The Winter Bird

   It is the middle of December, and almost everything here is covered in white sheets. Every tree I perch on makes my feathers rise. Getting stuck in this situation is what happens when you don't migrate. All the birds left, including my human friend, Jennie. She used to live in the cheese-shaped house around the corner. Most of the time we play Find the Peanut, Hide and Seek, or the Silent Game. She is out of town for a few days. I believe she had said that she would come back when she was ninety-nine years old to see me. Until then, some other people came into the huge house and kept saying "shoo!" to me with a broomstick. I think it's just a game not to touch the broom, so I fly around in circles. I remember that one day an eagle told me that "shoo" meant you should run away and never come back. Obviously, he was lying because they eat my type of bird—the tiny, red, and blue-feathered birds. My father had also said, "Maple, you should stay away from everyone." I still don’t know what's wrong with the world. It's just so innocent. 

"Nope, it's not." A voice from behind me said something, as if it were reading my thoughts. I saw a little girl with gigantic black glasses and purple hair. 

"Whatssup?" I said.

"You thought everyone was so innocent, I was just correcting you," she said. "Jennie left because she thought you were annoying and meant to come back when you were gone from this world."

"Pffftt!" I disagreed, "Nonsense!"

"Suit yourself," she said.

"Where am I supposed to get a suit?" 

"I meant ‘suit yourself’ as an idiom!"

"Ah. What's an idiom?"

"To go away."

"Aha! So we are playing the silent game!" I said, pretending to zip my beak.

"Yeah, whatever."

I did a twirl in the air and started dancing. Dad used to say dancing in the air looked "dorky," which means cool.

"Correction, dorky means weird." the girl said.

"Oh. What's your name?"

"Jin."

"Can you think what I think?" 

"No, I can read your mind, silly!"

"I’ll take that as a compliment."

"IT IS NOT!"

"Jeez, chill," I said, as calm as ever. The truth is, I'm not. I am freezing. It feels as if I am flying across Antarctica. Oops. Jinny can read my mind.

"Jinnnnnnn" Jin said, annoyed. I have to admit that it is very annoying to have a friend that can read your mind. I glanced at Jinny and saw her frowning.

"First of all, I’m not your friend!" Jin stood up and said, "Second of all, MYNAMEISJIN!"

"Haven’t you heard of nicknames?"

All of a sudden, Jinny started charging at me. I dogged to my right and attacked back. She yelled and gesticulated her arms frantically, trying to get me off of her head. It turned out I had spider-grip and she didn't. Then, she pinched my leg really badly. With that, I started pecking at her head to put some sense into her. She was disrespecting an animal. 

"GET OFF ME!" she hollered.

I paused for a second to think of a joke, "That’s why people say don’t mess with maple syrup! You just witnessed Maple being very sticky!"

She grabbed a black pen and poked me in the back with it.

"OWWW!" I cried, "I got a boo-boo."

"Suck it up." She said. I was really mad that I flew right in front of her and kicked her glasses. A tiny crack formed. I smirked.

I laughed in the air for a while before saying, "Suck it up, Jinny!"

After a while of laughing, I felt a shiver run through my spine. It became more cold. A loud, "DRUN DUN DRUN" sound happened. At first, I couldn't think of what it was. Then I remembered what my dad had said, "If you hear a loud noise that is not from your stomach, FLY HO!"

I started flying to Jennie's old house until Jin caught me by my tail and threw me to the top of a tree. I landed on tangled leaves, but I was too dizzy and hurt to even fly away. I spotted a blue light setting a tree on fire. I tried my best to get myself out of this mess, but the leaves were mean enough to keep me tangled. I felt a drip on my beak. Then another. And the rain began to fall faster. "Let the rain do the job!" I remembered what Jennie had said when the leaves of our plant were tangled. So I waited.

* * *

Slowly, I started to realize the grip was loosening. I whooped with joy when one wing was free. When both were free, I started flying away. Just as I was a foot away from the tree that had tangled me, I felt the shock right in my back. It was the blue light that had struck me.

"I got a boo-boo!" I cried, "The blue devil caught me!"

"No," I heard Jin say, "It was a silly stick!"

"Oh"

I say her talking from Jennie's old house's window. I got a bit mad that she was in Jennie's old house, but I let it go. I will find a way to "shoo" them. After the Blue Devil ran away, I sneaked into Jinny's new house and put a caterpillar in her water jar. Then I pulled a strand of Jinny's hair and put it in the jar with the caterpillar.

"Take that for leaving me to fight the the BLUE DEVIL!" I mumbled to myself. I flew out of the door very fast. I was excited to see the results of my revenge.

* * *

The next morning, I woke up as early as possible to see the results. Jin, who was only a few steps away, picked up the jar and poured some water into a cup. Then she went to the backyard and dumped it.

"I know what you did, bird!" She called, "Did you forget what I can do?"

Then I heard a chuckle come from her mouth.

"You can try again later. Until then come in and stop bothering me!"

I came in and said, "So we are dorky?"

"Yeah, we're cool."

I did a twirl in the air and perched on the ceiling's fan.