The Other Side of Reality

2

Last Chapter…

"It's dark. Let's all sleep, okay?" She looked at me to seek my approval. I nodded. Then, we all settled down for the night. The great return journey was waiting for me, but I had a feeling that I was going to see something simply amazing, and be carried by Selina… hmmm… what… the… fuck…

"Wakey wakey Maxy!" I heard a voice call me. I sat up, and gave Selina a playful glare. She laughed as she faked cowering in fear. She ended up running into a tree and falling flat on her back after she whirled around and tripped on a root. We were all in hysterics as we ate breakfast, prepared by Selina who used her powers to cook up a nice Sunday morning breakfast.

"So, do you call yourselves something? Like, I have my…"

"…flock. Yea, we're the Flamers." Selina finished my sentence, having read my mind. She stood up and wiped her hands on her skinny jeans. Oh, and by the way, they all look different from their pictures. Here's a quick run-down of what they look like. Selina, as I said. Verrry pretttty! Hahaha, she has black skinny jeans, some kick-ass converse that are layered, sorta. And then she has a black cami over a cami with a rose pattern on it. Then she has some black earrings with a single orange earring in her second hole on her left ear. Her hair has some side bangs, and bright red tips. Just like Nix's hair which is cut in another one of those emo styles, (they are all the same to me) and red tips like Selina.

He has a dark green American Eagle t-shirt on and some ripped baggy jeans. He's got some Awesome DC's on his feet and seems to smile whenever he sees Selina. (Coinkiedink? I think NOT!) Then the brothers. Sean and Joey. They match in what they wear. White shirt, dark brown khaki sorta shorts, DC shoes, and a shark tooth necklace on Sean. Black shirt, light brown khaki sorta shorts, DC shoes, and a shark tooth necklace on Joey.

Then there's Drake, much like Fang just a little bit different in his dress. He has a dark grey ambercrombie t-shirt on and some black jeans with some black converse. Then, one earring in his left ear. So, he's straight. Haha… aren't I well-advised in fashion?

"Yes you are max. BRAVO!" Selina replied to my question which I sarcastically asked in my mind. She began a slow clap and soon all the guys joined in and we were all on the floor laughing again. "Okay, let's make like a hippie and blow this joint guys!" Joey used his water powers to put out the fire, Sean used his earth powers to clear the ground of evidence of our little camp, and Drake just was off to the side watching everything as Nix was talking to Selina about how they were getting back to New York. Soon, Joey and Sean were done with fixing up the place and Selina came up to me.

"Okay, so I'm gonna carry you as we fly back to your house. Okay?" she then gave me a toothy smile, showing that she had actual fangs.

"Holy shiiiit. That is coooool!" I replied. I knew that Selina could have already killed me, easy. So, I trusted her. It's some really freaky weird sorta trusting thing, you wouldn't get it. "And I'm cool with you carrying me. But are you sure I can't keep up?" She smiled.

"You'll see." Then, she grabbed me, bridal style (weeeeeird. O_o) and then jumped into the air, whipped out her wings and hovered waiting for the other Flamers. I looked at her wings…

"What are you exactly?" I asked her.

"Half Dragon. The scientists at Ice couldn't even figure out what we were. It's sorta funny, really. I can phase into a dragon, or just half way between the two. I hate anime though…" She scrunched up her face. "Eeew."

I laughed. "Yea, no offense to the anime peoples but it's not my thing. Cool though, 'bout what you are. Yet, it still freaks me out." I could feel my old Max coming out. I missed my old self honestly. Ever since we brought Itex down, I've become lazy. Haven't flown for a while except yesterday. And I've been way too submissive. Like with the Flamers.

"I'm glad the old Max is finally back." Selina sighed. "It was sorta scary how you just accepted us. I was like… shouldn't she be getting out of here, running, fighting or something? But then, you snapped out of it. Welcome back Maximum Ride." She grinned at me as I smirked right back, getting back into the beat of adventure.

"Can I try to keep up with you guys?" We were still hovering for some reason.

"Sure." And with that, she just dropped me. Luckily, I'm prepared for everything again and I just flapped on back up instantly.

"5" Sean yelled.

"4" Nix.

"3"Joey. Selina and I got prepared to start racing.

"2" Selina.

"1" Me.

"GO!" yelled the guys. And off we went. I went straight into warp like Selina. Then, I saw her smirk at me, challenging me as she went even faster. Then, she was gone. All that was left was a trail of blue fire, coming from Selina or something. Way too complex for my bird brain. I stopped flying and just hovered as the guys joined me.

"Creamed." Nix said, as he started to burst out in laughter. We were all doubled over laughing, Drake just chuckling like Fang, when Selina came back.

"Come on you guys, we haven't got that long." She said as she grabbed me once again and the group all warped towards New York. It was WAY faster than my super speed, and we were in front of our mansion in 45 minutes.

"Jeepers creepers. That was sooo fast…" I said, almost tipping over when Selina set me down.

"You look drunk," Joey said. "Like a…"

"Llama." Selina said.

"No, deer!" Sean shot back.

"Moose." Nix butted in. Pretending to inspect his nails. I snorted. They were such goofs!

"Munk." Drake said. We all whipped our heads around to look at him. Then, we were all slapping him high-fives for the perfect word. I shook my head. I could chill with these guys forever.

"How could you 'chill' with the Flamers?" Joey said. Then he gave me a look, "and 'chilling' with people is such a gangster term Max. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MAX I USED TO KNOW?!?" He dramatically fell to his knees in front of me, using his power to make fake tears flow down his face. "Whyyyy?"

Well, you can guess what happened next. Yes, we were laughing our faces off.

"Ahh, my face hurts." Nix said, mushing his face around to get the stiff muscles to stop smiling. That just had us laughing even harder.

"Okay, let's go inside you guys." I said when we stopped laughing. I walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell, my new friends right on my tail feathers. Haha, feathers. You know? Cuz I'm a… *insert clearing of throat here* I mean… nevermind. Hehe…

"MAAAAAX!" Angel opened the door and jumped into my arms. I hugged her, she was crying. I pulled away to look at her and wiped away her tears.

"Why are you crying baby?" I asked her.

"We thought that… that… you…. y-y-you… left." She whispered the last word.

"Noooo, I'll always come back. Don't you ever forget that!" I set her down as Gazzy came running and he wrapped his little arms tightly around my waist.

"Don't you ever ever EVER leave EVER again!" he was crying too.

Wow, after one day… they really missed you! I heard Selina's voice say in my head.

I turned my head and let her see the surprise on my face. She laughed quietly.

"MAX! MAX! FANG WAS ABOUT TO CALL 911 OR SOMETHING! AND EVERYONE WAS CRYING! IGGY COULDN'T COOK! WE HAD TO ORDER! IT WAS GROSS! I MISSED YOU! Isn't take out food supposed to be yummy? Well, I hated it! AND DON'T LEAVE AGAIN EVER!"

Nudge.

I was attacked by Nudge and right after Iggy came tearing down the stairs and I toppled over with the weight of all four bird kids on me. All of these "I MISSED YOU!"'s and "DON'T EVER LEAVE!"'s and "WE LOVE YOU!"'s were coming at me with supersonic speeds. I hugged them all to me and soon we were all smiling in delight. Then, they noticed the Flamers.

"We sound evil Max." Selina smirked.

"Who are they Max?" Angel asked. Then, she recognized Selina. "OH! She's that really pretty leader of the Flamers!"

"Not really pretty." Selina muttered. Then, Angel went up to her and said, "That's because he's just stupid and shy. But he seems cool!" Selina looked surprised. But then, understanding shone in her eyes. "I don't know." She muttered, and looked at the floor. Angel gave her a big hug and Selina smiled at her. Then she looked up and her eyes narrowed. I saw her eyes change too, like a cat's eyes, but the opposite effect. Her Iris turned light blue and what would be the whites of her eyes seemed to be dark blue flames. I whipped my head around to see who/what she was glaring at, and glared myself. I heard a growl come from the guys, and Nix even snarled a little.

"Cool," Iggy breathed, looking at the guys. But we were to busy glaring at Fang.

And Lissa.

On the couch.

Snuggling.

Watching…

Selina snorted. "Alvin and the Chipmunks. They're watching Alvin and the Chipmunks."

The flock, minus Fang, and the flamers all exchanged a look and then burst out laughing. Tears were streaming down my face and I had a hand on Sean to keep myself up. He had a hand on Joey, who had a hand on Nix, who had a hand on Selina, who collapsed in laughter causing a domino effect which silenced us all. But then we all started laughing again. We all took deep breathes and finally stopped laughing and resorted to smiling like a bunch of goons. I did the introductions for my flock and we walked inside.

Selina shushed everyone, then the Flamers all turned invisible. We all turned to look at Fang and Lissa, still somehow oblivious though they were facing us. Intense movie. I held in a giggle (yes, giggle), and watched in anticipation for what they were going to do, the Flamers I mean. Suddenly, they all appeared again. Selina, Nix, and Drake were camping out on the floor eating popcorn, laughing randomly, and making comments as Sean and Joey were sitting next to Fang and Lissa mock crying and wiping away tears. The rest of the flock burst out laughing as Fang freaked and fell off the back of the couch. Lissa was screaming and then Selina and Nix turned around and said to her, "God, it's not that scary. It's a CHIPMUNK honey!" Then Selina dramatically grabbed her hands and said "Get yourself TOGETHER girl!" We were then all in hysterics as Selina and her band of loonies bowed to us and we clapped loudly. Fang got back up and looked at me with shock.

"Max! You're back!" I looked at myself, twisting around and looking at my feet, then turned back to him.

"Seems like it." This caused a couple of giggles from the younger flock members. I smirked. I focused my eyes on Joey. "I want to race YOU. Are you ready?" He faked a gulp and walked outside, the rest of us following minus Fang and Lissa. Fang, because he was trying to get Lissa out of the house.

"Okay, straight all the way to me and back. Okay? First one back wins." She smirked and suddenly she was gone, a ball of blue fire left in her place. Joey spit on it and it extinguished. Then he did a cool pose and said, in a heavy cowboy drawl said, "Git'er done!" We all had a good laugh and then Joey and I got into those racing positions as the countdown started.

"GO!"

We were gone. I kept steady with Joey, and then I poured on more speed. I passed him, and searched for Selina. There. I slowed a little as I prepared to turn around, but then I saw Joey. He swung his feet in front of him and twisted in the air so he was facing the opposite way, then pulled his wings in, he kept going backwards and when he reached Selina, he pulled out his wings and then started shooting back, just as I was half-way through my turn. I gritted my teeth and poured on all my speed, slowly passing him and barely winning the race.

"How did you DO that?" I asked when we had landed and now we all sat in a circle. He smirked.

"Practice, practice, practice." I growled at him as the rest all laughed at me. Then, Fang came outside. Sean began to make siren sounds, incredibly like the actual thing, as he got closer the sounds got more frantic until Selina smacked him upside the head. Not a split-second later, the sounds continued, getting faster and faster. Selina looked at Sean, but he merely shrugged. Gazzy. I raised my eyebrows at Nudge who smiled and thwacked Gazzy on the back of the head.

"Revenge for shutting me up all the time. Ah, revenge is so tasteful." Nudge said. We all chuckled. Fang looked slightly hurt but nonetheless, looked at me.

"Max, can I talk to you alone?" he said.

I looked to Selina, who discreetly smirked but had a light in her eyes.

I'll follow you and tell you what he's thinking. Saves Angel from the job. Angel smiled thankfully at Selina, since she had been reading my mind. I nodded to Selina as I got up and followed Fang as he took of into the sky. We flew next to each other, and out of the corner of my eye I could see Selina, but she was running on the ground at an incredible speed. Ah, woe is me. I chuckled at my own little joke as Fang raised an eyebrow at me. I shot him a glare.

"Where are we headed massster?" I asked him.

Hey! I'm supposed to be the hissing one! Selina voiced in my head. I'm the one that's part dragon. Rarr.

"We're going to the lake." Fang replied.

He thinks that you look beautiful when you fly. Selina told me. I could almost see her frowning. Fang was making no sense at all. He goes off with Lissa, and now he thinks I look beautiful? I guess that there is more to this than I assumed…

"Cool." I said, just as we flew over the lake. We landed near the edge and sat down in the sand. Both of us were quiet for a while until he spoke up.

"She lied, you know."

"What?"

"Lissa, I didn't call her." He was looking at his shoes as he said this. "And she made me sit with her on the couch. She wouldn't shut up or leave otherwise." He chuckled at the last part.

"Oh." I said, and looked at my own feet. I felt sorta… queasy at the moment. Probably because there's a dead fish in front of me. I glanced to my left as I saw Selina lean against a tree.

He's thinking about how he had to yell at Lissa to get her to finally leave. And about how much he wants to be with you. I saw her look to the sky, sad. Then back to me. She mouthed, "See you at the mansion." And then she was gone, leaving a little crater in the sand. I looked at Fang to find him absent-mindedly drawing in the sand. He wrote "Fang" and then "Max". He then wrote "Fax" and "Mang" underneath, only to wipe away "Mang" and draw a heart around "Fax". He seemed to have a freak moment though where he wiped it all away frantically. I pretended to be looking elsewhere when he checked if I'd seen. I had the sudden urge to hug the daylights out of (haha) and so I leaned over and hugged him as hard as I could. I breathed in his scent to find that he smelled like… cherries. Wow. I leaned away to look at him. He seemed shell-shocked. I smirked.

"I think we oughtta get back. I have no clue what Joey and Sean can accomplish in ten minutes." He smiled back at me.

All sortsa crap. Haha! You'll seeeeee… Uh oh.