Be Careful What You Wish For

Chapter 3: Borrowing


"It's time to get up, it's time to get up, it's time to get up in the morning," I sang cheerfully to a sleeping Sparrow in my off key voice.

My dad used to sing that song to me when I was a little kid, before I became a mutant. He would come into my room in the morning all happy and start singing. It was kind of weird, but who am I to call other people weird? I mean I am the one with green wings and a tail.

"I'm tired, five more minutes," Sparrow moaned as she rolled over in her old tattered blanket.

I walked over, kneeled down beside her and took her blanket. That woke her up. For some reason Sparrow could never sleep without a blanket covering her. Even when the weather was warm.

"You were the one who wanted me to tell you a story last night," I pointed out to her in a voice more rude than I intended.

"So, can't I still sleep in sometime?" Sparrow questioned me as she grabbed her blanket back and folded it up.

"Sparrow we always sleep in," I reminded her "it's already ten and we need to go to the store to borrow some food."

"Borrow? More like steal," she snapped at me.

"Someone's cranky," I teased.

Sparrow just glared at me. She wasn't much of a morning person. If it was up to her she would stay up late and wake up at noon. I, on the other hand, didn't seem to need more than five hours of sleep since my mutation kicked in.

While Sparrow put away her blanket I dug through my bag to find my hairbrush. My hair was always a mess in the morning even if I had braided it the night before. Once I found my brush Sparrow came and sat down next to me.

"Can I brush your hair, Skye?" she questioned.

"What? No!" I snapped.

"Why not?" She inquired, like she didn't remember what happened the last time.

"Last time I let you brush my hair you got the brush so tangled up in my hair I had to cut some of it off. Remember?" I pretended to be angry.

"I don't remember that," Sparrow said quietly, almost guiltily.

"Whatever, I will let you braid my hair, though."

"Yay!" She squealed before she started to put her shoes on.

As I brushed my long green hair I looked around at all the trees. Since it was autumn all the leaves on the trees were orange, yellow and red. It was beautiful; I loved autumn. The place we were now sitting in was surrounded by trees and the ground was covered with leaves. I didn't know exactly where we were, but I knew that we were somewhere Pennsylvania.

Leaves made a soft bed, that's why I liked sleeping in amongst the trees. Trees also made me feel safe and Sparrow liked staying in forests because of all the birds. I think that Sparrow liked the birds because they had wings like her.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard a thump.

"What happened, Sparrow?" I questioned.

"I fell over." Was her smart retort.

"How?" I asked her, wondering how she could just fall over putting her shoes on.

"I was putting my shoes on," she replied, like that explained everything.

"Oh, of course." I said sarcastically.

Apparently, Sparrow had been trying to hover in the air while putting both shoes on at once. Of course that didn't work, so she had to sit on the ground to get her shoes on instead.

"Can I braid your hair now?" Sparrow asked eagerly.

"Sure, right after I brush your hair."

"But I just brushed it two days ago and you said I could braid your hair now," she whined.

"First I am going to brush your hair because you never brush it good and then I will let you braid my hair," was my stern reply.

"Fine." Was all she said as she sat down in front of me.

Later, once I had my cloak on, my green skin covered and Sparrow's wings hidden by a large sweatshirt we made our way out of the forest. We flew over the trees until we spotted a small town with a grocery store.

Once I spotted a place where we could land without being seen I folded my wings against my body, tucked my bag under my arm, and spiraled straight down. Sparrow was close behind. When we neared the ground I spread my wings to catch the wind and came to an abrupt yet graceful stop on the ground. Sparrow, on the other hand, spread her wings too soon and ended up falling the last two feet to the ground.

"You got to work on that Sparrow," I told her while trying not to laugh.

"Yeah, yeah. Leave me alone." she said as she started to walk towards the store.

After landing in the trees near the parking lot we walked into the store. This was a good store to borrow food from, because there was a security guard which meant there were no cameras. We still had to hurry though.

Grocery shopping was always an adventure, because I knew what we needed to get, but Sparrow was always making excuses about why we couldn't get those items. Then she would suggest that we get a whole bunch of junk food instead. Of course I didn't let her, but somehow she always managed to sneak some kind of unhealthy item into her bag.

After picking out some canned food, bananas, two boxes of cereal, and some bottled water and putting them in my bag we were almost finished.

"Skye, can we get cookies?" Sparrow asked me hopefully from behind me.

"No." I told her absently as I browsed the shelves.

"Why not?" she persisted.

"Because I say so." I told her again.

"That's a dumb reason," came her angry remark.

"Hey! What did I say about using that word?" I said facing her.

"Sorry," she pouted.

"Now, let's get carrots."

"Do we have to get carrots? I don't like carrots."

"Yes you do, you ate them last week, and I saw you."

"Well, I didn't like them; can we get watermelon or some licorice?"

"Do you really think that a watermelon would fit in your bag, Sparrow?"

"No."

"Ok, then. We have enough food for awhile; let's go before we get caught." I said looking around.

As we were walking down a row of food packed shelves with both of our bags

stuffed Sparrow whispered to me, "Skye, that lady with white hair is watching us."

"Where? I don't see anyone." I whispered back trying not to look suspicious.

"Right there, she has tan skin, white hair, and is wearing a blue dress."

"Oh, I see her. I don't think she works here, if she did we'd be caught by now, so just keep walking and don't look guilty," I whispered back.

"Ok."

Once we were out of the store and walking across the parking lot Sparrow asked me,

"Why was she looking at us, Skye?"

"Most likely because we look different, I mean not that many people wear cloaks like

mine nowadays."

"She couldn't have known that we are mutants, could she?" was Sparrow's worried reply.

"Of course not, we were covered the whole time. Come on we are far away enough from the store, let's fly."

"Wait Skye, it feels like someone is watching us." She said while looking around.

"That lady is still inside and there is no one else out ..." I started before I spotted two scary looking men walk out from in between the cars behind us. Neither of the men were very tall, but they looked pretty strong. They both had blonde hair and they wore dark clothes. They looked like they could have been brothers.

Sparrow then saw the men and she started to panic.

"It's okay," I tried to reassure her, "just keep walking."

We started to walk faster down the side walk, but the two men were still following us. Soon we were running and then men were right behind us.

I yelled to Sparrow, "Fly, Sparrow, fly!"

We didn't get very high into the air before I heard several gunshots go off and I felt a sharp pain in my back and stomach. Then my world went black as I heard Sparrow screaming my name and the men shouting in triumph.