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Chapter Two - Max
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New phrase.
Life sucks, high-school blows, and then you die.
Does that sound more accurate? I think it does. Although that might have a lot to do with the fact that I was currently trying to force down a slice of toast, whilst waiting for the torture to begin. The best part being? Ella was ill. Which meant that it would just (as far as I was aware) be Fang, his half-sister and I.
Which, in turn, spelt out just one thing as far as I was concerned: awkward.
"You nervous about school, sweetheart?" Val asked, running a hand through my hair, and quickly retracting it when I tensed and flinched a little despite myself. She mumbled a sorry, turning her head not quite fast enough to hide the hurt in her eyes. I frowned, dropping the half of my toast slice that I'd been unable to stomach onto the plate, before getting wise and slipping it to Total under the table. By the time that I heard the tell-tale signs of the front door opening and Val turned around, there was no trace of the toast left.
I grabbed my satchel, ready to leave by the time that Nick strode confidently into the room, swirling his keys around one of his fingers. He didn't show any emotion when he saw me, just nodded at the front door and offered Val a small half-smile. It was more than I'd expected. Sighing, I shouldered the bag and grabbed my jacket as I headed out - making to climb into the back of the car next to Nudge, but she shook her head and held up a sign saying, "I promised Ella." and nodded to the front seat.
Sighing, and shaking my head a little, I did as she said, climbing into the passenger seat; dumping my satchel on the floor as Fang climbed in.
I muttered a quick "Thanks for the lift." before turning back to the window, fully expecting Fang to either ignore me, or turn the radio up, in response.
Instead, his eyes smiled and he shrugged. "Annoy me too much and you walk the four miles to school."
Caught completely off guard, I blinked, and then blurted out; "You're talking to me?"
Part of me wondered whether Ella had told him why I'd come back, and what had been happening, but by the fact that his eyes kept flickering back to my bandaged wrists I guessed probably not. Or she hadn't told him all of it, at least, which was a welcome relief. My life story was something that I'd much prefer to keep to myself.
"Unless you don't want me to." Fang said, suddenly stiff; hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel.
"Of course I want you to," I groaned, banging the side of my head off the window and wishing that - for once - I'd just kept my mouth shut. "I just didn't think you'd want to after-"
"After you ditched me for all of your new friends in LA?" He shrugged, and I frowned a little. Honestly, it was only logical that he'd assumed that my new "friends" had forced the two of us apart over the three years since I'd left. Part of me wanted to tell him that it wasn't what had happened, but my self-preservation instinct was too strong, warning me that it was too early to reveal the truth to him. He was still angry, that much was clear, but I was a little relieved that he was trying to make an effort, at least.
Besides, he didn't give me a chance to reply before continuing with his unusually long spiel, "Wasn't it you who told me that all people deserve a second chance? Plus, since they've given your your old schedule, I'm pretty much stuck with you; might as well make the best of it."
I honestly didn't think it had been me that had said that everyone deserved a second chance, and even if it had been, I certainly didn't deserve one.
I'd long since run out of chances.
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"You look pale." Fang commented mildly as he killed the engine in the car park, glancing in the rear-view mirror and raising an eyebrow when he noted that Nudge was enthusiastically dancing to whatever was playing on her iPod. I shrugged a little, my eyes roaming over the school and taking in the sight of it before grabbing my jacket and pulling it on, making sure to tug it down to cover the bandages. Fang raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as he tapped Nudge's knee to drag her from her music-induced world, and the three of us piled out of the car.
People were staring, that was the first thing that I noticed. I guess that kind of made sense; these were the same people that had been around for my sudden dissapearance. One Friday I was there, the next Monday I was gone. No warning, not even for me.
"Chin up." Fang said quietly. "No one other than Lissa or Bridget would have the balls to say anything to you anyway."
I snickered a little at that. If either of them said anything, I was fairly sure that my new attitude would quickly put them in their places. Fang glanced at me out of the corner of his eye and allowed a small grin.
"You and Lissa are over then?" His voice had made it clear, but I figured that it was best to clarify before I (not so) accidently started something.
"Way over." Fang said, his face returning to its usual blank mask. I rolled my eyes, allowing a small half smile as Nudge bounced towards her friends with the usual enthusiasm. Apparently some things never change. Bracing myself, I nodded forwards to Fang and then led the way into the school. Somehow, Val had gotten my old schedule back to how it had been before - including homeroom - and I was sercretly a little relieved that she had. At least now I knew what to expect.
As I'd predicted; Lissa, Bridget, Sam, Aaron and Jacob were sat on the same cluster of tables as they had been last time. Iggy and Nudge were already occupying two of the seats to what had been our usual table. Ella had informed me that no-one had been allowed to take my seat from where I'd sat before - the one between Iggy and Fang - but I was still a little reluctant to sit in it.
Sitting there, some part of me reasoned, was like saying that nothing had changed. Like pretending that we were still the same five people, when we clearly weren't. Pretending that nothing had changed.
My mind was whirring, trying to think of a good reason not to sit there, but it was too late - Fang pressed his hand on my shoulder and steered my into me seat, pressing me carefully into it as if he could hear my very thoughts. Well, crap. Iggy glanced up at me as I sat down, and I instantly noted that his eyes weren't the same milky blue that they had been when I'd left. I really hoped that meant that the surgery had worked, and he was no longer classed as legally blind. We'd all been holding our breath and hoping that it had last time that I'd talked to him, but shortly after that contact between LA and Arizona had been cut off.
I'd almost assumed that since Fang had made an effort to accept me back, and he was definately the more stubborn of the two of them, Iggy would be in the same boat. Apparently, I'd been wrong. He turned to greet me with cold eyes, and didn't so much as acknowledge that I was there before turning back to Nudge and striking up a conversation. Nudge seemed torn, but eventually seemed to decide that - for the moment - it was easier just to pacify Iggy, so begrudgingly started up the Nudge Channel.
"Oh my god," I heard a familiar high-pitched voice drawl. "Look what the cat dragged in."
Mentally groaning, I turned my head to where Bridget and Lissa were now stood behind me, glowering at me. I rolled my eyes, offering them a grin.
"It tried to bring you two first, but couldn't support the weight of your inflated egos." I shrugged. "You win some, you lose some, I guess. Sorry."
"Haha," Bridget snapped. "I thought you'd skipped off the LA and ditched these losers?"
Nudge glowered at the two of them, but bit her tongue; Iggy was glaring at the two of them with hatred in his eyes, but, as I'd expected, Fang remained outwardly unfazed.
"I decided that I just couldn't go another day without giving you a verbal beat-down," I answered evenly, with another lazy grin. "Although now that I'm here, I'm thinking that perhaps a physical one would be more appropriate."
That threw them off a little. Before I'd left to LA I'd never really started fights... just finished them. Now, I figured that sometimes, starting a fight was the easiest thing to do. Besides, Lissa and Bridget were clearly unaware of the fact that I was bluffing majorly. I'd promised Dr M that I wouldn't get kicked out... at least not in the first week.
"Like you'd be able to even if you wanted to." Bridget snapped, her eyes narrowing as she fought to retain her cool and calm exterior. Not working.
"Try me." I answered with a raised eyebrow. There was a long silence as Bridget and Lissa started back at me, and the rest of our homeroom glanced between us, and then Miss Marple interrupted - skipping into the room with her usual enthusiasm. Groaning, if only for effect, I turned back to my table and shook my head as the terrible duo retreated to their table.
Lissa and Bridget: 0.
Max: 1.
Not too bad for the first day back.
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Have I mentioned before that I have an affinity for failing anything even vaguely maths related?
No? Well I do. And that list contains not only maths as a whole, but also Chemistry, Physics and Computing. Which is why it sucked that not only did I have maths before break, I then had Computing before lunch. Now that, my friends, is what I call an epic fail.
"You look happy." Fang muttered sarcastically from beside me, his eyes remaining focused on the computer screen.
"Yeah," I shot back. "I'm just thrilled to be sat here, glaring at the screen. Have I ever told you that I just love not knowing what the hell it is that I'm supposed to be doing?"
Fang snickered a little. "Its easy, you just have to run dreamweaver and start up an internet sight all about you."
I nodded a little, and Iggy obviously saw his chance to get a swipe in, keeping his eyes on the screen.
"Make sure that you add in that you spent three years in LA, completely ditching your friends. Actually, I'm sure that you could make an entire page for that fact - it'd let people have a glimpse of your personality that they might not expect. A+ material for sure."
I sighed, but didn't argue back; not because I didn't want to, but because I didn't have any choice. The only even slightly justifiable reason for what had happened was the truth, and I was under no illusions that if I spilt the truth everyone would treat me differently. No, thanks. It just meant that it was going to take a while to win some friends (coughIggycough) back. Fan-freaking-tastic. I sighed, opening a new dreamweaver webpage and typing "I suck." across the page.
"Happy now?" I muttered to Iggy, who glanced over for a long second.
"Better than I was before." He replied with a shrug, turning back to the screen.
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A/N; I promise that it'll get better soon!
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rachaelmaxwriting4jc, wanna-fly98, roylpain, OSCAR-THE-GROUCH17 and Bandgeekclarinet14 - Thank you guys, so much!
ISuckAtUsernames - Thanks, and Max will be made more smartassy as it goes on, have no fears :)
