One more.

I lifted my chin up to the bar, my muscles contracting as I pulled my weight up, then slowly released myself down. Letting go of the bar, I dropped to the ground, landing on my feet as the excess chalk dust fell from my hands.

300 hundred pull-ups were enough for today. It was part of my regular routine, but today I added an extra fifty to build up more muscle instead of just maintaining.

Shaking my head from side to side, my dark hair fell to my neck as I pulled my ponytail free. A clear line of sweat trailed down my forehead after the intense workout.

There was something about the gym that gave me a feeling of comfort every time I walked through the front door. It was a step away from reality, a place to just workout and escape it all. To be normal.

The light grey walls enclosed a large space about the size of a football field. Weights were lined against a mirrored wall along the west side of the building. Windows lined the north side of the building, letting in lots of natural light. Various machines lined the middle of the gym. The building used to be a clothing warehouse until the owners purchased it. The only additions to the facility were the tanning rooms and change rooms with showers. No other walls were added, making the space feel open and bright.

I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand and made my way through the dividing row of treadmills in the center, heading towards the showers.

The women's change room greeted me with warm-toned peach walls as I sat down on a wooden bench that stretched three-quarters of the length of the room. The walls were lined with orange and red lockers, marble sinks and well-used showers at the far end. I pulled off my black and white Nike shoes along with the socks underneath and stripped out of my workout clothes. There wasn't anyone else in here, but I could have cared less if there was. I was comfortable in my body and didn't care what others thought of me. It had taken me a long time to get to that point of comfort in my own skin, but I had finally achieved it and was living for myself instead of the opinions of others.

Throwing open my locker, I grabbed my hair and body products out of my black gym bag and walked down to the row of showers. I went to the very last one on the left, the one that was the least used in the entire gym. Each shower saw approximately sixty to eighty people a day, whereas this one maybe got a max of ten.

I turned it on and stood just outside of the shower, giving the water enough time to heat up before stepping in. Putting my products down on the metal hanging rack, I stepped into the shower, letting the warm water aesthetically splash onto my skin.

Shampoo, conditioner, and a coconut-scented body scrub later, I walked out of the shower wrapped in a white fluffy towel provided by the gym. The towel fell onto the bench as I quickly lathered a thin layer of lotion all over my body and changed back into my everyday clothes. The trusty pair of dark Capri jeans had been with me for three years. There was a slight rip in the left pant leg, but I couldn't retire them just yet. The pants hugged my hips perfectly, and the local clothing store didn't carry this style anymore.

However, the light grey shirt was a new edition, along with the slightly-used pair of black Toms sandals. These were both found at the local thrift store for a steal of a deal. Considering I didn't pay for them.

I grabbed my bag, shoving the used gym clothes inside, and headed out of the changing room to the front doors of the gym.

Just past the reception area was a bin to drop used towels in. I elegantly threw mine in, hearing a light thud as it landed on top of the other towels inside.

My phone buzzed, reminding me that it was time to leave. As I yanked my gym bag strap higher onto my shoulder, I texted Avery.

There were no notifications on the lock screen, as to be expected. There was only one real person I talked to these days. I had no social accounts on any apps, no games; I needed nothing else aside from texting.

I tapped on the messenger app and watched it open. I only had three contacts and the top one was Avery. The keyboard popped up after taping on her name.

To Avery:

Come get me.

I sat down on a dark grey cushioned bench just before the exit, waiting for her to reply. Avery and I had that special friendship that very few achieve in their lifetimes. We grew up together; we were all each other had. She was the only person I would ever need to rely on.

When I had first arrived at the gym, there had only been a creepy old man working out in the early hours of the day besides me. Now, there were more than twenty people in the gym working out. It was a large facility, so if I needed to be in my own space, I could. There was plenty of room here for everyone. On a busy day, there would be over a hundred people in here at once. As it was open 24/7, I could show up whenever. If I didn't want to see anyone, before sunrise was the perfect time to show up.

Five minutes passed, and my phone buzzed. I picked it up and looked at the screen.

Avery to me:

I'm outside.

I smiled and got up from the bench, heading for the exit.

I pushed on the see-through glass door and headed outside, looking for a random car with Avery inside. We didn't actually own a car, so I was wondering how she had gotten one this time. The last time she had "found" a car, it was a fairly new Civic that belonged to an old man who had left the keys in the ignition outside of one of the local grocery stores. We had abandoned it just outside the city, as we did with most of the vehicles we borrowed, and it was returned back to its rightful owner in good condition.

Not having a job came with the perks of not being able to afford a car, or anything really. The place we live at provided me with a gym membership after having cleaned the hallways for three weeks straight, and besides, a membership here isn't very expensive. Having a car, though, was way more expensive, especially in this economy.

I spotted Avery almost immediately. She was parked in a handicap spot in a bright red Kia Sol and I shook my head. She couldn't have stolen a more noticeable vehicle than this one. One obvious aspect was the white stick-figure stickers on the bottom left corner of the back window. It depicted a lady and four cats. Not only did she steal a car, but she stole it from a cat-loving lady.

Such a bad person, I thought, a smile plastered on my face.

"Hey there pretty lady! Wanna go for a ride?" Avery joked, revving the quiet engine. I laughed, shaking my head. There were a few people in the parking lot heading toward the gym, but they didn't seem to pay much attention to us.

"No, I'd rather crawl home than go for a ride with you." I joked, leaning back on my heels as I made a disgusted face.

A stream of water shot out at my face. Before it made contact with my cheek, I swiftly stepped to the side and watched as it landed on the ground behind me. I quickly looked back at the people I had just seen.

Thankfully, they hadn't noticed and went straight inside the gym without a second glance back in our direction. I slowly turned and glared at Avery. She smirked, flipping her brown hair to the side.

"Avery..." I dragged on in a hushed voice. She knew why I was freaked out and sighed.

"I know Amanda, but come on. It's not like the humans know we exist." She said, pouting. I moved around the car and pulled on the passenger door, opening it.

"Exactly, so let's keep it that way," I said, getting into the car. It smelt newer than the last one we had been in, like fresh lemons. The cat lady must have been anal about the cleanliness of her car. I looked at the leather interior and smiled when I noticed a few specs of cat hair. Not anal enough, I suppose.

"Even if they had seen what happened, they would probably come up with some sort of plausible answer to what they witnessed. Like maybe, that I had a water gun in the car. Ever think of that?" She said and I shrugged. It was possible, but I didn't want to chance that kind of thinking. If they had seen what had happened and decided to videotape us, we'd have just won ourselves a pair of tickets to a lifetime of being laboratory specimens and enduring endless experiments and ultimately, death.

I threw my bag onto the back seat and she reversed fast, pulling a 180 out of the parking spot. She slammed down on the gas and we headed off towards the outskirts of the city. In the near distance, I could hear police sirens and I sighed. Just another day in the life.

The city passed in a blur. I never spent much time exploring as there was no real reason to. Humans weren't friendly to our kind.

After a few minutes of silence and no sign of the police the sirens belonged to, I finally spoke to Avery who looked concentrated while she drove. She had just merged onto the highway heading out of town. She sped past a few cars and finally clicked the car into cruise control.

"So... where did you get the car?" I questioned, and she smirked once again.

"I found it... in a driveway," she said and I shook my head, glancing out the window. I gave her a "you-really-stole-from-a-cat-lady" look and she shrugged.

"The keys were in the cup holder, it was as if the lady was asking for it to be borrowed." She said sarcastically, continuing to drive. We generally didn't play the radio in the car because we wanted to leave the stations as they were. Plus, we could never decide what to play; Avery was a fan of new-age rock and pop songs, whereas I enjoyed classical music. A few of our friends back at the dorm always made fun of me for it, and they called me a grandma. She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel a couple of times, imitating one of her favourite songs. She paused for a moment, pondering something, then continued to drum away.

"So... why did you want me to pick you up? You flew there last night," she questioned and I sighed. Maybe I just wanted to be normal for once? I came up with another one of my famous excuses, which were always and completely reasonable.

"The daylight. I flew there in the middle of the night and climbed down the ladder to work out for a good while. I'm not just going to shift into a bird in front of a bunch of humans and fly home carrying a bulky gym bag. It's way too risky." I said, continuing to stare out the window. Avery tapped the breaks, taking the car out of cruise control and pulled off to the side of the road. She parked the car, turned it off, yanked the keys out of the ignition and dropped them into the cup holder to her right. They landed with a clink and I looked down at them.

There was a very small picture frame attached to the metal loop on the key. I reached and turned it over, seeing it was a picture of four different coloured cats laying on a couch. I let the edge of my lip curl up in a slight smile. At least this lady had something to love in her life; I had yet to experience that.

"You know, you don't have to be scared of some dumb humans," Avery said, waving her hand over her favourite water bottle. The metallic blue bottle never left her side. The bottle was something of great value to her, having been given to her by her mother before everything happened. A token of our past, from another life.

The cap twisted and flew back as a ball of water lifted itself up to her hands. It swirled around her fingers, weaving itself through the gaps between each one. It was mesmerizing, to say the least; her power over water was astounding. It obeyed her every order and it was as if she had given it a life of its own.

"They can't hurt you." She said, the water elegantly flowing back into the bottle. She pushed the attached cap back down and twisted it back on with a click. I sighed, getting out of the car. Avery hopped out as well, climbed up the front of the vehicle and jumped onto the roof of the car. The metal roof groaned under her weight, not used to being stood on. She smiled, her eyes wild, and she was ready for a race. One she would never win.

"See you back in prison!" She said, pulling at the water in the air, her bottle attached to her hip with a golden clip. I rolled my eyes, glancing around to make sure she didn't just reveal herself to some unsuspecting people driving by. The road was quiet, not a soul for a few miles.

Prison is what Avery calls the old dormitory, where all misfits and inhuman creatures spent their time together, being themselves. Not all creatures like Avery or I stay there, but that's where they would go if they didn't have a home.

When we were children, hunters chased our parents until they caught and brutally slaughtered them as they tried to protect us, leaving Avery and I to run to the forest and spend our childhood there in hiding. We ended up being mutt-like children, never knowing anything else. We didn't have anything growing up because we were constantly on the move. Our parents, who had been close friends, were discovered one evening out at a restaurant when my ears shifted on accident. I couldn't control my powers as a child, which ended up endangering us all and in the end, getting both sets of our parents killed.

One thing that ended up saving us was our survival skills. Our parents made sure we would be able to take care of ourselves if anything were to happen to them. We knew how to identify poisonous and non-poisonous berries, track animals, and set snares by the time we were both five. We ate mostly wild berries in the beginning because our snares weren't set up in the right ridges. We slept under a big oak tree we claimed as a home, whose roots stuck out of the ground like a protective barrier between us and the rest of the world.

One day in late autumn, a group from the dorm found us and discovered our powers when Avery shot ice at them; there hadn't been any snow yet so they knew right away. We were lucky they weren't hunters and even luckier that they took us in.

We had nothing, then we got to the dorm, our lives changing forever.

I decided to give her a head start, knowing I would easily pass her within a minute. I grabbed my gym bag from the back seat, checked my surroundings once more, and shifted into a large hawk. Shifting was second nature. It was terribly painful when I first tried it as a child. The first time I grew talons, my fingers were sore for three days. However, after years of practice, it felt like the prick of a needle.

Feathers tore out of my skin as I leapt into the air, my body morphing in seconds.

Grasping the bag's strap with my newly razor-sharp talons, I flew the rest of the way to the dorm. Avery was sprinting in the sky, the condensed vapour turning to ice as she jumped from cloud to cloud. I made it to the dorm in a matter of minutes, landing on our window sill. I threw my gym bag into our room through the open window and sighed. Gracefully landing on the window sill, I shifted back and entered through the window, looking around our room. It was pretty small, but it was home.

There was a bunk bed on the right of the window and a couch on the left. Normally, we used the window as our entrance and the door as our exit. We generally kept to ourselves, aside from our few friends that popped by every now and then. It was easier that way.

When the dorm gave us the chance to buy two beds for ourselves, we decided that buying a small used couch and a bunk bed was a better option. On the plus side, we had more space in our room. The downside, though, was that the space between my bed and the roof was almost non-existent. In my eyes, though, it wasn't much of a problem.

The walls of the room were a slight off-white, but painting them would have been useless. A new paint job was an expense we could live without. Plus, we could never decide on a colour together. As much as Avery and I were alike, we were also completely different. I grabbed my bag off the floor and put it into the dresser Avery and I shared, where most of our clothes were. We didn't really have much else.

Avery crawled through the window and smiled.

"I will never be able to get used to this," she said, hopping onto her level of the bunk bed. She had a purple comforter with a matching purple pillow we had found at a thrift store. My set was a light orange, and even though I didn't exactly like the colour, the two sets complimented each other and had been cheap.

The sun was already starting to set, the dorm being quite a ways out of the city. Driving took so much longer than flying; I still don't understand how humans put up with it. Then again, they had no idea what they were missing. I flew up into my bed and closed my eyes.

"Night Avy." I said and she kicked the bottom of my bed, the entire structure shaking. I smirked; I always knew how to get under her skin.

"I swear to God Amanda if you use that nickname again, you will be sleeping on a bed of ice." She said, water whirling around my face.

"Goodnight," I said, and she thumped my bed three times, her way of saying goodnight.

~~~~~~~