Will she Allow it?

Disappointing, really, because there had been something strange about the bird which he hadn't been able to place… none of the other students had seen it either.

They were too busy discussing the field trip. This time, they were going to the Glen Rose Fossil Park… he had read a lot about it.

Disappointment welled up inside him. Trust Mr Mantell to think of something so cool!

Speaking of which… could he tell Mr Mantell? Even if he mustered the nerve, he doubted it would help. Other teachers had tried to convince his mother and failed. Mrs Buckland refused to accept that her son could look after himself, and the farthest she allowed him without her was school.

When the final bell rung and Gregory strolled out of the school, the urge to go on the field trip had become even more intense. The school buses lay on the sides like sleeping metallic dragons. Before one of the school buses stood Ben and his group of friends… it almost seemed like the school bus/ dragon was about to open its mouth and swallow them whole.

He had almost forgotten the strange blue bird when it caught his eye.

He breathed deeply. This time, he couldn't mess up. He saw it hopping through the grass towards Ben.

The bus honked loudly, for the remaining students to get on. But Gregory couldn't leave this discovery. He ducked behind the trees and crept towards it.

It didn't notice him till he was almost upon it. For some strange reason, it was looking at Ben, from where it crouched between the grass. Gregory was almost close enough to touch it, when…

Crack

He had stepped on a bottle-cap. The blue bird stopped, turned, squawked and leapt at his face. With a yell, Gregory fell on his back. He raised his hand to protect its face and almost shoved it off. With a screech, it jumped off and disappeared among the leaves.

Gregory rose, his face stinging, to notice Ben and his friends looking at him weirdly. But at that tiny moment, Gregory didn't care… just before the bird had moved away; he had seen the tiny claws on its wings.

Mutant... bird? Because the truth seemed even more ridiculous

He thought about it all the way back, absent-mindedly listening to the long argument among the other students, about which of the main characters would die in the new superhero movie. When one of the other students asked what he was thinking about, he replied –

"Um… how to convince my mother about the field trip."

That wasn't entirely a lie. Gregory did have a plan, which might especially work as his aunts and grandfather were coming over for dinner. In fact, he could already hear his grandfather's voice as he neared open the front door. His grandfather, a tall, slightly healthy man with a balding head, grinned on seeing him before his eyes widened in shock.

"Why, son, what happened to your face? Who scratched it?"

"A radioactive bird," Gregory joked weakly and headed for the stairs. If he could somehow splash water to the bruises… but his Aunt Tira blocked his way. Once she had seemed too tall, but Gregory was almost reaching her height. Her long, blonde hair tied in a ponytail.

She peered at Gregory's face and frowned. "Were you fighting at school?"

This was bad. Gregory had hoped that his grandfather and aunts could convince his mother; help her believe that Gregory was old enough to look after himself and go on field trips. But if they thought he was fighting at school, they wouldn't believe it themselves.

But what could he say? A prehistoric creature that was supposed to go extinct millions of years ago had suddenly attacked him?

"Actually, a bird scratched me."

"Right," said Aunt Tira slowly. "Where did this happen?"

"Near school… I had been walking under a magpie's nest and it must have thought that we were getting too close to its chicks. Then it attacked."

This was getting stupider by the second. But thankfully, Aunt Tira moved out of the way.

When Gregory returned from splashing water on his face, his mother and Aunt Unara had both arrived… they had brought dinner. Unlike Aunt Tira, they both had brown hair, which they had inherited from their father. Also, while Aunt Unara was about Gregory's height, his mother was even shorter.

But she didn't need to be tall to fix Gregory with a disapproving look. "What were you doing in school?"

"Um…" Gregory started, but Aunt Unara interrupted.

"Oh, those look painful! Stop questioning him and apply some ointment, Sara. Have a heart."

"I do," Gregory's mother frowned. "That doesn't mean I don't want to know the story behind those scratches."

So Gregory told them the story about the magpie. This time, there were more magpies. It was evident none of them believed it, but they wouldn't have believed the real version even more. Now that he thought about it, the real version seemed ridiculous to even him… so maybe he had been desperately wanted something cool to happen and imagined the entire thing?

His mother sighed.

"Go to your room. I will bring along some ointment, and then we can have dinner." Gregory sighed inwardly and left.

If Gregory was ever asked to pick the best place that he knew, it would be his room… here he didn't have to be like everyone else. All around the room were posters of superhero and monster movies, cartoons and anime. On the shelf were the dinosaur toys he had collected over the years, and beyond that were his books. Books that helped him escape this boring world of two-legged pale human beings, into worlds of magic and aliens and teleporters and superpowers. On the far side of the room, above his messy bed, was a sheet of paper attached to the wall… his "Things I would do if I were a Superhero" list because Gregory was sure that he would become one someday. There were also drawings of his grandmother from his father's side of the family, drawn as a villain or maybe a multi-teethed horned monster. In his stories, the biggest villain had always been his grandmother from his father's side.

And among it all, amidst the fantastical and unreal was a framed photograph taken when he was five… standing between his parents before the divorce, a young, carefree Gregory smiled back at him.

Among all the imaginary things he could wish for, what he wanted most was to be with both his parents again.

He took out what he used the big book of dinosaurs, and blew dust off the cover. He had not opened it in many days… turning the pages, and coughing at the dust, he finally found it. He touched the tiny claws on the wings. He touched the mouth full of teeth. There was no doubt about it… the creature he had seen was a Microraptor.

If he had even seen it.

A sudden rap on the window interrupted his thoughts. Hurriedly, he rose and turned… and stopped. On the window sill was a brilliant blue feather. With trembling hands, Gregory pulled open the windows and noticed a small bottle of ointment beside the feather.

There was no doubt about who had sent the bottle.

Attached to it was a note that said 'Apply for immediate effect, dummy'. Gregory opened the cap but hesitated. Was the universe playing tricks on him again?

Suddenly, he had an idea and rushed through the door and down the stairs… his aunts looked up with raised eyebrows as he landed on the last step.

"What…"

"Where's Mom?"

This wasn't the first time something weird had happened to him, but this was the first time he had proof. Once, during an especially cold Christmas, he had seen a poor homeless man shivering on the streets. Everyone had seen the man, but only he had seen the coat of feathers that seemed to grow from his body. When he had told his mother, she had laughed and ruffled his hair, and remarked about how cute his imagination was.

Another time, they had been watching the Olympic sports, where that one person had won by jumping the highest. His family had cheered on seeing the person win the Gold medal. Gregory had cheered on seeing the wings he had flown with.

But no one had any reason to believe him all those times. Pushing open the door, he pointed towards where he had kept the bottle of ointment…

His finger dropped.

The bottle of ointment was gone, and so was the feather. His mother waited patiently at the door.

"Well. What did you want to show me?"

"The bottle of ointment…" his voice trailed off. The window was open, so maybe… the Microraptor must have taken it away. It sounded stupid even in his head. What surprised him was that it didn't even surprise him anymore.

"Like this one?" His mother held up a bottle. He started to protest, but there was no point. She wouldn't believe him anyway.

But this was a good excuse to talk about the other thing.

"Um, yes, I actually wanted to say something. It's about the field trip."

Mrs Buckland's eyebrows rose, as she dabbed at his cheeks, making him wince. "What about it?"

"Mr Mantell has kind of scolded me," he lied. "For not going along on the other ones this term."

"Really?"

"Yes." His heartbeat quickened. Folks said that he was a very bad liar. "This one is actually… really important, because, they are going to grade us."

"Right. Let me talk to Mr Mantell then."

"That's embarrassing, mom, please." He knew she didn't even care about what embarrassed him, but there was no point in going back. "You know you want me to do well in the tests right? I can try but for that, I need this field trip. Please. It's this Friday. That grade is really important to me."