Wow! I am so sorry I haven't written. I got into my school musical and I have had 12 o'clock rehearsals for the past two months! It was frickin' amazing to be in it but I am sorry I neglected this. I have had most of it written for awhile and kind of mad some stuff up on the spot. So review!

So chapter has a lot of author's notes because it is all about San Francisco and, hey, it's my hometown so I think I am allowed to make comments. If anyone has been there/lives there, awesome because this is pretty lifelike. And if you haven't I so recommend going instead of LA (although they have Disneyland) but San Francisco is not like LA at all.

Enjoy!

"Come on Max!" Diana sang into my ear. "It's the weekend before school starts! We're going into the city!"

I rolled out of bed and walked into the bathroom. While I was brushing my teeth, I watched her put on her make-up. She looked to plain without it. I could see every freckle, bump, and miss feature on her face until she covered it all with a nude-like orange color that was one shade more orange than her natural skin tone for her beach look. Ugh.

Unlike a couple days ago, the weather was sunny and pleasant. Although I had learned the hard way that around 6 o'clock, the weather dropped to a chilly 59 degrees. Oh the weather I could not get used to.

We took Bart (A/N local transportation in SF like the subway in NY or the El in Chicago. No, you do not say "took the Bart") to Union Square. Diana, Patricia, Lissa (unfortunately), and I met up with Fang, Iggy, and some other people I had never met before. There were a couple younger kids, Nudge, Gazzy and, Angel. Then some kids my age, Sam and Nathan, who were both in drama. Nudge was in singing, Gazzy was in fencing and martial arts, and Angel was in dance.

When I first met them, Angel had her hand securely in Fang's and marched right up to me. "Are you Max?" she asked with her big blue eyes looking up at me and her blond curls framing her face.

"I am. What's your name, sweetheart?" I asked sweetly

"Angel and you are taking me and Gazzy to FAO Schwartz" (A/N Sadly there is no more FAO Schwartz in SF it was replaced by Barney's but there used to be one so pretend it is still there) Angel commanded.

"Okay," Fang said, "Who wants to go with Max to take Gazzy and Angel to the toy store?"

"I will," Sam volunteered looking at me.

Fang stared back, "No it's okay I'll go."

"Hey you asked Buddy-boy," Sam replied with his brown tortoiseshell hair and walked over next to me. Fang grunted and walked ahead with Gazzy.

Angel tugged on my sleeve. "Yes sweetie?"

"Sam and Fang like you," Angel whispered in my ear. I laughed and opened the door for her.

While Angel was looking at all the stuffed animals, Sam came over and sat down next to me on the floor. "Hey Max," he said to me.

"Hi, where is Fang and Gazzy?" I questioned.

"Over there with the Transformers. I'm Sam. You're in drama right?" Sam said quickly changing the subject.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Good, we can use another girl. All the other ones don't have that power to really affect people," Sam told me.

"And what makes you so sure I am good?" I said with a little bit of attitude.

"You just have the natural movie star appearance to you," Sam said looking deep into me. I smiled slightly and went over to Gazzy who looked a bit overwhelmed by the amount of Lego's and Bionicles.

"Wassup dude!" I exclaimed.

Gazzy looked up at me with the same blue eyes as Angel, his sister, "Rawr, I will take down the city," in an awesome Bionicle voice. He smashed down the city and then attacked my face with the Bionicle. We started laughing.

Then I felt someone standing behind me. I whipped around and there was Fang. "Oh god I thought you were someone else," I said in relief.

"Like who?" Fang asked, eying Sam playing with Angel.

"No one in particular," I answered slowly. Turning back to Gazzy, I said "Alright G, ready to go?"

"Yup" the Gasman said as he stood up and brushed off Lego pieces from him jeans. We went to get Sam and Angel.

Everyone else was at the shopping center Westfield. It wasn't like regular mall; it was huge and combined with high-end stores and local stores. All the girls decided to go to Anthropologie. Well I didn't decide but I didn't want to stay with the guys at Abercrombie & Fitch so they could look for all the hot girls. Those sexist pigs. Besides the music, darkness, and smell would drive anyone away. The clothes were horrible quality that could rip so easily. Those "distressed" jeans or whatever they are called, I could buy a pair of jeans from Goodwill and tear them myself. (A/N Sorry to anyone who likes A & F. I can't stand that place. I could go on but I won't)

Inside Anthropologie was like a huge mansion with old book pages or material to decorate the store. It had an earthy feeling to it and amazing clothes, just not for me. I picked up a few small furniture pieces to add to my room.

"So Max, how are you enjoying the school?" Lissa said coming up to stand next to me in line.

"Uh I don't know," I replied warily, "it's only been a few days and I haven't even started class."

Lissa, obviously not listening to me, started to laugh loud and obnoxiously and slapped me on the shoulder in a fake best friend slap. She was looking over at the yellow couch which sat most of the guys that came from A & F to wait for us. All of the guys looked over. She flung her red hair over her shoulder and a chunk of it got stuck on my lip. Oh gross. I started choking and spitting it out. The guys were trying to smother their laughter. It was frankly quite embarrassing. I left her to walk up to the cashier.

Everyone was taking me on the all San Francisco tour. We rode on a cable car. It was jammed pack so the younger kids had to sit in the edge of the seat without a wall and the rest of us hung on to the railings on the side. I pressed my back into Angel's knees so she wouldn't fall out.

The car traveled up and down the hills of San Francisco. We past Lombard Street and through Chinatown. Every time we whizzed past another cable car so close I could talk to the people in the other car (not that I would ever want to) I could feel Fang press his knee against mine so I wouldn't fall off.

We got off at Ghirardelli Square (A/N Best chocolate ever). There were a couple of tourist shops. The view was what we came for. A chilling sea wind was picking up and for my LA weather clock I put my bomber jacket on now unlike the rest of the locals.

"Max," Diana called to me. I walked over to her. "You're a dessert person aren't you?"

"Uh of course," I replied.

"What's your favorite?" she asked

"Chocolate-chip cookies," I stated quickly

"Aww, I thought you might like cupcakes more," Diana sighed

"Hey any dessert is fine with me," I said quickly she wouldn't change her mind

"Alright, come on" she started to walk up the hill to Ghirardelli Square. We walked into a totally pink cupcake shop called Kara's Cupcakes. Not my color but those cupcakes really made up for the pink. They even sold shirts that said Kara's Cupcakes with a little cupcake cartoon. I bought one for my sister Ella to mail.

Diana and I bought a dozen cupcakes to take to everyone. I was alright with the cupcakes since I got a chocolate chip one. Although not as good as homemade and fresh chocolate chip cookies that my mom makes, they came really close. Miss I-am-so skinny-and-cannot-afford-to-eat-carbs-and-ruin-my-precious-red-hair-in-the-frosting Lissa didn't want her cupcake so I got two. Though wary of rabies, I still ate the cupcake. Mine was better.

"Hi I am Nudge. I hardly got to talk to you today because I was really busy shopping. Would you like to see what I got? I bought this really cute shirt that has all these silver sparkles everywhere because I love sparkles and my mom says they make my eyes shine and I love twirling them around. Oh and then I bought this new laptop case that is pink and it has these cute little grippy things at the bottom so your laptop can't slide off you lap or table even though I don't know how that would happen. And I also bought some of these Hello Kitty pencils for school and erasers at the Sanrio store. They smell like chocolate, strawberry, orange, banana, and grape. Except I don't really like the grape one because it smells like cough medicine and that is disgusting. The chocolate one smells the best because it smells like actual chocolate. I like chocolate chip cookies but my favorite are snicker doodles especially when they are hot out of the oven. At home, my mom makes them for me all the time and the kitchen always has the cinnamon sugar aroma to it. And I forgot to tell you I got this cool figurine statue of an elephant at Anthropolgoie. Elephants are my favorite animals because they are so big and cute. You know you can ride them but I think their poop stinks. Although elephant butts are really cute. And they are really smart too that's why they are never eaten by lions unless there is no other food.," pausing slightly, she asked "What's your name again?"

A little overwhelmed with information, I replied, "Max. I didn't tell you before,"

"Oh well maybe Fang told me before. Sometimes I forget, usually I have a good memory but well this time I--"

"Yo! Max! Nudge! Hurry it up!" Fang called ahead of us. We raced to the rest of the group.

"Alright guys ready for this annual trip?" Iggy asked

"Yeah!" everyone cried except me.

"Where are we going?" I whispered to Fang

"You'll see," he whispered back in a sort of mischievous grin.

We walked about six blocks until we got to Fisherman's Warf. I was almost dark by then and the wind was really blowing. Finally we stopped at the very end with a lack of tourists.

Everyone climbed over the fence and onto the beach. The older kids helped the young ones. I lifted Angel over the fence and zipped up her jacket. She smiled at me and took my hand, leading me to the beach. Let me tell you it is not really a beach. The sand is smooth up to about 5 feet. Then it is filled with a bunch of hard rocks and that the water has washed up. When you finally reach the water, it is freezing cold. Eventually at around knee height, you must wade through a thick forest of seaweed. Once battled through, the water is quite nice because you cannot feel you legs. I actually didn't go in but that's what everyone told me. There was no way I would go in.

Sam, Nathan, Diana, Patricia, and Lissa (who was hard to separate from Fang by the way) went to the local market to get food for our night picnic. I was with Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel on the beach. (A/N Migrating flock reference :D) I felt the most comfortable with them in years since Em. We started a fire which I am not sure is legal but whatever, we weren't caught.

"Hey Ig watch that drift wood!" I told him. I did not want to be responsible for burning down San Francisco.

Eventually everyone came back. After eating, Diana pulled some candles from a canvas bag and handed each of us one. Then she set one big one in the middle. Everyone had an ivory colored candle and the wick was slightly burnt. Fang, Iggy, and Diana's candle had long black wicks from other uses while everyone else had a slightly used candle. Mine was brand new and had an "M" drawn at the bottom with a sharpie. Iggy passed around one of those big lighter (don't ask me why he has one)

Diana started off, "We gather here to join in our 9th year of friendship." Fang caught my eye and made a face at Lissa. I had to muffle my snicker. "Starting from Fang, Iggy, and I to Lissa and Sam, then Patricia and Nathan, then Nudge, finally Gazzy and Angel. Each one of us joining together for a-"

"Get to the point Diana," Iggy interrupted, "It's not wedding for crying out loud."

"Chill out," Diana snapped back jokingly threatening Iggy with her candle. She cleared her throat, glared at Iggy and started "Because of audience disruption, we are going to leave our traditional ceremony and slightly alter one. Max," she said turning to me, "If you would please light the middle candle"

Cautiously, for fear of the candle blowing up, I lit it.

"Alright, now go over to the big rock, find the tree, then the other rock," Dana commanded.

I went to the big rock. What freaking tree?! And "the other rock"??? There were like a bazillion rocks on this beach. I was screwed. If I didn't find it, then I would have to find new friends and God knows how well I can do that.

"She is never going to find it!" sang Lissa as she relaxed on the sand. I hope a sand crab cuts off all hair and then snaps its claws on her foot.

"Shut up!" said Fang "It took you a while too."

Tree…tree….tree. I stared at the ground, with my superhero powers, willing for it to sprout a tree. My force failed me. So then, checking to make sure no one was looking, I started jumping up and down, bowing to the rock, chanting, "Please grow a tree. Please grow a tree." Not working. I suppose X-ray vision would not be needed right now.

The rest of the group was around the fire waiting for me to come back. This was impossible. It really showed my intelligence because Lissa could figure it out and I couldn't. I lied down on my back and waited for someone to find me and kick me out.

I could still hear them talking near the fire.

"Hey what are you doing? You're supposed to be figuring this thing out," I got up and turned around to see Fang crouching down next to me.

"I am growing a tree," I said knowingly.

"Diana must have gotten it mixed up," Fang said pointedly, "It is suppose to be the tree on the rock." Fang winked at me and walked off.

On the rock….on the rock. From where I was lying I turned my head so I could see the rock. There was a fat thick brown line sticking out from where the sand met the rock. I dug the sand around it out. There was a painted tree on the rock about the size of my thumb. Clearing all the sand out so I could see the whole picture, my hand hit another rock. It was "the other rock" I was a huge flat rock abut a foot long and paper thin, had drawings all over it. There was a drawing from each person. On the other side was a bird fossil preserved in the rock. The bird had died with its wings still open as if it would take flight. Underneath the fossil, someone had written "Blueberry" in kindergarten handwriting.

I smiled. So now I was officially part of the group. I drew a feather, a rock and a tree, with a sharpie in my back pocket from the candle. Honestly, that was all I could think of. I buried the rock back into its proper place as best as I could and joined everyone else.

There was a conversation going on that I walked right in the middle of. Fang looked at me and bared the slightest grin. I could feel my cheeks flush and looked quickly away.

"Yes! Yes!" Diana exclaimed, "I knew you could do it!" and then devoured me into a hug.

Everyone else came up to me except Lissa who glared at me. I could tell she knew Fang told me but everyone was on my side. I looked back at her in a deathly sort of way. She broke the stare as everyone expanded from me.

We headed back to BSFTGT. Tomorrow would be my first day of school here. Oh jeez someone save me.