"Max? MAX? MAX!" Mr. Barkley yelled.
"What?" I pulled my head off the desk and looked at him impatiently. He'd woken me from a good dream.
"What is the answer to the question on the board? And could you please stop falling asleep in class?" He asked politely, though you could tell there was a twinge of annoyance in his voice.
I sighed then said, "Yes Mr. B. The answer is nine to the square root plus two pi." I said, not even bothering to look up at the board.
"Thank you, that was correct. And can anyone here find the denominator for number two…" he droned on.
I simply hid my face below the curtain of my dirty blonde hair and read my book. At the end of class, Mr. Barkley called me aside before I could make a fast get away from the class room.
"Max, I don't know how you do it. You barely pay any attention to class, and it doesn't ever look like you study. Yet your grades are flawless. Not a single question wrong on any test or quiz, your homework is always impeccable. So why can't you at least pretend to care that you're interested to my lessons? It would make my job so much easier if I didn't have a class full of kids paying attention and one girl in the back snoring and drooling on her text book."
"Um, first of all, I don't drool. Though, I can honestly say, I do snore on occasions. But it's not that distracting. And second, if I'm acing your class anyways, why does it matter if I'm paying attention? I obviously don't need to in order to succeed. And you're the one who put me into this class earlier in the year because you said the regular math level wasn't challenging me enough. I'm in the honors calculus class, and acing it, and I'm only a sophomore. So I don't get it, what's the problem?"
"The problem is, you're sort of a bad influence on the other kids. And I don't mean it as an insult to you, I'm just stating the facts. It's hard to teach a bunch of teenagers when they see you goofing off during class. Just do me a favor, okay? If you feel like you don't have to pay attention in class in order to learn, just pretend to okay? And that's all I need from you."
"Fine, see you tomorrow, Mr. B." And I with that, I grabbed my backpack and ran out of the door to freedom.
Let me just start from the beginning here, so everyone is clear on what's going on. My name is Maximum Ride. I'm sort of a genius. Okay, I am a genius, but I don't like to brag about it. I have a natural ability to just, get things right. Except for a social life, that I'm still working on. At school, my grades are indeed perfect. I don't have to study, or really pay attention to anything. The answers just sort of come to me, like as if I had a voice in my head or something. Sometimes I wonder why I'm so smart, but it's not because I like being smart. In fact, I hate being smart. It's just that, I can't get along with anyone at school because they think that I'm too smart, creepy, weird, and hard to get along with.
Tomorrow is our final exams for the year. The last day of school. And I'm not worried at all. Everyone knows I'm going to ace everything I'm in, so it doesn't matter. But everyone around me is studying their butts off and I'm just going to go home and probably read a book after eating most of the food in the kitchen.
Another thing about me. I eat a lot. I'm not fat, far from it. I'm super skinny, almost unnaturally. But I'm able to down most of the food in the house without a second thought. So mom purposefully buys groceries every day so that my super fast metabolism will keep satisfied.
I also have a younger sister named Ella. She and my mom are able to speak Spanish, and look incredibly Hispanic compared to me. I just look like a blonde nerd, honestly. I have braces, dark glasses, blonde frizzy hair, and pasty skin. No tan, whatsoever. My sister, though she's younger than me by two years, is incredibly popular, really good at fashion, and her grades are decent. But she's envious of my smarts, and I'm envious of her natural popularity. If we could combine our gifts, we'd probably become the ruler of the world or something.
But anyways, after walking home, eating up half the food in the kitchen and then plopping down on my bed in my room. I opened up my book and continued reading.
"Liliana didn't know what to do. She was trapped behind a glass prison. It held her in and kept others out. She pounded on the glass with all her might but it didn't help. She was stuck, with no one to help her. She stopped her attempts at freedom and fell in a heap in a corner of her cell. She cried her eyes out, but it did no good. She was about to give up on life itself when there was a shimmering glow of light from straight above her. And she shielded her eyes and squinted to see through the blinding light. It was…"
I heard a knocking at the door and Ella poked her head in and jumped onto my bed. "Hi there!' She said cheerily.
I groaned and closed my book. "What do you want, Ella?" I asked her.
"I want to give you a makeover for your last day of school."
"Why?"
"Because I think you need one."
"What kind of reason is that?"
"A good one." She smiled and got up and ran to my closet before I could stop her.
"Ella, no. I don't want a makeover right now. I just want to read my book. Please, maybe next year when school starts up again you can help me out. But right now, I'm just not interested."
Ella groaned. "Fine, but no putting this off, got it? You're getting a whole new look whether you like it or not! And maybe that new neighbor girl from next door can help me. She's really fashionable, and we get along so well. You should really meet her, she's so much fun! They moved in this morning while we were at school. Will you come meet them with me tonight? The girl said that we could get together after dinner and talk in our backyards, and play games and stuff. I know you don't have to study, and I took all my hard finals today. So I'm good too. Pleeeeeaaaassseeee Max? They have a boy your age, and he's so mysterious, and cute, too."
"Okay, wow, Ella, stop right there. I'm not going anywhere tonight, or any other night till I finish my personal reading list. I still have this whole series to get through, and then that one over there. And that'll take me a good three days or so. So sorry, no can do." I pointed to a large stack of books next to my bed.
Ella looked defeated and crawled out of my room muttering how pathetic I was. Whatever, she can think what she wants to think. I just want to know how Liliana gets out of the glass prison.