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It was not an entirely peculiar bird. Nothing special, just a bird. No interesting plumes or colors. Just an average bird, the one that you hear when your out side. You never give any thought to that bird, no, it's just a regular boring bird. Or at least that's what it looked like, and Zak Paxium would never notice it, even if it did follow him every day of his life …

Zak was not exactly a normal kid, per say. In truth, he was quite irregular. Not in appearances, no. But in other ways. People said it was just bad luck, or that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when these odd occurrences happened. They said that he was lucky to have escaped the fire, or that he got out of the building just before it collapsed. But Zak knew it was more than that. In fact, it was he that had caused the 'occurrences'. But Zak never harmed anyone, not intentionally anyway. So, as the story goes, Zak's foster mother, Alyssa Lombreino, trying to keep him safe, sent him all over the state of California to different schools. So far, Zak had tallied them at four schools. He was fourteen, which means he had changed schools nearly every two years. And after two six months of high school, he was sure to mess something up pretty soon. And then it would get worse. Then he would move again.

Zak had never told Mrs. Lombreino about the cause of the problems. Mostly because he wasn't sure he could explain it. About how the sparks just kept jumping out of his hand or how the rubble seemed just to bounce away from him just inches above his head. His only friend, since eighth grade, Amelia Reelson was in considerable daner, just from being his friend. And Zak would especially not want harm to befall her. He would sooner tell Amelia before Zak would tell Mrs. Lombreino. In fact, he often snuck away on the week ends because being with his foster mother was not especially fun. The only good part about that house was his cat, Pyro. Normally, Zak was definatly a dog person, but something about his little black cat just made him like it. But the cat was not enough to keep him at the house. Mrs. Lombreino would often make Zak sit and talk with him about cheesy adoption things he didn't want to hear, and then straight to home work and bed, nothing else. Zak would meet Amelia at the park that was several blocks down form his house. A tiny little bird following him all the way. He would spend all day with her, laughing at stupid jokes they made and buying two frosties from Wendy's. His past years were rather boring and constricting, but being with Amelia made him happy. He dreaded heading home after the day was done.

Another thing about Amelia also made like her. She was quite mysterious. Some days she would say she had to go home early and Zak would say he could walk her home, but she would get all nervous and make up terrible excuses for him not to go. It was not like he had never been to her house. Then she would quickly get on her bike and ride in the opposite direction of her house. The first time Zak pointed that out she had just glared at him and he never did it again.

Deciding to follow Amelia then, was probably one of the worst ideas he had ever had.

A Normal Life S.C. London