Fang's POV
Lissa pushed me against the wall, grabbing fistfuls of my shirt as she forced me down to her height and kissed me. Again. It was the sixth time this week, and it was only Wednesday. I was getting tired of her. The first time she kissed me, it had been nice, mostly because I imagined that she was Max. Of course, Max would never be so forward as to force a kiss on me during school.
I sometimes wish she would…
Whoa, did I just think that? Bad Fang, bad dirty thoughts. Guys who think like that about Max don't live long, in my opinion.
I was so busy thinking about what Max wouldn't ever do that I almost didn't notice that Lissa had broke the kiss, and was staring at me impatiently. My only thought concerning her was that I could breathe again, without her sticky lips covering mine. "F-Nick?" she purred sweetly. Wait a second, did she almost call me Fang? No, she couldn't have. Lissa, or for that matter everyone in our school, didn't know that Max, Iggy, Nudge, Gaz, Angel and I were the flock, the unlawful bird kids that were sweeping the nation.
"Yeah Lissa?" I asked, my voice a perfect monotone. She stamped her foot angrily, staring at me out of dull green eyes. Her eyes weren't half as pretty as Max's… How could they be? Max's eyes swirled like melted chocolate, while Lissa's only sparkled vainly on the surface.
"You didn't kiss me back! You didn't kiss me back yesterday either! What's wrong with you this week?" she demanded to know. I sighed deeply, not responding. I enjoyed the fact that this seemed to enrage her more. Suddenly though, she was all simpers and big, hurt eyes."Is there another girl?" She whispered, touching my arm. I shrugged, and she practically screeched in annoyance. I was smiling widely on the inside, although I was careful not to let her see any emotion on my face or in my eyes. In my mind I imagined wiping my expression clear, without a trace of feeling. "Come on Nicky! Tell me! I am your girlfriend after all, I deserve to know about any other competition I might be facing…" Lissa's annoying voice droned into background noise as I wondered when she had become my girlfriend. I didn't remember agreeing to that.
"Actually," I started. She broke off of her rant to stare at me adoringly. Lissa was such a creeper. "There is someone else." She waited expectantly, but I didn't continue. That was all she needed to know, after all. The simpering smile was wiped off of her face, and she gripped my arm again.
Was it my imagination, or did Lissa's perfect red fingernails seem to elongate when I said that? "Nicky darling, I want to know who this girl is," she told me in a persuasive voice, her lashes bashfully covering her eyes. I wasn't fooled. What did Lissa take me for, a fool? She wasn't even that pretty. "Unfortunately," I told her slowly, thinking over my word choice. She couldn't know that I was actually in love with Max, as that would be insanely creepy for me to love my 'sister'. I couldn't have that gossip going around. Can anyone spell incest? "You won't be able to know her. She's my best friend from childhood, and I've realized lately that I want more than friendship now." Wow, that was my longest sentence of the month! I shrugged her hand off my arm and turned away. "If we ever were anything, which I don't think we were, we aren't anymore," I restated calmly. Lissa seemed to be bursting with fury from her sparkling white tennis shoes (Max would have had them completely brown and scuffed in the space of a few hours) to the tip of her red head. I turned to leave the empty hallway we were standing in, when she regained her voice.
"I'm not through with you, Fang Ride," she whispered evilly behind me. I whirled around.
"What did you say?" I asked, my usually expressionless voice tinted with surprise.
She crossed her arms over her purple tank top and smiled daintily at me. "I know your name, Fangles. I know your pretty little girlfriend's identity too, and Iggy's and Nudge's and Gazzy's and Angel's," she hissed at me triumphantly. Swiftly I lunged at her and pinned her by her wrists to the wall, holding them above her head as I glared down at her. She grinned maliciously at me, her eyes suddenly not looking so petty anymore. They brimmed with hate and malice, and deep within, a hint of envy. How could she be envious of anyone? I wondered momentarily, before Lissa's face sprouted ginger fur, and I saw for sure as her red-painted nails lengthened on suddenly hairy fingers. Her head elongated as she stood there, grinning at me as I tried to process this new information. Lissa was an Eraser.
Wait, Lissa was an Eraser?
I let my guard down for a second, and she ripped her hands free of my hold to punch me in the jaw. Her fist connected with my face, hard, and I stumbled back. I sensed her move to my right, and swung my leg out to trip her. Lissa shrieked as she fell on her side, before reaching out for my ankle to pull me down too, where it would be a more even fight. I was anticipating this though, and jumped back, letting her grab air. She scrambled up to her feet again, and we circled. I noticed that her shoes had ripped off, revealing hairy, muscled feet. Eww…
Lissa was fully morphed by now, and was completely covered in ginger fur, her polished red nails gleaming evilly. She scratched at my face, but I thrust my fist and hit her straight on in the stomach. She doubled over for a moment, wheezing slightly, as I pushed her down again. She stumbled back, conking her head on a locker and denting it before passing out. As her eyes fluttered closed, she gasped at me, "Run, Fangy. Run while you can…"
I was thoroughly freaked out by now. I unbuckled my black leather belt and pulled it out of the loops of my jeans. All of the flock wore belts to school every day, so we could always have something useful to use if we needed it. I definitely needed my belt now.
It was abnormally long for a belt, as you never knew when you needed to tie something up. I tried to rip it in two, and grinned when the strengthened leather held. Excellent. Instead of ripping it, I took out a pair of scissors from my binder, which had previously been lying on the floor. Cutting the belt in half, I wondered what the school would do when they found a student-turned-Eraser lying bound and gagged in the hallway. I allowed myself a quick smile before taking one strip of belt and tightly tying Lissa's hands together. I did the same with her ankles, then took her jacket off the pile of stuff she had left in the hallway and ripped a sleeve off. I gagged her with the sleeve, then stood up and surveyed my work.
Lissa lay on the floor next to a dented locker, her skin pale beneath thick ginger fur, and her mouth covered with her previously immensely expensive jacket and her limbs bound with my extremely useful belt. I lifted her up and put her in the janitor's closet across the hall, shutting and locking the door after I made sure there weren't any sharp objects she could use to cut herself free inside.
Picking up my binder again, I replaced the scissors in the inside pocket and hurried out to talk to Max. We had to get the flock out of this school as soon as possible. If Lissa was an Eraser, we had no reason not to suspect anyone else of being just a regular human. When I exited the cool, silent hallway and went out into the noisy sunshine of the quad, I immediately spotted the flock sitting at a lunch table. Nudge sprang up from her seat and waved at me to come over, which I quickly did, my face serious. Max took one look at me and also stood, her eyes searching my face for information. "ZOMG Fa-Nick! Guess what happened in science today it was soooo funny! Ga- Zephyr and Henry were working together on identifying finger prints when Zephyr farted and then Henry smelled it and passed out! It was hilarious because Zephyr denied everything, and acted as grossed out as everyone did when they smelled it so Mr Yinn didn't suspect him and I was all ZOMG that was so weird…" Nudge babbled on and on about her day so far, not noticing that everyone at our table had gone back to eating our lunches. I felt kind of bad for not listening, but decided that Nudge would want me to remain sane.
"What happened?" Max murmured to me under the chatter of the Nudge Channel. I looked in her eyes and summed up my feelings.
"Something bad," I told her seriously. Max searched my face, but didn't find any hint of joking, and immediately tensed. Her beautiful eyes looked troubled as she wondered about what could possibly have made me so worried.
"Tell me later," she finally replied. I nodded, and started unwrapping my sandwich. After I finished my lunch though, I remembered Lissa. Someone was bound to notice if she suddenly went missing.
"Max?" I asked. She turned to face me on the bench we were sitting on, and raised an eyebrow as I stood up, ready to leave for the library now that I had finished my food. "You might want to do something about Lissa's body. The janitor might be surprised to find her in his closet," I suggested, my voice and face completely blank. Max's eyes widened, and she sprang up to follow me as I walked off towards the library.
"What?" she hissed under her breath, quickly catching up with me. "You know I don't like her Fang, but you can't just go around killing people!"
"Oh, I didn't kill her. I think," I reassured Max airily. "Just knocked her out." I watched interestedly as Max's eyes widened even more. She looked ready to kill me for my vagueness.
"Fang Ride. Tell me what you did to Lissa. Now," Max ordered me quietly, struggling to contain her annoyance and not hit me. I grinned widely at her, and her eyes looked even more surprised.
"Well, she turned into something nasty when I told her I loved you, so I had to knock her out. Nothing personal," I summarized. Max blanched, stopping dead in her tracks. I stopped too, wondering what her problem was.
"You told Lissa that you loved- me?" she whispered. I blanched too. Crap! Had I said that?
"Well, she turned into something nasty when I told her I loved you, so I had to knock her out."
Oops.
"Umm, I, uhh…" I stumbled over things to say, cursing myself mentally. Why was I such an idiot? Max pressed a finger to my lips, and I stopped talking. My heart sped up slightly, but I carefully wiped my expression clean.
"You can explain later," she whispered to me, a hint of longing in her eyes. "I'd like to know why you said that, but obviously now is not a good time." Abruptly, she took her finger off my now hyper sensitive lips, and began walking towards the school. "You said you left her in the janitor's closet?" Max asked in a more normal voice, trying to get things back on track.
"Yeah. She kind of turned into an Eraser, so I had to," I explained. Max stopped walking again, and stared at me in disbelief.
"SHE WHAT?" Max yelled, making other people turn to stare at her. I grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards the school.
"She turned into an Eraser," I repeated. Suddenly, a playful frown spread across Max's face as she walked at my side. I turned to look at her, but she just kept frowning quizzically. "What is it Max?" I asked tiredly. I could sense that she had a sarcastic comment waiting for me…
"You're talking too much today. It's kind of unsettling. Are you feeling alright, Fangy?" Max queried innocently, lifting a hand to feel my forehead. I knocked it away, flashing a smile at her to show that I wasn't angry.
"I'm feeling great," I insisted, still smiling at Max. "In fact, I'm feeling so good that I feel like doing something that I know I shouldn't." I stopped in the deserted hallway where Lissa and I had fought, walking purposefully towards the closet. As I knew she would, Max tugged on my arm and made me turn to face her, one eyebrow raised as she looked at me.
"What do you know you shouldn't do that you feel like doing anyway?" she asked me, her eyes completely unsuspecting. Good.
"Oh, nothing. Just this." I lifted her chin and leaned forward to place a kiss on her perfect, surprised lips. She unconsciously took a step towards me, closing the distance as her eyes shut. I was just enjoying the sensation of having Max so near to me when she suddenly broke away.
Please don't run away Max, please don't run away… I begged in my head.
Either she heard my thoughts or had the sudden revelation that she was in love with me (probably the former…), and Max didn't run like a frightened deer. Instead, she gently lowered her head until it was leaning against my shoulder. I stood completely still, before slowly inching my hands up to hug her. She stiffened for a second before relaxing against me once more, and I mentally sighed in relief. We stood like that for awhile before we heard a muffled movement in the janitor's closet, and sprang apart. Max looked at me with a hint of regret far back in her eyes, before settling naturally into her fighting stance as she eyed the closet door. "Lissa?" she whispered to me. I nodded, and Max's eyes hardened. We crept silently towards the closet (Max can be pretty ninja when she wants to be) and tried to judge what Lissa was doing inside it. Judging from her muffled screams, she had turned back into human form and was trying to call for help.
"Max," I murmured almost silently. Her ears pricked, and I knew that she had heard me. "I have an idea." We backed away from the closet so Lissa wouldn't be able to hear us talking, and I explained my plan to Max. She nodded as I spoke, her expression clearing as she understood what I wanted her to do. I backed into the shadowy corner where the last line of lockers met the wall, and felt myself blend in. Max looked in my direction and gave me the thumbs up to signal that I was completely invisible. Now I just had to stay perfectly still, and Lissa wouldn't ever see me. Max walked along the hallway, humming under her breath. Exactly as I had hoped, Lissa heard her walk by and started shrieking for someone to come save her. Max rushed to the door and unlocked it hurriedly.
"Lissa? Is that you?" she asked in perfectly feigned surprise. When Max opened the closet door, Lissa tumbled heavily out, still bound, but her gag had fallen off. Max gasped in shock, and I was convinced that she was utterly surprised. Max could be an actress on Broadway someday. "What happened?" Max asked, fumbling to untie Lissa's hands and feet. The conniving redhead sat on the floor with tears in her eyes as she chafed her wrists, pathetically attempting to get feeling into them.
"It was F-Nick," Lissa sobbed, almost saying my real name. That would have given her away, big time. Max pretended not to notice Lissa's slip-up, instead starting to untie the girl's ankles. She held up the remnants of my leather belt, staring at it.
"This is Nick's belt," Max stated slowly. "He tied you up?" she yelled indignantly. "Why did he do that? Honestly, we both know that you and I aren't the best of friends, but still, he can't just do that and get away with it!" Lissa smiled, tears glistening on her cheeks.
"I don't know why he did it," Lissa 'admitted'. "He stopped me in the hallway, and- and kissed me," here she blushed convincingly. "but after everyone had left he knocked me out and tied me up!" Lisssa gingerly touched the lump forming on her head where she had connected with the locker.
"Nick has always been mysterious," Max agreed with Lissa, sitting back on her heels. "But I wonder why he suddenly went off like that. Did anything happen?" Max asked curiously. Lissa shook her head, wincing slightly. Most likely she would have a hangover-worthy headache soon. I didn't pity her at all.
"Well, let's get you to the nurse's office," Max told Lissa, standing up. Lissa got to her feet, wobbling as she stood. "I'll tell our siblings to watch out for Nick. Come on, Lissa." Max strode off towards the nurse's office, with her exposed back facing Lissa and I. An evil grin blossomed on the redhead's face, and she lunged to punch Max in the back of the head. Max's step didn't falter, because she knew that Lissa was going to punch her, and more importantly, that I would get to Lissa before she touched Max. I melted out of the shadows and ran forward to kick Lissa directly in the back. I heard something crack, but she just groaned before turning to face me with hate-filled eyes.
"Fang dearie," she hissed at me, holding her side where I had broken a rib or two. "How nice of you to visit." Instead of attacking me, though, Lissa again lunged for Max. She whirled around with lightning speed, her fist swiftly connecting with Lissa's face with all the power of an extremely pissed Max. Lissa howled in pain before Max smashed her fist into the girl/Eraser's temple, which quickly shut the idiot up. Lissa crumpled to the floor again, and I looked at Max. We held each other's gaze for a minute, conferring without words, before nodding and running towards the exit. I tore off my jacket as we ran, and ditched my shirt too as we pushed the doors open and jumped off the stairs. Now my wings were free to expand and catch the wind. Heads turned as Max and I ran out of the school; some girls swooning when they saw my bare chest. What can I say? It's hard to avoid getting stomach muscles when you fly as much as I do, so I had a pretty well-defined six-pack. I grinned at Max when she stared at me for a moment before running off, blushing heavily, to go retrieve the flock. I cracked open my wings to their full fourteen feet and leaped into the air to the sound of three hundred students gasping. I pumped my wings, gaining enough altitude to survey the area before circling the quad, waiting for the flock to ascend to my height. I shivered slightly, the air up here was cold on my shirtless chest.
Below I could see as Iggy and Gazzy copied me and ripped off their shirts, standing on the lunch tables to get more height as they took off, flying up to me. What I said about flying giving us serious muscles was true, so even more girls fainted at the sight of us flying, shirtless, above them. Max ran over to Nudge and Angel, and helped them peel off their sweatshirts. Max cut holes in Angel's and Nudge's shirts with a pocket knife I didn't know she had been carrying around in her pocket. The younger girls extended their wings and took a running start to leap up into the air and propel themselves over to us. Now Max was the only one left on the ground, and the other students were quickly trying to see if she had wings too. I noticed two people moving especially quickly; the Sam-weiner who kissed Max, and a newly revived Lissa. Dang, that girl just wouldn't stay KOed. "MAX!" I yelled down at her. "There isn't enough time! Two o'clock and six o'clock!" She immediately looked to where I directed, and saw Lissa and Sam coming at her. She had another moment of indecision before stripping off her sweatshirt and her shirt. I almost had a heart-attack before I realized she was wearing a thin tank top under her shirt.
Nudge sighed in relief next to me. "ZOMG I thought Max had just stripped in front of EVERYBODY!" she gushed. "That would have been soooo bad!"
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Gazzy snorted at her. Nudge huffed, and fell silent. I focused back on where Max stood on the picnic table. Luckily, the tank top she had on had practically no back, with an uneven cut to it that made me suspect she had modified it herself for a situation just like this. Sometimes, Max's paranoia comes in handy.
She shot out her beautiful wings and jumped off the table. A sudden draft of air blew through the quad, lifting Max on it. She soared up into the air, and my heart slowed down. But not for long.
Sam had leaped up with inhuman agility, managing to grab Max's ankle before she was lifted higher. My heart leapt back into my throat, and I watched anxiously as she struggled to kick his hand off. I was frozen in place, the only part of me moving was my wings, keeping me aloft. Suddenly, I noticed that Gazzy, Nudge and Angel had dove back down to help Max, leaving me hovering next to a thoroughly confused Iggy. "Why are we even leaving?" Iggy asked me, totally oblivious of the problem occurring below.
"I'll tell you later," I muttered, craning my neck to see what the younger flock was doing. Nudge and Gazzy were holding Angel under her arms, and the six-year-old was flying feet first towards Sam's face. Her size four sneakers crashed into Sam's nose, and I could hear the snap clearly from thirty feet above. I couldn't help but grin. Angel was just so cute!
Nudge and Gazzy quickly heaved her back up into the air, as her momentum had carried her down so she was almost standing on the ground again. Max had shot back up like she was fired from a gun, now that Sam's hold on her ankle had vanished. Nudge and Gazzy pulled Angel up, practically throwing her higher in the air before flapping their wings as hard as they could to gain altitude. All three of them raced back up to where Max, Iggy and I were circling, and we raced off to Anne's house, hoping not to return to an Eraser invasion.
"Well then, that was eventful," Iggy commented calmly. "Would someone like to tell the blind guy what happened?"
"No," I replied shortly. He huffed, but flew on in silence. The whole flock besides Max and I were in complete ignorance of what had happened at the school, but neither Max nor I felt like talking right now. As soon as Anne's house came into view, there was a varied response to the view.
"Crap," I muttered.
Angel and Nudge gasped.
Gazzy stared blankly.
"Well this is just craptastic, isn't it?" Max groaned.
"What the heck is going on?" Iggy yelled, annoyed at all of us.
No one answered him.
"Well, what do we do now?" I asked finally.
No one answered me either.
CLIFFHANGER! AH HA HA! I am soooo evil, since I will probably update my other stories before continuing this. XD Also, my iPod Screen readers might be miffed that I wrote this instead of their story. I'M SORRY, I DIDN'T MEAN TO, BUT I DREW AN EVIL PICTURE OF LISSA AND JUST HAD TO WRITE A STORY WITH HER AS AN ERASER! XD So yeah, not exactly my fault. Review if you hate me for leaving you hanging like that! Which is probably everyone who reads this!
XD I'm slightly afraid to see what creative threats might happen… Luvin'-music, if you're reading this, PLEASE don't release the angry penguins! I repent!
~TMI~