So this is the second chapter! Apologize for mistakes.
As those who have read Forgetting and Remembering probably noticed, is that this story isnt really following the summary i gave. Im really sorry, but i realized if i wrote the story that way, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere.
Disclaimer: James Patterson owns Maximum Ride.
SEPTEMBER 2 Monday
GRADE TEN
Ella's POV
"You excited?" Max asked me.
"Scared. What if I get stuffed into a locker? What if I get lost? What if I'm late for a class? What if a dinosaur crashes through the school and-" I babbled on, but Max clapped a hand over my mouth.
It was my first day in High School. I was attending Max's school Itex High. As you can tell from my rambling, I was kinda stressed.
"Oh hush. You sound like Nudge." She teased. "Everything will be fine. You have Nudge, Fang and I. And people are scared of me." She bragged.
It was true. My sister was a... to put things lightly, quick tempered person. Max had been in fights at school, but she always protested that she had been provoked.
"You'll have a map of the school, and the only one who might ever consider pushing you into a locker would go through me after!"
"I guess that makes me feel better."
"Hey!" Max yelled, waving her arms like crazy and peering over the top of my head. "Over here!"
I tuned around and saw Fang with his sister and my best friend Nudge.
Nudge's been my best fried since sixth grade. Though it's only been three years we joke about how well we know each other, like sisters. I can recall exactly how we met. It was on Valentine's Day...
::-:: Flashback ::-::
She was crying under the sinks, her pink, sweet heart neck lined dress getting crinkled. I didn't know her well despite the fact we were in the same class. Just that her name was Monique, but likes to be called Nudge. I don't know what made me go over to her. Maybe it was the mascara streaking down her mocha toned skinned that made her look even more miserable. Maybe it was that I knew she was a kind and caring person. Whatever it was, I tentatively walked over to her.
"Hey. Do you want a tissue?" I held some out, which she took gratefully.
"Thanks." She blew her nose with one, and carefully wiped off her makeup with another.
"Do you mind me asking what happened?" I sat on the floor under the sinks with her.
"I don't mind at all. See, it's 'cause of Courtney."
Courtney Mohs is well, not nice.
::-:: FLASHBACK IN A FLASHBACK ::-::
I remember I had been walking home from school, Max hadn't been with me, and I had tripped over something. I had winced, my knee was cut. Turns out I tripped over a sparkly pink compact mirror, with Courtney Mohs engraved on it. Looking around, I saw her signature blond locks.
"Courtney!" I waved to her and she came running.
"Is that my mirror?" She grabbed it.
"Yeah, I found it on the-"
"You bitch!" She snarled suddenly. "It's cracked!"
She showed it to me and indeed, a long crack run through it.
"I'm so sorry! I tripped over it and-"
She just turned on her heel and walked away.
::-:: Flashback within a flashback gone ::-::
"What did she do?"
"Well, I saw Aden, you know, the really hot guy in our class? He had asked me out to the dance and then we dancing and-and she came up to us and was all like, 'wow Aden. You can do much better than her. Like me.' and he just le-le-left!" She started crying again.
"Nudge. It's not that big a deal. He obviously wasn't good enough for you. You can do better than some guy who prefers girls with big boobs than a girl with a big heart." It just spilled out of me.
"Really?" She stared at me in shock, her doe eyes widening. "You're right! I can do better!" She jumped up in triumph, forgetting we were under the sinks.
Ouch. I wince as I remember her rubbing her head reproachfully, but laughing still. I guess our friendship shot up after that, sleepovers every weekend.
Max and Fang greeted each other as they usually do, which is to kiss. Luckily, Nudge doesn't greet me like that, she greets me with a flood of chatter.
"Nudge. Nudge! NUDGE!" I ended up yelling, effectively cutting her rant of how hot Jace Herondale is, when Allegiant comes out and if unicorns are real.
"Whaaaaat?" She drags out, though with a smile.
"I thought you'd like to know about a...boy." I know this will divert the Nudge Flood, something I call her relentless chatter.
"OMIGOSH! Did you kiss or something? Is he hot? What did you guys talk about? Where did you meet?"
Totally used to this kind of interrogation, I answered. "No we didn't, I guess, we kinda have never talked and we never actually met. We saw each other at our drum lessons through a window."
Yes, lessons. He would sit outside for the first ten minutes, and then leave. Eventually, I started waking up earlier so I could sit and watch. Mom thought it was the apocalypse. Max can't say anything because she sleeps in longer than me, except on weekdays, she gets up at five every morning to run.
Nudge sports a disappointed look. "So, do you know his name?"
"Um. No."
"Whatever." Nudge waves a hand. She talks again, and I am transported into Nudge Land, though the boy doesn't leave my mind. Not that he ever did.
It's the first band practice at high school. We put our names under whether we were in band previously or not. Then we write down what we want to play. I've been in percussion since grade six. Max and Fang are in the grade ten, so naturally they're in grade ten band, and they're going to help out in the nine band. I saw Max in the percussion section and went to sit next to her. We shared the seat designated for the piano player.
"You excited?" She asked again.
"Yeah. Band is the only good thing in school." I sigh.
"Nuh uh! P. E. is too!" She argues.
Now, returning to the fact that we are percussionists, before you all think percussion is just the drum set, it isn't. In concert band, there are barely any drum parts. There are the bells, which look like a xylophone but are less octoves and made of metal, then there's the xylophone, bass drum, snare drum, timpanis, suspended and crash symbols, as well as the small instruments: sleigh bells, shakers, cowbell, tambourine. For some reason, there's a firebell in the percussion cabinet... The cabinet holds the small instruments and the bass/snare/bell/xylophone mallets.
This band was about 100+ kids, i didnt see how many percussionists. They were all behind me, but I didn't want to turn around and count them.
My mom was friends with the band teacher here, her name was Ms. Johansson. She had fiery red hair and green eyes that can be really scary when she's mad. So she knew Max and I by sight, which is why she waved cheerfully from across the band room, we waved back.
When the students all got seated by section, she spoke. "I'm Ms. Johansson. You can call me Ms. J. This year, we will be reviewing the basics. The fingering, scales, rhythms. I've picked two songs for the Three Month Showcase already. James Bond Theme and Nessun Dorma and it will be on November first, Thursday. We have two Sophomores here, Maximum Martinez and Fang Ride, to help. Max is in the percussion section, Max wave." She ordered.
Max heaved a sigh and stood up, opting to bow dramatically instead. Ms. Johansson just rolled her eyes as the small amount of giggles died out.
"And Fang is in the saxophone section. Wave Fang." A few of the girls seemed to swoon, but snapped out of it once they felt Max's glare. Max's Glare is a special form of glare, that you can actually feel, even if you didn't know she was there.
Fang waved.
She pauses. "I want to see where all of you are at. So for the next two hours, every single one of you will play a few seconds, maybe a minute of something. This is your chance to impress me and your classmates."
Her eyes land on me. "Ms. Ella Martinez. Would you like to go first?"
After a second of hesitation, Max pushed me. "Oh! Uh, sure."
Iggy's POV
Oh. My. God. I nudged Fang. "It's her!"
Let me explain. Hi, I'm Iggy Walker. I'm new here at Itex High School. I'm part of this exchange program and I'm living at my new friend Fang's. His sister is nice, but a little chatty
I've been here in Arizona since June, and recently found a cool place that teaches kids how to play anything. From the violin to the kazoo. Okay, so maybe not the kazoo but hopefully you get my point. So I enrolled in drum lessons. I had taken a break when I was ten, but now at sixteen, I really wanted to take it up again. I had been taking drum lessons since I was able to, which was six. But then I chickened out because well, being in percussion in band brings bad memories back. There isn't even a lot of drum parts.
Returning to the Oh. My. God.
"What?" Fang whispered.
"It's her! The girl from the lessons!" I pointed frantically. The girl from the lessons was the long name I had made for her when I told Fang about her. I guess I didn't do a good job describing, seeing as she was his girlfriend's sister and he didn't know who I was talking about. Ella's eyes were brown, reminding me of my beloved chocolate.
Don't judge me on my chocolate obsession.
Anyways. Brown wasn't my favourite colour, I always picture brown to be like mucky brown or something. But her eyes were so warm looking and I wanted to go up to her and just stare into them. They reminded me of Te-
"Max?" Fang cut in, his eyes narrowed.
I knew Max was his girlfriend, but every time she came over I was at my lessons.
"What no! The girl beside her!" I kept pointing, pissing off a random asian flute player with glasses. I didnt blame her for glaring at me, my finger was so close to her face her eyes were going cross eyed. I slowly lowered my hand.
"That's her sister." He spoke cautiously. "You don't happen to...like her do you?"
"Nooo." I answered. "I barely know her. She's a really good-"
I was interrupted by a familiar pattern. It was the drum part that begins in Coffee's For Closer by Fall Out Boy.
And as I listened, it morphed into a fill from Misery Business by Paramore.
When it ended, she got lots of applause.
"Who's next?" The teacher asked.
Max's hand shot up. "I won't be showed up by my little sister!"
Ms. Johansson smirked. "Do what you will."
I doubted Max was going to play some Classical stuff. From what Fang has told me about her, it would be less surprising to see her do a backflip and land in the splits, than play Bach.
I was right, she played Skyfall by Adele. It was really good.
Seeing as its a long song, she played the beginning up to the first chorus. Then she bowed again. People clapped for her too, Fang being the loudest.
And so it went. Everyone played a little bit, I played a bit of Smoke on the Water and Fang just played Mary Had a Little Lamb.
"Be lucky I know how gifted you are in playing the saxophone." Ms. Johansson shook her head, a smile on her lips.
When Band ended, I put my bass away and hurried over to the percussion section. I had a hand out to tap Ella's shoulder, when she suddenly turned around, knocking my arm away.
"I am so sorry!" She apologized quickly. Then she looked at me. And looked.
"See something you like?" I smirked.
"What? No!" She glared. It looked a little like Max's when Fang had been swooned over. "You just look familiar."
"I live next door to you. I'm living with Fang until the end of the year, then I'm moving back to where I live."
Of course I knew were we'd seen each other. I just wanted to know if she could place me.
"Noooooo." Ella stared at me. "You're the boy from the music school!"
I don't know why, but I was kind of happy she remembered me.
"Right!" I snapped my fingers as if I had just thought remembered that. Not like I'd been obsessing over her for the past two months.
"Yeah. But where did you live?"
"Switzerland."
"Oh. Wow! Can you speak French?"
"Yea. I can teach you?" I offered.
"Sure! How do you say "I like sushi and really want to eat some."?
"J'aime les sushis et vraiment envie de manger un peu." She looked impressed. "Maybe one day you can come over and teac-"
She's interrupted by, "Okay everyone! Out in two minutes or else you're scrubbing chairs!" Ms. Johansson calls.
Ella scrambles away after a quiet good bye is thrown over her shoulder.
I stand in silence for a few minutes, then walk off to my next class.
"Did ya have a good day?" Max throws an arm around my shoulder as we go into her little Fiat to drive home.
"Yea. I met a boy. His name is Iggy."
"Iggy? Fang told me about him!" Max opens the car door and I go to sit in shotgun. "He's a nice kid apparently."
"Oh." I don't really have any words. What am I supposed to say? That I noticed his eyes aren't only blue, but green? That they seem to change colours like a kaleidoscope?
The ride home is filled with different pop/rock songs. For Max'a birthday a few years ago, he made a mixed tape of Paramore, Fall Out Boy, The Killers etc. when Max pulls into the garage and turns off the car.
As we go into the house, Max dumps her bag on the floor, takes six of the chocolate chip cookies mom made, and runs back out of the house.
Which really shouldn't bother me, except that she grabbed my arm as she ran.
"Where are we going?" I ask.
"To Fang's." She knocked on the door. "Mom told me to take you next door 'cause we're supposed to invite them over as a back to school celebration."
"Max? Ella?" Mrs. Ride answers the door. She basically our second mom.
"Hi Mrs. Ride!" I wave.
"Call me Anne!" She says for what must be the thousandth time since we've known each other.
"Sorry."
"We were wondering if you wanted to come over for dinner tonight. We're having pizza." Max is subtlety craning her neck to see behind Anne.
"Of course! Thanks for the offer. And Max?"
"Uh huh?" Max stops craning her neck.
"Fang's at the music store." She smiled then closes the door.
"Was it that obvious?" Max sarcastically pouts as we walk back to the house.
"Yea."
"Whatever. We're off to the music store!
So so so sorry for the delay. Apologizze for bad translating. Google translate was used...
I would love love love love if I got some feedback on this. No flames, but if there's anything, anything you'd like to say about it, go ahead.
EDITED JUNE 3. Added a scene, if it contradicts with anything, let me know.