Hello all!

This is probably my third MR story (I deleted the others xD) and I do hope you enjoy it. :)

No wings, no Flock. But I do hope you like it!

Please review; it means a lot to me, and any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

~Claire

The worst thing about moving towns is settling into a new school.

The principal at 'Oakley High' had promised that it was one of the best school's around, and according to the website it was 'bully free', which my mother thought sounded promising. Ha!

The last school I'd been to had been adamant that it was smoke-free, bully-free, drug-free ... but everyone had done drugs, smoked and the younger kiddo's had been severely bet up by the jocks. I guess it was the circle of life, really.

Luckily Oakley didn't have a uniform - the only requirement was that girls wear clothes that don't reveal anything above knee-height. I doubted this rule was followed; I could already imagine the cheerleaders wearing their skimpy outfits that revealed half their stomachs and all of their thighs. That had been the case at my old school, anyway.

The requirement for clothes above knee-height certainly wasn't gonna be a problem for me. My usual attire consisted of black jeans, a t-shirt (generally a baggy one) and Converse shoes.

Today I'd decided to wear something a little different, however ... well, actually, Mum and my 6 year old sister, Angel, had threatened to stop baking cookies for me if I didn't change out of my 30 Seconds to Mars concert tee. Her cookies were, seriously, the best. It had been a tough decision, but in the end the promise of life-long cookies won out.

Instead of my usual outfit, I was clad in a plain white t-shirt (some things never change), a red and black checked top tied around my hips and a pair of blue jeans. Yes, blue. Not black.

"You look cool, Max," Iggy, my annoyingly cheesy younger brother, grinned in my general direction.

"Haha, funny Ig. In case the small detail slipped your mind, you are blind," I said, rolling my eyes, then forgetting he couldn't actually see my eyes. Doh. "I'm rolling my eyes, Ig."

"Well, I did hear Mum debating with you this morning. I heard the word 'cookie' mentioned numerous times ..." Iggy smiled. He was a notorious smart-ass.

"Alright, enough you two. Have a nice day," Mum told us. I'd only just realised that we had, in fact, just pulled up to The New School.

My eyes widened with disbelief. I'd told Mum over and over that she had to drop us off at least twenty metres from school! It's not that I didn't love her. Mum was awesome. But, when you start your first day at a new school, you do not want to be labelled a 'Mummy's girl', or whatever 'unique' names they had going here.

"Um," I muttered, climbing swiftly out the car, "bye."

Iggy, on the other hand, didn't mind much. In his words, "Chicks dig blind guys."

As Mum drove away, I assessed the school.

Big, green field. Concrete buildings. Lots of teenagers.

A shrill sound that could only be the bell rang as I made my way across the field.

I could feel people staring at me; probably whispering about 'the new girl'. It wasn't like I'd never been a new kid before, though. Jeb, my beloved (note the sarcasm) father had to move a lot for his work. So, of course, the whole family had to move with him, too. Selfish, much? It wasn't like he was every home, anyway. I'm pretty sure he had been MIA during the whole move.

"Hey, wait up, Maxie," Iggy called, running randomly around the field behind me. He looked a bit spastic.

"Over here, Ig," I laughed, shaking my head, before he managed to crash into anyone. He instantly change direction and fell into step with me. I don't know how he does it.

"What class do you have first?" Ig asked, pulling his timetable expertly from his backpack. Sometimes I forgot he was blind.

"Maths," I groaned. "You?"

"Care to tell me?" Ig handed me his timetable.

"You've got English first."

"Great." Iggy said somewhat sarcastically. Being blind, it was hard for him to do a lot of paper work, but for some reason he was super smart anyway.

By the time I'd taken Ig to his class, it was already well past 9:00.

"Miss ... your late," the math teacher, an old dude who looked to be in his eighties, barked as I entered the maths class.

"Sorry, I had to, um, take my brother to class," I mumbled, standing awkwardly in the doorframe.

"What is he, five? This is a high school!"

"He's not five, but he is blind," I shot back, pleased at the icy tone to my voice.

"Well, that's no excuse," the teacher told me sternly, then pointed to a spare desk in the corner. "Sit over there. I'm Mr Linfield, and you are Miss Maximum Ride, I'm assuming?"

"That would be me," I muttered as I took my seat. Beside me sat a cheerleader-type girl with her hair pulled into a high ponytail and a low-necked dress that only reached mid-thigh. That goes to show that all high-schools are apparently the same. On my other side, a chubby-faced boy with nerdy glasses sat engrossed in a thick book. He reminded me of a mix between Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom. Yes, I had watched all the Harry Potter movies. No, I had most definitely not read the books.

"Alright, class, turn to page fifty-two of your textbooks," Mr Linfield instructed the class.

I didn't bother to inform him I had no textbook. I guess he'd figure it out when I didn't hand in any work at the end of the day.