A Matter of Perspective
Disclaimer – None of them are mine. I'm just borrowing them for a bit.
Author's Note – Never written for Maximum Ride before so not sure how this will turn out. FYI, this short story takes place during the second book while the Flock is staying with Anne.
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I took my lunch tray (the quality and quantity of food in this joint was seriously lacking, IMHO) and carefully wove my way through the hordes of mingling teenagers to an empty table in the corner, hoping the rest of the Flock would join me soon. We'd been attending this school for a week now, and I still felt like a fish out of water, or to be more correct, a bird-kid stuck on the ground. It took every bit of willpower I had to not gather my Flock and take off but instead to keep coming back to this place everyday.
Out of habit I scanned the room, taking in all the exits once more as I looked for my family. I knew Gazzy and Angel had already eaten with the younger grades, but Nudge, Iggy, and Fang should be making an appearance anytime.
As if on cue, Nudge entered with the group of giggling girls I'd seen her with the last few days. She sensed me watching and turned with a wave, asking with her eyes if I minded if she ate with her new friends. My instincts screamed that we should stay together, but the happy look on her face made me smile and nod. She was still just a kid, after all, and she'd had so few opportunities to be just that – a kid. How could I deny her wish when it was so easy to grant this time?
Waiting for the guys to appear, I took a bite of my chicken taco, grimacing slightly. The cooks here really needed to take a few lessons from Iggy. I'd long ago gotten over any miniscule feelings of envy I might have had that my slightly younger, blind brother could cook way better than me. Heck , the pyro could cook better than anyone I knew. It made eating the slop that passed for school lunch that much harder, but a bird-kid knew better than to be picky. Food was food.
Fang entered the lunchroom alone, grabbed a tray, and made his way to where I was sitting, sliding into the seat across from me.
"Where's Iggy?" I asked immediately. Iggy was still sticking pretty close to Fang or another Flock member as he learned his way around.
"Said he wasn't hungry," Fang said.
Iggy? Not hungry? Iggy was always hungry!
I frowned at him, unsatisfied with his cryptic answer. He met my gaze with a frown of his own and that said volumes in Fang-speak. He was upset by something. My worry skyrocketed.
"What is it?" I demanded in my don't-give-me-any-crap leader voice.
"Iggy."
You know, sometimes trying to have a conversation with Fang was like speaking to a rock, only rocks tended to have a bigger vocabulary.
"I got that part, genius," I said as I rolled my eyes. "What's going on with him?"
An Iggy with issues couldn't be good, for him or anyone around him, especially considering his already messed up emotions after the fiasco of last week's midnight parental unit hunting trip.
"People have been…talking," Fang said darkly, his eyes angry.
"Talking?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow.
"Making fun," he growled softly. "Because he's blind."
I sucked in a breath, anger flaring. I knew about the "kick me" sign from the first day, but I figured Fang and Iggy himself had taken care of that. I had no idea the cruelty had continued.
"Tell me," I ground out, my lunch completely forgotten. Iggy had been grumpy and withdrawn lately, but I'd chalked it up to continued moodiness over the parent incident and general unease about being in a strange, noisy, crowded place day after day. I should have realized it was more than that! Some leader I was. It was times like these when I felt much less like Maximum Ride the fearless Flock leader and much more like Max, the clueless fourteen-year-old girl.
"He didn't want you to know," mumbled Fang, shoving some taco into his mouth to stall.
"Too late now," I said firmly. "Spill."
Being a smart bird-kid who knew better than to say no when I used that tone of voice, Fang quickly swallowed his taco and then spilled his guts. As he talked I realized the "kick me" sign had only been the tip of a nasty ice burg. I listened in growing horror and fury as Fang described the ignorant and sometimes downright cruel comments said behind Iggy's back (unaware he could hear them all perfectly,) or worse, the ones said to his face that he was meant to hear. He told me about the "accidental" shoves in the hallway or feet stuck out in the isle. (No wonder Iggy was reluctant to go anywhere on his own in this place!) Fang topped it all off with the list of activities Iggy had been forbidden to participate in "for his own safety" by well-meaning but in my mind incredibly stupid teachers. It included but was not limited to science lab, gym class, and cooking in the Home Ec. class all eighth graders were required to take.
By the time he was done I was fuming! I'd always known people could be cruel – I mean I'd grown up in a cage, tortured and experimented on everyday for the first ten years of my life – but I'd somehow thought cruelty was limited to psychotic, evil scientists. I had no idea it could extend to normal teenagers.
"Where is he?" I demanded, getting to my feet. Fang followed suit, not seeming a bit surprised.
"In the library. He said he'd meet me in class after lunch."
"Come on."
We quickly took care of our trays and then headed to the library. We weren't even halfway there, though, when I heard something that drew me up short. We stopped, hidden around a corner, listening.
"Yo, stupid, why don't you watch where you're going?" a male voice taunted loudly. "Oh wait, I forgot, you can't."
"Yo, ugly, if you weren't so dumb maybe you could figure out how to move your feet enough to get out of the way," I heard Iggy snap back.
"I thought freaks like you were supposed to have one of those white sticks, Blindie, or did you miss that day in retard school?" another voice chimed in meanly.
I winced. That was a sore subject with Iggy right now. Anne had suggested he get a cane before we'd started this school, and Iggy had practically exploded. He'd never needed one before, there was no way he was getting one now. Subject closed. It had taken hours for the tension in the house to dissipate after that discussion and even longer for the scowl on Iggy's face to leave.
"Look, jerks," Iggy said sounding tired and defeated, "why don't you just get out of my way and go steal some second grader's lunch money or something?"
"Or we could just pound on you," one of the bullies said offhand. I took that as my cue to make my presence known.
I rounded the corner, Fang on my heels, and saw Iggy surrounded by a group of five burley kids who had bully written all over them. Seriously, they could have posed for pictures for every anti-bully poster in America.
"Everything all right here?" I asked casually, secretly pleased when the two with their backs to me jumped and whirled around. I strode through the opening they created and stopped next to Iggy, barely brushing his hand with mine so he would know where I was. I had no doubt Iggy could take care of these losers just fine on his own, but I also had no doubt when he was over Iggy would find himself expelled from school and the school itself would be suffering some structural damage. I figured it was best to avoid both those scenarios for now.
"Just helping our new friend around," Jerk One answered, slinging an arm across Iggy's shoulders. Iggy's face darkened in a way that would have sent anyone who knew him running for their lives. He shrugged purposefully out of the guy's hold.
"Oh, really?" I said, leveling the Maximum Ride Death Glare at them as I felt Fang come up silently behind me. "I think you should help yourselves by leaving."
The group all looked to Jerk One, the obvious ringleader, who glared at us for a moment, but finally stepped back when he could see there was no way I was backing down.
"Well then," he said as he signaled his gang to move off, "see ya around, Blindie. Oops," he laughed meanly as he covered his mouth in pretend embarrassment. "Forgot you can't see at all. Guess I shouldn't tell you to keep your eyes open then."
They broke into loud peels of laughter as they sauntered off to who knows where. I nobly resisted the urge to run after them and beat their brains into mush and instead turned to Iggy only to be met with a furious glare aimed in my direction.
"Gee, thanks, Max!" Iggy spat. "As if I wasn't enough of a freak already now I have to go and be rescued by my sister! Let's just reinforce to the whole school how useless the blind kid is, why don't we!"
"Iggy!" I started, shocked. "Iggy, I know you aren't helpless! I would have done the same for any of the Flock and you know it!"
"Just save it, Max!" he snapped and pushed roughly passed me and down the hall. Anger made him clumsy, though, and he turned the corner a second too early, walking right into the wall, which only fueled his fury. Cursing loudly, he shoved off and felt his way around the corner and out of sight.
Gaping helplessly, I just stood there and watched him go.
Fang stepped up beside me, putting a hand lightly on my shoulder. "He's not really upset with you, you know," he said softly.
I turned to stare at him, still shocked into silence.
"He's frustrated, angry at the world and himself, and you were conveniently there to yell at." He stopped talking and just shrugged, letting go of my shoulder to shove his hands back into his pockets.
Realizing I was still doing a good impersonation of a fish, I snapped my mouth closed, mulling over Fang's words. Fang was my best friend and right-hand man and Iggy was my brother in every sense of the word except blood, but I often forgot the two of them shared a brother/brother bond as well. Fang shared things with Iggy he couldn't and wouldn't ever talk to me about, and Iggy looked to Fang to act as a guide and confidant more than any of the rest of us. Gazzy was Iggy's best friend and partner in crime, but Fang with his quiet encouragement and support was the one he depended on to help him get around and listen when life got to be more than he could handle with bombs and sarcasm.
Sighing deeply, I ran a hand through my hair. Anne was right – I was learning a lot at this school. Too bad not a bit of it had come from a book yet.
"You'd better go after him," I said quietly and Fang nodded. Feeling like I was sitting rock-bottom on the Competent Leader List, I watched him go, wishing this day would just hurry and get over with.
