A/N: I really, really wanted to write this fic and I had ideas rolling around in my head for it all the time, so I'm finally sitting down to write it. I don't claim that any of these things actually happened to the characters, after all, it is a fanfiction. Just a warning, there is a very, very slight MR 4 spoiler in number ten. So, without further ado, the fanfiction!

Disclaimer: Except for this one thing. JP owns the incredible, indescribable Maximum Ride. No matter how sad that makes me.

Ten Things You Never Knew About: Max

One: The first time she saw Fang when she was maybe two, he was so angry at the whitecoats that it scared her just the teensiest bit. They dumped him in her cage, and she scooted away a little so he wouldn't get mad at her too for some reason. Later, after he calmed down a little, she shared her daily piece of bread with him. Warily, he took it, dark, little boy eyes searching hers for something that said that this was another test that led to something bad. When nothing horrible happened, the left side of his mouth slid up in what Max thought was a smile. She smiled back.

A few days later, they were inseparable. For years, they never split up. Until, of course, a certain Eraser was thrown into the equation.

Two: Once, out of her lab window, she saw the Erasers chasing a little girl across the practice field. She couldn't figure out why a human girl would be at the School until she noticed that instead of feet, the girl had hooves: and the hooves were starting to move slower. She looked away as the Erasers caught up, and promised herself that when she was able to, she'd never have to watch the underdog get hurt again – not if she could help it.

Three: When she was five, she used to pretend that the pretty whitecoat with hair like hers was her mommy since she didn't have one. She smiled at her when she went by her cage to give her food, and each smile brightened Max's day.

Then, one day, the whitecoat took the blond boy away. He had things on his back like hers. When she came back, she didn't give Max a smile like she normally did. Instead, she had a scary look on her face that Max didn't recognize, and the blond boy was crying. Later, Max found out that he couldn't see anymore.

She didn't pretend that was her mommy again. She didn't need one, she decided. Moms were overrated.

Four: The first time Gazzy let loose one of his gifts, she honestly thought that it was a gas leak and that they were all going to die.

Five: Max is deathly afraid of being alone. The last time she was completely alone, she had been taken away for 'improving' – without the boy with dark hair who had grown on her so much. That alone had scared her half to death. The whitecoats had picked her up with rough hands, and she kicked and screamed, torn between having to go back in her cage and being taken somewhere to have God-knows-what done. Then she felt a small prick in her arm, and suddenly her arms and legs were really, really heavy.

Later, she woke up to darkness. She didn't know what had happened, but she guessed that she'd been under the knife again. That never meant anything good – most of the experiments taken away for 'surgery', which was a euphemism (she'd learned the word from Jeb – good, wasn't it?) for dissection, never came back the same. She put out her arms to try to sit up as her breathing quickened. Even with her raptor-vision, she couldn't see anything in the dark. Had they taken her sight away, too? "Hello?" she whispered. "Anyone?"

There was no answer. She tried to move again, but felt a searing pain in her arm. She looked down at it, forgetting that she couldn't see. With her other hand, she felt the spot that hurt, sucking in her breath as she accidentally pressed down a bit too hard. There was a healing incision there that had been stitched up, and the area around it was tender, but it was no worse than an Eraser gash. She checked herself all over for other wounds, but found none.

After she was taken back to her cage by the whitecoats a few hours later, she managed to forget about her arm. For such a small cut, it was probably nothing anyway.

Six: The day after Max and the rest of the winged kids were rescued from the School by Jeb, they got to learn a little of how to fly. Max loved it immediately. Sure, she had flown a little when she was escaping from Erasers (she still shuddered when she thought about that), but that didn't really count. This was new, amazing, ex- exhilarating? She thought that was the word. There was finally a reason for the things on her back called wings, and she adored the feeling.

Seven: It wasn't until after the flock was rescued that they decided to name each other. There hadn't really been a need for names before at the School, and they could only talk in snatches of time anyway – talking wasn't exactly allowed. Jeb helped all of them choose what to be. The dark haired boy chose Fang because he said it sounded like him – dark and dangerous. The blind one chose Iggy, but Max never really knew why. Something that had to do with fire, she thought the black girl had told her. They had named her Nudge, since they always had to poke her to get her to stop talking. Then the rest of the flock named the kinda smelly one the Gasman- for obvious reasons. And then there was the youngest one, who Max got to name by herself. She decided on Angel, because she had already mentally called the girl her angel, just like she had seen mothers do on T.V., and she considered Angel her baby. When Jeb said that she could name herself, Max felt like the most special girl in the world, but she'd also felt a little hurt. Did he not want to help choose her name? She never asked him or told anyone, but she always wondered.

Eight: She never really forgave Fang for only one thing, besides leaving, that is. For God's sake, he locked her out of the house in the middle of a freaking thunderstorm! If there was one thing she hated, it was thunderstorms. It wasn't that she was scared of them – it was just that the noise and the flashing lights reminded her of the School, and he knew that. Jerk.

When he let her in, he swore that he'd left the door open, but she just glared at him. She was on her way to forgiving him until she saw the laughter in his eyes at her soaked state. Nope. This was one thing that she was not letting slide. After all, she was the leader, and what she said stood.

The next day, Fang woke up to find all of his clothes missing. He had to hunt around the soaked forest for each and every shirt, pair of jeans, and random sock. Max had grinned when she saw him glaring at her after he came back from retrieving all of his things. Oh yeah. Now they were even.

Nine: For awhile, when she was about twelve, she had thought that Iggy was kind of cute. She didn't like him like him of course – they weren't nearly as close as she and Fang were, and she and Iggy were the very definition of brother and sister – arguing sometimes, but making up later. Anyway, it didn't change the fact that she loved the blond hair. All the same, she'd always preferred black to blonde.

Ten: Max knew she liked Fang. Fang knew that she liked him. For God's sake, doesn't everyone remember the cave incident? What about the docks? But she couldn't admit it. No way, no how. She just couldn't. That was a side of her that she wasn't sure she wanted a part of – emotions were tricky things, and hers were especially confusing. Then you add in that whole little dilemma about them being practically brother and sister, and you practically had a recipe for a perfect disaster, people. And besides, that Max was foreign. Vulnerable. And if she wasn't Maximum Ride, fearless leader of the Merry Band of Mutants, then who was she?

A/N: And so ends Max's spotlight. I'm not sure whether I'll continue or not, REVIEW and tell me! Flames, criticism, likes, dislikes, everything's accepted. But please review!

P.S. I really hope you guys caught what was going on with Max's arm…