Prologue

In a flutter of gray wings, the pigeon landed at Elliott's feet. She squealed, and tossed her whole handful of breadcrumbs at it. "No, Elliott," her dad smiled, carefully picking them up, piece by piece. "One at a time." He turned and was distracted by Elliott's sister Avery throwing her entire handful of crumbs at a bird. Their dad shook his head, his tousled blonde hair swaying. The girl's mom looked at them and laughed, with their little faces rosy red from the fall air, all out of breadcrumbs already.

Avery decided that having no crumbs wouldn't thwart her. She chased after the pigeons, squealing. "I'll get 'em!" Avery chased the panicked poultry until they took flight and escaped being held by her meaty toddler hands. "Aw..." Elliott reached down to take her sister's hands. "S'okay Avery. You'll get 'em." Avery smiled a big, cheeky toddler grin. Together, the family of four walked out of the park, swinging their hands and laughing.

Elliot lay tangled in her blankets, totally zonked out from last night. Her middle-length auburn hair lay in a twisted mane around her head, green eyes closed, and olive skin looking a bit greasy. Elliot and her sister Avery lived above their paper and book shop. A metal spiral staircase stood in the back left of the room. It came up into a kitchen that was painted a toned-down ruby. On the wall opposite from the staircase was a wall-long set of white cabinets, covered with a black marble countertop. Above those were more white cabinets, and set into the bottom cabinets where a dishwasher, stove, and sink. A refrigerator sat against the back wall. In the center of the room sat a round, white table. Cutting the room in half was a white bookshelf that started on the right wall. On the other side of the bookshelf was a bedroom, with two beds laying head-to-head on the right side of the room. The one farthest forward was Elliott's. Both of the beds were done up with light blue sheets and pillowcases, and white comforters with light green and blue stripes, and round white night tables rested next to the headboards. A window seat with a green cushion and blue pillows lay inside the left wall. In the front of the room was a white desk, with a bureau under it. The entire room was painted with whiteboard paint, and endless sketches and posters were all over the wall. Green curtains hung from the window.

BRANG! Elliott groaned as her clock alarm buzzed. Rolling into a seated position, she ran a hand through her hair. "Avery?" Elliott hollered. "Kitchen!" Came the reply. Wearing a red tank top and grey sweatpants, Elliott plodded into the kitchen and plunked down in a chair. "Are you okay?" Avery asked, putting a plate of toast and jam in front of Elliott. "Ya," Elliott mumbled, taking a bite of toast. "It was just...I was really attached to the book, and there's no sequel!" Avery patted Elliott on the back. "Hey, what are you doing up? You aren't really a morning person." Avery looked away. "Well, you sorta...kinda...kept me up all night with your...endless sobbing." Elliot looked away sheepishly. "Sorry."

Avery snickered, plopping another piece of toast into the toaster. "It's okay. It gave me time to write some of my book." It was no secret that Avery had been working on a novel. Avery's chocolate brown hair hung loosely from her freckled white skin, highlighting her green eyes. Avery slipped on a pair of headphones, and hit the random button on her phone. Music blared in her ears. Avery flopped onto the sofa and closed her eyes. She vaguely heard Elliott get up and go to her room to get dressed. Avery didn't open her eyes again until she smelled smoke. "Crap!" Avery yanked off her headphones and rushed to the toaster. Her toast was nothing more than black crisps. "Oh, dear!" Avery gave up toasting and decided to eat a few spoonfuls of cookie butter instead.

After snacking on her breakfast, Avery headed to her room. She changed from her blue pajamas into a pair of jeans, a blue shirt, and tennis shoes. Checking her phone, she determined that they had roughly 2 hours before work started. Avery flopped back onto her messy bed and pulled out a sketchbook. She put her headphones back on and drew people from her books until she was sure she needed to stop, but when she pulled her phone back out to check the time again, it'd only been half an hour. "Agh, boooooredom." She flopped onto her bed and attempted to go to sleep again.

After finishing her toast, Elliott pulled out her white IPhone 5s. Avery had the same one, but it was gold. They had been gifts from their father. He worked for the company and always got them before they came out, and loaded them with the most gigabytes they could hold. After opening her music to classical, she set her phone in the small gray speaker on her night table. Rockelbel's Canon drifted into the room. Elliot pulled on a pair of skinny jeans, a gray long sleeve shirt, and a green sweater. She pulled a brush through her hair and washed her face. Elliott yanked on brown flats and hollered. "Avery? Should we go check on the pigeons?" No answer. "Avery?" She hollered again. Finally, after finding that Avery was on her bed, and of course, asleep again, Elliott shook her head and left for the roof.

Since the two sisters had built their shop, they owned it, and could do what ever they wanted. They decided to raise carrier pigeons. They had always both loved pigeons, and had fond memories of feeding them in the park with their parents. They roof was beautifully designed. The staircase led up to the back left, and had a special circular hatch so they could lock it. On the front left of the roof was a metal washtub, and a metal stand with scrubbing brushes, and special tools. On the right of it was a telescope. The other space was occupied by the pigeons. They had 14, of various colors and breeds. The metal cages faced each other, with a walkway between them, and each individual cage could detach into a carrying case. Each one held 7 pigeons. 12 of them were girls, but on the far end of each set of cages sat a gruff and grouchy male. They weren't very nice tempered, so they weren't used for delivery. They girls had taken a class on raising carrier pigeons, and finally gotten them 2 years ago when they built the shop. It had started out has a hobby; sending an uplifting message to people they knew in the hospital, or who had done well at a sport. But people began asking if they would send one to so-and-so, and the girls branched out into a business. People loved it, and sometimes sent messages back. Each pigeon had a small leather pouch with a special clasp, attached to their right leg, which held the message.

Elliott had carried up her arm armor, a piece of brown leather with two straps that buckled. They had ordered them from , and they were super strong. Even though pigeons are relatively harmless, it was nice to not have holes in everything you wore. They used them all the time, but especially when they sent the pigeons off to work.

Just then, Avery ran up to where Elliott was. She also had on her armor, though it was shabbily put on. "Sorry! Why didn't you tell me you were going up?" She smoothed out her clothes, which were rumpled from falling asleep again. "We've got 20 minutes until the Pigeon & Co. opens for business." Pigeon & Co. was the name of the shop the two sisters ran on the main floor. They sold paper, books, and of course, let people send pigeon mail. However, both being utter bookworms, running a bookstore was a dangerous job. All extra books from accidentally over ordering were put in their private 'library,' a large bookshelf. They also used any extra paper to make notebooks and crafts. It was great, though too many books could take over their free time.

Avery's favorite pigeon, Doyle, cooed as she approached. Avery opened up Doyle's cage door and she hopped onto her shoulder. "Hey Doyle! Hey baby!" Doyle's poky feet made tiny holes in the leather. Doyle was a greyish pigeon, who's specific breed was undetermined. Avery had taken a particular shine to this one, as Doyle didn't have a breed or fine plumage to brag about. Today was pigeon bath day, which meant hauling the metal bucket into the kitchen and washing every pigeon before the stored opened in 2 hours. Some of the pigeons were easy to wash and even enjoyed it, but others, like Joseph and Meringue; the two males, were extremely unhappy when bath time came, meaning they liked to try to kill things.

Elliott had swung open the cage door of Glass, a beautiful Ramsgate. All the cages had a small metal strip on the top with the name of the respective bird. Glass flapped onto Elliott's shoulder and nestled into her hair. Elliott glanced over at Avery, who nodded, and handed Doyle to Elliott. Avery hoisted the metal tub, and hauled it downstairs. Elliott could hear it scrapping across the wooden floor. The male pigeons began to get restless; they knew what that sound meant. But they were last, because they made the biggest mess. Elliott scooped up Elise, Anne Marie, McCartney, and Newsboy; a Henley, Aberdeen, Brixton, and Stroud, respectively. With 3 pigeons on each arm, she carried them downstairs, were the metal pigeon roost was set up. Elliott could hear water running in the bathroom were Avery was filling the tub. She turned. The roost was a metal pole suspended on curtain rods and painted white. It was usually in the shop, but they brought it up for bathing purposes. Elliott removed the Pigeons from her arms and went up to get the other 6. She would leave the boys in their cages or they would panic. Going back up, she gathered Mud Puddles, Tyiler, Nestling, Hymer, Spiral, and Leaflet; a white with brown spots, white, Henley, Ramsgate, Aberdeen, and Stroud, respectively. They all just fit on the roost. Avery walked back in with the tub, and wiped her hands on a towel. Elliott pulled out the special shampoo. Yes, you can buy bird shampoo. They got to work.

By the time they were done, they had minutes to clean up before the shop opened. The boys had been idiots as predicted. Water was all over the floor, and a plate had broken- again. The minimal water on their clothes had dried, and the pigeons sat on their shoulders as they carried the tub back up, and the roost back down. The boys didn't get much exercise, because whenever the sisters tried to have them in the shop, they were walking a line of being sued for human abuse by a bird. Avery made sure every book was right-side up, and every set of stationary was straight, Elliott checked her evergreen watch, and at promptly 11:00, switched the closed sign to open.