The flight back to California took about five hours and thirty minutes. During that time, Ella presented me her wedding dress designs for Celine Smith; my brother's fiancée. She was pointing out their positive points, but then she would second guess herself on it.

"See how I made the ruffle in the back of the dress flow, but ruffles are not in this year." Then she flipped to a new design. "Then I decided to add a pale blue ribbon at her waist for 'the something blue' but she might not want it." Then another, "Oh this one is simple and flow-ly, for easy movement and the veil will be lace, with blue flowers on it, but would she want a veil? Then of course the dress will be stamp-less but-"

"Ella, your dresses are beautiful. The only problem you'll face is waiting around for Celine to pick one to wear," I said, hoping that would boost up her confidence.

"Really?" Then she sighed in frustration, "Merde." Which I knew meant 'damn' or 'shit' but both can be used in the same context in this situation.

I asked for her sketch pad and she handed it to me willingly. I flipped through the pages and stopped at one from the beginning pages. "This one's good."

Ella takes a look, "Ugh, its plain."

"No, it's simple, but some changes could be made. Have you ever heard that 'less is more'?"

She nods and takes back her sketch pad. I watched as she stared at her design. After two minutes, a small smile took form on her lips. She pulled out a pencil, and began to draw-in small details. I sighed, content of my good deed and stared out the window into the blue skies and white clouds. Ignoring the nagging thoughts of Arthur, Francis, Matthew, and the talking bear (what was his name again? Kimi-something) for there was a logical explanation for everything they did.

Name one, said a nagging thought.

Well, I answered in my head, they must have staged the whole thing. I mean think of the knife, it must have been fake and made of rubber, with fake blood added to it.

The knife cut flesh, nagging thought remarked.

Fake skin and Halloween props, you can buy those anywhere. That also explains how they healed instantly.

The talking bear?

Robotic, duh.

Your wounds?

I've always been a fast healer doesn't mean I'm country.

The electric shock? You felt it with the other two.

They must have been on the same crazy train with Arthur and his friends; besides at both sightings of these so called 'electric shocks,' we were standing over carpet.

You're buying your own excuse?

If makes you shut up, yeah.

But it didn't and continued, your father?

Could have been some random photo they took from somebody's house. Or one they made. I couldn't even find this so called Alfred online.

Not everything or everyone's online.

I am not arguing with myself about this! They were mentally ill people and I hope they get enough sense to get help.

You're arguing with a voice in your head, and you say they need help?

"Shut up!" I hissed out loud and Ella gave me confused look, "I didn't say anything?"

I felt my cheeks heat with embarrassment, "Not you. Just, forget it." I turned back to the window, forcing myself to forget those strange people from New York.

The plane landed smoothly and we were ushered out quickly to the bagging area. I was a light packer, so I carried a carry on and small back pack that rode beside me on both plane rides. I noticed that girls would carry large suite cases that could have weighed hundred pounds more than their own body masses. I shook my head and craned my neck, searching for my older brother John Hawkfeather the Third, but everyone calls him Johnny.

A pair of arms grabbed me from behind and I yelped as they lifted me in the air. "Amy! My little sis; back from the Big Apple!" The voice was familiar, deep and easy-going.

I laughed, "Put me down you big ape!"

He sets me back on my feet and I turned to face my older brother. His eyes were the color of onyx and his skin was the shade of light copper. He was tall almost six-six with long raven colored hair like Dad's. It was in a low pony tail with a ribbon tied in it, I smirked, must have been the work of Blair Arora our niece and daughter of our older sister Melissa.

"Johnny!" my smirk became a grin as I wrapped my arms around him into a tight hug. Then I spotted Celine behind him, he long light brown curls flowed down to her waist and her pale green eyes shined against her white skin.

"Celine!" I squirmed out of Johnny's grasp and leaped into her arms. "I thought you wouldn't get here till next week?"

"The set didn't need me, so I was able to take another week off for my wedding." Celine worked as a script writer for ABC. She took part in writing in some of my favorite TV shows like Once Upon a Time, Revenge and Scandal. Now, she was working on her own scripts; she's on her way of becoming one of the best script writers for ABC.

"Awesome!"

"Yeah," Johnny moves to put his arm around her, "we're the dream team right here."

Johnny's a music producer and radio host in LA, he usually picks music from up and coming bands to play on TV shows, most of the time for ABC. Both worked hard for their dream positions and they were happy. I'll never tell Johnny this, for he already had a big head. He's my inspiration; for when life seemed bleak for him and was down on his luck plenty of times as he tried to get his foot through the door. Most people would have given up, but not Johnny he was stubborn and refused to settle for less.

Every time I felt like my dancing was never enough or when my thoughts were doubtful; I would have a little Johnny in my head shouting, 'Don't give up! Keep going!'

A beeping sound resounded from Johnny's jean pocket and he pulled out his smart phone. He read a message with slide of his thumb and said, "We gotta go, Melissa and the kids are already at the house."

Home, the thought brought a smile to my face as I followed Johnny and Celine to the airport parking lot.

Johnny drove from Santa Barbra back to our hometown, Summerland in less than fifteen minutes; thanks to Highway 101. I stared out the window watching homes, businesses, and restaurants passed by. While on the other side spread across the ocean, I watched as the sun's rays reflected off the surface of the water and blend against the blue sky. I truly loved our town. It was filled with supportive, fun-loving and hardworking people. Even after the Quake of 2014.

Around that year, a large earthquake struck through our beloved town and across the south of California. Taking hundreds of lives along with businesses, restaurants, department stores, schools and homes with it. Most families and businesses in Summerland moved to Santa Barbra, because the city was barely touched by the Quake.

But the people that stayed built Summerland back to its former glory. We have more family owned restaurants now, no more food chains. This gave Carlo and Gemma Russo a chance to rebuild their Italian restaurant in their own image, instead of the plain brick building they had for years. Homes were built with stronger foundations, schools were levitated about five feet off the ground. More small businesses took root and a certain private school was built in our location. Nightingale International Private School, literally only had two schools in the US (counting us). Same amount in Canada, five in Europe, (Britain, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain) three in Asia (India, China, and Japan) and one in Russia.

After another nuclear war was threaten upon the world at the end of 2013, some government officials believed it was time to promote world peace. Of course normal people knew that would never happen, so they settled for world respect instead. In other words gather up a bunch of gifted teenagers that could become the next world leaders and put them in close quarters with one another. It seemed to have worked out. For the founder; Elliot Nightingale personally arrived to our town (after the Quake) to persuade our city council to build a massive boarding school. In little over a year, we had teens from all over the world becoming part of Summerland.

Maybe our government believed if future world leaders spent time with us, they won't think about bombing us later on in life. It's working, so far.

My family and I lived in a large Victorian styled house. Mom took the chance to rebuild our home into her dream house when the Quake demolished it. It was three stories (counting the basement) the first floor held a gourmet kitchen with a matching dining room, master bedroom, a side bathroom and a living room. The second floor held three bedrooms and one bathroom. Of course I got the biggest room because both Johnny and Melissa were out of the house by then. The other two were used as guestrooms. The house was painted white with black roof tops. The dining room and my room were part of the tower structure on the left side of the house. The porch on the bottom wrapped around the left side to the back and there was a balcony above the front door where a guestroom was.

We also took the chance to rebuild the stables out back. It allowed our horses more room and it was painted white and black, the same as our house. We owned two acres but we were surrounded by forest in the back, so I always took the chance to ride out there.

Johnny's BMW parked on a grassy area near the front and I practically sprinted out the car.

"Amy! Come back! Family first, horses later," Johnny called after me.

"I'll be quick! Promise!" I ran to open the doors, and found our horses in their large stalls. I turned to a brown stallion on my right, "Hey Jack, you missed me?" Jack was Dad's horse and he mostly rode him bareback, which scared the shit out of Mom. (I also rode bareback plenty of times, but I'll never tell Mom.)

Then on my left was a painted mare named Daisy, my mom's horse, a gift from Dad on their wedding anniversary last year. I lead them out into the open area so they could stretch out their legs. I quickly turned back into the stables to release my horse, Midnight. He was in the last stall and also the biggest for he was quite large. He was a solid black Percheron, his neck and head easily surpassed my height. His hooves were three times larger than my hands and the part were his legs meet his body, was where my mid-section was. This is big ass horse people.

"Midnight," I cooed as I petted his head and neck. He nudged his nose into my cheek lovingly, that was code for 'missed you' or 'love you'. I'll take it as both.

"I missed you too and I love you too," I smiled and lead him out of the stables. I took a moment to watch them gallop through the fields till someone tapped on my shoulder.

"Now we know you would pick the horses first when there's a fire." The voice said as joke and I knew who it belonged to, John Jr. Hawkfeather.

"Dad!" I jumped into his arms and he held me tight.

"I missed you kiddo, a week is too long for you to be away," he said as he led me to the house.

"What will you do when I'm eighteen and out of the house?"

"Cry." Dad admitted.

"No, you can't. If you start crying, Mom will start crying, then I'll start to cry and we'll all end up with puddle under our feet." We grinned at the thought as we entered through the back door into the kitchen.

The house was filled with laughter and the aroma of food.

"Amy!" Mom ran to hug me, "Are you okay? Have you been sleeping regularly?"

"Jessica, she's fine," said Dad.

"Yeah, Mom I'm good." I nodded along with him.

Then two dark haired children attached themselves on each side of my hips. "Auntie Amy! Auntie Amy! What did you bring us?" asked Blair as her twin brother Blake Arora only held on to my hip.

"Blair!" Melissa Arora gave a disapproving shake of her head, "Amy just got home, let her have some love, before you start asking for gifts."

"It's cool, Mel," I looked down; "after we eat I'll bring out the presents."

Blair grinned, showing her missing front teeth. She was wearing an Indian pink tunic with matching pants and slip on shoes. The color of the cloth brought out her light brown skin and bright brown eyes. Blake wore a green collar locked tunic top with dark brown pants and sandals. His hair was wavy and short while his sister grew her's out passed her waist.

Their mother and my older sister, Melissa was tall with the same coloring as Johnny. She wore a simple ankle length dress the color of maple leaves and flip-flops. Her hair was in a high pony tail and she wore gold hoop earrings that were a gift from her husband. She gave me a look, "You spoil them too much."

"Hey, I'm the aunt. It's my job, and I'm gonna be the same way with this one," I said affectionately as I rubbed her rounded belly.

"I'm sure he'll be every excited to have you as an aunt," Melissa giggled.

Then a tall man walked in and gave Melissa a kiss on the cheek. "How was the trip?" Sanjay Arora was Indian-American who worked as a math teacher at a local middle school.

"Amazing, everything was just magically." expect for the part where crazy people thought they were countries.

He smiled and lifted Blair and Blake away from my hips, "There now you can move."

"Thanks Sanjay, they definitely got a grip."

"They got it from their mother."

"Of course they did," Melissa kissed Sanjay back on his cheek, "I wasn't going to let you get away."

Sanjay grinned as I rolled my eyes and playfully said, "Cheesy much."

Then Mom called out that dinner was ready and we all took our seats around a large rectangle shaped table. Dad and Mom took the ends as Melissa, Sanjay, Johnny, and Celine took the side in front of the three way windows of the tower. Blake, Blair and I took the other side.

"Don't forget about us," a voice called out and I turned to find Grandpa and Grandma Hawkfeather.

"Grandma! Grandpa!" I grinned as I held the door out for them and Grandpa helped his wife up the stairs.

"G-Ma! G-Pa!" Blair bounced up and down in her seat as her great-grandpa took out Grandma's seat first before taking his own. Both had copper wrinkled skin with graying black hair. Grandma, Aponi Hawkfeather wore a long skirt, a matching blouse, and a chain that held a gold feather charm around her neck. Grandpa also known as John Senior Hawkfeather wore a white button down shirt that he tucked into his khakis. His long hair was no longer raven black of his youth but silver gray.

I seat next to Grandpa and he asked, "How was New York? Did you stay outta trouble?"

"Well," I pondered.

"Ah, here we go, story time," Johnny said as he rubbed his hands in excitement.

Melissa shook her head, "What did you do?"

"Me and my friends were doing a video, singing the Glee's version 'I Love New York'."

"I'm confused," Sanjay spoke, "Is that crime now?"

"No, that was not the reason why we were chased by the police."

"Chased by the police?!" Mom's voice had a tone of horror.

"Auntie Amy's so cool!" Blair grinned.

Melissa groaned, "Amy, you're setting a bad example for your niece."

"Wait," Dad asked, "Did they press charges?"

"No," I answered.

"Then it's all good."

"John!" Mom glared disapprovingly at him and Dad only smiled.

"So what did you do?" Celine asked.

"I was flipping off of statues and sculptures through-out the city."

Everyone was silent till they started to laugh.

"Why am I not surprised?" Grandma giggled, "you were jumping off of things from the moment you well enough to walk."

I grinned, "I'm a bit of a dare-devil at heart."

Johnny laughed, "Just forget about being a dancer Amy. Be stunt woman, because clearly nothing kills you."

"She's immortal." Blake said softly.

"Yeah," Johnny smirked, "Like a Twilight vampire. Are you gonna go out and sparkle in the sunlight."

"Do you really want me to sneak into your room late at night and pour a bucket of sticky glitter into your bed? Again," I playfully threaten.

"Oh god, no; do you realize how long it took just to get that stuff out of my hair?"

"Glitter?" Celine asked, amused.

"He looked pretty!" Blair called out happily.

Laughter exploded from the table again.

This was what my family was like; filled with love, laughter, support and life. If I had known how fast our family was going to change in the next few weeks, I would've tried everything I could to have frozen that moment forever.