(A/N) I know I'm a bad person – I do take quite a long time to upload new chapters. I can blame that on school. But – hey – summer holidays now, so there should be more chapters coming your way. Hopefully. As always, read and review!

Zoey's POV
The new girl, Max, was strange. Not that she acted strange, nor was she particularly strange looking, but I got this vibe from her that she wasn't…normal.

Of course, because her Mark was black, it wasn't that hard to figure out. She was the only person – besides Stevie Rae and the other undead fledglings – that I had met that had an unusual Mark. I wondered whether Max had been gifted by the Goddess Nyx aswell. Would she have an affinity?

It would be weird having another roommate – ever since my previous one, Stevie Rae , had 'died', I'd had a room to myself. But Max seemed nice enough, so I couldn't complain for the moment.

As I led her into the girls' dormitories, I snuck a quick peek at her. She had fairly straight, wind-tossed hair that was about five different shades of blonde. The bottom bits looked faintly pink, like she'd had some streaks put in a while ago and they had nearly grown out.
Max had wide, chocolate brown eyes, full of knowledge and innocence. Her face showed no emotion as I showed her round, unlike most of the new students around here who gaped in awe at the House of Night's rustic charm.

If there was one word I had to pick to describe Max right now, it would be guarded. Secretive. Her eyes were void of emotion, and her face, although smiling and chatting away, was hiding any real emotion deep underneath.

"I like this space," Max said, looking around the main dorm room. "How much time do we get to spend here?"

"Classes run from 8 to 3 – the rest of the day is yours to do whatever you want." I explained. "I hang out with my friends here quite a lot. You'll meet them tomorrow. Erin and Shaunee are in the room off this corridor here -" I gestured to the east wing of the dorm rooms – "and Jack and Damien are in the boys' dorm. I'd introduce you to them now, but they're asleep. We've had a long night. Besides, I expect you want to settle down, get accustomed first…right?"

"Right," Max replied, before doing a double take. "Still in bed? I thought classes began at eight?"

"They do. Eight PM. Our days are flipped over here, remember?"

"Oh yeah. Of course, I remember. Sorry, I'm a little slow today." Max averted making eye contact, and I internally raised an eyebrow. What was going on with her?

Max POV

I really needed to talk to Ella. I didn't realize just how out of my depth I was here, in a whole other world I didn't know had existed.

Zoey Redbird, wonder fledgling, had no idea who I was. She had no idea I grew up in a vampyre-free world, at the School. And I intended to keep it that way.

Once she had shown me around the dormitory (I checked the cupboards. They didn't have a single ingredient for chocolate chip cookies), Zoey took me up to our shared bedroom. It was pretty obvious which side was which – although both were impeccably neat, Zoey's side had been personalized – smudge sticks in a glass jar by the window, an alarm clock and a book called Advanced Vampyre Sociology on the bedside table. A chair by the end of the bed had a jumper slung over it – the only messy thing in the room.

The other side, however, looked untouched. There were straight, perfect sheets on the bed, which obviously hadn't been slept in, and there wasn't a personal touch on the whole of that half of the room. Zoey looked a little uneasy as I hoisted my suitcase, which someone had placed at the foot of the bed, onto the mattress and unzipped it. I tried to ignore her watching me as I unpacked all my necessary items, putting them in various places around the room. She got up to go to the bathroom, and that's when I unpacked the most important thing of all. To the normal eye, it was a picture of my mom and Ella, which was nice to have, but when you undid the back, something much more important to me fell out.

It was a picture I had taken of the whole flock when they weren't looking. We had been up in a tall, tall tree for a night and the Flock were sprawled across the branches. They had all been fairly happy and relaxed – we'd had food for the night, we had somewhere to sleep and we were all together. It had been taken about a week after we'd rescued Angel from the School. Fang was hunched up in a ball, face as expressionless, almost moody, as ever. Angel and Nudge were sitting on the branch behind, playing a clapping game. Above, Gazzy was whispering in Iggy's ear – I had later found a stash of bombs in a makeshift bird's nest. Total was curled up on Angel's lap, and I thought it was a perfect picture of the Flock.

Making sure Zoey was clear out of earshot, I hugged the picture which was protected by a large wooden frame, and whispered:

"Oh, God, I miss you so much. I love you all and I'll never forget you. As soon as I can, I'm coming to see you."

Zoey POV

I washed my hands, taking a moment to look at my latest gift from the Goddess Nyx – a spiraling labyrinth- like pattern that covered my hands, and my middle finger on either hand. It looked like I was wearing some elaborate string gloves, but more gorgeous.

I unlocked the bathroom door and went back into my – I mean, mine and Max's – room, to find Max slumped to the side, head on the pillow and snoring softly.

"I guess it won't take you long to get used to vampyre hours then, Max," I muttered as I made my way over to Stevie Rae's old bed where the teenage girl was sleeping.

I pulled the covers up from the foot of the bed, intending to cover Max, but as I did so she turned to lay on her front, revealing the corner of…what was it?

I carefully pried the object out of her tight grasp, and she murmured in her sleep as if she knew what I was doing. I felt slightly guilty for invading her privacy, but my overwhelming curiosity took over. Inside the plain photo frame, was a picture of Ella Martinez, a girl from the year below that I recognized, and what must be her mother.

It's a cute family picture. I thought, and a burning sensation erupted inside me that made me miss my mom so much. I attempted to ignore it as I moved to set the frame down on Stev – I mean, Max's – bedside table. The metal back of the frame fell off as I did so, and another, smaller picture fell out too.

It looked like it had been taken with Polaroid camera – it was one of those pictures you had to shake before being able to see what you had just taken a photo of.

Looking down at the picture I was holding, of her and her friends in a tree. There were five kids, all on various branches, playing games and whispering in each other's ears. I bet she missed them a lot. I was about the place the picture back inside the frame when I had a thought – why had she needed to hide this? It was most odd, just a simple picture of her friends.

So I took a closer look.

And couldn't believe what I saw.

All five of them – even the little girl with the angelic face, had something sticking out of their backs that, on closer inspection, turned out to be wings.

Angel POV

I missed Max so much. I knew the others did too – you didn't have to be a mind reader to know that. I silently wondered if we'd ever see her again, when Fang's mind answered the question for me.

I wonder if we can visit her? Screw being able to, I'm going to. They can't stop me. I'll go later tonight, before she goes to bed for the first time….

FANG! That's an awesome idea…let's all go! I'll tell the others.

I didn't give him a chance to reply as I left his head and raced to the living room where the rest of the Flock were, and babbled the plan to them.

"That's sounds awesome!"
"I totally wanna go!"
"I miss her sooo much."
"Ooh, cool. I wonder if…"

Iggy clamped a hand over Nudge's mouth before she could get started on a rant.

Dr. M entered then, drying her hands on a towel before speaking.

"The days are flipped over there. If you go late at night, it's likely Max will be in class. You should visit early the next morning – the classes finish at three, like a normal school, except here they finish at 3 AM. Visit her early tomorrow morning, and it's likely you'll catch her then."

Max POV
I woke up, realizing I had fallen asleep whilst unpacking. I'd hardly got any sleep the night before – the coughing pain which had been immediately eliminated as soon as I'd entered the House of Night campus had been so bad I couldn't sleep.

My hands grasped nothingness and my heart was suddenly panicked. The picture of the Flock with their wings out had been visible! Where was it? What if someone found out about me?

I flipped over, and tore the bedclothes apart. Where was it? My heart was practically jumping out of my chest by this point. I lifted up my pillows, and was instantly relieved when I saw the photo frame there. I guess my constant paranoia had shown through in my sleep and I'd felt a need to hide it.

Well, at least no-one saw it, huh?

(A/N) Poor Max…she has no idea her entire identity has been compromised! Next chapter brings lots of good gossip within the House of Night [well, the Nerd Herd at least]. And the Flock visit Max! Fun.

One more thing: someone PM'd me because their review button refused to work, and they said I write really poshly and that Max wouldn't think like that. Is she right? I'm open to other constructive criticism too =]