IT IS HERE.

I can't tell you how oddly relieved I am to finally put this up... I've been working on it for a while and rewrote these chapters at least five times each... so hopefully you like it even though it's probably FILLED with mistakes because of how many times I edited it.

I really, really hope I managed to PM everybody that asked me to. If I didn't, SO VERY SORRY :( If I can make it up to you somehow, tell me.

Disclaimer: Hi, lawyers! I don't own Maximum Ride.

The cold bit at my cheeks as I walked to school with Ella. But that was seriously the last thing on my mind. Ella shouldn't have been the person walking to my right. Fang should be there. My whole world had shifted of its axis and nothing felt right.

"And I'll repeat it again, because you don't seem to be listening to me, but you look so cute it's unreal." Ella's voice held that baby-talk quality that it took on whenever she talked about makeup, clothes, boys, Justin Bieber, all that crap.

I shook my head to clear it. "What are you talking about again?"

Ella sighed impatiently. "I wish you'd let me doll you up more often. You look cute."

I looked down. "Oh. Yeah." I'd been really out of it since Fang had moved, and my resolve had weakened. Previously, I'd totally put my foot down with Ella with anything that concerned dressing me up. If it was up to her, I'm sure she'd love to dress me everyday, like her life-size Barbie doll. She already had, as she put it, 'dolled me up.' It wasn't so drastic that she'd like, totally dressed me up. She'd just used some kind of weird gel stuff in my hair that made it all soft and shiny and curled it. I'd resisted her attempts to get me into something glittery and frilly from her closet, and I'd barely been able to fend her off when she was wielding that makeup brush of hers. I'm lucky I got out of the house without anything worse than her abusing my poor hair.

I would've put up a bigger fight if I'd cared that much. But honestly. . .I didn't. Not really. Not anymore, anyway. When your best friend/boyfriend moves, it's like you can barely find a reason to go to school or fake a smile. I'd still do it. So that no one would get worried that I was getting all depressed, and blah blah blah. I was fine. It was kind of a low point in my life at the moment, but I was fine. At least that was my cover story.

"Seriously, Max, you're not listening to a freaking word I'm saying." Ella was annoyed now.

"No," I said emotionlessly. "I'm really not." I was so over listening to other people's problems.

"Anyway," Ella huffed. "I've been thinking that I could like, set you up with this guy that I know, he's really cute and actually single. His name is Devin. I could get you guys on a date. . ." She trailed off with one look at my face.

"No thanks," I said tightly, acting as though I hadn't heard a single thing Ella had said. But honestly, she should've known that I wasn't going to be dating another guy any time soon. She'd also forgotten that technically, Fang and I had made it official that we were dating. Even if we were about a half hour apart, maybe more.

"Max, really, I think you should-"

"And I think you should stop telling me who I should date, alright?" I hated being really, truly mean to my sister, because she was mostly just cluelessly happy most of the time. Her lips were set into a hard line of dissatisfaction as she swiveled her head around to face forward again.

I wondered if that meant she was going to let it go.

It was my first Monday back at school without Fang. The newness of it was guarenteed to hit me like a slap in the face every time I was reminded of it. Like when I walked into Mrs. Jenner's class and saw the empty seat next to Megan. Megan was twirling her hair and looking kinda worried, like she was afraid that Fang wouldn't show up. When five minutes had passed and Fang still hadn't showed up, and Mrs. Jenner still hadn't started the lesson, Megan wandered across the room to my desk.

"Hey, Max?" I never liked Megan. She was one of those girls that acted stupid because they thought guys found it cute.

I looked up and a curl tickled my shoulder. I pulled my hair out from where it'd gotten caught under my hoodie. I tended to pull my hood up a lot when I walked to school, and my hair constantly got stuck under my hoodie. "Mhm?"

"You're Fang's best friend, right?" The words seemed reluctant, like she didn't want to admit it.

"Yeah," I said warily.

"Do you know where he is?"

"He moved," I said sharply. She looked confused, and I hated to elaborate. "To another school, bimbo." I cocked my head menacingly.

Her eyes narrowed. "Whatever," she hissed, and returned to her seat.

Mrs. Jenner entered the room, dragging her usual stormy mood with her. I groaned internally, thinking about the mound of work she'd most likely assign. Whenever she was in a bad mood, she assigned as much work as she possibly could. Like she was getting her anger out on us. We'd also have to keep up with her pace for attendance; she tended to go fast on that when she was mad too.

"Quiet. I'm taking attendance," Mrs. Jenner barked. The class immediately hushed, and Mrs. Jenner started speeding through the list.

"Maximum," she snapped.

"Here," I said as quickly as I could. My voice sounded weird, but no one seemed to notice.

She continued with the next few names until she got to Fang. "Nicolas," she said, and tripped in her rhythm when she didn't get a 'here'. "Nicolas," she repeated, louder this time, as if she thought if she talked louder she'd get an answer from a boy that lived miles and miles away.

"He's not here," I said quietly. I raised my voice before I continued. "He moved on Thanksgiving." I barely got the words out before I was the subject of a lot of pitying glances. I glared back at them stonily before they had the decency to avert their gazes.

The other classes that I used to have with Fang continued in much of the same fashion. Teachers calling his name, not getting a response, me explaining, everyone looking at me as if I'd just announced my sister died over the weekend.

I planned to fume to Nudge during gym, but there was a little bit of a problem with that, considering she was Fang's sister and all. . .don't make me spell it out for you.

"Hey Max, where's Nudge?" some kid asked. I squinted at him and his name popped into my head. Steven. He was an awesome soccer player.

"I dunno, like, Orlando?" I glared at him and he looked taken aback. I felt kinda bad. He was a nice kid. Of course, I don't know if they actually moved to Orlando, it was just a reflex response. I knew that they hadn't left the state, I just didn't really know an exact location.

"Woah. Cool. Vacation?"

I swallowed, hoping to dislodge the lump in my throat. "No, she moved. So did Fang."

Steven's eyes widened. "Seriously? They didn't say anything to me."

"Well, the only people who really know are me and my lunch table," I hinted.

"Oh. Well I'm really sorry, Max, I know Fang was your best friend."

I raised my eyebrows. "Is," I said firmly. "Fang is my best friend. Not was. Is." It seemed like a mantra, like I was trying to convince myself more than him.

He nodded. "Yeah. See you in geometry."

"Whatever," I muttered under my breath. I hate people sometimes.

My day continued in a similar pattern. Over and over. Where's Fang? Where's Nudge? They moved? Oh. I'm sorry.

The whole world could be sorry, but that wouldn't change anything.

It was finally lunch time, and I couldn't have been happier. Well, I could've been happier if Fang jetted over here in like seven point three seconds flat and spent the rest of the day with me, but I'm pretty sure you get my point, right?

I carried my tray and my usual stack of five cookies over to the lunch table. I carried my water bottle in the crook of my arm, and used my chin to balance the wavering cookie stack. I just barely made it to the table before it fell over. I just grabbed them from where they'd fallen around the table and tucked them into the corner of my tray.

"Mrs. Jenner keeps getting moodier," I muttered, cracking open my water bottle. It fizzed up and fell down the side of the bottle, soaking my garlic bread. "Great."

"Max, you got mineral water," Carolyn giggled, pointing at the label. Sure enough, it was that expensive fizzy crap.

"Mineral water SUCKS!" I yelled, getting up to chuck it in the trash. I sat back down and eyed Iggy's water bottle before swiping it and taking a huge air-gulp. Don't ask me how I air-gulped without spilling it all over my lap, because I don't know either.

We ate silently. It was mucho awkward. We just sat there, barely glancing at each other, and avoiding looking and Fang and Nudge's empty seats as if just looking at them would make us seize up and die.

I watched as Iggy reached for where his water bottle had been. His face contorted with confusion when he didn't immediately find it. He inconspicuously felt around a little for it, but he couldn't find it.

"Hey, Gasser?" Iggy asked, sounding miserable. I instantly felt bad for taking his water bottle. He hated asking for help. He was really good with all aspects of being blind, but when someone rearranged something from what he was used to, he got confused.

"Yeah?" The Gasman was barely able to speak around the mac'n'cheese in his mouth. He tilted his head and let saliva dribble out of his mouth and onto the tray.

Tess shrieked like she'd seen a spider and shoved her chair away from him. "Ew! Don't you have any sense of pride or good manners?"

"No."

"Clearly." I rolled my eyes. Everyone glanced at me like they were scared I'd blow up at any second. And that annoyed me, but I didn't dare say anything.

"So, you were saaaaaying?" Gazzy drawled with exaggerated impatience, turning his attention back to Iggy.

Iggy's pale fingers continued to routinely sweep across the table, as if he expected the water bottle to just show up. "Where'd my water bottle go?"

Gazzy looked at me. "It's in Max's hands."

Iggy's face turned in my general direction. "Yo, water swiping: not cool."

I slipped the bottle into his outstretched palm. "Really? It was cool for me." There wasn't that much of a smile on my lips, but it was in my voice.

He shook the water bottle, holding it up to his ear. "Geez, how much did you drink? Like, the whole thing?"

"I'd say maybe I left you like, four sevenths of the bottle."

"Look who's getting all mathematic," JJ said wryly. I hated math, so that was a joke, if you didn't already pick up on that, people.

"Yeah, I'm sure Mr. Lowell would love that I can calculate things at a second-grade level," I said back. Everyone suddenly froze, staring at me. I glanced around the table in annoyance. They'd thought that I was snapping at JJ, instead of just teasingly responding to the joke. God, when would they stop treating me like one of Iggy's home-made bombs?

Carolyn sensed my annoyance and changed the subject. "So, Mrs. Jenner gave me an F on an assignment today because I wrote on both sides of the paper." She rolled her eyes.

Everyone at the table, myself included, seemed relieved with the subject shift. "Like, you wrote on the front and back of a piece of paper and she failed you?" Gazzy asked.

She nodded solemnly. "Yep. She's a megabitch."

I giggled. "That's a word?"

"Hell yes." Carolyn grinned, and I felt a huge swell of appreciation for my friend. She was the only one that really knew that treating me with the utmost care wasn't the way to go with me. They were just being careful, sure, but it wasn't like they were swinging Fang's absence in front of my face like a Hershey's bar. If they did, I probably would explode.

There was a tiny awkward silence at the table then. Gazzy was looking around mischieviously, and I realized later that I probably should've pointed out the look on his face sooner, because it almost definitely meant something. . .unpleasant was going to happen.

"I'M SEXY AND I KNOOOOOOOW IIIIIIIIT," he suddenly burped at top volume. We all stared at him, apalled, while neighboring tables muttered and laughed.

Iggy clapped him on the back. "Way to make it come out the other end!"

Tess fanned the air. "That's just gross. I can actually smell that stuff that the cafeteria calls mac'n'cheese." She indicated the Gasman's tray.

He sniffed the air and then punched it. "Yes! It smells better than McDonalds!"

"I wouldn't say that," I said, wrinkling my nose. Another round of concerned glances were shot my way.

And then the crap hit the fan.

I stood up, abruptly upending my chair. "You guys have been treating me like I'm going to explode all day. I'm not going to break just 'cause Fang's in another school right now. Hell, you guys are best friends with Fang too, right? Why aren't you treating each other like ticking time bombs?" I was met with utter silence.

Before I could seriously start regretting that, I bolted.

Fang POV

The halls of the school were intimidating. There were at least ten times more students at Jefferson High than at my old school. (A/N: Not a real school!)

And I was pretty sure I was hallucinating as I squeezed through the streams of students. I was pretty sure I saw Max a couple times. But I didn't. She wasn't there. She probably in Mrs. Jenner's class by now, and (I never thought I'd say this) but I'd give anything to be in that class with her at that moment.

Nudge's hand was on my arm. It felt like she was cutting off the blood flow. But I didn't dare complain - if she got lost she'd be dead, as the lost new girl.

"I think this is your classroom." I peeked at her classroom and pointed at a simple door with the standard notices posted in the window. Notices for joining sports, clubs, stuff like that. "Good luck. Don't talk too much and scare people off, okay? If they ask you questions, answer like a normal person. Don't tell people your life story unless they ask for it." I raised my eyebrows at her.

She touched her finger to her temple mockingly. "Got it."

"Okay. Go." I lightly shoved her towards the classroom and then took off to look for my own classroom.

I intercepted a couple curious glances on the way to my homeroom, and really wished people would stop looking at me. I didn't deal with attention well. I wasn't used to being the new guy. I didn't want to be a spectacle, and I didn't want to answer a thousand questions about what my name was and where I came from and what color my socks were (black, if you're wondering).

"Oh my God, Fang!" a voice shrieked.

I looked around, totally confused. If I was hallucinating again. . .ugh.

"Fang!"

I turned and found myself looking straight at a familiar face. . .

Halley.

Ok, so you can kill me because yes, the first chapter kind of does suck mucho and yes, I'll try to have the second one up as quickly as possible. I'm open to suggestions, too. And kinda going batshit crazy because I was so sure I wrote this one part and then when I totally scoured everything I'd written for it, it was gone.

Guys, I can't watch Wizards of Waverly place like I did when I was ten because I keep thinking that Max is the girl :S And they're like "where's Max?" And I'm like SHE'S STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, BIMBO. But then I realize her name is Alex and the guy is Max.

Alright then. Much love.

-dancerxforlifex3