Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, or any of the character. I only own the plot. Merry Christmas to all of you!

'Merry Christmas, Max!' said the Gasman waking me up. 'It's Christmas! It's Christmas! And we have presents and food and we are all together!'

'I know' I said getting up slowly. 'And guess what? We are going to the cinema!'

'Really? Wow, that's awesome! I hope we have enough money to buy popcorn, lots of popcorn. I love popcorn, it's really nice, isn't it? I'm just so excited, Max, 'cause we never celebrated Christmas before. Aren't we supposed to give each other presents?' you can probably guess that Nudge had already waken up. She kept moving and moving her lips, but I stopped listening. I looked at the others. Iggy and Gazzy seemed to be wrapping something. Angel was looking from me, to Iggy and Gazzy, to Nudge and to Fang, probably reading our minds to see what her presents were. Fang wasn't doing anything special, he just sat there, expressionless like usual.

'Okay, now that we are all awake, we can open our presents! Oh, and merry Christmas!' I said. I'd seen families celebrating Christmas on TV, but when you are running for you life, hoping that mad scientists won't find you and put in dog crates, you can't really be thinking having a Christmas tree, or a Christmas dinner, or anything. Can you? But we made presents for each other and decided to go to the cinema. We wouldn't worry about saving the world, not today. However, I still felt this was dangerous and somehow expected Flyboys and Erasers to appear any second.

Come one, Max. You can't deny it; you are as excited as the others about celebrating Christmas. If I wanted your opinion, I would ask for it, Voice. I mean, Jeb. You can call me crazy if you want, but I have a voice inside my head who tells me what to do. Well, it actually annoys me most of the time. A month ago, I found out that Jeb Batchelder was somehow transmitting it to my head. How nice of him.

I wouldn't go to the cinema if I were you, Max. Do I care? Let me think about it. Um… no, not at all! Now, leave me alone.

'Max? Is anything wrong?' I almost jumped when I saw Fang standing behind me with a concerned look n his face. 'Is it the Voice again?'

I nodded. Then got, up and went to find the presents I'd hidden the night before. I gave Nudge three chocolate bars and a cake (thanks to Iggy). She gave me a pair of socks. Then I gave Fang his present, which was a black scarf. He gave me a cake. I guess I won't be hungry today. After I gave Fang his present, it was Angel's turn. I'd gotten her a new dress for Celeste, which wasn't a great idea because Iggy and Nudge also thought that Celeste needed a new dress. But anyway, she gave me a drawing of the six of us flying over New York while killing some Flyboys. The others got very similar presents from her, even Total.

I got Gazzy another scarf, but blue. And gloves for Iggy. They gave me a small and black square which made a strange ticking noise. Oh oh. 'Um… what is this?' I asked them.

'A bomb.' They said proudly with guilty smiles on their faces. I was so going to kill them. 'Merry Christmas, Max.'

'I'd run if I were you, 'cause Max is thinking about how she can kill you to make you suffer more' Angel told them. Ok, having a six-year-old mind reader sucked. We always had to be careful with what we thought because Angel was always listening. No privacy!

'I think we should get going guys' said Fang suddenly. 'It'll take us at least an hour to get to the cinema.'

'Yeah, let's go' I agreed.

You really shouldn't go to the cinema, Maximum. I mean it. When will you stop saying my name at the end of every sentence? And, since when do I listen to you? That's right, I never listen to you! So shut up. We jumped into the air and started flying. It felt great, even if it was freaking cold.