I did exercise my legs the next day, and continued to alternate between arms and legs every day for the rest of the summer. Hank came only a few more times before it was time to say goodbye, he has to teach his birds how to fly too after all. I did lots of cardio and flying every day so now I can fly for atleast three hours at cruising speed without getting tired, and at top speed for an hour and a half.

We're all packed up and ready to go tomorrow. I stay at our house for the last week of summer to get ready for school. Mom said that she'll make me a better harness for my wings since they've filled out a lot.

I look at myself in the mirror. I look more muscular and lean, especially since I insisted that I go on a low carb diet to help me lose weight, and therefore have less wind-resistance. My wings are perfectly proportional to my body and I can only assume that they'll continue to get bigger as I grow. They're completely covered in long, black feathers. Much prettier than they were almost five months ago.

I carefully close my wings. They lie flat on my back. I've come up with a bunch of different ways to hide them under my clothes so I can wear different ones. I'm not looking forward to going back to school. I liked not having to strap down my wings. They're meant to be free, but I know that if they're out, Sentinel Services is gonna be on me like white on rice.

I look at the feathers on my face and run my hands through the feathers on my head. I can't stand this. I think mom knows it too. I walk out of my room and mom greets me. She rubs my shoulders sympathetically.

"I'm sorry Ace." She says. "I wish we could stay too."

"It's fine. It is what it is." I sigh. I hug her and she hugs me back.

"I am so proud of you. You've grown so much over the past few months. Just look at you! You can fly for hours without stopping. You won't be able to fly every day when school is back in session I'm afraid, but I'll take you back out to isolated areas on the weekends so you can stretch your wings." Mom says.

I smile, "that'll work just fine, thanks." I let go. Mom goes back to the kitchen and works on dinner. I decide to help her. We make roast beef and steamed vegetables. I think I've grown fond of that dish in particular. We have carrots, broccoli, and regular lettuce that wasn't steamed.

We grabbed what we thought we could eat, then sat at the table. I dug into the meat first. I tried not to devour it like a starved dog, but it happened anyway. Mom simply shook her head. I was more composed when I ate the vegetables.

When I say more composed, I mean that I shoveled it like that's the only thing I was gonna eat all week. When we finished eating, mom covered the meat in salt to make it jerky for the trip home tomorrow. All the vegetables were gone, and the fridge was empty. Like at the beginning of the summer before we came here, we made sure to use everything in it.

I washed the dishes thoroughly, so the next people have clean dishes to eat on, then dried them off and put them away in their proper places. After that, I reluctantly walked back to my room. My suitcase was on the floor and my outfit for tomorrow was picked out and laid on the chair in the corner. Among those is my harness.

I understand why it's necessary to wear- which is to hold my wings down flat against my back to help me hide- but I hate the thing with a passion. It's restricting of something that's a part of me. But there's nothing I can do about how the world works right now. I just have to suck it up and wear it I guess.

I stare up at the ceiling and reflect on what I've done so far this summer. It's been the best one of my life. I've never done anything in the past summers, but this one is WAY different. I learned to fly, I got in shape, and I feel more like myself than I have... ever. That thought alone makes me smile.

I find it harder to keep my eyes open, so I close them and drift off to sleep. With tomorrow comes the return of conforming to society. And well, the beginning of a new school year.

---

Mom and I are at the store. The latex sticks to my face like glue and hides my facial feathers. It's everything I can do to not tear the things off. The new harness is thicker in width, but still thin. I think it's made of real leather this time, which would explain why it's not as itchy as my old one.

Mom is having me pick out school supplies. This year I switch from composition notebooks to spiral notebooks. To be honest, I don't understand the appeal. They're flimsy and the wire sticks out the older it gets. But hey, that's what my new school requires.

Seventh grade, and my thirteenth birthday. Everything is coming so fast. Mom points to an X-Men backpack. "How about this one?"

"It looks so cool." I grin and nod. Mom smiles back and puts it in the basket. She went over to the clothes section next and got me a few more tight tank-tops. Those should work for now, hopefully. That along with loose-fitting sweaters and my trenchcoat.

We got rid of a lot of my old clothes and replaced them with cool outfits that would match my coat better.

This year will be different.