Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. JP does.

Claimer: I do, however, own all OC's.


Chapter 2

Fang's POV

This morning, I woke up on my own at 6:00, which is saying a lot, since I usually rely on Gazzy to detonate an explosive in front of my face to wake me up. Hopefully living in a house with alarm clocks would take care of that problem. My laptop wasn't on my desk like it should've been, but that was a problem for later.

Wow. I couldn't believe I actually won an argument with Max yesterday. It was really satisfying to see her storm out of the room like that. Not to mention, she looked gorgeous in a way when she narrowed her eyes at me. Well, I had to rely on Nudge for the most part, but I can't help feeling satisfied with myself. I really think school would be a good experience for both the younger kids and me and Max. It'll knock some sense into Max, which should help her make better decisions for us when we get married, have-

Wait, what am I thinking? She would never want to marry me. She'd never even like me. She's freaking gorgeous. And I mean it. Seeing her smile reminds me that Jeb has done some good for the world, even if by accident. We've shared several kisses over the past few months, but how can I think that she wants me forever if she doesn't think twice about making out with some douche right in front of our house? If she liked me, she wouldn't have done that. Even if I hesitated to push away Lissa when she trapped me against the wall. She wasn't there to see it, but as soon as she left, I glared at her and told her to never come near me again. Maybe the whole thing was a sign. Maybe I should give up on Max and find someone else. I didn't want her to hate me.

Anyways, I woke up early this morning to get ready for the first day of school. People always assume I look this great by accident, but really, it's a lot of work. I would never tell anyone, but vanity is my kryptonite. Has anyone noticed how nice my black jacket still is, even after all these battles? I thought not.

"Fang!" Max yelled from the hall, "Get your butt out here!"

I glanced at my watch, which read 7:19.

Crap. How did it take me that long to fix my hair?

"Coming!" I replied, as I pushed open my door.

In the kitchen, Max was leaned against the counter, waiting for me.

I looked around. "They're not up yet?"

Max shook her head, "I just wanted to talk to you for a minute."

I sighed. Last time she said that, I left with a sprained wrist, a few bruises, and a cut on my ear (Don't ask).

"Is it about how amazingly gorgeous I am?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes, "More like, how humble you are. Listen, how are we going to keep the kids from getting us kicked out? Last time we went to school, Gazzy broke a guy's arm, the Dynamic Duo (our nickname for Iggy and Gazzy) detonated a stink bomb in the bathroom, and they snuck into the basement! What if they were caught?"

I was saved from having to answer by a sleepy Angel trudging into the room holding Celeste. "Morning, Fang and Max." She's the most adorable kid you'll ever meet. She has shoulder-length, curly blonde hair, big blue eyes, and is the sweetest girl in the world.

Max smiled, "Morning, Angel," as she brushed Angel's hair out of her eyes. Max knelt down, gave her a hug, and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

I couldn't help smiling. Even though they were only eight years apart, Max was more or less her mother.

She looks just like her name, but don't let that deceive you. She could beat up most grown men within a minute. Even though she always looks innocent, she doesn't hesitate to use her mind-reading and mind-controlling powers for no good. Angel has 'asked for' at least a hundred dollars of stuffed animals from the local toy store. Still, I loved her just like a daughter.

"What's for breakfast?" she asked, looking up at Max.

"Um, oatmeal."

"Yay! Let me get Iggs." She knew better than to make Max cook. Last time she tried, it took our supernatural powers to break the mass of black matter that was supposed to be toast. I suppressed a chuckle, remembering Max's expression when she took the piece of 'toast' out of the oven.

A few seconds later, I heard a loud, "OW!" from across the hallway. I couldn't help but smile as I pictured Iggy getting jumped by Angel.

"WAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUP!" she yelled.

While she was trying (and failing) to drag Iggy out of bed, Nudge and Ella sauntered into the room. Nudge was in a pink shirt with a heart and a short black skirt. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at the vast amount of makeup she used, since this was the first day. Let me just say that it ranks higher than food consumption in the list of "Top Ten Ways to Make Dr. Martinez Bankrupt". Ella, on the other hand, was in a conservative blue long-sleeved shirt with a pink octopus on the front and a pair of jeans. She still acted pretty girl, but I could see the tomboy streak in her genes she shared with Max.

Nudge looked puzzled. "Where's breakfast?" she asked.

I was quick to explain. "Well, we didn't want the house to burn down, so we decided to wait for Iggy to cook some oatmeal."

Nudge and Ella looked disappointed, but nodded. They sure were anxious for their first day. Somehow, they became inseparable best friends within the few days we were here. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since they're the only girls in the house who, you know, actually act like girls.

Angel suddenly burst into the room, dragging a half-asleep Iggy behind, still in his pajamas, and Gazzy trailed them in the back making sure he didn't escape.

Iggy promptly collapsed on the nearest piece of furniture, the couch.

Angel walked up to him and started hitting him on the back. "We're hungry and school starts soon! Make breakfast Iggy!"

Iggy looked up, "Hey, I'm sorry. I was just up late watching po-I mean watching the highlights from the football games yesterday." Wow, Iggy. No wonder my laptop was missing!

Max looked shocked. "YOU PERVERT IGGY! Now the rest of us have to suffer from your perversion! I would kill you right now if I knew how to cook!"

Iggy looked embarrassed. "What do you guys want for breakfast?" he asked, very conspicuously changing the subject.

Before Max could yell at him again, I spoke up. "Oatmeal, Iggs. Be quick."

He nodded and slowly walked to the kitchen. "Hey, who took the box?" he said, not feeling the oatmeal in its normal place.

"Right here, Iggy," Max scowled, as she threw the box across the room to him.

As usual, Iggy saw it coming and caught it flawlessly. Ella looked at him with a hint of admiration and blushed ever so slightly.

Iggy grumbled something about stupid girls as he began to pour the mix into a bowl.


Fifteen minutes later, the entire flock plus Ella was seated around the table. I took advantage of the time it took for him to cook to hide my laptop. I didn't use it too much anymore, since I had abandoned my blog once we took down Itex.

Somehow, Ella was finished first. "That was delicious, Iggs!"

Iggy looked satisfied. "Thanks, Ells." Was that a blush hiding behind his grin?

Before I could continue investigating, Max stood up. "We should really get going," she announced.

I glanced at my watch. 8:05 stared back at me. Crap! School started at 8:15.

Everyone else stood up and rushed about to get their backpacks.

A few minutes later, we had gathered at the Martinez's front porch. Ella began to walk down the sidewalk, to the right. Gazzy looked at her, puzzled. "Hey, where are you going?"

"School. Where else?"

"Why don't we just fly through the forest? It's faster and nobody will see us."

Ella sighed, dropped her backpack, and made a show of taking off her jacket, "Do you see wings?" she said, slightly frustrated.

Gazzy finally registered what he said. "Oooh. Sorry." he said.

Ella put her jacket and backpack back on and resumed walking.

We all looked at each other, unsure of what to do, until Max finally opened her wings and shot into the forest. We all followed behind her in a single-file line. Conveniently, the elementary, middle, and high schools were all right next to each other. Max, Iggy, Ella, and I went to high school, Nudge went to middle school, and Angel and Gazzy went to elementary school. Ella is only 14, but she skipped 2nd grade, so she goes to high school with us. Even though we left shortly after Ella, we arrived at school a good amount of time ahead. I checked my watch again. 8:13. Yes! We had two minutes before the bell!

Max and I signed up for most of the same classes, including homeroom. I hope Max doesn't find out that I saw what she was signed up for and made sure I was in all the same classes. The only class we have with Iggy is English, in 3rd period. We don't see Ella at all except for lunch.

I ran down the hallway, with Max close behind me. I ran through the door, half-hoping for the bell to ring at that moment for a dramatic effect.

No such luck.

"What's your name?" a voice said.

I turned towards it. It came from the mouth of a middle-aged man at the front of the room. He was wearing a white lab coat, which had relationships to the words 'evil', 'mad scientist', and 'experiment' in my mind. Not a good first impression.

I hid my initial reaction of fear and put on a straight face.

"Fang. And this is Max."

He looked at us carefully, and nodded, "There are two open desks at the back of the room. Class is starting in a minute."

As if on cue, the bell rang as soon as he finished saying 'minute'.

Max and I scurried around the desks and sat down in our seats. I took out my laptop and chemistry textbook that Dr. Martinez provided me with.

"Welcome and good morning, students. My name is Mr. Holland. I will be teaching Advanced Chemistry this semester, and I look forward to being able to teach every one of you. I know you don't want to hear long introductions on your first day, so I'll keep it short. In the first few weeks, we'll be studying the reactions of-" he said, before I tuned him out.

His speech went on for another five minutes. What did he say about short introductions? I snuck a glance at Max, and she was rolling her eyes at the teacher.

"-we will conclude the semester with the study of how molecules react when combined with other molecules. Any questions?" Mr. Holland finally concluded.

As I expected, nobody raised their hand. Everybody else was still fazed from Mr. Holland's 'short introduction'. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good. Now, I've paired you up for the first lab. Jim will be working with Clara, Fang with Brigid, Max with Robert-" I turned and looked for my partner, Brigid.

I found her sitting at her desk. She immediately stood up, looked me up and down, and put on a seductive smile. "Heyyy, Fangy!" she said as she inched closer to me. I stepped backwards and held up my hands. Where was she going with this?

"B-Brigid. Let's just do the lab. We can talk later. Don't call me Fangy, by the way." I said, confused.

Brigid pouted. "Fine."

I walked over to our black table. Thank goodness they didn't look like anything I could remember from the School. I had tried to forget all of my painful memories from the school, but it's sort of hard to forget half of my life. I would've dedicated a blog entry to anyone who can do that.

Brigid picked up a tube of red liquid. I was considering slapping her hand, but abstained at the last moment. It wouldn't be pretty if Brigid spilled a tube of potentially dangerous liquid on the table.

"Brigid, wait. Let Mr. Holland explain," I said.

Mr. Holland was busy fidgeting with his Smartboard, trying to calibrate the pen. I groaned. If Iggy did this, I will personally dump the tube of chemicals Brigid was holding down Iggy's shirt.

After fifteen minutes of embarrassment, Mr. Holland had had enough. "All right, attention, students! Please refrain from touching any of the test tubes."

"Oops," Brigid giggled.

Mr. Holland looked at her. "Something to say, Ms. Stone?"

Brigid shut up. "No," she muttered.

Mr. Holland looked satisfied. "We will conduct a different experiment then the one I had planned. For this one, the chemicals in front of you will not be necessary. We will be creating Carbon towers. For this experiment, we will only need sugar, a Bunsen burner, a glass stirrer, a stand, and a piece of wire gauze. These materials can be found beneath your tables."

I reached down into my drawer, but instead of finding the materials I needed, I saw an empty drawer with a note in the back.

The note read, "Hey, bro! Sucks to be you! -Jeff"

A wave of shock and anger washed over me. Iggy did this? Why did he sign "Jeff"? We weren't keeping our names secret. Why did he do this? How did he know that I would be at this desk? I was so going to wring his neck when we got home. But we were still like brothers, and I wouldn't rat him out.

I ripped the note from the drawer and sloppily shoved it in my pocket. "Mr. Holland!"

He looked up from his table. "Fang? Is there a problem back there?"

"Yes, my table is empty."

"Wh-what? I personally made sure that everyone had all necessary materials this morning!"

"Well, you must've missed our table. Come take a look."

He walked over, and sure enough, nothing was to be found.

He shook his head in disbelief. "I cannot explain this. For now, you may join another table."

As I watched him walk back to the front of the room, I walked over to Max's table. "Hey."

Max looked up, surprised. "Fang? What are you doing here?"

"Don't ask."

She nodded. Her partner, Robert, was busy consulting his textbook for instructions.

Several minutes later, we finally managed to create our carbon tower. Who knew that sugar could turn black and expand when heated. Huh.

At the front of the room, Mr. Holland called, "Students! Turn this way!"

After getting our attention, he continued, "This is what should have happened to your sugar. Watch carefully."

He carefully measured 3 ounces of sugar, and poured it into a beaker. I half-expected him to suddenly reveal himself as a scientist from the School. Hey, growing up in a dog crate in a lab makes you paranoid about anyone wearing a lab coat! After striking his Bunsen burner, he began to stir the sugar, expecting it to slowly rise. He certainly didn't expect to see what he did.

The beaker exploded right before his eyes.

Thankfully, it was a small explosion, and Mr. Holland was quick. He ducked as the explosion destroyed the table along with the Bunsen burner. I knew the explosion could have been caused by only one person: Iggy. I really was going to kill him at home.

Mr. Holland spoke up. "Well, students, that was a good demonstration of what not to do. I have no explanation to as what happened. I apologize for the poor demonstration, and I will now check to see if everyone has successfully constructed a carbon tower."

Max looked at me. "Ig-"

I cut her off. "Yeah."

Max rolled her eyes, clearly not happy. "I will personally cut off his wings and push him off the Grand Canyon. "

I tried not to laugh as I pictured him screaming, "BACON!" as he fell to his death.

Meanwhile, Dr. Holland had finished checking everyone's carbon towers. "Well, I see that you all were more competent than I was at this exercise. Very good job, students. We have ten minutes remaining in class, so I will ask for everyone to empty your beakers and clean up."

A chorus of "Awww!"'s echoed among the students. Seems like they really enjoyed burning sugar.

As I was following Max out of the room, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I quickly turned around to find myself face-to-face with Brigid, my partner.

"Heeeyyyy Fangles! Wanna-" she said, before Max interrupted her.

"Who do you think you are?"

Brigid batted her eyes, feigning innocence. "I-I was just talking to Fang, here."

I was lost. What was Max doing?

After sufficiently staring her down, Max walked off. I followed her.

"What's up?" I asked Max.

She turned around, upset, "Nothing."

"Really, Max, what's wrong?"

She glared at me, "That Brigid girl, I swear, if she.." she trailed off.

Being a boy, I was completely lost when Max spoke in Girlese. However, I could tell something was wrong. I decided not to press her. I didn't want her mad at me.

I sighed and turned around.

"IGGY?"

Iggy tried his best to look at me. "Yeah?"

"You know why I'm talking to you."

Iggy innocently looked at me. "Huh?"

"Iggy, I swear-"

He held up his hands. "Dude, I honestly have no idea why you're saying this. Now let me go to class or I'll be late."

I sighed and let him go. "Don't think I'll forget."

As Iggy ran off, I turned to head to Spanish. As I turned, I bumped into someone.

"Brigid?"

"Fangy!" she squealed. I winced. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, called my Fangy. Fangles? Sure. Fangy? No way. I have no idea why, I just hate the name.

"Yeah?"

"Wanna go see a movie with me this Saturday?" she said in an irritating, high voice.

Did she just ask me out? I froze up. "Well, uh-I, um-"

She rolled her eyes. "Please, Fangles. It'll be great!"

I had no idea how to respond. I didn't want to hurt her, but I really liked Max. I couldn't do this.

No, I thought. No. No. NO. NOO. "Uh, sure," is what ended up coming out of my mouth.

She perked up. "I knew it! I can't wait!"

I watched her run down the hallway, thinking, "What did I just do?"


Max's POV

Uh, sure.

Fang's words were ringing through my head. I had overheard their conversation accidentally. I stepped out of the bathroom to hear them talking.

I couldn't believe it. Fang had chosen this girl he just met over me? I should've known that he never loved me. He was drop-dead, Robert Pattinson-level gorgeous. He'd never like a tomboy rebel girl like me.

I blinked back tears. Tears? Tears? I never cried. Why was I suddenly crying over a guy?

I had no choice. I ran out of the school, unfurled my wings, and took off. I didn't care if anyone saw me, I just had to get as far away from Fang as possible.


I apologize if I got some science stuff wrong. I know zilch about it!

R&R please?