When we were little, our favorite game was "If We Were Birds." There was a tree house in my back yard that we pretended was our nest. We were always baby birds, saying things like, "Cheep! Mama's coming with our food soon!" and "Peep! I can't wait till I'm big enough to fly!" And when we weren't playing, we imagined what it is really like to fly.
The seven of us lived on the same street. Three houses on one side and two on the other. We all had nicknames and we never called each other by our real names. My name is Madison, my nickname Max. My sister Ella was just Els. We lived in the middle house. To our right lived Fang and to our left was Nudge. Directly across the street were the twins, Angel and the Gasman. Iggy lived beside them.
We were best friends from the start. Because of our game, we called ourselves the Flock, and that lasted until Fang, Iggy, and I were ten. Angel and Gazzy were the first to move. Their dad had been offered a job in New Hampshire that he just couldn't say no to.
A couple of months later was Nudge. I remember how much she and Ella cried and I remember the last thing her mother said to her in my presence. "Monique, your grandparents are getting old. I want to live near them until they die. We just aren't close enough that I can see them whenever I want to. Besides, you'll have all sorts of cousins to play with!" Next thing we knew, Nudge was living in Kansas.
Just after my eleventh birthday Iggy moved too. There was never any explanation, he was just gone one day. My mom said she didn't know what happened either. She and Iggy's mom had worked together for years and the woman had just resigned from the animal hospital with a word. Not too long after, Mrs. Griffiths called our house. They were in Washington, D.C. She didn't say why, just that it was for Iggy.
Then it was Fang, Ella, and me left. Fang and I were always closer than anything. Like two peas in a pod, we were. I hadn't cried when the others left, but when he told me on his birthday that he was moving too, I think I did cry. His dad had been in jail since a month or so after he was born. The man didn't want to believe that Fang was his son and actually tried to kill both the baby and mother. He'd escaped from prison and Fang had to move so he wouldn't find them.
In just six months, my entire life had disappeared. Ella and I were the only ones left. We stayed in the same house our whole childhood. The tree house was still there, with all the old toys still in it. Neither of us went up in it, even when bringing new friends home. When they asked, we told them that it wouldn't hold their weight and they accepted it. Life went on.
Disclaimer: I absolutely do not own Maximum Ride or any other recognizable things that may be mentioned in this story.
And a note: Ages are slightly different here. Max, Fang, and Iggy are all the same age. As in the books Max is four months older than Fang and six months older than Iggy. Nudge and Ella are the same age too and about a year younger than Max, Fang, and Iggy. For this story I made Angel and Gazzy twins and a year younger than Nudge and Ella. Also, I don't normally like all human stories, but this just sorta hit me like a brick. Oh, well.