Hi, people. I decided to rewrite an old MR fanfiction that I'd once posted but then decided to take down. It's AU, kinda OOC, and only has Max & Fang in it so far. I might add the others; we'll see. Hope you like it. R&R if you want.

MAX

I hate school for every reason that could possibly exist—I hate the rabid teenagers, the demonic teachers, the boring lectures, and the brutal homework assignments. Most of all, though, I hate the implications that school held. I had been raised in a place nicknamed "the School". It was full of crazy, blood-thirsty scientists who ran cruel, painful experiments. After escaping four years ago, every normal school that I went to wound up having a teacher that was after me for the School. To say the least, it wasn't fun.

Given that information, it's easy to imagine that I wasn't exactly thrilled to go to Matterson High School, Montcalm, Michigan. My mom was driving me despite the fact that I was licensed to drive myself. My stomach felt like it was about to heave the contents of my nearly nonexistent breakfast.

"Max, you'll do fine! Believe me, Sweetie. I researched this high school thoroughly and came up with nothing that would provide suspicion. I'm sure that everything will be okay," Mom said cheerfully. As much as I loved her, my mother was sometimes too optimistic. I looked out the window and remained silent. The thought of being trapped inside for seven hours five days a week was not appealing—hiding my wings was more than a bit uncomfortable. Oh, surprised? Yeah, I have wings. Just another wonderful thing that the School did for me.

We pulled up to a visitor parking space and got out. I stared in awe at the building; it was more than a little impressive. The structure was mainly glass and steel, had five stories, and was bigger than any school I'd ever seen. I looked around the ground floor, memorizing all of the possible exit routes in case the worst should happen. (That's paranoia for you.) As we walked in through the main entrance and into what I assumed was the secretary's office, a shrill bell rang. Students began flowing into the hall, gawking at me as they passed by as if I was a freak. If only they knew...

"Welcome to Matterson High," the secretary gushed. She was a blonde woman full of Botox. Her sickly sweet smile was so fake that even a two-year-old would be able to tell.

"Thank you. I'd like to get a schedule for my daughter and confirm her registration. The name is Maximum Ride." With a hint of skepticism that was all too common, the secretary shuffled through some papers. While she was taking her time doing so, I looked around the room. Art projects were tacked to all of the walls of the room. Most of them were good—really good. There were charcoal sketches, oil paintings, black-and-white photographs, and digital art.

The secretary finally picked a paper out of a filing cabinet and handed it to me. "Here you are, Ms. Ride. Enjoy your year!" I noticed that her eyes were a dull blue, as if they had once been bright and beautiful, but years of monotonous work had washed out their color. My mother patted my shoulder as we left the office and handed me a map of the school.

"Good luck, Max." With that, she was gone. Now I was left alone in a virtual Hell with nothing but a schedule and a map to survive with. Give me the School's bloodthirsty creations any day and I would take them down like nobody's business. Give me high school? I was as helpless as one of the three blind mice.

I walked through the halls, giving those who dared to look at me a killing glare. The last thing that I needed was people talking to me. If I stayed alone and disconnected, it was more likely that I wouldn't be found.

"Get away from me, you bastard!" My head snapped around as I heard swearing and punching. A throng of students surrounded the fight—some were trying to break it up, some were cheering the fighters on. I stopped walking and joined the rapidly growing groups of onlookers. I stood on my tiptoes and saw the two boys who were fighting. One was tan and built with blonde hair. The other had deathly pale skin and shaggy black hair. The boys were cursing at each other like drunken sailors and throwing punches right and left. The tan boy seemed to know his stuff, but it became apparent that he was no match for the pale boy. He ducked at the tan boy's next swipe and did what looked like a backbend. He then snapped his legs up and kicked the other boy in the face. Hard.

I chuckled at the perpetual ass-kicking and the bloody nose that the tan boy had earned. A teacher hurried from around the corner and started yelling for people to go to class. No one listened. Once he had pushed his way through the crowd to the center he started screeching at the pale boy and told him none too politely to go to the principal's office. Then he escorted the tan boy down the hall, probably to the nurse's office. I thought back to the pale boy's amazing stunt and mused at how he had done something like that. It was nothing compared to what I could do, but for a normal human it showed phenomenal strength.

Realizing that the late bell had already rung, I dashed to class; on my way I took two wrong turns and nearly ran into a wall. There's a display of just how graceful I am. I couldn't be more of a klutz. As soon as I ran into my biology class I knew I was in for it. The teacher was a short, fat man with squinty eyes and a mean face. I gulped and sidled to the back of the room, taking a seat in the back row.

"And what, may I ask, do you think you're doing?" He asked with repressed fury. I looked at him steadily, attempting to keep my face blank. I was the new girl—I needed to be earn a reputation of being tough.

"I got lost," I replied in a monotone. That was, more or less, the truth.

"Lost?"

"Yeah, lost."

"That's nonsense. It's the middle of the school year! It's impossible to get lost," the pudgy man said indignantly. I sighed in exasperation.

"I'm new here, sir. I came today." The teacher seemed to either not believe me or not care.

"Get out of my room. Go to the office." Well, so much for being a good student. On the other hand, the teacher was a complete imbecile. I sighed again, picked up my books, and walked out of the room. I could feel the eyes of twenty students follow me. Where would I go now? I could be a good girl and go down to the office or I could ditch school for the rest of the day. I would've chosen the latter had it not been for Dr. Valencia Martinez—my mom. I didn't want to let her down and face her disappointment. I couldn't let all of her hard work go to waste.

I trudged miserably to the principal's office and opened the door. And almost had a heart attack. The boy from the fight was sitting in a chair, calmly waiting, looking at the white wall opposite him. I took a deep breath to settle myself and walked through the door. The boy looked up and gave a dry smile. He sported a black eye and a bruised face. I sighed internally; why was it that boys always managed to get into fights? I sat down next to him and said something to break the awkward tension that loomed in the room.

"Hey. I'm Max."

FANG

"Hey. I'm Max," the new girl said. The first thing that I noticed was that she was astonishingly pretty. Her eyes were a deep brown and had a reddish glint to them. Her hair was curly, long, brown, and had sun streaks in it.

"Hi. I'm Fang," I replied quietly. I must have looked absolutely hideous after the fight. Matt was an asshole, though; he had it coming. In any case, he had been the one to start the fight. Unfortunately, he knew exactly how to provoke me. He should've known from our past fights that he didn't stand a chance—I could beat anyone in hand-to-hand combat, whether it was a high school footballer, karate black belt, or army-trained assassin. After all, I did have wings and super-human strength.

I had come to Michigan after escaping the School four years ago. The scientists, who I called White Coats, had caged me up and performed painful experiments on me for as long as I could remember. I had busted out of the place with hundreds of other tests subjects, though, and had evaded capture until now. After months, I had tracked down my real parents and (after explaining everything to them) started living a normal life. Or at least as normal a life as I could live with wings.

I looked back at Max and something clicked in my head. Had I met her before? She looked strangely familiar.

"Fang, huh?" She asked me with a skeptical smile. "That's an interesting name. What's your real name?" I unintentionally tensed at the question. I honestly didn't have a real name. I was called Subject 667 at the School, whatever that was supposed to mean. I chose my name because I liked it. When I had started living with my parents, I'd had to go by the name that they'd given me at birth.

"Oh. I always go by Fang, but my actually name is Cameron." Max raised her eyebrows at my obvious discomfort but said nothing. Man, I was completely losing my cool around this girl. Why? I was usually completely at ease around everyone, no matter what they said or did. Now, I just couldn't keep it together.

A moment later, the principal walked in. She was the opposite of most teachers here—she was nice, understanding, and had a great sense of humor. She wouldn't be happy with me, no doubt, since my visits to her office were practically weekly, but I wondered how she would react to Max.

"Hello, Fang," she said with a sigh of patient aggravation. "Looks like you got into a bit of trouble—again." She then turned to Max, frowning slightly. "I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with you—" a look of realization dawned on her face—"Wait, you must be Maximum Ride, the new student." Max nodded and explained what had happened with her biology teacher. I couldn't help but laugh as she recounted what Mr. Evans had said. He really was a whack job.

The principal, equally amused, sent Max back to her class with a not to Mr. Stupid and turned to face me. "Fang...you know how much you get in trouble, and I know that no matter what I say you won't change a bit."

"Yeah, that's true. But hey, I didn't start the fight this time. Matt was angry at me for God knows what and started laying into me so I fought back, kicked his sorry ass, and got blamed for everything. It's what everyone here does." I'm sure that I came across as pissed, but that's how I felt. I could and would get him back later. For now, though, I wanted to get to class. Not that I liked it or anything of the sort, but the new girl was there.