Maximum Ride: The Otherworld
I landed softly in front of the sprawling lawn, the gravel drive crunching slightly under my feet. I glanced at the paper in my hand, trying to shield it from the lightly falling rain, then at the numbers on the house. They matched.
"Guys," I motioned to the five figures that hovered in the foggy air above me. The flock landed behind me, tucking their wings in as they did. "This is it, you ready?" They nodded, silently for once, I think there's something to be said for flying eight hours straight, it really shuts peple up. I squared my shoulders and walked up to the door of the house, knocking loudly on the dark wood of the door.
I could hear footsteps inside, coming closer. The door was flung open and Ella grinned up at me. "Max! Fang! You're all here. Mom!" She shouted as we filed through the door. Iggy shook his hair and water droplets rained down.
"Ig!" I poked him in the side and he grinned.
"Max!" Mom was descending down a tall wooden staircase, a huge grin on her face. She enveloped me in a hug, before doing the same to Nudge, Angel, and the Gasman.
"I'm so glad you're all here!" She threw a one armed hug around Iggy and Fang, each of them rolling their eyes as she did.
"Come on upstairs, and I'll show you your rooms." Ella followed happily behind us, chattering with Nudge as we ascended the stairs.
I'll bet you're wondering why exactly we're at Dr. Martinez's house, it's a funny story actually. She was offered a job in Oregon, a friend of her's was opening a new clinic, and the pay was fantastic so she decided to come. She offered to have us all come live with her, go to school, take a stab at the whole normalcy thing. Seeing as the School had been shut down, we agreed. That was how we ended up here, in the midst of all this rain and dampness (apparently Mom didn't feel the need to mention what sort of weather they have here).
"Okay, Iggy, Fang, Gazzy, here are your rooms." Mom pointed to three doors on the right of the hall. "And Nudge and Angel, your rooms are right here. Ella is at the end of the hall. Max, your room is up the staircase at the end of the hall, the only other room up there is the library, I hope you don't mind." I smiled at Mom.
"It's my own room and it's warm, it'll be just fine." Mom smiled and patted my hair.
"Well, I have some clothes in each of your rooms, we'll go shopping later but those should hold you over. Dinner should be in about ten minutes." I smiled at Mom as she went back down the stairs. Ella grinned and pulled Angel and Nudge away to go look at their rooms.
Fang and Iggy shrugged before they stepped into their own rooms, Gazzy grinned at me, his blonde hair flopping in his eyes. "I like it here Max, and I have my own room!" I ruffled his hair, hoping that we could stay here a long time, I liked this house, and it felt good to be back with Mom and Ella.
"I like it here too Gazzy, why don't you go check out your room?" Gazzy spun and raced into his room, I heard him flop on the bed as I walked past, turning the corner to the spiral staircase that led up to the third floor.
A large round space greeted me, a window seat ran along the furthest curved wall, the cushions looking cozy. A set of double glass double doors covered the entrance to what must be the library. Another door, this one wood, was slightly open. I pushed into the room behind it, smiling happily at the sight before me. A Tall canopy bed, draped in blue netting stood in the center of the room, a light blue bedspread and satiny purple pillows were piled on top of it. A dresser stood opposite the bed, a big oval mirror sitting on top of it. A small desk sat in the corner tucked between two windows. A white laptop sat on top of it and I grinned in satisfaction. I was definitely going to like it here, I might even get used to the rain, hey, you never know.
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I was awakened in the morning by Angel and Nudge throwing open my door. "Cool room Max!" They said loudly. I sat up groggily, blinking away sleep. The bed was so soft, I wanted to stay there forever.
"Dr. Mom says it's time to get up. We have school today!" Angel smiled excitedly at the thought. "And we don't have to wear uniforms either!"
"Well that's something, why don't you go downstairs while I get dressed." The two girls spun and skipped out of my room. I noticed that they were both wearing new clothes, obviously "Dr. Mom's" doing. I smiled at the title they had bestowed on Mom, it fit in a strange way.
I had only changed into a T-shirt and shorts that I had with me to sleep in, so I hadn't seen the closet yet. I slid the doors opened, and looked inside. Two pairs of Jeans and a jeans skirt hung in the closet, I grabbed one of the pairs of jeans, wondering why on earth I'd ever wear a skirt. I saw a grey fitted t-shirt and a black cloth jacket that would cover up my wings effectively.
As I got dressed, I tried not to worry about school. We were in a new place, and we were going to a new school, everything would be fine.
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"Okay, all of you listen up." Mom turned to face us from the drivers seat of her big, new SUV. "I've been telling everyone that I've adopted you all. You've been living with me for the last two years, but during the move, social services had a problem with me taking you out of state, and that's why you didn't arrive with me and Ella. Got it?" We all nodded and Mom took a deep breath. "Okay kids, lets do this."
The school wasn't very big, nor was the town, in fact they were both really small. Mom dropped us all off in front of the main office building that served as the administrative hub for the lower school, middle school, and high school.
"Okay, you guys just go in and pick up your schedules, I'll see you all later today." We all waved as she pulled away, I felt like some freaky mutant brady bunch spinoff, except with less people, but still.
Ella decided to go into the office with us, she would be in the middle school with Nudge, Gazzy and Angel would be in the lower school. Iggy, Fang, and I, would of course be in the high school, as Juniors.
When we walked through the doors, I think every head in that room turned to look at us, I could hear the low whispers that started up, I picked up words wiht my raptor hearing, smiling at some of the comments, apparently some of the girls didn't think Fang and Iggy were all that bad looking.
I stepped up to the front desk and smiled sweetly.
"Hello, I'm Maximum Martinez, these are my siblings we just transferred and we're here to get our schedules." The lady smiled at us, her bleached blond hair wafted hairspray fumes as she rummaged through some papers.
"Here we are dears. We have Nick and Jeff, TIffany-Crystal, and Angel and Zephyr." Mom had let us choose what names we wanted to use, though we all had to use her last name, not that we minded. "Now, Ella can take Tiffany-Crystal and show her around the school, so that's all taken care of, but for the rest of you..." I looked at Fang nervously, guides? I mean really, we're not five.
"Angel and Zephyr, you'll be going with Jackson and Marissa, they're right over there." The woman pointed to two kids who looked to be the same age as Angel and Gazzy. Angel turned and gave me a big hug before she went to stand with the kids, before Gazzy could walk away, I grabbed the back of his shirt and knelt down beside him.
"If I get so much as a whiff of anything that could remotely be linked to a bomb of some sort, you're dead meat." Gazzy nodded then smiled before he ran to catch up with the other kids.
"Now, for you three. I understand that Jeff has some vision issues, so we've put him and Nick together for their classes, but you all have the same guide, Kelly." The lady pointed to a girl who stood by the door a bored look on her face. "Have a good day dears!" I smiled one last time as Fang and Iggy stood by impassively. I could tell the woman was dying to discuss us with the rest of the people in the office, this really was a small town.
The boys and I turned to the girl, Iggy standing close behind Fang. The girl jerked her head towards the door and walked out. I turned to roll my eyes at Fang but he was already following the girl. Hefting the backpack full of school supplies that Mom had gotten us, I followed them into a large open space, the girl was waiting for us outside the door, sheltered from the cloudy fog in the air by a slight overhang.
"Did you see them? They're going to be talking about you for the rest of the week! I'm Katie by the way, Katie Roth." The girl smiled and Fang smiled slightly and stepped forward. Wait what? Fang smiling?
"I'm Nick, this is Jeff, and Max." Iggy waved and I smiled. Katie grinned and motioned us towards the high school.
"Nice to meet you, I'll show you where your classes are." As I followed Katie, I pulled my jacket tighter and wondered what was up with Fang, my mind flashing back to Lisa. Whatever, squaring my shoulders I tried to prepare myself for the day to come.
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I was nearly ready to scream when the bell rang for lunch. Literature was just finishing up and I wanted to kill the teacher, apparently my grammar is shameful, I wonder why? World history hadn't been much better, though the teacher was nicer.
Unfortunately, I didn't have any classes with the boys in the morning, though it looked as though I'd see them after PE in Biology and math class, thank goodness. I was kind of getting sick of people asking me how I liked their lovely town of Jericho, lets just say I lied a lot that morning (the weather wasn't helping my mood any either).
After following the small horde of students out of the classroom I quickly found my locker, using my raptor hearing more than anything else to listen for the clicks that meant I was getting the combo right, I had never realized how loud teenagers could be, well I had, but the sounds of voices echoing off the walls amplified everything. I could only imagine how much Iggy was hating this.
I went with the stream of people pouring into the cafeteria, bypassing the lunch line, suddenly glad that Mom had thought to pack us all lunches. I scanned the lunchroom looking for Fang and Iggy, finally spotting them sitting at a table in the corner. I carefully made a way through the crowded tables, trying to ignore the aching in my wings, probably from keeping them in tight all day. When I finally reached the table, I sat down next to Iggy, one of the only free spots left at the table.
Katie, and what I assumed to be her friends were all laughing and talking about what I didn't know. "Max!" Iggy said excitedly, "where've you been? Katie was just telling us about this skydiving trip she went on, she said it was like flying!" I laughed quietly as Katie noticed me.
"Oh hey Max! Guys this is Max." The other people turned and I suddenly wished Katie wasn't quite so popular. Katie went through a list of names, pointing at various people as she did I didin't even try to keep up, wishing I could just eat.
When the introductions were finally over, Katie turned back to Fang, and I pulled out my sandwiches (Mom obviously remembered our appetites). I had just taken a big bite of turkey and ham when a tall guy, who I thought might have been named Brian, turned to me.
"So Max, what classes do you have this afternoon?" I hurriedly swallowed, and turned to look at him.
"Umm, PE, biology, and math."
"Cool, we have PE together, maybe I'll walk you there?" I nodded, smiling, hoping I wasn't supposed to say anything else. Evidently Brian was satisfied, he w as distracted by someone asking him a question and I took another bite of my sandwich.
"Hey 'Jeff', you getting around okay?" Iggy nodded and jerked his head towards Fang.
"Yeah, I just stick by him and he tells me what's going on. He's kind of distracted right now though." Iggy rolled his eyes, and I looked over at Fang. Sure enough Katie was leaning towards him, her chin in her hand as Fang said something, apparently it was funny because she giggled girlishly, I rolled my eyes and focused on eating.
Just as I was finishing up my first sandwich, draft of cold air blew towards me from the door that led to an outside courtyard. I froze as seven gorgeous people walked into the cafeteria. They moved through the tables gracefully, as though the crowd of students didn't even exist. They all seemed to be in couples except for one, though I could tell they were in a group.
"Those are the Cullens."I looked beside me to see a girl with blond hair sitting down. She nodded at the table where the people had just sat down. "They all live together, with Dr. Cullen and his wife. They just moved here two years ago. I'm Amy by the way."
"I'm Max."
"Cool name. Yeah they're mostly paired off, even though they live together. I think they're all adopted. Six of them are "together" if you know what I mean, but the tall guy with the blonde hair, that's Ash. He's Single. They're whole family is pretty confusing, they keep to themselves mostly."
"They look...different." Amy nodded and laughed. One of the Cullens, a boy with bronze hair looked right at our table, his eyes locking on Amy, then on me. He frowned and turned back to his family. None of them seemed to be looking at each other, the food on the table wasn't touched either. Ash, looked at the bronze haired boy before turning to look at me. He smiled and turned back to the other boy. Standing swiftly, he dumped he threw his untouched food in the garbage and strode out of the room. Turning back to my sandwiches, I tried not to think about the Cullens. They were definitely different alright. Their beauty reminded me of the early versions of the erasers, I knew the school had been shut down, but what if...No Max! Everything is fine, though, it might be a good idea to keep an eye on the Cullens, just in case.
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A/N: So, first chapter is up, I hope you all like it. As you can see, everyone is NOT in the small town of Forks. They are in the small town of Jericho. It's in Oregon, well atleast it would be if it existed, but whatever. I am really into this story and I hope you like it too, the next chapter will be up as soon as I can. Enjoy, and review!
Read on,
Fightingrose