Almost Gone

Hey veiwers, thank you for reading this! I really really hope that you like and please R&R after you're done reading! Thank you so very much!

-Max

"Max, honey, I promise you'll love Miami Beach High School. It's almost right on the border of the beach!" my mom guaranteed as I got my things ready for my first day of school here in Miami.

"As much as I loved my old school in DC?" I shot back with one of my stealthy death-glares.

That shut her up.

Yeah, I know, I was being mean by acting so rudely to her, but come one, it's not like I wanted to move away from my home in DC, all they way over to freaking Miami , for crying out loud!

I irritably shoved my new binder into my backpack and slung it over my shoulder.

Mom cleared her throat, and then in a hushed voice said, "Maximum, I know that you don't like this-"

"Lik-?"

"Hate!," her voice rised, "I know that you hate this, but you have to stop acting like such a child and learn to deal with the difficulties that you have to put up with in life. I know that you had a life back in DC, and I'm sorry I took that away from you, but you need to stop acting like the world revolves around you Maximum! I've had it with your non-stop arguing with me! I'm your mother and you'll do as I say, got it?"

I stared at my mom in surprise, never hearing her speak like that to me ever until now.

Mom stared at me for a long minute, her eyes open and threatening. She made sharp turn and swiftly stalked down the hallway away from me and slammed the door behind her.

Sighing, I headed out the door and locked the house before I left. I jogged up to the bus stop, and then saw the yellow bus start speeding down the road away from me and towards the school.

That, right then, was just the beginning of my suckish first day in Miami.

Finally, I saw my new school just a few blocks ahead of me as I adjusted my backpack over my shoulder again.

The distance from the school and my house was a good five miles, so, I was defiantly late when I entered the air-conditioned building.

I went right to the office, and moved towards a lady behind a desk.

"Hi-" I tried but she held up her hand to cut me off.

She spoke quickly into the phone that she had pressed up against her ear, nodding her head and saying "Yes" and "No" at the appropriate times in her conversation.

I moved from foot to foot impatiently at the clock ticked by.

When I finally heard the bell ring, I gave up waiting for her, "Excuse me, could you please just tell me where to go for my class's? I'm new here. My name's Maximum Ride."

She raised one of her thinly plucked eyebrows at me, scribbled a note down on a sticky note and then handed it to me.

"Thank you," I nodded and walked out of the door from the office and back out into the hallway where kids swarmed around to find their ways to their first period classes.

I glanced down at the tiny note in my hand:

Go see Miss. Fellows at Administration in room B201

Groaning inwardly, I started searching for the room number on the side of the walls.

I ended up going up the stairs onto the second floor, finally finding the Administration room.

When I entered, I was absorbed into the sound of phone calls being made, fingers typing quickly on keyboards, and the smell of too muck hand-sanitizer being used.

There were three ladies all lined up, each of them sitting behind a desk and typing on their computers.

No one bothered to look up to see who'd entered their room.

"Uhmm hello?" I said.

A lady with graying silvery hair looked up at me from the far end of the room. She gave me an adoring smile and waved me over. "Hi ya, honey. How may I help you? I'm Miss. Fellows."

I sighed gratefully and smiled back at her. "Hi, I'm Maximum Ride. I'm new here and I was sent to you by the main office downstairs to get everything sorted out, I guess."

"Alrightly, lets have a look-see, shall we?" She took the glasses that hung around her neck in a necklace and perched them high on her narrow nose as she pulled her seat back up to her computer screen. "Maximum Ride, you said?"

"Yeah, that's me."

She nodded, not taking her eyes off of the computer screen. She grinned then pressed a button and then I heard the sound of the printer whirling to life as something came out of it.

Miss Fellows pulled out the paper then handed it to me. "This is your class schedule. Go to each of your classes and get each class signed by all of your teachers, then drop by to see me at the end of the day, got it?"

"Mhmm," I mumbled, scanning the paper with my eyes.

"There's no worries if you get lost. It's the first day of school so everyone really has no clue where their going," she insisted.

"Okay, thank you so much!" I walked out the door again and then glanced back down at my schedule paper.

First Period: Adv. English

Ew, I thought, I don't like English.

The hallways were clearing up again as I went back down the stairs to my class.

Before I knew it, I was the only one walking in the hallways.

Or at least that's what I thought.

A boy about my age maybe a year older, walked around the corner and started heading in the same direction at me.

I decided not to mind that this boy was going the same way that I was and kept going on my way to English.

When I rounded another corner, I came across a part of the school that was open to the outside. It was sort of a cross between a porch and the center of the school; sunlight streamed into the building; poles supported the tall roof on top and a couple dozen tables were scattered everywhere and bright colored plants sprouted up bordering the brick walls. Just about maybe ¼ of a mile away, you could see the ocean, the light blue waves hitting endlessly at the sea shore.

In awe, I guessed that this was the courtyard. At my old school in DC we had a courtyard too. But it wasn't anywhere near as cool as this one was . . .

Shaking my head, I continued to walk to my English class . . . feeling a little lost.

The boy behind me continued to follow me. I heard him clear his throat and I turned around to look at him. "Uhm you okay?" He asked lamely.

This boy had wavy short strawberry blonde hair, bright blue eyes and fair white skin. He had an angular jaw and a tall lean bodice. He seemed friendly . . .

"Err . . .no." I smiled at him apologetically, "I think I'm lost. I'm on my way to English in class B216?" It came out at a question.

"Yeah, I could show you where that is, if you wanted me too," he nodded.

"Sure," I let out a sigh of relief.

We started walking down what felt like a million hallways, making turns and going up and down the stairs. After about 10 minutes they boy stopped in his tracks.

"Uhmmm," he fumed and cursed under his breath.

"Everything okay?" I asked him.

He ran his long fingers threw his hair, "Yes – I mean no."

Just now I noticed that not once this boy hadn't made actual eye-contact with me. His gaze always seemed a little distant, far away and not exactly precise.

"Ya see, I'm uhhh . . . sorta blind?" He gave a weak and helpless chuckle. "So . . . I thought I knew where to get you too but . . ."

"Now you have no idea where we are?" I said finishing his sentence.

"Well . . . yes."

We stood in silence for a minute, before I spoke up and broke the silence.

"No offense or anything, but uhm, don't you have someone to help you get around the school?" I said suddenly.

"Yeah, he had to stop by his locker and I didn't want to wait so, I went off on my own." He gave a sheepish smile to me.

"Oh, I get it . . ."

"By the way, my name's James, but everyone calls me Iggy or just Ig." He put his hands in his pockets. "Oh, and my friend that usually helps me out, yeah, his name's Nick, but he just goes my Fang."

I snorted. "Fang? What, is he some sort of vampire?" I joked around.

"Uhmm . . . I wouldn't joke about his name if I were you . . ." Iggy warned me.

Just then, I felt the presence of someone else.

Someone cleared his throat from behind me, and I turned around to see about a head taller than me, will silky dark chocolate colored hair that fell into his large almost-black eyes, which were lined with a think fringe of dark eyelashes. He had an olive toned skin and he had lean muscle that stuck to him.

He nodded wordlessly and then walked around me and took his place next to Iggy.

"This is Fang, Iggy announced to me.

"Oh . . ." I sputtered a little.

"And your name is?" Fang asked in voice that made my heart want to melt.

"I'm Max," I said. Fang stuck out his hand for me to shake it. I reached out and took his hand with mine, and then added, "Maximum Ride."

So, tell me how ya liked it people! Please please please pleaaaaaaaase R&R! Please, I'm begging you! Thank you so much for reading! I hope that you enjoyed it! I'll try and update as soon as possible!

~Laurel Alex~