A new day always promises new things. Or old things with new opinions. Same difference.

Angel walked up to me. "Max," she said. "It's my birthday today."

"It is?" I asked.

"Yeah. Can we celebrate?"

"Of course, sweetie! What do you want to do?"

"Um, can we see a movie?"

"A what?!"

"You know a movie! In a theater?"

"Oh. Uh, I don't think tha-"

"Please, Max? I've never been to a movie before!"

"Oh, alright. Which movie?"

"How about 'The Princess and The Pauper'?"

"Um, okay then. Let's go wake up the rest of the Flock, okay?"

By dinner, everyone was hungry, even though we had had a huge lunch. We got to the movie theater on time to see the 6:00 showing. "Ok, you guys, go find your seats. I'll go get us some popcorn, alright?" I said. Fang volunteered to come with me. I looked up at the big menu, and then back at the guy behind the counter. His name-tag read "Eric".

"Hey, what can I get for you?" Eric asked me. He smiled at me. Fang tensed up beside me.

"Hi, I'll take three large popcorns and six large cokes," I told him. He handed the cokes to Fang, who went to get straws for all of us. As Eric handed me a tub of popcorn, our fingers brushed.

"If he your boyfriend?"

"Excuse me?" I said.

"Is he," Eric said, pointing to Fang, who was walking toward me, "your boyfriend?"

I didn't know what to say. Was he seriously asking me If Fang was my boyfriend? "Um, why?" I asked him.

"Well, if he isn't, maybe you'd like to go to dinner or something..?" Eric looked at me.

Fang had just joined us. He totally didn't know what was going on. "Well, in that case, Eric," I said sweetly, "he is." I turned to Fang and kissed him on the lips. Fang smiled. Eric had a bewildered look on his face. "Oh, and by the way," I said to Eric, "never ask a girl if that's her boyfriend." I turned, carrying the popcorn and a drink.

"Sorry, dude," Fang said to Eric. "You just made her mad." He turned with the remaining drinks in his hands and we went into theater number 13.

The opening credits were just starting. The lights dimmed and I searched for Angel. I found her sitting in the very first row, with the rest of the Flock sitting on her sides. "I am not sitting that close to the screen, Max," Fang whispered. I nodded. Trust me, I wasn't going to either!

We found some available seats near the center of theater and sat there. Gazzy came up and grabbed the drinks from us, and then came back for some popcorn. "Thanks," he whispered before disappearing into the dark again. Then I realized it: it was dark. With no windows.

Oh.

My.

God.

No windows. No escape routes! I started a hysterical freak-out in my brain, looking every-so-often around the theater. No threats so far. Then I felt Fang's hand in mine.

"Max, calm down. It's just a movie theater." That made me less fidgety. At least I knew that Fang was there. We watched the rest of the movie in silence, occasionally looking at each other.

When the movie was done, everyone met up outside the theater. A bright smile lit Angel's face, and Nudge and Iggy were laughing together. I smiled at Fang.

"Max. You didn't tell me that was a BARBIE movie!" Fang said loudly.

I just laughed at him. "Fang – you never asked!"

"Well, I liked it!" Angel exclaimed.

"Me too!" Nudge added.

Iggy just sighed. "Man, I'm glad I couldn't see it."

"Yeah, you're the lucky one!" Gazzy said.

Everyone laughed. It felt good to be with the Flock. With nothing going wrong. At least for now. "C'mon, guys, let's head back to the forest." With running starts, to the whole Flock soared into the sky, laughing. This was how I wanted things to be. My Flock, happy. Nothing could go wrong. At least for the moment.