A/N: This isn't my first fanfiction, but it's the first one I actually really want to FINISH and possibly make a sequel to. I only have two fanfics on my page, this one and a oneshot, but I have written more. I took them down like a month ago cuz I was never going to finish them.
PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE read through the whole chapter, I know it doesn't seem "FAXY" right now, but trust me, it will be!
This chapter came out shorter than I wanted it to be, but I'm happy with the way it came out.
In the future, I will try to make shorter A/Ns than this one :)
Disclaimer: If I owned Maximum Ride, this wouldn't be a fanfiction, but a published book. Duh.
In the end, we all want the same thing. Love.
--
" "Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." " My English teacher, Mrs. Taylor, thrust her arms out to her sides as she quoted Shakespeare, trying to make the quote more epic, and only succeeding in making herself look like a giant duck. "Can anyone tell me what this quote means?" No one raised their hand. "No? Max?"
I looked up, quickly shoving my drawing under a bunch of other papers. Note to self: Don't let Fang go through papers.
"Um," Great, Max. Very smart-ass. "Well, I guess "some are born great" is referring to like, you know, people who are born into really wealthy or important families, or something. And "some achieve greatness" refers to people who become famous, like actors or singers or authors, and "some have greatness thrust upon them" refers to people who, maybe, suddenly find themselves in situations where they have to take charge, or something. So I guess what the quote is saying is that no one should fear greatness, 'cuz even if you're not great, chances are you'll know someone great... I guess," I shrugged.
Mrs. Taylor considered what I had said. She looked me straight in the eye. "You don't have to be famous to achieve greatness, Max."
That statement wouldn't have creeped me out so much if she hadn't said it like she was prophesying my future. Cuz if she was, she was dead off center. (Did that even make any sense? Dead off center?) The closest I'll ever come to "greatness" in my life will be when I don't have to worry about being a lab rat for the emotionally screwed.
Okay, so the whitecoats aren't really emotionally screwed, but you'd think they would be, what with what they do to innocent humans (*coughcoughmeandfangcoughcough*) every freakin' day.
So now you're probably wondering why I'm not locked up in an insane asylum yet, but just you wait. You haven't even heard a quarter of it yet.
So ever since I can remember, until recently, that is, I've spent my life in a dog crate. Literally. At a place called the School. You see, I'm... different from other kids my age. Not different, as in I like to read (I've only read two books in my entire fifteen years), different as in I'm 2% bird. I have wings. I can fly. The scientist, or, as I like to call them, whitecoats, found a way to rearrange my DNA strands and add bird genes, plus some other technical stuff that has absolutely no meaning to me (well, I mean, it does, since it's my body, but what I mean is I don't understand it), all before I was born, while I was still in the womb.
And after I was born, the whitecoats weren't done, not by a long shot. Of course, since I was a successful experiment (Experiment 0109 to be exact), they just had to run more tests on me. For thirteen years.
Anyway, there was another experiment just like me, in the dog crate right next to mine. We were both success stories (and tortured souls), and we struck up a friendship pretty quickly. Since the screwed whitecoats had thoughtfully picked out heartfelt numbers for us (note the sarcasm, folks), we decided to pick out our own names. My name is Maximum Ride. His name is Fang.
And then, one day, we escaped. I'm not going to go into details right now, but we fled to the other side of the country (or should I say flew), and decided to enroll in school as brother and sister.
Maximum and Fang Ride.
--
"Hey," Fang nodded his head nonchalantly in my direction as I walked over with my lunch tray. Okay, I'll admit it, that single word just made my heart beat about fifty times faster. But it nearly stopped when I almost sat on top of the girl sitting next to Fang, in my spot.
I smiled apologetically and slid into the seat across from Fang. I looked down at my tray and picked up the carton of orange juice, but nearly choked on it as I realized who was sitting in my spot: Charlotte King, head cheerleader.
And she was sitting next to Fang, in my spot, oh-so subtly flipping her wavy red hair over her shoulder and laughing at something that Fang had just said. Ha ha.
"Uh, Fang?" He looked at me. "Can I talk to you for a sec?" When he motioned for me to continue, I hissed, "alone." He sighed, rolled his eyes towards Charlotte, and got up and followed me to the corner of the cafeteria. "What is she doing here?" I hissed.
He rolled his eyes. "Max, chill. I invited her to sit down." And with that, he walked away.
I stood there, silently fuming. He invited her? How could he? And in my seat? I watched as he sat back down at the table and immediately started talking to Charlotte again, both of them laughing. After a moment, I stalked back over, grabbed my lunch tray, chucked it in the trash, and walked out of the cafeteria. When I was sure I was out of sight, I ran, tears spilling over my cheeks.
You are everything to me
I didn't even notice where I was going, only that it was away from school.
And I just wanna show you
She don't even know you
Since when does Fang talk to anyone besides me? You just see right through me
And even then, he doesn't say much.
There's a fire inside of you
That can't help but shine through
She's never gonna see the light
How could he abandon me, after everything we've been through together?
Like shadows in the faded light,
Screw clichés.
I didn't stop running. I tore off my jacket, opened up my speckled wings, and jumped into the air. Within seconds I was as high as jet plane, flying as fast as one.
We could be a beautiful, miracle, unbelievable
Instead I'm just invisible
And you know what?
He never looked back.
A/N: PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE REVIEW!!!!
YES there will be TONS OF FAX! Don't worry, Charlotte doesn't last long, so PLEASE don't stop reading just because Fang has found yet another red haired wonder. Still don't believe me? You know that note I mentioned in the summary? Well, Max finds it when she wakes up in the morning, and it's on Fang's side of the bed.
I think my english teacher's rubbing off on me (maybe not, I didn't capitalize "English".) cuz I actually deliberatley put some symbolism stuff in this story. There are at least four, and anyone who can get three out of the four, I will put a character you design in the story, and s/he'll have a big part!! :)
The song Max was quoting in her head was "Invisible" by Taylor Swift, and throughout the story Max will have this obsession with relating different situations in her life to songs she's heard.
Comment or PM if you have any questions