Don't worry, I'll be updating Never Saw You soon. But this story just came to me in the about seven hour long car ride (That I had to go through twice!), so I had my pad with me and I started to write it down. I've already got half of the next chapter for Never saw you written down back at home, and I would be working on it now, but as I said before, mom thought it would be great if we went on this four day long holiday. On the bright side, it is now the school holiday. On the bad side. Mom once again thinks it's a brilliant idea to go on another trip. So I don't know how much I'll be able to update.
I need a bit of help though, I'm not sure what the city or town or whatever in this book should be called. Read the chapter and tell me what you think in a review?
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I'm a girl of extremes.
When I love something, I'm like a puppy dog (without all the licking). When I'm cranky, I'm a wasp (Like, a whole hive of 'em). And when I'm angry, I'm a mother bear with a predator after her cubs: Dangerous.
Why am I like this? Being in a gang can do that some people.
Who am I? My name is Maximum ride. But I swear, call me that and you'll be walking away with a bloody nose.
I'm not joking about that. Just call my Max. Anything else, especially Maxie or Maxine, well… let's just say I warned you…
I wasn't always so violent, but that had to change when I lost my dad, Jeb. Well, he wasn't really my father, he as actually my foster father.
I never knew my father or my mother. Ever since I can remember, I was growing up in this horrible house where the people just adopted everyone for the money. They barely fed us enough to survive; I got it worse than most. Being the oldest, I had to support my two younger sisters, Ella and Nudge, which usually meant I gave up half my food to them. About when I was seven or eight (I'm not quite sure when my birthday is) Jeb (Who was working there at the orphan house place at that time) smuggled us out and took us to his home.
That where my sisters and I stayed for a while.
Then one day when he was coming home from work, Jeb vanished. Literately, POOF, gone. There was no way I was letting my sisters and I go back to that horrid orphan house, so we started to live on the street.
I had wandered the streets and alleys while I was staying with Jeb, in case something like this happened. By then, I was an excellent pickpocket and thief.
Nudge, being only one year younger than me, was eager to help (Ella was two years younger). So I started bringing her along with me, teaching her everything I knew.
It wasn't much, but it let us survive for a couple year. We were fine until a little while ago. We were running away after a particularly good theft when I dog managed to bite Ella just above her ankle.
Nudge bashed the dog on the head with a bit of pipe she left lying around on the road, and we managed to get anyway.
I bandaged up Ella's leg, and she convinced me she was fine, she just needed rest. The next morning when Nudge and I got up, we found our younger sister shivering in a horrible fever.
We didn't have much of a choice. We had to get her to a doctor, and that meant going to a hospitable.
Just the place I try to avoid.
To get there we had to cut through some town whose name I didn't bother finding out.
As we were cutting though an alley, I heard a noise and turned in time to see a tall figure slam a punch into Nude, who was following behind me, and send her rolling to the ground.
I yanked her up quickly as two more people joined the first. I shoved an unconscious Ella into her arms. In the middle of the alley I could see a small brick clearing, most likely because of a gap between a couple houses.
"Run!" I shouted at Nudge as I pushed her toward it.
As my sister started for the clearing, o of the attackers-there were definitely in a gang of some sorts. I could see now that all the ones that were attacking me were boys- leapt after her, only to have my fist swing into his jaw as I stepped forward. I watched the other calmly as he dropped to the ground.
He had hit one of my sisters, I wasn't about to let him get away with that.
I'm not sure what happened next, all I know was that I was ducking, whirling, punching and kicking as the other went after me. One of them had a ring that opened a cut above me right eyebrow when I was slow to doge. The other got a brilliant kick at my ankle that I failed to avoid.
I knew I was going to feel that later for sure.
Pain is just a message. I told myself firmly.
I was doing really well, I sure I would have won too, but then someone had to come along and spoil my fun.
Well, more than someone. It looked like the rest of the three poor dudes gang had come along to help them.
I quickly gave the guy in front of me one last kick in a gut before making a run for it. I sprinted down the alley to where the clearing was. What was Nudge doing standing there? It was dark and I could see her too well, but why wasn't she running with Ella?
I could hear footfalls behind me as the gang chased after me.
My sore ankle slowed me down a bit, and by the time I had almost reached the edge of the clearing in the alley, I could feel my chasers hot breath on the back of my neck.
When I thought the guy had finally caught me, I burst into the clearing. I was almost across it when someone knocked my legs from beneath me and sent me flying. The same person –thankfully- caught me before I hit the ground and in a second my back was pressed against someone's chest-definitely a girl-and their arm was wrapped around my throat.
"Stay still and be quiet." My captor hissed in my ear.
It's not like I could do much else.
I was a bit surprised it wasn't the gang boy from before holding me, and I turned my head slightly to see where he was, just in time to see another girl-at least, I thought it was a girl- wham a punch into his stomach sending him flying to where the rest of his gang crowded at the edge of the other side of the alley.
Movement caught my eye and I turned my head again to see one of the girl-gang members leaning over Ella. Nudge was being held just like me right by her, but seemed to trust the stranger enough to look at Ella. If Nudge thought it was ok, I could live with that for now.
"Hand them over."
I turned my head back to see which one of the boys was talking. The boy was taller than all the others and stood at the front- obviously marking him the leader.
The girl-who must have been the leader of the gang-girls I was with- raised an eyebrow mockingly and tilted her head slightly, as if saying; Excuse me?
Gang-boy-leader gave a nod in my direction. "Hand her and the other two over. They were on our territory."
Gang-girl-leader snorted and looked at them, then her eyes followed the entrance we used to get to the alley. The she looked at all her gang members and looked back to where the boys were standing. Even I could understand what she was saying.
They might have been on your territory, but now they're on mine.
Hah, it's not every day you get to learn how to tell everyone something without saying it out loud or writing it down.
Boy-lead spluttered, trying to come up with a retort to that.
The girl leader's back was mostly to me, but her expression must have been terrifying for a few of the boys inched back a bit. I only needed to glance at her to know what the meaning was.
LEAVE.
And they left.
Leaving Nudge, Ella and I in the hands of the gang of girls. Well at least I thought it was a whole gang of girls. They all wore some sort of cloak with a hood that they had pulled over their head.
Once the boys were out of sigh, both Nudge and I were released and I saw that whoever was by Ella before was gone now and in less than a second I was at my sister's side.
She was breathing softly and slowly. I pressed my hand against her forward and found it only a little bit to warm. Whatever that girl had given my sister had worked brilliantly.
I looked up to the girls and smiled. I nearly never smiled those days, but I couldn't help smiling thankfully at them. "Thank you." I whispered.
The leader or who ever it was nodded, and they all turned to leave on what must have been their side of the alley. I watched them go. Just before the leader left-she was walking at the rear-she stopped and turned back to face me. She tilted her head in the direction the rest of her gang-mates had gone and watched me.
Do you want to come?
I hesitated. I didn't really have anywhere else to go, did I? And they had helped us with Ella being sick.
My mind decided, I gently picked up Ella and walked after the leader, Nudge following silently behind me.
I followed her through a maze of alleyways, losing my way after turning the fifth corner. I followed her up a wooden ladder onto a rooftop, and then got an unforgettable experience.
How many of you have had the pleasure of travelling around a city by rooftop? Not many, I bet.
We stopped at a gap between a few buildings. The buildings were joined together at the roof, making travelling across them easy. In front of me there was some sort of gap between them, a whole about 3meters by 2meters.
While we had been travelling, the sun had been slowly setting and now everything was in shadows. I couldn't see a thing down the gap.
The gang lead nodded, and I realized she wanted me to jump down the hole when she stepped forward and took Ella from me.
I hesitated. "You're going to follow me, right?"
When the girl nodded, I took a step forward and breathed in deeply. Then dropped.
I landed and stumbled slightly, not expecting it. The ground had only been a couple or so meters down; it didn't even hurt at all.
I jumped when I felt someone grip my arm lightly, then realized it must be one of the other gang girls. At least, I hoped it was one of them.
They started leading me forward; ever so often I could feel a cold damp surface brush against my bare arms and knew we were walking down a passage way of sorts.
I turned a corner and was surprised to see light right in front of me. When my eyes adjusted back and I could see again without being blinded, I gaped with shock.
I was in a square clearing, maybe 50meters long and wide that had lush green grass with a HUGE tree in the middle.
The girl who had been leading me along walked over to the tree and, as I watched in shock, disappeared up into its hidden leafy domains as quick as a squirrel.
I glanced behind me to see the leader coming out of the passageway with Ella in her arms and Nudge following her.
Then she spoke the first words I ever heard from her, though they were in a quiet whisper.
"Welcome to the Falcon Hideout."
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That was all a few months ago. It seems somehow longer than that now, or something I read about in a book, because it feels like I've been a Striker all my life. I'll never stop feeling grateful to Danni, our leader, for letting us join.
You're all probably wondering what I'm going on about, so let me tell you all about the gangs.
There are seven main gangs in the town. The Strikers, the Stalkers, the Shadows, the Hunters, the Frenzies, the NightWalkers and the KnockOuts. Truces are made and broken quickly, so I'm not to sure whose allies with whom at the moment.
Every gang has its own history. The one I know the most about would be the Strikers; because that's the gang I'm in.
The Strikers are definitely the smallest gang. Most of the other gangs have maybe 30-ish members. After Nudge, Ella and I joined the Strikers had 13. None of the other gangs know this though, they think we have about 27 members, and we're not going to tell them other wise.
Every gang has an animal as their symbol. Something that represents their talents, and is tattooed onto the wrist of one arm. The Strikers animal is a Flacon, to represent to movement around rooftops.
That's what the Striker talent is. We "fly" from rooftop to rooftop, earning us the nickname; 'Girls that Fly'. Not very interesting, but it does make us feel slightly prideful when ever we hear someone say it. It's said that once a Striker gets onto a roof, you would be able to catch her. I'll admit, we are really fast when we get onto a roof. And we're brilliant climbers too. I'm not trying to brag, but you'd be amazed what we can climb up in seconds.
Nearly everyone in all the gangs attend school. In fact, being in one of the import seven gangs makes you quite popular at school.
But no one knows who we are. Well, they know who the Strikers are, but they don't know it's us.
Why?
Because we wear masks. None of the other gangs do, but we're special. The mask is a thin metal that somehow seems to stay the same heat as our body. Doesn't go hot, doesn't go cold. Anyway, it doesn't cover up our whole face, just the top half of our face. It ends just below our eyes, but was a beak that goes down to the end of our nose and curves downwards. Each mask also has feathers along the top of it. We all have our own private feather in the middle of our mask (Mine is white-ish with soft brown markings on it).
Trust is huge in our gang. Danni says that if we can't trust each other, you can't trust anyone. When you decide that you trust a gang member completely-like, with your life- you give them one of your private feathers for them to put on their mask. Like, I've got my white and brown speckled feather in the middle at the top of my mask, then six others on the right, and six others on the left, because I've gained the trust of everyone in our group. The other gangs don't trust each other this much, and we're closer than a family. It's nice to be able to trust someone with everything.
We're big with secrets as well. That's why we don't promise people much. If we break a promise, we owe the person we broke it to anything they want. So if Striker promises they'll do something, they will do it.
The mask is tied back with a wide piece of dark blue cloth, same color as the mask itself. Although the finishing result might not sound the best, wearing the mask makes you completely unrecognizable.
And if you make us mad, like really mad, if you're wearing the mask, you just tilt you're head down a tiny bit and at the right angle, all the feathers on top seem to fluff up and makes you look really scary. It was how Danni scared away the Stalkers a few months ago.
The cloak we wear because it makes us look cool. Alright and to keep us warm.
But mostly because it looks cool.
Except when we're in the Hideout with the masks off-or at school-, we don't talk.
At all.
Because if we did talk, it wouldn't be long before someone at school recognized our voice. And then the Striker's identity would be out, and we really don't want that. It's easier when no one knows that you're a Striker. Like, no one from another gang who might have a grudge on you would even know it's you who might have bashed him in the head. We've never even been allies with one of the other gangs.
We love the thrill of flying over buildings and across gaps. There is nothing better than being a Striker.
Now, the Stalkers… A Stalker will follow a person for a while before they attack them. They were the ones who went after us those few months ago. Not someone you want to meet in an alley. Their animal symbol is a lion. A stalking lion.
Suits them.
The Stalkers have only boys in their gang, like how we Strikers are only girls. Orphan or runaway girls, in fact.
Then there are the Shadows. I don't know too much about this gang. They keep to themselves a bit. The Shadow's talent is to blend in with shadows. You apparently don't see them until they're in front of you. Sometimes not even then.
Their symbol is a wolf. I'm not sure why, you'd have to ask a Shadow. Well, you'd have to find them first. I can think of quite a few different animals that would be good at hiding in shadows than a wolf. But, hey, if a wolf makes them happy it's their choice. Their gang have both male and female in it. I know this because they go to school. At school, if people know you're a Shadow, you're one of the most popular people there. After us, I think the Shadows are the smallest gang.
The Hunters. Hmm, let me see. Hunters are known to personally hunt someone down, a bit like the Stalkers in a few ways. But you'd definitely want to be hunted down by a Hunter, than stalker by a Stalker. Hunters only fight with you enough to get your money or whatever else valuable you might have. Stalkers beat you up first. And then take your stuff afterwards.
The Hunter's animal symbol is badger. I don't know too much about badgers, so I'm not sure if it suites them or not. They definitely let both genders into their gang. I've seen HEAPS of Hunters walking around at school (Or so I've heard).
The Frenzies are next. They're not the most liked gang, but you can dare them to do anything. They love a rush of adrenaline, which will make them do all sorts of crazy things. Their animal is a Monkey I think. Both girls and boys are allowed to join. Other than that, I don't know too much about them.
The NightWalkers are people that we Strikers sometimes run into at night. They have brilliant night-time vision, hence the Owl as their symbol. They rob and steal from anyone at night-time. Probably people coming home from clubs and places like that. These guys let both girls and boys join, too. That's about all I know about them.
The last main gang are the KnockOuts. They're a group of sexist pigs. A quote from school one time; "There is no way a girl could do anything we do. Girls are too weak."
Amusingly, he had to be sitting near Danni who said; "What about the Striker girls? I'm sure they could do much better than you."
This stopped the guy from bragging about much else.
As you have most likely worked out, the KnockOuts are a boy-only gang. They wait in alleys in their territory, and when someone walks by alone, they yank them in and knock them out, stealing their money and anything else interesting. At least they don't beat you up, like a couple of the other gangs. I don't get why they think a girl couldn't do that. The only other thing I know about a KnockOut is that their animal symbol is a Snake.
So those are the seven main gangs. There are quite a few little ones, but they don't really do too much.
Everyone in the town knows about the gangs, and the police don't dare stop us, in fear we might cause some other trouble. Fearful of the other gangs, people mostly walk around in the Striker territory, feeling safer because they know they won't get knocked out, or beaten up. It's great for us, because it makes it do easy to pickpocket them. We don't wear the cloak or mask when thieving because that would just give us Strikers away, but we do wear dark blue clothes. That's like the color we are, you like who the Shadows are black.
So now you know all about the gangs. Well, mostly about the Strikers and little bit about the other gangs.
Because of all the time we spent out on the streets, we hadn't learnt too much in terms of math or anything like that. For the past few months, one of the other Strikers called Ava had been teaching me anything I might need to know. She declared me and my siblings ready yesterday. Today will be my first day of school.
Oh joy.
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So… Did you like it? I know it's probably not a very good chapter, but this does tell you a god bit about the gangs in my story, and how Max and her two siblings joined one of them.
Please review!
Now that I'm back from my trip (I had to copy that whole chapter of a pad!), I can work on the chapter of Never Saw You. I'll update that story much ore than this one, but I will try to get chapters up quickly for you guys.
Thanks everyone!
The Gallagher Girl
