Chapter 1(Dawn’s POV)

My flock and I were flying somewhere over Hawaii. We stopped on an isolated beach for the night.

“Dawn, what are we doing?” Blaze asked.

“We’re taking a break, for once.” I replied, leaning back on the ground and closing my eyes. I heard someone land and motioned for my flock to be super still. I slowly opened my eyes and sat up. I looked around. I heard murmuring.  Someone was moving towards us. I stood up and got into a fighting stance, as did the rest of my flock.

“Who are you?” I snarled.

“I could ask you the same thing.” She snarled back. She was blonde.

“Max, are you…” A dark haired boy came from the direction that the girl, Max, had come from. The boy got into a fighting stance. More kids came from that direction to help Max and the boy. It was six against six. I squared up to Max. I screeched and lunged at her, taking her by surprise. We fell to the ground, grappling at each other. We were evenly matched. We rolled and suddenly, we were floundering underwater, not really sure which way was up. I was running out of air fast. My eyes darted fearfully to Max, who was having the same problem. This couldn’t be good.

Chapter 2(Blaze’s POV)

“Dawn, what are we doing here?” I asked Dawn, the flock leader.

“We’re taking a break, for once.” She answered me, lying down on the ground. Suddenly, I heard someone land. Dawn stiffened and slowly stood up. A girl with blonde hair came around a rock.

“Who are you?” Dawn snarled.

“I could ask you the same thing.” The girl snarled back.

“Max, are you…” A boy with black hair came around the rock with more kids. Dawn screeched and leaped at Max. The air exploded with battle. I was battling the boy when I noticed that Dawn and Max where missing.

“Where is Dawn?”  I screeched at him. He looked around. Suddenly, we heard a splash. We turned towards the ocean. We looked at each other. The others all stopped battling as me and the boy ran towards the ocean. I saw two bodies under the water. I dove under to bring them up. I grabbed Dawn and hauled her to the surface. She wasn’t breathing, though her heart was still beating. I dragged her to the beach and started on her lungs, pumping water out of them. The boy was doing the same thing to Max. Suddenly, Dawn started spluttering and coughing up water on the beach. She opened her eyes and looked up at me.

“Thanks.” She said. I nodded and helped her up. She turned to Max.

“That didn’t go very well.” She said, wringing out her brown hair. Max laughed and started doing the same thing.

“Hi, I’m Max.” She said.

“Dawn, this is my flock. This is Blaze, he’s fourteen, Pixie, and she’s twelve. This is Jaw, he’s nine. This is Crash, he’s ten, and this is sweet little Katie, who’s six. Watch out for Jaw and Crash, they are pyromaniacs, so sorry if we blow you up. They can make bombs out of the weirdest things ever imaginable.” Dawn said.

Chapter 3(Dawn’s POV)

After I introduced my flock, Max got to hers.

“I’m Max, I’m fourteen, this is Fang, he’s fourteen, this is Iggy, and he’s also fourteen. This is Nudge, she’s twelve, Gazzy is nine and Angel is six.” Max said.

“We, well, we have wings.” I said boldly to them. Max’s gaze turned from surprise to happiness to relief in almost one second.

“We do too.” Max said. We all snapped out our wings. Mine were all white with brown spots, Blaze’s were fire red with some orange and yellow tinted in at the edges, Pixies are all brown, Jaw’s were black and white, Crash’s were all black, and Katie’s are angel white.

“Oh, yeah, forgot to tell you, Iggy and Gazzy are pyromaniacs too. Crud, that makes four pyromaniacs.” Max said. I laughed.

“Well, as long as they don’t blow up a hotel, again.” I said, reeling to Crash and Jaw.

“It was an accident!” Jaw defended himself.

“It was an accident that you planted a bomb in the lobby? I don’t think so.” I said.

“You guys planted a bomb in the lobby, awesome!” Gazzy shouted, running with Iggy over to them again.  I sighed and sat down. The pyromaniacs were talking. Nudge and Pixie were going on about the most random things you could possibly imagine. Blaze sat down next to me.

“Well, at least we can stay with them. Twelve bird kids are bound to be better off then six.” I said.

“Yeah, but are we sure we can trust them?” Blaze asked. I hated it when he got logical.

“For now, yeah.” I said. I was stressed. Blaze started rubbing my shoulders.

“Thanks Blaze.” I said. Blaze and I were going out.

“Anything for you, Dawn.” He said quietly.

“Are you two together?” Max asked.

“Yeah, personally, being together helps me think. If you and Fang have that kind of relationship, you should try it.” I said looking at her. She nodded and went to talk to Fang. I smiled.

“Get some rest, I’ll take first watch.” I said to my flock. Max said the same to hers and came to sit by me.

“I hope that whole relationship thing really helps, because I just confessed my feelings to him and now we’re together.” She said to me.

“I know that it works for me.” I said. I was tired.

I’m sorry about this, Dawn.

Suddenly, my head started hurting. I clutched my head screaming and curled into a tight ball. I saw images of the school flash in my mind. I could hear Max next to me screaming just as loud as me. I opened my eye to a slit. She was going through the same thing as me. My eye shut as a new wave of pain overtook my body.

“Make it stop! Just kill me now!” I sobbed. I felt Blaze’s hand on my shoulder. The pain subsided and I upchucked next to me. I finally opened my eyes. Blaze was above me, his brown hair falling over his eyes.

“Brain attack.” I murmured. He nodded. He wrapped his arms around me and I curled into his grip. I fell asleep.

“Dawn, wake up.” I heard Blaze the next morning.  I opened my eyes. There was a fire going and Max was sitting by it, wrapped in a blanket. I stood up and stretched. It was cold. I sat down next to her. She offered some of the blanket to me and I took it without hesitation. I scooted closer so that I could get the blanket around my whole body. I then realized that I was wearing capris and a tank top. I looked at Max. She was wearing pants and a t-shirt. I was shivering. My body was turning blue because I was so cold. Max looked at me and gave up the blanket. I nodded my thanks and pulled it around me. I was still shivering and now everything was dizzy.

“Fang, we need to get her somewhere warm.” Was the last thing that I heard Max say.

 

“Will she be okay?” I heard Blaze. I was on a bed. The air was warm, but it didn’t feel like Hawaii.

“Blaze, where are we?” I asked.

“We’re in Arizona. Max said you would be safe here.” Blaze said, entwining our fingers.

“DAWN!” Katie shrieked and hugged me. I wrapped my arms around her, releasing my grip on Blaze’s hand. The rest of my flock followed suit and soon I was in a mass of younger kids. I was laughing my head off.

“Come on guys, let me breathe, please.” I said. The all got off and sat down at the foot of the bed.

“Alright, I trust Max enough to stay here until I’m rested up. We’ll figure out a plan after that.” I said to my flock, who were waiting patiently at the foot of my bed. They nodded.

I slowly stood up. I opened the door. My flock followed me. I walked down the stairs. This place seemed oddly familiar. I stopped when I saw a familiar face.

“MOM!” I shrieked, running to mom, or Dr. Martinez.

“Dawn, your okay!” Mom said, shocked. I held on tight.

“DAWN!” Ella shrieked. She joined in the hug.

“Wait, Dr. Martinez is your mom?” Max asked. I nodded.

“And Jeb is my dad.” I said, looking at her.

“Then, we’re sisters.” She whispered. I looked at her, then at mom, then at Ella. I looked at Max again, then ran over to her and hugged her. She hugged me back. I looked at my stunned flock smiled at them. They smiled back.

I was finally in the clear. Yes, I could finally go, but I didn’t want to.

“Max, Fang, Blaze, and Iggy, could I talk to you?” I asked. We had basically become one flock. We walked to the room that Max and I were sharing.

“I think we should stay for a while, you know, rest a bit, enroll in school.” I mumbled the last part.

“I agree with Dawn.” Max said. My head shot up. Fang, Blaze, and Iggy nodded.

“Cool, so let’s tell the younger kids.” I said. We walked downstairs.

“Guys, living room, now.” I shouted up the stairs. The younger kids came pounding down the stairs.

“We’re staying here for a little while.” I said.

“Really, Dawn?” Katie asked me. I nodded and all of the younger kids jumped on me.

“Help!” I yelled to the others, but they just sat there laughing their heads off. I started throwing off kids until I was finally free of younger kids. I stood up and leaped at Max. She fell to the floor laughing her head off. I glared at her.

 

It was time for school. I got up from my bed in the room that Max and I were sharing. I pulled on some skinny jeans that hugged my hips. I pulled on a blue tank top that hugged all of my curves. I slipped on my black sneakers. I grabbed my book bag with all of my new school supplies in it and pounded down the stairs. I grabbed some bacon from the heap that was on the table. I flopped down on a kitchen chair and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. After my filling of bacon, I grabbed my backpack and hopped into mom’s car. Mom drove us to school in her 4runner. I hopped out of the car and looked around.

Max came up beside me and looked nervously at me. Blaze came up on my other side and gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. I looked up at him.

“Okay, guys, make sure to use fake names. I don’t really care what they are, as long as they aren’t your real names.” I said. We went to the office to get our schedules and headed off to our lockers.

I have gym next. Max, Ella, Fang, and Blaze are all in my gym class. We were playing soccer today. I was good at soccer. As I slipped into my gym clothes, a girl came up behind me.

“Are you Mandy?” She asked.

“Yes, why?” I said.

“You’re going out with Jason, right?” She was referring to Blaze.

“Yes.” I said.

“He is so hot.” She said. I rolled my eyes and jogged out of the locker room. I followed the class out to the soccer field. I kept my eyes locked onto the soccer ball the whole time. Max and I worked together and we scored the winning goal.

School was finally over. Max and I were waiting for Fang and Blaze when a huge guy came up to us.

“You lost our team the game.” He growled. He brought his fist back and hit me, then Max. My head snapped back and blood gushed out of my nose. I looked back at him only to have him hit my jaw this time, then push me to the ground. Max backed fearfully away to the group of kids that had gathered around us. The kid put his huge shoe on my head and shoved. My head snapped back and hit the concrete really hard. I winced as the ground connected with my head.

“Dude, lay off.” Blaze came just as he punched my nose again. My head was bloody, blood gushing out of the wound on the back of my head.

“Like you’re going to beat me up.” He said. Fang then walked to Blaze’s side. The kid backed away from the pair, stepping on my arm before turning around and running. The kids all walked away as Blaze helped me up. I put one hand on my nose, the on the on the back of my head. Blaze helped me to mom’s car. She gasped when she saw all of that blood. She grabbed some towels from the trunk and handed them to me. I put one on the back of my head and held one up to my nose. Blaze held the one on the back of my head. The bleeding finally stopped and I was lightheaded. I swayed as I got out of the car and if it hadn’t been for Blaze and Max, I probably would be passed out on the ground right now. I made it into the house. Mom immediately got the first aid kit and wrapped a bandage around my head. She padded up my nose. I thanked her and collapsed on the couch. Blaze sat down and I arranged myself so that my head was on his lap. Blaze started stroking my hair and I fell asleep.