Hey, guys. What's going on? So this is my first story for Maximum Ride, I absolutely love the series and am very sad its over. I'm not new to FF, I had another account that I retired from, GreekGeek1223 in case anyone sees me review their stuff, that's me. But I deleted all my stuff on that account.

Anyway, I really hope you like this story and when you're done please review. That little button is very nice.

"You're a girl?" the black haired, beau asked me.

"Physically speaking? Yes."

"Well," The equally handsome blued-eyed blonde began. "Out of all the odd things that have happened, this is by far the most beneficial."

Well, by now you are probably very confused and taking in the fact that I started my story in the middle of the beginning, I'd understand if you were. Let's see, I should probably start at the beginning of the beginning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~EARLIER THAT DAY~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Are you sure you don't need me to check you in, Max?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, mom, I'm fine."

"Alright," my mom, Valencia, said, unconvinced. "If you are sure…"

"I'm sure." I said, a little too quickly.

"Hey, Max, don't let any of these boys get to you and if you have any troubles, call me." My older, overprotective brother, Ari, said. I rolled my eyes again, like I couldn't take care of myself. I was a black belt in taekwondo, captain of the varsity basketball team, and the most badass girl at my old school. Plus, I didn't think boys were going to be a problem.

"If there are some really cute ones that you don't want, make sure you give them my number."

"Ella!" My mom exclaimed. I chuckled at my fifteen-year old, half sister. Out of all the girls I knew, Ella was the most desperate for a boyfriend.

Ella smiled innocently. "Kidding!" She said but then looked at my and gave a slight nod.

"Alright, Max, I love you, honey. I hope this place is the best for you." My mom said.

"It will be."

My mom smiled at my certainty, rolled up the window, and then drove out of the parking lot of the Institution of Top Education established by S. Xavier, ITEX for short. I was alone on the sidewalk in front of the doors, except I didn't walk through them like I was supposed to.

I walked around to the back and eventually found an unlocked door. I cracked it open and made sure that everything was clear. I snuck inside and went into a nearby janitor's closet.

The small space was cluttered with mops, brooms, and various cleaning liquids, but it would have to do. I barricaded the door with a crowbar and then started my transformation. "Transformation into what?" you might ask. Well the answer was simple but the reasons behind it were a little more complicated.

I was going to alter myself into a guy.

I'm Maxine Ride, soon to be Maximum Ride, and this is the beginning of my very screwed up story. Have you ever had that feeling that you could do something more? Well, that was the core of this whole thing. Nothing felt right when I lived back in Phoenix, even though I had been most popular girl at my school. I wanted to get out, I didn't like being perfect. I wanted so badly to do something more.

That's when I heard about ITEX from my best friend, JJ. She said that one out of every five students that went here went on to make a difference; some became life-saving doctors, others became world-redeeming scientists. One problem: it was a boarding school and snotty, rich, sluts filled all the girl slots. At least that's how I imagined it.

At first I thought it was over.

"Why not wait and apply next year?" JJ had asked.

"Because I need to get out now. Plus after your junior year, they don't accept as many applicants. I need to go there, JJ. I'm tired of this, going through each day like its nothing. If I stay here then I'm going to end up like the rest of us, grow up, go to Arizona State on basketball scholarship, get married, have half a dozen kids, and die. Like. I. Was. Nothing." I ranted dramatically.

"OK, you are being over-dramatic." She had said. "And who says that you're life is going to go like that, you may go to the University of Phoenix and have half a dozen cats." She joked. I glared at her to show I was not amused.

I had groaned, defeated, and flopped on my bed like the corpse I was becoming.

"You know if you are that desperate, you could always apply as a guy."

Then, just like that, light bulb. All though at that time, I was sure JJ had only been kidding, but to me it had seemed like a great idea worthy of Einstein's approval.

Now here I was, looking at myself in a water pipe making sure everything was in order. A short wig covered my honey streaked, light brown hair. I was wearing a men's gray tee shirt with a navy hoodie over it and light denim jeans. I was lucky; I didn't have much of a chest.

I hadn't told my mom about the "applying as a guy" thing. She would freak, and she nearly did when I told her that the school was in New York. She had gone on an hour-long rant on how she didn't feel comfortable with me going to a school that far away from home, but as soon as I had told her that I wanted to get out and make a difference, her eyes softened and she relented. My brother, who was a sophomore at Arizona State, had been a little harder to convince that this was the right thing for me, and he still didn't believe it was, but Ari had excepted a long time ago that I was the most stubborn person in the world and had given up.

As I walked out of the closet, I slammed right into the Mexican janitor. He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Um…I was just looking for you. Someone had some bad sushi and threw up on the floor of the boy's bathroom. Some of the guys have started to mess with it and, yeah, it's bad. You need to get there fast." I made up on the spot. It sounded pretty believable.

He nodded. "Which floor, senor?"

"Um…the second floor?" I said, unsure.

He nodded and grabbed his stuff out of the closet and started walking away.

He'd called me senor. Now, since my mom was Hispanic, I spoke Spanish fluently, but even if I hadn't, I still would have known that it meant "sir". He had thought I was a guy, which meant my disguise was working. No one would know I was a girl. I had to admit, I had been a bit nervous that it wouldn't work. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I ran into a solid wall. No, not a wall, a man.

"Oh, sorry, man." Said the wall, who just happened to be an attractive teenage boy with inky, black hair, olive skin, wearing a dark leather jacket with black jeans, and onyx eyes that you could just get lost in if you looked at them for to long. He was like Medusa.

"It's OK." I said, making sure to deepen my voice a bit as too make him think I was a guy. With that I started to walk away, but he stopped me.

"Haven't seen you around here. You new?" he asked me.

"Uh, yeah."

"Fang." He said and held out his hand for me to shake. It took me a little bit to realize that "Fang" was his name.

I shook his hand. "Ride, Maximum Ride."

He chortled. "Well Maximum Ride, welcome to ITEX." He said.

"Thanks." I said. He seemed friendly enough, but I was a little wary of his emotionless look. It was like he really was a wall.

"Need help getting somewhere?" he asked politely. I shook my head, eager to get rid of him.

"No thanks."

He shrugged. "Well, Maximum Ride, I hope to see you again." He said mysteriously. What was with this guy? He reminded me of a shadow with his dark features, black clothes, and impassive façade.

I walked off towards the office and knocked on the door to the head master's room, unaware of what I was getting myself into.

Well, there you have it, the beginning of Split Ride. Kind of a crappy meeting of Fang and Max, but don't worry, that's not the end of their story ;-). Excuse any grammer mistakes. I wrote this while drinking an Iced Café Americano so my fingers were literally flying across the keyboard. I went back and looked for any but don't know how many I got. Now please review, I hate it when people just follow or favorite stories. We authors like feedback, even if it's something as simple as, "Nice story." If it's that short, believe me I won't hold it against you. So click that button!

Now there was something I did on my last account, every time I wrote a new chapter, I'd put an excerpt from a song at the bottom and have people guess the song in the review, so here it is. Good Luck!

Play with it while you have hands

Dust settles, cities turn to sand

Trespassing this is their land

Time flies, make a statement, take a stand