Whispers on a Wing

Chapter Twenty Three

The next morning we woke up early and got ready for school. Alice wasn't the least bit impressed with the fact that the only shower she could have was if she hiked ten minutes to the freezing cold reservoir, but other than that there wasn't much to report.

We fell asleep shorty after our conversation about Jake ended, I was still a little sleepy from earlier and once I reassured Alice that it had nothing to do with the non existent concussion and everything to do with the fact that I was just tired, she finally allowed us to get some sleep.

It was a bit awkward, me sleeping in the large arm chair, but I much preferred that to sleeping in the same bed as Alice. I was a shifter in my sleep and there was a high probability that she could wake up tomorrow with a face full of feathers.

Logically I knew it didn't matter, she knew they were there and had even told me she didn't care about them, but I knew if I tried to share the bed with her I'd be awake all night stressing and I wouldn't get any actual sleep.

Thankfully today was Friday. It had been a long week and I was desperate for a weekend off to try and organise my thoughts and figure out how I felt about everything that had happened. I just had to get through the day then I can relax.

"Do you have to do that to yourself every morning?" Alice cringed as she watched me strap my wings down with my two belts.

"Yeah," I shrugged as I worked on getting the first one on over a backless top. "You get used to it after a while," I reassured her.
"But doesn't it hurt?" She asked, cringing further as I tightened the belt further until a bit of the fabric, and a small strip of skin, got caught in the buckle.

"Sure," I shrugged. "But it's better than the alternative of never leaving the house," I countered.

She wobbled her head from side to side, as if she was weighing up her options. "Fair enough."

"You ready to go?" I asked as I finished the second belt and threw on my usual layers and coat before picking up my bag. For once I was getting a lift into school from Alice on her way into her own school so I wont be flying there.

"Yep all ready," she nodded, throwing her own bag over her shoulder and bending to pick up her overnight bag. "Your pet bird isn't going to come and attack me again is it?"

"She's not my pet," I rolled my eyes, taking the lead and walking out the door, waiting for Alice to catch up as she staggered behind me with her heavy go bag. "Need me to carry that?"

"I got it," she shook her head, blowing a curl out of her eyes as she crossed the threshold in front of me. "She may not be a pet but she sure as hell wasn't a fan of me being here last night."

She wasn't wrong, Harper had let out an almighty shriek after the sun had gone down, when she noticed Alice wasn't leaving and was staying the night. I honestly wasn't sure what her problem was, it wasn't like she came in the house anyway so it wasn't like Alice being here affected her in any way.

"You'll grow on her," I reassured her as I finally took pity on her and took the bag from her arms, much to her protest.

"I had it!"

"I know you did, but I'd like to eventually get to school whilst were still young and you staggering through he woods at the pace you were going we'd be lucky to get there before we turn eighty," I laughed.

She huffed and crossed her arms in annoyance but quickly uncrossed them when she realised she could finally tuck her flyaways behind her ears.

"Sorry we can't all be stupidly strong, is that part of your... wing thing? You said you had heightened senses, do you also have things like sharper reflexes or something?"