Capri's Note: First off, thank you for all who reviewed! I greatly appreciate it. Second, there is very specific reason why Total is missing from the picture and that will all tie together in about the fifth or sixth chapter, maybe a little later. Thank you and keep reviewing! Sorry for the wait, I had a photography project that I spaced on and it was due the next day. That and my internet crashed for a day. / But I've edited this twice over and it's better now than it would've been had I posted it yesterday. And this story will always be in third person POV.

Someone asked me a question about my nickname and I won't take more than three sentences explaining. Back in elementary school my outfit everyday consisted of jean capris [[not the same ones everyday and a tank top or t-shirt. After a while people just started calling me Capri because that's what I wore all the time and there were too many Sarah's in my school.

P.S. I promise you, this will be original. You'll just have to stick around and see. By original, I mean all the ideas are mine. I started writing this before I read any of the stories on here, in case any of you were wondering.

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Chapter Two

It'd been a long time since she'd last been to the very park her and the flock were sitting in now. She stopped going after her hours at the library had increased. It'd been a long time since she'd actually just let loose and have fun with the flock, like she was now. She forgot how much fun it had been. Angel and Nudge spun themselves dizzy on the merry-go-round with the help of Gazzy and Iggy. Rae had a long night at work, so she hung out on the swings with Max. The two clicked instantly when Iggy brought her home three years prior, and had been close ever since. They weren't 'best friends', but they were still pretty close.

"So," Rae dug the toe of her Nike tennis shoes into the sand. "Iggy told me about this morning."

"This morning?" Max feigned ignorance. She'd gotten better at it over the years.

"Come on, Max," Rae snorted. "I know what Nudge said and I know you didn't just go along with it like he was nothing to you at all."

You have no idea what he was to me, she thought inwardly.

"It's fine, I'm fine. Really."

"Well that's very reassuring however it's a load of crap."

Max grinned at Rae's accusations. "I guess it just took me a little off guard, that's all."

"I'll bet," Rae's tone softened. "It's been over a year since they've said anything and then bam!"

"'Bam' is an understatement."

"Max!" Angel, hair covered with sand, came running up to the two girls. "Will you please tell Gazzy to stop trying to make dirt angels? His attempts are pointless and getting me and Nudge all sandy."

"Why didn't you just tell Iggy?"

"We did," Nudge interjected, brushing sand off her pants. "You know Iggy. He just dropped to the ground and joined him!"

"Go bury them in sand and see how they like it." Rae smiled at Angel who gladly obliged and dragged Nudge off to where Iggy and Gazzy were throwing 'sand balls' at each other.

Max sighed. She wished he was there to see how much the flock had grown. Maturity wise of course. They were all turning into adults, even Angel. Nudge was just a year older than Max was when the chaos of their unstable lives began almost five years ago. Gazzy was still the same Gazzy, though. He may have been taller and smarter, but with that growth he only improved his skills at being a mischievous kid at times. Iggy had grown into a man, and a smart one at that. He had the best vision for a blind guy that Max had ever known. She hadn't known many blind people, but if she had Iggy would've been the most likely to be mistaken to be able to see. Angel was still a bit of a puzzle to Max. Her speech and learning ability was far too advanced for any old 4th grader. She sometimes helped Gazzy or Iggy with their math homework, which both confused and disgusted Max. How someone could actually want to do math was beyond her.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when Iggy and Gazzy trudged up, scowls on their faces and sand in their hair.

"I think we've been at the park long enough," Iggy shook sand out of his shirt, causing Rae to giggle slightly.

"Yeah," Gazzy shook his head, causing Sand to shake out of his hair like a salt shaker. "Let's go home. I've had enough of the park."

"We just got here!" Nudge complained, overhearing the conversation.

"Nudge," Max grinned. "We've been here all morning."

"We can watch that movie we rented weeks ago and have yet to watch."

Max grinned sarcastically at Rae. "Yes, because watching it now won't make the late fees any higher."

"Exactly."

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"That's it," Max rolled her eyes at the TV for the fiftieth time. "This movie is too annoying. I'm going out to get the mail."

She stood, expecting absolutely no response from the other five whose eyes were glued to the TV. She hadn't been paying any attention. She could only take so much of pretty boy Tom Cruise saving the world from stupid aliens. She stuffed the key to the mailbox in the pocket of her worn out jeans and headed out the door.She was used to having a black little ball of fur bounding outside with her, but that stopped a year ago. Not wanting to think about lost friends, she pushed the thoughts from her mind.

As she neared the mailbox, an odd sense of paranoia washed over her. She did a quick 360 of her surroundings on the empty street, but found no one there but herself. Grabbing the key from her pocket, she unlocked the mailbox and grabbed the mail. She wasn't in a hurry to get back to the ever seen 'War of the Worlds', so she leaned up against the mailboxes and sifted through her mail.

Bill. Bill. Advertisement. Bill. Magazine. Note.

She stopped, confused. In her hands she held a simple piece of paper. No envelope, no address, just Max's name written in choppy, hasty script. She slowly unfolded the note and read what it said.

They're coming. Be warned and warn the others. I'll be watching.

Be careful. Stay safe.

Brow furrowed, she reread the note a few times, trying to understand what it meant. Who was coming and who was watching? She suddenly felt 14 again. She stuffed the mail under her arm and sprinted home.

"Iggy!" she called, bursting into the living room.

His head shot up from where he was listening to the TV. Max grabbed his arm and yanked him away from the others into the kitchen.

"What the hell Max?" Iggy rubbed the spot on his arm where she grabbed him. Rae followed the two, confused as well.

"I went to get the mail," she breathed heavily. "I found a hand-written note. It didn't have an envelope or an address, just my name on it."

"What's it say?" Iggy asked eagerly.

Rae took the note from Max. "'They're coming. Be warned and be careful. I'll be watching.'"

"Did you see anybody or anything strange?"

"Well, you remember that feeling we got after Angel was kidnapped and we knew someone was watching or following us?"

"Oh," Iggy's sightless eyes filled with worry.

"Yeah, I got that feeling, but two times worse."

"It could be nothing," Rae shrugged, reading the note again. "Maybe someone is just playing a prank."

"We're not lucky enough to just get pranks," Max sighed and sat down at the kitchen table.

"Do you think it's The School?" Iggy suggested.

"We destroyed it," Max said. "They may be stupid and completely out of whack, but I doubt they'll mess with us after everything we did to them. No, I don't think it's them."

"It's not signed," Rae said, not really helping. "Anybody could've left it. You don't recognize the handwriting at all?"

"I can barely read it," Max retorted, growing more exasperated by the second.

"Nudge!" Iggy grinned like an idiot. Rae seemed lost, but Max smiled brightly and sprung up to get Nudge.

"What does Nudge have to do with this?" Rae asked her boyfriend.

"Her ability," he explained. "She can tell us who put the note there.

Max dragged Nudge out the door, not even explaining to her what was going on.

"I'm glad that you wanted to go for a walk with me," Nudge whined. "But the movie was just getting good."

"It was the same the first twenty times you saw it, it'll be the same now."

"Yeah, but still," she huffed and crossed her arms, still following an eager Max. "Where are we going?"

Max didn't answer, just kept walking to the mailboxes, clutching the note tightly in her hand. She was anxious to find out who left the note, only partly hoping that she knew who it was already. If it was who the back of her mind hoped it to be, things would get more complicated and more confusing than they already were. Nudge kept huffing and sighing, keeping pace perfectly with Max. They stopped when they reached the mailbox.

"Okay," Max took a deep breath. "I need you to tell me who all has touched our mailbox today. And if you can, who put this note in there." She held up the note for emphasis.

"What, did someone leave you a love note?"

"Nudge, please," she rolled her eyes, waiting for Nudge to begin.

Sighing, Nudge closed her eyes and placed her hand on their mailbox. Images rolled through her mind as she scrolled through the number of people who'd touched the mailbox that day. A six year old girl with sticky fingers and a red balloon tied to her tiny wrist, an old man looking for leverage while he picked up the cane he dropped, the mailman, a couple who was passing by grazing their fingers along the surface of the mailboxes, the mailman, then she found what she was looking for.

"Whoever it was," Nudge dropped her hand." They were careful to hide their face. His hood was pulled all the way up and it was too dark from the rain to see his face clearly. He was wounded though, and was really depressed. He limped away."

"Ugh," Max leaned her head against the mailbox, then froze. She looked down at the note in her hand and pressed it into Nudge's palm.

Nudge closed her eyes once more and kept them closed until she found what she was looking for. When she opened them, her mouth was subconsciously hanging open, her brow creased together in surprise.

"His hands were shaking, but I could tell he was trying to keep them steady to make the handwriting legible," she explained to Max in a daze. "He had multiple wounds, most of them were already healed though. He had scars, too, and he was pale."

"Did you recognize anything about him?"

Nudge nodded solemnly.

"Well…?" Max prodded, bending down to look Nudge in the eye. She was growing more and more anxious with every second that Nudge took her precious time. Something about the look in Nudge's eyes told Max she didn't want to know who it was that had written the note, let alone what the contents of the note meant. She watched Nudge compose herself for a second before Nudge looked Max straight in the eye.

"Nobody could forget those onyx eyes, Max."

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Reviews, please.

-Capri