MAX POV
"Why do you have to go to a different school than me?" Ella, my younger sister, complained grumpily.
She had been against the whole idea of me being alone in a "big scary school all alone for the first time in ages." Ella words and not mine. But, after a while, she decided that if I couldn't change schools, she would change schools. She was starting in a couple days.
She was also glad that I had made a friend. My first ever friend that is not closely related to me.
I felt my face fall.
Ella noticed my low enthusiasm and knew who I was thinking of straight away. "They'll be here soon. A week and they're back. You'll get to see them again!" Ella tried to cheer me up but we all knew it wouldn't be a fairy tale ending for me and my abused sisters.
"Ella, it's been a least a year since they have seen me. Since I left them. Since that asshole I call my dad, Jeb, threw me out and I wasn't able to come back and save them. What if they don't remember me? What if they do remember me and don't want me anymore? What if they think I abandoned them for freedom? Angel's six and she's seen more than any six year old girl should have to see. And Nudge's life could be ruined, never be able to be pulled back together. She can hold a grudge against anyone she wants to forever. Did you know that? There are too many 'what if's' in these questions to be answered! And nothing will ever be right again in this family!"
I had said a lot, but we both knew it was true. That this could never be undone, what had happened to our fragile loved ones. Nudge is thirteen, a year younger than me. And we only get one chance at life. Chances of normalcy for me are very low, but lower for Nudge. Angel has her whole life ahead of her, and all she has to do is forget.
Easier said than done.
Ella's expression made me want to cave, to go back in time and take back what I just said. None of this had been her fault. She hadn't asked to be the only one that hadn't had to go through this. When our parents had divorced and we had been separated, she hadn't had a choice in being the lucky one, my life crushing down on me.
"I'm sorry, Ella," I whispered quietly.
She ignores my apology, her eyes twinkling with tears that are almost ready to spill over. "I'm going to bed." She walks away noticeably quick, turning a corner, and loudly slamming her door shut.
She blamed herself for what had happened to the three of us. She wishes every day that it had been her, that she could take our places and save our lives.
...
My alarm rang through my dream of talking elephants. Which makes me angry. And being angry causes me to kill my alarm.
Fortunately it stops when I throw it at the plain white walls that gave me privacy, unlike yesterday it just kept ringing after I had thrown it against the wall. It took jumping all over it to make it stop. By then I was awake. I'm not sure who won that game.
I let my head fall back to the soft, feathery pillow almost asleep when Ella – who has slid by my senses – screams in my ear, "Wakey, wakey, Max!"
I turn on my side, mumbling something incoherent before pretending she wasn't there, my world turning fuzzy, letting me know I was almost there, almost asleep.
"MAX!"I sat stick straight in my bed staring at Ella blankly. She smiles. "Time to go to school."
She skips her way out the door happily. I sigh and get clean and clothed for school.
Ella stands at the front door bouncing up and down slightly. "I can't wait to meet your friends! This has got to be so much fun."
"Friend," I correct her. I only had one friend, not plural.
"Who cares? I want to go to school!" Ella screams.
And this is the story of how I got dragged all the way to school and happened to be the first person there.
Not really.
But guess who just happened to arrive a couple minutes afterward. Guess... guess... Fang. As if he was a nerd or something he approaches the school at least a half hour early, or more like approaches me a half hour before school starts.
"What are you doing here?" I snarl at him.
"Well, most new kids arrive just a little early... So I figured you would be getting to school a little earlier. And who's this?" He says bravely and manly like he could take Ella. Not on my watch. I'll kick his bony ass again if that's what it takes to keep him away from Ella.
"My sister."
"Hey, I'm Fang! And you are?" he trails off in a cute questioning voice.
Ella giggles a little girlish laugh that leaves me wanting to smack her in the face and force her senses back. "Ella."
"Well, Ella, I really like your sister and would be most thankful if you got her to talk to me in a non-mean way. Or kick my ass," Fang says in a completely honest way.
"Max? You promised me you wouldn't fight anyone on the first week," Ella told me accusingly.
"Well, I wasn't feeling well and he asked for it. Oh, and I promised you I would for the first week when you started. Remember?" Ella's face quickly showed that she had used the wrong choice of words for our pinky promise.
"What?" Being this stupid, nosy player trying to listen to our conversation, my answer wasn't as pleasant as it could have been.
"This is none of your freaking business so why don't you just go away! This is not your life!" My tone pitched high and higher. "Go lurk in the shadows and stay away from me, Ella and tell your freaking brothers to stay away from J.J. and never go near her again. And that is a threat." Ella knew not to mess with me once I had inherited that tone from deep within me.
And something about Ella sitting as quiet as mouse beside me warned Fang to not say a word but do as I said and go away. And he did.
"That could have gone better," Ella muttered when she was sure I had calmed down.
...
Fang approached me in the sea of students filling the halls. He seemed to know nothing about me one day and then everything of me the next day. Two days. How? I would say that would be Ella's masterpiece of trusting everyone.
Fang's outburst seemed to embarrass him, but was what he had been dying to say.
"Why aren't you acting like all the other girls?" Fang asked. He seemed confused when there was nothing to be confused about. But he still had no clue of how to react to my behaviour, since every other girl in the school trips over their feet just to be near him.
Well not me. "Because I'm not the other girls. I'm me. Individual me. And I promise you that I will not be like any of these pathetic girls and stumble around blindlessly hoping that I'll be the next girl you'll choose. I won't follow you like a stupid puppy, looking helpless and in need of your presence. I'm not like that. I will never fall for you and I will never like you!" I turned to leave but he still had something to say, even though he looked speechless.
"What if I can make you fall for me?" Fang really had many ideas in that peanut sized brain of his today. Not too many ideas that I like, unfortunately for him.
I suppressed a sigh and looked him right in the eye, speaking honestly. "Even if you try, I will never ever fall for someone like you and did you hear anything I said before? I promise I won't be like the other brainless girls here. And when I make a promise, I keep it!" I stormed away, frustrated that Fang thought that he could just make any girl fall for him and he thought that he could have any girl he wanted.
I wouldn't give him that satisfaction.
This is probably the longest chapter I have ever wrote. I am so sorry it took me so long to update on all my stories. But I finally finished.
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