Chapter 8: Vulnerable

After our shindig in the arcade, we headed down to the dining hall for lunch. Words fail to describe the food they served. Let's just say that they give Iggy a run for his money. And that's saying something.

Next on Nudge's schedule was a two hour flight, the one part of the day that I was actually looking forward to. We poked around the ship a bit, looking for a good place to take off, and we found it – a landing area designed for helicopters. (Why a helicopter would want to land on a cruise ship – I have no idea. But it served our purpose.) Taking running starts, we threw ourselves into the air, stretching out our wings. Then, we booked it out of there, not wanting to be seen by wandering eyes.

"Hey, guys, I have an idea!" Angel cried, once we were a couple hundred feet in the air.

I groaned inwardly. Coming from Angel's mouth, those words can mean anything from a nice walk in the park to influencing the president of the United States change his annual budget plans. (And trust me. This has happened before.)

"How about we play tag?"

I raised my eyebrows – the idea seemed innocent enough. But with six rowdy, flying birdkids, this could turn into a disaster very quickly.

Before I could reply, though, Gazzy shouted out, "I have a better idea!"

Oh, no. Gazzy should have known better. Anyone who has lived with Angel for nearly their entire lives (read: the Flock) knows that you should not challenge her. She isn't good at losing.

"Oh,yeah?" Angel's eyes narrowed, deathly calm.

Gazzy, oblivious to the tension, said, "Yeah! Let's play toilet tag!"

Then, instead of the challenging reply I was expecting from Angel, she let out an excited whoop and said, "Yes! I love toilet tag?"

Well, let's say it together, folks: Whaaaaa?

I rounded on Gazzy. "Will someone please explain to me what the he-" I was cut off by a warning look from Fang, "-eck toilet tag is?" I exclaimed.

"Well…" Nudge started, "It's this game, kinda like freeze tag – hey, we played freeze tag in gym class when we were at school with Anne! It was so fun… and that cute guy, Connor, was in my class, too… boy, was he gorgeous..." I frowned at her. Only Nudge could turn a conversation about toilet tag into one about gorgeous guys.

Cowering under my glare, she continued hastily. "Er… well, anyways, it's like freeze tag, so when you get tagged, you have to freeze and become a toilet. You can't get unfrozen unless someone sits on you, and flushes your hand like a handle. If the person who's It freezes everyone, they win," she mumbled, surprisingly brief.

"Sounds perfect!" Iggy grinned evilly, and I inwardly groaned. This would be very interesting; I knew Gazzy and Iggy would make sure of that.

"Whatever, guys," I agreed reluctantly. "But before we start, I think we should fly a couple of miles north until we're over land, just to be safe…"

Fang nodded, and we speeded over towards the coast. Angel flew hand-in-hand with Iggy, sweetly describing the beautiful ocean surrounding us. Nudge flew over next to Fang, the only one who could tolerate her rant about the cast of Jersey Shore. Sliding up next to Gazzy, I peered over at his face. He seemed so young and innocent up here in the sky, his expression open and vulnerable, his hair tousled in the wind. Before I could stop them, I felt tears pricking the corners of my eyes, and I hastily wiped them away with the back of my wrist.

"What's wrong, Max?" Gazzy asked, his eyes concerned.

I was again impressed at how well he knew me – how well the entire Flock knew me. But then again, that meant that I had to keep my emotions in check. I couldn't let them see how weak I really was. For the Flock, I knew my calm façade was one of the few constants they had and could rely on, and whenever it broke, I could tell it was unnerving to them.

Giving him my most reassuring smile, I replied, "Oh, nothing really, sweetie. Everything's fine."

He smiled back, but his reply was cut off by a shout from Nudge. "Hey, Max, I see land! Can we play now?"

"Sure," I said agreeably, and then added a quick "Not It!"

This was followed by a chorus of "Not It's!" from the rest of the Flock. Fang who had fallen behind to get a break from Nudge's constant chatter, was the last to say "Not It," and was declared "It" by a smug Iggy.

Fang counted to ten, and the rest of us spread out in different directions. At "Ten," Fang zoomed towards Gazzy, who did a slick little somersault move above him, promptly releasing a great belch of gas over Fang's head.

Fang gave a most girlish shriek, emitting snorts of laughter from Iggy and I. He charged at Gazzy, who attempted to dodge him, but failed epically and smashed right into Nudge. They were both turned into toilets without hesitation. Angel flew over to Nudge, flushing her handle and slapping a high five. She tried to unfreeze Gazzy, but was frozen herself, and was forced to hover and wait. Meanwhile, I was speeding away from Fang, who was chasing after me with a determined look on his face. Landing in a tree, I smirked at him, which only made him more frustrated. That was when I realized I was trapped – Fang had flown behind me, and now I had two options: 1) Fly backwards and inevitably get tagged by Fang, or 2) Fly any other direction and get a face-full of leaves and twigs. I chose the first option, because I'm just funny that way.

Fang's hand reached out and slapped my shoulder, and I grumpily positioned myself to look like a toilet, with my hand sticking out to look like a flusher.

I felt ridiculous.

Looking to my left, I saw that Iggy was flying around in vain, attempting to locate the rest of us. "Iggy! Over here! I'm frozen!" I shouted, and he flew quickly towards the sound of my voice.

"No, Iggy! This way!"

My hand flew to my mouth in shock – those words had not just come out of my lips. But then I looked over to see Gazzy snickering silently, and realized that he had thrown his voice in the other direction. Iggy had been fooled, though, and he was now speeding in the opposite direction. Hearing the sound of flapping wings, Iggy sat down on the "toilet," and jumped up in surprise and horror.

Angel screamed, and Fang clapped his hand over her mouth. Being blind, Iggy had thought that he was unfreezing me by sitting on my lap and flushing the handle. But it had not been my lap that he had sat on.

It had been the lap of an Eraser.