Hey guys! Sorry for the late update, I've been busy. But in apology, I give you… A LONG CHAPTER!

OH and to ImMadMyCoffeeWontTalkToMe, about the back story, don't worry. It'll all come into place eventually!

OH and thanks to my lovely reviewers:

emilyroorose

a good friend of mine, flick windsnap =D

Bellum Letale

And ImMadMyCoffeeWontTalkToMe

Disclaimer: do not own. :l

Anyway here you go!

Chapter 2

Johannah's POV

I suck in a deep breath as we pull into a driveway. The house is huge. Full of kids too, I presume. Silently I groan. I don't want there to be little kids here. Then again, I don't want to be the center of attention…

Sophie Mason gets out of the car once it's stopped and turned off, then walks around to my door. "Well, come on! Let's hop to it!"

There it was again. That sly, teenage attitude. Something you'd never expect from a woman her age. Well, nothing I would ever expect.

I look from the house to Sophie Mason to my backpack. I can still run. My motorcycle is hidden in the forest. I can find it and drive away. But I can't right now. Too much attention on me. I'll wait until tonight.

With a form of hope built inside of me, I get out and shoulder my backpack, following Sophie Mason to the door.

Ding Dong.

I flinch at that, then curse for my jumpiness with everything. It's so pathetic…

The door swings open carefully, revealing a little blonde girl no older than seven. She gazes up at us curiously, her blue eyes big and perfect. I force myself to look away, make myself look like I'm not interested in a single thing she does.

"Hi, honey, is your mother home?" Sophie Mason asks.

The little girl nods, taking one last glance at me before disappearing inside the house. So, things to look out for: puppy dog faces. I can already tell that girl is a natural at it.

Seconds later a woman walks to the door, welcoming us in warmly. I don't comply with the whole 'sitting down' thing, instead I just swallow and lean against the wall, wondering when the hell this story tale will end.

"So, how are you all?" the woman asks. She must be joking…

"I'm good! A little tired." Sophie Mason replies when I don't answer. What? She said you all. Not a question directed at me. I don't have to answer.

The woman laughs. "Yeah, same here."

"Sorry about that." Sophie Mason smiles warmly. Whoa, where'd the teenager go? I kinda liked her. But now she's in adult mode.

The woman smiles, too. Then she looks at me. "And you must be Johannah?"

I shoot a death glare at Sophie Mason that lasts no more than half a second, hating her for a moment that she would tell this woman my name. But I guess it's better than telling her myself, so I just nod.

The same girl from the door comes behind the woman, hiding somewhat behind her leg, but still halfway in view of me. She has a cookie in her hand.

"My name is Valencia Martinez. I adopt and foster children like you," the woman explains.

Children like you. Child. Weak child. Vulnerable. Worthless. Helpless.

Because I guess now everyone can call me what they want, instead of just my father. The world just keeps getting better and better.

Just show me where I'm supposed to stay so I can figure out a plan to get out of this place.

"Hey Max!" Valencia Martinez shouts up the stairs.

"Yo!"

A girl with dark blonde hair appears on the banister, gazing at me.

"Why don't you show Johannah to her room?" Valencia Martinez requests.

"Sure, why not." Max runs downstairs at a pace I'll never beat, meeting me at the bottom. She looks at my small black backpack. "That all you got?"

"Yeah," I reply flatly.

She shrugs. "Okay. Well, I'm Max, if you haven't figured that out already. Real name Maximum Ride, but unless you have a death wish for me then you will call me none other than Max. Got it?" It should have sounded snippy, if she didn't crack and smile at the end.

I raise an eyebrow, amused, and nod.

"Okay come on!" Max says and walks back upstairs slowly, expecting my hesitation. I suppose I'm not the first adopted kid here. We turn right to a long corridor, longer than I expected. She opens the first door on the left with a sign on the door that says 'Ella' in blue and purple paints. "This is Ella's room," Max says. Blue painted walls enclose the room, accented with white bookshelves and curtains and a polka dotted bed in the far corner, on which sits a girl with long black-brown hair. "And that's Ella. Ella, this is Johannah. Johannah, Ella," Max introduces.

"Hi!" Ella exclaims, bouncing in her bed a little. "I'm so happy you're here! Do you like to play sports? We do that a lot."

"Ella, in a bit of a hurry," Max interrupts. "Still have to introduce her to everybody else."

"Oh sorry," Ella replies. "Well, I hope you like it here!"

Max pulls me out of the room and shuts the door. "Ella is Dr. Martinez's only blood-related daughter. She adopted the rest of us."

"Good to know," I say, a hint of boredom and sarcasm in my voice, wondering if 'us' is including me.

"Here's Angel's room," Max says as she opens the next door, with a sign that says Angel's name on it in a messy cursive. Light shades of pink and blue coat the walls, with dainty crayon sketches of horses, unicorns, and stick figures holding hands. And hearts.

As in a sign of love. Family love, like I loved Jane.

I hear Max talking, but I don't hear her. Not until she snaps her fingers in front of my face, snapping me back to reality.

"Whoa. Lost you there for a sec," says Max. "You okay?"

"Fine," I mumble, then map the basics of the room in my head. A curtain cuts about a quarter of the room off, I guess where she keeps her bed, since it is nowhere else to be found. A huge window against the wall on the opposite side of the door. Closet on right wall.

"As I said, Angel is downstairs," Max says. "You can meet her later. She's really cute."

"Met her at the door," I say, backing out of the room.

Max leads me to the next one, next to Ella's, with a name plate that says "Nudge's Room" in curly white letters, with a hot pink background and things around it like smiley faces, hearts, swirly-gigs, and wings. "Here's Nudge. Brace yourself."

The second she opens the doors, I stagger back, blinded. Oh God… the most… pink… I've ever… seen… in my life…

"Oh my God! You must be Johannah! I've heard so much about you! Well not really, only your name and that you're coming to live with us but it's so good to finally meet you! I love your style! It's so cool. You pull it off well. I could never—"

"Johannah, this is Nudge. Nudge, this is Johannah," Max interrupts as if Nudge hasn't spoken at all. "Moving on."

Next we go to "Gazzy's" room.

God, please don't let that name be chosen by his bodily functions…

It's not too bad. Each wall is painted a different color, from navy blue to tan to red. And there's some black accents around the edges. The kid is sweet. He's no more than nine years old with spiky blonde hair. His attitude is amusing; it actually brought a hint of a smile to my lips. Luckily no one saw it.

Iggy is interesting. He's blind. Yet he gets around without a problem. Made a pretty good attempt at looking me in the eyes, but I look away. And Max tells me he can cook. Now the getting around I could get used to. Follow the voice and look up for the eyes. But cook? No way. You need eyes for that.

Max next leads me into the next room, saying that this is Fang. On his door, aside from the name plate that says FANG in bold black letters and a gray to red background, are signs saying KEEP OUT and such. Inside, the first thing I notice is the walls. All black. Every light in the room is off except for a small lamp by his bed, where he slides a notebook under his sheets as Max turns the lights on, hoping we wouldn't notice. Uh fail.

"Fang, this is Johannah. She's across from you. Say hi."

Fang slightly waves with his hand, his face expressionless. But something flickers in his eyes that I can't interpret. Can't even describe a word for it. Maybe… recognition?

"Good job," Max says, then leads me out, shutting Fang's door, then opening the one across from it. "Here's your room."

The room is a light tan shade, with dark blue sheets on the bed in the far corner. There's a window like the other rooms on the far end, a bookshelf by the door, a dresser, and a desk.

"We did the best we could to prepare it for you," Max says. "You get to pick the color of the walls, do whatever you want to the room to make it livable for you." She picks up something off of the desk, about the size of a license plate. She turns it my way. It's all white. "This is your name plate. You get to decorate it however you want and it'll go on your door, like everyone else's."

I nod and she puts the plate back on the desk.

"My room is down the hall, last one on the right," Max says. "If you want to talk about anything… I'm here."

I nod again, this time in thanks.

Max grins sideways at me, a knowing look in her eyes, then she leaves me alone.

I listen to her footsteps echo down the hall, then a door shut, leaving me in silence. I breathe in slowly, then close my eyes, slowly letting the air out. Once I have a hold of myself, I set my backpack by the door and walk back through the doorway. I walk on the tips of my toes as I stalk down the hallway, in a foot pattern I've come to know that doesn't make a sound. I walk down the hallway to the stairs, where I see Sophie Mason and Valencia Martinez sitting in the living room downstairs, talking.

She's still here?

"I trust you know how to deal with these things, Valencia, so I shouldn't babble so much," Sophie Mason says, then laughs. "Here's her paperwork."

Paperwork, aye? How'd they manage to storm that up in a few hours?

"Thank you," Valencia Martinez says, taking the file.

I hide myself by the wall, out of sight of everyone downstairs.

"Sign here and here," Sophie Mason says, pointing to a place on the papers.

They exchange a few comments to each other after that, but nothing of importance. Thanks to Max I missed all of that. With some last few encouraging words to each other, Sophie Mason leaves.

When all is silent and Valencia Martinez and Angel go deeper into the house, I sigh and lie my head against the wall. Sophie Mason wouldn't tell Valencia Martinez anything doesn't know, and she doesn't know very much, so I should be good. Plus, I have a good cover story.

I count to thirty before stalking down the hallway back to the room that is supposedly claimed "mine", then shut the door and look for a lock. There is none. Cursing, I give up and grab my backpack, walking toward the bed. I pull the covers up to look under it. There isn't as much space as there was under my old bed, but it's enough.

Knock knock.

I turn around to see Ella, Valencia Martinez's daughter, walking in.

"Hey," she says. "We didn't get to talk much earlier. I just wanted to say that my mom is really nice. And she's good. Um, lunch is almost ready. Welcome to the family."

And she leaves.

Again I wait until I'm sure she's away before daring to move, then I sigh and shove my backpack under the bed, then follow it. I can't sit up like I could with my old bed, but lying down is still okay. I did that a lot anyway. I unzip my backpack and get out one of my notebooks, a small one, and flip to the next blank page.

November 18, 2011. 11:36AM

Dear Jane,

It's Rain. Today I went to live with a new family. There are lots of kids. They all seem so happy, but I don't know why. It's so different like it was at the house with you and dad. There is no father. And nobody has hit me yet. It's starting to freak me out. But I know they will eventually. I mean, why wouldn't they? I'm stubborn, a brat, weak, a whore, worthless, a failure, disobedient, and the list goes on. At least that's what father said, right?

Jane, I blew up the house. I couldn't take it anymore. I can't be in there without having flashbacks of the past. I hate it. I hate it there. I hate Dad. I hate what he did to you and I'm sorry I let him do it. I'll never forgive myself for it. I miss you, Jane…

Please love, your big sister, Rain.

Aaaand scene! Notice the beginning of the letter to Jane and the second to last sentence is the summary? See what I did there? :D yay. I'll update soon, I hope! Review and I love you all!