Sorry I didn't update on time. And for the sucky last chapter hope this one will be better.

Misty POV

"She's lucky she wasn't deemed a complete failure." Failure failure failure. My own uncle thought i was a failure. My parents were criminal scientists who were completely okay with "retiring" me. Oh shoot we messed up when we played with our kid's DNA. No wings? Forget about being happy it lived through the experiment, let's just retire it. Your saying we have to keep it? Darn!

And how did I know this? Well after we ate dinner, which was delicious by the way. Way better than the one time my "mother" (emphasis on the air quotes) tried to make microwave pizza. I guess evil scientists just don't have the time to learn to cook. Anyway, I wasn't really in the mood to watch some movie so I said I was tired and headed off to bed. And instead of going to bed I followed Max, Fang, and Jeb. Turns out my room was right next to the study. Good thing the walls were thin because apparently I failed at having super birdy hearing. So I got to hear Jeb telling the tragic tale of my evil parents and my complete suckyness (in the mutant world anyway). Too bad Nudge and Angel barged in first I really wanted to find out what Jeb was going to say and then barge in and surprise him, but Angel and Nudge beat me to it. A knock on the door interrupted my internal rant.

"Come in!" I yelled then flipped open my laptop so it looked like I was doing something important and uninteruptable in case whoever it was felt the need to chat. Nudge popped her head around the door.

"Wanna go shopping with me and Angel tomorrow? Were making Max come," she said grinning evilly.

"Sure thing. Goodnight." Hopefully she would take the hint and leave. She did, shutting the door behind her as she left.

"Night." I sighed and closed my laptop might as well go to sleep for real since I would have to be mostly awake tomorrow. All rants and issues were officially on hold.

At least until we got back from shopping.

The next morning was uneventful. I grabbed breakfast before everyone else was up and retreated to my room until Angel came and told me that it was time to go shopping. On my way down the stairs I passed Nudge literally dragging Max out the door.

"Help me!" I shook my head trying not to laugh.

"Sorry you got your self into this. Besides, think of how much fun it'll be when Nudge makes you try on a dress!"

"That's a good idea! Come on Max!" Max glared at me as I waltzed down the stairs.

"Have fun!" I called up to her. The fly to the mall was uneventful. Punctuated by glares from Max, since Nudge had now enlisted Angel in the plan to get her in a dress. I learned of the miraculous powers of the dreaded Bambi eyes. Too bad I was too old for that, although Nudge was almost my age and they worked perfectly for her.

At the mall Max passed out money and everyone went off to who knows where. Although if the death grips Nudge and Angel had on Max were any clue I was guessing it had something to do with dresses. I wandered around alone popping into random stores I had never heard of before and buying crap just for the heck of it. I grabbed a couple of shirts and two pairs of jeans from this place called Hollister. Normally I would've shopped longer, but I wasn't really in a shopping mood today.

What to do? I still had four hours to kill before I was supposed to meet everyone out front. I didn't plan on sitting out there doing nothing for four whole hours. I saw a hair place and an idea struck me. I was going to get a makeover anyways so why not? My hair was a shade lighter than it used to be and had bright blue streaks running through it when I left the hair place. I hadn't let the stylist cut it, I was still trusting Nudge to do that. Sure this would attract more attention, but when my hair was shorter and I got colored contacts I would be harder to recognize then if my hair still looked the same. I had checked the news last night and the best pictures of me were the one with my hair covering my face and the one where I was too high in the air to make out features.

"Ugh, I wish I had a camera!"

"Max you look so pretty!" I peeked over my shoulder and burst out laughing. Nudge and Angel had gotten Max into a light pink fluffy princess dress with a huge bow on the back. You had to give her some credit though, it didn't look bad on her. But she was still wearing combat boots and it was just so. . . not Maxish. And the expression on her face was priceless! Lucky for me I had bought a camera today because I'd left mine at home and I just felt like having one.

"Say cheese!" I spun around and snapped the picture before Max had time to react. "Aw you look so cute!" Me, Nudge, and Angel collapsed into laughter.

"Misty, I'm going to kill you!" I ran away laughing by the time she got out of the dress I planned on being long gone. The rest of my mall time was spent hiding out in a Petsmart that was right out side the mall. We had been forbidden to leave the mall, but I'd rather give Max another reason to be mad at me then get publicly murdered. I petted the cute little cats they kept in the back, looked at all the small rodents, and picked up a bag of dog food for Akila, so the store people wouldn't kick me out. Is it a crime to want to look at animals without buying anything? Apparently so.

A high pitched chirping caught my attention. I walked over to the bird section of the store. I wondered what kind of bird DNA I had. Definantly not a parrot or something else brightly colored.

"Hi! Hi!" I turned around expecting to see a little girl based on the high chirpyness of the voice. No one was there. "Hello?" the voice continued. Grrr stupid kid. "Can't you understand me? You smell different from the others. You smell a little bit like a bird." I froze in shock. "What's wrong?" No way. "Do you have wings? Can I see?" Either I was officially crazy or I could understand a bird.

"I have wings," I whispered feeling really stupid.

"Whaaaat? I don't understand human language do you speak bird?" Okay count me officially freaked out. Yet I had this nagging feeling that I could speak bird kind of like how my wings had already known how to fly.

"Um. . .I guess? Actually your the first bird I've understood. Oh and your right I have wings." I chirped. The bird just stared at me. I am an idiot I am an idiot I am an idiot. Who am I kidding thinking I can talk to birds? Just because the flock can do cool things doesn't mean I can too.

"Wow. You can talk to me! I was feeling pretty stupid for a second. I mean, talking to a human? That's just crazy, but I was right! So what kind of bird are you? I'm a lorakeet!" I laughed.

"Actually I thought I was being stupid too. Kinda funny huh? And I don't know what kind of bird I am. I don't think I'm part lorakeet or anything else colorful, my wings are bluish grey."

"Hmmm. . . I don't know the only birds I know about are the ones that pass through the cages next to me. None of them are bluish gray and then there's these things called penguins which this one parrot claimed were real. He came from a zoo he said they couldn't fly but I don't believe him."

"Oh their real all right I've seen one."

"Really? What are they like?"

"They're black and white and waddle around in the snow. They can't fly, but they can swim really fast."

"I wish I could see one. . ." the lorakeet sighed.

"Hold on one second." I looked at the price for the bird, who was apparently female according to the tag. Then I would have to buy the cage and food because I'm pretty sure they wouldn't let me just carry a bird out with nothing to take care of it. That would waste too much money that I might need later, but I couldn't just leave her here.

"I can't believe I'm am going to do this." I muttered in English. I was going to steal a bird, just to be clear I have never stolen anything in my life. Not even a dollar from my parents. "Okay I'm going to get you out just be quiet and hop into my bag." I chirped in birdanese I unzippered it just enough for her to hop in. She nodded her head. "By the way, what's your name?"

"Cherry, you?"

"Misty." Now I had never picked a lock before. I looked around to make sure no one was looking then started messing around with a paperclip. It took me a total of 34 minutes which made me 13 minutes late for meeting the flock. Oh well just another thing for Max to add to her "reasons to kill Misty" list. I walked out the door at normal speed just waiting for some armed security guard to come and take me to bird-stealer's jail or whatever. As soon as I was outside, I started running to meet the flock. I arrived at the front of the mall, breathless from sprinting.

"Where were you?" Oh God. Max was glaring at me with heer arms crossed.

"At the pet store."

"And why were you at the pet store? Wasn't there a rule about not leaving the mall? And your late! I thought you had been kidnapped or something!"

"Gosh paranoid much. And news flash I don't wear a watch so I can only go by the occasional store clock. Oh and I got dog food at the pet store along with learning the useful skill of picking locks." she groaned at the lock picking part.

"Not you too, as if one lock picker wasn't enough!"

"Don't worry, I suck. It took me thirty-four minutes to pick a lock on a bird change. Soooo am I off the hook."

"No way! Especially not with that picture you have!"

"Wait! Before you kill me I have something important to say!"

"Hm?"

"I can talk to birds!"

"Cool!" Gazzy.

"Oh kinda like Angel, but not exactly because she talks to fish and. . ." Nudge.

"Aw that was so nice of you to let Cherry free." Angel.

"O-kay."Max.

"You can come out now," I chirped to Cherry. She fluttered out of my bag.

"Thank god! I thought I was gonna die with all the bouncing around you did."

"Sorry."

"Those other humans smell bird like you."

"They are. That's Max, Fang, Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, and Angel." I pointed each one out.

"Hi!"

"Um. . .English please," Max said.

"Oh right. This is Cherry and I stole her from the pet store. She says hi." Angel waved at her.

"Let me guess, this is why you picked the lock?" I nodded.

"What are they saying?"

"Oh sorry. I forgot to tell you they can't talk to birds."

"I'm hungry. Do you have any seeds?"

"No, but I'm sure there's something at the house." And now in English. "She's hungry, can we head home?"

"Yes. And Misty?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't think I've forgotten about the picture." Darn. If I was lucky I could upload it to my laptop before she noticed.

"I'm confused, what picture are you talking about?" Gazzy asked.

"Max in a poofy pink dress. Here." I dug the camera out of my bag and tossed it to him. Everybody cracked up when they saw it, 'cept for Max who looked ticked off. But hey, everyone else thought it was funny.

Longest chapter ever!!!!! 2235 words, including author notes but still! R&R. Next chapter will take place at the Academy!