Gurgle, gurgle. Glug, glug.

That's what I heard as I woke up. Just two measly gurgles and two measly glugs coming from my porthole window. Isn't that a nice way to wake up, instead of an alarm clock blaring in your ears, it's a fish gurgling and glugging in your ear? And yes, before you ask, I did say porthole and fish.

But of course, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll start by introducing myself, in case you're too confused, which you probably are. I'm Maximum Ride, Max for short. 14 years old, tall, with brown hair, streaked with blonde and brown eyes, strong, stealthy, sarcastic, a snarky attitude, and hmm, am I missing anything? Oh yeah, how 'bout the fact that I live underwater?

Yeah, an underwater city, kind of like Atlantis. And before you jump to conclusions, I don't have gills and I can't breathe under water! Nah, I've pretty much lived here, at the bottom of the Atlantic in this everlasting air supply, submarine-like, underwater colony for my whole life. No palm trees, no land animals, no sun, no wind, heck, not even Wi-Fi! How's a girl got to enjoy herself around here, huh?

I'll tell you exactly how. Two words: annoying Ari. Ari's my 12 year old half-brother, my brotha' from anotha' motha', and let me tell you, it's as fun as heck to annoy him. He gets all mad, his floppy brown hair practically standing on the ends like he just got electrocuted, and you can almost see the steam coming from his ears, his chubby face turning an interesting color of magenta.

But don't get me wrong, I love Ari, we all do. Jeb, Jenna, Captain Trench, Lana, Ina, Elli, Josh, me, everyone! But I get bored sometimes—actually, make that all the time—and he just gets mad over the littlest things. Well, I guess dying his boxers a violent shade of pink and purple is not considered a "little thing." It just goes to show ya', huh?

Instead of going back to sleep like I would normally do, I forced myself out of bed, throwing back the covers and looking around for the only clean pair of shorts I had, a pair of cut off denim shorts. I hunted around a little more and then found my favorite T-shirt, a black Panic! At the Disco tee, at the bottom of my closet, underneath a stack of classics (ugh).

Slapping on my orange Converse and my trusty biker jacket, I strode out of my room, heading for the kitchen.

The underwater "city" was shaped like an E, turned on its side, with my room on the bottom line—or whatever—and the kitchen on the top line. I passed Ari's room on the way to the kitchen and I couldn't help but wonder if he was already at breakfast. I had checked the clock (yeah, we have clocks underwater) before I left my room and I found out it was 8:45, pretty early for me. Breakfast usually started at promptly 8:30, but since I almost always woke up at 12:00, I usually had breakfast with Ari, who was usually eating lunch by then.

Overall, there were about 150 people living here, most of them adults. There were about 100 adults and 50 kids. Out of the 50 kids here, I was the oldest. Most of them were either 12 year olds or younger, and there was just one other kid here that was around my age, which was Shawn, a 13 year old, overexcited little ball of energy.

A hymn of murmurs reached my ears by the time I was close to the kitchen and I pushed open the doors, surprising everyone who was eating breakfast.

Taking an empty seat next to Ari, I reached for a pancake that was on the plate next to him. I dabbed some Nutella on it, then poured a healthy amount of chocolate chips and then spritzed it with whipped cream, my idea of the ultimate super pancake. I wasn't paying that much attention to the conversation going on around me. I was too busy trying to focus on getting all the pancake bites into my mouth without dropping anything.

"So I think we should head out at noon today and then be back sometime next week—." That was the part that caught my attention.

"Wait, you're going up today?" I interrupted Jeb, who was sitting across from me. Forgetting my half-eaten pancake, I leaned towards Jeb, feigning casual interest.

"Going up" pretty much means that a bunch of people (grownups) are going to take a submarine up to the top and they're gonna stock up on new stuff. This usually happens every month, and even though I've been begging Jeb to take me, he replies with a firm no every time.

He nodded and then sighed, probably noticing my pout. "Sorry, sweetheart. You know my answer." And for those of you going, what the fuck, well, there's just one simple explanation: Jeb's my dad.

Yep, Jeb was my pa, the father of Ari and me. Jenna, his wife, is Ari's mother, and she also hates my guts. My mom? She is someone I've never met. The only thing I know about her is that one night she got unlucky and happened to meet Jeb in a bar. Pretty soon after, she was pregnant with me and as soon as I was born, Jeb had taken me and shipped me off to this underwater prison. So yeah, I'm a bar baby. What can I do?

"Why can't I?" I argued back. I was getting a little bit pissed off with taking only "no" for an answer. I want to go up, and that's final!

Now I sound like a two year old. Great.

Jeb looked surprised (I don't call him dad because, frankly, I'm a little bit ashamed of having been related to him). "It's too dangerous!" he stuttered, banging his fist down on the table. It only takes one little thing to set him off. Anger problems. I guess it runs in the family.

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? What, am I going to get eaten by a lion or something? You and I both know that I'll be safe. You just don't want me to go for some weird reason."

Now he was riled up. "Don't want you to go? Yes I don't want you to go! You belong down here, not up there! You were raised and taught here. Now stop being pigheaded. You are not going up and that's final!"

"Don't tell me what to do!" I yelled. By now, everyone had stopped their mindless chatter and focused on us. I was standing now, red in the face and glaring at Jeb, my breaths coming out in short little puffs. Ari had grabbed the hem of my shorts, as if to restrain me. Ha!

"Maximum Jebediah Anne Ride! I raised you better than this! You do not yell at me, nor do you argue with me! Now sit down before I send you back to your room!" He stood too, adopting the same posture as mine. My fists were slowly closing and unclosing beneath the tablecloth, my muscles slowly coiling and uncoiling.

"Maximum Ride, sit down. Now." When I didn't move, he started counting to three. "One." Pause. "Two." A tense pause. "Three." A long pause filled with unspoken tension. "Go to your room, now," Jeb hissed, his voice filled with barely controlled anger.

I ripped my leg out of Ari's grasp, then marched out of the kitchen and towards my room.

I slammed through the door of my room, shoulder first, and then rushed towards the closet. I yanked the door open, pulling out a duffel bag. I immediately started shoving clothes and other necessary items into my bag. One thought crossed my mind as I packed. I'm getting on that submarine.