Hey guys! Thanks to all those who reviewed, hope you like this chapter. Max doesn't talk much and you won't see much of Fang…..yet. Don't worry Fax with come soon. =) As will music and other characters- try and guess who.

Chapter two

Max Pov

"Max, why didn't you save me…..you could have jumped in front of me and I wouldn't have died.'

"I would have lived."

"It's all your fault Max."

"You could have saved me."

I woke up in a cold sweat, the face of my brother still swimming before my eyes. I looked over to the digital clock, my bleary vision taking in the numbers of two am.

I've been having this dream since he died; I was ten at the time, and my little brother Ari was not yet six. Jeb, my good for nothing father thought it would be fun to wake us both up for a midnight beating. He was furious when I began to fight back and took great pleasure in fabricating a story that Ari had died in a car accident.

But I knew different.

Jeb killed Ari, he killed his own son. He killed the only thing that gave my life meaning.

I guess you could say that was when lost all trust in adults; when I realised that if I wanted something I had to go and get it, not wait for someone else to do it for me.

I knew what would happen here. The same thing that happened at nearly every other foster home I have been to. They would all be nice for a while, then suddenly something would break inside them and the abuse would start. But it didn't matter; by that time I would be long gone.

The only reason I'm not leaving now is because somewhere deep, deep inside me, I hold only the hope that this time it would be different.

I know its hours later; but eventually I fall into a fitful sleep filled with memories and nightmares.

Actually I don't know if there's a difference between the two anymore.

By morning I felt better, my nightmare having finally passed and I actually was able to sleep for a few hours.

Knock. Knock.

"Max," a tentative voice came through the door, "breakfast is ready, and it will be just the four of us okay?"

I only grunted in reply.

I got up and changed from one pair of tatty jeans and t-shirt to another one, pulled my hair into a messy pony tail and walked towards the kitchen.

As I was walking I mapped out the house, all the escape routes and possible hiding places. I learnt to do this at a young age; it helped in most situations to know the layout of the place you are. Escaping was much easier this way.

"You can sit here Max," Nudge spoke quietly, in a strained voice as she pointed me to a seat, the table was built for eight but as there were only four of us we sat at the end near the door. The seat Nudge had pointed me too was the one next to the wall, the way the table was placed meant no one would be able to walk behind me and I would be able to see the kitchen and living room with ease.

I sat down as the food was placed on the table, bacon and eggs, with hash-browns, tomatoes and mushrooms. Iggy was on my right, Nudge on my left and Val straight across from me. I ate slowly as did everyone else, no one spoke and it quickly became awkward.

As soon as everyone had finished I got up, put my plate on the bench and tried to race to my room.

"Wait Max," Val spoke as I reached the kitchen door," how about we go shopping for your room today, and maybe get you some new clothes as well?"

I nodded in reply and everyone ran to get ready meeting with me at the door around ten minutes later.

The shopping for my room was done quickly; we had left around nine for the shops and had finished by twelve. My room was going to be on the second storey, the back room with the balcony overlooking the forest behind the house. The room was going to look awesome, with base colours of black and white and blue, red and purple decorating everything. I now had a double bed, a desk, book shelve and dressing table. People were putting it all in the room right now, they were setting it up and painting; the room would be finished my tomorrow.

Right now we were shopping for everything else; clothes, shoes, electronics, school stuff for the school I would be going to in two weeks and a whole heap of stuff that I have never had before.

Val must get heaps of money from her Vet Surgery because she just kept buying me stuff. When I asked why she simply said to make up for the all the Christmases and birthdays I most likely missed. Iggy leaned over and whispered that she did it for both Nudge and him; it was like her way of saying sorry for what had happened.

So far Val had brought me the new I-phone, I-pod and laptop (why I needed all three was beyond me), a television with an inbuilt DVD player and USB port, all different nick-knacks for my room, heaps of books both for school and leisure and hundreds of CD's. The CD's because I stood looking at them for a while and Val seemed to think that meant I should have them. As much as I tried not to let it; her doing this seemed to fill me with warmth. No foster parent had spent so much on me, heck no foster parent had paid that much attention to know I had stood looking at the CD's for extra time.

I was starting to hope that maybe she would be different, as much as I tried not to; I was hoping that maybe I would find happiness here.

Clothes shopping; I swear it will be the death of me.

We had brought everything else; I even got jewellery, but still no clothes. Shoes were easy, converse, converse and converse. Plus a few extra styles like roman sandles, joggers and more converse.

It's not that I was being difficult; there are just no shops with the style of clothes I like. They're all clothes that show your midriff and only just cover your bum, no offence to those who wear them but they're not my style.

"Maaaaaaaaaax!" Suddenly rang out through the area, I turned to find one of my best running towards me.

"Hi Adam," I said as he pulled me into a bone crushing hug.

I knew Adam from my forty-six's foster home; he had been my next door neighbour and was the one who called the police to get me out of there. Adam had blonde hair and bright green eyes; he was eighteen and about a 6'2 in height. For a while everyone thought we were a couple, until he came out and said he played for the other team, if you catch my drift.

"How are you Maxi, liking your new home? Missing me?" He spoke quickly not giving me time to answer as he turned and looked towards my foster family, "they're good, the kids come to my music shop every now and then, nice enough family, wouldn't hurt a fly," he finished with a grin.

"I'm okay, yes the new homes pretty cool and yes I was missing you," I replied with a small smile.

"Max you know Adam?" Iggy sounded confused as he asked.

"Of course she knows me, who doesn't?" Adam spoke jokingly, puffing up his chest.

"We met last year, he was my next door neighbour," I told my foster family.

"Yep and now we're besties! Oh Maxie looks like you need help clothes shopping," Adam yelled as he literally dragged me through the crowd with Iggy, Nudge and Val trying to keep up.

A few hours later we were on our last stop, Adam had made sure I had enough clothes for at least three years, but as he knew my style he knew what to look for. I now have my dream wardrobe and a happy foster family and best friend.

Our last stop was Adams music store, where I of course got more CD's and an awesome CD player/docking station.

"Why aren't you buying and instruments?" Adam questioned soon after I had brought the CD player.

"What instrument can you play," Nudge cut in excitedly.

"Well let's see, Max can play guitar, electric, acoustic and base, piano and drums," Adam had a very proud look on his face as he said this.

"Well, you best go get all those instruments then, go on, go find ones you like," and with that Val walked towards the front of the store and out the exit.

"Thanks a lot Adam," if you couldn't tell that's sarcasm go to your local doctor and ask for an appointment.

"Oh come on, were you seriously thinking of giving up on your music?" he spoke disbelievingly as he pulled out a guitar set, keyboard and drum set he knew I would like. They were black and white and all had a little quote of 'Music is my escape' somewhere on the front.

I paid with the seemingly never-ending debit card Val had given me, waved good-bye to Adam and walked out of the shop.

Iggy, Nudge and Val were already sitting in the car when I got their and packed my stuff in.

"Why didn't you tell us you could play," Iggy asked as soon as I had sat down.

"It never came up," I replied shrugging as Val started the drive home.

Once both Nudge and Iggy were out of the car I whispered a quick thankyou before racing up to the guest bedroom with my things.

…...

Yeah I was deluding myself when I said I wasn't hoping.