I spent most of the night in my nightgown, sitting in a chair on the balcony, shuffling through pictures and placing them in an empty album Miss Peregrine had given me. It was always warm at night and I enjoyed the tranquility of being alone while the house was completely silent. Eventually I must have drifted off because I awoke some hours later in the morning and I was still sitting there, photos on my lap.

I awoke to the sound of someone slamming a door down the hall. I jerked awake and spilled the photographs all over the balcony. I cursed and slid down on my knees to collect them.

After slipping into Miss Peregrine's old gown, I descended the stairs into the house to find it utterly quiet. The clock in the hall read10.A.M. I slowly made my way around the first floor to search for everyone. I finally found them in the classroom at the back of the house. I stood, peeping around the corner through the doorway. The children all sat at desks, blank open books in front of them as they scrawled in them with fountain pens. Miss Peregrine sat at a big mahogany desk at the front of the room, her nose buried in a novel. It was completely silent except for the children's scrawling. I tiptoed away before anyone noticed me.

Considering that I had missed breakfast, I made my way to the kitchen and made myself a cup of tea. Such was all right, I wasn't hungry anyway. I then advanced into the sitting room and sat in a chair. I set my tea on the end table and allowed my head to loll back against the soft chair.

I began to see things.

I saw an image of my family as they stood around the kitchen table back home. They were laughing at something my mother had said. On the table was a huge plate of pancakes and a pitcher of orange juice. It was like the perfect family breakfast back home only I was missing. No matter how hard I attempted I couldn't chase away the image and it made my stomach turn. Was this a dream? A reverie?

No, it was my reality.

My parents had never wanted me; that was no secret. I was odd, peculiar, whatever.

I was the unwanted child.

I couldn't help it when tears began to fill my eyes and run down my cheeks. I sniffled quietly. The facts that I was a Peculiar ymbryne and that I would be wanted and loved by a whole house of peculiar children someday made me smile. But I was still hurting inside for my biological side of me.

I curled myself in a tight ball within the chair and I wished so heavily for the thoughts to go away. They were haunting me.

Freak!

Minnette is so weird!

Does her family even love her?

I heard the voices of my cruel classmates. Years and years of being called horrible names really can screw with your mind, believe me. They kept getting louder, those voices. I tucked my head under my arms and dug my face harder into the chair. I wanted to scream. I wanted to scream bloody murder.

But I wouldn't. I wouldn't disturb Miss Peregrine. None of this was her fault.

I did, however, cry out into the fabric of the chair upholstery.

Soon, without doubt, I began to scream like a bird again. Only this time, I couldn't stop. Everything inside me was complaining in the form of a bird. I lifted my head from the chair and began to squawk. I was losing control of my body again.

Just then, the sound of thunder began to boom all around the house.

Miss Peregrine rushed into the room. The children ran behind her.

By this time, I was on the floor squawking like no tomorrow. My arms began to feel light.

Miss Peregrine reached down and grasped my wrists. "Miss Stonington!" she cried. "What is the matter?"

"What's wrong with her, Miss P?" asked Claire.

She let go of me and I began to shake.

"Children! Run along! I need some private time with Miss Stonington!" she hissed. The children took no time escaping the room.

Miss Peregrine kneeled beside me and grasped my wrists again. "Miss Stonington?" she asked. "Miss Stonington!"

I couldn't break from whatever was alimenting me. Miss Peregrine began to coo like a pigeon and held to me tightly. In a matter of moments I had stopped convulsing and I was hyperventilating. I felt my body become mine again and I stopped wrestling her tight grasp. Man, could Miss Peregrine hold tight.

She released me and began to pant a little. "My, Miss Stonington," she said when she could catch her breath. "You are closer than we think. For a moment there I expected you to sprout wings and fly." She huffed a few more times and smiled at me. "Perhaps we should continue the calling-out of your inner bird after supper."

"That was painful," I reported.

"Yes. It will be for the first few times."

I rose to my feet and offered a hand to her. She took it and hoisted herself up. "My, you're a fighter!" she said.

I pressed my hands to my temples. "My apologies. I am usually not so strident about things."

She smiled. "Why apologize? This comes natural to young ladies in your condition," she assured me.

"I interrupted your lesson," I explained. I, actually, felt like a piece of trash for allowing myself to be taken like I had.

"It's quite all right," she replied.

Just then, a nearby table shook and a vase fell to the floor and smashed. Miss Peregrine hardened her expression. I then saw her eyes enlarge as she faced it.

"Mr. Nullings!" she hissed. "It is rude to eavesdrop!"

The next thing I saw was the doors to the sitting room swing open, followed by the sound of footsteps.

Miss Peregrine put her hands to her forehead and plopped backwards into the chair I had just been crying in. "I wonder how much he heard," she hissed to herself. "Surely he will inform the others of what he just experienced." I stood silent as Miss Peregrine began to have an almost full-blown conversation with herself. She pressed a palm to her forehead and put pressure on it. "How could you be so ignorant, Alma?" she asked herself.

I guess that mothering-over a bunch of peculiar children and doing the same things day-by-day really took its toll on an ymbryne- no wonder Miss Peregrine had been so ecstatic when I had first come along, she had something new and interesting in her life.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," she insisted upon herself.

As wonderful as she was, seeing her insulting herself stirred something within me.

I stomped my foot. "Alma LeFay Peregrine, you are not stupid! What utter wish-wash!" I quickly gasped and covered my mouth with my hands.

Miss Peregrine froze; a grave look in her eyes. Now, I had done it.

"You are going to make a fine ymbryne," she finally said. "Self-put-downs are not amongst your beliefs. Good for you."

Surprised at her praise, I lowered my hands slowly.

"Will Millard tell about me?" I asked.

"Hmmm. Perhaps. I must be prepared when the children come asking," she said. "And they will indeed come asking."

What would the children do if they found out? How would they react when they found out that I would one day have to leave Miss Peregrine's loop to educate myself and-one day- begin my own loop. I knew immediately that Claire and Bronwyn- and perhaps Emma- would be utterly upset. I wondered just how upset Miss Peregrine would be.

"I could punish the boy, but if he's going to inform them, then he has already done so. Punishing him would be for naught," said Miss Peregrine from her seat. "He has a bad habit of doing these things." She sounded disgusted. "He did this, too, when I was speaking to Jacob about his grandfather."

I knew everything about Jacob and his grandfather, Abraham Portman, Emma had told me. However, she did not mention that she had sent Millard to do her snooping for her.

"Headmistress," I said.

"Yes?"

"Would you mind if I went and rested for a while before supper? I'm afraid that my episode has left me woozy."

"Of course," she replied, making no attempt to move from her seat.

My bed felt so nice. I had not gotten any decent sleep last night, and I was comforted by the soft mattress and the fluffy comforter as soon as I bundled myself in it. Within minutes I was fast asleep. The wholeness of the bed seemed to encase me in this warm place that I did not ever want to leave.

I had no dream throughout my entire slumber. I awoke in the late afternoon, when the clock told me that it was quarter to five pm. I felt kind of on the chilly side when I whipped my blankets off of me. I stretched whatever needed to be stretched and I headed down for the dining room.

As I neared the dining room doorway, I heard Miss Peregrine talking to the children.

"Is Minnette sick?" asked Claire.

"No, she is not."

"Is she going to die, Headmistress?" asked Olive.

"No, Miss Elephanta," replied Miss Peregrine. "Miss Stonington does not feel her best these days," she explained.

I stepped into the room to find twelve pairs of eyes on me. Miss Peregrine winked at me. She clapped her hands together. "Well, now that's sorted out, let's eat!"

After supper, Miss Peregrine ordered that all the children took turns bathing, and the ones who had bathed recently had to read a chapter in a textbook she provided with them. She had asked me to meet her at the end of the terrace, towards her greenhouse. Before heading out to meet her, I grabbed two things from my room, my box of Marlboros and my camera. I hadn't been in the greenhouse but once, and it was almost time for the changeover. Tonight would be the night I managed to shoot the changeover, considering all of the children were busy.

I met Miss Peregrine on the outside of the greenhouse, towards the woods. She just stood, peering out into the trees. She had her pipe in her hand; she puffed it as I walked down the lawn towards her. As I neared her, the smell of her pipe smelled wonderful to me. I reached into my pocket, pulled out a Marlboro and lit it with a match. For some odd reason, I had thought that lighters wouldn't work in this world.

Puffing my cigarette, I stepped to my headmistress' side. She turned her head just as I puffed my cigarette.

"My! Miss Stonington," she barked in awe when she saw me smoking my cigarette. She looked at her pipe guiltily. "I have not influenced you, have I?" she asked.

I shook my head, exhaling smoke. "Nonsense, Headmistress. I have been smoking since I was thirteen years-of-age." I raised my cigarette again.

"It's a bad habit," she said plainly as he took a puff from her pipe. I think that she knew that no matter what she said about my smoking habit, she couldn't do anything because she herself was a smoker. She said nothing else.

We finished smoking in silence and soon I was putting out my cigarette with my boot. I picked the butt out of the grass and held it up. "I cannot allow the children to find this," I told Miss Peregrine. "Especially Mr. Portman." I threw it as hard as I could into the woods. She then put out her pipe.

"Now, Miss Stonington. I believe that you are ready to turn for the first time," she said. "You are advancing well." She then began to fiddle with the buttons on her collar. "Miss Avocet will be very impressed when she gets the chance to meet you," she added.

"I'm ready for what you think I'm ready for, Headmistress," I replied.

"Assume the position we reviewed yesterday," she instructed.

I held out my arms, spread my feet and closed my eyes. I felt Miss Peregrine's hands adjust my posture.

"Good. Now, in order to get the feeling of things, I would like you to call out, as you did to me in the forest."

I nodded slightly. I trusted Miss Peregrine and I hoped that this would prove fine and dandy in the end. I had been excited to know what species of bird I was for many days now. I took a deep breath, and tried a call. It came out raspy. Miss Peregrine urged me to try again. I did. It sounded a tad better.

"Come, now, Miss Stonington. I know you can perform better than that." She was urging me into the convulsions I had had earlier that morning. I had just re-built my strength by my napping and I didn't want to lose it again.

I drew in a deep breath and let out my loudest call. It worked!

"Excellent," soothed Miss Peregrine. "Now again."

I repeated myself.

"Again!" she urged.

As I drew in to begin the call, I felt my whole body go. I was weightless, almost-feathery like. But I wasn't a bird yet, I could still wriggle my fingers! Even though they were shielded behind my eyelids, my eyes began to sting. Like before, my head began to pulsate like a drum beat. I focused as hard as I could as I let out another call.

Miss Peregrine was becoming anxious. "Keep on it, Miss Stonington!" she sang. "You're almost there!"

I began to feel the vibrations in my chest, which spread rapidly to every cell in my body. I felt a small breeze brush my hair from my shoulders. I inhaled again and just as I went to release another call, I felt my whole body go numb. I had lost it into what Miss Peregrine had called the "Inner-ymbryne vibrations." These would help make my transformation smooth.

Then, suddenly, everything felt different.

I went to move my arms to discover that they had gained weight. My feet felt stretched to the max. I felt myself in a warm casing of something soft.

I opened my eyes to utter blackness.

CAW! CAW! I sounded my bird call and began to twitch.

I slowly opened my eyes to a much brighter, bigger field of view to them. Peering to my side, I saw that my arms had been replaced by two, long, slender black wings. My feet were small and stick-like with sharp talons. When I opened my mouth to cry out to Miss Peregrine, a bird call escaped me.

I was a bird!

I felt two hands come around my small body, and scoop me up. The next thing I knew, I was looking at Miss Peregrine from her palms.

"Oh, Miss Stonington!" she said in human. "What a lovely raven you make!"

Raven? I was a Raven? I had been reading Edgar Allen Poe the day I had received Miss Peregrine's letter. How odd this all was.

I lifted my beak to coo at her.

"Well, this is quite different," I said in bird to Miss Peregrine.

She giggled, and pursed her lips and began to coo. "It'll take some getting used to. Oh, Minnette! I'm so proud of you!"

Miss Peregrine brought me close to her eyes so she could examine me. I saw my reflection in her glasses. Indeed I was a raven, and a shiny one, at that. I snuggled up my feathers and shook. I made a sound that sounded like a bird's version of purring and I rubbed my head on Miss Peregrine's cheek. I cooed.

"Does this mean that I can be addressed as Miss Raven, now?" I asked.

Miss Peregrine smiled and nodded. "As soon as I figure out a way to tell the children."