Disclaimer: I don't own MR. James Patterson does. I DO however, own my OCs, so no stealing them without my permission, got it.
It was dark. Very dark. But then again, around here, it was always dark. Now Astrid, I thought to myself, Just remember, think positive, and then- okay, who the heck am I kidding? I live in a DOG CAGE, in a LABRATORY. I'm a MUTANT FREAK. NOTHING WILL EVERY GO WELL FOR ME!
And then the room flooded with light. I resisted the urge to yelp, and chose instead to cover my eyes. I blinked, and looked up, expecting to see the "doctors" coming to get one of us, but instead, there were...kids? There were six of them, the oldest looking to be about my age. My ears twitched. They were speaking amongst themselves. And then the untinkable happened. They began popping latches, and shooing us out of our cages. The oldest girl arrived at the cage next to mine. Faye's cage.
"Why?" trembled Faye, "Why are you doing this?" The girl smiled at her and reached out her hand.
"Because," she said, "Kids don't belong in cages." And then, she spread her wings.
"Who are you?" I asked the winged girl.
"My name," she said, "Is Maximum Ride."
I looked around my dark room tiredly. I'd just had that dream again. The one where Maximum Ride rescued us. After she set us free, me annd five others banded together to become little family. There was me, Astrid (I'm a cat mutant), Blaze (a crow mutant), Forrest (a monkey mutant), Faye (a bat mutant), and Toni and Tala (wolf mutants). Our ages were, in order: 18, 16, 15, 14, 8, and 3. I was the leader, being the oldest, and I took my role very seriously. And today was a big day, so I had to get everyone up really early.
After all, today, we were going to find Maximum Ride. I crawled out of bed, put on a black skirt. striped tanktop, neon pink leggings, and black boots. Then I put my hair up in a ponytail, and poof! I was done. I took pride in the fact that I only took about five minutes to dress.
I walked out to the kitchen, where everybody but Toni was eating breakfast. Blaze was holding Tala, who was giggling and wagging her little grey tail excitedly. I took her from Blaze, and, holding Tala in one hand and reaching for the bottle with the other, put her in her high chair. Then, I poured myself a bowl of cereal, and waited for Toni to wake up. He eventually dragged himself out of his room, and then sat down. I stood up, and began to talk.
"Okay, guys, today is the day! But before we can leave, we still have a couple things left to do. Blaze, you go pack the boy's bags. Faye, you go pack the girls. Forrest, go take a shower and put on real clothes, and no, boxers only doesn't count. Toni, you go lock all the doors and windows, and I'll get Tala drressed. Everybody ready? GO!"
"Momma?" said Tala.
"Yeah, Wahya*?"
"Where we going?" I smiled, smoothed her black-brown hair, and said,
"We're going to Pennsylvania. That's where Maximum Ride is."
"Who Massum Wide?"
"Maximum Ride is the girl who saved us, Wahya*. And we're gonna find her, and say thank you."
"Okay!" I finished putting her in a little pink skirt and white shirt with red hearts on it. Her caramel colored skin seemed to glow next to the white. Tala's Native American.
I picked her up and walked out to our car, a non-descript grey minivan. I buckled her into her car seat, and ran back into the house. "We're leaving!" I called. And then it hit me. We were finally leaving.
*Wahya- "wolf" in Cherokee