Second installment. Each chapter's only going to be a about 2000 words.

"WHERE ARE MY JEANS?"

"WHAT?"

"WHERE ARE MY FAVOURITE INDIGO JEANS, MOM!"

"I DON'T KNOW SWEETIE, SORRY!"

Shaiden growled in frustration. Her upper torso was clad in a black tank top and dark blue denim cropped jacket. Her bottom half was still in penguin pyjama pants.

"COME ON, MOM! I PROMISED KOOK I'D MEET HIM AT THE LIBRARY BEFORE SCHOOL TO HELP HIM WITH HIS ENGLISH!"

"I'm sure the bird can handle it on his own."

Thorne leant against the frame of her door, arms crossed and watching her boredly. Shaiden glared at him. "What are you doing in my room, freak?"

"It's my house too, sis, no matter how hard to try to hide it at school."

"Do you realise what would happen if anyone knew you were my brother?" she said it like it was a bad word.

What would happen was her status as the school would slip fast and furiously downhill. She had kept a secret since he had started acting out in middle school, and made sure no one at the high school put two and two together. They didn't even look at eachother in the corridors.

Thorne was fine with it; he couldn't care less if his younger sister ignored him at every opportunity. He didn't tell anyone. He didn't blame her for not wanting people to know she had such a failure of a brother. His grades were slowly decreasing as he stopped caring more and more. Everyone thought he was just going through that teenage phase, but only he knew better.

Meanwhile Shaiden was popular at school, one of the smartest students and doted on by their parents. It was safe to say he and Shaiden didn't have the best brother-sister relationship.

"Do you want anything?" she snapped, yanking open her wardrobe and chucking out clothes, searching for her jeans. Most of the items were black, dark blue or grey.

Thorne shrugged. "No."

"Well why are you-" she turned around and he had gone. "Weirdo," she muttered, deciding to send Kookaburra a sorry text. She looked around for her phone amongst the clothes now scattered everywhere. Dangit.

Kookaburra looked at the words on the extract he was answering questions on. He didn't understand half the words. He frowned, feeling sad and confused.

Also where was Shaiden? She had promised to come.

"She doesn't care about a poor, confused bird who needs help," he muttered.

"Uh, Kookaburra?"

He looked up quickly, hoping to see Shaiden, but saw Faetal instead.

"Hey, Faetal."

"What are you doing here so early?" she asked, sitting in the empty seat next to him.

"Well, you could say, I'm an, early bird! Because it's early, and my name is also a bird." He looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to laugh.

"I got it," Faetal said, "But why are you here?"

"Shaiden was meant to meet me to help me do my English homework but she hadn't shown up," Kookaburra said dejectedly.

Faetal smiled, it was hard not to when Kook was being so comically sorry for himself. "Want me to help?"

His eyes lit up, "Would you?"

"Of course," Faetal smiled, "Who wouldn't help a nice guy like you?"

"I am nice," Kookaburra agreed.

"Well come on, Kookaburra let's look at these questions." She pulled the paper towards her and started scanning it.

"My name's a bit of a mouthful," Kookaburra said casually, looking down at the paper, "You can call me Kook. All my friends do."

"Well then I'm calling you Kook," Faetal beamed.

"Awesome! So Faetal, did you hear about the crow and the telephone?"

"No, sorry?"

"He wanted to make a long distance caw! You know, like a long distance call."

"I got it."

Shaiden raced down the sidewalk to the library. She was almost an hour late now; after finally locating her jeans her mother suddenly wanted her to go down to the store and get some flour for pancakes, and then got upset when Shaiden tried to leave because she had made her go get flour especially to make pancakes for her, and then her dad's car broke down and she had to run the rest of the way to school. It was quarter past 8, and registration was at half past. She was meant to meet Kook at about quarter past 7.

She hurtled into the library, "Kook! I am so sorry I-"

Shaiden paused. Kookaburra was sitting at a library table with the girl he had sat next to in English that one time. Her name was Fatal or something.

"Why did the little bird get in trouble at school?" his eyes were bright as she eagerly asked, "Why?"

"Because he was caught tweeting on a test!"

They both dissolved into giggles.

Shaiden frowned. Kook didn't seem upset she hadn't shown up at all. Not that it was bad that he wasn't upset, but-

He noticed her. "Shaiden! You made it!"

She put on a smile and walked up to the pair, "Hey, sorry I'm late I got totally caught up-"

"It's fine," Kookaburra smiled happily at her, "Faetal's been helping me with my homework instead! She's the best."

"I'm okay," Faetal shrugged, ducking her head and smiling.

"You're amazing," Kookaburra said.

"Well you tell the best jokes!"

Kookaburra beamed delightedly and mouthed to Shaiden, I love her!

She lifted her eyebrows briefly at him with the smallest smile. "Well if you're done should we head to school?"

"Totally," Kookaburra stood up and stuffed his homework into his bag. "Thanks so much Faetal you have no idea." He made his way over to Shaiden before turning back Faetal, "Want to walk with us?"

"Yeah, of course," she got up and walked over to him with ease. Shaiden felt a little annoyed again, though she didn't know why. It wasn't as if she wanted Kook to herself. He was… Kookaburra.

He and Faetal started to walk out. "Why did the chicken cross the road, roll in mud, then cross the road again?"

"Why?"

"Because he was a dirty double crosser!"

"Do you tell any jokes that aren't bird related?"

"Nope."

Ballista walked into the Country club as she did every week. Walking with confidence, a bow strapped to her back as she made her way to the front desk.

She held up her pass and walked through to the archery grounds. Around her were rich families playing tennis, drinking at the bar and relaxing by the pool. This was the kind of life style she loved, calm and easy. Don't get her wrong, she works hard for most of the things she has and was all set to become a business woman once she graduated, but she could still appreciate these things. As she passed the spa house she looked at the window. It was tinted and you couldn't see through, but she knew her mom was in there getting one of her twice weekly pampering sessions.

Walking briskly past she made it to the archery grounds. Ballista went to her locker and shoved her bag in, before heading to the shooting gallery. She grabbed some arrows and aligned one in her bow. She pulled back, aiming carefully at the target, knowing she could get bull's-eye without even trying that hard. All she had to was let g-

"Afternoon, Ballista." She jumped, and the arrow was 3 inches off. Glowering, she lowered the bow and turned around to face who had distracted her, though she knew who it was.

"Not your best shot," Vane smirked at her.

"Maybe it was the fault of the guy who came up behind me and yelled in my EAR!" Ballista accused him. Vane was always annoying her when she was at the club, and her patience was deteriorating.

The smirk faltered a second before returning, "Sure thing, dude."

"Don't call me dude," Ballista warned turning around to try the shot again, but as she let again somebody lightly shoved her, and the arrow went way off course.

She spun around furiously, "DID YOU NOT SEE HOW DANGEROUS THAT WAS? THE ARROW COULD HAVE HIT ANYONE!"

"My God, Ballista calm down," Vane said, "There are people trying to shoot arrows, and actually hit the targets. You're distracting them."

Ballista stepped forward until she was nose to nose with the vile boy, "Go away before I do something I regret."

"God, that's no way to-"

She punched him in his soft stomach. "OWW!" he wailed, "That hurt!"

"It was meant to," Ballista said, "Quit crying you overgrown toddler."

"I'll tell my father!"

"I'll tell mine, Draco," Ballista smirked, turning back around. She fired an arrow before he could distract her again, and it sailed beautifully through the air before landing on bull's-eye.

"God, dude, uncool," Vane said grumpily before turning to leave, rubbing his stomach and walking a few metres away, where he got his own bow out. Ballista knew he could shoot too, and didn't bother watching him to see if he hit bull's-eye.

He got it thrice out of 5 and was about a centimetre off the other two times.

After about an hour of silent side by side shooting she finally lowered her bow and turned to leave.

"Will I be seeing you at the archery competition the club's holding in a couple of weeks?" Vane asked suddenly, gesturing to the poster on the wall.

"Of course," she said, like it was obvious.

"Well I'll be there too, dude," he grinned at her. She arched an eyebrow back before heading back to the lockers.

It was slightly unnerving, watching his best friend slamming down onto people and squashing them flat.

Gildar did competitive wrestling in his spare time and Kookaburra came to watch sometimes. It often caused him to re-evaluate his own muscle mass, making him look at his own skinny figure compared to Gildar's huge one.

"How was that?" Gildar, his muscles glistening in sweat, walked over.

"Great," Kookaburra said, "I really like how you slammed down on him."

"One of my favourite moves myself," Gildar agreed, sitting down next to Kookaburra. Kook immediately straightened his back so he wouldn't look at short sitting next to him. He wasn't actually very short, but Gildar was very tall. "I was thinking Kookaburra, should I add something new to the usual routine?"

"What do you mean?" Kookaburra asked.

"Like, something to make it look more artistic, and graceful."

"Maybe you should incorporate some dance moves," Kookaburra offered, "Like do a really cool leap into the air before crushing your opponent to the floor."

Gildar nodded slowly, "Could work. A fine idea, my friend." He clapped him on the back, and Kookaburra winced.

"You're… Welcome," he smiled weakly. Gildar took a drink from his water. "Hey Gildar, can I tell you something?"

"Of course."

"You know Shaiden?"

"Our best friend of almost four years? I may have met her once or twice."

"Yeah well…" Kookaburra looked around and dropped his voice, "I think I might like, like like her."

"Oh, I know that," Gildar said, "Everyone knows you have a thing for Shaiden, Kook."

Kookaburra looked crestfallen. "Am I that obvious?"

Gildar nodded. "Maybe you could try and impress her with your dancing."

Kookaburra nodded. "I could."

"I was kidd-"

"No that's a good idea!" Kookaburra's face had lit up like it did when he got a good idea, or what he thought was a good idea.

Kookaburra was dancing. Shaiden wasn't sure why but he had burst into dance in the middle of the field outside the school where they ate lunch. It wasn't that bad actually, but Gildar had hidden his face in his arms and Ballista was just smiling widely, heavily amused.

What's he doing? Shaiden mouthed at her.

Ballista gestured for her to tell Kook she liked it. "Uh Kook, that dancing's awesome."

"Really?" Kookaburra asked, delighted, "You like that?"

"Awesome."

Ballista held back a laugh. When Kookaburra had finished a bunch of freshman girls watching burst into applause. Kookaburra beamed at them and bowed. He looked past them and saw Faetal was watching him too, standing with her friend Madeva. "One sec guys I'm going to go talk to Faetal."

He jogged over to her, "Faetal! Faetal, hey! It's me, Kookaburra!"

"Yes, I did recognise you," Faetal smiled. Kookaburra stopped in front of her and turned to Madeva.

"I don't think I've met you before," he grabbed her hand and shook it, "I'm Kookaburra."

"Hey there, Kookaburra," she looked at him as if she were evaluating him. Finally she looked at Faetal approvingly and walked off.

"She seems nice," Kookaburra said, and Faetal nodded, "She is."

Faetal couldn't get over the way Kookaburra looked at her. Like he genuinely liked her. And she liked him, she definitely liked him. And now she was going to get him.

"You know Kook, I was just wondering, why are you called Kookaburra?" she asked him.

"It was my mum's favourite bird, and she thought it was a really cool, quirky name," he said, smiling, "Bit of a mouthful to say, but I think it makes me original."

"You are original anyway," Faetal told him, "You are probably the nicest guy in this school."

Kookaburra smiled at her warmly, "Oh stop it, you're making me blush. Birds don't blush, Faetal."

She laughed and he laughed back. "Why do you always refer to yourself as a bird?"

"Birds are cool. They're free and do funny things, and everyone refers to me as a bird, even Shaiden's mum," Kookaburra said.

"You know that bird is also a euphemism for a girl?" Faetal said.

"Yeah, well-"

"KOOK! YOU SAID ONE SEC!" Shaiden yelled at him.

"That's my call," he said, "catch you later, Fae." He pulled her towards him into a hug, to which she immediately returned.

"You too, Kooky," she said, a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Kooky? That's a new one," Kookaburra said, "I like it."

He turned and ran back to his friends, leaving Faetal standing there feeling like everything was right in the world. She'd been transformed barely two weeks and yet she had already befriended Kookaburra, a long term crush, as well as being on nickname terms with him. She looked around her. She needed to find Madeva.

"Do you want to watch the new Godzilla movie?" Ballista asked, searching through Netflix. It was movie night for her, Gildar, Shaiden and Kookaburra. Gildar and Shaiden were currently downstairs making popcorn.

"My cousin Dingo went and saw it, he said it wasn't that good," Kook said, sifting through Ballista's movie collection. "You have tonne of chick flicks, mate."

"You have a cousin called Dingo?" Ballista asked sceptically, "Do you have an aunt called Kangaroo as well?"

"Just Kanga," Kookaburra said, "Her mum was a fan of Winnie the Pooh."

Ballista stared at him a moment to see if he was kidding, before shaking her head and turning away. "Sometimes I don't know whether you're being serious I not."

"I am always serious!" Kookaburra said defensively, before his mouth started twitching into a smile.

"Suuure thing honey," Ballista said.

They were quiet a moment before Kookaburra said, "Am I obvious?"

"Sorry?"

"Gildar said it was obvious I like-like Shaiden," Kookaburra said, "What do you think?"

Ballista was staring at him blankly. "I didn't know."

Horror crossed Kookaburra's face, "Oh."

She grinned, "Oh my God I've got to tell her!"

"No you can't!"

Ballista stood up to go downstairs but Kookaburra stood too and grabbed her, "STOP! YOU CAN'T!"

"LET GO!" she shrieked, struggling against him. They fell on the floor in a wriggling, fighting, giggling mass. "LET ME GO!" "NO!"

Gildar and Shaiden came in, "I heard shout-"

The two on the floor stopped fighting. Kookaburra released Ballista and they both stood up. "What's going on, you guys?"

"Just a bit of friendly fighting," Ballista shrugged. Kookaburra looked at her gratefully.

"Right," Shaiden didn't sound convinced. "Did you two choose a movie yet?"

After successfully selecting one, the three of them sat on Ballista's bed. As the clock neared 10 Shaiden yawned and dropped her head to Kookaburra's shoulder.

Ballista noticed and winked at him. Gildar gave him an approving look. He looked back worriedly, glancing between them and Shaiden's head on his shoulder. He didn't make any move to get her off him though.

A few notes.

Australians spell it mum and Americans spell it mom, which is why when Shaiden is speaking it's mom and when Kook is speaking it's mum.

I actually looked up a website for bird jokes

A bit of a love triangle going on

No Skabb, Crocness or Tinkor this chapter, they'll be in the next one.

Next chapter will be out once I've written it. These only take me a couple of hours to write, including procrastination.