A/N: Aah! Finally! Inspiration! Band! Why am I writing one-worded sentences? But yeah. I got inspiration for this story from band. If you didn't pick up on this yet, I'm in marching band, but I don't play clarinet. I play flute. :) I love, love, LOVE marching band. But I will make sure to explain unknown terms to non-band-geeks on the bottom, so if you don't understand a term with an asterisk, I'll make sure to explain. By the way, if some of the grammar is wrong, I'm terribly sorry. I've been kind of multi-tasking, so some of it might be all over the place.

Disclaimer: Maximum Ride I do not own. Not own Yoda do I either.

Chapter 1

Have you ever had a rude awakening? Like, have you been in the middle of a great time, and then someone interrupts it with the bad news called reality? Well, that was basically what happened at four o'clock this evening.

I was in the middle of a wonderful summer, aside from Iggy annoying the heck out of me, until about a month before school started. August had just began, and the weather was getting a little cooler. I was hanging out with my friends everyday of the summer, ignoring the fact that high school was coming up.

That's right. I was going to be a Freshman, or as other upperclassmen so lovingly put it, a "Freshie". Mmm. So welcoming. So I hid my nerves and tried to distract myself. But today happened to be the first practice of marching band.

Yeah, apparently Mr. Pulowski didn't get the message that we're supposed to avoid school in the summer.

So today was my rude awakening. I got up at the usual one o'clock in the afternoon when my mom informed me about it all.

"So, Max, you know that you and Ig have marching band practice later, right?" she asked casually.

My reaction was interesting. I choked on my milk. I started to cough uncontrollably while my mom came to my side and began patting my back.

Finally, after I got it all out of my system, I was able to sputter, "We have to go back to school already?"

Mom chuckled, and gave me some water to drink, since I'd finished all my milk already. "Yes, hun. School's starting in about three weeks, you know."

I had to spit out my water before I choked again. "I don't wanna start!"

Iggy came in right after. "Ready?"

I shook my head furiously. "Not at all."

Iggy was the unlucky one in this situation, though. Because he was a percussionist, he had to start coming in two weeks earlier, just to learn all the cadences*. Iggy is my twin brother, by the way. I'm sorry I forgot to mention that. Iggy was born three minutes before me. And he doesn't let me forget it, either.

People don't usually think of us as twins. We don't look alike. At all. My hair is blonde and brown, both mixed together. Iggy's is strawberry blonde. I have brown eyes, his are blue-ish. But we both are tall and thin, but other than that, we're polar opposites.

"It's fun, Max! Pulo* is the best band director ever!" Iggy exclaimed.

I sighed. Why did I have to try out for marching band in the first place? I never really liked band. I liked the clarinet. I just didn't like band because I felt that it was pointless. I mean, seriously, what are you accomplishing by playing music, only to be followed by performing a single concert, and then start it all over again? But sadly, Mom made me do it. Her excuse was always that she wished that she didn't quit band. Whatever.

"Max, you'll have fun," my mom comforted, holding onto my hand.

I pulled it away, suddenly feeling very frustrated. Stupid PMS. "I definitely won't have fun! None of my friends made it into marching band! I'm not going to know anyone!" Then, I ran into my room, slamming the door.

This was what I decided:

I was not going to enjoy marching band.

Eventually, I dressed, put on just a teensy bit of makeup, and put my hair in a ponytail. I grabbed my clarinet, a bag to put my phone, water, and music in, and a quick snack. The practices for the next two weeks were going until seven, so we'd be missing dinner. Iggy grabbed his stuff too, and pushed me into the car.

"Trust me, Max, you'll like it," he reassured.

I stuck out my tongue out at him. Even though we were the same age, he really took on the big brother role in my life. And he had two younger siblings, other than me. Gazzy and Angel. The Gasman (Let his nickname be self-explanitory) is nine, and Angel is seven. They look a lot more like Iggy, so I guess I'm the odd one out. But Iggy seems to be more protective of me, which is weird. Maybe someday I'll ask him about that.

He grinned. "I'll introduce you to people. You won't be a total outcast." That's another thing about Iggy. He's very sociable, and very well-liked. So I guess I could rely on him to introduce me to other people.

"Can we come?" Angel and Gazzy asked, running outside of the house.

Iggy shook his head. "You don't want to. High schoolers are scary."

They both pleaded; Angel even used her Bambi eyes.

"Fine," he breathed in surrender. They squealed and hopped in the car. Maybe that would help calm my nerves.

Iggy sat in the front passenger seat, while Angel, Gaz, and I squeezed in the back of our SUV. Mom sat in the driver's seat (obviously).

Unfortunately, we live about five minutes from the school, so I was barely able to enjoy the last of my summer. Everyone but Angel and I were singing along to 80's music. It was torturous.

Finally, Mom arrived at the school. There were about two cars in front of us, and there was one more in back of us. As we were getting out of the car, Iggy shouted, "Hey!" to one of the people getting out of a car. He nodded, and waited for us to catch up.

He had gorgeous teal-colored eyes, dirty blonde hair, and muscles. My eyes practically popped right out of my sockets. I had to make sure not to stare. Who knew that high school had hot guys?

"Hey Ig," he greeted, and then looked at me. "Who's this? Your girlfriend?"

We both began snickering. "No, this is my twin sister, Max," Iggy replied.

The guy grinned. "My bad." He extended his hand to me. "I'm Dylan."

I grabbed his hand. "Nice to meet you." Iggy raised an eyebrow casually, seeming to question my friendliness.

"Dylan is doing the Cymbals with me," Iggy explained. I nodded, but to be honest, I didn't really pay attention.

They both began to talk about one of the songs, so I just walked beside them until they lead me to the band room. I'd been in here before, but I didn't really remember what it looked like. The room was pretty big, with leveled floors, tons of chairs, and stands to go with them. There were also a bunch of people to match.

"That's where all the clarinets sit," Iggy whispered in my ear, pointing to the obvious section of people with that very instrument.

"I'm not an idiot," I muttered back to him.

He gave me an smile, no evil intended. "Great. You're already learning."

I rolled my eyes. "Stop acting like you know everything."

He just shrugged, and walked off with Dylan to the labyrinth between the band room and the choir room. I guess percussion was meeting in a room there.

I was all alone for about a second there, looking completely helpless, until this random girl tapped my shoulder.

"Hi! You're a clarinet, right?" she asked without a hint of bitterness in her tone. Maybe people were a lot nicer in high school...

"Uhh... Yeah," I replied stupidly.

She laughed. "I'm Kallie. I'm the clarinet section leader." She shook my hand.

I was confused. "What's a section leader?"

"Basically, I'm like the mother goose of clarinets. I help everyone out, and I teach you stuff. This first week, it's just me and all the newbies." She flashed me a bright smile. Wow, perky much?

My eyes widened. "So this isn't even the whole band?"

"Nope. It's mostly Sophomores, with the occasional Freshman."

I half-heartedly laughed with her. "I guess I'm one of that small population, then."

She looked surprised. "You're a Freshman?" I nodded. "Wow, I totally thought that you were a Sophomore. Well, I'm a Senior."

I began to look around. This was a big group, and it was only the newbies. Scary thought.

"So what's your name?" she asked, looking off of a clipboard. She was probably taking attendance or something.

"Maximum Martinez," I responded. She nodded, and put down a little checkmark.

"Alright, I'm pairing all of our newbies. Your marching partner is..." her finger ran across the clipboard. "Nick Ride. Do you know him?" I shook my head. "Well, you two are the only two Freshies in our section, so you two are going to be partnered up. Stay here for a sec," she instructed.

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. Iggy said I'd have a good time, but so far, it was just frightening. But then again, I'd just got here. I decided to keep an open mind, despite the fact that I decided earlier that I wouldn't like marching band. Yeah, I know. I contradict myself quite a lot.

"Maximum, this is Nick," Kallie stated, dragging a guy by her arm. He had dark hair, dark eyes, tan skin, and dark clothes. He looked emo, basically. But he was, I admit, pretty darn attractive. Mmm. I gotta say, I was starting to like high school.

"Fang," he muttered.

"Max," I replied.

"Oh, my bad guys." She patted Fang's shoulder. "Get to know each other. Converse. Oh, and don't forget to set up your instrument."

I shrugged, and sat down on the nearest chair. Fang followed, and started tuning his clarinet. Hmm. Not much of a talker.

"So, what school do you come from?" I asked politely, trying to strike up some conversation.

"Westview Pointe," he mumbled.

"Oh, interesting..." I trailed off. "Well, I'm from Bayside." He grunted.

Oh, geez. Another awkward silence. I decided to stop talking to him since his quietness was seriously pissing me off. Besides, all he did was just stare at me. It was a little creepy.

Wonderful. I was making so many friends.

*Cadence=A song for percussion, basically. I can't really explain it since I'm not a percussionist, but it's like a catchy tune the drums do. They're awesome!

*Pulo=A nickname for Mr. Pulowski. (I based it off of our band instructor. We call ours BK. He's awesome.)

So yeah, this was a really long chapter for me. Don't count on all the others to be this long.

Oh, and I made up the school names, by the way! Completely off the top of my head. So don't be a stalker and look them up, because I don't think they exist, and if they do, I DON'T/NEVER DID GO THERE!

Kthxbye. :)

-Venus