Ash's PoV

"! Yay yay yay, going to californnnnnnnnniiiiaaa!" I sang, managing to do a happy dance while flying at fifteen thousand feet in the air. "Will you SHUT up already?" Felix growled. "You've said that like fifty thousand times!" I rolled my eyes at him. "I'm just excited!"

Andrew joined into my singing. "Fornia fornia fornia going to fornia its so funnnn!" Felix moaned, and flew ahead to Chase and Savannah, who were about forty or so yards ahead, probably in their own little world. They were so cute... I felt bad about embarrassing Chase after mentioning the whole "rhetorical question" incident, but sometimes I can't help the things that just come out. After a few minutes of quiet flying, Felix drifted back to me, Harlow, and Andrew.

"Aw, they're boring. I don't get what they're talking about." Felix said. "I guess I'll just haveta listen to you guys." Harlow smiled a little. "What were they saying?" She asked. "Yeah! What was it?" I echoed. Felix shrugged. "Something about what they wanted to do when this whole thing was over."

A look of apprehension and concern flickered through Harlow's dark brown eyes. "Oh really?" She said, voice steady. "What exactly were they planning on doing?" Andrew flew close to Harlow. "Do they want to go away?" He asked quietly. Felix shook his head. "Don't think so, Andrew. Har, they were saying something about Maryland. I don't know why...But...I.." He glanced at Andrew. "Why don't we talk about this later?"

Harlow and I both nodded. Andrew, a kick-major-robot-butt fighter, tough as nails kid, was still four years old. There were things he wouldn't understand-didn't need to know yet.

Suddenly Chase and Savannah dropped back to us. "Hey guys. We'll be in Cali in about four hours with the speed we're going, and it's getting close to dawn. We'll sleep the first chance we get, okay?" Savannah told us. I nodded. "I'm so tired." I said. We'd only got to sleep for about three hours before the flyboys, M-geeks, and Erasers attacked us, and my eyelids were dropping, even through my excitement about going to California.

Finally, finally, after about two more hours of flying, I couldn't take it. "Savannah?" I said quietly, "can we stop now? Please-I can barely keep my eyes open." Savannah wasn't looking to good herself. She looked at Chase, and he gave a little nod. "Okay, let's stop." She said. We curved downwards, tucking in our wings a little to get more speed. Once we reached about three hundred feet, we glided slowly over the towns and cities, finding a good place to land. "How about there?" I suggested, pointing down at a huge, fancy looking hotel. "Ash, we don't have the money to for that." Harlow reminded me.

"Yeah, I know." I said, only a little disappointed. Well, there was no harm in asking. "Zoo!" Andrew suddenly screamed, then started dropping altitude like crazy. "Andrew!" I screeched, flying after him before any of the others could move. "What are you doing?" In a few moments I caught up to him, because I was older and faster, and have been flying longer than him. I turned vertical and dropped about four feet under him, then caught him quickly. "No!" Andrew yelled, struggling to get away from me, but I held him tight.

The rest of the flock caught up to us. "A-A! Don't do that again!" Harlow scolded. Andrew managed to kick me in the knee, and howling, I dropped him. The four-year-old snapped out his wings again and hovered, instead of diving down again. "But...zoo!" He cried out, pointing. Savannah and Chase glanced at each other, and then Savannah groaned. "He means the San Diego Zoo." She said. "It's right down there."

We all looked. There was a huge zoo below us and to the right, and I could just barely see some animals from up here. "I wanna go." Andrew insisted, pushing out his lower lip determinedly. Chase shook his head. "I don't think that's a good idea." He said slowly. "If we went there, and flyboys or whatever showed up, we'd be putting lots of people in a lot of trouble."

Then weirdly, unexpectedly, my chest constricted. That wasn't fair! I felt angry, and upset. My eyes filled with tears. "I want to go to the zoo, too." I choked. "Its not fair. We never get to do anything fun anymore." Harlow flew over to me, as close as she dared without being hit by my 10 foot wings. "I know its not fair. It's just like Felix was saying earlier, but we can't control that." She said gently.

That made me only cry harder. And trust me, I don't cry a lot. In fact, I usually pride myself in not crying a lot, but right now I felt like I had to. "I don't care anymore! I want to go have fun for once." I said tearfully. "Ash, honey, you're freaking out from lack of sleep." Savannah said.

I shook my head. "I'm not!" But I knew she was right. "Please, please, Savannah. Please can we go?" Savannah raked her hand through her choppy, red-gold hair. "You know what, okay, fine. We can go." My heart lifted a little. "Really?" Savannah's lip twitched into a half smile. "Yeah. After we sleep, though."

Andrew also cheered happily, but Felix looked a little unhappy, and Chase must have noticed that, because he suddenly grinned and said; "We'll do something you want, too." He suggested. "Yes!" Felix shouted, pumping a fist into the air and accidental flipping over backwards. Harlow laughed. "This sounds great."

Now, all of us in a better mood, flew down to a large park and found places to sleep in trees.

Chase's PoV

When we woke up, the sun was pink in the east. I sat up quickly, startled. "Uh, guys?" I asked, shaking them awake, "I think we just slept for the entire day. And night. And now it's the next morning." I said. Savannah blinked and squinted at the sun. "You're...right. Wow." Harlow sat up and stretched. "I feel so much better." She murmured, and we all nodded our agreement. Andrew jumped up. "Zoo! Now! Lets go to the zoo!" He insisted.

I was smiling on the outside, but groaning on the inside. I hated the zoo-hated the smell and bunch of whiny kids all over the place, and I wasn't to fond of the animals. Twenty minutes later, we were all at the zoo, looking at the giraffes. "This is so-" I was about to finish and say 'retarded' but Savannah quickly shot me a look that changed my mind. "-awesome." I finished lamely. She grinned teasingly at me.

Meanwhile, Andrew was draped half way over the bars that separated us and the giraffes, his mouth opened wide. "It's so big!" He whispered in amazement. "Hey, wanna know something about giraffes?" Felix said. "They can clean their ears with their tongues 'cuz their tongues are eighteen inches long." Ash shot him a look. "That's totally disgusting." She said. Felix blushed a little, and I felt bad for him. He hated to say weird things in front of girls he liked.

"Well, I think it's cool." I threw in. Felix looked at me thankfully. "See?" He glared at Ash. "Your a girl, that's why is gross to you." Ash shook her head, brown hair flying around. "But girls are sooooo much better than boys!" I could tell where this was going-downhill. "Let's not argue about this...girls and boys are equally cool, got it?"

Savannah was looking a little bored too, so I nudged her with my hip. "Giraffes live in a land called the savannah. How ironic." I winked at her. She nudged me back. "You're so annoying." She said, but she didn't sound very annoyed. By now, Andrew was running towards the lions across the brick path.

We all turned and followed him, and so we did for the next hour. We'd only gotten a quarter way through the zoo, but Felix insisted we leave so we could fit in everything we wanted to do today. Andrew whined a little, but he'd stopped immediately after Ash announced she chosen that we go see a movie. "Which one?" Savannah asked.

"We have, like, 200 dollars we stole from that one guy from Itex last week." Harlow reminded us. "Um...how about the Justin Bieber one?" Ash suggested hopefully. Naturally, as one might expect, everyone but Andrew shouted "NO!" At the same time. "But..." Ash started to protest, and I sighed. When Ash wanted something, Ash would beg and complain till she got it. "Justin Bieber is the totally coolest best singer in the whole world and I love him so much and I would just absolutely DIE if I got to watch him for two whole hours!"

"And I'd throw up if I watched him for two whole hours." I muttered under my breath, but Ash heard and half glared at me, half pleaded with her eyes. I looked at Savannah, who looked at Harlow, who looked at Felix, who sighed. "I guess-I guess-" Felix struggled to get out, "that..maybe..seeing it wouldn't be so bad."

Ash cheered and threw her arms around Felix. "Thank youuuuuu!" She shrieked. "I SO love you!" Felix blushed again and looked down, but he hugged Ash back. "Now, will the rest of you guys pleaseee come?" She begged. "Yeah, fine, okay." Savannah said, throwing up her hands. "We'll see the movie, but if we throw up Ash is cleaning it up." She said with a slight smile.

2 Hours Later

"I've got "Baby" stuck in my head." Savannah groaned as we walk out of a theater about two miles from the zoo. I grinned at her. "I'll bet you if you bash you're head against a rock it'll go away."

Savannah glared at me as Ash rambled on and on over "OMG THAT WAS SO AMAZING! I totally cried, guys, did you?" "No." Harlow said firmly. "That was awful." Felix nodded. "Sorry, Ash, but it was."

Ash rolled her eyes and dismissed our thoughts with a wave of her hand. "Whatever. Let's just say I totally owe you one." Andrew held Ash's hand. "I liked it. She sang pretty." He said nicely. I couldn't help bursting out laughing. "What time is it?" Harlow asked, and Felix glanced at his watch. "Noon exactly. What's the next thing we should do?"

We all looked at each other. "Um...why don't we go to the beach?" Savannah suggested. "We don't have any swimsuits or anything, though." Ash said. "We could go get some. There's a mall not to far away."

I grinned. "In California everything is 'not to far away.'" I said. "I like the beach." Andrew said. "Beach beach, beach, fun fun fun." He started singing. "Okay, guys, let's go." Savannah cut in quickly before Ash joined him in song.

So once again our flock was up in the air, heading over to the mall Harlow saw somewhere. "Oh-wow." Savannah said, as we stepped inside the of the hundreds of entrances of the mall. "This place is HUGE." Ash gave an unimpressed shrug. "Yeah, but it's not as big as the Mall of America, in Minnesota. It's the biggest mall in the U.S, you know. It has it's own amusement park inside it!"

I rolled my eyes. "How do you even know that?" I said, but then realized it wasn't a good question to ask. Ash found some way to know everything. "So...where do we find swimsuits and stuff?" Felix asked. "Probably in every store." Savannah laughed. We walked into the closest one to us. "Remember guys, we're going in, getting what we need, and going out." I specially directed this towards Ash. "We're not looking around, got it?" Ash sighed. "Kay, fine..."

A surprising half hour later, we were back all up in the air, swimsuits under our clothes. It'd taken much less than we'd expected. Harlow had helped Andrew, I helped Felix, and Savannah and Ash had kind of helped each other, considering Ash had a weirdly girly fashion sense.

"Look! There it is!" Ash shrieked, just about throwing herself out of the air and spiralling down towards earth. We all followed, shooting down after the excited girl, but once we got near the beach we slowed down and landed a little way's away from the beach, so to look normal. Thankfully yet surprisingly, there were only a handful of people there, bearing in mind it was a school day for most normal people.

Still, we stayed away from the other people, mostly so we could stretch our wings and let them cool off. The three youngest kids immediately leaped and dove into the warm saltwater. "Watch Andrew, guys!" Savannah hollered after them, then flopped down onto the sand, laying out on her stomach and unfolding her beautiful golden wings. I laid out near head, smiling at her. "If only we could to this all the time."

Savannah matched my smile. "I know, that'd be awesome. I wonder when all the flyboys and M-geeks and junk will be gone." I shrugged. "Hopefully soon. Then maybe...maybe this whole thing will be over." I sighed, smile turning wistful. "Someday."

Then I got up. "Hey, come with me." I said, Savannah jumped up and followed me over to massive bolder about twenty yards away, and we both climbed on top. "I want to try something." I said, and my heart started pounding.

I leaned over, placing my hand on her face and drawing it towards mine, just like I'd imagined doing for months. I hesitated only a second, glancing into Savannah's wide, confused eyes, and slowly pressed my lips against hers. Her eyes fluttered then closed, and it was like everything I'd ever imagined, yet better somehow because it was actually happening.

It seemed only like a moment before it was over, Savannah was pulling away. "No, no, this can't happen." She whispered, looking frightened. "Why not?" I asked softly, dread and disappointment flooding through me. Savannah looked down, shaking her head. "We're the leaders, Chase. You and I, we hold this flock together. If we-you know, are together, just imagine what's going to happen to the flock." I took her hands in mine. "Nothing would change. We would still be best friends, and leaders together."

Savannah looked into my eyes. "Are you sure? I don't want us to accidentally neglect the rest of the flock or anything." I smiled again. "Savannah, I've...To be honest, I've been in love with you for months. Years, actually, and now I'm wondering; does it seem like I'm neglecting the flock while being in love with you?"

Savannah blushed deeply. "I guess not." She whispered, glancing down again. I tilted her face back up with my fingertips. "See?" Then I kissed her again, without even thinking. Which wasn't good, because I still didn't know if she wanted this. There was one, long, agonizing second where Savannah didn't move, but then suddenly she relaxed, kissing me back. If this is as close to heaven as I'd get, I wanted to be here forever.

We kissed for a few minutes, but then I realized we had to get back to the flock. With much effort we pulled away, and we couldn't stop smiling. "We should go back." Savannah whispered, eyes still closed. "Mhhmm." I said, kissing her lips again. Then she actually moved away. "Like..now."

I helped her down the rock, but we almost subconsciously moved away from each other a little as we headed back down the beach. Harlow was smiling-no-smirking at us as she dried a shivering Andrew off. "You could have at least gone behind the boulder." She teased. I rolled my eyes, about to make a smart remark back, but noticed Felix and Ash were gone. "Hey, were are Ash and Felix?" I asked, squinting at the ocean water, trying to see them.

Harlow motioned towards the jungle-like terrain behind us. "They went exploring." She said. Savannah looked worried. "Maybe we should go after them, you know? Anything could be in there." I nodded. "Alright...Harlow, you can stay here if you want." Harlow nodded. "I'll keep an eye on Andrew."

Andrew was already piling up sand. "I'm making a castle." He announced. I patted his shoulder. "We'll be right back."

We headed out into the jungle terrain, pushing our way through the thick brush. "Ash!" I called. "Felix?" Savannah held up a hand. "Wait...do you hear that?" She whispered. I cocked my head, and heard the faintest giggling sound. I motioned for Savannah to follow me, and we tiptoed in the direction of the sound.

Savannah pointed to a tree, and sure enough, Felix and Ash were behind it. We saw them before they saw us, and when we did see them, my mouth dropped. "Wh-" was all I managed to stutter out. Apparently, Savannah the Leader recovered quickly. "WHAT on EARTH do you think you're doing?" She shrieked. Felix and Ash jumped guiltily away from each other,

Savannah grabbed Felix's arm and roughly pulled him upright. "Could you tell me WHY you were kissing Ash?" Her voice growing louder and shriller with each word. Felix looked scared, fearfully and numbly staring up at Savannah. "Uhm-" He squeaked. I touched Savannah's wrist, "let him go." I told her gently.

She looked over at me, back at Felix, to me once more, than dropped Felix. Ash stood up, and though her face was white, helped Felix up and took her stand next to him. "I don't see what the big deal is." Ash said, voice shaking. "The big deal is that-"

"Savannah," I said, cutting her off, "you talk to Ash, I'll talk to Felix, okay?" She looked at me in doubt for a second, but then shrugged. "Okay."

Savannah's PoV

"Ash, you're eight years old. You cannot just go around kissing boys, even if it is Felix." I said, trying to make her understand. Ash's face was defiant. "But you like Chase, and you kissed him today."

I squeezed my eyes shut, remembering all to well. "There's a difference." "Difference how? You like Chase and he kissed you, and Felix liked me and he kissed me." Ash protested. "Look, I am six years older than you. Eight-year-olds are NOT allowed to kiss. In fact, you shouldn't even be liking boys. Its not right."

Ash looked down. "Yeah, maybe..." While I had her attention for two seconds, I continued. "And besides, it's much nicer to be friends with boys anyway. Felix always has your back, we both know it, and you should keep it that way as friends for awhile, okay?" I told her.

Ash nodded. "Kissing him was kind of yucky anyway." She admitted. I bit my lip, trying not to get a mental image of that. "Good. It's yucky, Ash, it is." I nodded quickly, thinking of how un-yucky it was with Chase.

"So promise me you won't go-um-kissing Felix or anything anymore, okay? You'll just stay friends?" I asked, trying to keep the hopefulness out of my voice. Ash nodded, wrapping her skinny arms around my neck in a big hug."Yeah I promise."

Felix's PoV

I sat with my hands folded in my lap, not wanting to meet Chase's piercing eyes. "I just want to know why, Felix. I promise I won't get mad." He said, but he did sound a little bit mad. "You sound mad." I pointed out. Chase leaned back with a sigh. "Really, I'm not. I'm just concerned. You can't kiss girls, Felix."

"But why?" I asked, not understanding. "What's the big deal?" Chase closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "Because little kids can't do that. They shouldn't, it's really not right. You and Ash need to be friends, and that's all."

I mumbled something to myself, and Chase leaned closer. "What'd you say?" I blinked and looked him in the eye. "I said, why are you not just friends with Savannah?" Chase's eyes grew wide. "What? Felix, that's different. We're older." I shook my head. "It's not different! Who cares if you're older? I once read that age doesn't matter for love."

"Love? Love?" Chase sputtered. "You are NINE years old, Felix. You can't be in love with someone when you're nine." I crossed my arms. "Yet you can be in love when your fourteen?" I retorted. Chase looked shocked. "I-I'm.." He shook his head. "Okay, here's the thing, Felix. Sometimes, you don't understand what love is when you're...well, your age. See, love isn't just a warm feeling you get when you see someone. It's more than that-it's always having their back, always sticking by them and willing to do anything to protect them. You know?"

I looked down. "I have Ash's back. And I stick by her, but...maybe you're right." I said quietly. "I just think I like her. A lot." Chase laid a hand on my shoulder. "And it's perfectly okay to like her, but more in a friend way. And trust me, Felix, I know all about crushes. And though you may have a crush on Ash, don't act on it, buddy. It could ruin your friendship."

We stood up, and I jammed my hands in my pockets. We'd come to some understanding.

OKAY so that was a LONG chapter...sorry...do you want it shorter next time? Anyway, how'd you like it? REVIEW! Also, make sure to let me know what you want in the next chapter, and ideas are always appreciated.

I LOVEEEE using you guy's characters, they are so much fun and I feel like they're my ownnn 3. haha...okay, next chapter, whatever it be, I PROMISE that I will put one in Harlow's point of view. And...I haven't done a PoV for Andrew, but...I'm not exactly sure how to, if I can portray a four-year-old's actual point of view. So...suggestions? haha, well, once again, REVIEW! They make my day!