The Angel Experiment: Rusty

2

"I want to go pick strawberries today," Angel said firmly, scooping up a forkful of scrambled eggs. "They're ripe now."

"Okay, Angel, I'll go with you," said Gazzy. Just then he let rip one of his unfortunate occurrences and giggled.

"Oh, jeez, Gazzy," Max said disapprovingly.

"Gas. . . mask!" Iggy and I chocked out, grasping our necks while pretending to asphyxiate. Laughing at our joke.

"I'm done," Fang said, getting up quickly and taking his plate to the sink.

"Sorry," Gazzy said automatically, but he kept eating.

"Yeah, Angel," said Nudge. "I think the fresh air would do us all good. I'll go too."

"We'll all go," Max said.

I should probably tell you about Angel and Nudge before I completely forget.

Angel is Gazzy's little sister by two years. Both siblings have blonde hair and blue eyes, the only difference was that Gazzy had lighter, spiky blonde hair, while Angel had long, curly, golden blonde hair.

I'm pretty sure that out of everyone in the Flock, Angel was Max's favourite.

Then there was Nudge.

Nudge got her name from the fact that she talked a lot. We called it the Nudge Channel: all Nudge, all the time. She had skin the colour of cocoa, dark hair, brown eyes, and a passion for fashion. Sometimes I wanted to chase her with an axe.

Outside, it was a pretty nice day, clear and cloudless, with the first real heat of May. Everyone - except me - carried buckets and baskets as Angel led us to a huge patch of wild strawberries.

Holding Max's hand Angel said happily, "If you make cake, I can make strawberry shortcakes."

"Yeah that'll be the day, when Max bakes a cake," I teased. Walking alongside me I heard Iggy say, "I'll make it, Angel."

Max whirled around, glaring at us, "Oh, Thank you!" she exclaimed.
"Okay, I'm not a fabulous cook. But I can still kick your butts, and don't you forget it!"

Iggy and I laughed up a storm, Iggy holding up his hands in denial. Nudge was trying not to laugh, even Fang was grinning, and Gazzy looked very mischievous.

"Was that you?" Max asked Gazzy.

He grinned and shrugged, trying not to look too pleased with himself.

Keyword: "trying".

Apparently, since he was three years old Gazzy could perfectly mimic just about any sound or voice.

Max was quite worried when she found out; over fifty percent of the fights between Fang and Iggy were caused by Gazzy's skill.

Me? I was really excited when I found out. Sure it was frustrating getting Iggy and Fang to stop fighting when these incidents happened, but Gazzy was a great kid with a bright, contagious personality.

Besides, having Gazzy around meant I wasn't the only bird kid who could mimic voices.

I gave Gazzy a high-five, both of us grinning happily.

Gazzy and I had always had a close bond.

I blamed it on the fact that since Max was busy helping raise Angel someone had to look after Gazzy, he was just a four year old boy back then for crying out loud.

I was the one who read him bedtime stories, or softly sang him to sleep. I was the one who played with him, held him tight when he was scared, and told him I loved him every chance I got.

I may not have been his mother, but Gazzy would always be my little boy.

Here in the Flock we all had at least one weird ability that helped set us apart.

Unless you were me, I was the queen of weird superpowers.

Suddenly Angel froze and screamed. Startled I spun to see what had made her scream just as several huge, hairy beasts fell to the ground in front of us.

Erasers.

They'd once been sweet, innocent children, until the School got them. Then they turned those little boys into large, wolf-like men that always "expired" before they had a chance to become teenagers.

"Well," I said eagerly, "let's get to work."

Max lunged at an Eraser, the rest of us following suit.