Wow, thanks to everyone who reviewed and thought it was good! You're awesome!

Oh yeah, I don't own Maximum Ride, or any of the characters from Maximum Ride, but I'm going to talk to James P. about Fang...

Chapter 2

FangPOV (AN: sorry, but if you haven't figured out that Nick is Fang yet, you shouldn't be reading this...)

Wow. I'd never seen anyone like Maximum Ride. I mean, sure she was hot, but I was from San Diego, and there were lots of hot girls there. But Maximum… she was beautiful. I sat in the cafeteria waiting for her to walk in. I'd heard about her from the group of idiots I was sitting with; that she was hot, that she was strong, that she was stubborn, and that she was ugly and fat. Of course, that last comment came from Lissa, who just wouldn't get off my lap. Slut, I thought, then felt bad. I mean, I don't really know Lissa. The fact that she was sitting on me and seemed to expect me to look down her shirt, it could just be… no, she was a slut.

Then Maximum walked through the door. She wasn't hot. I mean, yeah she was, but to say that she was hot was not a compliment to her. She was so much more.

Lissa saw me looking at her and narrowed her eyes. I immediately looked away. Maximum looked over then, saw Lissa sitting on me, and… well, I didn't get to see what she did next.

Lissa chose that moment to kiss me. Great. Now Maximum probably thought I was a player or something. I wasn't. I never invaded a girl's personal area unless I accidentally walked into them. Yeah, it's happened.

I pushed Lissa away immediately, just in time to see Maximum roll her eyes and slide into her seat at the next table, with her back to me. I didn't want Lissa on me anymore. So I pushed her off. She glared at me and went over to Sam and sat on his lap, and started making out. Was this really the first group of people that wanted to hang out with me? A bunch of perverts and a slut. Great, this says amazing things about my personality. Whoop-de-flipping-do.

I turned my attention back to Maximum. Even her back was beautiful. Her black shirt was stretched tightly over her back as she ate. Brown, shinny hair in a low ponytail fell to between her shoulder blades.

She was sitting alone. I wondered why she was, and then my question was answered almost immediately. A girl in Gazzy's grade with caramel colored skin walked over from talking to someone at Gazzy's table. He looked kind of like Max.

Calling her Maximum was annoying. She was more of a Max. Just my opinion.

And another girl walked in, in deep conversation with a teacher. The two girls met up and walked over to Max's table. They immediately started talking to her in very "hush-hush" tones.

Did I just say that? Or think that, rather? Hush-hush tones? Wow, I'm losing it. Then Max turned around. She looked at me for a moment, then her eyelids dropped halfway, and she looked like she was lost in thought.

Hmmm, I thought I was the only one whose eyes almost closed when they were thinking. Most people's eyes got bigger, or so I thought. Maybe that's just San Diego. I don't know.

"Yo, Max," said the caramel colored girl. I thought her name was Monique, and the other girl was Angel.

My eyes found the necklace strung around Max's neck. A silver chain with two silver wings connected to a silver heart. Just like mine. Yeah, I know. A boy with a girly necklace. It wasn't really mine. My mom had died two years ago in a car crash, get this, on my birthday. It was hers. I didn't want my dad to get it, so I took it. He never noticed it was gone.

The night before, my mother and father had had a huge fight. It started out as yelling. Then he slapped her. Hard. She spit blood out of her mouth as Jeb—I never called him Dad—walked out of the house. All of this in front of Gazzy and me. I was 14, Gazzy was only 13. No 13 year old should have to see that.

So when she got into the accident, I knew I didn't want the man that had slapped her to get her necklace. So it came into my possession.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, he became depressed, got drunk, and beat me almost every night. Yeah, how does a big, strong boy like me get beaten up? Well, you see, if I fight back, he goes for Gazzy, and I also get my strength from him.

Then, of course, just my luck, Max snapped out of her thoughts, and saw where I was looking. And flipped me off. Well, crap.

Then the real fun began. "Maximum Ride! Did you just give Nick the finger?"

"Yeah," she replied simply.

"Why?" the teacher, I think his name was Mr. Allin, yelled back. At my old school, the cafeteria would be silent. I'm starting to understand that not much here is like my old school.

"Because he violated my personal space," she said more quietly, as some of the conversations had ceased.

"He was nowhere near you!" Allin yelled. Why he yelled, I have no idea. Only a few people still talked.

"He checked me out!" Max yelled back. Well, crap. The cafeteria was silent. Everyone could hear. Talk about embarrassing.

Allin seemed to deliberate. Hmmm, must be one of those "sexual harassment" rules. Why do they even have them in high school? I thought. It was true, Sam and Lissa were making out the whole time, and Allin did nothing about it. But the finger, oh man, you were dead. Crazy high school teachers. I was blushing like crazy. Me! Blushing!

"Oh man, not good. She's gonna break every bone in your body," said Dylan, just a little too loudly. She twisted around, looked him in the eyes, and said,

"Oh, isn't that a little harsh? I only broke your nose and Sam's." She was the picture of an insulted beauty queen. It was hard to look at her, even if it was only a charade. I wanted to hurt Dylan for even making her act like this. "The rest of you just got black eyes," she finished sweetly.

"Maximum!" yelled Allin, breaking up our little conversation that everyone was listening in on. Have you ever heard that it's rude to eavesdrop? Jeez.

"Yeah?" Max asked. "Do you want something?"

Allin yelled back, "Your cheek is inexcusable!"

"So?" she asked, "Do I have detention or something?"

"No. You wouldn't come anyway. Why I even bother yelling at you is beyond me," he replied, a tiredness coloring his voice.

"Your right, I wouldn't and I'm not going to miss the first soccer game of the season for detention either," she said. So she was an athlete. I thought so. Maybe even captain.

He sighed, and said, "Carry on."

That's when the boy Monique had been talking to earlier walked over and said something. She replied, and then yelled, "Well, what are you waiting for? Your foods getting cold!" Almost everyone went back to eating. I only say almost because I continued to watch them and Sam and Lissa went back to… yeah.

Then the boy walked over. "Hey, can I talk to you?" he asked. I just nodded and followed him over to an empty table. "I'm Iggy, Max's twin." He held out his hand.

I shook it and said, "Nick."

"So, did you check her out? You seemed okay to me…. I could be wrong though," he said.

I sighed. "No. Her necklace. I have the same one. I was looking at it."

"You have the same necklace?" he asked in amazement.

"It was my mother's before…" I trailed off.

"Oh, sorry man. I'll tell her that you didn't. She might not believe me though," he smiled, patted my shoulder.

"It's okay," I said. I was about to stand, when, boom! Already Gazzy? Oh, I'm going to kill you. But I laughed anyway. "Gazzy's kind of a pyro," I explained. A smile split across his face.

"So am I," Iggy said back.

"Iggy!" yelled Allin.

"I swear it wasn't me! And I'm not going to detention today; I don't care what you say! I have a game today also!" he yelled back. So he was also a star athlete. He looked it.

He ran over, gave Gazzy a high five as he walked out, and sat down with James, the boy who was now holding an exploding soda bottle.

I didn't look like an athlete, but I was pretty good. My black hair was emo-style, if that makes sense, and I wore baggy black shirts and dark-washed jeans. They completely covered my athletic build. The only part of my body that you could see besides my face and neck were my arms, and they were pretty strong, if I do say so myself. Okay, that was egotistical. But it was true.

Max's arms and calves were strong also. You could clearly see that because she was wearing blue and green Bermuda shorts. She looked every inch the athlete that no one was good enough for, which she was. Too good for me.

Wait! Why did I think that? I didn't like her! There was a difference between thinking someone was beautiful and liking someone. Wasn't there?

Then a thought that was very unwelcome, but also seemed to fit wormed its way into my brain through a miniscule hole in my mental walls. When my mom died, I'd learned that it was easier to not care about anyone. To never be hurt. Never let anyone in. So I cared about Gazzy. That was it.

But, what if I did like Max? It still leads to the same conclusion, heartbreak. I couldn't like her.

But I think I do…


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So, what do you think? Sorry if this is horrible, I think it is… my friends say I'm self-abusive… So, tell me what you think!

I'm sorry if I don't update for a while... I HATE school! Please raise you hand if you agree... now your family is probobly wondering what your doing, I know mine is...

Thank you always,

Me