Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. James Patterson owns Maximum Ride.
A/N: Being English, I know virtually nothing about the American school system. I only know what I can find on Wikipedia and in other fanfictions. Please forgive me if I get it wrong. Also, I don't speak Spanish, so if anyone knows the Spanish for "Hello, class," help would be appreciated.
Another A/N: I've slightly tweaked this chapter in a very minor way based on feedback from reviews. It doesn't affect the story, just makes it a little more accurate. I'm not making them have the same timetable each day because I want them to have more subjects than fit in one day. The next chapter is still being written but will get here eventually.
Max POV
I led the flock through the sky towards Arizona. We were headed to Mom and Ella's house, with the idea that since we'd finished with the world-saving thing for the time being, we could enrol in Ella's school for a few terms. Fang and I had finally realised our love for each other, so hopefully it would be easier to deal with people hitting on us. I know they made that Lerner place for us, but I'd rather go somewhere where the pupils wouldn't know about our wings. It would make our lives a little easier. Also, there was the added bonus of Mom's chocolate chip cookies.
After several hours' flight, we finally touched down in front of Ella's house. I walked up to the door and knocked. Mom answered it.
"Max!" she cried. "Come in, come in! Ella's at school. You didn't say you were coming!"
"We only just planned it this morning," I answered. "We thought we could maybe live here for a while, and check out Ella's school, you know?"
"Certainly. Are you all here?"
"Yes," I replied, waving my hand in the direction of the rest of the flock. They came out to meet me.
"Okay… Nudge and Angel can have the first spare room, Iggy and Gazzy can have the next, Fang can have the last one and you can share with Ella," suggested Mom.
"Sounds good to me," I agreed. "Everyone else?" They murmured their agreement. We stepped into the house and went to get settled in our allocated rooms.
A few hours later, Ella arrived home from school.
"Max!" she screamed when she saw me. "I missed you so much!"
"Hey, Ella," I replied. "We thought we'd enrol in your school, get some education?"
"That sounds great!" said Ella excitedly. "Let's get Mom to do it now!"
That was how we ended up enrolled in Ella's school. Over the weekend we went shopping for uniforms and supplies, and on the following Monday, we set off for our first day at the local school. Fang, Iggy and I were in ninth grade, and would be known as Nick Jones, Jeff Smith and Leah Martinez. Nudge would be in sixth grade and be known as Tiffany-Krystal Jones. Gazzy would be in third grade, and known as Jamie Smith (he'd gone off Zephyr). Angel would be in first grade, and known as Ariel Smith. I'd given her a strict warning not to use mind control. If anything happened to suggest she had, I would find out about it. The elementary, middle and high schools were based around the same site, so we would all be able to travel to school together. Ella already attended the middle school in the seventh grade.
That morning, at six o'clock, my alarm went off loudly in my ear. I pressed the button to get it to stop, and dragged myself out of bed. I quickly got dressed into my new uniform, which consisted of a white shirt, a dark blue jumper and a plain grey skirt, with grey socks or tights (I'd picked socks) and plain black shoes. We were permitted to remove the jumper in hot weather, and didn't have to wear it at all in summer if we didn't want to. The boys wore trousers instead of skirts. Long hair had to be tied back with a plain black or dark blue bobble. I'd chosen black.
Looking in the mirror, I discovered that my uniform yet again made me look a little like Barbie. Oh, well. I suppose everyone else had to wear it too.
I made my way downstairs to the breakfast table. Iggy was up already and was cooking enough pancakes for everyone. I began to eat the ones he'd cooked, and in the next ten minutes the other's arrived downstairs. Ten minutes after that and we'd all eaten our fill.
"Are you sure you're happy about this?" asked Mom.
"Yes," I replied.
"Remember, you're flying there and back and Ella's walking. You can walk with her today if you like so that you know where you're going."
"We know, Mom, we know," I answered. That was the third time she'd said that.
Finally, we set off for school, walking alongside Ella. After taking the younger ones to their appropriate places, and Ella entering the middle school, Fang, Iggy and I entered the high school office. We'd decided to let the staff know we had wings but not the pupils.
"We're the new students," I said to the receptionist. "I'm Leah Martinez, and this is Nick Jones and Jeff Smith. We'd like to see the principal before we go to our lessons."
"Sure," replied the receptionist. "Here's your schedules. Jeff, you are in all the same lessons as Nick to help you find your way around." We thanked her and entered the principal's office.
"Hello. What can I do for you?" asked the principal, according to the sign on her desk a Mrs Karlin. She seemed kind based on first impressions, though those are obviously not always reliable.
"We're the new students, Leah Martinez, Nick Jones and Jeff Smith," I answered. "There's something we'd like you to know. The staff can know but not the pupils."
"Sure," she replied. "What is it?" I nodded to Fang and, after checking there was no windows, he began to extend his wings, continuing until his full fifteen foot wingspan was visible. Mrs Karlin looked like her eyes were about to pop out of her head, but stayed reasonably calm.
"We all have them," I said. "I was wondering if there were any special allowances that could be made so we don't have to reveal them to the other pupils." Fang began to reel his wings back in.
"Um, certainly," she replied, hesitating. "We can supply you with swimming costumes that cover your back, and with passes to the stalls for changing in."
"That sounds good," I asserted. "Could I ask that the same be done for our younger siblings, Tiffany-Krystal Jones and Jamie and Ariel Smith?"
"Sure," she answered.
"Thank you for your time," I said, and we left. Our first lesson was Math, in room A41. We headed out the office and into the main building, then upstairs, because according to the map we had been given, this was where the A block was. We entered the classroom and headed to the three empty seats. I persuaded Fang to sit with Iggy so he had a point of familiarity, and then sat in the remaining empty seat next to a girl with plain brown hair and brown eyes.
"Hi," she said. "You must be the new student. What's your name?"
"Leah," I replied. We'd decided to be completely anonymous and not use any of our real names. "Yours?"
"Emily," she answered. "Can I see your schedule?"
"Sure," I agreed. I handed it over.
"So," she began, "you have Math, English, Spanish, Double Biology, Geography, History, French and Double Gym today. Great! Looking at your whole week, I'm in over half of your classes- I'm in your Math, four languages, Music Appreciation and Music Instrumental, your Computer Studies, and not in your English, History, Geography, the three sciences and Gym. Lunch is between fifth and sixth period. You can sit with me if you like."
"Thanks," I said. Then the teacher walked into the room. Everyone shot to their feet, and I copied.
"Good morning, class," she said.
"Good morning, Miss Mavelen," the class replied. The teacher had dark hair and looked Hispanic.
"Please sit down," stated Miss Mavelen. We sat. "Today we have three new students. Please could you stand up and introduce yourselves." It wasn't a question, it was a demand. We stood up. I went first.
"My name is Leah Martinez. We just moved here from Virginia to stay with my mother. I have a half sister named Ella who is in seventh grade." Fang went next.
"I'm Nick Jones. I am being fostered by Leah's mother. I have an adopted sister named Tiffany-Krystal in sixth grade. I've known Leah all my life and also just moved from Virginia." Finally Iggy introduced himself.
"My name is Jeff Smith and I am also being fostered by Leah's mother. I have known both of them for my entire life, have also just moved from Virginia, and have an adopted brother named Jamie in third grade and an adopted sister named Ariel in first grade. Jamie and Ariel are biological siblings. I am also blind. However, this doesn't make me deaf- it actually improves my hearing." The last sentence got a slight laugh, silenced by Miss Mavelen's glare. We sat down and the lesson began.
Half an hour later, the bell rang and we traipsed out of the lesson. There was nothing wrong with Math per se, but Miss Mavelen had to be one of the most boring teachers known to man. Emily left, as she had History. Fang and Iggy also had History, so they followed her. I had English, so I followed my map to B14, in the ground floor of the second block, which served as the English block. I entered the room and sat at the one empty desk. It was next to a boy with dark hair, dark eyes and pale skin. Despite the similarities to Fang in hair and eye colour, he looked nowhere near as good.
"Hey, sexy," he said. "I'm Orin. What's your name?" Oh, great. Someone had hit on me already, and I was stuck with sitting next to them.
"Firstly," I asserted, "I already have a boyfriend. I'm not likely to dump him for you. Secondly, my name is Leah, and if you keep hitting on me I'll kick your butt."
"Aw, don't be like that, Leah, babe. You know you want me."
"I really don't, Orin. I really don't." Luckily I was saved by the entrance of the English teacher. We stood to attention.
"Good morning, class!" she said ecstatically. I got the feeling she was a bit of a maverick.
"Good morning, Mrs Hyacinth!" the class replied in the same cheerful tone. Someone whispered to me that if we didn't sound cheerful, she'd make us do it again.
"Do sit down!" said Mrs Hyacinth. Mrs Hyacinth was a slightly large woman with short blonde hair and brown eyes. From the tone of her voice, it sounded like if she had any more enthusiasm for English she would have exploded. "Today we'll be studying Romeo and Juliet! Sandra, please could you give the books out?" A blonde girl with glasses in the front row got up and began to give everyone in the room a copy of the aforementioned play. Thankfully, Mrs Hyacinth didn't make me introduce myself. It's hard to lie low if everyone knows your name. The rest of the lesson passed uneventfully, and I found myself quite enjoying it. Mrs Hyacinth's enthusiasm for Shakespeare must have been rubbing off on me. When the bell rang I got up and left the classroom before Orin could hit on me again. I headed to Spanish, in D21, on the bottom floor of the fourth block. When I arrived, I met up with Emily again. Fang and Iggy were in German.
"Hey," said Emily. "How was English?"
"Fine, mostly," I replied, "except for the fact that some guy called Orin tried to hit on me. I'm already going out with Nick."
"You might want to try and stay away from him," she advised. "Orin Keprachi is an arsehole. Take it from me."
"Yeah, I kind of guessed that," I answered. Then the Spanish teacher walked into the room.
"Hola, clase," said the Spanish teacher.
"Hola, Señora Alonso," chorused the class. Señora Alonso was a large Hispanic woman with black hair. She made me introduce myself briefly in Spanish, though all I could manage that was relevant was, "Me llamo Leah." I picked up the lesson pretty quickly, because Ella had taught me the very basics of Spanish the previous time I'd visited, and the class was near the beginning of the course. After we were dismissed, Emily left again, and I met up with Fang and Iggy to go to Biology. It was in G23, on the lower floor of the seventh block. As we approached the lab I shivered. The antiseptic smell was making me jittery.
"Here we go," muttered Fang. We entered the lab and hurried to the empty seats. Fang and I sat next to each other, and Iggy was just across the aisle next to a girl with dark hair who was apparently in their German class. After a few minutes the Biology teacher came in.
"Good morning, class!" he exclaimed, making us nearly jump out of our seats. He had black hair and was wearing glasses and a white lab coat. The lab coat instantly caused me to be on the lookout.
"Good morning, Dr Baker," the class replied.
"For the next few weeks we are going to be studying genetics," he said. Fang and I looked at each other and nearly burst out laughing. It was really, really ironic. After that, the lesson wasn't so bad, though I was still nearly having a panic attack from the smell. Near the end of the lesson someone asked Dr Baker whether it was possible to create a human-animal hybrid. "Possible, but not recommended," he answered. "It would be extremely difficult to create a combination that worked, and they most likely wouldn't thank you." A minute or so after that we actually did burst out laughing.
"Leah, Nick, Jeff, please would you care to explain what's so funny?" asked Dr Baker.
"It's just… the whole topic," said Fang in between laughing.
"Can't… tell you… why," I continued, laughing harder. "Ask… the principal… if you… want… to know."
"Okay…," said Dr Baker. I think he was slightly worried about our mental health after that. Hopefully over lunch the principal would have time to explain to the staff. Finally we calmed down and the lesson was able to continue until the bell.
Next was the lunch break. It lasted an hour to give the students time to do things other than eat. We headed to the canteen, where we spotted Emily. We joined the queue behind her.
"Hey, guys," she greeted us. "The canteen does the middle school as well as the high school. Saves on building space." Sure enough, looking around at the tables I spotted Nudge, engaged in chatting avidly with one of her classmates, and Ella, who waved. I waved back.
The queue moved along until we were at the counter. All three of us ordered large quantities of food, and both the dinner ladies and Emily were looking at us with wide eyes.
"We have high metabolisms," I explained. Thankfully no one questioned us further. After we'd eaten, Emily took me and Iggy on a tour of the school, to help Iggy memorise the routes through the corridors. Fang went to sit in our allocated homeroom, C14, a History room, for a while.
Fang POV
I wandered through the corridors until I reached our homeroom. It was empty for the time being, but I knew as time went on it would begin to fill with students. I sat on a chair and stayed there until I became invisible. I was planning to listen to see what people were saying about the new students.
After a while two boys I recognised from Biology came into the room and began chatting.
"So what do you think of the new students, Mick?" asked one.
"They seem alright to me," said the other. "The girl looks hot, but I think she's with the tall dark one. They seem like a couple. What do you think, Joe?"
"I think I can get along with them. I agree with you about the couple. I think the blind guy's sweet, how he can find his way by following the others." I smiled, being careful to stay invisible. We wouldn't have any trouble from this pair. Then the conversation changed.
"Have you checked Fang's Blog lately?" asked the one called Mick.
"Yeah, I have," replied Joe. "He says they're settling down in a school for a while, but he won't say where. He says that if you think they've picked yours you've to keep it to yourself." So they were bloggers. I hoped they would respect my wish. With that the two boys left the room, and I turned myself visible again while the room was empty. After I did this, a girl with bottle blonde hair and green eyes entered the room.
"Hey, baby," she said, trying to be seductive. "The name's Roselina. Want to come out with me tonight?"
"Ugh, no way," I answered. "I have a girlfriend already and there's no way I'd dump her for you." I stood up, disgusted, and headed off to find Max and Iggy.
Max POV
After lunch, I had Geography. This was on a cycle with History and English, so Emily, Fang and Iggy were all in English and I was stuck with the idiot Orin again. Geography was in C45, on the upstairs floor of the same block that history was in. I made my way slowly across the school to the allocated room, wanting to spend as little time possible with Orin. Thankfully, the empty seat wasn't next to him this time. He was chatting with a bottle blonde who looked like a complete slut. I suspected this was his partner in crime at being an arsehole. Instead I sat on the row behind, next to a boy with ginger-brown hair and glasses that I vaguely recognised as sitting with us at lunch.
"Hey," he said. "My name's Thomas. I saw Orin bugging you earlier. I'd never do anything like that, especially after being told someone has a boyfriend already. Emily was talking to me about you in Physics, and you seem like a good sort. Friends?"
"Yeah, as long as it's nothing more," I answered. He seemed nice. "I have to tell you now that I'm not interested in anyone except Nick."
"I'm going out with Emily anyway," he replied. "I would never do that to her." I begun to listen into the conversation Orin was having with the girl next to him.
"So what did you do at lunch, Ros?" he asked. "Catch anything?"
"Unfortunately, no," Ros replied. "I tried to chat up the tall dark new guy, but he was having none of it." I clenched my fists. This person had tried to chat up my Fang.
"Some people," sighed Orin. "I couldn't get the new girl this morning in English either. I think they might be a couple."
"Let's split them up. It'll be fun," said Ros. I was glad I'd heard this conversation. No one was splitting me up from my Fang. I would tell him about what I'd heard later. Finally the Geography teacher entered the room. It went silent.
"Good afternoon, class," said the teacher.
"Good afternoon, Mr Salvador," replied the class. Mr Salvador was a middle-aged Hispanic man with a balding head. He also gave off an air of strictness. You obviously didn't cross this teacher unless you wanted detention.
I found the subject matter fairly easy. We were studying the physical geography of various US states, and as I'd spent the last however long being chased across the US, and had usually been viewing it from the air, I had a lot of first-person experience of the places we were looking at. Eventually the bell rang, and I left the room to head to History. Emily, Fang and Iggy would be heading to their Geography. History was in our homeroom, C14, which was downstairs in this block, so I got there pretty quickly. The empty seat was next to Thomas again. Apparently the only reason I'd had to sit next to Orin in English this morning was because Ros, whose full name was Roselina, had firmly planted herself next to Thomas since the beginning of term (last week) to try and tease him away from Emily. Soon after that the History teacher arrived.
"Good afternoon, class," smiled the teacher.
"Good afternoon, Miss Ennilia," replied the class. Miss Ennilia was young and blonde, and seemed kind. She was the sort of teacher that students feel they are friends with. She explained that this half term we would learn about American history, and next half term we would learn about world history. I enjoyed the lesson, despite the fact that I wasn't too fussed about the history of the American Civil War. After the lesson I headed to French, in D34, on the top floor of the fourth block. I left Thomas and met up with Emily again.
"Hey, Leah," she said.
"Hey, Emily," I replied. "How are Nick and Jeff doing?"
"They're fine," she answered. "Some guy tried to tease Jeff about his blindness, but somehow they managed to talk him into backing off, so I don't see him doing it again anytime soon."
"Thanks, Emily," I said. "I'll talk to them about what happened later." Then the French teacher entered the room.
"Bonjour, la classe," said the teacher.
"Bonjour, Mademoiselle Clark," chorused the class. Mademoiselle Clark was in her late twenties, and had light brown hair and green eyes. I didn't know any French, except a tiny bit I'd picked up while we were there, so I had to work a little harder to make up for the previous week's lessons that I'd missed. I quite enjoyed the French language, despite their tendency to drop half the consonants at the end of words. I was made to introduce myself again, managing to say, "Je m'appelle Leah et j'ai quatorze ans," before I sat down. Of course, I wasn't really called Leah, but they didn't need to know that. After that I split up with Emily again and headed to the sports block. I met with Fang and Iggy on the way.
"Hey, guys," I said. "Long time no see."
"Hey, Max," said Fang.
"I sure hope they got the stalls passes sorted," commented Iggy. "Otherwise this is going to be no fun at all."
"I'm sure they did," I assured him. Inside I was thinking the same thing. Thankfully they had done, and when we entered the coach gave us a full complement of sports uniform, complete with backed swimming costume, and a pass for the stalls each.
"I'm Coach Rian," he said. "It's badminton today. I hope you like Gym." He had dark hair and a deep voice. He seemed to genuinely want us to enjoy his subject. Before we entered the changing rooms, I took the others aside for a short chat.
"Let's not stand out," I said. "We don't want to reveal our superior strength and stamina, so we keep equal with the best, not better than them."
"Good plan," agreed Fang. We headed into the separate male and female changing rooms.
I strode to the back and put my card in the slot in the door of the stall.
"Too good for us, are you?" sneered Roselina. Oh, great, she was in this class. I w0uld bet Orin was too. "Oh, wait," she continued. "Only people with insecurities or deformities get passes to the stalls. Got no self esteem, have you?" I grimaced. I was not insecure or deformed! Just a mutant freak.
"No," I said. "If I told you why I get a pass you wouldn't believe me. I'm not going to tell you anyway because that's the whole point of me having a stall pass." I entered the stall and locked the door before she could bother me further. I stripped off my uniform, secure in the stall. It felt great to extend my wings a little while I was sure that no one could see me. They'd been aching from being pulled into my back. I then quickly got dressed into the specified uniform for badminton, pulling my wings back in. The sports kit was a little baggier than the uniform, so they didn't have to be as tight. I locked my things in the inbuilt locker and exited the stall.
When I got to the hall where indoor sports were played, most of the people were already there. True to my earlier prediction, I spotted Orin talking to Roselina. I also spotted Fang, Iggy and Thomas. I headed over to them.
"Hi again," I said.
"Hi," they replied in sync. I grinned.
"How did you manage getting changed?" I asked Fang and Iggy.
"Some people tried to tease us for using the stalls, but we just ignored them," explained Iggy.
"Same," I said. "Partners, Nick?" I asked, remembering that Thomas was there.
"Sure," agreed Fang. "What about Jeff?"
"He can go with Thomas, if that's alright with you?"
"Sure," said Thomas. "It doesn't matter that he's blind. I know he has great hearing. He'll be able to hear the shuttlecock coming." It transpired that Thomas was in Fang and Iggy's language classes.
Coach Rian entered the hall, and set us to work jogging around the perimeter to warm up. We kept with the speed of the others as best we could. After that Coach Rian started teaching us about the basic shots of badminton. At the end he set us playing doubles games against other pairs. We played an evenly matched game against Thomas and Iggy (it turned out Thomas was quite good), and then we whopped Orin and Roselina into the ground. How we laughed.
At the end of the lesson, we hurried back into the changing rooms, and back into the stalls. I got changed as quickly as I c0uld, eager to get out, since I could stretch my wings fully on the journey home. I met up with the rest of the Flock outside the front of the school. We walked the first part with Ella, and then took off into the sky.
About ten minutes later we arrived back at Mom's house. Ella hadn't arrived yet, since walking was slower than flying. Unfortunately Mom had forbidden us to carry her. I rushed straight up to the room I was sharing with Ella and got changed into some more comfortable clothes. When I got back down, Ella had arrived and Iggy was making tea.
The others were sat around the kitchen table.
"Now everyone's here," began Mom, "how was everyone's day at school?"
"It was fine," I said. "I made a couple of friends."
"Same," said Fang.
"Me too," said Iggy.
"OMG school was so good!" screamed Nudge. "I made loads of friends and this cute guy talked to me in English and I-" Fang cut her off with his hand.
"It was fun," said Gazzy. "We were learning Spanish and I was really good at the accent." Well, he would be. "Oh, and I made friends with a cool guy called Jake."
"I liked it," said Angel. "I played Swan Lake with my friends and had lots of fun. And I didn't control anyone's mind, Max. I said I wouldn't."
"That's great, sweetie," I said. After that, Iggy had finished cooking, so we all sat down to eat.
That evening, I spoke to Fang about Orin and Roselina. "I heard them plotting to split us up in Geography," I said. "I think that's what they do with their time- split other couples up. They're partners in crime. Orin tried to hit on me in English but I turned him down."
"Thanks for the warning, sweetheart," commented Fang. "Roselina tried to hit on me at lunch but mainly I was just disgusted. Oh, and I overheard a couple of people talking about my blog, so we'll have to be careful. I wrote on my blog that anyone recognising us should keep it to themselves, but they may not listen. I don't want to have to leave again." I'm sure that's one of the longest speeches Fang's ever made.
After that, we went to bed.