Sydney.
Max and I held a death glare. I narrowed my eyes and made them as cold and ruthless as I could get them. Max did the same. I could feel the tension heat up in the room as I noticed from the corner of my eye, the rest of Iggy's family, or the flack as he called them, look back and forth from me to Max and back again.
Finally Max gave up, yanking her angered eyes from mine and storming off to her room.
I sighed. Why did she not like me?
I went back to Iggy's room, where I found my cell phone in the dark.
"What are you looking for?" Iggy's voice asked me, he shined a flashlight in my face.
"My phone, it doesn't look like I have a good chance of leaving here and getting home safe, by car or air." I joked.
In the dim light of the flashlight Iggy's whole face lit up completely.
"Oh, okay well then alright. Yeah, you should call your brother."
"That's what I'm doing." I said.
"Oh ok, here," He handed me his own flashlight and pulled another one out of his back pocket.
"Come back into the den when your done." He smiled and left.
I smiled too and dialed up my brother.
When he picked up I heard a loud variety of Mario noises coming out of the phone and next it wasn't Duncan who'd picked up, it was Hunter.
"Yello?" He asked, a furious pounding of buttons clicked in the back.
"Hunt, it's Syd, put Dunk on."
"Whatever…. Hey Syds, what's happening?"
Click, click, vroom, boom!
I rolled my eyes.
"Nothing much, just a giant storm and a severe flood warning that's all. Duncan, it's so rainy outside I'm gonna have to stay here at Iggy's."
The video game noises stopped and in the background I heard Hunter say, "What?! Duncan, come on, get back to the game bro!"
"What?" Duncan seethed into the phone.
"Duncan it's just overnight, and he has a huge family, don't worry."
"What if he makes a move?"
"DUNCAN!" I tried not to shriek into the phone.
"Duncan Killiam, Iggy would never." I hissed.
"And what makes you think that's true? You practically just met the guy-"
"And what like you haven't gotten serious about a girl you just met huh?" I growled angrily. "Remember? Wendy Donnelly?"
"Shut up. Wendy was a lost cause."
"Oh really? Cause that's not what you said every second of every hour of every day of the five months you dated!"
"She moved to Montana, Sydney."
"Yes, she's gone now. But that's not the point. You were serious about her after your first date. You only talked about how much you loved her. You spoke of how you wanted to marry her when the time was right. And when she moved and met another guy you were so depressed you drank three whole bottles Dad's old beers. Yeah that's right! I caught you drinking, Duncan! Your underage you know!"
"By two years! It's legal."
"Yeah with parental guardian permission! And last time I checked Aunt Rhonda never gave you permission."
"How do you know that?"
"Don't turn this on me. Look." I took a deep breath.
"It's one night. He has a lot of family members here, and I'm fine. I'll be back home tomorrow by twelve at the latest if it's not as crappy as it is now. I'm sorry if you don't like that, but it's better than me dying in a flooded car crash."
"Fine." Duncan barely managed to choke out after a long pause.
"Kay. Thanks, good bye Duncan."
"Bye Sydney."
I hung up, shoved my phone grouchily into the pocket and sighed, putting my forehead in the bottom of palm.
Suddenly, soft lean arms weaved themselves around me. A chin rested on my head.
"He's mad."
Iggy stated emotionlessly.
"You heard?" I asked.
"It was pretty loud."
"Ugh." I groaned. "I don't understand why he doesn't trust me. Or you."
"He's a older brother. We get over protective sometimes."
I stifled a small laugh and craned my neck up and nuzzled my head in his neck.
"Come on, you've got to be hungry." Iggy laughed, finding my hand with his own and pulled me down the hall back into the kitchen.
"Well sorry bout the whole, now we have no dinner thing. Looks like we used it all to attack each other."
I giggled insanely at the memory of us thrusting different foods on top of each other.
"I hope your okay with grilled cheese." He sighed, musing with his hair.
I tip toed up to his nose and kissed it.
"That would be perfect."
Now in my gross estranged young child daydreams, I had always expected a date to be a late night candle lit supper just between the two of us. The food would probably Italian with chocolate covered strawberries, with music in the background on the large rocks next to Elora Falls, which is the small waterfall right on the outskirts of our small town in Texas. And the water flowing down the rocks would beat perfectly in harmony to the music. Followed with a never ending conversation on a variety of topics. And the stars would be so bright you could spot every constellation in the sky
But grilled cheese sandwiches with melting ice cream for desert, during a dark blackout with a thunderous storm raging outside in Iggy's den with conversation the flock was even better.
Fang, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, Iggy and I all had a hilarious scintillating conversation and I laughed so hard I thought I'd hurt myself.
After what seemed like hours of conversation, I finally spoke up from down on Iggy's lap,
"You guys, I think ya'll guys are so awesome, and I feel like we are family already, but we need to talk about the elephant in the room. Well there's two, but the most important."
They exchanged confused glances and I looked up at Iggy and he nodded at me with, what I've come to know and love, his famous mischievous smile and looked up at them, hardening his face.
"Sydney knows."
The flock froze.
"Wh- what do you mean?" Nudge stuttered out in pretend bafflement.
Next thing I felt was one of Iggy's albatross wings wrap around me, sparking a sudden warmth all around.
Their eyes widened.
"Yeah, I know." I said.
They still didn't say anything.
"Yes," I started, wondering why they weren't getting the whole picture here.
"I know about Jeb and Itex and the whole 2% bird, Avian, thing. I know about Erasers, Ari, White coats and those Pop flys-"
"Fly boys." Iggy corrected, trying to hold back a small laugh at my stupidity.
" Oh yeah. Sorry. Anyway, I know about everything. And don't worry. This is something I'm taking to the grave."
Their expressions didn't change.
"GOOD! Cause I'm just sick of hiding in that damn closet."
A gruff voice said. And coming out of the hall and plopping himself down on Angel's lap was a black Scottish terrier.
Total.
"That too." I said, not bothering with the freaked out holy shit that dog can talk thing. Though it was a bit on the freaky side, after all talking animals was something you only saw in movies like Dr. Dolittle.
"It's so good to actually see you, Sydney. Max was right- you do look like some one out of a tomboy-goth magazine. It works for you. Yeah that dark magenta is totally your color. It's fantastic."
"Total." Iggy groaned.
"It's a compliment!" Total defended.
I was having a bit of trouble trying to exert a thank you for the compliment given to me by a dog, but eventually I said, "Thank you, it's good to finally meet you." Managing to not have a hint of weirded-out-ness in my voice.
"No problem, any good, close, realllllllly personalfriend of Iggy's is family to me."
Total replied, putting a super serious emphasis on personal.
Iggy kicked him.
"Hey, hey! Careful with the feet! I'm delicate."
Okay now this, was a seriously funny dog!
"Look, you guys don't have to hide from me! I don't mind it." I said, wishing they'd stop gawking.
I stoked the feathers on Iggy's wing tenderly.
"Actually," I admitted. "Their really cool."
The gawking just grew more.
Then Gazzy stood up.
"Well she's already seen Iggy's, so what. The. Hell!"
"Hey! What did I tell you about those words?"
Fang scolded, but I barely even heard him, I was focusing my senses on Gazzy's smaller, but still large, set of white wings. And right after, Fang and Nudge shrugged and their own wings began to appear. Fang's big black wings were at least two feet smaller than Iggy's and Nudge had scrawny tawny colored wings. Angel followed with an identical set of white wings, like Gazzy had.
I smiled at their trust, and suddenly had too many questions.
What was their greatest MPH speed?
Did they go out for "flys" not walks? (Ha, ha, get it? Cause they have wings and- yeah another stupid joke.)
What were there real names?
Could they do anything else besides fly?
"Yes." Angel's voice piped.
I turned to her, confused.
"Huh?"
"Yes, we can do more than fly."
I bit my lip, a little freaked.
"I can read minds."
"I figured." I said, trying to tame the creeped out look on my face.
Jeez, to be six years old, fly and read minds! That's insane!
"I know, it's so crazy, right?" Angel said.
"Ohmigosh child!" I cried, laughing a bit at the end of my sentence.
Everyone laughed a bit too, easing their way into comfort.
"So what else can you guys do?" I asked.
"Well some of us can breath underwater- oh and I'm one of the psychometric-thingy kinda people. I can, like, communicate with computers and technology like that. Also I can attract any metal at my will."
"You serious?"
"Um… Where's your cell phone?" She asked, changing the topic.
A little confused again, I hesitantly answered. "In this pocket." I reached my hand in there to show her, but couldn't find it. I dug in the other pockets, but no such luck. "Did I drop it or-?" I asked myself looking around before I heard a small giggle and seeing my black Intensity in Nudge's hand.
Everyone started to break out in laughter at my stupidity, once again.
"Oh be quiet." I said, catching my phone as Nudge threw it back to me.
Instinctively, I checked the time, 12: 34.
When I looked up, Fang was gone, Nudge looked like she was about to wet herself from holding in laughter. "What- Where's Fa-AAANG!"
I shrieked as I was unexpectedly plucked up off Iggy's lap and waved around in mid-air by a set of invisible hands.
Fang's soft unmistakable laughter echoed throughout the den as he set me back on the floor.
I was still breathing heavy from the shock and enjoyment from the untold joy ride as Fang slowly regained his opaque state.
"That was both cool and surprising." I said through gasps of panting air, as the flock burst into laughter.
And for the first time, just like I had in Iggy's arms, I felt at home.