they're taunting Erasers. If you're wondering why I mentioned I didn't mention Isa's expression, it's cuz she's scary-looking, not bored when she's fighting Erasers. Anyway, it worked, Derek looked away. A little bell rang signaling us to go to the next class which is the last class. Social Studies. WHOOPEE. Economics, what fun. At least we could learn about some World Wars, you know what I'm talking about? I passed the girl who got me in trouble on my second day of school, Anne.
"Nice to see you supporting the jerks." I said not looking at her.
"Well, I'm—" Anne started to say.
"Whatever, it's okay."
Not it's not. I'm dead and who'll wait for me till three to pick me up. If I tell Max that I got detention or something, she's gonna go scary bird-kid on me and that's no fun. Maybe, Iggy can wait…..hmmmmm… Hopefully, someone will.
Angel POV
I saw Gazzy as I walked to English class. I waved and smiled at him and he smiled, but his smile was a bit….distant.
Gazzy: …she's gonna go scary bird-kid on me and that's no fun. Maybe, Iggy can wait…..hmmmmm… Hopefully, someone will.
'Scary bird-kid on me'? Wow, Gazzy. That is so Max. I wonder what Gazzy did….
I walked inside the classroom and the teacher smiled at me.
"Hi Ariel. How's your day going, sweety?" She smiled.
"Good. It's cuz I have awesome teachers like you." I grinned back.
She blushed and winked gesturing me to my seat.
Mrs. June: She is such a sweety. But she had to come late, if only I had her more in the class. She's so smart for a second grader.
"Okay, class. We're having a short and sweet spelling quiz today." Mrs. June smiled, "Surely you must have studied like I told you to yesterday."
I frowned.
"Uh oh." I whispered to myself.
What was I doing yesterday? Oh right, I was working on the books and the camera. WHOOPS.
Mrs. June passed out papers and I grabbed a pencil. All the kids got to work. It made me wonder a thing: How come second graders are so short? They look kinda like little people. Little people. Or it cuz I'm tall? I look like I belong in fifth grade or something.
Here goes nothing….. Hopefully she won't notice too much that I got everything wrong.
"This is the first word, alright? 'Chocolate'."
Mrs. June: I could use some Belgian chocolate for dessert tonight. I bet Dustin would love that.
I boggled my eyes and smirked to myself.
I think I just got my way out of this. This is already a bit easy too.
"'Wrapping' is the second word."
Speaking of wrapping, I need to wrap up Grandma Martha's birthday present. After all, she is turning eighty. Gotta get a book like '1,000 pleaces to go before you die' or something. IS that appropriate?
"Nu uh." I smirked to myself writing it down.
"'What' is the third word." Mrs. June nodded.
That's easy. I don't have to read any mind for that.
"'Easy' is the fourth word."
"Easy." I muttered to myself.
I saw a girl next to me struggling. I was surprised to see that.
"'Water' is the fifth word."
I officially think I should be in fifth grade.
Mrs. June went on and when she finally finished, I was thankful. I just realized that woman can talk, a lot of it too. But she's no match for Nudge. She's only the runner-up. When I was done, I went up to her and handed her my paper.
"M, my, my, kids are growing these days. Wow, you're so tall. You can go by someone older." Mrs. June smiled looking up and down at me.
I smiled a bit awkwardly. She smiled warmly and I looked away.
"Okay, kids. You can play until the bell rings to go home, alright? Just get your backpacks and sit own, okay?"
Can nice people like this exist? Can…can my mom be like this? …..NO! She sold Gazzy and me to Itex for money; no way would she be nice. But….would it hurt to see her like Mrs. June? I just wanted to see her once. Only once. It doesn't matter if she….sold me….I just want to see my mom…..
"Are you okay, Ariel?" A girl asked me.
I looked up to see a girl with a fountain-like hairdo and smiled. I nodded and she smiled right back at me.
"Ariel, can I talk to you?" Mrs. June called out.
Uh oh, did she…..catch me? No way, she can't. She doesn't know anything…. She knows nothing. Mrs. June looks too innocent to be an Eraser. Even if she did catch me, I can always change her mind.
I smiled a smug smile to myself and then quickly wiped it off as I walked to Mrs. June.
"Are your parents to pick you up when you're going home?" She asked me when I approached her bright orange table with a lot of flowers and trinkets.
Uh…what should I say?
"No ma'am, they went out. I don't know….they said….something like a da….dat…." I lied easily.
"Oh….." Mrs. June smiled to herself, "I understand, but someone is coming to pick you up, right?" She said looking a bit concerned.
I nodded my head quickly.
"Good, can I talk to your…."
"Older sister." I said quickly.
"Oh, okay, your sister." Mrs. June smiled.
BUT WHAT DID A DO?
Mrs. June: She's going to be so surprised.
"I hope not too much." I muttered to myself as I went back to my table and waited not quite excitedly for the bell.
Isa POV
I so did not know that avoiding Iggy would be so hard. HE'S IN FOUR OFMY CLASSES!
First period, I had English which was fine and even a bit funny cuz of watching Fang's facial expressions when we were doing worksheets. I even talked to Mike a lot. Second period, Math, totally going to fail the quiz tomorrow, but who cares. Mrs. Umbel thinks I need desperate help from the way she looks at me. Third period, I saw Max and she was grouching about some dance test tomorrow in her dance class. We played charades and I was supposed to sell ice-cream and Max was supposed to act like a celebrity or something. Really hilarious to see Max do the catwalk and throw away her fake sunglasses. Fourth period, I got a bit depressed. Jamie whisked him away and smirked as she did. She talked almost his ears off and I walked a good three meters away from him. Katie was getting her cast signed by everyone and was almost smirking at me too. Iggy kept trying to talk to me, but I pretended to be busy and it worked. Jamie was happy and didn't cause anything that would attract a lot of attention. I'm not a clingy person, but I hate how Jamie clings to Iggy like glue. She was holding his arm or something. Iggy tried to take it off, but she kept it there as hard as a rock. Fifth period, I talked to Dylan about what I was doing and he completely rejected my idea. He said to talk to Iggy as soon as possible, because it was impossible to avoid him. It made me feel nice cuz I could tell someone all of this. Sixth period, everyone was present which made me not able to avoid Iggy. He started getting suspicious on why I was not talking to him. Jamie gave me dagger-eyes all the time, but I threw that behind me. It's not like I'm avoiding Iggy cuz I'm scared of Jamie and what she was going to do, but I just wanted to not cause any commotion than I already caused. I told Max what I was doing and she also completely rejected my idea. She also suggested that I should snap Jamie's neck if she does anything more. But that's Max and you know her. I smiled at that idea despite me. Seventh period, Iggy was sitting right next to me! So I tried to strike a conversation with Paige who might think I'm an idiot for talking so much. So much for being Fang's sister. Eighth period, Spanish. I had to be switched to another class for the time being, so I narrowly avoided him. I saw Jamie in the hallway (Man, I run into her too much. This school is so small!) and she started talking to me. Let's just say I was really considering Max's idea when we finished talking. And then the bell finally rang telling us to get the heck out of there.
The flock joined again and we picked up Nudge who was as usually talking and we walked to the elementary school when Nudge asked the flock an interesting question.
"Why do we have to hide our identities? I mean we are saving the world and we even went to Mexico and did an airshow. Almost the entire world saw us."
"We can't always have paparazzi behind us, y'know?" Dylan shrugged.
"Plus, I don't exactly like a reporter coming behind me when I'm taking a shower." Iggy laughed.
We all gave him the Look and he instantly shut up. Now that we were finally out of school, I can talk to Iggy for once. I did a mental 'PHEW.'
"Can't people recognize Fang? I mean, he does have a blog…." Nudge suggested.
"I said I was in one of the Maryland schools in the blog." Fang said cracking a small smirk.
"All the girls in Maryland must be dying just to see you, I bet. 'O-M-G, FANGEY!'" Iggy laughed.
Max gave him a stormy glare and he immediately shut up. The entire flock laughed.
"Actually, they are. But not only me, it's the entire flock. Now that I mentioned a new member." Fang added.
Everyone looked at me.
Oh…M—
"MAX! FANG!" Angel yelled running up to us.
I also saw Gazzy and waved. He winced and I instantly noticed something was wrong.
Gazzy: Who'll stay with me now?
I looked at him confused.
What happened now?
"Max, I need someone to come with me to my classroom." Angel said looking down.
Max widened her eyes and gave her a mini glare, "What did you do now?"
"Did you brain-control the principle? Did you meet the Pres? Again? What did you do?" Iggy asked looking giddy.
"I kinda…..We had this spelling test and I kinda…...peeked into the teacher's mind….….and kinda cheated." Angel said still looking down.
"Either you did or did not, Angel. There's no 'kinda'." Dylan said softly and gently to Angel.
"…..Yeah, I did." Angel admitted.
Max sighed, "What happened though?"
"The teacher wants to talk with one of my family members. I don't know why though. I tried searching her mind, but she totally kept that aside." Angel explained.
"A family member?" Iggy asked looking alarmed.
Angel turned beet red, "My….older sister."
"WHAT?" Max said, "You have an older sister? How surprising!" Max said rolling her eyes.
Angel looked a bit helpless and I felt a bit sorry for her.
Gazzy: ISA! Help me!
What happened, Gasman?
Gazzy: I kinda…got detention and have to stay….after…school.
WHAT?
Gazzy: Yeah, I kinda purposefully shook something and it exploded and—
YOU EXPLODED SOMETHING! DID YOU HURT ANYONE? Gazzy! Didn't Max to tell you to stay out of trouble?
Gazzy: She did…..but then….Isa, please stay after with me. If I tell anyone else, they'll tell Max and then I'll be the sorriest eleven-year old known to man.
Gazzy…..fine.
Gazzy: Promise you won't tell anyone?
Sure….fine.
Gazzy: Just pretend to stay after for Angel.
Alright, alright.
Angel had a startled look on her face and we finally noticed that she can read minds too.
"Gazzy, did you—" Angel started to say until I cut her off.
"Come, A-Ariel, I'll pretend to be your older sister. Gazzy, why don't you come with me? That'll be nice." I said smiling a little bit too much.
"Oh, yeah, sure, no problem." Gazzy said already starting for the door.
"Whoa, whoa, Isa, you do know that you look nothing like Angel. Jus' saying. Maybe total opposites?" Max said
"I'll do something about that. You know me, I can handle anything." I winked walking inside.
The flock left still looking a bit doubtful, but nonetheless, they left. I beckoned Gazzy to go to his room and boy, I could tell he was relieved. It was the first time he was actually scared of Max. I mean, Max told me they already went to school and Gazzy and Iggy did some pretty nasty things, but Gazzy still wasn't scared then. It was pretty….interesting to see him scared now. I walked inside of Angel's classroom as she guided me and I sat down in a seat. The room really did look like a second grader's classroom. The only thing awkward is Angel's height and age. She was too tall-looking for her age. She could pass for a fifth grader. Suddenly a tall and slender woman came out with blonde hair. She had a kind look to her face and looked like she was in her late twenties, possibly early thirties.
"Hi, I take it you're Ariel's older sister? You're beautiful." She asked smiling pretty sweetly.
Her voice was faint like a whisper.
"Thank you. And yeah, I am." I replied getting a bit uncomfortable as her smile didn't go away.
"I'm Mrs. Wendy June, your little sister's teacher." She said shaking my hand.
Her grip was surprisingly strong and I was the one to let go. She sat down in her seat and clasped her fingers together.
"What's your name, sweetheart?" She asked.
I don't mind being called by those kinds of pet names, but I still kinda flinched.
"My name is….Andrea….Owens." I said finally remembering Ariel's fake last name.
"Wow, 'A' and 'A'." She smiled. I nodded with a smile plastered on my face, "Wow, you guys look nothing alike to be sisters."
If we were even sisters in the first place….
Blonde hair, black hair. Electric blue eyes, dark brown eyes. Fair complexion, a bit pinkish complexion. Curls, straight hair. White wings, black wings. What was I thinking? We really did look nothing alike. If Max were to come, at least it was easier to believe. They both had curls and skin one. It didn't really matter about the hair color or eye color. And besides, the teacher couldn't see our wings so nothing to worry about that there. But Gazzy would turn into history if Max came along.
"Ariel's mom got divorced and my dad got divorced. They both got married. I'm my Dad's kid and Ariel's my stepmom's." I said lying with such ease.
"Oh, I see." Mrs. June nodded.
"Is Ariel in trouble, Mrs. June? Is that why you called me?" I said getting straight to the point.
If she found out that Angel can read minds, we have to get out of here in .5 seconds and Angel will have to change her mind. The question is that how can this normal-looking lady find out that Angel read her mind? You need to have a very strong barrier for that, but we just have to slide into the mind avoiding the barrier. Anyway, if we do get caught, we'll have to get our butts out of there A.S.A.P.
I scanned the room and saw an open window. It was open enough for Angel to jump through and for me to slide through. From there, we could run and alert the flock. Just thinking of the plan made me get all nervous-y.
It'll work. It will. I will make it work.
I braced for the answer and stopped when I heard her laughing. I looked up in wonder.
Mrs. June chuckled, "No, no way. This sweety? No way. I wanted to ask if she wanted to participate in the state spelling bee. She got nothing wrong at all! It was amazing! She's so intelligent for a second grader!"
What the…?
I gave Angel a glum look. She winced and I sighed.
This is it? That's all? This is the trouble she's in? We have to run for this? For this, I had to worry? Oh wow…..
"…..So, are you interes—"
"No, Ma'am. I don't like to compete in competitions." Angel said shaking her head.
"Oh…." Mrs. June said shrinking back a little, "Okay then. If you ever change your mind, please tlell me, 'kay Ariel? Don't forget to tell mommy about this, okay?"
Angel nodded.
Mommy?
I nodded good-bye to her and Mrs. June waved. It was quiet as we walked out of the room. Angel looked down at her feet a lot. As soon as we were out of earshot, I drooped.
"You scared me." I said shaking my head.
"Sorry. A spelling bee, you would have never guessed. I even made a plan to get out of there if needed." Angel nodded.
I can now kinda see why Mrs. June thought of making Angel go to the spelling bee. Her vocab is pretty impressive for her age. For all I was thinking, I thought second graders would dream of marrying Spider-man or something. (A/N: Sorry for the interruption, but I actually wanted to do that in second grade. Marrying Spider-man, xD)
My directions sense once again almost made me barge into a wall. I grumbled and Angel guided me to Gazzy's classroom. When we reached there, all the lights were closed, but we still knocked. Surprisingly, the door opened and the lights flicked on. My fighting characteristic instantly sparked up. But instead of a hulky Eraser, it showed an old man who looked like he was in his fifties. His blue eyes danced as he smiled. The room had desks as rows like in my school. Gazzy and some other guy were sitting there with their heads down. The other kid looked like he was texting and Gazzy had…the usual likely to explode device in his hands in work. I cleared my throat and they both looked up. Gazzy turned red and I smiled. The other guy looked like he saw a ghost.
"You are?" He asked coughing a bit.
"G-Andrew's older sister? Andrea Owens?" I said once again lying perfectly.
"Gandrew?" The old man's eyes twinkled.
I smiled a bit cleverly as I sidetracked, "A slip of the tongue."
"Come inside. Though you look nothing like Andrew, this little lady looks exactly like him." The old man said shaking Angel's hand.
I sighed again.
I know, I know.
Angel smiled her cute little smile which made the old man grin.
She's adorable just like my granddaughter.
To Max, she would shudder at the sight of that cute smile. She said Angel almost killed the flock many times, but I never experienced one of 'em. I was the lucky one. I wondered how Angel could do that. After all, she was only seven. But Max told me not to underestimate her. We'll just have to wait and see what she'll do next. But hey, I don't look forward to it.
"I'm Mr. R…just call me that, my last name is too big. And you are Ms….?" He said asking for Angel's name.
"Ariel Owens. And yes, your tie is a bit crooked." She nodded.
Mr. R raised an eyebrow and I winced. Gazzy winced too.
Angel…..
Mr. R cleared his throat and fixed his tie, "So, Ms. Andrea, may I tell you what these two were up to?"
I smiled to myself, "You may."
"This sir," He said nodding his head at Gazzy, "has shook a Pepsi can and with this young man's slamming on triple-beam balance," He said nodding to the other boy, "They have caused quite a firework. Both got into trouble. This boy for shaking the cane and this boy slamming it on the equipment."
Gazzy blushed and the other guy scowled.
"I apologize for him. He won't do anything like this in the future." I said bowing my head slightly.
Mr. R smiled, "Though there's still ten more minutes to go, you both may go now."
Gazzy and the other boy scrambled to the door. We walked to the school exit.
"Is that girl really your sister?" I heard the other boy ask Gazzy.
"Yeah, what's it to you, Derek?" Gazzy said dismissively as he opened the exit door.
"If you only got her looks." The boy, Derek, sneered as he jumped inside a stretch limo.
He shut the door and the limo drove away. Gazzy gave him a Look I normally see Max have. It really worked, at least on me.
"You know, if we run fast enough, we can catch him and maybe even teach him something." Gazzy said already getting into a running position.
"Gaz, it's okay. Besides, we're not going to stay in school for long." Angel advised Gazzy.
"I know what he said stung you, but please?" I said smiling weakly at Gazzy.
Gazzy huffed, "Fine…..…..whatever."
"Race you?" I said wriggling my eyebrows at Angel and Gazzy.
"Bring it ON." The two siblings smirked.
"WAIT. Before we start," I held out my hand flat to Gazzy.
"What?" Gazzy asked looking confused.
I pointed at his pocket. He groaned and gave me the device. I marveled at it (almost threw it away, but I remembered myself before I did), but then finally raced. We reached home and Angel was the one who won. When we entered the house, Gazzy almost fainted. Not cuz of running, cuz he saw something he never imagined he would ever see. Max dancing. She finished with a clumsy twirl when we entered. She turned red and Gazzy almost dropped dead.
"What are you doing?" I asked Max.
"Dancing." Max said a bit meekly.
Gazzy lifted his head up slowly, "I thought you were practicing a Kung Fu."
Max almost did Kung Fu on him until the flock came in. When Gazzy told them, I could see Nudge and Iggy trying to avoid to burst laughing. I smiled and told Max what happened excluding Gazzy and his situation.
"Oh wow." Was her reaction.
The flock laughed and told me I went there for no reason. I slowly nodded realizing how sleepy I was. I didn't bother studying for my math test and just wanted to just sleep. It was a tiring day. But just before I entered my room, Iggy cornered me.
"Hey Isa, can you help me on something?" He asked.
"Sorry Iggy, but I'm so tired. How about tomorrow?" I suggested already feeling very drowsy.
Iggy blinked his eyes a couple times and looked down, "Oh….okay. See ya."
I didn't know why, but I felt a bit bad. But then I remembered, it was for the flock's benefit for me to avoid Iggy. No commotion and no unwanted attention. I instantly fell asleep when I touched my bed, not even conscious to hear Max yelling to come and eat dinner.
The Next Day
"I failed it." Max and I both said at the same time as we entered the cafeteria.
"What was problem ten anyway? 'X' was like right there beside the triangle. What does she mean by 'Find x', it's right there!" She laughed.
I shrugged and laughed, "I guessed for that one."
Heck, I guessed for all of them.
Max: Poor Todd, he wasted all that time helping me.
Lily came to us and smiled, "Good work on the dance, Max. It was good. Some people are really happy today."
"The dance thing? I failed that too. Oh well. And oh, we failed the math test." Max said quite proudly.
Lily raised her eyebrows and grinned, "Oh wow. What math are you guys?"
"We're both Algebra." I answered.
Lily turned abnormally quiet. It felt weird for the cheery Lily to suddenly turn quiet; we noticed that in only three days.
"What happened?" Max asked.
"I didn't…..oh…." Lily murmured.
"What math are you?" I smiled asking her.
"Algebra 2." Lily muttered.
Max and I coughed lightly. The smile on my face went away.
Wow, I feel dumb. Charge the scientists; they didn't give me a proper education. As if poking needles inside of me is biology, knowing the number of rings of my messed up DNA is math, and the understanding of my powers is history.
"Um, Hi, I'm Ryan Briggs." A deep voice introduced.
I looked up to see a guy with black spiky hair with a smile on his face. He looked a bit punkish with two piercings on his ear. It didn't look gruesome like some do, it actually suited him. He had these dark-colored clothing and had those fancy skater shoes which name I forgot. He would look good in one of those suspense or thriller movies. Next to him, there was a blonde guy with a little dimple as he smiled. However, he was the complete opposite. He looked like he belonged in a romantic comedy movie. He looked like some angel or something. But he was no match for Dylan. Dylan surpassed him. And Fang surpassed the punk guy, Ryan. Our flock's got the looks, you gotta agree.
"Um…..….hi." I smiled kind of awkwardly.
The other guy introduced himself to Max, "Hi, I'm Kyle Davis. Nice to meet you."
"Ehhhhhh…hello." Max said in her own special way.
Max: So he's THE Kyle Davis, huh? Not bad taste, Dominique. Only needs black hair, dark eyes, and a foxy smile and then perrrrrfect.
So Max knows him already! I do feel like I heard Ryan's name somewhere…
Just then, the entire cafeteria was staring at us. Everyone was turned around in their seat.
"What do you want?" Max asked straight away as she noticed the sudden attention.
"Well…should we do it, Briggs? Kinda nervous to tell the truth." Kyle asked nodding at Ryan.
Um…...what is he gonna do?
Max: Isa, if you're hearing this, do you think they are Erasers?
I really hope not.
Max: Do Erasers even look this good?
Again, hopefully not.
My heart was beating like crazy. It felt like one of Gazzy's bombs exploding. LOUD.
If he really is an Eraser, we would have to break for it. The flock could use that exit and Max and I will use the other one.
"Will you go out with me?" Ryan asked me and Kyle asked Max in sync.
I think all of you guys know what's gonna happen next ;)
ANYWAY, please review! Mhmmm, I really hope you're gonna like the next chapter cuz I sure gonna love typing it :D
