Author's NB : Looky! A chapter! You know when it takes you so much time writing a chapter that when you're finally done writing it, you absolutely can't motivate yourself to pre-read it and correct the mistakes? This is what happened. I don't know why I had so much trouble, though, but it ended up making it shorter. I'll do better next time.

Enjoy!

Wings

Chapter 3

I coughed, pushing my sore body off the ground, and turned my head to narrow my eyes at the roof.

I couldn't do it.

The second I jumped off the roof the first time, the wind pushed under my wings, and allowed me to glide a long moment. I was thrilled, convinced I was flying, but the second I braced my wings to flap them and go higher, I completely lost control. I was sent spinning down towards the ground, where I fell in through the trees and landed roughly on the ground.

I wasn't always hard-headed, but I can be stubborn when it comes to important things. Those wings had done nothing but ruin my social life so far, and it was important to me that they got at least one use. Flying was going to be their use, and so I was going to learn, even if it earned me a broken limb – or two, the way this "learning" was going.

And that's why I climbed the emergency stairs, again and again, and threw myself off the roof. I got nothing more than a longer glide – which wasn't bad, but I still couldn't control it – and in the end, I could manage a few shaky flaps that got me a few feet higher, but that only made me fall from a longer distance. My body was aching all over, I had scratches covering my arms and chest, and my palms were scrapped from landing on the dirt, but I was still walking towards the stairs, and getting ready for another attempt.

Stubbornness or stupidity, you decide.

Once I got on the roof once more, I froze, and quickly drew my wings close to my back, pressing myself flat on the roof, as I saw boys walking out of the prom in an adjacent building. I stared as they came out, rowdy and loud, their dates following with rolling eyes. They were probably heading for another party, I guessed.

It was then that I noticed them. Candy, her dark curls pulled up at the back of her head, beautiful in a soft green dress, and Cameron in a black suit by her side. I swallowed, my insides suddenly burning with jealousy. What could have we done if we were still friends? Would I have asked Candy to come?

We used to be such good friends, but whether or not she had more serious feelings for either Cameron or me was a question that was never answered.

I kept my gaze on them as they walked towards Cameron's car. He stopped Candy there, though, not opening her door right away, and placed his hand on her waist. She just grinned at him, and the cold rock in my chest only grew bigger as I saw him lean in and kiss her lips.

The air in my lungs got out with a gasp, my eyes narrowing at the scene in front of me. How many times had Cameron and I talked about Candy? How many times had he told me he had no interest for her, that she was all mine to have? I was about to have her, too. I wanted to ask her to the prom. I was going to be the one whose arm she would hold, and hopefully, I would have been the one she was kissing now. I would have been the one she would be with, if it hadn't been for those damned wings.

And Cameron.

Cameron, you traitor. You knew I loved her.

If I was wondering if he had forgiven me for being a jerk to him, I had an answer now. I turned away from them, my heart shattering in my chest. Had I caused this? I had pushed both of them away. I had managed to lose my best friend, lose all chances with Candy, and push them to get together all at the same time. I scrambled to the other side of the roof, invisible in the dark night, and grabbed my long discarded shirt and harness, tucking them in my pants. My wings opened on their own this time and I jumped off, gliding away from it all.

I shut my eyes, bracing myself as I flapped my wings. This would usually be the moment when I went down and met the ground, but instead, I moved higher and picked up speed. I opened my eyes, surprised, and moved higher. My mood switched completely as I forgot everything about Cameron and Candy.

I was flying!

I laughed and pushed myself higher, shutting my eyes to feel the cool wind on my face. I could feel the strain in my back and wings, though, after all the efforts I had put into trying the whole evening, and I knew I should have stopped, gotten back to my room and rested.

Did I do that? Of course not. I was much too excited about flying to think about the effects over exertion can have on muscles that were never used before.

Lesson number one in a mutant's life : wings can have cramps.

Lesson number two : it's painful. It runs up from the middle of your back, and runs all the way up the 8ft long wing, making it tensed and instantly impossible to move.

It's painful, but probably not as much as landing hard on the ground after a 700ft long fall. I yelled when pain ran through my left wing, and felt gravity suddenly pulling me to the ground at a scary speed. Fear clenched my stomach and black dots danced in front of my eyes. I was going to pass out.

I was going to die.

Somehow my wings knew what to do. Or maybe it was the adrenalin that made my right wing draw closer to my back, making me pick speed and spin towards the forest instead of simply falling like a rock. I picked speed – which should have been a bad thing considering I was falling to my death – but at least I wasn't falling in a vertical line towards the pavement of the street, but rather plunging towards the trees. I'm only guessing, though; I had my eyes closed from the moment I felt myself pulled towards the ground. I cried out when I fell in a tree, hitting the branches. I fell down breaking about every branch I hit, but it slowed me down enough that the fall on the ground didn't kill me.

I fell from the tree and onto the ground, and landed on my side. There was a loud crack in my arm, and I screamed, instantly rolling on my other side and cradling the hurt arm to my chest. "Ahh…" I held it close, curling up in a fetal position, and waited until my breathing returned to something normal before looking down at my arm.

I had never really gotten hurt before. I could have, having spent my childhood in trees, but I never fell. Now I knew why my mother was so worried about seeing me up there. My arm was bent in a weird way, and I didn't even want to try moving my wrist. I swallowed hard and reached for the harness and shirt in my pants. I had to get help.

With a lot of winces and groans, I managed to slip the harness on and shrug my shirt over my shoulders. I abandoned the idea of buttoning the shirt one handed, and made my way out of the small forest and onto the side of the street. I licked my lips and raised my hand to hail a cab, and only paused one second before getting in when it stopped, my arm cradled against my chest.

Some things in life are priceless, and are worth carrying a camera around. The look on Dr. Stuart's face when I took my shirt off was one of those things.

He completely forgot about my arm, his eyes wide as he walked around me to my back. I felt him reach up and undo the harness, and my wings unfolded slightly when the pressure on them was released, making him take a hasty step back to give them a dumbfound stare. I shut my eyes, my shoulders slumping, but he didn't say anything, simply stepping closer. The wings flinched when he laid a hand on them, touching the feathers, and I turned my head to look at him. He looked up then, blue eyes piercing as he stared at me. "When did this happen, Warren?" he asked in a breathless voice. I could swear I could hear fear in it.

I swallowed hard, frowning at him. "About a month ago."

"Did they just… come out?"

"You could say that," I said in a dry tone. "I'm not here about them, though."

"Right." He walked around and continued wrapping up my arm. "It's broken, but it's clean. A cast for three weeks, at least, and I suggest…" his voice trailed off slightly, and he frowned, glancing at me from under his eyebrows, "that you do not do whatever you did to hurt it in the first place."

I narrowed my eyes at him, snorting softly. "Sure."

He did the same, looking back at the wings, and was silent a long moment, grey eyebrows drawing together in a deep frown. "Has anyone seen them, Warren?"

"No." I shook my head. "No one else but you."

He walked around again, and I felt his hands on my back, touching the base of the wings, palpating and pressing on the bones. I flinched, but waited; he obviously didn't like what he was seeing. "It's possible."

"What's possible?" I asked, staring at the wall in front of me.

"To have them amputated."

I didn't move a feather. A cold feeling settled in my stomach and it made me wonder why I thought it was such an impossible, terrible idea. I turned around to stare at him, and shook my head. "Why?"

He shook his head. "Warren, no one can know about this, but it's not exactly easy to hide. I could take them off without leaving so much but two scars, and it would never be known. Your mother's health isn't very good, I doubt you want her to learn her beloved only son is a mutant. Not to mention what your father's investors will think…"

I licked my lips, thinking about it for a second. "I don't want to."

"How will you hide them?"

"The same way I have until now," I breathed. "I'm not having them amputated."

He narrowed his eyes. "Are you trying to tell me they've made your life easier since they appeared, Warren?"

Appeared? That was an understatement. My eyes narrowed back at him, and something stirred in my stomach. "No. They haven't."

"Then why would you keep them?"

Good question.

"Think about it, Warren."

I spent the rest of the school year that way, hidden in my room like a hermit with Dr. Stuart's offer haunting my mind. May and June were terribly hot, but I still dressed in my heavy sweater to go to class, the only clothes big enough to hide the – rather large – bump in my back.

If only the end of the year would come… I wasn't sure what I would do back home, but I wouldn't have to give excuses for hiding in my room. My father was too busy to even notice I was home from school, and my mother wouldn't bother me. If they found out, in any case, it wouldn't be as disastrous as if someone saw them here; my parents would keep it secret.

Little did I know lady Fate had other projects for me.

I was awoken in the middle of the night by a yell in the hallway right outside of my room. I opened my eyes, raising my head from the pillow. My eyes were burning, though, and filled with tears instantly as the smell of smoke drifted up to my nose.

Fire.

Of all the things I hated in life, it had to be that.

I pushed myself off the bed and looked around my smoky room, stomach clenching in fear. I could remember the last thing that had happened, when I was five. The family house burned down, and I would have died in my bedroom if my father hadn't pulled me out of it. This time my father wasn't here, though.

There was a lot of commotion outside of my door as everyone hurried out of the dorms, but I couldn't exactly step out and join them. I wasn't wearing my harness to sleep, and I didn't have time to find it. I pushed myself down on all fours on the floor, my heart thumping as I crawled to the window. It opened easily, and I let out a gasp of relief as fresh air washed over my face.

I easily flew out of it and made it to the next building, landing on the roof and looking back at the dorm. I was in nothing but pajama pants, barefoot on the shingles, large wings protruding out of my back, and I had nothing to hide them. The harness and my clothes were inside…

Did I have time to go back and get them? Now that I was out of danger, my conscience was speaking to me again; I couldn't be seen by anyone under any circumstance. I crouched, bracing myself to jump and fly back to my open window, when I heard a cry from another window. I stared at it, noticing the flames inside of the room. My heart clenched in fear; I was dead afraid of fire, and having feathers wasn't going to make that fear go away. I heard another scream for help, though, and it was enough for me to jump and fly towards it.

I climbed inside the room, coughing, and quickly ducked to the ground to try to avoid the smoke. "Is there anybody here!" I yelled out.

"Here!" was the croaked reply. I crawled to it, and found the boy curled up by his bed. "There's fire outside the door, I can't get out…" he let out, looking up at me, and froze.

I did as well, staring back at Cameron for what seemed like a long moment, but the feeling of turning into a roasted chicken made me reach out and grab his arm. "Come on." He didn't argue, and I climbed on the window sill, looking back down at him to find him staring at me with wide eyes. I opened my eyes to speak, but thought against it, grabbing him around the waist and jumping out the window.

He gasped and tensed, but I quickly carried him a bit farther, letting his feet touch ground before landing next to him. His eyes were just as wide and round as quarters now, settled on my wings, and he let out a soft breath. "Warren?" he breathed, as if I was going to shake my head and claim to be the Archangel Gabriel.

"Are you alright?" I only replied, staring at him.

"Oh my God," was his reply, and he stepped closer. "You… you have wings!"

"Oh really," I let out dryly. "You always were the observant one."

"That…" He licked his lips. "That's why you've been acting like a moron for the last weeks?"

I looked back when I heard voices before looking back at him. "No one can know about this, Cameron. Really."

He stared at me a few more moments before slowly nodding. "Don't worry," he let out as I backed up, getting ready to fly away before people saw me. "I won't tell anyone."

I nodded and took off, my heart feeling a bit lighter. Apparently the wings did have a use… and I had my answer to Dr. Stuart's offer.

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