Chapter 1
Football and Rugby Jerk

Okay so I decided to re-write the first chapter since I didn't get it the way I wanted to. I don't own Maximum Ride.

Ever have those times when you wonder how the heck you ended up in a situation? Have you ever wondered if there was some force of the universe that wanted to give you pay back for something you did?

Yeah I've had those times.

Yes I've wondered.

I ask those pathetic questions now, at the worst of times.

Worst of times translates into "running because my life and the safety of others depends on it".

I was exhausted, my lungs were burning, my heart felt like it would just give up at any moment. The fear of wondering when I could stop haunted at the edge of my mind.

By now I was use to the rhythm: right foot slams, slam on my left thigh, right foot slams, slam on my left thigh.

I didn't know if I had avoided what I was running from. I didn't dare stop in fear the wind howling in my ears blocked the sound of my pursuers.

What did I do to deserve this?

What had I ever done that made the universe unhappy with me?

Maybe if I step back I can find it out. But to know when this all really began is hard to tell. I'll just start a few days before my life turned upside down so far it became a topsy turvy right side up.

It felt like years ago, who knows how long ago it was that I was late for school...

Alyss's POV

Again, for the umpteenth time this year I was late for school. I was sprinting my little butt off, hoping it was one of those days my English teacher was twenty minutes late for class. Out of all the women in the world I get the one who doesn't give a crap about my life then beats me to a pulp when she gets calls from school. I was trying to rid myself of all my tears, clutching my right hand that still stung. My scruffy shoulder length sandy blond hair whipped out behind me as I ran, my shoulder bag slamming against my hip with blows that reminded me of the ones I got at home.

No time to think about that. I thought, rolling my mental dice.

I did this weird thing with dice that supposedly determines the amount of bad that's going to come from something. The dice consisted of a regular six sided die, three sided die, twelve sided die and eight sided die. It was like a scale, 1 being lowest to nothing, now if there was a twelve and 8 I was in crap load of trouble. I had physical dice for it but right now I wasn't going to stop to roll them.

I could hear the dice clinking together in my pocket and imagined that I was rolling them. Like usual the three and six die stopped first.

1 and 1 okay pretty low key.

Oh geez then the 12 die stopped on 6.

And to my horror the eight die stopped on, you guessed it 8.

Okay let's go faster.

I got the school ready to throw up my guts, and was sure I had busted a lung, wheezing at every intake of breath. Pounding up the stairs to the third floor I just about ran into a teacher with a teetering stack of books. I thought my teacher was going to be angry at me, that's what I thought the 8 was for. Correction, the 8 was because I ran into Tor, some big jerk from 11th grade that hated me for some freaking reason. He was huge for his age with dark ruddy brownish black hair, palest skin you could come across and with dark eyes. His favourite outfit was a white shirt and black leather jacket with jeans even if it was summer.

"Watch it!" Tor snapped as usual when people ran into him, but when he looked down and saw me his reaction was instant and predictable.

He punched me square in the nose.

I fell backwards and tumbled down the stairs, my head slammed against the wall making me see black spots momentarily. I was lucky the guy didn't break my nose. From above I heard Tor howl in pain.

He had kept his thumb in his fist and that doesn't do nice things when your fist then hits something that gives resistance. I put a hand to my nose to make sure it wasn't bleeding which it was. I swore that the floor rumbled as Tor came charging down the stairs with murderous dark eyes. I ducked out of the way and ran up the stairs, hoping to get somewhere before he could beat me to a pulp.

No, no, no! Leave me alone you big oaf! I thought angrily when he grabbed my bag yanking me back.

Instinct made me spin around and slam him with the heaviest thing I had. Right then it would happen to be my textbook for my next class. If I ever get into these situations my style of fighting (if you could call it that and I hate fighting anyway) was attack and instantly retreat. However to retreat you have to really knock someone down. Even with slamming my textbook as hard as I could against Tor's head all he did was stumble back a bit then lunged for anything to hold me. I hadn't even gotten up two stairs when he dragged me back by my jacket. I flung my bag aside slipping out of my open jacket racing up the stairs with Tor on my heels. It didn't help that the jerk was on the football and rugby team.

He caught up to me before I got to the door for the third floor, locking me in a hold slapping a hand over my mouth. Kicking and trying to scream did zilch to help from Tor dragging me down the stairs out of the school.

Okay instant really crappy action but whatever. This is one of those stories I have problems with starting, but I promise I'll try to make it better.