Birds of a Feather

Chapter 16: ＡＮＡＳＴＡＳＩA

Ana woke up on Thursday feeling like a million dollars. Her date with Denei the previous night had been beyond amazing and she had even kissed him. Not on the lips or anything, but it was a start. She was starting to regret last Sunday when she had flung herself away from his kiss.

It was quite early and none of her roommates were up, so Ana took hold of the book sitting on her nightstand. It was her old worn-out copy of Romeo and Juliet. She absolutely adored Shakespeare.

Right when Romeo had killed himself, she had to get ready for the day. If it was her first time reading the book, she probably would have skipped classes to finish, but she had already gone through the pages countless numbers of times.

The black strands of hair had straightened out overnight, so she pulled them into a sleek ponytail. A small amount of hairspray was used in the process, but after five minutes there was not a single fly away and the shiny hairs fell to her ribs.

Her purple dress from yesterday had a small stain on the hem and since she had no time to wash it, she had to borrow one of Natasha's. Ana felt inclined to look perfect today. She just had to.

At eight o'clock sharp she went into the dining hall alone. Her three roommates were still upstairs getting changed.

"Ana, over here!" called Denei. He was seated at one of the purple tables in the back corner. She shoveled some pancakes onto her glass plate and hurried over. She took the chair to his right and folded her napkin into her lap. "Haven't lost those manners, have you?" he said smiling.

"You say that like it is a bad thing. Look at you!" Denei stood with his back perfectly straight, his feet placed exactly a shoulder length apart.

There was a moment of silence between them. The roaring of the dining hall seemed louder than ever.

"Well, I have to go. I have chemistry next period," he said standing up.

"Chemistry? Eighth graders are taking biology." Ana took the napkin out of her lap and folded it neatly on the table.

"I am in ninth grade; didn't you know that? My birthday is in January, so I was put a grade higher than you." This thought had never crossed her mind. It explained why they didn't have any classes together.

"See you at Aves, then," Ana called after she squeezed Denei's hand good bye.

She swept over to the science lab where she found Rubeus laying on his desk humming a light tune. On the table that she shared with Irena, sat a small vial of frothing, navy liquid.

Ana took her seat and sniffed the vial. It smelled like a mixture of blueberries and uncooked fish. Not a pleasant combination. Irena crinkled her nose and pushed the liquid away.

"Good morning class! Today we will be working with chemicals, so we will need goggles!" Rubeus squeaked. He tossed clear goggles at random until everyone had a pair. A few people had to pick their's up off the floor. "The item in front of you is a test tube filled with binium phoninite. This is an acid that filters the water out of any item. Please do not drink it!"

Out of one of his many yellow drawers, he pulled a small box. He gave an object from inside until every student had something. Irena and Ana were given a minuscule black feather. Her cheeks burned red and she tried not to smile, for Ana knew that this was a starling feather.

Irena pinched the feather with a pair of tweezers and lowered it into the binium phoninite. It instantly shriveled and turned a light grey. Her friend extracted the feather and set it on a tray.

The feather looked old and withered, as if it had aged one million years. The gray object seemed as though it would crumple to ash at the lightest touch.