Rita was in the rotunda, all of the noise was putting her on edge, but she wanted to get her uneasiness under control, so she waited. Rita scanned all of the faces, they were happily chatting with people of their own groups. Alphas with Alphas, Bravos with Bravos, Deltas with Deltas, already their group names were dictating who they hung out with. Rita looked for her friends, or any familiar face, for all she knew, she could be looking right at them and not know it. They could look like entirely different people, Rita scanned the faces of teenagers as they walked past, boasting about their new abilities. Rita stood in the center of it all, wearing a bulky jacket to hide the bumps that her wings made. There were footsteps behind her, approaching her, Rita tensed up and almost ran away by the time they were right behind her.

Why am I being so paranoid?

Rita sensed the touch before it made contact, she could feel it before it was there, Rita turned around to see Amber, or what resembled Amber at least. 

“Hiya Rita! Look! I’ve got ears, which look like wolf ears and a tail, and wolf teeth. And you look so different, older. The DNA must have made us all mature faster because everyone looks older. I wonder why? Maybe because animals have shorter lifespans? Either way, it’s still super cool, right? Rita, were you even listening?”

Rita jumped, she had zoned out.

“No, well yes, I mean, I was listening.”

 Rita chuckled nervously. Amber stared at her for a second before nodding with an unconvinced look on her face, the look quickly turned to disbelief as she noticed Rita’s wardrobe.

“That’s all like three sizes too small on you.”

 Rita looked down and noticed that Amber was right, her heels were visible because she had grown about an inch (Which was an all-time low for Rita who usually grew much quicker) and her shirt showed at the waist, her shirt was being stretched way too much in certain places. Her face went red, had she really been wearing this in front of everyone? Rita had never been one for shopping but she hurriedly begged to go to the mall without hesitation.

Amber laughed and pulled out her card with a smile.

“It’ll be on me.” She said happily.

The two of them walked to through the rotunda to the mall, I was almost empty; everyone seemed to already have upgraded their wardrobes. The only things in the clothing sections other than pajamas were their uniforms, well, they must have been uniforms because they were the only things there and they all looked exactly the same. Rita was inspecting the futuristic outfit when she was pulled away by Amber. She was dragged up to the counter, a man stood there, the countertop was bare except for an expensive looking credit card scanner.

“You said you were bird right?” Amber asked under her breath.

Rita nodded nervously. 

Amber raised her voice slightly so the man behind the counter could hear them.

“Bird, Rita Y.”

The man nodded and bent down, he came up with a heavy looking package.

“Here you go.” He grunted, Amber paid and they walked to the changing room. 

“Why did you buy them? What if they don’t fit?” Rita fretted, not wanting her friend to waste her money.

“Relax, they’re custom made.”

Rita felt a little more at ease as she heard this, because that meant that her friend hadn’t gone through too much trouble for her. She entered the changing room, closed the door behind her and undressed, she pulled one of the several outfits. They were all a metallic silver with an electric yellow stripe going down the right side, the bright silver faded to several shades darker at the ends of the arms and legs. On the left collarbone area there was a silhouette of a bird identical to Rita’s. Rita pulled it on after putting on her new undergarments, the hardest parts were the wings there were two slits in the back for them to fit through but they were so small. She fingered the hole and found that it stretched easily, she slipped if one and enjoyed the satisfying feeling she had over the fact that she had figured it out. She found a pair of socks in the bag right on top of some tissue paper. Then she pulled out a pair of dark brown boots at the bottom of the bag, they went up several inches and had a pair of laces ready to be tied. Rita put them on and tightened the laces, she felt the boot become tighter the more she pulled until she was positive that they wouldn’t slip off. She took her card and slipped into her bag and put her bracelet back on. She moved around a bit, if felt tight. She put her old clothes in the bag along with the rest of the new outfits and picked it up after putting on her charm bracelet and walked outside.

“It feels tight.” Rita complained.

Amber’s mouth fell open, she studied Rita.

“When were you going to tell me?”

“What?” Rita asked, but she already had an idea of what her friend was talking about.

“Your wings!”

Called it

Rita sighed her wings were exposed and there for everyone to see.

“They were just so weird and I didn’t really want anyone to think that they were stupid.”

“Dude.” Amber chuckled. “Those are amazing end of story.”

Rita smiled shyly.

“Thanks.”

Amber nodded, then she grabbed her friends arm and dragged her out the door, Rita just barely managed to grab her bag before she was yanked away. She entered the rotunda and realized that everyone was wearing the same outfit as Rita, but with different silhouettes on the shoulder and colored stripes on the sides. How had she not notices what everyone else was wearing? She walked through the rotunda tensely, her wings were folded tightly so they couldn’t’ be seen from the front, but from the back you could see a feathery mass plastered onto her back. Rita felt the eyes boring into her from behind, she felt self-conscious and wanted to go back to her common room right away. Rita looked at the floor as she shouldered her way past students.

So much for keeping them secrets

 She went to the common room with Amber behind her.

“I’m not allowed into your common room”, Amber said apologetically, she turned away. Rita closed the door and went back to her room. She set down her bag and went to her bed where there was a box, it definitely hadn’t been there before. She opened up the steel box to see a brand new laptop, her old one was still on her desk thankfully. She pulled out several more items, including a schedule with classes on it. There was also an envelope that felt thick and heavy. She opened it up to see a letter.

Rita, here are your DNA results.

You have the hearing and night vision of a barn owl.

You have the speed, precision, and sight of a peregrine falcon.

You have the wing structure of an owl for silence.

You have the feather structure of an osprey so your wings are water resistant.

You have the feather pattern of a brown falcon.

You also have DNA from nearly every bird in the world, this leads you to have nearly no weaknesses.

That was all the letter said. Short and unimportant, she tossed it to the floor and moved the now empty box to the floor.

Well that was pointless, why did they have to get a box to put that stuff in? They could have just given it to us, now I have two boxes to stack in this corner.

Rita lifted up the surprisingly light box and set it on top of the wooden one in the corner. Rita picked up her new laptop and set it down after moving aside the old one. She turned it on, this one was nearly silent and the screen lit up. There was a soft beep, followed by a second faster one, and then a faster one, until the laptop was beeping at a rapid speed. All of the beeps merged together to create an ongoing drone and seemed to fill the whole room, then it stopped. There was a flash of light that came from the camera. Rita flinched away and made a face, the light went away as soon as it had come. Rita blinked at her eyes adjusted, she watched the screen, her name popped up. A list of information scrolled by at top speed that was too fast for even Rita to read, the words disappeared before Rita even had any time to process what was happening. 

Hello Rita

The words popped up on the screen.

Press any button to begin.

Rita tapped the spacebar hesitantly, afraid that yet another light would nearly blind her. She was brought to the home screen, there were already several applications set up, for schoolwork Rita assumed. She closed the newly set up laptop and went to her bed. She fell onto it and stared at the ceiling, Rita picked up her schedule and looked at it. Her first class was starting today, in ten minutes. Ten minutes? 

Crap

Rita propelled herself off of her bed and grabbed a bag, she stuffed in a few belongings before dashing out the door, schedule in hand. She flew past the common room and into the rotunda, she spent several seconds dancing on the balls of her feet, trying to remember which hall her classes were in. She looked at the one to her left.

Bingo

Rita ran down it, looking for room 304. Doors whizzed past her, blurring as she picked up speed. As she sped past everything she scanned the doors and their numbers, searching for her first class with Mrs. Miranda.

No, no, no, no, no, no, yes, no, no- wait

Rita halted and her feet skidded, her wings unfurled instinctively, prepared to catch her if she fell. She went back several steps, there it was. There were already two other early students waiting for class to start when she walked in. One was Cole and another was a kid who was named Neil, Rita stopped for a moment, they both looked up as she walked in. Neil gave her a smile and Cole simply glared at her, Rita returned Neil’s smile and coldly glared at Cole as she walked past. She sat in one of the seat at one of the five tables in the room, each table with two chairs each. Rita sat down and obediently waited for class to begin. 

Mrs. Miranda walked in and told the three of them that they would be receiving their assigned seats today. 

“Here’s the list”, she said as the rest of the students arrived several minutes later. 

“Girls first, Rita, you sit here in the front row at the left table. And you sit with….” The teacher looked around, seeming unsure of who to assign Rita to sit with.

“Cole, you sit with Rita.” 

The chair to Rita’s right slid back and Cole sat in it. He looked down at the table with a stony face, Rita sighed to herself.

This is going to be a long class