A/N: I know this is kind of not what I usually do, but I figured I'd shake things up for a change! Welcome to the world of Maximum Ride, and while I don't claim to own it, it's by far the coolest place I know! Enjoy this one-shot, and as for all you fellow fans, this fits in between books 7 & 8, so as a warning, there might be a few spoilers! As for all you non-fans, I hope this'll give you some incentive to join the awesome Ride! Trust me, you won't regret it! R&R please!
Oh, no. God, no. Nudge is not about to me make me go along with this. "C'mon, Max! It'll be fun! Can't I be a normal girl? Just for one night? Is that too much to ask?"
I sigh. Again with the "normal" crap. Like having freaking wings is anywhere close to "being normal." "Nudge—" I begin, until I'm rudely interrupted by the bird kid behind me.
"Yeah, Max. She deserves it. And believe it or not, you do too," he states, taking my hand and twining our fingers together. I pull away involuntarily, not really in the mood to deal with Dylan's lovey-dovey attitude. Right now, I'm still trying to wrap my head around Nudge's "big idea."
"Please?" she pleads, looking up at me poutily. I have to admit, she isn't as good as—well, she's pretty good. Besides, since when has she ever asked for anything else other than a little bit of normalcy?
"Fine," I mumble through clenched teeth. "Only for tonight though. Then we act like this never happened and move on with our 'anti-normal' lives." Thankfully she didn't hear the last part, or she'd probably be furious about my so-called "pessimism." What? I'm just being realistic.
People act like they'd rather die than get real every now and then. And trust me, I've been close to death more times than the average mutant; it's much easier to do the latter. But I'll save the rest of my ranting for later. "Yay!" Nudge exclaims, hugging my neck. "Oh, my gosh! Now I have to figure out what to wear!"
"Be ready in thirty minutes, Nudge," I call, but she's already disappeared down the hallway toward her room. I turn back to face Dylan, who hasn't budged in the slightest; he's just standing here, looking at me forlornly, like being with me is nothing but a pipe dream anymore. Well, he's certainly right about one thing. I think. Lately, I'm not totally sure about how I feel toward this whole complicated "she loves me, she loves me not" deal with him.
I mean, Fang was-is-like my soul mate. I thought so, anyhow. We barely know how to speak to each other now, ever since he left the flock. But Dylan, well, he was made for me. Literally. Really gives a bird kid a headache to think about it. Which explains why I continue to avoid the situation.
So now that you're all caught up on my lovely dilemma, let's get back to this evening, shall we? (Though I'd much rather talk about my messed up love life than go along with Nudge's plans for tonight.) I make him leave so I can change, and because of my less-than-girly factor, I stick to the basics. My hair's a mess, but oh well, when is it not? I only spend half my life in the air, letting the breeze whip it around till it looks like I flew through a tornado (and those are not fun, let me tell you!)
I know Nudge would disapprove entirely, but as of now, I could very well care less. She's already making me follow-through with her idea, and being "in style" isn't a part of the deal. I walk outside and bang on Nudge's door, making her come out here so we can get this over with. She begrudgingly follows, none too enthused by my lethargic attitude, and we make our way to the door. Somehow, it feels like we're missing somebody.
A very special somebody. But I'm not ready to tell you that story just yet. I highly doubt I'll ever be. "So, where to first, Nudge?" I ask, looking up at the sky.
Too bad we can't just fly to where we're going. But Nudge will go berserk if I even mention it. "Follow me," she replies, taking my hand and pulling me through the swarm of people that have recognized us. God, we're mutants, not celebrities! Well, technically…never mind.
That's a story for another time. We weave through the growing crowd until we reach a tiny boutique. "Hm, The Glade? Doesn't look too promising," I tell her, watching the G flicker on and off incessantly. Nudge groans.
"Just come on," she answers, walking inside. Out of habit, when I step through the door, I immediately start looking for possible escape routes. Never know when a bird's got to fly the coop, right? Nudge's attention is caught by the jewelry, so she drags me over with her and begins asking how she looks. I'm not one to get all dolled up for stuff, so I'm really unsure how to answer her.
Catching on to my ignorance, she stops what she's doing and crosses over to me. My eyes have wandered over to a necklace with a fang in the center. Fang. Oh God, I miss him so much!
But he's with that "Maya" girl now. He doesn't love me. Never even told me so, not even once (goodbye letters don't count!) I choke back the tears I feel coming on.
No. I won't cry. Not in front of Nudge like this. I have to be strong. "Max, are you okay? What are you…?" she trails off, noticing the faraway look in my eyes. As soon as she sees the fang necklace, she nods in understanding.
"Oh," she breathes. Then, silence. "You…miss him now, don't you?" Try every freaking moment of every day! I nod slowly, unable to trust my mouth with words at this point.
"You know," Nudge begins. "It's okay to cry sometimes. I understand you like being strong in front of us, because it's such a big comfort to the whole flock. Max, you're like, the strongest person I know! I'm sure Gazzy and Iggy and Dylan feel exactly the same way. And Fang, well, he's missing out on a girl greater than any 'Maya' could ever be! Who else would sacrifice herself for the good of the flock? Certainly not Jeb!"
Her words almost break me. Almost. While it's true I would do such a thing to save them, I'm reminded that I failed to save that one person. The one that meant the most to me, was like my entire world almost. My precious little baby.
I failed her, and now it's my job to make sure I don't fail the others. It's the least I can do to avenge her. I refuse tears. "No, I'm fine. Really." Nudge raises an unconvinced eyebrow at me.
"You sure?" I nod. "Okay then."
"I, uh, think I'll go look at some of the other stuff. You have your money, right?" Of course she does. She wouldn't leave home without it when she knows it's a girl's night out. She nods, smiling as I walk away.
I try to act interested, I really do. But let's face it, trendy clothes and gobs of make-up just aren't my thing. My eyes keep wandering back to the jewelry section, back to where the fang necklace is at. Why does it have to remind me so much of him? As if my life isn't already hard enough without all the deprecating reminders of the past.
I force myself to turn away, walking over to Nudge to check up on her. She seems to be fishing shirts out of her size and trying them on, one by one. First a purple flowery top; then a blue "save the drama for a llama" tee; then a red shirt with "faith" monogrammed across the front. She ends up putting them all back, unsatisfied by every single one, and begins going through the pants. "Find anything?" I ask, looking over at her expectantly.
"Not yet," she mumbles, pulling out a pair of capris with a pink hem.
"Those look nice." She glares up at me and rolls her eyes.
"Yeah, but they're totally not in style right now! Everybody knows not to wear capris in the middle of winter." Oh yeah, forgot about that. Shows how much I know. As I look around my eyes catch the jewelry section yet again.
Only this time, the necklace is gone. Guess someone bought it while I wasn't looking. But it doesn't matter. Turning back to where Nudge is looking, I notice she's already up at the front checking out. She has a tiny purple bag in her hand, and I silently wonder what she ended up getting.
"Ready, Max? Now it's time to go eat at Pepe's Pizzeria!" She doesn't have to tell me twice. I'm starving! Flying takes a lot out of a person! We walk out of The Glade and run across the street to the pizzeria, setting the chimes off as we clamber inside and sink into the nearest booth.
Lucky for us, today they have the dinner buffet special, so as soon as we order our drinks, we make a run for the buffet counter and fill a few plates. A piece. Growing bird kids have to eat too, you know. And thanks to our supercharged metabolisms, it takes a lot to fill us up. Nudge grabs about eight slices; I get ten.
People are staring, but like we really care? When are they not staring at a pair of ravenous mutants like us? Well, they call it "enhanced," but that's just their nice way of trying to act like we aren't total screw-ups. As if we don't know how bad the School messed us up. Though I have to admit, I kind of can't picture being normal now.
Not to say that it was enjoyable being locked in dirty cages and being poked and prodded by whitecoats half my life, but point being, I wouldn't trade my flock for the world. Or my wings. "So, Nudge, what'd you get from the boutique?" I ask, hoping to start a conversation with her that she might actually consider "normal."
"Oh, nothing really," she replies vaguely, taking a bite out of her third piece. "Just a present for someone." Oh, that narrows it down to about six—five—bird kids, one MIA doctor, my half-sister (who also happens to be missing), my dead Eraser half-brother (who has a knack for coming back to life), and a backstabbing whitecoat who just so happens to share my DNA. What an unlucky bunch we've turned out to be. Maybe we do need a little bit of "normal" in our lives like Nudge keeps talking about.
"Oh," I say. "Who?"
"Someone who means a whole lot to me." That really tells me a lot. Somehow I get the feeling she doesn't want to say, so instead of asking her anymore about, I try to change the subject.
"So, uh, how's school gone for you so far?"
"Well, aside from the snide remarks I get for my wings in Gym class, I guess it's going okay," she sighs, and I can tell this really bothers her.
"Sure you don't want me to handle that for you?" I ask, polishing off the last bit of my meal.
"No, Max, it's fine. I can handle it myself," she answers, and I realize that she's kind of ashamed to admit these things to me. Like she doesn't want me to protect her for some reason.
"You sure? I can bust noses with the best of them," I smirk, trying to get a laugh out of her. But instead, I get a low, disgruntled groan.
"I can take care of myself, Max. I'm not a baby!" Of course she's not. She's never been given to chance to be one. Neither has the rest of the flock (aside from Dylan, and he technically doesn't count). Neither have I.
"I know that, Nudge. You're perfectly capable of taking care of yourself. I was just trying to be nice to you. I don't really get the chance to do stuff like this on a regular basis. Normally I'm stuck watching over the rest of the flock, or busting up some Erasers and Flyboys, or even just going to school like every other normal kid on this earth does."
My words strike her as odd for some reason, because she cocks her head to the side and asks, "You mean to tell me you enjoy spending time with me like this? I thought you didn't like trying to be 'normal.'"
"Who am I kidding? Sure, it's not at the top of my list of 'Things I Love Doing,' but if it means spending some quality time with you, Nudge, I'd suffer through it. You deserve to be happy, and I feel like maybe this, in some small, unnoticeable way, could contribute to that. I know I'm constantly busy with things and never seem to have any time left in the day to see you, but I promise Nudge, I love you just as much as I love the rest of the flock. Even if I have to act 'normal' to be with you, I want you to know that."
I watch quietly as a small, almost invisible tear escapes down her cheek. Hm, who knew I could be such a tear-jerker? But to tell the truth, I kind of mean it. Down to the last word. She may not be my baby, but she'll always hold a special place in my heart, even though I don't act like it sometimes.
She hugs me, knowing full well I'm not the touchy feely kind of person, and hands me the bag. "Well, I wanted it to be a surprise later on, but Max, I got it for you." I hold it gingerly in my hands, my mind flying in about a billion directions as I attempt to figure out what's inside. "Well? You going to just stand there? C'mon, Max. We don't got all day! See what's inside," she coaxes, looking up at me sweetly.
I reach my hand into it, not daring to look until I pull it out. It grasps onto something slightly hard, and I know immediately what it is without even having to look. "The fang necklace," I gasp, glancing at Nudge, astonished. "But how'd you…?"
"It has a slight magnetism to it, so when you weren't looking, I swiped it from the rack without even having to walk over to it! Do you like it?" For some unfathomable reason, I can't seem to answer her question. All I can do is stare blankly at the necklace in my hand. So many memories.
"Oh, no. I shouldn't have gotten it, should I? I'm so sorry, Max! I knew I shouldn't have! I'll, uh, go take it back right now if you want!" What! NO!
"No! I mean, no, Nudge, it's fine. I love it. Really," I say, twirling the charm through the air. Somehow, I feel like it should belong to me, and it bothers me to think that someone else could end up with it.
"Oh, that's a relief," she sighs. "Would you like me to snap it on for you?" I nod, handing it to her. She snaps it in place, then turns to face me. "Oh, Max! It fits you just perfect! I'm so glad you like it!"
I smile, noticing the excitement in her voice. "Thanks, Nudge. Thank you so much." This is turning out to be a lot better than I thought it'd be. Maybe not my idea of a breathtaking escapade, but I still love being with Nudge like this. And I'm kind of glad she's so happy about it.
"Anything for you, Max," she beams back. I stand there, not really sure of anything else to say. Strangely, it doesn't feel awkward really; it actually feels kind of, well, cliché as this sounds, right. After standing here a few more minutes, I turn to make for the door.
"You coming, Nudge? We still have a whole entire city to explore!" I exclaim, rushing out the door.
"Coming, Max!" she replies, trailing me. I groan inwardly; my feet are starting to blister from all this stupid walking. How in the world do you normal people manage this kind of thing?
"Can we please fly, Nudge? My feet are dying over here," I say, hoping for the best. She frowns, seeming slightly annoyed by the question. I knew I shouldn't have asked.
But she surprises me by saying, "I thought you'd never ask!" Then she takes off, stretching her wings out fully and leaving me far behind.
"Hey, no fair! Wait up, Nudge!" And as I unfold my wings to follow her, I realize that, as messed up and abnormal as our lives may be, I know in my heart that our "normal" is as good as it gets. Thanks to a lesson taught by the gift of a fang necklace.