A/N: Okay, here goes nothing. This is my first original FanFiction, it's set after book 5, but book 6 won't apply to it at all. Their ages are the same as book 5 (7, 8, 11, 14) but I might involve birthdays in this story. Ella is nearly 13 and is one year below Max in school years. I decided that since it's all been based on Max and Fang before, this will mostly be about Iggy, but contains different POVs. It will not follow Book 6 at all.

Our Next Steps

Iggy's POV:

The Chu Corporation has suffered millions of pounds loss after its nuclear power stations were closed. The discovery of nuclear waste at the bottom of the ocean meant a heavy fine for the company and a trial for Mr Chu. He was previously hiding in a deep-sea base but had to flee when it was destroyed by the miracle "bird-kids". The man himself has refused to turn up and is now in hiding. So far the police have no leads and Chu Corporation has been taken over by environmentalists, the CSM, whose leader, Valencia Martinez, was rescued before the destruction of his base by the bird-kids.

I was listening closely to the TV as it explained the story. It sounded so much simpler than it had actually been. One reason I enjoyed watching the news is that they gave such detailed explanations, which was great for someone who's blind.

What I hadn't told anyone yet was that my vision a little since the start of all that. I still couldn't see, but it was a little better, for example, I'd be able to tell the difference between a white, a black, and a grey room. It wasn't much but it was still an improvement.

At the moment, the flock were staying at Ella's new house. The government had nicely paid for a massive house, practically a mansion, just for us to be able to have a permanent home.

How nice of them. Total and Akila shared a room, I had my own room, and so did all the others, though I suspect Fang spends more time in Max's room than his own.

They had "gone public" as the saying goes, aka: they'd snogged in front of everyone. And now they were practically inseparable. They were curled up on the couch right now for instance.

I was a little envious, I mean, where could I ever get a girlfriend? We were always "charging off" somewhere, and there was no one else in the flock I could be with. Nudge was the closest but she was eleven, it would just be wrong.

I sighed, not many people could handle the blindness anyway.

Ella was lucky, she had friends at school, and there were plenty of people there that she could be with if she wanted to. I sighed, maybe that wouldn't be so bad. I wasn't saying I wanted anyone now, I just wanted the option.

And now, after our holiday in Hawaii, we had nothing to do. I supposed that we could stay here, I mean they did have a PS3, which would be pretty fun.

As if to echo my thoughts, Mrs Martinez called to us from the kitchen.

"Guys, we need to have a meeting," she said.

I got up, and followed the others into the kitchen.

Forward two steps, left then forwards again.

"So what's this about?" asked Max.

"Well," said her Mom, "We were wondering if you'd thought about your next steps."

Our next steps? I'd thought about it but had no ideas.

Max shrugged, it was obvious that the adults had a suggestion.

"Well we've suggested this before, but I really think that you'd like the Day and Night School. You'd be safe there, and it's great for people that don't fit in well," said Jeb.

Max tensed, "Don't fit in well?" she said angrily, "In case you didn't know, we've been to school before, and we did absolutely fine without school full of freaks." She glared at Jeb.

I could see her point, I didn't really want to go to a school full of America's rejects, and I'd prefer to go to somewhere more normal.

"Why don't you go to my school?" asked Ella, "It takes ages 5-18, so you could all go there together, and it'd be great to see you there."

Well that deserved some thought.