Hey guys, are you in the mood for a new chapter? I hope so, 'cause you're getting one. Now, before I begin I have a shout out to give. Talon666, I just want to thank you for being a faithful reviewer and for mentioning my story in your notes. You guys should totally read his story 'NeoFlock' and his new story 'Deadline'. Both are excellent, trust me. Well, without further ado, here's Chapter 4 for your reading pleasure.

My head was pounding when I came back into consciousness. I didn't dare open my eyes, I was too scared. Of all the times I could've been kidnapped they just had to pick my fourteenth birthday. What did they want with me anyway? What were they going to do? Why me?

"Hello?" I heard a voice ask. "Um are you okay? Hello?"

I opened my eyes and screamed in surprise. There was a girl with long, flaming red hair and bright green eyes looming over me. When she saw my reaction, she began to laugh.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." she said sweetly, pulling back. She looked younger than me, but not by much. "I'm Jewel by the way." She seemed okay, not like she was going to hurt me or anything.

"My name's Melody." I told her. "Um, where exactly am I?" I asked, looking around. The room I was in was pretty small, but it had a set of bunk beds and a door that I assumed led to a closet. It didn't look anything like the description of the School that my parents had given me. They told me they were put in cages and that it smelled like antiseptic, but this room didn't really have a smell.

"Oh, your at a place called the School." she said. If I was at the School, then why didn't it seem like it? Where were the crazy scientists, the cages, the chrome everything? Had my parents just been exaggerating?

"How long have I been here?" I asked, sitting up. How long had I been gone? It could have been years for all I knew.

"Uh, in this room? My guess is about two hours. In the School? Uh, that's a hard one? Do you know when you were taken?"

Before I could answer, my stomach let out an all mighty growl. How long had it been since I'd last eaten?

I blushed and Jewel giggled. She crossed to the other side of the room and came back with a tray loaded with sandwiches. I looked to see where she had gotten them. They had a mini fridge. Maybe my parents had been exaggerating.

She handed me a sandwich and I took it thankfully. "Um let me think." I said, getting back to her question. "The 19th of March. That was my fourteenth birthday."

"Oh, then you've only been here for a couple of days." she answered. Now that I could get a better look at Jewel, I noticed that her hair was super long. It went all the way down to her lower back. And I thought I had long hair. She was also pretty pale and had some freckles on her face.

I decided to let my wings out. They were feeling pretty sore. I unfurled them and Jewel's mouth went wide with surprise.

"Something wrong?" I asked. Maybe she didn't have wings.

"It's just that, your wings are so beautiful. I've never seen anything like them." She marveled at my steely gray 12 and a half foot wings.

I was beginning to get embarrassed, so I tried to change the subject. "Do you have wings?" I asked, trying to draw attention away from myself. I hated being the center of attention.

She nodded slowly. "But they aren't anything like yours." She unfurled her wings and this time I was the one with my mouth hanging open. Her wings were about the same size as mine except hers were an auburn color.

"Wow." I said, stunned and this time Jewel blushed. "Are you kidding? Yours are amazing." I told her.

"Thanks." she muttered. "So, I have some questions for you." she said, changing the subject.

"Well, I have some questions for you too." I said. Was that the understatement of the year or what? "How about I ask you one and then you ask me one and we keep going back and forth until all of our questions are answered?"

"Okay." she said. "Shoot. Ask me anything you want to know."

I took a deep breath. "Is this really the School? This is nothing like my parents described."

"Yeah, this is the School alright." she said, looking a little depressed. "You see, they make it look like they're helping us here so they won't be shut down. That's why we aren't locked away in cages. It's pretty bad."

Yikes. That was just terrible. Fang had tried to show the world exactly what the School was doing with his blog when he was my age. Why did it just stop working? My guess was that there was money involved. Big money.

"That's awful." I said, picking up another sandwich and taking a bite. I swallowed and said, "Your turn. What do you wanna know?"

She looked thoughtful for a second and then asked, "How exactly did you get here? I mean, I know you were kidnapped, but how did you get the wings? You said something about your parents describing the School to you."

That was an easy question. "My parents had been experiments at the School, but they escaped. Ever heard of Maximum Ride?" I asked.

She nodded. "Once or twice. She's kind of a legend here. Why? Is she your mom?" she asked, her eyes getting wide with admiration.

I shook my head. "She's my aunt. She married my Uncle Fang. Long story." I said.

"Okay," she said, not pressing matters. "Your turn."

"How old are you?" I asked. I assumed she was younger than me, but looks can be deceiving.

"Uh, twelve I think. I'm not entirely sure. I have so many questions I want to ask you about your aunt Max, but I think those can wait." she said, thinking up a question about me. "Got it. What's it like having a normal life?"

I sighed. How did I explain that? "My life's not exactly normal. How many normal kids go flying every weekend?" I sighed again. "Uh, well school's a big pain in the rear. Tons of homework, lots of teachers getting on my nerves, telling me it's impossible that I know so much, uh fake friends who pretend they care about me but they don't really have a clue who I am nor do they really care. My family's great though. That's the best part of a normal life."

I thought for a while about my next question. I didn't know what to ask at first, but I finally thought of a good question. "So, what are your abilities?" I asked. I was eager to find out what cool powers the whitecoats had given the new generation of genetic hybrids.

Jewel looked confused. "Uh, what exactly do you mean by 'abilities'?" she asked. Maybe they didn't use the word 'abilities'. Maybe they used 'powers' or 'skills'.

"Uh, okay let's use me for an example. I am super smart, though not as smart as my mother as I am constantly reminded, I have a photographic memory, and I have minor healing powers. So, what can you do?" I asked, getting more curious by the second.

She looked at me dumbstruck. Did I have unusual powers or something? "Uh, I can't do anything like that. I don't even know anyone that can do stuff like that. You're the first person I've ever met that could."

"Are you sure? Everyone in my family can do stuff like that. I thought it was normal." I thought for a second. Why would the whitecoats stop giving them abilities? Then I understood. "Oh." I said, slowly. "The whitecoats didn't give you abilities because if any of you escaped the abilities would make it harder for them to recapture you. They learned a lot from dealing with my parents and the rest of the flock."

Jewel still looked confused, but went along with me anyway. "Uh, ok my turn. Let me think." She thought for a second and said, "Okay, I've got one. Do you have any siblings?"

I sighed. "No. Just me. I've always wanted siblings, but I never really needed any. I always had people to play with. The flock comes around a lot and they're just like having siblings. Older siblings, but that's still fine." I never had a dull moment growing up. "Uh, okay my next question. Do you share this room with anyone?" I asked.

Jewel smiled brightly. "Yeah, I totally forgot. I share this room with Skye. He's like my older brother. He's fifteen we think." She looked at a watch on her wrist. "Speaking of Skye-"

Before she could finish, the door opened and my mouth fell to the floor. Standing in the doorway was the single cutest guy I had ever seen. He had to be at least six feet tall. He had shaggy white blonde hair that was styled sort of like Fang's. His eyes were dark, but I couldn't tell what color they were. He wasn't wearing a shirt and I could tell that he had muscles. Then I saw his wings. They were beautiful. They were probably fourteen feet wide. The tips were white and there were ten different shades of grey, starting light and ending dark. The end tips were black. I was in love.

I looked to his face and he seemed to be checking me out too. Could it really be? Did he like me too? When he noticed me staring at him, his face turned into a scowl, he slammed the door shut, and stalked over to me and Jewel.

"Who's this?" he asked Jewel. Great, I was in love with a total jerk. Why did stuff like this always have to happen to me? I rolled my eyes at him. Two could play at that game.

"My name's Melody." I said in an annoyed tone. "I'm guessing your Skye then." I crossed my arms for an added affect.

"You guessed right Princess." he said, copying my attitude. He even crossed his arms.

I stood up and pressed my finger into his chest. "Listen here buddy. The name is Melody. You can call me Mel if you want, but don't ever call me Princess. Got it?" I was not going to let him walk all over me. If I had learned one thing from Max it was not to be a door mat.

He threw his hands up and backed away. "Fine Mel. Whatever you say." he said and I could tell he was just humoring me. "What're you doing here anyway? Where did you come from?" His eyes fell on the sandwich in my hand. "And why are you eating my food? Jewel! Please tell me they don't expect her to stay here."

She cringed. "Okay, I won't tell you then." He groaned loudly. "It's not her fault Skye. Why are you being so mean?"

"I'm not being mean." he said, defending his self. "I just don't know where she's going to sleep. We only have two beds. Wouldn't want her to have to sleep on the floor."

"Uh, actually I was thinking about getting out the hammock." Jewel said, twisting a lock of her hair.

"You're going to make her sleep on the hammock?" Skye asked.

"Uh, no. I actually thought that you could." Jewel said, waiting for him to explode.

"First my sandwich and now my bed? Is nothing sacred?" he asked. "Ugh, fine she can stay. She won't last long anyway." he said, picking up a sandwich and walking to the closet.

As he opened the door I asked, "What is that supposed to mean?"

He pulled a white t-shirt over his head and pulled his wings through the slits. "Nothing, I just mean that, well we have to fight here. I don't know how you'll be able to take the beatings."

"We'll see." I said. "And now to answer your other questions. I came from Arizona. My parents were former experiments at the School and they escaped. Apparently the School found out about me and took me. Anything else you wanna know?"

He rolled his eyes. "No, that'll do. The less I know the better."

"Uh, okay Jewel. Next question." I said, getting back on track. I was going to ignore Skye until I got out of there. "How do things work here?"

A mischievous grin spread across Jewel's face. "Hey Skye, do you know who Melody's related to?" she asked, completeley ignoring my question.

He looked up. "No Jewel and I don't really care." he said and then he went back to staring at the ground.

"Maximum Ride is her aunt." Jewel said. What was she getting at? What did Max have to do with anything? When was Jewel going to get back to my question?

He looked up. "THE Maximum Ride?" he asked incredulously. "She was the only experiment to ever get out of the School. Well, besides the rest of her flock. How is she your aunt?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "She married my Uncle Fang. But what does that have to do with anything?" I asked.

"We've been coming up with an escape plan for forever. We wanna get out of here. Can you help us? I mean, you said you're really smart and escaping is in your genes. Sort of." Jewel begged.

I thought about it for a minute. I needed out too. Even if it meant helping Skye I would do it. Jewel didn't deserve to be stuck here. I really was like Max and my mom. "Of course I will. Or, at least I'll try."

Jewel gave me a huge hug. "Oh thank you so much Mel. You really have no idea how much this means to us. Right Skye?" she asked.

"Yeah, whatever. I'll thank her when we get out." he said rudely. Why was he so horrible to me? I had a feeling I'd never find out.

The door swung open and the whitecoat who kidnapped me walked in. "You." he said, pointing to me. "Come with me." He grabbed my arm and pulled me behind him.

As he dragged me down the hall, I memorized every exit, every elevator, every set of stairs, and every turn. I had an escape to begin planning. I was going to get home even if it almost killed me.

Okay guys, did you like that? Jewel and Skye are Mel's new friends. I hope I described them okay. It was sort of hard to describe Skye's wings the way I wanted to. Well, read and review. Updating soon.