Family

CH 1. STALKER

Nudge was bored. No, scratch that, she was beyond bored. She was bored beyond tears, beyond yawns, and she had actually been trudging between classes. Trudging! She didn't even know that people trudged anymore, never mind what trudging actually was.

Since coming to the school she's been forced to sit through another algebra session and felt like she was about to melt through the floor if she stayed much longer.

"When exactly am I going to need to know how to make a U on a graph?" She thought miserably as she sank her face into her book for a nap, "Like a runaway mutant's gonna get into Harvard."

"Krystal!" Yelled Mr. Simmons, waking her up with a start. "Could you solve number 28 for us since you have obviously reached a level of expertise that allows you to gaze out the window like a dying guppy."

"Number 28, right," she muttered as she thought "guppy?"

She then looked at her textbook and frowned, "Um, fifteen?"

The class chuckled at her shy and erroneous response. Mr. Simmons, however, was not pleased.

"If you do not know the subject, then please pay attention!" He scolded her.

"Sorry, Mr. Simmons," Nudge pleaded, "won't happen again."

The teacher merely turned around with a humph and went back to explaining how to find the vertex.

"I wanna go out for a flight…"

"I still don't see why you want to do this," muttered Wright as he pulled up at the large building, "Why don't you just study with the Gordons?"

"We are imposing on the Gordons as it is," said a little girl's voice behind him, "Preston says that the youngest can barely handle the sight of me at this point, much less my scent."

"Can't really blame them," smirked the 23-year-old man as he opened the door for her, "you lured me in, remember?"

He stood back to let a parasol poke out of the car, as it snapped open, a young girl stepped outside.

"You talk like that's a bad thing," she retorted, Wright leaned down and kissed her on the forehead, "you might want to stop before a policeman sees you."

"They think I'm your brother," he stated, but drew back just the same.

"How'd they buy that?" asked the girl as they stepped into the reception hall.

"No clue," he admitted, "Josef looks more like you than I do."

"True," said the child, thinking of her brown-skinned lover, "but he's darker than me."

"At least you share an ethnic background."

Wright walked up to the receptionist.

"Name?" asked the secretary in a bored tone, the name on her desk read Mrs. Stone.

"Wright Hamlin," he stated.

"The girl's name?" Mrs. Stone clarified with an irritated tone.

"Shori," stated the girl, "Shori Matthews."

"Class," Stated Ms. Morris, "we have a new student today."

The class started buzzing in anticipation. That would make two new students that they would get out of the blue. Nudge was interested as well.

"Come on in," called the teacher, in stepped an eleven year old girl with short black hair and light brown skin. She stood at four feet with eight inches and was wearing blue jeans, a blue long sleeved shirt, and a pair of sneakers. The whole thing went surprisingly well with the plain brown parasol she held in her left hand and the dark sunglasses that covered most of her face.

"Good afternoon," she said politely with a slight bow, "my name is Shori Matthews."

"Shori, would you mind taking these off?" asked the teacher, pointing towards the sunglasses.

"She's hyper photosensitive," stated a tall, muscular man with brown hair, "she can take off the sunglasses if you shut the drapes."

"Oh, uh, sure," stuttered Ms. Morris, "Krystal, do you mind? You're closest."

"No prob," Nudge stated, she pulled on the cord next to her until the sky had been covered.

"Thank you," stated the girl, Shori, with a smile. She turned to look at the class and froze at the sight of Nudge. She stared at her for a few seconds before she spoke again, "but it's still too bright, is it all right if I keep them on?"

"Um, alright," said the teacher with a look of confusion. She looked at the brunet for answers, he just shrugged.

"It's worse on some days," he stated.

The teacher nodded in understanding.

"May I sit there?" asked Shori, pointing at a seat in the back, "least light."

"Sure," said the teacher.

"All right, later Shori. Play nice." Said the brunet as he tussled her hair short hair, much to her discontent if her flailing hands were any indication. The man left and the girl turned back to the anxious class.

"All right class, you have ten minutes to get to know miss Matthews before we go back to my lesson. Or at least, before we return to our old routine of me dictating knowledge that you will regret sleeping through in a few weeks."

At once, the barrage started.

"How tall are you?"

"Where are you from?"

"How much do you weigh?"

"What's your favorite color?"

"Was that your boyfriend?"

"What's your bra size?"

The classroom turned silent upon the last question before Mr. Simmons dragged a stocky boy out of the classroom. Once he left, she turned back to the class with a smile.

"Let's see, in that order. I'm four feet tall with eight inches. I'm from Seattle but I lived in California up until we had to move due to my condition. I really don't know, never took the time to step near the scales. Red. I like to think he is… just kidding! He's my brother. And do I even look like I wear a bra?"She replied with a hand on her flat chest as Mr. Simmons came back in, just in time to hear that final answer.

"Oookay then, that's enough time for questions," he said nervously as the class groaned and protested about cutting the time short, "Shori, take your seat."

"Gladly."

As Shori walked towards Nudge, she couldn't help but shiver. Even through the sunglasses, it was obvious that the girl was staring at her. As she passed, Nudge noticed that her chest puffed up as she inhaled.

"Did she just…?"

"She sniffed you?" asked Max incredulously.

"Scout's honor," replied Nudge solemnly with a hand in the air and the other over her heart, "then she spent the rest of the class staring at me like something was gonna crawl out of my back!"

"Uh, Nudge?" cut in Iggy, softly reminding her that she did have something on her back.

"I KNOW! That's what freaks me out!" she shouted, "What if she's an Eraser? What if she knows what we are? What if she works for the school! What if-!"

"All right, calm down!" Max yelled over her, "Fang? Copper coin for your cerebral activity?"

"We should keep an eye on her," he replied with a slight twitch on his right eye at her bad joke, "if she tries anything, we can just fly out."

"Actually, I was thinking that we should leave soon anyways," countered Max, only to wince at the crestfallen expressions of the three youngest members.

"WHAT!" started Angel.

"We can't leave NOW!" continued the Gasman.

"It's almost Thanksgiving!" finished Nudge.

"Wha-? For the love of-! What's more important to you three? Turkey or our safety?"

"TURKEY!" replied the three with no hesitation whatsoever.

"Our safety get's threatened plenty anyways," pointed out Iggy, "What? It's true!"

"I'm glaring at you!" clarified Max before sighing in defeat, "look, if this kid is dangerous then she could get at Anne to catch us. Do you three want that?"

"No," the three said dejectedly in unison.

"Thought so, this was never going to be permanent anyways," stated their feathered leader, only to wince at their shocked faces, "wait, did you three think-?"

"We're not gonna stay?" asked Gazzy.

"We have to keep moving," said Fang.

"I thought you three knew that by now?" said Max.

"Well, yeah…" muttered Angel.

"Doesn't mean we have to like it…" continued Nudge with a sad pout.

Max felt a pull at her heartstrings. They never chose this life but were still forced to keep moving. Never slowing down more than a few days. Never truly stopping. Always looking over their winged backs. She was used to it by now, but sometimes… Max just wanted to stop. To stop running. To settle down somewhere they could simply live peacefully.

"Too much to ask I guess…" she muttered her conclusion.

"Huh?" inquired Angel with an (adorable) tilt.

"Nothing," she replied fighting down a blush, "anyways, for now we'll just keep an eye out for her. One warning and we fly. Agreed?"

"Agreed," responded her flock with a nod. Well, most of her flock, "Fang?"

"Shush!" he snapped.

"Pardon?"

"I think we're being watched," he replied sternly, he looked towards an alley between the cafeteria and the gym where a glint could be made out.

"Stay," she replied as she stood.

She walked over to the alley, slowing down in caution as she got closer. She caught the sound of a metallic object crashing to the ground when she was about ten feet away, putting her on edge. As she approached, she mildly noted that the sound had summoned Fang who was now winging her right side.

They didn't know what to expect as they turned the corner, but it certainly wasn't a petite, dark skinned girl with bug-like sunglasses sitting on an iron bench with a lunch box. She was in the process of opening the tin box when she noted that she was no longer alone.

"Can I help you?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What are you doing here?" asked Max, feeling rather stupid.

"Eating," she replied as she took out a banana.

"Why here?" asked Fang.

"Light," she said simply, "it hurts my eyes."

"This must be Shori," concluded Max and Fang simultaneously.

"What was that noise?" asked Fang.

"Kicked the can," she stated, pointing at a metal trash can with an indentation on the side, "since we're playing twenty questions, who are you two?"

"I'm Max and he's Nick."

She seemed to deliberate on what Max said for a second before replying.

"I'm Shori Matthews, nice to meet you," she said with a curt nod, "where are you two from?"

"Seattle," said Fang.

"Really? Me too!" she replied, putting her lunch box on the side as she readied herself for a long chat, "my brother Wright went to Seattle University for a while but he dropped out and became a construction worker."

"Really? That's interesting." Said Max, but in truth her thoughts were closer to, "Who gives a flying feather!"

"He's happier like this though," continued Shori, "he always said he didn't like where he was headed or even if he knew where he was headed."

"What did he study?" asked Fang.

Shori only frowned and appeared to look up in thought, "what was it again?"

Fang's ever-present scowl deepened for some reason as he took in the petite girl in front of him. He seemed to be looking at the chair that she was sitting on more than he did the girl.

"Well then, sorry for bothering you," said Max, "c'mon Nick."

"Later guys, say hi to Krystal for me!" replied the photophobe as she bit down on a banana from her lunch box.

"Yeah, sure," replied Max.

Once they were out of earshot, Fang pointed out something her saw.

"The floor was cracked."

"Pardon?"

"The floor under the bench was cracked," he clarified, "like something heavy fell on it."

"That bench must have been at least 200 pounds," Max scoffed, "even we can't lift that much for long."

"The bench had bolt on the feet," continued Fang, ignoring his companion, "but none of them were in the ground."

"So she ripped a 200 pound bench off the ground?" asked Max skeptically, "Fang, you do realize what you're saying right?"

"Yes, but stranger things have crawled out of the School."

He had her there. It took them some time to realize a small discrepancy.

"How did she know we knew Nudge?" asked Fang.

As soon as the two children left, Shori made a beeline for the garbage can to spit out the foul object that she had placed into her mouth.

"How do they handle this junk?" she spat as the last of the banana left her mouth. She'd need to brush her teeth later.

"Guess I slipped up though," she moaned as she heard Fang from around the corner, "still, Nudge somehow suits her better than Krystal."

Her thoughts went astray as she remembered the girl that sat on the row in front of hers. She had decided to enroll to this school in an effort to understand her heritage a bit better. She certainly wasn't expecting something like this though.

"Why does she smell like feathers though?"

Finally! The long awaited re-write of Family is here! those that read the original story will notice that there is little difference between the original first chapter and the new one. The reason is that there was little wrong with the original chapter. I only needed to re-make the chapter for it to go in a new direction.

To new readers, I just want to get out there that Shori and her companions are not original characters, they're based from the book Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler, a surprisingly unpopular book that the absolute best I've ever read.

Anyways, the next few chapters have already been written and will be posted promptly.