::Chapter 2::
Abigal and I debated for awhile on what I should do now. We finally decided to just act as if nothing happened even though she kept begging to see my wings again. Now that I was feeling better I sort-of wanted to fly, but after my last experience I wanted to wait until I could control my wings better. Today didn't really feel like it was my birthday because it was just like any other day aside from my wings. My dad was working, as always, and I don't even think he remembered my birthday, but he never did so it didn't surprise me. The last time we actually celebrated my birthday was 10 years ago. My dad's relationship with Abigal and me...wasn't that great. There really wasn't much at all, but as a part of the 'lay low' plan, I wasn't going to tell my dad about my wings. He probably wouldn't care.
The day went on and I was caught in the dalliance of my wings. I made sure to close all of the blinds and curtains in the house so no one would see me. I stretched them out as far as I could down the hallway and I slowly moved them up and down. I got the hang of it and I had the sudden urge to run outside and fly off across the ocean. I was starting to like them. They were beautiful. They were approximately 10 feet long and they were dark golden brown and there were spots of white, tan and dark brown the size of freckles. The feathers were so soft I could use them as a pillow. They looked so delicate that you could break them as easy as you could make a ripple in a pond. The initial pain left my body and it didn't hurt to move my wings anymore. I started to fall into my temptation and I left my house and into my back yard to see what it really was like to fly. With my wings folded against my back, I shot up into the air and used my wings to propel me higher into the air. I would be out of sight once I flew through the clouds.
It was exhilarating to be flying up in the air when I could finally control my wings. I flew higher than the clouds and it was beautiful. It was like I was on an airplane with a seat that could see through all of the windows. It was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shinning and the clouds below looked like giant fluffy cotton balls. I tried a few tricks when I was flying. I even tried a few loop-dee-loops and it felt like I was on a roller-coaster. I tried flying really fast and as the clouds moved past me, and the wind blowing in my face I knew that this was one of the best birthdays...ever! I had been flying for a long time now and I knew Abigal would be worried so I started to slowly descend and make my way towards my house. Once the clouds started to thin out I was able to see my house so I folded my wings and I let myself continue to fall through the air. After a couple seconds went by and I was considerably closer to my house I unfolded my wings and I felt them yank me up five feet above the ground. Slowly I descended until my feet both touched the ground. I folded them back up as soon as I had a steady stance on the ground and I then walked back into the house. I shut the door behind me and turned to see Abigal by the window turn to me with her jaw open in awe.
"That was...awesome, the way you landed like that! I was afraid you were gonna fall until you hit the ground. You are so lucky! "Abigal said excitedly.
"Do you think anyone saw me?" I asked, fingers crossed and I nearly had a heart attack when the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it. You just cover your wings." Abby whispered as she proceeded towards the door. I ran over to the couch and put my jacket on.
"Alex. It's Peyton. She was wondering if you wanted to come and hang out at her house." Abigal called from the other room. I walked into the living room and over to the door and I was about to respond when Peyton said...
"Happy Birthday!" Peyton said as I let out a sigh of relief. She pulled out a box from behind her back. It had bright and sparkly teal wrapping paper on it and a lime green bow on the top. "Happy 16th! Al-Al!" Al-Al was my nickname that she called me and I call her Pey-Pey, it's a long story.
"Thanks Pey-Pey!" I replied as she handed me the gift.
"I'll let you two talk." Abigal chimed in. I had almost forgotten that she was there. Sometimes she would talk so much that you just wanted to not be there, other times she was as quiet as a mouse.
"Thanks Abby." I said.
"No prob." Abigal departed.
"So... you wanna come over to my house and hang? We could swim and stuff and you can open your gift. My mom wants to take pictures. I just brought it along for a more birthday-y effect. Unless you're busy, I mean your dad could come home early because it's your birthday and all..." She paused. A second later we had both started to erupt with laughter. We joked around all the time and I never took any of it seriously. The fact that I was never busy and that my dad would come home...early even on my birthday. After we recovered from our outburst of laughter I decided to go.
"Let me get my stuff. I'll be back in a minute. Help yourself to the fridge. Oh, and Abby made cookies! Help yourself!" We exchanged smiles and then I left to get all of my stuff. Once I had packed everything up, I started to take off my jacket and I remembered that my swimsuit wouldn't hide my new feathery friends...
I set my stuff back down on my bed and went to go and ask Abigal what I should do. I needed a second opinion on this because my ideas weren't always the best and Abigal seemed to know what to do at times when I didn't. I walked down the hallway towards her room and called out, "Hey Peyton I think Abby took my towel again. I'll be there in a second."
"Oh that's okay." Peyton said with her mouth full of cookie. She swallowed and continued, "If it's easier for you, you could change at my house. Unless you already did then that's fine." She finished as I stood before Abigal's room.
"Sure, thanks!" I called back.
"Hey Abby. Can I come in?" I whispered through Abigal's bedroom door and I started to turn the doorknob. I pushed open the door and walked in. "Ummm, I need to talk to you..it's about my wings..." Abigal set her book down and looked up at me. We proceeded to talk about my wings and decided that I'd tell Peyton about them. We'd been best friends since my mom passed away and I could tell her anything. She may be a year younger than me, but we are both Juniors in High school and I knew my secret was safe with her. I was going to tell her about my wings at her house. Her mom was strict and only let her come over for thirty minutes after two each day. Her mom was afraid that she might get kidnapped like Peyton's older sister was. She had been kidnapped three years ago and she has never been found. Her mother is very protective over Peyton, so we hang out at her house more often then mine.
I thanked Abigal and hugged her. "Wish me luck telling Peyton." I said as I left her room. I went back to my own room and grabbed my backpack that Abigal had given to me. I walked down the hallway my backpack hanging off of my right shoulder. "Ready?" I asked Peyton as she stuffed yet another cookie into her mouth.
"Yep. Hey I like your backpack." she replied slightly muffeled from the cookie. "By the way, these are the best cookies ever!"
Peyton didn't live too far away so it only took us five minutes to walk to her house. We talked about school and what we'd been up to; just the usual friend talk. Once we arrived at her house and opened the door I felt the cool air conditioned air cool down my warm body. The room was all dark, the only light was the sunshine that shone through the open door, but that light was drowned in darkness as Peyton shut the door behind her. The room was in complete darkness and it seemed like nobody was home.
"Man, I think the power went out. Hold on stay here I'll go find my mom." Peyton said and I couldn't see her do it, but I think she went to the kitchen because I could tell by the sound of her footsteps. Where's Scruffy? Scruffy would normally be at the door barking at the person who entered the house. Scruffy was Peyton's cocker-spaniel dog. Scruffy was very hyper and got really excited whenever someone came over.
"Scruffy? Where are you Scruffy?" I called into the darkness. In response to his name Scruffy gave a slight 'murph'. It sounded like he was behind the couch in the living room. "Scruffy, come 'ere boy." I bent down with my knees supporting the rest of my body hoping to catch Scruffy in my arms. I hoped that he would come running over and jump up on to my lap, but he didn't come. I gradually stood up and as I was about to call for Peyton...
"SURPRISE!" Came a yell that broke the silence. The yell came from my friends for when the lights came on I was showered in confetti-completely surrounded by my friends. "Happy Birthday Alex!" They all yelled.
"Wow. I definitely wasn't expecting this." I said still shocked. "Thanks so much you guys! You are the best!" The shock disappeared as I was filled with happiness.
"...And...we got cake..." Stella-one of my friends- said as Peyton walked down the hallway towards me with a cake on a plate in her hands. Heads turned to see her holding the cake; all sixteen candles were lit. They shone even brighter when some people dimmed the lights. As Peyton walked down the hallway everybody started singing 'Happy Birthday' to me with their heads all turned back to look at me. Their faces were smiling as they sung and the light of the candle illuminated everyone's faces when the cake finally reached me. The cake was angel's food cake with white frosting- it was my favorite cake- my friends knew me so well. I blew out the candles and as I made a wish I closed my eyes and when I opened them the cake was rushing towards my face, or my face was rushing towards it. I wasn't even paying attention that while I was making my wish, Stella came up behind me and pushed my head right into the cake. It seemed like they had place the candles on one side of the cake leaving a big open space-enough for my face to fill. Everyone busted up laughing and I joined in as soon as I whipped the icing from my eyes. I should've known. I thought. Despite having cake all over my face I had smiled like I had never smiled before. My day just kept getting better and better.
After my face was cake-free I grabbed the cake and exclaimed, "More cake for me!" and I ran through the open space in between Peyton and Stella. I ran down the hallway to Peyton's backyard and everyone chased after me. Once I got outside I ran and hid behind a lawn chair. As everyone came running out of the house I stood up and grabbed a huge chunk of cake and threw it at Peyton. I guess all of those years playing softball really paid off. I thought because the cake hit her smack dab in the middle of her face and icing covered her face. I reached for another chunk of cake when someone yelled, "Food fight!" Everyone-which was about six people- started running over to me and grabbing pieces of the cake and throwing it at each other. When we ran out of cake to throw we were covered in frosting and cake and we laughed for almost what seemed like five minutes. I was so glad Peyton's mom wasn't here because she was way too strict. Instead Peyton's dad was here and he wasn't as strict, but more fun. Peyton slunk away from everything and walked away. Where's she going? I walked after her and everybody else was wiping cake off of themselves. She was going down the side yard and into her garage. I walked towards the door of the garage and once I got through the doorway-SPLAT!- went a water-balloon as it splattered on my face. "Oh, I'm gonna get you for that!" I ran to where Peyton was standing. She had two balloons -one in each hand- and a bucket full of water balloons were at her feet. "Heh, heh, okay, uh you win...I think I'll just be going now.." I said as I slowly backed away from her. I felt cold water run down my back and I turned to see Stella holding one less balloon then she had a second ago.
"We have you cornered!" Stella said as she shut the door behind her and walked closer and closer to me.
"That's what you think..." I can trust her, it's okay just get it over with. I thought. I unfolded my wings and flew up into the air. I hovered a foot below the ceiling of the garage. I could hear both Peyton and Stella gasp. I could trust Peyton and Stella with anything.
After a minute or so I slowly descended to the ground. Once I touched the ground Peyton and Stella both ran up toward me and bombarded me with questions. Eventually I was going to tell them and now was the perfect opportunity-just the three of us. It took quite awhile to explain the whole story to them and how they couldn't tell anyone. They said the whole, "You're so lucky" and the "What's a cloud like" yada yada yada you know the rest. We finally finished talking and all three of us grabbed a bunch of water balloons and ran outside of the garage back into the back yard. Once we got there we surprise-attacked everyone with all the water balloons that we could carry. We all had a blast, we ate pizza, played games, threw water balloons and opened presents. This was the best birthday I had ever had. I had never ever had a birthday party before. It was always just very few presents and a small cake. This party was one-hundred times better than I imagined any party could be.
I was at Peyton's house for hours but it went by fast like minutes. It was starting to get dark when people slowly started to leave. As people left they said the usual 'Thanks for inviting me' 'I had a great time' 'I hope you had a great birthday' and I replied with the usual 'Thanks for coming' 'It was nice to see you'. When it was only Peyton, Stella and me remaining they both started to ask even more questions about my wings. They asked me questions that they didn't get a chance to ask before or that they had come up with throughout the party.
"So what are you going to do?" Peyton asked.
"I'm really not sure. I mean I've only told you guys and my sister. There's no way I'm telling my dad, besides, he probably wouldn't care anyways." I replied in a saddened tone.
"Do you think maybe you should go to the doctor or maybe you should find out what caused you to get wings?" Stella asked.
The conversation went on for awhile. Well that is, until my sister came over wondering why I was gone so long. Just a little F.Y.I. for you, she only came over because I'm pretty much the one who makes the food around home and she was never not hungry. Just between you and me, but she likes to eat...a lot... but she isn't even fat at all! That's what I don't get...she eats way more food then me and yet she's skinny-bone-Jones. Not fair am I right? Sorry I got a little carried away there...anyways, back to Abigal interrupting our conversation. So I ended it with a 'Good bye' and a 'Thanks again for everything'. I didn't want Abigal to be home alone this late at night.
"Thanks for doin' this for Alex." Abigal said smiling. "It's nice to see her finally get a real birthday thrown for her." Abigal added.
"She deserved it all." Peyton replied with the same happy smile as Abigal. "Oh! Wait! Don't forget your presents!" Peyton ran off into the kitchen.
"Well happy sweet sixteen! I'll see you at school?" Stella asked.
"Yep." I replied just as Peyton came back into the room, her socks sliding across the floor. She handed me a big bag that contained all of the many presents that I had received from my friends.
"Thanks again. Later." I said.
"Later." They both replied in unison. We all hugged and we departed. Abigal and I were on our way home when we saw two men in black walking towards us.
"Are you Miss Alex Donaley?" One of the men asked.