AN: Yes, I made another new story. This one just kind of hit me, and it's been bugging me ever since. So, here it goes! I don't own MR! This is all going to be in Fang's POV unless said otherwise. And, no, Iggy is not blind in this story.
"Fang! Get down here! The new neighbors are coming over." my mom called. I sighed and walked out of my room and into the living room. My adoptive sister, Nudge (who was fourteen), was there with my fraternal twin brother, Iggy (Who was sixteen, like me. Obviously.). My mom, Chloe, had my black hair and dark brown eyes. They were so dark that they appeared black. And we both had olive skin.
My dad, Mike, had the same strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes as Iggy. He was also pale and tall like Iggy. Both of them were 6'4'', just two inches taller than me. But I was more built than them, so ha!
"I wonder what our new neighbors are going to be like. I hope they like us. What do you think, Fang?" Nudge asked. I actually gave you the edited version. She had this whole rant, but the above is all I got out of it.
I shrugged. I had always been the quieter one in the family. I just didn't like to talk a lot. This, of course, earned me the nickname of Mr. Tall, Dark, and Silent. Iggy and I were both "hot", and the girls were all over us. Iggy liked this. I, however, couldn't stand it, simply because I didn't like any of the girls that approached me. Plus, I knew that they didn't like me because of who I was, but because of how I look.
Nudge was pretty popular too. She was way into fashion, but, thank God, she was not a snob. She was just a perky chatter box fashionista. The guys liked her, and she had a boyfriend, Jake, that she really liked.
The doorbell ringing knocked me back into the present. Mom went to open the door. She led the Martinez family into the room. Valencia, aka Dr. M, the mom, was a Hispanic woman. She had dark hair and brown eyes. She smiled kindly at us, and she seemed to be nice enough.
There was another girl that looked to be Nudge's age. She was a younger copy of Dr. M, but her eyes seemed to be slightly darker than Dr. M's. She seemed like she'd be a really good friend for Nudge.
The smallest girl, who looked to be about eight, was adorable. Yes, call the cops, Fang said adorable. But it was true. She had on a little dress. Her blonde curls fell over her shoulders and her eyes were sky blue. She had this…angelic smile on her face that looked so innocent.
The next smallest kid, however, had a mischievous look about him. Almost exactly like Iggy's. He had blonde hair that was spiked up, and was wearing total camoflouge. His eyes were the same sky blue as his sister's.
But it was the last girl, the oldest, that caught my attention. She looked to be mine and Iggy's age, and she was beautiful. She had dirty blonde hair. The tips of her bangs were dyed a dark blue, somewhere in between normal blue and navy blue. There were also streaks of the same blue in her hair. She had her mom's eyes, and they kind of reminded me of melted chocolate. But her eyes had this…light in them that her mom's didn't. She had an athletic, but curvy body. She was wearing ripped black jeans and a green tank top. Green jacket with black paint splatters. Tied around her left leg was a green bandanna.
She was almost hidden behind the others, not like she was scared or shy, but more like she was used to them doing all the talking. In fact, she had this bored expression on her face. Her eyes seemed to lazily study the room as well as me and my family, but I could see the sharp attentiveness in them. Her whole body was tense and alert, yet she seemed so relaxed. It was only slight differences that most people would've missed. Luckily, I wasn't most people.
"Welcome to the neighborhood." Mom told them. "I'm Chloe, and this is My husband Mike. And these are our kids, James, Monique, and Nicholas. Although everyone calls them Iggy, Nudge, and Fang." She gestured to each of us as she said our names.
Dr. M smiled at her. "I'm Val, or Dr. M, as the kids' friends call me. This is Ella." She pointed to her younger copy. "This is Angel." The angelic girl. "And this is Zack, or Gazzy." Mischievous boy. "And back here is Maximum Ride. She kept her father's name when we were divorced. But everyone calls her Max."
The other kids said hi, except for Max, who just nodded to us.
"So, how are you guys liking the neighborhood so far?" Mike asked them. Ella, Angel, and Gazzy all started rambling about how cool it was. "Max?" my dad asked, noticing that she was silent. Max shrugged and nodded her head towards her siblings, silently saying that she agreed with them. At the rest of my family's confused looks, she sent her mom an exasperated look.
"Oh, right." Dr. M murmured. "Max had an…accident when she was younger. She has vocal cord paralysis, meaning she can't talk. So she speaks through gestures, sign language, or writing what she wants to say down. We're all so used to it that it's easy to forget that not everyone knows about it.
"Isn't it hard not to be able to talk?" Iggy asked.
Max's hand was flying, making several different signs. Ella watched her closely, then said, "She says that it does get annoying sometimes, but that she's used to it at this point." Max nodded and shrugged.
Everyone went up to my room. The walls were black, the bed was black, heck, everything was black. Max signed something to Ella. When I raised an eyebrow at her, she giggled and said, "Max says, 'Whoa, black much?'"
I rolled my eyes. "It's my favorite color." I said. I handed her a notebook and a pen, so Ella wouldn't have to keep translating for us.
I can tell. She wrote and showed me and the others. I rolled my eyes and sat on the bed. She noticed my acoustic guitar and gestured to it, raising an eyebrow.
"I don't mind." I told her. She picked it up and played a couple notes. To me, it sounded perfectly tuned, but Max frowned and started slightly adjusting the tuning knobs. She played it again and closed her eyes. Iggy started to ask what she was doing, but Ella clapped her hand over his mouth with a "Shh!"
Still with her eyes closed, Max continued tuning the guitar until it made the most beautiful, crystal clear sound that I'd ever heard come from it. Then she started strumming it. Recognizing the song, I started singing along with the tune.
This town is colder now,
Max seemed surprised by my voice, or maybe that I was singing with her playing, but she smiled and continued anyways.
I think it's sick of us.
It's time to make our move,
I'm shakin' off the rust.
I've got my heart set
On anywhere but here.
I'm staring down myself,
Counting up the years.
Steady hands just take the wheel
And every glance is killing me.
It's time to make one last appeal
For the life I lead.
Stop and stare.
I think I'm moving but I go nowhere.
Yeah, I know everyone gets scared,
But I've become what I can't be.
Oh oh
Stop and stare.
You start to wonder why you're here, not there.
And you'd give anything to get what's fair,
But fair aint what you really need.
Oh, can you see what I see?
They're trying to come back,
All my senses push.
Untie the weight bags,
Never thought I could…
Steady feet don't fail me now.
Gonna run 'till you can't walk.
Something pulls my focus out,
And I'm standing down…
Stop and stare.
I think I'm moving but I go nowhere.
Yeah, I know that everyone gets scared,
But I've become what I can't be.
Oh, oh, oh
Stop and stare.
You start to wonder why you're hear, not there.
And you'd give anything to get what's fair,
But fair aint what you really need.
Oh, you don't need.
Here, Max played some rhythms by herself for a few seconds before I came back in again. Max's playing softened some as I came back in.
Stop and stare.
I think I'm moving, but I go nowhere.
Yeah, I know that everyone gets scared,
But I've become what I can't be.
Oh, do you see what I see?
We ended together and the others clapped. You've got a great voice. Max said (AN: If I say Max says something, it means she wrote it on her paper. Just thought I'd clarify that.)
"Thanks. You've got to teach me how to tune it like that. I've never heard that kind of sound come from it before." I said.
Max wrote something on the notebook and showed it to me, shrugging apologetically. Can't. My hearing is better than most other people. That's why I can tune it so closely. "Huh. Well, then you should tune all of our band's instruments." I told her.
"We're called The Flock. We've gotten pretty popular around here lately." Max nodded, agreeing to this.
"Maybe you could even play with us sometimes." I said. "You're really good." Max shrugged again. I decided to take that as a maybe. Max started fiddling around with my guitar again. I couldn't help but feel bad for her. It must suck, not being able to talk. And she was a closed off person. Not too easy to read. I was worried about how she'd fit in at school, and later offered to Dr. M to put Max in all of my classes, so I could show her around, and there would be someone she knew in all of them. Iggy was in most of my classes too, so that made it even better. Dr. M agreed, and seemed really happy that I was willing to take care of Max.
I went back upstairs to my room. Max was lying against my pillows. Her eyes were closed, her hands behind her head, and she looked asleep. But I knew she wasn't. She was too tense to be asleep. My point was proven when I sat on the bed, because her eyes snapped open to see who was sitting next to her. She nodded to me in acknowledgement, then closed her eyes again.
Angel curled up next to her, and Max wrapped an arm around the little girl. Gazzy did the same thing on her other side, and she did the same with him. "I'm tired, Max." Angel murmured.
Max smiled, but didn't open her eyes. She made a couple signs, which Angel watched closely. She smiled and rested her head against Max's shoulder, closing her eyes.
"What did she say?" I asked Ella.
"She said then go to sleep."
Max watched the TV blankly. She looked bored. She looked around my room again and her eyes fell on a picture. She frowned and grabbed it, looking at it closely. It was a picture of me and Nudge when we were little. It was actually the first day that she'd come back. I was actually smiling in the picture, instead of my usual smirk or half-smile. Max smiled slightly and put the picture back on my nightstand.
My mom called us down for dinner. The others ate and talked happily. I struck up a conversation with Max, and found that I could read her gestures and facial expressions easily. She seemed surprised by this, as did the others. When I asked why, Ella just told us that nobody could read Max like that. It seemed to make Max uneasy, like she didn't like the fact that I could read her. But I guess the fact that she could read me just as easily made up for it.
"So, Max, where did you learn to play?" I asked her.
She shrugged and wrote Dad taught me. "Where is your dad?" I asked. Pain, anger, and sadness entered her eyes, and I knew I hit a nerve. I don't want to talk about it. she replied.
"Max! It's time to go back home!" her mom called.
"See you tomorrow?" I asked. It was summer vacation, so it's not like we had to worry about school.
She smirked and wrote, Talk in complete sentences? But she nodded and waved, walking towards her family and out the door. I smirked. Things definitely just got a lot more interesting. Max wasn't snobby and slutty like the other girls around here. She was tough, sarcastic, funny, beautiful, and, deep down, she had a softer side that we rarely got to see. I think this summer was going to be fun.
AN: So, review and tell me what you guys think. And don't worry, even when Max can't talk, she'll still make people look like idiots. She's just cool like that. And we get to see Lissa vs. Max in the next chapter. So review, and I might update faster. *hint, hint*