A/N: Hihi! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted any stories, but if I would even begin to explain how much work I've been swamped with in school, family, and extracurricular stuff. WOAH! Haha, but I decided to at least start this and I have absolutely no idea where it's going, so I'll be honest about that right now. But here it is! My return! Lol. Btw, it's set after the Final Warning…

Disclaimer: I am not James Patterson; if I were I'd make the books come out faster! Lol.

Chapter 1~ Welcome to Tennessee

Max POV

At first I almost felt a little guilty about not going to the shiny new school shin-dig that my mom had all set-up, but after I thought about it more thoroughly, I ruled out the common-sense that we would never belong in a place like that. Now, I normally don't refer to myself as an animal, but since I am 2% bird, I guess it's safe to say that I do have some instinct-driven tendencies to be free.

And free I am right now. Aside from the insane weight of Akila—whom I kindly switch off to Iggy and Fang every couple hours—we are on our way….

To somewhere.

I have no idea. But I am the infamous Maximum Ride, and I always claim to have

a plan…even if I don't. Like right now!

"Maaaaax?"

I look down to see Nudge flapping below me, "Yeah, sweetie?"

"Can we stop to eat somewhere?" yep, should have seen that one coming.

If I weren't holding Total, I would've slapped my forehead, we're in the middle of flipping nowhere Tennessee. I bite back my snide remark of "Do you see a Mickey-Dee's anywhere sweetie?" to a more kid-friendly:

"Um, as soon as we find a food-joint."

"But I'm hungry now."

This takes me a little by surprise. Nudge doesn't really talk back to me, heck; none of the flock usually talks back to me—excluding Fang.

"Well, there aren't any places to eat right now. You're gonna have to wait."

Nudge huffed and flew onward to mingle with the Gasman and Iggy. Angel wasn't far behind them, and Fang was…

Fang?

"Looking for me?"

The hairs on the back of my neck stood and shivers went down my spine.

"Would you--!"

"Stop? Stop what?"

"Oh, never mind!" I say, trying not to sound too angry. I don't know if I've completely forgiven him for the…um…incident on the Wendy K.

Max? Where are you planning on going now? Aw, great, the Voice is back.

"Yeah, weren't you the one who said you were sending the coordinates?"

Well, I was going to, but you're the one who flew off without a second thought.

"Ha, bite me."

"Max?"

"What!?" crap, it was Angel.

"Are you okay?"

"It's just the Voice, don't worry about it."

"Oh, okay… and Max?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"I'm sorry again."

My heart nearly melted again. It was only a couple weeks ago that Fang and I nearly killed ourselves trying to save her and the dogs.

"It's alright honey, you don't need to worry about anything. You're safe now, Total's safe, Akila's safe, Fang and I are okay, and everything is all right now. Just, don't pull a stunt like that again. Okay? But everything is okay, you don't need to keep apologizing."

"Okay, but I really am."

"I understand sweetie."

The rest of the flight was quiet, not even the Voice interrupted my thoughts. We flew ahead until we were on the outskirts of Nashville and landed for a meal at a hometown diner that looked like it had been there since 1944.

We landed silently behind the building and released the hounds, pulled in our wings, and dug out the dough. No doubt everyone in the country, and probably half of the world knew us by now, but it was so much instinct and routine we just kind of did it.

It was about 8 o'clock at night and the diner was open until 10. Nudge and Gazzy were practically drooling as we approached the front register.

"Welcome to Delilah's, a table for six?" a peppy blonde greeted us.

I couldn't help but have my eyes avert to Fang to see what he thought of Miss Thing.

Naturally, he was starring at her… you get the point.

"Yes, that's correct."

"Alright, right this way please!" she said again in her over-happy tone.

We walked past the front window and caught a glimpse of Total glaring at us through the glass.

"We'll bring you a doggie bag!" I mouthed. He scowled again.

We were directed to a corner booth in the very back of the restaurant; I guess something about my aura rubbed off to the effect of, 'as far away from people as possible.'

"Okay, you can have this booth here and Heather will be out to take your orders in just a moment! Thank you!" she walked away with a little extra oomph in her walk.

"I want four cheeseburgers without the meat, two servings of macaroni, one chocolate and one strawberry shake…" I tune Nudge out after a few minutes once I catch view of a short, brown-haired girl coming towards us with one of those order pads. I hope she has enough spaces for our orders.

Iggy and Gazzy belted off half of the dessert menu before I had to remind them both to order dinner too, Angel was more composed about it, but still order enough food to feed half a construction crew. Nudge was rambling off so fast she had to repeat her order twice, and Fang listed off his dinner that could feed four.

Finally Heather turned to me, three pages of pad already used.

"And what would you like?"

"Um," thinking of Total and Akila at the same time, "Six cheeseburgers, with meat, five orders of fries, two bowls of cottage cheese, one medium salad, a chocolate and a vanilla large shakes, and a fish sandwich, extra tuna." I figured Akila ate fish often in the South Pole…

Heather looked a little flustered as she folded her pad and nodded, a little taken aback by our orders.

"Um, thank you, I don't know exactly how long this will take, because I don't think we've ever had this many orders placed at one time. But it'll be as soon as we can get it cooked and ready! Thank you very much!"

Gazzy and Nudge were playing another game of Hang Man on their paper place mats, Iggy was listening to his iPod, and Fang was: looking at Miss Thing at the register. I felt my jaw tighten as I averted my attention outside the window…

"Max?"Angel's wary voice filled my head.

"Yes sweetie?" I thought.

"It's my turn."

"What?"

"My turn to tell you to stop worrying. I already told you that Fang loved you, you know?"

"Angel…what did I tell you about interrupting my thoughts?"

"I'm sorry, but it was kinda hard to miss…"

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Why don't you doodle on your placemat?"

"If you insist…but Max, believe me, okay?"

Yeah, sure, whatever.

~40 minutes later~

My senses were going berserk. Our food was definitely done, I could smell it, and what were they waiting to take it all out at once?!

We look over to the kitchen doors as three girls and a guy walked out, carrying two and three trays of food each.

"Here you are; I'm sorry it took so long." An elderly woman with the nametag Delilah on it.

"Oh, no problem, thank you so much." Just give me my dang food.

About ¾ way through our meal, Miss Thing comes over again. Oh joy.

"Hi, um, I'm not supposed to do this really, but aren't you guys the bird kids?"

Fang cleared his throat, about to speak.

"Oh, my gosh yes we are! Oh, Max I'm so glad we don't have to stay too much under the radar anymore. Like, since you did that awesome speech to congress, and everyone saw us on the news and they know about everything and all, oh it's so great! Hey, do you want to see my wings?! They're really pretty, not as pretty as Max's, but they have a wonderful fawn-like color and it looks really pretty in the sun. But then again, it's not sunny right now, but it looks really cute in the moonlight too!!!" thank you Nudge.

"Wow, that's really neat! I'd love to see your wings later." She replied to Nudge, Then looked over to Fang, who looked down at his salad and continued eating.

"Well, anyways, I'm sorry for interrupting you guys. But that's really awesome, I mean, if you can't tell, not much happens in this little town, so being able to serve you guys is really awesome! Enjoy the rest of your meal!" oh, my, freaking, gosh. She just winked at Fang. I can't freaking believe this. I'm going to rip her head off. I really, really am.

We got done eating about 15 min. after Miss Thing left our table, I got a doggie bag for Total and Akila, and we made our way out the door. Miss Thing left already I was almost sure, so there wasn't a need for a side-trip with Nudge's modeling.

"Can we stay in a hotel, Max?" Gazzy asked after Total and Akila got done eating.

"Um, I guess if we can find a room. If not we can fly into Nashville as well."

"Really!? AWESOME!!!" he punched the air in victory.

The Voice still hadn't contacted me with coordinates yet, so I guess it'd be okay to stay in town for a while. Give the little kids a break from running around so much I guess.

"Hey guys, I don't know what time curfew is here in Podunk, so we might want to find a room soon."

"Uh, Max?"

I turn to Fang. What the heck does he want to say to me?

"I haven't seen any hotels here, maybe we should take off?"

"Sure, whatever. Up and away guys."

I flew solo ahead of everyone else, thinking to myself. I had way too much on my shoulders right now.

We landed in Nashville fifteen minutes later and managed to find a room in a nice Holiday Inn. We got one of those fancy-schmancy rooms with a door that connected them to each other.

Nudge and Angel were fast asleep on one of the Queen beds while I had the window forced open and my feet dangling out. I heard Iggy and Fang talking next door.

"You wouldn't believe her dude." Fang's voice.

"Better or worse than Max?"

"I don't know. I mean, both are great, but it's just hard to decide, ya' know?"

"Huh, well, I've never really been in this kind of situation, but I can see where you're coming from though."

"Yeah, well, I'm going to sleep, see ya later."

Well, make what you can of that. But I was sure of one thing: Fang will never catch my eye again.

A/N: Okey-dokey! Now that I have more of it down, I'm pretty sure I have a pretty good idea where this is going! Thank you so much for reading! Please please please review!!! =)