So this is the second chapter. I'm sorry it took me so long, but I hope it was worth the wait. I would be grateful for your feedback.

„Emma?" Alma could not help feeling a bit disappointed. She had hoped that Hugh had come back.

"Yes, I heard you fighting with Hugh. What happened? What made him so upset?" Emma asked confused. "That's absolutely not the Hugh I know. Well, he's not been himself for some time now but that…that was not Hugh at all!"

Alma brushed the tear strains from her cheeks with the sleeve of her dress. "He met some High School girl that he fancies. She invited him to a party at some boy's parent's house. I didn't want him to go. He's too young and he doesn't know those people and worst of all, I don't know them. How am I supposed to protect him like that? Listen, I want the best for all of you and I don't want to suffocate you with my protection but you have spent the last thirty-seven years on an island without any other children on it. Being peculiar in a normal world is not easy. Living in this world needs practice and until you got enough practice I need to stay close…that doesn't make me a bad ymbryne." Alma whispered the last words so quietly that they were barely audible.

"Of course not" Emma answered. "You are the best ymbryne! Hugh just said those mean words because he was angry. He didn't mean it like that."

"Oh, he did." Alma said and smiled sadly. Slowly Alma got up, groaning quietly at the pain in her troubled leg.

"Well, I think you are a great ymbryne and so do the others. We love you." Emma answered and hugged her ymbryne once more.

"Thank you. I love you too" Alma whispered and blinked heavily to get rid of the tears that were once more threatening to fall.

"What are we going to do now?" Emma asked. Alma went over to the window and looked outside. The sun had already vanished behind the horizon and soon the last sunrays would disappear and the night would engulf the city.

"We won't do anything. I will look for him and I will bring him back. Would you mind looking after the young ones while I'm gone?" Alma stated more confident than she actually was. She neither knew where the party was supposed to be nor how Hugh's love interest was called. Now her peculiarity would come in handy. Alma opened the window and quickly changed into her bird form. Before Emma could react Alma was out of the window.

Meanwhile Hugh was wandering the streets. He still had some time before he wanted to be at the party. Angrily he kicked a little stone across the street. Now he felt guilty. Their fight had been so stupid. Why could she not see that his friends were completely harmless! They were really nice to him! Still, he should not have said what he had said. He had hurt her, he could tell from the look on her face when he had said those mean words. But in this moment he had been so angry! He simply could not control himself! Of course he didn't hate her and she knew that, didn't she? Well, he would talk to her tomorrow. Tonight he would have a lot of fun!

Hugh grinned at the thought of seeing Macy in a couple of minutes. It was unbelievable that the beauty was interested in him. Him, of all boys! Until now he had managed to conceal his peculiarity quite well. In the last couple of years the bees in his stomach were listening to his commands better meaning they did not just fly out of his mouth at every given opportunity and were no longer stinging people accidently.

It was already dark when he reached the huge mansion where the party was already in full swing. The loud music could already be heard from afar and the house was stuffed with partying teenagers. He made his way into the huge mansion. Inside he stopped for a moment because he didn't know where to go now. He had never been at a party like that. He decided to look for Marcy first. She had said that she would be here early. No one was paying attention to him while he went from room to room and he started to feel a bit uncomfortable. The others around him were laughing and enjoying themselves while he felt completely out of place. But he couldn't leave now. He had promised Marcy to be here and he could not return home just now. Miss P would rip his head off.

"Hugh!" His head snapped around and he saw Marcy making her way over to him from the other end of the room. She had a red plastic cup in her hand. "Hugh, I'm so glad you came!"

"Yes..yes" Hugh stammered and blushed. "I'm glad too"

"Here" Marcy offered him her cup. He looked at it skeptical.

"Is that…alcohol?" Hugh asked and Marcy laughed loudly.

"Yeah, is that a problem for you, mother's boy?"

Hugh frowned angrily. He was not a mother's boy. "No, of course not." He grabbed the cup but hesitated to take a sip. Miss P would be so angry. The older ones who had already come of age were already allowed to drink alcohol but Miss P would never let him even have a sip of alcohol.

'Well, what she doesn't know won't hurt her' He thought and took a tentative sip. It tasted awful. How could anyone drink that stuff?

"Do you like it? I mixed it myself. It's 50:50." Marcy smiled. Hugh didn't know what she was talking about but he forced a smile and tried to ignore the burning in his throat.

"Well then, have some more! You look you are not enjoying yourself." Marcy said and frowned.

"No, I'm fine!" Hugh quickly answered and to prove his point he took another more determined sip of the cocktail in his hand. The burning didn't get any better.

"Well, then come on, I'll introduce you to the others."

At the same time a peregrine falcon flew over the city. Although in her bird form she possessed a very good sight she had not yet spotted the place she was looking for. The longer it took her to find her boy the more desperate she became. He was out there all alone and it was already dark! The bird decided to go a little lower. Suddenly she heard loud noise and what young people nowadays claimed to be music. She then spotted the place the loud noises were coming from. It was a huge mansion with a huge garden around it. Alma screeched happily and nosedived towards her destination. She decided to choose a save place for observation first. She chose a large tree in the garden from where she had an ideal position to observe both the garden and the house. She then started to look out for Hugh. He was nowhere to be seen. It was difficult for Alma to keep track of time while she was in her bird form but she guessed that she waited for about half an hour without any sign of Hugh. Now it was time to take some action. Carefully she flew off again circling the house a couple of times doing her best trying to spy into the windows without being seen herself. Suddenly she saw him. He was on the ground floor standing with the back to the window talking to a girl. Alma chose a place on the fence a couple of meters away to observe her boy. Even if Hugh would turn around he would not spot her sitting in the dark watching him. She contemplated what to do next. For a quick moment, she considered dragging him home by his collar. But that would only lead to another escalation between them and she didn't want that. She wanted him to understand that she did everything she did because she loved him. She wanted him to understand that he and the others meant the world to her and that his words had hurt her immensely. He just wanted them to be like a real family. No, she would wait here and observe the situation. She would intervene only when necessary. Maybe he was right and all his friends were nice and there was nothing to worry about for her-well, nothing except for the alcohol that was surely in this strange red cup. She and him would have a serious talk in the morning. For a moment, her thoughts wandered to her other children but she decided to trust Emma to look after them.

As the party continued Alma became more and more tired. Normally she would have been in bed already. Hugh on the other hand seemed to get more energetic the later it became. He laughed louder and seemed to flirt more with the girl standing next to him. Alma screeched quietly in a mixture of amusement and worry when he put an arm around the girl's waist.

It was about half an hour later when from one moment to the other the situation went out of control. With time Hugh had become bolder, pulling the girl closer and flirting more obviously. Alma was not happy at all with her charge. She liked courtship the old-fashioned way. This was way too bold for her liking. She was truly aware that her opinion might not be contemporary but to her mind being a gentleman was never out of date.

Suddenly Hugh put her other hand on the girl's neck and pulled her face towards his own. Alma rolled her eyes as best as a bird could. What happened next happened very quickly.

Hugh felt tipsy. He had not drunk very much, actually the cup he was holding was still the one Marcy had given him a couple of hours ago but he was not used to alcohol at all. It was not a bad feeling, he enjoyed that he seemed to think less about what he was doing and did not feel nervous anymore. Some time ago he even dared to put an arm around her waist.

'Now or never' He thought and pulled Marcy closer. Their lips touched and it felt like a firework was exploding behind his closed eyes. It seemed like all the bees in his stomach were coming to life from one moment to the other. It took him a moment to realize that the buzzing in his stomach was stronger than usual-much stronger. Quickly he pulled away and turned around. He tried to keep his mouth shut pressing his lips together with all the strength he possessed but to no vain. At first it was only one bee that escaped his mouth but soon his mouth was filled with bees. His cheeks were stuffed. To all the outsiders he must have looked like a hamster.

"Hugh?" Marcy asked sounding insecure. "Are you okay? You don't look very good." She took a tentative step towards him. He spun around and motioned her to stay where she was. The short moment of distraction was enough for him to lose control completely. The bees were swarming out of his mouth immediately filling the room. Loud screams could be heard throughout the house and everywhere people were trying to get rid of the bees. Hugh looked around in complete shock. What was he supposed to do? Normally he had some control over the bees but it seemed like they were so agitated that they did not listen to him at all.

Suddenly someone was shoving him from behind. Hugh fell to the ground. A huge boy was towering above him. He pulled Hugh to his feet by his collar and shook him with all the strength he possessed.

"What have you done?! You're weirdo and we do not want weirdos here! Whatever you have done, make it undone and then get out of here!" The boy growled angrily and shook Hugh once more so that Hugh saw star dancing in front of his eyes.

Suddenly Hugh was dropped. He groaned quietly but sat up immediately when he realized what was happening. A huge bird had flown in through the window. A peregrine falcon. Miss P!

She picked at the boy with her beak. Hugh could see deep cuts on the boy's forearms where Miss P had scratched him with her talons. When she was done with the boy she hooked her talons in Hugh's collar and pulled him to his feet. She quickly dragged him out of the house. As soon as they were outside the building Hugh was running as fast as he could. Miss P was following and guiding him from a couple of meters above the ground. He first stopped running when they reached their home. Quickly Miss Peregrine changed back and slipped into a dress. Hugh had turned around to grant her some privacy.

"You can turn around now" Miss Peregrine said and Hugh did as he was told. He was unable to look her into the eyes and instead looked at his shoes.

"Follow me, we need to talk"