I am SO sorry if I forgot to put up a disclaimer. I do NOT own anything from Maximum Ride. All that belongs to James Patterson.

Fang's POV

I would've just pegged it off as an animal or the wind or something if…

If I didn't have the feeling that someone was watching me.

I stopped and turned slowly around, taking in as much as I possibly could. There was nothing there that I could see. I couldn't shake the feeling off though. Maybe Max was right. Maybe someone was following us.

That was it. I took off. I don't think I've ever sprinted that hard in my entire life. I reached the edge of the woods, and emerged into my own backyard. I walked to my porch, but looked back right before I ducked inside. I scanned the dark forest with my eyes. But right before I was about to turn around and go inside, I saw a shadow from within the trees…

It was most definitely a human shadow…

Max's POV

I had spent all weekend thinking about Fang. I really wanted to know more about him. He was interesting, intuitive, genuine… and well, really good-looking.

That's why when I saw him in P.E. the next day I couldn't help but smile. He walked over to me.

Goodness, he looked good in those shorts.

"So how was your weekend?" he asked, with a smirk.

"It was fine I guess."

Right then, the coach called us to the middle of the gym. "Alright everybody, we'll be running a timed mile today. And please, don't all cheer at once." P.E. teachers…they always think they're funny. Everyone groaned at once. Everyone but Fang and I of course. We both glanced at each other with the same competitive smirk on our face.

When we got up to the track, I just looked at Fang, and I don't know how, but I just knew that we were both thinking the same exact thing. "Let's do this."

"Oh, it is SO on Maxie." I glared at the nickname but he just winked at me as we took our places at the starting line. God, that wink was hot.

Yeah…um…whatever. Now was not the time to have an inner debate. The coach yelled "Go," and Fang and I were already at the 100 meter mark by the time the third fastest kid in the class was at the 50.

Oh, he really was tough competition. For most of the four laps, we were neck and neck. By the third lap however, I started cramping up in my stomach. And no, it wasn't because I was out of shape. Let's just say that sometimes it sucks to be a girl.

My stomach was really killing me, but I didn't give up. I never gave up. I grit my teeth and pushed myself so hard that it felt like I was going against the wind. Heck, it felt like I was going against the laws of gravity itself.

Look at me, defying the laws of physics.

You're almost there Max. Come on Max, run faster. You can catch him. Just push yourself, push yourself, push yourself. The distance between us was closing…

If you just run fast enough, nothing can catch you.

The gap was closed in mere seconds, and I crossed the finish line just barely before he did.

"5:30, Good job Max." Coach read out my mile time. "Fang, 5:31. Good, but next time you should try finishing strong like Max over here."

I smirked as I walked to go lean against the fence surrounding the track at the school. "Victory," I arrogantly jokingly remarked over my shoulder. As I drank from my water bottle, I watched him stumble and wobble over his own two feet. Woah.

He was no doubt unsteady from the run. When he was right in front of me, his eyes rolled shut and he basically collapsed onto me. So instead of leaning against the fence, which was clearly his target, he ended up on me instead.

"Woah. Fang, are you okay?" I grabbed his shoulders, and shook him, which honestly probably wasn't the best move for either of us. You see, even though his eyes snapped open, this made him even more dazed, which caused for his cheeks to turn even more red, which lead me out of my state of worry long enough to fully observe his appearance.

He was sweaty and wet, his face was flushed red, his breathing was coming in shallow breaths, my back was against the fence, and he was against me. His body was on mine, his skin was burning hot and his face was about an inch away from mine. The most irrational thoughts started flooding my mind. I wanted to run my hands through his wet hair, I wanted him closer, but above all else, I wanted to stay there forever. I'll admit that even my breath started to come in unevenly because holy shit he was sexy.

I had to snap out of it though. "Fang, don't faint. Listen to my voice and look at me." Slowly, his gaze came up to look at mine. "That's right. Now just focus on one point far away."

He didn't listen to me though. He just kept staring in my eyes. "Now control your breathing." I knew he was returning back to normal when slowly, as his breathing returned to normal, his pupils began to take on a more normal size, and his face returned to its normal color.

Fang's POV

My eyes widened as I fully realized the current position of both of our bodies. It seemed as if our body heat escalated, and Max's skin started to burn against mine. I wanted to lean in, I wanted more of her. But above all else, I wanted to keep her there under me, where only I could feel her. This irrationality caught me off guard, and I jumped back before I could do anything.

I felt like such a guy. But I don't know, it just felt like more than that because it wasn't lust. It was attraction, and I felt it from the moment I first laid eyes on her, which is corny but true.

Umm… okay, I think I need to shake off this ludicrousness before it consumes me. I felt pretty shaken up, and from the look on Max's windblown, breathless face, she seemed pretty shaken up too. And I'm not too sure it was entirely because of the run. Heck, I felt more off balance thinking about how my body felt on Max's rather than almost fainting.

"Oh, wow. I'm so sorry Max. I don't even know what happened. That NEVER happens to me. I usually run like 5 miles a day with no problem." Oh man, this was embarrassing.

She smirked, "How long has it been exactly since you've run '5 miles a day with no problem'?"

Oh man, oh man, oh man. She thinks I'm lazy and fat and slow. "No, no, no, no, no. I'm being serious. This is my first run in months. Just you wait and see, by the end of next week, I'll be able to knock a minute off that time."

She just stared at me. I'm not sure if she believed me or not because she took a sip from her water bottle, turned around and started walking away from me. I couldn't look away though. A few steps away however, she paused, turned her head over her shoulder, and called back to me, "Just don't forget how it feels to get beat. Okay, big shot?"

Oh, she was never going to let me live this down.

FML.

"Wait. Max," She stopped dead in her tracks, and turned around. Unfortunately, at this exact same moment Coach Hiley, the teacher, decided to walk over and ask, "Are you okay, Fang? I saw you almost faint over there. You need to go see the nurse."

"Oh no no no no no. That REALLY won't be necessary. I really am fine."

"Nonsense. Hey Max, would you mind taking Fang to the nurse."

She grinned wickedly at me, "Why of course not."

This day just keeps getting better and better. We were back in the building when I decided to speak up. "Okay, Max. This is absolutely ridiculous. I am NOT going to the nurse."

Max's POV (Sorry if this seems like a random point of view switch. I was reading back through this when I realized I had randomly switched point of views without even noticing it.)

"Why of course you are. Teacher's orders," I couldn't help but snicker.

"Whatever. Why don't we just leave? Skip class. There's this place I'd really like to show you." He did this thing with his voice that made his offer sound so irresistible. Plus, he cocked one eyebrow up, and looked at me with those eyes that say 'You know you want to'. My will was crumbling into pieces at that boyish cuteness.

"But I can't skip class. It's only my second day," Ha! Okay, I found my reason.

"But you know you want to." …Well, there goes my resolve.

Wait, no. A plan was formulating in my head.

"Fang, think about it…we're supposed to be taking you to the office because you fainted. Well…what if I pretended that I was the one that fainted. If I make it convincing enough, they would probably send me home with an excused absence." I gave him this look that said there's more, "But wait, I wouldn't be able to get home because I can't drive and my mom can't get off work. If you say that you live in my neighborhood, they'd have no other choice but to excuse you as well so that you could drive me home. And BAM! There you go. We both get out of school with excuses. It's a win-win!"

He looked me up and down in a fashion that made me my palms sweat. "Diabolical," he said with an upward quark of an eyebrow. "You really are a mischievous little mastermind, aren't you?" That made my face flush red in record time.

The plan went smoothly for the most part. I held my breath before I walked in there for so long that when I walked in, my face was pale white and I was breathing in shallow quantities. I told them that I was seeing spots of black, and they immediately told me I had to go home and get some rest. I was afraid they would contact Coach Hiley, but as soon as they realized I had fainted, the secretary told the nurse that the P.E. teacher had just called in to inform them that a student that had just fainted would be coming on down.

As soon as we made it outside, we looked at each other, grinned and exchanged a high-five. We decided to take Fang's car. I left a note in my car telling Ella to drive herself home. I left one door unlocked and hid the key in a secret compartment where only Ella would be able to find it.

Fang appreciatively whistled at my car and remarked about my 'nice ride'. I'll admit, his car wasn't too shabby either. Granted, it was a black, leather seated, brand new 2012 Camaro coup.

I climbed in and put on my seat belt.

"You ready for this?" He said as he turned to look at me, his face a look of excitement.

I looked back at him, already having the time of my life. "Totally."

And we took off. He drove like a maniac, speeding and weaving in and out of the streets. We put on the music so loud we could hardly even hear our own selves if we tried to talk. It was dangerous, and fun and spontaneous, and I liked it. I liked it a lot.

We drove like this for about ten minutes before we entered a neighborhood, our neighborhood to be exact. As soon as we entered it, Fang turned off the music. So he was also sensible and polite. Good to know.

"Woah, I thought you wanted to show me something? What are we doing here?" I didn't want to admit it, but I REALLY didn't want to go home. I was just having too much fun.

"I am showing you something." And with that, he pulled up in front of his house. It was really nice, but surprisingly, when we both got out of the car, he led me through his backyard and into the trees instead of showing me the inside of his house.

We were walking for a few minutes before he started talking, "If you keep walking down this trail, you'll end up in your backyard." It was then that he stopped abruptly, and pulled back a barricade of overgrown leaves. This revealed an imperceptible trail that otherwise wouldn't have been noticed.

He let out his hand, jumped over a fallen log, turned back to me, and said, "Do you trust me?"

…So, I'm sorry this took like a week to put up. I've been SOO busy. I AM SO GRATEFUL to all the reviews though. They made me SO happy! So I wasn't sure about that sort-of-Fax scene at the track. But like, I'm going to be fasting from sunrise to sunset for a whole month, so I most likely won't be updating for a while. UNLESS you guys surprise me with a large amount of reviews. How about if you read this chapter and liked it, you review ;)

Till next time, *~Mazy~*