Okay, so technically it was Max's fault that she'd started a forest fire. The DWR fire containment unit didn't have to hold her in custody until child services could be contacted and she could be placed appropriately.
Whatever the frick that meant.
In hindsight, she really should've just left a note instead of knocking on the department head's door (Google was great) in the middle of the night and telling him which area of the forest was on fire. She'd vehemently denied being the cause of it (hello, God? This is Max, where should I start apologizing?) and instead claimed to be a bystander. A bystander in the forest. A homeless bystander that just happened to be passing through the forest in the middle of the night. She omitted the part about having wings, being on the run from a secret bio-engineering agency, and conducting an experiment testing the results of different chemicals when they come into contact with a flame.
Max was curious, and she loved an adventure. She also hadn't had formal schooling since... ever. While taking refuge in a high school the other night, she'd decided to look around the place. The result was: the skeleton used in anatomy was creepy as heck and the locks on the chem lab were laughable at best.
Experiments were what you did in chemistry, right?
So that's how Max ended up in the DWR station. Max tightened the scratchy grey blanket around her shoulders that they'd given her for shock. It wasn't cold, but it helped to hide her wings. She watched as a constant flux of people flowed through, but there was never a time when she was alone and could slip out. She could push her way through, spring up and away, but that meant stories of a flying girl on the news, and freaky Erasers would follow. Max didn't want them on her tail again so soon. She'd escaped an Eraser conflict for months now.
A woman in a yellow blazer and a stiff black jacket walked in, heels clacking. She clacked over to Max and sat down next to her. "Hi, you must be Mariah Riddle."
"Yup, that's me," Max said.
"It's nice to meet you, Mariah. Do you have family nearby?"
"Would I be homeless if I did?"
The woman smiled wide. Whether she was holding back a laugh, or suppressing irritation, Max couldn't quite tell.
"I just want to help you, Mariah. Who is your guardian?"
"Beats me. I've been in foster care since I was seven. My parents died in Africa. Malaria." Also a lie, but she'd created a record of a fake persona precisely for such cases.
"Well, Mariah, it's been a long night. Would you like to come home with me?"
"Do I have a choice?"
The woman smiled again. "It would make us both feel better if you said yes."
Max rolled her eyes. "I guess."
The woman's name was May, and her husband David was a cop. They didn't have any kids, unless you counted the foster kids they'd had in the past. They even had neighbors' kids come and stay with them from time to time.
That sort of rotten personality was how Max ended up at school the next morning, freshly showered and wearing clothes that smelled like Target.
Fang's mom dropped him off for another school day. In their car, like a normal person. Even though a normal mom didn't drive a Corvette. Walking into psychology, he nodded at his psychology teacher, Mr. Fong. Fang didn't have friends because of two things: he hated talking to people, and could practically disappear. However, Mr. Fong could do all of the talking and was weird besides that, so he and Fang got along well. With his psychology class first thing in the morning, Fang could get through another school day.
Fang sat at the back of the class as Mr. Fong enthusiastically greeted every other classmate that walked through the door, pumping their hands and holding on to a handshake for a little too long for people to feel comfortable. That was Mr. Fong.
"Hello! What's your name?!" Mr. Fong stuck out a hand as a new brown-haired girl entered the classroom.
"Mariah, but I go by Max." She frowned as Mr. Fong held onto her hand.
"Welcome Max, welcome, welcome," he said. "Take a seat." He released her.
She sat next to Fang at the back of the class, which was strange because when people did see him, he wore enough black eyeliner to ward people away from asking questions like how big his house was or how much his clothes cost.
"So, this class any interesting?" the Max girl asked him. Fang cracked a smile. She was in for a wild ride.
Fang left for chemistry after psychology, and was surprised when Max sat down next to him again. He raised his eyebrows at her and in response she waved at him. "What class is this?"
"Chemistry."
Her nose wrinkled. Then she smiled. Then she leaned her head against the desk and started chuckling. She went on for a good few minutes, and had to pound her fist against the table to stop.
Fang raised his eyebrows at her again.
"I've never taken chemistry before," she said, staring at the front of the room as the teacher began lecturing. "But I have taken chemicals." She choked on another laugh.
Max was the weirdest girl Fang had ever met. It was kind of refreshing.
-
"Hey! You with the face!" Fang turned to see Max running towards him with a cafeteria tray. As she caught up to him, she smiled. "Sorry, I never caught your name. I'm Max."
"Fang."
"Nice to meet 'cha, Fang. Where are you sitting for lunch?"
"I... usually sit in the psychology classroom."
"Mind if I sit with you?"
Fang shook his head and she accompanied him down the hall.
Before the turn for the classroom, though, they had to walk across the lobby. Some visiting professors from the local college were there to recruit interest in STEM fields, and a few were wearing lab coats while they showed off some tech they were working on.
All of a sudden, Max pitched forward. "Hey!" Fang said, catching her. Her lunch tray spilled all over the ground. Fang tried to pull Max up, but he couldn't. So he sank to the ground gently with her, ignoring the people who were gawking.
"Max?" he asked, watching her eyes as they stared in front of her at nothing. He gave her a shake. "Max!"
She jolted up and ran out of the school doors. Fang ran after her. Her tennis shoes flung against concrete, and Fang watched the back of her jacket. It was almost like he could see the outline of a very familiar lump on her back. One he saw in the mirror every day.
Nah, there was nobody else but him with a secret like that.
Max was in good shape- Fang was having trouble keeping up (he hated the outdoors but was good on the treadmill). Max didn't stop until she reached the nearby park and climbed a tree up high. Fang started climbing up the tree behind her, out of breath. "Max, what was that?"
"I-I don't like white coats," she said. "I can't see any from here." She sighed and leaned against a tree branch. "I forgot they have them in schools."
"You forgot?" Fang asked. "What school did you go to before here?"
"I was homeless," Max shrugged.
Fang shot her a look. "Were you in a gang?"
"What? No, of course I wasn't in a gang," Max said.
"Oh," Fang said. "Because, we should probably get going. This park is on gang turf."
Max looked around, noticing the graffiti for the first time. She shrugged. "I'm not going back to school."
"You're not?" Fang asked.
Max nodded. "I'm on my way headed south. It's warm this time of year there, and I want to know if everything really is bigger in Texas."
"It's your first day of school and you're already leaving?" Fang asked. "How long has it been since you were last in school?"
Max sighed. "I've never been in school, ever." She leaned forward towards Fang, brown eyes glowing dark and intense. "Word to the wise? Don't trust adults."
Fang looked at her, wordless. They sat in that tree, quietly.
Finally, Max smiled. "You know what I'm going to do with my life, Fang? I'm going to have the greatest adventure anyone's ever had. That's why I picked out my name, Maximum Ride."
"I've never thought about what I'm going to do with my life long term," Fang said. "I like learning, but the stuff in high school is really dumbed down. I don't want to work in business like my parents do." It was the most he'd said to anyone in a long time. Fang kept his thoughts to himself, but he wanted to learn more about Max, more about himself.
There was another pause, as neither of them knew what to say.
"Hey... if you're looking for adventure, high school is pretty crazy," Fang said.
Max shrugged. "The crazy one is Mr. Fong. Does he really stand in the urinal next to you when you pee?"
Fang smiled. "Yup, he does." Fang nudged Max with his shoulder. "You know, if you leave school, I'm gonna miss you." They'd only know each other for the last three hours, but Fang already felt like he'd known Max for a long time.
"If I stay long enough," Max said, "it may not be my choice."
Her stomach growled, and it called Fang's attention to the fact that he could see Max's rib cage through her shirt. "You ever eat?" he asked.
"I bet I could eat more than you," she shot back. Her stomach growled again.
"If you come back to school, I will buy you lunch," Fang said.
"I could eat four of them."
"Then I'll get you four."
Max gave Fang an odd look. "Deal."
The only person who could eat as much as Fang was Max. He ate like an elephant; Max ate like a body-builder elephant. On steroids.
"I have a high metabolism," she explained on her third lunch tray, when she finally slowed down enough to talk while she ate.
"I'm not judging you for being fat," Fang said. Max's mouth quirked up.
"I have English next," Fang said. "You?"
"P.E."
-
The week flew for Max and Fang. But on Tuesday, as they were heading to lunch, Max froze next to Fang.
"What's wrong, Max?" he asked.
"Erasers," she whispered, and flipped around the corner. Which was the weirdest response Fang had ever heard of. Erasers were about as dangerous as marshmallows for one, and for two there wasn't like they were raining from above and pelting Max and Fang with 'em. Fang pressed himself against the wall next to Max, and threw up an eyebrow in disbelief.
"Erasers?"
"Shove it. They're half-human, half-wolf hybrids."
A chill went down Fang's back. "Is this some kind of joke, Max?"
She looked him in the eyes, and he watched her pupils dilate.
"What do I need to do?" Fang asked.
"They're not harmful to you," she said. "It's me they're after. Look around the corner. Do you see those beefy guys that look like a cross between America's Next Top Model and world champion body builders?"
Fang looked around the corner. "Yeah. Max, chill out. Those guys work with my parents."
"Your parents?" Max spluttered.
"Yeah. They're not the smartest guys, but- hey, where we going?" Max had grabbed his arm and was pulling him the other way.
"Take me to your parents house," she demanded. "Those guys have made my life a living hell for years, and we're going to stop them."