Sabine fluttered to the ground behind Oliver's house, folding her wings back and guising her tattoos. She grabbed a nearby rock and hurled it at a window on the second floor.

She had to toss several pebbles until Oliver Munn peeked out. He slid the window open and looked down at her. "Hey, isn't it the boy's job to throw rocks at the girl's window?"

"Only if you're a cliche," she replied. "Get your ass down here, I want to talk to you."

Oliver huffed disappeared for a few minutes before emerging again through the back door. "What do you want now?"

Sabine held up her new phone, displaying the device in the glinting sunlight. "Look what I have."

Oliver smiled, pulling out his own phone. "It's about time. I mean, how was I supposed to talk to you when you don't go to school, have a phone, or tell me where you live?"

She pulled up her contacts page to add him to her list. "I don't tell you where I live for a reason."

"Which you also will not tell me."

"Correct."

"Why? Do you have strict parents? Or is it something else?" She looked away from him. He took one of her hands in his. "You don't have to be embarrassed around me, okay? I won't judge you."

"Can I just have your number?" She asked, trying to change the subject. It wasn't that she didn't want to tell Oliver everything, it was just... she was supposed to live at the orphanage. If anyone was to find out she wasn't abiding by the rules the guardians had laid out, it was possible that they would force her back and put her under intensive supervision. It was safer if no one but her flock knew where she was really from.

Oliver typed his contact information in for her. "Okay. You can text or call me whenever, I'm not really doing anything this summer."

"Yeah, me neither. So you can also call or text me, I guess."

"You're not doing anything?" Oliver perked up. "Then can you maybe meet me for lunch this Sunday?"

Sabine winced. "Uh, actually, I take it back. I do have stuff this summer. At least, for the first three days."

"What?"

"I'm going with a group of friends to a lake house. It's just supposed to be a quick retreat to get our heads out of school. Nothing big."

"Well, you'll be back on Monday? How about, say... lunch on Tuesday?"

Sabine smiled and booped his nose. "You're on."

Before she left, Seb worked up all the courage she had in herself, and leaned forward to plant a soft kiss on Oliver's cheek. He flushed bright pink, his mouth hanging open. Seb smiled at the dumbfounded expression on his face before walking away into the woods.

✵✵✵

Carter checked the address on his phone one more time. He was good with maps and was sure he was at the right place. Even when he'd had to drive for thirty minutes on dark roads in the middle of the forest, he thought he knew where he was going. At least, he had been sure, until he saw the house.

It was almost a shame to call it a house. It was huge, maybe three stories, with seemingly hundreds of windows and arches. There was a fountain outside, for God's sake. The driveway was made of tiny white pebbles laid out in a road, the kind of thing you saw in the movies. Carter felt like he was vandalizing them just by standing on them.

His anxiety was calmed when someone else appeared at his side. It was a girl, a young one too. She had wild, dark hair and a curious face. The thing that stood out about her, though, was her mode of transportation.

Carter had driven here in his mother's car, which he had borrowed for the night. However, this girl had, eh... flown here. Sprouting from her back were a set of beautiful blue wings. In the yellow light of the setting sun, they glowed with a mysterious charm, like ice or bioluminescence. She landed in the pebbles to his left, and immediately stuck her hand out to him. "I'm Lucy. I'm assuming you're one of the new Aviads? Are you Atlas or Carter?"

Carter was almost taken aback by the confidence of this girl who couldn't have been more than thirteen years old. He himself could feel the butterflies in his stomach flapping around like a hurricane. However, he supposed, this girl had been an Aviad for longer and probably came here all the time. "I'm Carter." He shook her hand. "How can you just fly around like that? What if someone sees you?"

"Usually I walk to the outskirts of town before I start flying," Lucy explained. "This town is small enough that if you fly over the woods there's a good chance that no one will see you."

Carter nodded that he understood. "So then this is the right house? This is your guys' meeting spot?"

"It's not like a serious meeting, I mean, it's just friends getting together for dinner. I'm pretty sure that's what normal people do too?"

"Yeah, yeah, I guess so." Carter, ever since he'd discovered Aviads that morning, had viewed them as some kind of power, like magic. It set them apart, made them different, almost seraphic. Luke had been so charismatic, and he'd come out of nowhere to Carter's aid, like a guardian angel. And then, lo and behold, there were more angels, a whole bunch of them. Of the two he'd met so far, Lucy and Luke, they had been kind, confident, and glamorous. He guessed he would have to get used to seeing them as regular people if he wanted to become part of their 'flock'.

Lucy led him to the front door. He expected her to knock or ring a doorbell, and for some butler in a black suit to greet them. However, Lucy simply pulled a brass key from her small purse and unlocked the door herself. She gestured for him to go in first.

"Age before beauty," she joked.

Carter smiled at her and entered as she asked. Inside, the foyer was smaller than he'd expected it to be. There was a chandelier, but it was small and simple. There were no diamond-encrusted cabinets or anything that fancy. It just looked like a big house.

Straight ahead, there was a kind of living room, with couches, armchairs, and a TV in the front. There were five people splayed over the couches in various positions, watching what appeared to be an early episode of The X-Files. Four of them he didn't recognize, but Luke was there, sitting on the back of an armchair with his feet resting on the cushion where he was supposed to sit.

Luke, being the only one he knew, was the one whose side he instinctively went to. Luke clapped a hand on his back. "You made it! Glad you found the place, it really is in the middle of nowhere." Carter smiled at Luke, but he wasted no time introducing himself to the others to make a good first impression.

"Hey, guys. I'm assuming you're all the other Aviads? I'm Carter Duvall, it's really cool to meet you."

One girl, with dark hair and a black hoodie, waved at him from where she was sitting, but didn't get up. The pale-haired boy next to her smiled at him and waved. "I'm Atlas. I'm also new."

The girl with short hair and freckles stood first, and shook his hand. "I'm Madison. Luke's told us... not a lot about you, but hopefully you can tell us that yourself."

The last girl, with long wavy hair and a white sundress jumped off the couch and slid over to him, gliding over the waxed floor in socks. Carter was suddenly sad he was colorblind, he was sure her hair would have been a beautiful color. "I'm Sabine, but you can call me Seb. Nice to meet you." She then went right past him to Lucy. "Hey, girl, how you doing? I know Amelia left today, sorry you're going to have to go the last day of school without her."

Lucy swatted away Sabine's attempt as a hug. "I saw you just a few days ago! You don't have to hug me every time you see me." She glanced around at the group of kids in the room, searching. Her eyes landed on Atlas. "Atlas, right? I'm Lucy, it's great to have you. Man, our flock is expanding rapidly." Lucy's stomach let out a quiet grumble and the room erupted into soft giggles. "Where's dinner?"

"We were waiting for Sawyer to tell us," the dark-haired girl told Lucy. "We assumed he'd prepared something so we're waiting to see what it is."

"Then where's Sawyer?"

"Oh, we have no idea," Madison said nonchalantly.
"Yeah, he hasn't been home since I got here," Seb followed up. "He left his phone in the kitchen so we assumed he got lost on one of his walks. He'll be here eventually."

"Wait but isn't this his house?" Carter asked. "How did you all get in if he's gone? And aren't you worried that he's missing?"

"Nah," Luke waved his hand dismissively. "Sawyer can take care of himself. We all got in because we all have the keys to the house." He held up a brass key resembling Lucy's.

"It's kind of a joke that we have. We think Sawyer just has a drawer upstairs in his room that's chock-full of keys to the house that he can give away to new Aviads," Seb said cheerfully.

"Or that he grows them on a plant in the greenhouse out back," Madison added. "Anyway, you and Atlas will probably get keys too."

Carter wanted to ask more questions when the door opened up again. A tall boy with black hair and a young girl with straight hair walked in. The girl seemed to be in nervous awe, her large eyes wide and searching.

"Sawyer, you adopted another child?" Sabine shrieked, rushing over to the girl. "Why didn't you tell me? Oh my gosh, you're so pretty, look at your eyes, and your hair..." Sabine trailed off, praising the girl.

Sawyer left the girl under Sabine's care and headed straight over to the others. "Hey, I found another Aviad. I am judging by the fact that there are two more newcomers here that I was not the only one to do so today." He approached Carter. "I'm Sawyer. Who are you?"

"Carter," Carter answered immediately. "Yeah, I'm new. You have a beautiful house, by the way."

"Thanks. Drop by any time, my parents are in New York on a business trip right now, so company is always nice in such a huge space."

"Excuse me? Am I not already company?" Sabine called from the foyer, without leaving the new girl's side.

"You're barely in the house anyway," Sawyer responded, before moving on to greet Atlas.

Luke elbowed Carter. "You're looking pretty overwhelmed, Car. Are we weirding you out?"

"The opposite," Carter said honestly. "You guys are so cool, how did I not know you existed before today?"

Luke laughed. "Well, we like to stay underground. I'm sure we can explain everything to you at dinner."

"Speaking of dinner," Sawyer interrupted, "I have pizza in the oven. I admit I wasn't back by the time it was fully cooked but it was on a timer so hopefully it's not burned beyond edibility. You guys can head into the dining room, Sabine, can you help me get the plates out?"

Luke led Carter into a large room with a circular table. Carter wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but it wasn't this. It was clearly meant to be an informal dinner, with a few napkins set out on the table and a stack of cups next to a pitcher of water.

Each of the Aviads took their seats, clearly accustomed to one in particular, since they all knew exactly where to sit. Carter awkwardly set himself down in the empty seat next to Luke, hoping he looked as relaxed as he wanted to. Ever since he moved to this town, he wanted to seem relaxed and laid back to everyone. No one could know how paranoid and awkward he really was, or they would hate him, just like everyone else who knew how he really was.

Sabine came out of a different door with seven plates all balanced on her arms, shoulders, and the top of her head. "Dinner is served, for seven people at least. Hurry up and grab it before I drop it."

Lucy and the new girl were the first ones over to her, grabbing two plates each so Sabine could actually move without the threat of disaster. The three of them helped distribute the food to everyone.

"It's plain cheese pizza, sorry guys," Sawyer said, bringing two more plates. "Nothing fancy tonight."

"And here I was, expecting quail eggs and caviar," Luke said sarcastically. "I'm disappointed, Sawyer. Very disappointed."

"You might have actually been expecting something fancy, look how you dressed up," the dark-haired girl teased him.

"Shut up, Alvira," Luke hissed.

Carter looked at Luke, who he didn't think was dressed up very fancily. He was only wearing a blue polo shirt and jeans.

"I know he doesn't look very fancy, but trust me," Madison said to Carter and Atlas from across the table, "This is very posh for him. Lucian usually comes in, like, pajamas and sweatpants."

"Trying to impress someone?" Lucy goaded Luke, poking his arm.

"Hey, I just thought, we have new people today so I should look presentable," Luke tried to explain. "Leave me alone, let's make fun of someone else."

"Or, we could all shut up and explain everything to Ivy, Carter, and Atlas, since they must be freaking out?" Sawyer suggested.

"I second that," Atlas piped up. "I'm still very confused."

The entire group proceeded to shout out random bits of information in no clear order, things about tattoos and shapeshifting. Carter had thought having wings was cool, but Luke was also able to turn into a wolf? And from what they told him, everyone was able to shapeshift, into cats and horses and other animals. What would Carter turn into? Hopefully something badass that would impress the others.

"How do you wear clothes?" Ivy piped up. Her face was full of curiosity. "I mean, your wings would rip right through it usually, so what kind of clothes do you wear when you want to use them?"

("Well," the author said, "We use this great thing called the Plot Stone, which allows us to do things that we really shouldn't be able to do, but we do anyway because the Plot Stone is magical.")

"Well," Sabine said, "Usually we wear things under our clothes that are open-backed or at least leave our shoulder blades free. The sundress I'm wearing now is open-backed so I can fly with it. And we can wear tank tops or loose clothing to leave room for our wings to come out and through the collar."

"However, if you get creative, you can wear regular clothes with a bit of a twist," Madison went on. "Like Alvira. She cut and hemmed her hoodie in such a way that there's a Velcro flap in the back. She can open it up to let her wings out, and close it for it to be a normal hoodie. That way, she can be both Aviad and emo."

Alvira balled up a napkin and threw it at Madison's head. "I'm not emo!"

The group laughed, even Alvira. Carter was amazed. In his group of friends, something like that might have started a food war. But with these people, everyone loved and trusted each other enough that fights were seemingly nonexistent. It was like a family, but without all the complications and dysfunctionality.

When the laughter died down, the table was silent. Then, Sabine started to speak, although her voice had gone from cheerful to vulnerable and genuine.

"Ivy..." she said carefully. "I want to apologize."

The little girl looked a bit shocked at that. "Apologize for what? You haven't done anything but compliment and amaze me since we met."

"You're from the orphanage," Seb explained. "And so am I. I should have been the one to find you, not Sawyer. I should have been there to protect you. I know what it's like in there, and I know how it must have felt. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you sooner."

"It's okay," Ivy comforted her. "You couldn't have known. I don't actually think I've ever even seen you, so how could you have protected me if you didn't even know I was there?"

"But that's my point!" Sabine exclaimed. "I should be there more often to help you guys! I should have known about you, and there are countless other kids in there who could be Aviads and need our help. I should be protecting you, not running from my own stupid fear."

"It's not stupid," Madison assured her. "And we will help those kids, okay? We can help everyone."

Sawyer cleared his throat. "Well."

Mads glared at him. "What?"

"Well, that's not necessarily the most legal thing. We basically kidnapped Ivy and Seb."

"But they wanted to leave," Atlas said. "Why is that kidnapping?"

"It's not kidnapping as in 'We took them without their consent', but we did take them without the permission of their legal guardian." Sawyer took another bite of his pizza. "You have to be twenty-one to legally adopt someone in this state, and I doubt any of our parents would be willing to take in more than twenty kids, even if we were to tell them about the whole Aviad thing. But-" he added at Sabine's look, "We are going to try."

"No, Sawyer, wait a minute," Luke said suddenly. "Most of us are going to college next year, and you've already waited one year to go to college to take care of us. Sabine will take over the flock, that much we've established. But by the time she does, we'll be gone."

Sawyer looked down at his plate. "Yeah. That complicates things."

There was another moment of silence.

"On a less depressing note," Alvira finally said, "We have finished dinner and can now go play charades. Everyone better cheer up, you're not ruining the new guys' first night in the flock."

A/N: Chapter 6! An awkward family dinner, because that's what every good story needs. Honestly I don't really have anything to say here, so just... comment and vote, thanks.