Through the Eyes of a Servant | Prologue | by: Rachel // Chapter posted May 9th, 2010.
AU | Max/Fang | PG // 1,723 words
Max, Fang - 17 | Iggy - 19 | Nudge - 16 | Gazzy - 14 | Angel - 13 // The original age ranges have been changed.
When Max accepts a job as a maid in Fang's household, will it be love at first sight? Or will anything and everything come between them?
The idea for this story is my own, and no one else's. Everything else belongs to Jame's Patterson -although I will be next in line for the throne when he retires xD-. I made no money for writing this story, I simply write for reviews.
From the moment Maximum Ride stepped up to the grand house, her life changed forever. She might not have known it, but there were bigger things in store for her than just a job as a common maid to the family that dwelt inside the walls of the house. No, house was the wrong word. She stood on the front porch, a grand wrap-around porch, of an old southern mansion. But it might have been built yesterday, what with the fresh paint, well tended gardens, and quiet order of the estate.
The warm summer air brushed against her comfortingly, but brought no courage as she thought of what was about to happen, and what could never get better. What could not be fixed by going back, but only by going forward.
A trembling hand clutched the address firmly. This had to be the right house, she thought, but checked the number again, for the fifth time in fifteen seconds. The job is half done when you take the first step, she recited in her head, thinking of the old childhood saying that her mother had always used before…before everything changed. But there would be no looking back on that now.
Just looking at the mansion made her feel queasy and sick to her stomach. A poor girl from a poor family; that was the way it had always been. It had become only recently. Her father, an author, had lost his other job, the one that paid for everything they had, and everything she did. It had landed her from the lower middle class down into nothingness, leaving friends, family and old life behind for a new town, and a smaller house.
The new job was to ensure security –at least some- and to provide extra financial support for her family –though it was dwindling, she thought bitterly-. Working as a maid hadn't been her idea. It was simply the best paying job they could find, not to mention having the best hours and the best perks of working in clean conditions, rather than a fast food restaurant.
No, nothing had been her idea. It hadn't been her idea that something so terrible, so incredibly inhuman, as natural as it had been, would happen to them. It hadn't been her idea to move to a new place and get used to the new living conditions. It wasn't as if she hadn't had a life. It wasn't as if she hadn't had a boyfriend, a school, goals for the future, and everything a normal teen could ever have.
And worst of all, it had been her seventeenth birthday when the terrible, unspeakable thing had happened.
That was why she would never forget. As long as she survived and had a birthday, every March the thirteenth, to be exact, she would think of it, and it would just bring on another fresh burst of tears and unhappiness. Before it had happened, she had been a downright brat to her parents, relying on them for a phone bill that was always high and staying out later than most delinquents did for whatever reason.
It was over now. It wasn't right for a young girl to have something traumatic happen to them, something so terrible it made a bright, sunny day seem like an endless night in a horror movie.
Looking up now, she couldn't help but wonder why anyone needed so much money. Large ionic columns stretched to what seemed to be the sky, thousand-dollar fountains and lawn ornaments in perfect condition, and many, many servants like the one that she would hopefully become, inside the walls of the house; there were so many things that no one needed to be happy, and she would know because she was happy once upon a dream.
There's probably a monarchy living inside the gold-coated walls of that damn house.
She gagged in disgust at the thought of working for someone as idiotic as a perfect little prince or princess with nothing better to do than to paint bowls of fruit or read something snotty and so classically 'rich kid', like Hamlet or something to that effect.
And she didn't think she was better than them. She just looked down on them in every imaginable way.
But she needed this job. If they were idiots, she depended on the idiots for the money to buy food, let alone clothes and the electricity bill. She was just pathetic enough to actually depend on the idiots she looked down on. That's why her hand was trembling as she tapped lightly on the door, praying that no one would answer.
But of course all hopes were dashed as soon as the door was opened. Dressed in only the finest clothes, and jewelry that hung on her, very obviously worth thousands of dollars, this must have been the mistress of the house that greeted her with nothing more than a formal greeting and a quick once-over to make sure the poor girl wasn't a total freak.
She had hawklike features that were pointed and hostile. Shoulder-length brown hair hung down and pooled around her neck, giving her an aura that demanded respect, and therefore forced Max to give it to her. She was immediately struck with the fear of the reality of the situation, and her eyes widened. Before she could even stop herself, she had turned and ran. And she didn't stop running until she was out of sight of the great and terrible house.
From the upstairs window, unseen by the fleeing girl, sat the quiet, unsmiling boy. Everyone who came to the grand house in the last seventeen years of his life had gushed like a schoolgirl over everything they had, and all apparent money that had been put into making it the way it was. And this girl ran.
Some part of him was puzzled, and longed to see her again.
The address in her hand was flung on the damp earth long ago. The clean white heels had been broken and had been left long forsaken in the underbrush. The white, spaghetti-strapped summer dress, which had been the best one she owned, had been covered with leaves and dried mud, which she didn't care enough to brush off. Her feet had been cut, bloodied and stained with dirt, not that she cared.
She hadn't gone home. To see the look on her father's face when she revealed that she hadn't gotten that job that might just help them, the look of quiet reassurance mixed with disappointment, it was something that she could not do. Perhaps she would sleep in the forest, she thought fleetingly as she ran past trees of every kind in the forest outside of the mansion.
The rain had started to fall. First starting as a light sprinkling and then growing to form a roll of thunder and a thick downpouring of water, she had opted to go in the forest before she had become soaked to the bone. She had come into the forest to collect herself, and to make some serious decisions.
Forcing other thoughts down, she had come to the conclusion that she had just been overwhelmed by the reality of it all and would indeed go back. It had to be what she wanted, because it was what her family wanted.
Gazzy had been forced to quit his private school. She knew he'd been happy, but he'd never complained, whereas she'd whined and stamped her foot as much as she possibly could until she'd just given up.
Iggy was off to college in the fall. Or, he was supposed to be. But he wouldn't even get there if they didn't have the money to pay for it. Forget being born blind, he didn't need this, too. He had wanted to be a doctor. A surgeon, even. So much for limitations.
Slumping against the tree, she realized it was too late –at least by human standards- to be out like this, considering that her last day of school and graduation was going to be held tomorrow, and her father would be worried, to say the least. Picking herself up and giving one last glance in the mansion's direction, she took off running.
Jeb Bachelder looked up from the newspaper he had been reading when the door to the small house flew open to reveal his daughter standing there in a torn dress and bare feet. Her hair hung limp and wet around her shoulders, and a dejected look was in her eyes. Seeing his questioning look, she admitted that she had gotten the job, and had walked upstairs, leaving him alone once again.
He wasn't on the best terms with his only daughter. She had tortured him for uprooting her, despite the fact that a tragedy had happened and that he had lost his job. To be honest, he missed her, just like he missed her mother, but he wouldn't let her think that. For God's sake, she had even changed her last name to be different from his. She clearly wanted nothing to do with him.
Before it had happened, she'd been a perfect little girl, daddy's little girl, the one who had sat on his lap for stories and who, unlike his boys, hadn't refused to go camping and on fishing trips. She had made being a parent worth it. And now, nothing.
She should be grateful to even live in a house. This was another reason that they didn't have enough money for Iggy to go to college. Max had insisted that they live in a house and not an apartment. If it was just Jeb on his own, he would be living in a box on the streets. But perfect Max just couldn't have that. So Iggy most likely would remain in poverty for the rest of his life.
They weren't all lucky enough to have wings.
Those were the sequence of events leading up to what would ultimately change her life. She may not have wished for it, but there it was. It could not be undone, and it could not be taken back. The next day, after the last part of her life was done, a new part started with that knock on the door of that unfamiliar mansion.
And so it began.
First, a big thank you to everyone who voted on the poll for this story's pairing. It means a lot.
Secondly, this is purely a Fax story, but I may incorporate other pairings, too. It depends on how hard you beg. xD No, just kidding. But if you ask for it, I'll probably do it. If you're an author, you know how much reviews mean. So please, take one minute and click the button at the bottom of the screen. Anyone who does so gets an internet cookie. ^o^
Third, this story is AU. Max and Fang are the only ones with wings and powers, in a few chapters you'll see why. The age ranges are also different, so that Iggy is older than Max and Fang, who are only a year older than Nudge rather than three. Gazzy is also only one year older than Angel, and Gazzy and Angel are not related in this story. There are two families. Nudge and Angel belong to Fang's, and Gazzy and Iggy belong to Max's.
If you didn't catch on, Max is incredibly poor because of the "tragedy" and her father's lost job, while Fang is extremely rich.
Enjoy this new story.
~Rachel