Chapter One: Amazement
"Gym class was so dull." Max vented irritably, kicking at some pebbles in the road as we walked back towards Anne's house. It was a good thing there weren't many other pedestrians on our route, because she'd already nearly taken out Iggy with a particularly powerful kick, and humans are a bit more fragile. She looked like your perfect oxymoron with her little prep school skirt and tights (she'd muttered about them the entire trip to school) and of course she wore the collared shirt. Paired with her wings, which were half unfolded, and a murderous expression, she looked like Prep School Barbie's Crypt Keeper. At least she was an attractive crypt keeper though; the skeletons couldn't exactly say the same.
Thank God Angel and the younger set had scored a half-day and was already back baking with Anne. If I kept up this train of thought, I'd be doomed to the deepest pits of hell, and that was after the others got to me.
She's your best friend! I reprimanded myself. No. Completely off-limits. Just a stupid crush. Let it drop.
"I dunno." I muttered, trying to concentrate instead on our admittedly boring gym class. We had run two laps around the tiny basketball court, and then practiced trust falls. This was pretty pathetic for Max and I, who had fallen two hundred feet out of the sky into each other's arms during Jeb's training sessions. Closing our eyes and falling a few inches into each other wasn't that difficult. "Sometimes I wish there was someone as fast as us. Just for the challenge. We finished a whole lap ahead of everyone else."
I only looked up when I noticed that her pace had slowed, and saw that she was no longer watching me with a ferocious expression. She'd relaxed somewhat with a small smile and a shake of the head.
I raised my eyebrows in the classic, What? gesture, but she just grinned and looked down at her feet. She had stopped kicking rocks from here to Kingdom Come and now just walked in silence. That girl was infuriating, always keeping me guessing about what was running through her mind. And she thought I was quiet.
"You just never cease to amaze me." She admitted a moment later, flashing a humored smile my way. "While I'm comparing them to us and finding that we're much better with the whole survival thing, you're just here for the fun of it."
"I suppose the fact that we've practiced would help with that." Said Iggy dryly. "I'm pretty sure most of these people go straight home after school. Rather than, say, a cave in the mountainside. And more of them play soccer than throw punches."
"Yeah, but you'd think they'd at least have some stamina or will to live. As long as you're an adult they do whatever you say. They'll end up murdered in a ditch somewhere." Max punched his shoulder and ducked expertly away as he tried to return the gesture, but I didn't pay much attention until she was hovering at me shoulder with a grin.
She called me amazing.
Yeah, I was doomed.