Part III

California, Here We Come...

Chapter 52

"California, here I come. Right back where I started from."

"Put a sock in it, Nudge!" I yelled back at her from my leader position in our tight formation in the air.

I know what you're thinking – let the kid sing. Yeah, okay. You haven't been listening to her sing the same song off and on for the past five hours – and I had simply exhausted all of my patience. Thanks to Nudge I was going to have another unwanted song permanently plastered in my brain.

"Sorry, Max," Nudge said. "I am just so excited! We've never been to Los Angeles before. There are tons of movie stars! I wonder if we'll meet one!"

"LA's not all its cracked up to be," Fang offered.

The boys actually spent some time in Los Angeles after Fang and I "broke up" (all his fault) months ago.

"Uh-huh!" Iggy insisted. "Or have you forgotten all the beach bunnies?"

I scowled at Fang.

"Oh – so that's what you were doing while I was off saving the world," I said. "Nice."

"Lookin' a little green there, Max," Iggy said as Fang was obviously trying to suppress a smile. I heard Angel giggle in the background.

"How would you know, blind man?" I retorted and Iggy chuckled.

"Max isn't green, Iggy," commented Gazzy. "What are you guys talking about anyway?"

"Nothing," I quickly replied. "Forget it. All of you." I glared at Iggy – which of course was pointless.

"Max," Nudge chimed in. "Are we going to stop soon? We haven't eaten since breakfast."

Anything to escape Iggy's taunting.

"How about a late lunch?" I asked looking around. We were flying high over the appropriately named Windy City – Chicago, Illinois. It was afternoon and the sun was shining but the wind chill factor was at least twenty below.

We dove down beneath the clouds and scanned the busy metropolis under us. Busy was the understatement of the century. Despite the cold, the streets were packed with cars, buses, and pedestrians. A fresh snow that had coated the city earlier that morning was a faint memory on the intersections – just piles of icy mush gathered in the few spots that cars had not touched.

"Look guys," Nudge shouted. "Snow!"

You would think she had never seen snow – we only stared at it every day for the past month in Antarctica.

"Maybe we can build a snowman," Angel suggested.

"Or have a snowball fight!" Gazzy chipped in.

Oh, sure. Right in the middle of flying across country, trying to escape the evil crazies back east, my flock wants to play in the freaking snow.

"And maybe we could all cozy up in front of a nice warm fire place with hot cocoa and marshmallows," I said, sarcasm oozing from my voice.

Five bird kid heads whipped toward me. Fang gave me a face that read "What the heck is your problem?"

There's that no sleep thing again. Fang was definitely taking first watch tonight.

"Sorry," I mumbled. "Can we just get something to eat?"