Chapter 1
(I typed all four pages on my ipod. :^3)
The first time I really met Fang -or at least I thought it was- was in the school office in the May of tenth grade.
I was sitting in class, horribly bored, my palm stuck to my left cheek. School was boring. Really boring, but a lot better than the 'school' I had come from before. More on that later. It's not important right now. Anyways, I was sitting there, bored beyond recognition, watching the clock tick and complaining about our English teacher on a note to my friend J.J.
'She makes me beyond mad,' I wrote furiously, my pen scratching the paper. 'She is always picking on me in class in her condescending nasal toot squeal voice!' I tapped on J.J.'s arm so she could take the note, but she was too busy ogling over Dylan, this kid in my class who had a crush on me forever. Everyone thought he was totally cute, J.J. included, and always asked me why I didn't want to go out with him. Why? Because my type was not try-too-hard popular jocks. We weren't even supposed to interact. He was popular, I wasn't, and glad about it.
"Miss Ride," came the condescending squeal of our English teacher's voice. "Would you like to share the note to the class?" I shook my head furiously. "Give me the note, Maximum."
My blood boiled. No one called me Maximum if they wanted to keep their heads on their shoulders.
"No way in hell." I told her and shoved the note in my mouth. The class laughed. It was small, so I chewed it up, and with a swig of water, swallowed it. The classes lauded louder yet again, and a chorus of 'oohhh's filled the classroom. "I'm sorry, that was rude." I told her in the sweetest voice I could muster. "Would you like to have the note to read?" I opened my mouth wide and mimicked shoving two fingers down my throat.
Her face paled at the thought of vomit. "Sit down and learn something. I know it may be hard for you, but in this classroom we do things my way." This was Standard Operating Procedure for her, Mrs. McKormic, and she gave this speech to any misbehaving student. "Now tell me three adjectives for school."
I pretended to think for a moment. "Oh! I know!" I Said cheerfully. "Uh, fascist shit hole!" I looked down at her appalled face and, probably against my better judgement, added "Oh, was that just two? Fascist shit hole... With sucky English teachers."
Before she even managed to tell me to go down to the office, I was already out the door and halfway there.
"Max?" Sighed one of the secretaries, Sharon. "it's only twenty minutes into first period. This has to be a new record for you." I wasn't exactly... Well suited to school, so I spend a lot of time in the office. And by a lot, I mean a lot. As in, I have a chair reserved for me (It even has a little sticker that says 'Max's Chair' that Barbra put up), I know all the secretaries on a first name basis and they send me christmas card every winter. That is how much time I spend in the office. "Sit down." she told me.
"Okay, Sharon. Wasn't it your cat, snookumses birthday yesterday?" That is how much time I spend in the office. Honest. I swear upon the wings on my back. Wait, you didn't know about the wings, you know, the giant 14 foot brown and white ones? No? Ok, let me explain in the SCVOHMGHW, or Super Condensed Version Of How Max Got Her Wings.
It all started before I was born, I think. I don't really know anything much about this part because it was the most unknown part of my already mysterious past. All I know was that, I was taken out early, as an embryo. I was in a test tube somewhere being turned from a pinky fetus to a full fledged baby. Somewhere around the way, some dumb ass scientist decided 'Hey! Why don't I screw around with the genetics of a innocent baby?' and I ended up with 98% human genes and 2% bird genes, which gave me wings and air sac and a bunch of lovely other things that normal humans don't have, such as weird blood and powers.
And if you don't think that's bad, try finding a swimsuit for the school's annual beach trip. I dare you. Anyways, I'm talking about how I got the wings. You may think 'oh well, that's cool.', and I have to admit, the wings are pretty cool, but what happened afterwards wasn't.
I don't really remember remember this part since I was only two, but I'm going off what my adoptive mother, Valencia Martinez, tells me. So there I was, me and three other kids, also with wings were living in dog crates, being tested on. The two years, were horrible, and I can remember that, considering the fact that I practically have a break down every time I see a needle. Eventually, the facility this all happened at got shut down, and we were thrown into orphanages with a big, figurative bucket of cash. Well, one other was. The other one was Iggy, who's practically my brother. He's been adopted by Mom too. I don't know what happened to the other two. I've always just assumed that they were dead.
So our mom adopted us bird kids, which was suitable because she's a veterinarian, but apparently there were other facilities, and slowly over they years, she's adopted another three of us, all bird kids, all with wings and fancy stuff. The five of us, Me (I me and my name is Ride. Maximum Ride, double-oh-wings.), Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy and Angel, were all adopted and
sent out of the facilities at the age of two. The only one who wasn't was Angel, who came out with Gazzy six years ago at only a few months old. Angel and Gazzy are the only biological siblings here, sharing the same wispy blonde hair and angelic blue eyes. For the rest of us; it's evident that we aren't related. I have brown/dirty blind hair and brown eyes. Nudge is African-American, with dark brown hair and hair and eyes. Iggy, he's blind thanks to some experiment, but we think his now almost white- blue eyes used to be green. He also is really pale and a bit of a Ginger, with his strawberry blonde hair.
There you go, the history of my life, or at least as much as I'm going to tell you.
The principal was busy in a meeting, so I was stuck in the office for the rest of first and second period. I didn't mind. I had my iPod blasting my favorite music (Three Days Grace, Black Veil Brides, System of a Down, Serj Tankian, Evanescence, Broken Iris, Nirvana, etc.) The office ladies didn't mind. They used to, but after they realized that no matter how many times the took it away and hid it, it would be back in my hands two minutes later, courtesy of my skills.
Some time shortly after the end of first period and in the middle of 'The Morticians Daughter', Dylan and another, I hated to admit it -hunky, boy walked in and sat down in a huff, sitting as far away from each other as possible. Meaning the hunky guy was on one side. Both were dirty and bloody. The handsome boy, who had black hair falling almost over of his onyx eyes and all black clothes on, had a split lip and a cut across his left cheek. Dylan had the beginnings of a black eye and his nose was trickling blood.
"You guys got into a fight?" I asked, pulling out my ear buds and tucking them into my pocket.
"Yes." Said the dark clothes guy. "Do you mind switching spots with me? I'm too close to him."
"Sorry. No can do. This is my chair." I told him.
"Do want more blood in this office?" he growled, sending a Death Glare nearly as good as mine to Dylan. "Plus does the chair have your name on it?"
"Yes," I said, smirking. "Look up." I patted the small plaque that said 'Max's Chair.
His looked at me. "You're the infamous Max?" His face didn't say much, but I could see surprise in his eyes. "I thought you were a-"
"Guy?" I finished. "Nope. All girl. Nice lip." I pointed to his lip which was beginning to swell blue.
"Honor to me you. I'm Fang." he told me.
"I know." I said. Ha! Did I fool you thinking that I didn't know who the handsome guy was? Well I did. There really was no way that I couldn't; he was the most popular guy in school. Even more girls trailed after him than they did Dylan, even though he had a girl friend, Lissa, who was cheerleading captain. There wasn't much point in asking if they had gotten in a fight -I already knew they did; Fang and Dylan were our school's most prominent enemies. Their feud was just as notorious and infamous as my reputation for classroom behavior. plus, they were both in some of my classes, but I had never really interacted with Fang before. As a unpopular type, and him as a popular type, we didn't interact. The only reason Dylan spoke to me -tried to speak to me- was because I had known him before he got popular.
They shot Death glares through my head at each other, until it was really bugging me. "Stop using my head as a magnifier for your glares, because neither of them are as deadly as mine, and you will each get one, as well as a butt kicking."
They shrunk back and sat quietly. Just then, Dean, which is what I called the principal, called me in to his office.
"What is it now, Max?" he sighed, trying to hold back a smile. We met each other almost on a daily basis, and I could tell that he was secretly amused by my antics. He looked at the note and tried, unsuccessfully, to hold back an amused gasp. "You ate a price of paper in front of the whole class?" He started to laugh heavily and loudly, his shoulders shaking. "You can go," he told me, still laughing. "Just don't swear at my teachers anymore."
I walked out and motioned for Fang and Dylan to go on in.
Dylan looked confused. "I saw what happened in class. Why was he laughing?"
I patted them both on the shoulder. "I got him in a good mood for you, boys. I'd go in before it wears off. "
