"My wings hurt," Total complained. It'd only been one and a half hours since we'd started flying. I opened my jacket and Total flew in, and I zipped my jacket back up.
"Wow, you're getting heavier!" I told Total as he wiggled around. "Hey, have you and Akila decided on a wedding day yet?" I asked. He and Akila had decided to get married while we were in Hawaii. But it was mostly his decision, because Akila can't talk. Total didn't answer, probably sleeping.
We flew for an hour and a half longer, then I saw my mom's little house. We landed smoothly, and Nudge got a thrill out of ringing the doorbell about a million times. "Max! Fang! Iggy! Total! Nudge! Gazzy! Angel!" Ella squealed, remembering not to say Total's name last. We hugged and said how much we missed eachother. I used to hate mushy emotion, but since I've found my mom and realized I love Fang, I don't mind it so much.
"Where's Mom?" I asked Ella as we walked into the kitchen, where she usually was.
"Grocery shopping," Ella said. "Hey, Max? Can I talk to you. Privately," she dragged me into her room. "I kinda want to ask Iggy out," she asked shyly. I was shocked. It'd be great to have somebody to really love, like I love Fang, but I couldn't think of what to say at the moment.
"Um," I began, "I don't know. Ask him out," I suggested, still shocked.
"How?!" Ella moaned, flopping onto her bed.
"Uh, I don't know. I can barely ask Fang out," I said. She nodded. I hadn't seen her since Hawaii, but I made phone calls often. We talked about girl stuff. Shoes, boys (Fang), the latest fashions, etc. She look really nervous, so I tried to support her- even though I'm really bad at it. "He likes you, too. Just ask him!"
"Oh, I don't know. What would I wear? How long are you staying? How much time do have to prepare? Where would we go?" She asked.
"Just go to some restaurant- he'd really like a place with colours! So he could feel 'em and stuff. And get him something, like... a Rubik's cube! He'd love that! But give it to him after the date, so he's not playing with it the whole time," I said, getting excited.
"Sure! Yes! Can you bring him over? Or maybe I should ask him later. Yeah, later would be better," Ella said. "Oh! And, I can wear the polka dotted shirt! And then, when he puts his arm around me, he'll feel polka dots!" she said, her eyes moving into another world.
"Sounds good," I said, smiling. I walked back to the kitchen, where my mom had come home. She was baking cookies-- my favourite thing in the whole world, and the smell was so good I nearly fainted.
"Mom!" I shouted, running towards her.
"Honey!" she shouted back, "oh, Max! I missed you so much!" She hugged and kissed me for the next five minutes and then she went back to baking the cookies. The rest of the flock was watching a documentary on birds on TV. I sat next to Fang, his arm wrapped around my waist. When the documentary finished, so were the cookies. We sat down at the table and chose a cookie. Ella had come out of Dreamland, so she joined us.
"Iggy, Max, Fang, I got you something, because you're the oldest," she said, walking to the storage room and pulling out three boxes. They were wrapped in black-and-white wrapping paper, but there was one that was polka dotted, probably Iggy's. She handed one to each of us, and Iggy was overjoyed when he touched the wrapping paper. We tore it open, to reveal a cell phone box. Fang and I gasped, and Iggy was still opening it carefully, so he wouldn't rip the wrapping paper.
"It's a cell phone, Iggy," Nudge said in awe when Iggy couldn't make out what it was. "I want one! I want one!" Nudge squealed. Nudge had always begged Jeb to get a cell phone back in the cave, when she was six.
We turned them on and played around a bit, Gazzy helping Iggy with things like reading the screen. Iggy, my mom's cell, Mom's house, and Fang's number were all ready added to the contact list. We played around until dinner was ready-- or arrived, since we had to order in. We ate greedily, since we were starving. We ate more cookies, then the younger kids went to bed. Iggy, Ella, Fang, and I sat on the couch, chatting about whatever.
"Hey, um, Iggy," Ella said, going all shy again, "do you wanna, like, um, go out, um, tomorrow for lunch or something?"
Iggy's face lit up. "Yeah! Sure," he said. They talked about where they wanted to go for dinner for half an hour, and then we decided to go to bed.
Before I shut the door of Ella's room, Fang kissed me goodnight and asked, "do you want to go out for a walk tomorrow?"
"Sure," I replied. We'd barely had any alone time, so I was eager to get some.