It all happened last night. The night that changed me forever. The night that determined my future.
After Max and Fang finally came into the room, Max stayed awake 'on guard' while everyone else was asleep. She was the first one to notice me stirring in my sleep. I was sweating even worse than after one of my dance classes, and I couldn't get comfortable, and everything was achey all over. So Max woke me up, thinking I was having a nightmare. At first, I thought I was dreaming just by looking at her and the rest of the flock around my bedroom. But eventually my brain clicked all the current events back into place and I realized that the flock was actually here, but I was also still in a lot of pain.
My back hurt so bad. I knew automatically what was going on. But I couldn't quite comprehend it. So all I did was focus on not feeling as much of the pain as possible. But it was hard. Eventually I started screaming, unintentionally, and it woke up most of the flock. Most of them were a little wary of coming near me, for fear I was going to puke on them, or make them disease ridden or something. But Iggy came over to me as soon as he woke up and began to make me more comfortable. He lay me down on my stomach, so my back was exposed. He asked for a pair of scizzors, and slowly cut away the back of my nightshirt. I wasn't going to be naked on a bed, whether or not my
'doctor' was blind or not. So in order to be fair, he only cut the back. Then Max helped him, as 'nurse.' They wiped my brow, Iggy felt my backbones to see how they were realigning every so often. And eventually, he helped coax two giant wings to poke holes straight through my back. That was the worst part, and it bled a lot too. It was probably the most horrific, excrutiatingly painful experience I've ever been in, in my entire life. No question about it.
But throughout the whole thing, even while Max and the others left the room every now and then, Iggy stayed with me the whole time. Hold my hand and letting me squeeze it if the pain got too unbearable, and kindly talking to me to keep me calm. The whole time, I felt as if I'd pass out, which might have helped, but I didn't. But I knew that unless I was talking to Iggy, or unconscious, I'd be in more pain than necessary. And I might die.
By morning, I was finally done. My 'wings' had stopped poking and growing out of my back. And the blood had finally stopped flowing out of my wounds. Iggy bandaged and disinfected every inch of my back until I was practically rolled up like a mummy. I glanced at the clock and nearly had a heart attack. It was 6:00 am, and school started in an hour and thirty minutes! I had to get up, get dressed, get breakfast and GET to school before I would be late. Not to mention struggling through the pain of my now sore, achey and crippling back.
Iggy offered to come to school with me so that he could take care of me, but I said that he'd get kicked out for not being a student there. It was true. At my school, they were extremely picky about making sure only students were on campus at all times. So Iggy said he'd 'keep out of sight' and I guess that means he'd stay out of the building, but blend in, so he wouldn't get kicked off the property. Whatever, I don't have time to think about it.
I struggled to get dressed, and needed some assistance getting even a loose t-shirt over my head. Then I got my books and stuff and ran out the door without another thought. My school is closer than my dance studio. It is only about five blocks from my house. But, by the time I had to leave, I had thirty minutes left, and I had to be IN my seat by the time the bell rang. So I sprinted. And that was quite painful to do, after the night I'd had. Iggy had taped my wings to my back and practically glued the feathers to the t-shirt so that nothing would 'pop out' by accident. And it was working, but that didn't stop it from being painful. And it was a totally new experience for me. It was like I'd grown another set of arms or something. Gaining motor functions of the 'new arms' was going to be confusing and difficult, but I could already feel them as much as I could feel my already existing arms. So being taped to my back was like being in a straightjacket or something. And I felt less like I wanted to move my regular arms too, since they weren't being 'straight-jacketed' but my wings were.
Luckily, my sprinting paid off, and I didn't get late to school. But it took all my will power not to pass out at a random time during the day. Whenever I felt like I was going to pass out, I'd ask to go to the bathroom and shuffle off to go calm myself down in the bathroom. Somehow, Iggy had indeed followed me to school, and he actually broke into the school and made his way into the school's girls' bathroom. ALL FIVE TIMES I VISITED IT! I mean, don't get me wrong, I was glad he was here for me. But breaking INTO school, and INTO the girls' bathroom? It showed he must either care about me a lot, or not care about his street cred all that much, I guess.
Anyways, as soon as school let out, he met up with me outside the building and we walked home together. We talked about how my wings were feeling, and all the way home he talked enamoredly about how exciting it is to fly, and some of his interesting flying experiences, and key pointers on how to fly and all sorts of stuff. He was finally opening up to me. But why now?