Hey!
Here's my version of the chapter where Max teaches Dylan to fly. Y'know, the one that there's a competition for? A competition I won't be entering, for reasons I will divulge later.
Just listening to 'If we ever meet again'. I love that song so much! It's such a Max/Fang song. :')

Dylan looked at me in shock. 'You're going to....push me...off a...cliff?' He stammered out.
'Uh-huh' I replied, trying to act bored, suddenly taking a great interest in my nails. Looking at his face, I have to admit I had to bite down on my lip to keep from laughing. There's just something funny about seeing a full grown bird-kid practically hyperventilating over having to fly. Talk about screwed up genetics.
'But...i can't fly' He said in a rush, looking sort of embarrassed. I gave him my best no-freaking-duh face.
'That's why I'm going to teach you...' Okay, this guy was really starting to get on my nerves now. What was the big deal with being pushed off a cliff? It wasn't that high, and if he hit the bottom, he wouldn't be hurt too badly, I guessed.
Dylan took a deep breath in, and then nodded, mainly to himself. 'And this is how you taught the others to fly, right?' I hated how he looked like he trusted me so well. I didn't even know this freaking guy, bird-kid or not.
'Sure.' I answered quickly. Okay, so maybe I hadn't quite pushed them off of a cliff. That would have been way too mean to them. With Dylan, I could make an exception.
'Okay, let's do this thing' he replied. I frowned at him, annoyed at the way he had used my exact words from earlier, as if he thought in some way we were similar.
Max, stop ignoring the fact that Dylan is perfect for you, the Voice said, in the irritating physically-unable-to-leave-me-alone-for-two-minutes way it had.
I gritted my teeth at that and it took every ounce of my already pretty limited of self-control not to scream. One day, when I found out where this voice was coming from, I was gonna go round there and kick its sorry butt so hard.
'Max?' Dylan asked, softly, interrupting my little inner turmoil.
'What? Oh, yeah. Come on then.' I murmured. I wanted to get this over with so I could get back inside. Back to Fang, I thought bitterly.
Moving closer to the edge, I turned to face Dylan.
'Right, when I push you off, let yourself fall for maybe, two seconds, and then snap out your wings. Pronto. You need to flap, hard. Either that or watch yourself go splat.' Just to put him at ease. Well, I've never been the most sensitive person ever.
'O...kay. Got it.' Dylan murmured. He still looked pretty unsure, but hey, I didn't have all night.
'Good. Right. You ready?'
'What, like now?' his eyes widened. I tapped my foot impatiently.
'Yes Dylan. Right, NOW!' I shouted, pushing him off, probably a little harder than I'd intended. That felt good, I thought, smirking.
I watched with great interest as he fell. And fell, and kept on falling. Uh-oh. Guess it was time to intervene.
'Open your wings!' I shouted at him, a little too late I guessed as just as I stopped shouting, he hit the bottom. Ooh, I thought, cringing away. That had to hurt.
I peered over the edge wondering if he'd survived. To hope that he wasn't hurt was a little redundant at this point.
And I kid you not, Dylan looked exactly like a giant mosquito someone had seen, screamed at, and then squished with their foot. It wasn't a pretty sight.
I sighed, shaking my head. I did warn him.
I decided I should probably go see how he was. I jumped over the edge myself, gracefully floating down, flapping my wings gently. Well, might as well show him how it was done.
'Dylan?' I asked, as I approached the heap of bird-kid, trying to figure out where his head was.
A heard a groan, then relaxed slightly. At least he was alive, I thought. He lifted his head – which I had assumed was his foot- and looked at me.
'I forgot to open my wings, didn't i?' he muttered.
I smiled at him angelically. 'Yep.'
'Eugh.' Dylan winced slightly as he got up. He glanced at me hopefully. I sighed, irritated, and unwillingly held out my hand to him.
'Come on then.' I tried to keep the ice out of my voice. He smiled and reached out. I pulled him up harshly, letting go as soon as I could. A little too soon probably, as when I let go, he stumbled and almost fell. Again. Super genetically modified or not, that kid had some serious balance issues.
Without looking at him, I strode over to the cliff, wondering what to do now.
Because seeing as though Dylan still couldn't fly, we were now stuck there with no way to get back up to the house. Great.
Okay, so I wasn't stuck. Moi? I could fly. Dylan? Not so much. Though I was tempted to, I wasn't gonna leave him there. There's my limitless good nature for you. Trust me, I'm a freaking saint.
Without warning, Dylan came up behind me and put his hand on my arm, making me jump. He was lucky not to get a fistful of Max for that. I shook out of his grip and glared at him.
'You still can't fly, so we're stuck down here meaning you're gonna have to learn. Now.'
'How am i going to learn from down here?' he asked.
Well I didn't know, did I, or else we'd already be up and away. But because I'm Flock leader – though, believe me Dylan was not part of my flock – I always have a plan. Even if I have to make it up as I go along, somewhere deep down in my sub-conscious, it's there.
'Okay. Watch me first.' I said, holding back the urge to scream at him. I ran, jumped into the air and opened out my wings. Flying felt so good, especially when it meant I was away from pretty-boy down there.
When I landed, Dylan walked over with a look of awe on his face. Seriously, it was pathetic. I raised my eyebrows at him, with my wings wide out, cooling off.
'Wow.' He murmured under his breath. I hated the way he was looking at me, like he already knew me or something; I shivered at the feeling, not meeting his eyes.
He DOES know you Max, more than you think. Oh great, that was all I needed, a head full of Voice. Just to make me feel even better.
I'd had enough of this. Time to make the bird-kid fly.
'You're gonna do what I just did. Run, jump, open your wings and fly. Got it? Good. Go.' I said, without giving him chance to protest. I pushed him forwards, not allowing him to resist.
If he wanted to argue about this, he could, but if he knew me so freaking well he should know he wouldn't win.
I moved away and looked at him pointedly. He looked uncertain, but started to run. He ran, he jumped, he opened his wings and.... he fell in a heap at my feet.
'Yeah...' I said, looking down at the ground, where he had managed to end up again. 'You really don't get the whole 'flapping' thing do you?'
He got up and dusted himself down. 'You never said anything about flapping.'
I rolled my eyes. It didn't take a freaking genius to figure out that to fly you had to flap your wings, though, in Dylan's case, it obviously did.
We literally weren't leaving until he got how to do it, so I made him try again and again. Again and again he failed, ending up in a now very familiar Dylan-shaped heap.
Patience is something I have very little of, so you can imagine my reaction each time, too.
After his one hundredth attempt, I grabbed him by the shoulders. 'Okay Dylan. This time, you're going to do this. I don't care how, you just better.' I shook him hard. If I had to force his stupid useless wings to fly then I would. I glared at him for good measure and shoved him away.
Dylan stood back and nodded. 'Run, jump, flap, fly.' He murmured to himself.
I rolled my eyes. Oh great! He'd finally got it....after the thousandth time of telling him. Well, at least we were making progress.
He ran and I took a step back so he'd have enough room to, let's just say, land at my feet.
I gazed around, bored, and looked up at the house. All the lights were on and I dreaded to think what chaos was going on up there. Then again, it was still standing so that was something.
I suddenly realized that it had been like, a minute, and Dylan was nowhere in sight.
I glanced up at the sky, and my eyes widened in, well, not so much amazementas: oh great, so the bird kid finally gets it. Because, yep, Dylan was flying.
Well give the genetic freak a medal.
Okay, so his flying was terrible – ragged, off course, jolty - I'd seen dogs fly better than Dylan, literally. (Seriously, you'd be surprised how quick a mutant Scottish terrier can be in the air)
but hey, Dylan was flying! I wasn't gonna complain. I mean it had taken long enough - one more crash landing and I'd been ready to kick his butt - but finally he'd got it.
Not that I was at all bothered, of course. I just wanted to get out of there as soon as I could.
I don't exactly have the longest attention span ever, so you can imagine how pleased I was that Dylan felt the need to swoop and soar around pointlessly - right here, right now. Great.
I suppose it's a good thing we mutant kids have incredibly good eyesight, because it meant Dylan could see my death-glare focused right at him from one hundred feet up. I 'm guessing he got the hint, because he came down to land.
He hit the ground at a run, wings outstretched to cool off and conveniently found his way over to me. Seemingly with an overwhelming urge to grab me in a hug.
Now if you know me, you should be able to realise that if you like your face in the arrangement it's in, you don't hug me. Ever. But Dylan just didn't seem to get it.
I shoved him off me quickly and clenched my hands into fists just in case he tried it again. Which he didn't, seeing as though he was too busy gushing over his flying.
'I mean, wow. It was seriously amazing. I mean, being so high up there, seeing it all...it was incredible. It took a while to get the hang of it, but I really think I've got it now!' he said.
You're telling me it took a while. Jeez.
'Yeah, great. Let's go.' I muttered turning away. Okay, so the guy just flew for the first time, but he's a bird-kid, he's supposed to fly. Amazing, he flew. Congratulations. Could we get over it and go home?
Dylan's face fell slightly at my less than enthusiastic reply, which would've made me feel kind of sorry for him if I hadn't just spent god knows how long out here with him.
Without looking back, I took off and flew to the cliff in a matter of seconds. Yep, seconds. Because i could fly in a straight line, unlike some.
Okay, so you're probably thinking I was going a little too hard on Dylan. True, it was his first attempt at flying and I suppose he did reasonably well, but, I don't know. Being around him made me kind of...uncomfortable, I guess. I didn't like the way he just agreed to whatever I said, without question. I mean, that's what i try to get my flock to do every freaking day, but Dylan wasn't part of the flock. Yeah, so he had wings and everything - it didn't make him one of us.
And if my Voice knew what was good for it, it wouldn't add one of its fortune cookie comments into my already screwed up head.
'Hey Max?' Dylan said from behind me, out of breath from the effort of flying. I turned to face him. 'Thanks. I mean it. I couldn't have done it without you' His voice gushed with sincerity.
'Uh-huh' I replied. Who said I wasn't good with words?
Dylan smiled at me, looking right into my eyes and I found myself returning the gesture before I realised what I was doing and scowled at him instead.
feeling more confused than ever, I turned away and pushed through the door of the house.

What did you think? Like, hate, other? Let me know :)
I'm not great at writing for Max so y'know....whatever.
anyway, my reasons....

I wouldn't enter on principle. I hate James Patterson for what he did, and I won't be succumbering (not a word but whatever) to his little competitions. And plus, I think Faith would kill me.

It seems to be an all-American exclusive, as usual. What's he got against us Britain's?

My 'entry' is over 4 times longer than the limit...oops :D

I wouldn't win anyway, duh

So why did I write this in the first place? Well, as soon as I heard about the competition, the scene formed in my head and wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it down. Because, yes, Max does live in my head, along with Fang and the others :D am I crazy? Yep. Do I care? Nope :)

But review!!! Or else I will never write any Maximum Ride FanFiction EVER again. (Not that I'm planning on anyway, but whatever...)

Oh and check out Faith's AWESOME FanFiction 'Maximum Ride: Angel's Experiment'. You'll love it, I promise ;)

Anyways, c'ya

Rose xx