Chapter 1 - Introducing Maximum

MaxPOV

"Nudgggggggggge" I whined "do I have to?"

"Yes, Max" my best friend, Nudge, replied defiantly. She was holding my arm in her surprisingly strong grip and dragging me down the school hallway.

We stepped outside and I managed to dig my heels in to the soft dirt bringing us to an abrupt halt.

"No," I said. By my tone of voice, most people would have given up and left it at that, but not Nudge. Some people would say that she did not know when to stop.

"Max, this has gone on long enough. It is time that you met the rest of my friends! They really want to meet you." She stared at me with big chocolate brown puppy-dog eyes that she knew I could not resist from.

"Fine," I grumbled, letting myself be towed off towards the secluded tree area at the back of the school.

FangPOV

The sound of Nudge's voice interrupted my train of thought. "Hey guys! I'm so sorry I'm late but Max and I needed to have a little bit of a talk." I looked up to see a slight girl standing next to and a bit behind Nudge, scuffing her shoe against the ground. Max, who I had originally thought was a boy, looked up and caught my eye. She looked slightly nervous, her dark brown eyes were slightly wide and they kept flicking nervously around the faces of the group. Her light brown hair was streaked with gold from over exposer to the sun and was tied up into a messy pony tail.

While I was taking her in I heard Max mutter "you could call it that" under her breath, she continued to grumble about Nudge's and her 'little talk'

"Max, this is everyone. Everyone, this in Max," Nudge introduced as she sat down in-between Angel and Sophie, grinning. Max continued to stand awkwardly until Sophie grabbed her arm and yanked her down on the bench as well. Max was now wedged in-between Sophie and Nudge and she looked terrified as if she was going to bolt at any moment.

"I'm Fang." I don't know why I spoke first but I felt compelled to. Everyone went quiet and stared at me in amazement.

"What?" I asked feeling self conscious and wishing I had let someone introduce themselves first.

"Fang, you just spoke" Iggy said next to me.

"Well, Iggy," I stated sarcastically, "human beings genrally do that. It is this funny thing called talking."

They all shook their heads and started to introduce themselves but I could not help but notice Max was smiling.

"I'm Iggy."

"Gazzy."

"Angel."

"Sophie."

You could see the determination on Max's face as she tried to remember all of their names.

"Anyway, guys," came Nudge's fast voice. "One of the reasons that I introduced Max to our group is because the holidays are coming up next week and I was wondering if you guys would like to come up to my farm for a week. My parents won't be there so we'll have the farm all to ourselves. So we can, like ,stay up late and talk and eat as much lollies and chocolate as we want! I did have to promise that we would be sensible, though ,so you have to be good otherwise I will get into trouble..."

Everyone choroused their agreement saying that they would have to ask their parents but they were sure it was ok. I did not say anything, I was too busy watching Max's reaction to all of this.

Max had said nothing and I could tell she was trying to think up a good excuse for not being able to go.

"Max, can you go?" Angel asked.

Max started to reply but Nudge interrupted her "yes, Max can go. I talked to her mum yesterday night and she agreed to the trip."

Max looked absolutely shocked. Her mouth was hanging open slightly and you could tell she had not heard about Nudge and her mum's conversation before now. She recovered enough to glared at Nudge, who smiled sweetly in return.

I hid a smirk, I had made up my mind. I was definatly going to the farm.