Maximum Ride 6 1/2
"Mmmm" I mumble, my eyes closed, slowly chewing
"Good thought on the chocolate bars, Iggy!" I shout over the roaring wind.
He smiles his broad smile that makes him look like a hollywood star, "You like chocolate waaay too much." he says, almost groaning and munching a chocolate bar of his own. He throws one over to Dylan.
"Hey look it matches your wings!" Max calls from where she is in front of me. Then she looks up and catches the chocolate bar Dylan drops down to her.
Yes, she did say wings. If you have joined us before, welcome back to our crazy life! If not, thanks for joining our crazy bandwagon of 2% bird 98% human misfit bunch that Max named the flock. Well, more like Jeb named it, but Max isn't a lying, backstabbing weasel like him, so she gets the credit.
Oh yea, you might be wondering, If this isn't Max, then who is it? I'm Nudge, and Max's wings aren't chocolate coloured anyway and mine are. Nor does she know how to brush her hair or dress in cute outfits or have any sense of fashion like me which is very visible.
"How much longer?" groans Gazzy or the Gasman (named that for reasons you might not want to know) as he speeds up a bit to be heard over the wind as we fly along our highway in the sky (not literally so don't look up and expect to see a road.) Like I said, Wings? Mutants? Yea.
"Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" Iggy mimics even though that is Gazzy's specialty, not his.
We really have a weird band of misfits don't we? "Nudge?" says Angel, her fluffy white wings brushing mine. "We're not a weird band of misfits" she says, and Max rolls her eyes and she moves farther ahead with Dylan. The idea of a 7 year old mind reader might freak you out.(not to mention the mind controller part) But we are mutants, so what else do you expect?
"Really? Since when?!" Iggy says, sarcasm dripping from his every word and turning to look at us with his pale blue eyes. Well, not really look at us, because he's blind, but he faces us with interest. Angel looks frustrated and falls back to talk to total, her flying talking dog, who still can't fly as fast as us with his black wings, but he doesn't seem to mind. That leaves Iggy with me, our wings brushing, and me studying his pale form.
I've always thought of Iggy as a brother, but we seem to be closer lately, sort of like Max and Dylan, who are laughing together up front as Max helps Dylan with the moves the Hawks taught us, their wings beating together. But it reminds me of when I had a crush on Fang… But we don't talk about him anymore.
Sadly, I find myself watching Iggy's Strawberry Blonde hair fluttering around because of the wind flying through it. He swerves above me and reaches down to me to finger a loose strand of my hair thoughtfully.
"Mocha coloured, noticeably corkscrew," he mutters, and then smiles as he moves back to being next to me. Ever since Ig found his new ability to feel colours, he just spouts out the colours of everything he touches.
"I wish I could see you." He says, frowning. Now, every time his wing brushes mine, I feel almost warmer.
That night, we make a little campfire and settle down in a forest in who knows which state. Dylan insists that Max let Iggy have first watch, even though you might be thinking Why are you letting the blind one take first watch when he is well, blind? Because he would know if a cockroach came within 75 feet of us and we all know he's the only one who can, that's why. So we all crash as Iggy stokes the embers of our fire.
I lay awake thinking and listening to the crickets until Dylan takes over the watch. Iggy comes over to me-somehow he knows exactly where i am- and lies down. After a few Very awkward moments, he spreads out his wings, and wraps them around me, until i'm nestled up next to him like Max and Angel.