Clara Redford, Bird Girl Extraordinaire

Chapter One: I Almost Become Iguana Food

Okay, I'm just going to let you in on this teeny little unimportant bit of information...
I have wings. There are two reactions to choose from.
1. "OMG THATS SO COOL I WISH I HAD WINGS TOO!"
2. "Ugh, another one of those books, they sure are running out of the green paper in this idea factory."
If by any chance you might choose #2, then by all means, the door is down the hall and to the right.
But if you choose #1, then keep on reading.

     Imagine if you had wings. Cool right? No, absolutely wrong. I would much rather be a chameleon hybrid. They get all the cool jobs. They get to be spies, they get to go undercover, they get all the attention. I could go on all day long. But I won't, because that would be boring. Avians (that's a nickname for the general bird people) either have the most amazingly boring jobs on the planet, or the best jobs anyone could ever imagine. Let's hear it for equality.
     Enough of that, you want to know what I'm doing don't you?(probably not) Well, at the moment I am listening to my professor give a lecture about why you should never mix ammonia with Clorox wipes. It goes a little something like this...
" Ammonia can be found in most household cleaning supplies. Ammonia should never be layered with Clorox because the chemical compounds tend to- " he stopped.
     Mr.Daehgib was staring out the window, 28 heads swiveled to look. Outside the very window of one of the supposed safest places in the city, was a Drakon. Half lizard, half human. If you are imagining a cute little iguana kid, you are very wrong. Drakons are probably one of the most terrifying hybrids ever created. Try to think of a six foot human, with scaly skin that couldn't be cut, black and yellow eyes, and hundreds of needle sharp teeth. And to put the cherry on top of this sundae of death, they are ridiculously fast.
    Yet here one of the little nimrods was, trailing its long knife-like claws down the window of our very classroom. Everyone was silent. Not a peep or he would kill us all, slit our throats and leave us to rot. You see, some of the hybrids turned out great. Like the hawk/human or the leopard/human. Others turned out to be impossible-to-kill disasters like the lizard/human or the bear/human, which was truly the stuff of nightmares. Back to my distressing predicament.
   Mollie, a mouse/human hybrid, screamed. That was all it took. The Drakon jumped through the window and then all sanity went down the drain. Mr.Daehgib passed out behind his mahogany podium and everyone tried to hide or run or jump out the window only to A, be shredded to ribbons by the Drakon or B, go splat on the sidewalk from three stories up.
     You see, the door was in a little alcove in the wall, so when standing next to the door, you can't be seen. That was my three-second plan. Unfortunately, some other prep school brats had decided they would like to live as well. I was like 'um no, this is my spot. I don't really care if you guys live or not.' When faced which a life-and-death predicament there's more of a 'survival of the fittest' theme going on.
    The Drakon knew our plan too, every minute or so after he became tired of chasing small hybrids around he would come to the (locked) door and kill anyone who was cornered there. You see, when you spend the first five years of your life on the streets with a 3-year old, another 5-year old, and a 6-year old, you learn how to 1. Do some serious jujitsu and 2. Pick locks. Task #2 was really going to come in handy here.
      I started to look for supplies. Hairpins were almost too easy to find, I could just yank a few out of the nearest bawling little mascara-dripping, estrogen-producing, homo-sapien. Scissors were next. I crawled over to the supply cabinet and pried open the squeaky door. 'Scissors, scissors scissors scissors. Ah! Scissors!' They were laying on the highest shelf. 'Crap...' If you are wondering why I didn't fly to the ceiling and wait for the cops, that is because I never tried. To fly, I mean.
     'Now or never. I've seen people do this on tv, it'll be fine.' I jumped and snapped open my wings. 'Ow, ow ow ow ow.' My wings were too stiff. But I was gliding! Yeah, that lasted for about two feet. Let's not forget about the elephant (or Drakon) in the room. He was coming for me after that little display of disoriented flight. He grinned at me from across the room.
     I jumped onto a desk and up onto the supply cabinet trying to get away from the hulking creature before me. I caught a flash of movement in my peripheral vision and whipped my head around. Fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, the FBI, and even the SWAT team had pulled up outside. Unfortunately, the Drakon took advantage of my being distracted and jumped up to rake his razor-sharp talons down my wings. I cursed under my breath and got up. 'holy JESUS this hurts. Ow ow ow ow.'
     But I had a plan. Never mind picking the lock, I needed to get rid of the freaking Drakon. 'Um, I'll have to poison it... Yes! Poison!' What did Mr. Daehgib say? Ammonia+ Clorox= Poison? It's got to work. I ducked behind the podium but almost tripped over his unconscious body. 'I need to find ammonia, I should probably search the podium.' The mahogany surface was riddled with deep cuts and blood stains. 'Eew.' But there it was. A bottle of ammonia about the size of a solo party cup was tipped over on the lowest shelf with only about an ounce left in the bottle. I quickly scooped it up and poured the contents into a plastic cup sitting one shelf above. Task one: Done.
     Task two: Get Clorox. That was easy, a box of Clorox wipes were sitting untouched on the edge of Mr. Daehgib's desk. Before I could move, the Drakon jumped up onto the podium and back down on my shoulders with a crunch. Great, now my back and shoulders would be getting some serious medical treatment if I even made it out alive. The Drakon grabbed my chin and tried to jerk it upwards but instead I gave him a quick punch in the nose. Happy Birthday, Mr. Jerkwad. He toppled backwards and hit the floor with a thud.
     I raced across the room and grabbed a fistful of the Clorox wipes. 'How can I contain the poison gas to only the Drakon?' I needed an inclosed space. Supply closet? Sure. I stumbled over to the open closet and stood in front of it. As if on cue, the Drakon quickly recovered and charged at me. Swift as a bull fighter, I sidestepped and sent the Drakon tumbling into test tubes and extra lab aprons. I jammed the wipes into the plastic cup of ammonia and threw it inside.
     I heard a manly scream which probably meant that the cup of ammonia had splashed his eyes. I just hoped that the Clorox had been touching the ammonia for long enough. I quickly got to work piling desks in front of the closet just in case my genius plan didn't work out. I surveyed the room, trying to look for any survivors. Mr. Daehgib was okay, he had been hidden behind the podium. He might have a rib or two cracked from when the Drakon fell on him, but at least he wasn't dead.
     I looked in the doorway. Bodies were piled in a corner with no movement. "If you can hear me then say something!" I yelled. A clicking sound came from the door before men came streaming in, guns ready to shoot anything that proved a threat. My foster parents ran in, crying as they wrapped me in a tight hug. Everything hurt, my back and shoulders especially so. Mom stepped back first and demanded to know if I had been hurt. I guiltily turned around and she gasped. "Come, now. It's going to be okay, we're going to get that fixed right up."
     I saw other parents coming in too, bursting into tears as they found their child. A paramedics team rushed in, picking through the bodies until they finally uncovered a girl with a heartbeat who had apparently been hiding underneath a corpse. A scratch trailed down her face, cutting through her dark brown eye and ending at her jawline. Her inky black hair was almost purple in the the light that came streaming in through the broken window.
     I remembered her as a raven/human hybrid from my washing technique class with loooong dark hair and pale skin. I had always assumed she had short, stubby wings because of her height. But no, her jet-black wings were almost longer than mine. How did I know this? Well, I'm glad you asked. Her wings were out, and she was using them to shield herself from the paramedics team. I'd always seen her as strong, confident, and stubborn, but the only emotion on her face was fear.
     I guess she snapped, because the girl suddenly jumped out of the window and hurtled towards the ground before whisking out her wings. 'Wow, she knows how to fly' I need to know how.
     Mom started crying when she saw me, it's been three hours and I don't think she's stopped since.