Authors Note: This is my first story so it will probably suck, but if someone actually reads it, or even reviews to help me make it better it would make me extremely happy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride, James Patterson does.

It was a rotten day.

We were flying over New Mexico in the pouring rain, heading to my Moms house in Arizona, and I was wet, tired, and hungry. And yes I just said flying, and not in a plane, either. With our wings. And for those of you who are saying "Huh? With your wings? What are you on?" I'll pause for a minute and explain.

Yes, we have wings. We grew up in a horrible place in California called the School, where we lived in dog crates and were experimented on. We were all of the human/avian catagory, so we were put together. Then Jeb, the nice whitecoat (or so we thought), helped us escape.

I still get mad whenever I think about him. We thought he was great, like a real parent. But then he disappeared and we thought he was dead. I wish. He actually went back to the School to work with them, he betrayed us, that lying, dirty, a- wait. I shouldn't think swear words around a mind reader. Especially a six year old one. That's just wrong.

But sometimes we forget, and she'll hear. We being me, Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel. I'm the leader of the flock, and the oldest at fourteen, Fang is also fourteen, and my dark, silent, second-in-command. Iggy, our blind, witty, pyro, is fourteen as well, Nudge, the motormouth is eleven, Gazzy, or the Gasman (called so for obvious reasons once you've spent five minutes in a room with him) is eight and takes after Iggy in the pyro department, and Angel, the youngest, is six.

Almost seven, Max.

Geeze, Angel what have I told you about listening to my thoughts?!

Sorry, Max.

Her sweet, child-like giggle filled my head. But I'm hungry and I wanted to know if we were stopping to eat soon.

You could have just asked, I thought back.

She giggled again. But that's not as fun.

I sighed out loud. Fang, who was flying next to me, looked at me questioningly. "Angel" I muttered in explanation. He nodded, satisfied. None of us particularly enjoyed it when Angel read our minds, but, hey, she was a six year old telepathic mutant. We could cut her some slack. Plus, I already had a headache, and having an extra presence in my head didn't help at all.

Hello, Maximum.

Speaking of extra presences in my head... Hello, Voice. And yes, I have a voice in my head. One that is neither mine nor Angels. Not nearly as cool as it sounds.

Will you please go away, I'm not in the mood for the danger or weird incidents that follow your visits right now I thought, getting fed up with all the intrusions into my mind. The Voice chuckled.

Actually, Maximum, I will.

Wow, it was actually listening to me for once. I will be going away for a while, and you will be on your own, with no help from me. Good, will you leave now? I asked impatiently. Goodbye, Maximum Ride. Good luck.

I smiled- finally, some peace and quiet. "Hey Max?" Never mind, my peace and quiet just jumped out the window, as soon as Nudge opened her mouth.

"What, Nudge?"

"I'm hungry and so is Angel and I bet Gazzy and Iggy and Fang are too, 'cause the last time we ate was, like, hours ago and I was thinking maybe we could like, go to a McDonalds, and, like, eat there, 'cause usually we get food and eat it somewhere else, but, like, it's raining so it would be nice and dry and warm in there and-"

"Nudge my ears are bleeding!" yelled Iggy.

Nudge fell silent. "Getting something to eat sounds great, Nudge" I said. " I think theres a strip mall around here-" Just then I was interrupted by Iggy.

"Gazzy! Oh man, I was right behind you! Ugghhh" Apparently Gazzy had let loose another one of his gifts.

"I'm hungry! Does McDonalds have bacon?" Called total from Fang's arms, looking like he had just climbed out of a lake.

Ug! Where did my peace and quiet go? Oh, wait, I think I see it down on the ground shattered into a billion pieces.

Suddenly a horrible, stabbing pain exploded inside my head. I cried out weakly in pain before my wings tucked into my back and I dropped like a stone from the air, curled into a ball and clutching my head so it didn't fall apart.

I heard faint, desperate shouts of "Max!" But I was in so much pain I just wanted to hit the ground so it would end. Last time Fang caught me, and carried me until I was okay.

That's why he always flew next to me. No one else was strong enough, and Iggy wouldn't be able to see where I was to catch me. All I had to do, all I could do, was wait until Fang caught me, and the pain would eventually go away and I would be all right.

Except that Fang was carrying Total.

And he couldn't catch me while still holding Total.

Which meant he would either have to ditch the dog, or quickly hand him off then come for me- most likely the second option, because if he dropped Total, Angel would probably make him fly full speed into the side of a cliff, and then how would he save me?

At the moment I didn't care whether he caught me or not, as long as the pain stopped. But the Flock needed me, I couldn't die because they needed me.

Preferably not in a billion pieces on the ground, right next to my peace and quiet.