A/N: I know, chapter 5 was a little boring. This one is too. It's just…uneventful. Yeah, that's the word I'm looking for. I think I need sugar. Yeah, lots of it. That'll get my brain moving…I think.

The final bell of the day rang. I was relieved.

            A guy bumped into me as I was walking and knocked my books to the floor.

            "Hey, watch where you're going!" I yelled.

            "Marco is picking you up from school today. Jake wanted me to let you know."

            I stared at him. "Who are you?"

            "It's me. Erek. You know, from last night?"

            I raised an eyebrow. "Did Jake send you to spy on me? If he did, I'll—"

            "No. Not at all," he interrupted. "He just wanted me to tell you. He flew by while I was in math, saying that he wasn't able to find your class."

            "Flew? Oh. Never mind. Why Marco? Why not Ax, or Tobias, or Cassie? Why him?"

            He shrugged and handed me my books. "I have no idea. Just look for the guy with the sunglasses in a red convertible." He disappeared into the crowd.

            I found Marco waiting for me in the parking lot. In a red convertible, just as Erek had told me.

            He removed his sunglasses. "What's up?"

            I looked up.

            "No, I mean 'how are you'…Never mind. You're just like Ax," he said with a smirk. "Hop in. We just need to wait for my wonderfully talkative and late daughter."

            A girl walked up and got into the passenger's seat. I recognized her from math class. Her name was Amy. "Hi Dad. Hey Serenity."

            "You're Marco's daughter?"

            She nodded. "Yeah."

            "But you're so…so serious."

            "That's what I've always said," Marco informed me, pulling out into the street. "She's like her mother. But her little brother? Now that kid has a sense of humor."

            Amy turned to me and rolled her eyes. "He's annoying. All he does is tell jokes."

            "Who? Marco or your brother?"

            "I see you ended up with a little of his humor as well," she said. Then she must have seen the surprised look on my face. "Yes. I know all about you. Genetically created, locked up all your life. Was it horrible?"

            "I didn't know what humans looked like until yesterday. They gave me internet access, but removed all the pictures of humans. I had pictures of anything else. So my life was very boring. I communicated through a speaker system. Food was shoved through a hole in the bottom of the door. Yeah, it was terrible."

            She smacked her dad's shoulder as he pulled up in front of their house. "Dad, why did you people torture her like that?"

            "It wasn't me, it was all Jake's idea. His project," Marco defended. "Ask him about it later. Amy, Jake wants me to hang out with Serenity today. Maybe make her act more like a normal human."

            She shook her head and walked into her house.

            I crawled into the front seat. "Mind if I sit here?"

            He shook his head and drove us to an empty parking lot.

            "Uh, what are we doing here?" I asked.

            A feather pattern began to appear on his skin. "Just concentrate on becoming the hawk. Let the changes happen."

            I had acquired a red-tailed hawk the night before. I formed a picture of it in my mind and felt a sort of falling sensation as I started shrinking.

            It's okay, Serenity, Marco said. You'll get used to it.

            My bones became lighter and my mouth stretched out and hardened to form a beak. The feather pattern on my skin became three-dimensional. My vision and hearing became more acute.

            I was a hawk.

            I opened my wings and took off out of Marco's car. Suddenly, I was being lifted higher and higher!

            Aaaaahhhhhhhh! I screamed. It's a tractor beam! Marco, save yourself!

            He laughed and circled above me. It's called a thermal, Serenity. Not a tractor beam. It's a rising pillar of warm air that you can use to climb higher without flapping so much.

            I felt embarrassed. Oh. Why are we doing this anyway? I thought you were to make me a normal human.

            I will later. Let's go find Tobias and Ax. Follow me. He banked left and I followed suit.

            Where are they? I asked, looking down at the ground.

            See the smoke? That's a barbecue. And see the man with the 'kiss the cook' apron and chef's hat? That would be Ax.

            I swooped down and landed on the ground next to Ax. Hi.

            Marco landed next to me. Hey Ax.

            "How are you on this fine afternoon?" Ax asked. "You are Marco, I presume, and not Cassie. And your companion must be Serenity. Tee. Ee."

            I demorphed. So did Marco.

            Tobias came out the back door with a plate of corn. "I see we have guests. Then I will just bring some more food out for everybody."

            I gave Marco a look.

            "Hey, it's free food. It means I don't have to pay for it," he said, going inside the house.

            I sidled up next to Ax. "So, what are you cooking?"

            "I am cooking ground and processed cattle adorned with various flavorings. Humans call them hamburgers. But I am going to add cheese to mine, thus making it a cheeseburger. Then I will—"

            "Okay, Ax. I get it," I interrupted. "We're having hamburgers. And judging from what Tobias had in his hand, we're having corn."

            "And French fries. And for dessert, we're having cinnamon buns."

            "Cool."

A/N: See? It was uneventful. Just as I had said. And it seems short. But this was the best chapter six out of all the ones I wrote, so this is the one I typed. Oh well. Chapter seven should DEFINITELY be better.