What If?

Chapter One

I screamed out in pain as they stuck the needle into the bulging blue vein in my arm. Fire surged through me, burning me inside.

"Ha ha," one of the white coats said, slamming the dog crate's door closed. "Look at her." He kicked the bars of the cage, making it shake. "Weak."

"Let me pump that stuff into your veins then we'll talk about weak," I growled through my teeth.

The other one laughed. "Let's go. Works done here for now." They walked away, hanging their white coats on the hooks near the small glass doors to freedom.

I sighed and groaned as the last of the fire spilled through my veins. After the fire subsided, I rolled onto my side and peered into the darkness. "Skid? You awake?" (A/N: Skid: Booya! Me: Ha ha.)

She groaned from the cage next to me and said, "No."

I sighed and closed my eyes, willing sleep to come. It didn't. I opened my eyes and thought about what the sky would look like. The whitecoats taunted me with the knowlege of it, knowing what it looked like and I didn't. Would it be green? No, thats not right. Yellow? Pink? No, no. . . . Blue. Yes, it would be blue. That sounded right.

I hoped against hope that I would see it someday. That I'd be out of the cage. But its useless to dream. They don't come true.

I don't know how long I stayed awake, just thinking about things, when I heard it. The scrape of doors against the floor. I closed my eyes, hoping they'd think I was asleep. But that didn't matter. Maybe they'd grown hearts over the span of a few hours.

I heard muffle talking, then a snobby, stuck up, female voice say, "Let's just get this over with."

Foot steps ran down the lanes and lanes of cages and expirements. However many minutes or seconds later, my cage door was thrown open and and olive toned hand stuck into it.

I stared at the hand, then looked up at the body it belonged to. A boy with short, black hair and olive toned skin, and deep, obsidian eyes looked back at me. See how great my vocabulary is? I just used the word obsidian.

I just stared at the boy. He stared back at me and sighed. "You're so slow," he said, and grabbed my hand, then started to drag me out of the cage and down the isles.

"Skid!" I yelled and pulled my wrists out of his grasp. I ran back down the isle, and stopped in front of her cage.

"Max! Wake up!"

I gasped and jack knifed into the sitting position, unfortunetly bumping heads with Skid.

"Ow, Max," she complained, rubbing her head. "That hurt!"

I smiled weakly at her and rubbed my forehead. "Sorry, Skid-Mark."

She smiled at me. "Its time for school!"

"School?" I threw the blankets off of me and wobbilly got to my feet. "Since when are we going to school?"

"To-day!" she sang, using her beautiful voice to pound it into me. "You said we could, and Jeb already put in the forms thinga-majigs. Now, get up and face it!"

"Isn't that a song?" I asked, moving to my small closet.

She shrugged. "Meet me in the kitchen! You have thirty minutes!" Then she skipped off. Yes, skipped. How can someone freaking skip at six-thrity in the morning? But, then again, this is Skid we're talking about. She always seems to be on a sugar-high. Oh, my hummingbird, what am I to do with you?

I sighed and looked in the mirror at myself. Skid said I had a body and looks girls would kill for. Athletic yet curvy body, long, rich, thick honey-colored hair, and milk chocolate eyes. Long eye lashes, long legs. I'm really not that pretty.

What some girls would call a gift, is what I call a curse. I pulled on some black cargo pants, and an army green shirt, gray ankle socks, and low-cut converse. I also had my dog tags. They said MRex.000167. A reminder of why the only person I trust is Skid.

I walked down the small hall and into the living room/kitchen/whatever. Yeah, its a small house. three small rooms, one tiny bath. But its a house and its better than trees or cold hard dirt. We've been in both.

Skid was happily sucking on a lollipop, enjoying the sweetness of it. She pulled it out of her mouth and frowned, shrugged, and pulled out a pixie-stick from the back pocket of her jeans, and ripped open the top.

"What did I tell you about the sweets?" I asked, ripping it from her hand, spewing the powder over the floor.

"But its so good, Max," she complained, pouting.

"I don't care." I threw the pixie-stick in the small trashcan, opened a cupboard, and pulled out a strawberry poptar. I threw it at her. "That should be enough for now. Wait till we get home and I'll give you some sweets." Yes, Skid is sixteen. Yes, she has a sweet problem. Yes, I'm in charge of her sweet consumption. And its hard. You try living with the girl who weighs all of forty pounds and can creep into a bank and no one notice her. Life's hard when you're a mutant.

"Fine," she grumbled. "I guess I'll survive." She stuffed the poptart into her mouth and her eyes lit up. "Yum, yum, yum."

"Where's Jeb?" I asked, munching on my own poptart.

She shrugged. "Left before I was up." I nodded. Not that unsual that he'd disappear every once in a while. "Hey, Max? How exactly are we supposed to get to school? Its not like we can just fly there and say hi."

Yes, she said fly. Ya know that dream I had? Well, it actually happened. Now I have wings, as does Skid. She's part hummingbird, cause she had hummingbird wings and is so light. She has to be 'cause her wings are small. She just reaches 5'1, where as I'm 6'1 Yes, I am that tall.

I smiled at her. "I already thought of that."

Fang

"C'mon, Nudge," Alex pushed her. "Can't you go any faster?"

Nudge glared at her. "Will you stop bothering me about it? I'm going as fast as I can." She turned back to the computer and started to type in random numbers and letters too fast for me to keep count. Why can't they just get along . . .

Angel tugged at my sleeve. "They just don't," she whispered loud enough for only me to hear.

"I know, sweetie," I replied.

Silence. Then . . .

"Guys . . ." Gazzy said, on the other side of the room. "You've gotta see this."

"What is it, Gaz?" Iggy asked, walking over to him even though he couldn't see what Gazzy saw.

"Experiments."

Nudge's fingers stopped in midair. I turned towards him, and Angel ran over to the glass doors separating us from the others. Alex walked over to him and peered into the room.

"Huh. Look at that," she said. "Nudge, keep going."

"No," Nudge replied, shocking us all. "I'm not going to keep going."

"What did you just say?" Alex asked her, hands on her hips. Wow, she's starting to get on my nerves.

"I. Said. No."

They glared at each other for a moment.

"Let's get them out," I said, using the rest of my words for the day.

Angel pushed open the glass doors and walked into the room, causing some of the visible expirements to shrink back. "Good idea, Fang."

"Let's just get this over with," Alex said, sounding like a brat. We're gonna have to have a talk . . .

We rushed down the isles, opening cages as we went. The two pyros stayed together so Iggy didn't get lost.

At the final cage, I stopped suddenly. A girl with wings that went from brown and faded to white sat in the cage, pretending to be asleep. She was probably the prettiest girl I'd even seen, even asleep. She had honey colored, long hair and long eyes lashes. She was in one of those hospital gowns the gave you here, and you could see her long, tanned legs perfectly.

Oh, Fang, get over your hormones and open the freaking door, Angel thought in my head.

Out of my head, I thought to her but did what she said. I opened the cage door and chocolate eyes open behind the eyelids.

I stuck my hand into the cage and she just stared at it. I sighed and said, "You're so slow." And grabbed her wrist, then started to pull her down the isle of cages.

"Skid!" she yelled and wrenched her wrist out of my grip, then sprinted down the isle.

I almost went after her when Angel said in my head, She'll be fine, Fang. She's not leaving without the other girl.

"FANG, GET UP!" Angel screamed at me, shaking me awake. I cracked open my eyes and moaned. "Morning, sleeping beauty. We're going to be late for school." She tugged at my arm, pulling it until it hurt.

"I'm . . . up," I said and forced myself into a sitting position.

"Good!" Angel said cheerily. "Jeb's here, and he wants to talk with you."

I grunted and walked across the room to my closet. Angel left the room and closed the door behind her. I threw on a black t-shirt, black jeans and black converse. Its nice to have some diversity.

I walked across the hall and brushed my teeth. Looking into the mirror, I ran a hand threw my hair and decided it looked decent enough. It was messy, black, and long. It didn't have bugs in it or grease, so it wasn't too ugly.

I walked down the hall and down stairs to the living room, which led to the kitchen, where the Flock was waiting. We had gotten rid of Alex ages ago. She was a spoiled brat, thanks to the little fact that she had been woring for Itex all along. Stupid word-I-won't-say-because-of-the-mind-reader.

Aw, thanks, Fang, Angel said in my head. Hey, I ryhmed. I'm such a dork.

"Out of my head," I said. Man, this ryhming needs to stop. Or someone's gonna call a cop. God dammit!

Angel giggled.

"What's so funny?" Iggy asked from the counter and poured milk into his cereal bowl. How does he do it?

"Nothing," Angel said and bit into her toast.

Silence. Then Jeb said from the table, "Good morning, Fang."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What do you want, Jeb?" I snarled. He hasn't been for two weeks.

"Now, Fang," Anne said from the doorway to the door way, pulling on her black coat thing. "Be nice."

Iggy snorted. "Yeah, that'll happen. That's about as likely as Nudge going mute."

"I resent that," she said and drank some of her orange juice.

"I just wanted to tell you to be careful," he said and sipped his coffee.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yes, that's it."

I turned to Angel.

There's something he isn' telling us, but I can't see what.

I nodded. Anne looked at her watch and sucked in a breath. "You're going to be late for school. Hurry up and finish breafast." She threw me the keys to her car and I caught them with one hand.

"Let's move," I said and headed towards the door. They followed.

Guess I should tell you about me, shouldn't I? Well, my name's Fang. I'm your pretty average guy except the fact that I can fly. No, I am not superman. But I have wings. These crazy nut job scientists grafted wings and made me 2% avian, and it was like bang, bang, pow, Fang can fly. But when I got the wings, I was in a place call the School for the first ten years of my life. Then, Jeb brought us here, stayed for two years, then went incognido for another two years. Then he came back in and out as he pleased for the next two. Weirdo wacko crazy nut job scientists.

I live with five other kids: Nudge (motor mouth thirteen-year-old), Angel (slightly creepy mind reading eight-year-old), Gazzy (don't ask don't tell ten-year-old), Iggy (sixteen-year-old blind pyro chef, and a pretty damn good one), and Tank (down to earth sixteen-year-old.)

I stopped in front of the middle school/elementry building and let Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge out. Then, I drove off to the highschool.

I pulled into the parking spot reserved for students and was immedietly met by friend who happens to be a girl who's a friend, Lissa.

"Hey, Nick," she said, and smiled up at me. I half-grinned down at her. She's just a friend. I made it clear to her that I'm not looking for a girlfriend, and I'm not interested. She took it rather well, really. "Hi, James, Tyler!"

Iggy waved at her and followed me to the steps to the school. Iggy is blind, just so ya know. And he has super-duper hearing so he can hear you where ever you walk and all that.

"Hi, Lissa," Tank said, smiling.

We had time to kill, so we sat on the school steps and joked around, watching the kids. A fist fight almost broke out between the jocks, the cheerleaders were fixing their makeup, blah blah, goths were sulking about over near the big tree in the corner of the school property, and two badass motorcycles were pulling into the school.

Wait, what? I looked closer and saw two badass looking motorcycles coming into the school parking lot. One of them was black with blue flames on it, and another is black with a hummingbird on it.

"What's that noise?" Iggy asked.

"Motorcyles. Cool motorcycles," Lissa answered, picking at the loose thread in the knee of her jeans, but looking at the motorcycles as they pulled into the spots next to Anne's car. The one with the blue flames swung her leg over and removed the helmet, shaking out long honey colored hair. And she had chocolate eyes.

One word: "Woah." Yeah, I actually said that. The girl on the motorcycle was just pure, raw beauty. She had tanned skin and long eyelashes, full lips, and a thin, silver lip ring. I had always wondered what it would be like to kiss a girl with a lip ring . . . Woah, woah, woah, Fang. Keep the hormones under control. No need to go to the R rated imagination zone . . . ah, Hell.

The other one was much shorter than the girl, probably a whole foot. But she was pretty, too. She had auburn hair and bright blue eyes. She reminded me of a pixie or whatever, she was so tiny and it looked like she had just downed two redbulls. Tank's eyes seemed to light up when he saw her, and I smiled on the inside. Well. Tank's gotta new crush. I'll bother him about it later.

Anyways, they walked over to the steps like models. Alright, maybe not like models, but you get my point. They weren't 'strutting their stuff', but were really pretty, and calling them hot would be offensive.

As they walked past us Lissa stood up and said, "Hi, I'm Lissa!" And stook out her hand. What? Are we at a business meeting?

Pixie replied cheerily, "Hi, I'm Skid!" Pixie said and smiled brightly, then shook Lissa's hand.

"I'm James," he said in Skid's general direction. See? I can progress. I stopped calling her 'Pixie' in my head.

We all introduced ourselves, besides Tank and the Honey-haired girl. I elbowed Tank in the ribs.

"Huh, what? Oh, I'm Tyler," he said not taking his eyes off Pixie. God, dammit. Maybe I can't progress.

"I'm Max," the honey-haired girls said. Why did she seem so familiar?

Max

When we were walking up the steps to get schedules and all that jazz, a girl with flaming red hair and gright green eyes introduced herself to us. "Hi, I'm Lissa!"

Skid, being the social butterfly that she is, said, "Hi, I'm Skid!" Then they shook hands. What? Are we at a business meeting?

"I'm James," Strawberry-short-cake said.

Everyone else introduced themselves, including Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome. Oh, God. Did I really just think that? Ignore the line before my previous line. Why don't you people ever ignore anything I say? Sometimes I just feel like I get too much attention.

Mr. Tall, D - no; his name's Nick - elbowed the blond dude with brown eyes and he said, "Huh, what? Oh, I'm Tyler." I noticed how he couldn't keep his eyes off a certain 5'1 red head with bright blue eyes.

"I'm Max," I said, shooting Tyler a glare that said, Lay a hand on her and you'll be answering to me. "C'mon, Skid-mark."

"M'kay, Max," she said and looped her arm through mine. We walked into the school and to the office.

The old, gray haired secretary smiled warmly at us and said, "May I help you?"

"Yes, we're new here and we were wondering is we could get our schedules?" Skid asked chipperly. Is that even a word?

"Ah, Max and Skid, yes?" We nodded. She pressed a few buttons on her computer and printed some pages out. She picked them up from the disposer thing and handed them to us. "Have a nice day!"

Skid smiled brightly at her and I smiled. How does Skid manage to do it? I don't think I'd ever manage to smile this much.

We went back out into the hall and compaired schedules. Skid pouted. "We have no classes with each other."

Nick and and his friends waled over to us.

"What's your classes?" Lissa asked, and grabbed the schedule sheet from Skid's hand. She squealed. "We have all the same classes together!"

Skid smiled. Again. "Yay! Can you please show me around?"

Lissa nodded and looped her arm through Skid's. "Yes, yes I can." And the skipped off. Dear, God, if you're listening, HELP ME.

"What are your classes?" Nick asked me, and ripped the sheet of paper from my hand. I reached for it, but he held it above his head. Since he was about three inches taller than me, I couldn't reach. God dammit.

He studied the paper. "Huh. We have the same classes together."

I too my chance and ripped the paper out of his hand. "Great."

"Want me to show you around?" he asked and he sounded almost . . . eager?

I shook my head. "Nah. I got it." Then I walked away.

Wanna know what I did? Yep. That's right. I got freaking lost. AND THE SCHOOL IS SMALL. I HAVE A FREAKIN' BUILT IN NAVIGATION SYSTEM, AND IN ALL PLACES TO GET LOST, IT HAS TO BE A SCHOOL. Now that my ranting is over, I finally found the right classroom. Twenty minutes late. I say this too much, but God dammit.

I opened the door to the classroom, and stopped the teacher while she was in the middle of saying something.

"Ah, nice to see you can join us, Max," she said, scowling at me.

"Yeah . . ."

"Want to tell us a little bit about yourself?"

"No, not really," I said.

"Oh." Awkward silence. "Well, you can sit next to Nicholas."

Alright, I say this way too often. GOD DAMMIT. I frowned and scuffed my way over to the back, inbetween James and Nick, who were trying to contain their laughter. I sat down and dumped my bag onto the floor.

"Got lost, Max?" Iggy asked me.

I pretended to stretch, and wacked my hand behind both of their heads.

This is gonna be a long year.

Don't expect all the chapters to be this long.

Skid: I'm still happy I was finally in a fic.

Tank: How do ya thnk I feel? I've been here from the beginning.

JP: I've been here way too long. Help. Me. Two months, one day. Almost exactly that.

RnR?

- Sanity