James Patterson - Two Schools Out - Forever

"Yeah, let's get out of here," said Total, looking up at me.

"But where to?" asked Nudge.

"I've been thinking about that," I began.

"Florida," said Angel.

"What? Why?" I asked.

"I just feel like Florida is where we should go," Angel said, shrugging. "Plus, you know, Disney World."

"Yes! Disney World!" said Gazzy.

"Swimming pools, sunshine-I am so there," Total agreed.

I looked at Fang. He shrugged. And actually, I didn't really have any other plan.

Go with the flow, Max. Ride the flow.

After that pithy nugget from my Voice-turned-travel-agent, I said, "Well, okay, then. Florida it is. Grab your packs."

"I see. You had a plan." Jeb poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Yeah," Ari said sullenly. He wasn't sure if Jeb was mad at him or not. Sometimes Jeb didn't seem mad, but then it would turn out that he was. Ari hated that.

"You were going to steal Max for yourself."

"Yeah."

Jeb took a sip of his coffee. "And why were you going to do that?"

Ari shrugged. "I just want to have her to myself. I'm tired of chasing the others. I don't care about them."

"But you care about Max. How old are you now?"

"Seven." Which was another thing. Jeb never remembered his birthday. "But I'm big. Bigger than you."

"Yes." Jeb made it sound totally unimportant. "Ari, I'm proud of you."

"Wh-what?"

Jeb turned and smiled at him. "I'm proud of you, son. I'm impressed that you made a plan for yourself, and that you chose Max."

Ari felt like the sun was shining warmly on his shoulders. But-was this a trap? He looked at Jeb warily. "Oh, yeah?"

"Yes. You're only seven, but you're thinking like a grown-up. It's incredibly interesting. Tell you what-I want to see where this takes us. We're going to find out where the flock has gone, and when we do, you can put your plan into action again."

"My plan?"

"Yes, your plan to steal Max. I'll help you make it happen. We'll take out the rest of the flock, but you have to grab Max. Where were you going to take her?"

"A place."

"We'll work out the details later. In the meantime, get some rest, eat something. I've already got people tracking the flock."

Slowly Ari turned and left the room. If this was true... An almost painful burst of joy exploded inside him. Dad was going to help. Dad had said he was proud of him. He was going to get Max all to himself. It was like Christmas and his birthday and sort of Halloween, all rolled up into one.

Have you ever-no, I guess you never have. If you've never flown with hawks, there's no way you'd be able to understand what it's like. Maybe if you've swum with sharks or something, not like at SeaWorld but in the ocean. That might be kind of close to this feeling.

I looked over at Nudge. Her face was serene, curly hair streaming behind her. We had just crossed the border from Virginia into North Carolina. The Appalachian Mountains rose beneath us, not as high and not nearly as pointy as the Rockies. These were older ranges, and time had softened them. See? Some of that geography stuff stuck with me after all.

We were high, high up, where oxygen was pretty thin. The sun was hot and bright on our backs and wings, and we had nothing but open sky all around us in every direction. Best of all, we'd spotted a flock of broad-winged hawks and joined them.

At first they'd scattered, wondering who the heck these huge, ugly raptors were dropping down on them, but then they'd cautiously circled back. Now we were wheeling in and among them, flying in a loose formation, the six of us and maybe twelve of them. I'd already hissed at Total to be very quiet and not make a sound. He huddled in Iggy's arms, nose quivering, small black paws twitching as he chased them in his mind.

"This is incredible," the Gasman said, tilting one wing down to soar in a huge circle around us. I grinned at him. Just two hours ago we'd been screeching out of Anne's yard as Erasers swarmed out of vans, aiming their sights at us. Now we were free, breathing thin, pure air, surrounded by creatures who showed us what to aim for: their fierce, proud beauty, awesome grace and flying skill, and unjudging acceptance of beings so incredibly different from them.

It was a huge change from, say, Erasers, who mainly showed us how to not be clumsy, predatory idiots. And I for one was thankful.

"Maybe we could just live with them," Nudge said wistfully.

"Yeah," said Gazzy. "'Cause you love eating raw squirrels and snakes and stuff."

"Eew. I forgot about that," said Nudge.

"Anyway, guys, we can't live with them," I said, stepping up to my role as full-time rainer-on-parader. "We need to get farther away."

"I want to go to Florida. You said," Total chimed in, and though the hawks had warily accepted our speech, Total's voice made them realize that he was alive. Several of them sheared off, effortlessly tipping a few feathers downward to shift their whole position in the airstream. It was so completely streamlined, the way they did it, and I practiced it myself.

We flew out of the hawks' territory, and they left us with hoarse cries. One by one we sheared off, soaring in huge, symmetrical arcs and then joining up again.

"It's like synchronized swimming," Gazzy said, pleased.

"No, it's like exhibition jets," said Iggy. "Like the Air Force Thunderbirds. We need stuff so we can leave huge trails of colored smoke behind us."

"Oh, yeah!" said Gazzy, totally psyched. "Like, we could get sulfur and-"

"And this would help our whole 'lie low, disappear' act how?" I said, bringing them back to reality.

"Oh, yeah," said Iggy.

"Maybe someday," I said, hating to see him and the Gasman so disappointed. "In the meantime, let's do a vertical stack!" I said, angling upward into position. Fang put himself directly below me, carefully out of range of my feet, because he's just paranoid that way. Iggy was below him, then Gazzy, Nudge, and finally Angel on the bottom, as white as the clouds we were flying over. We were six stacked bird kids, flying in unison, making only one shadow on the clouds. Totally cool.

Of course it was too freaking peaceful to last, right? I mean, there was no way I was going to wallow in serenity for more than two seconds, right?

No, of course not.

What happened was, Gazzy suddenly pushed upward into Iggy, wanting to knock him off balance, the way all of us have done to each other a million times. It would have been fine, and even funny, if Iggy hadn't been holding, say, a mutant talking dog. For example.

But he was. And when Gazzy bumped up into him, he knocked Total out of Iggy's arms. Total gave a startled yip and then he dropped like a piece of coal, right through the clouds and out of sight.

Angel reached for Total as he plummeted past her, but her fingers only grazed his fur.

"Total!" she cried, and Total started barking and howling, dropping farther away, his voice trailing off.

"Oh, crap," I muttered, then veered down past Fang. "If I'm not back in two minutes, do not let Angel have another pet." Then I tucked my wings behind me and started to drop.

"Max! Get Total!" Angel shouted after me, her voice panicky.

"No, I'm dropping straight down through clouds just for fun," I said to myself. I know people always fantasize about dropping through clouds or walking on clouds, landing on clouds. The thing is, clouds are wet. Wet and usually chilly. And you can't see anything. So, not as high on the fun scale as you might think.

I followed the sound of Total's howling, letting myself fall toward the earth. Suddenly the mist cleared and I saw the ground, green and brown, below me. Plus a bunch of white-