Good Enough

by The High-Fives For Nothing

Max and Fang are best friends, but Max likes him as a more-than-friend. She's sure that she's going to take the chance when perfect Brigid comes along and steals everything away from her. Oh, God. Now everything's screwed up, too! Full summary inside. Co-written with Ravenclaw Wings. I swear, it isn't as terrible and/or cliche as you think it's going to be. XD

4. Chapter 4

MAX'S POV:

"Apart from this whole world that—" my fingers slipped. Ugh. I started over. "Apart from this whole world that shares—" I couldn't remember what the chord was.

"UGH!" I yelled, frustrated, and I set my ukulele down next to me on my bed. I looked at my hands for a moment, trying to remember what that last chord at "shares my fate" was. My fingers were really sore, raw even, from playing for two hours straight and my hand was cramping like heck. I was in the midst of trying to learn the song "Be My Escape" by Relient K, but it was getting pretty hard. I'd only started learning ukulele two weeks before then so I wasn't particularly good at it either. The chords kept getting jumbled up in my head and I couldn't remember some of them when it came time to play the song.
I sighed and put my head in my hands, my elbows set on my knees. My heels were digging into the little bit of frame from my bed that wasn't covered by the mattress, but it wasn't uncomfortably so. I was in that mood of despair—I really just wanted to give up on trying. I knew I wouldn't though; I loved playing too much to give it up. I needed to work on the harder stuff or I was never going to get any better.

There was a knock on my door. "It's unlocked," I groaned into my hands, not bothering to look up. I felt someone sit down next to me but I still didn't move. I heard them pick up my ukulele and play a chord or two for a moment before saying, "Learning a new song?"

I nodded my head in reply.

Fang played a little bit of "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" by The Black Kids, probably out of boredom, since I'd taught him that one.

"The word's on the street and it's on the news

I'm not gonna teach him how to dance with you!

He's got two left feet and he bites my moves

I'm not gonna teach him how to

Dance, dance, dance!"

I joined in on the last line, resting my hands on my knees instead. Fang grinned his signature Mona Lissa Grin, holding my ukulele out to me. I smiled a little, taking it from him, but instead of playing anything like I knew he probably was expecting, I set it behind me and turned to him.

"I can't get G/B right," I informed him miserably. "Every time I get to that dang line, my hand slips and it makes an awful noise that tends to mess the entire song up." I groaned again, cracking my knuckles and fingers. My hand was still cramped. "Ugh."

"Why don't you take a break and practice something else?" he suggested. I gave him a look. "Oh, you only what me to do that so you get to hear me sing," I accused. He only shrugged, not denying anything. I rarely let anyone hear me sing and apparently he liked it when I did. I didn't have a single clue why—it's not like I was a fantastic singer or anything. I was just…average.

But I obliged anyway, partially because I kind of wanted to, and partially because I promised a while ago that he'd get to hear. I brought the ukulele from behind me and set my fingers into position. I started strumming, though gently and quietly.

"I was unafraid

I was a boy

I was a tender age

Melic in the naked

Knew a lake

Between lofts for page

Hurdle all the weightings up

Know it wasn't waited love, why

Four long minute's end and it was over

It'll all be back

And the frost took up the eyes

Pressed against the pain

Could see the veins

And there was poison out

Resting in a raise, the inner claims

I hadn't breath to shake

Searching for an inner clout

May not take another but why?

Honey in the hail, could see the pails

Of loving less with fame

But it wasn't yet the spring

Aiming and it sunk and we were drunk

And we had fleshed it out

Nose up in the groves, you never know

If you are passing out

No, it wasn't maiden up, the falling

Or defeated luck, why?

Oooh

Hung up in the ivory, both were climbing

For a finer cause

Love could hardly leave the room…

…With your heart

Oooh

Oooh

Ooooh…"

I finished, looking down shyly, feeling my cheeks heat up, and setting my rather beloved instrument behind me. Fang clapped quietly, so as not to wake Mom up, since she was taking a nap. She had stayed at work pretty late the night before and needed to rest a little. I didn't want to wake her. "That was 'Michicant' by Bon Iver, right?" He inquired. I nodded a little, having expected him to recognize it. He was actually the one who introduced me to that band. You'd think he would rather listen to bands like Blood On the Dance Floor or Black Veil Brides, but he didn't usually. Shocker, I know.

I grinned a little and then stared expectantly at my friend. "Whatchya wanna do now?"

He shrugged, leaning back in his palms. I nodded my head once, and then got from the bed. I set my iPhone on its dock, switching through my music to find a particular song. When I found it, I smiled and turned it on, though quietly, since, you know….Mom and all. The song was "Happy" by Secrets in the Stereo.

There was a pause before the music started playing and I sat down into my computer chair, spinning around a couple times, just because I could. I did a lot of things without a real reason, honestly. I liked small things like that because the significance of it doesn't seem very important at the time, but when you look back at it, that's the kind of thing you always recall the most; the little things. Whenever my mum talked about my dad, she'd rarely tell me the huge things. It was always something like how on their anniversary; he'd always buy her roses—pink ones, not red, and always exactly six. Or how he'd always bite his lip when he was thinking something over. Or if you want another example: how he always pushed his old glasses up his nose and then brought them down again.

Oh, Lord, I'm starting to sound sentimental and jazz, aren't I?

…

Anyways.

"Max?"

My head snapped over to the door. My mom stood in the doorway, looking sleepy; her hair messed up, her work clothes still on. Except she had her blue fluffy slippers on as apposed to her heels. "Awww, I'm sorry, Mum. I didn't mean to wake up you," I apologized, turning the music off for a moment. She just smiled and told me that it was fine—I didn't wake her up, she woke on her own. I nodded but still felt bad nonetheless.

So you're probably still confused about the whole situation with my dad, right? When I mentioned my first meeting with the Walkers' a while back, it never said anything about little Maxine's father, did it? Well, as you know, there's a reason for that. My dad died right after I was born, when I was just a couple months old. It was supposedly a car crash, but sometimes I think that it's a little more than that—and that thought is actually more of a gut feeling. My gut feelings are usually right though.

So…yeah…he died. My mom loved him dearly, with all her heart, and when I was little—right after he passed—when Mom was getting me to bed, I would always ask her to tell me about him. I would beg and beg and beg each night for her to tell me exactly how they met. She'd just smiled and laugh, though both had a bittersweet undertone, and she'd tell me over and over the same story, her eyes a little upset. Somehow, I never got tired of that story. I had it memorized by the age of six and could tell it word-from-word to anyone who asked—not that anyone really did. If I had been a little older, I would've realized that it pained her to have to tell me every single night, but I was only a kid. And by the age of eight or nine, I had noticed that little fact, and had stopped asking her to tell me all the time. After then, we rarely ever brought the subject up. But I still remembered every word from it.

---

Even though Fall Break is a week—really only five days, but who honestly cares? —It felt like one day. I didn't do much. I just hung out at home and with my friends and tried to not worry too much about things. Though that ended up being incredibly hard, I managed through the five days without schoolwork to distract my worried mind.

"Okay, class, I want you all to make her feel welcome here—she just moved from South Carolina a couple of weeks ago and she's not used to this school. You need to be on your best behavior and try to be nice. Alright?" The teacher said emotionlessly as if he'd said it a billion times before. His eyelids were drooping like he was about to fall asleep and his dull gray eyes were looking, uninterested, at us. I raised an eyebrow in amusement to myself, leaning back in my chair and crossing my arms over my chest after pushing some rather bothersome hair out of my way.

Fang glanced at me from his desk beside me, also with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked as impassive as ever, but his eyes were grinning so I smiled back whole-heartedly. Giving him an entertained look, I mouthed, "Teachers," rolling my eyes and giving a small shake of my head as if in disappointment. He grinned and shrugged almost sarcastically. I went back to paying semi-attention as the teacher stepped towards the door and swung it open.

A girl my age with platinum blonde hair down to her collarbone and bright, happy blue eyes that were lined with black eyeliner walked in the room. But for once, the makeup wasn't overdone—as apposed to most of the female population at my school. Her face was only adorned with a little bit—pink lip-gloss, eyeliner, and purple-and-gray eye shadow. She was wearing a pink, beige, and black pencil skirt down to mid thigh, open toed, what-looked-to-be three-inch high heels, and a white blouse with ruffles along the top, showing a little cleavage but not enough for her to be considered sleazy. On her left hand was a ring studded with small red rubies—I figured it was her birthstone or something or another. She plastered a blinding white smile on her face, dimples showing, and waved in greeting to the class. She shifted the pink messenger bag on her shoulder a little bit and stared back at the class with curious (and slightly nervous) eyes. For some reason, I decided that I didn't really like her that much. She didn't seem like a terrible person…just kind of…I didn't know…annoying maybe? Meh. I didn't think about it too much. I was going with my gut feeling. And, not to toot my own horn or anything, but my gut feelings were usually right.

No one seemed to be able to take their eyes away from her—at least the guys couldn't. Some of the girls only glanced up for a moment and then went back to doing whatever it was they were doing, bored. I saw some guys in the back staring at her like she was some sort of new plaything, their eyes lighting up in a disgustingly perverted way, seeming to be mentally undressing her.

I mentally rolled my eyes at them.

Scoffing at some boys' idiocy, I turned away from her and didn't look up again as the teacher introduced us to her. His voice was noticeably more refined but still had a bored tint to it. "Class, this is Brigid Dwyer. Say hello."

No one said hello.

The teacher cleared his throat, looking irritably back at us. "Say hello," he ordered, sounding more intimidating and also more frustrated.

We said hello.

He gave his version of a smile—more of a grimace—slightly happier with our response and then he returned to deal with Miss Brigid Dwyer. "You may sit anywhere you'd like that's open." She smiled blindingly again and nodded politely, muttering a thank you. I glanced up at her almost suspiciously as she looked around the class, narrowing my eyes slightly at her. I was about to assume that there weren't actually any more seats and therefore, she would have a bit of a problem—when I saw her eyes land on Fang…and not falter for a moment as she walked towards him. I was about to question her about what the heck she was doing when I realized that the only seat open was next to him.

Well, that's just great. Flipping fantastic.

Fang glanced at her for a moment longer than usual and she blushed, smiling bashfully instead of confidently like she had been earlier. I wondered in the back of my head why I was acting so jealous of her, but still didn't think much of it. I was just…annoyed. Yeah. That was it. So I let that envious feeling be.

Mr. Emo Pants didn't notice my irritable mood until about halfway through the class, when I was tapping my pencil loudly against the desk out of habit while the teacher kept droning on and on and on about something I couldn't care any less about.

A folded piece of notebook paper fluttered onto my desk in front of me. I sighed slightly and shuffled my hands under the small table, careful to not make much noise while I opened it. The teacher wouldn't catch me, but I was afraid that one of the students might.

In Fang's messy scrawl that I'd come to like so much, it said:

What's wrong? You've been kinda moody all morning.

I glanced at him subconsciously, but he wasn't even looking in my direction; his eyes were trained on the teacher like he was paying attention, but we all know that he wasn't. I quickly jotted down a response, not caring so much of whether or not the teacher was coming near us. He often liked to pace while he talked but I didn't care much if he caught us anyway.

I'm not moody! And it's nothing. Just bored is all.

I flicked it over to him quickly, hitting his cheek on the way since I kind of…you know, aimed it there. He glared half-heartedly at me, me smiling cheekily in return, before reading my reply.

The rest of our conversation went like this:

You sure?

Yes.

It seems like a lot more than "nothing"…

It might seem like that, but it's not, Fangles.

Seriously. What is it?

It's none of your business anyway…:|

…

You can continue to pester me. Or you can just label it "PMS"—it's your choice.

…Whatever.

This would be frigging embarrassing if the teacher read this aloud.

You know that he doesn't care that much.

Yeah, I know. But if this were Mr. Bonne or someone or another…*shudder*

Mr. Bonne hates you.

No. Really? I never would have guessed with him glaring at me 24/7 and purposefully embarrassing me in front of the whole class.

: P

^e^

That's not an emoticon…

I made it up, doofus.

But he didn't get a chance to reply because after that, I heard the teacher announce that we had a little bit of time left to just talk and stuff. And after that, Brigid Dwyer decided that she'd start a conversation with Fang. "Standing behind my best friend awkwardly while a random girl flirts with him" wouldn't exactly be on my Top Ten Favorite Things To Do list if I, you know, actually had one. I tried to join in on what they were talking about at some point but she left me no room because it was about some show that I'd never heard of until then.

Surprisingly, Fang responded. In full sentences. Like, what the heck? I wouldn't have been so P.O'd about her flirting with him if he hadn't been obviously returning that with pleasant feedback.

Wait…why am I acting so jealous of her? She's a perfectly fine, perfectly acceptable girl who just so happens to be taking a hint of a fancy to my some-what-admittedly hot best friend. At least she isn't some slut who can't take a hint. Maybe she'll end up being my friend. Maybe Fang will finally decide to get a girlfriend.

(Since, you see, Fang had only had one girlfriend before—Maria, who had to transfer schools—even though he had just about every single female in the school chasing after him. I wasn't ever sure why he decided to not date. At sixteen, it's not like it was too young to date.)

I sighed and stuffed my hands in the pocket of my sweatshirt, leaning against my chair a little. After a moment more of pure boredom, I sighed again—except that time louder—and pulled my writing journal from my backpack. I flipped it open to my page and pulled a red pen out too. I sat down and tapped my chin with the pen thoughtfully, staring off into space. I took me a second, but I did start writing.

I was really just making a journal entry, except in a story format—I wrote down what exactly was going through my head, what I thought of the Walker's move, and what had been going on and a bunch of other things that I know you couldn't care any less to hear in detail about. So I'll continue the story like normal.

I was so in to my journal entry/story that I didn't notice when the bell rang and people started filing out of the classroom. I'm not exactly sure how I managed to continue to be completely oblivious to the loud chatter, but I did. So I just kept jotting down note after note after note after note…you get the idea. I was on a roll—a roll that I hadn't been on in quite some time, if you wanted to know—and I was flipping excited about it. After a moment, there was a tap on my shoulder and my eyes snapped up to see none other than Fang.

And Brigid was standing next to him.

Oh joy.

I blinked twice, realizing that we were the last people in the room and I'd be late to 2nd period if I didn't hurry my lazy butt up. I shuffled out of my seat quietly, stuffing the notebook into my backpack hurriedly and swinging it over my shoulder. They followed me out the door but I had to branch off from them after then. Before I left, I heard Brigid say to him: "Do you think that you could walk me to class? I think we have 2nd period together too," and Fang replying: "That'd be great."

And when I looked back, they were standing awfully close to each other, staring at her schedule—well, Fang was at least. Brigid was staring at him. For some reason, this made my blood boil slightly. I wasn't sure why her staring all of the sudden made me mad. I mean, girls stared at my best friend constantly, and it never made me mad before…Maybe it was because this time, he seemed to like her back, whereas he never had any interest in the other girls who spent all of their time obsessing over him.

"Stop it Max," I muttered to myself, flicking my own arm in displeasure at my uncharacteristically jealous attitude, "you have no reason to act like this. She isn't a terrible person and you should be glad for him since they obviously seem to have pretty mutual feelings for each other." Another jealous thought entered my head so I dug my nails into my palm slightly—not enough to break skin or anything, but enough to get my own message across. "Stop it," I hissed at myself. In doing this while walking down a rather crowded hallway, I hadn't noticed someone in front of me and I ended up running straight into them, bumping me to the side and making their things fall out of their hands. "Oh, crap," I said, picking it up and handing it to the person, not seeing their face. "I'm sor—" I started to apologize, but then I realized who it was.

My eyes narrowed in a glare and I jutted my hip out, resting my hand on it. "Oh. It's you. Never mind then."

Lissa rolled her eyes and scoffed, yanking her things from my hand rather rudely, if I do say so myself, and she shoved past me in the opposite direction I was going.

Ha. I bet you expected me to have run in with some insanely hot and incredibly sweet boy who I end up falling in love with and spend the rest of my life with. Well, sorry about getting your hopes up, but my life isn't just some cliché book that you'd get from the "teen romance" section of a bookstore.

But oddly enough…Lissa hadn't been nearly as hostile as she usually was. I wondered why briefly but shrugged it off as nothing and continued to my next class.

---

"Hey," Nudge greeted, beaming happily, and appearing suddenly at my side, Ella next to her. I smiled and greeted them back. "Hey yourself. What's going on?"

"Have you met the new girl yet? I think that her name is, like, Brigid or something. I heard from a bunch of people that she was awesome—but I haven't actually talked to her yet. I loooove her outfit though, it's sooo cute! And the best part is that she isn't sleazy! That's really what surprised me the most, I mean, like half the populations of girls at our school are sluts—including like Lissa and stuff and oh my God, do you know what Lissa said to me the other day? She called me bee-with-an-itch! I mean, who does that? If anything, she's one. I mean, come on, she's freaking terrible! Do you know what she did to that one girl; Mattie I think was her name, who tried talking back about something? She tripped her in the lunchroom and had all of her food fall on her in front of a bunch of people! Like, honestly, that it is one of the most cliché things I think I've ever seen her do! She always freaking pisses me off! I don't even—"

I cut her off by answering, "Yes, I have met Brigid; I don't know yet if she's awesome or not—" though Fang certainly seems to think so, I added mentally—"I will definitely kill Lissa if she ever calls you that again; and yes, I'm aware that she pisses you off. She pisses me off too." I kept walking down the hall, since Ella, Nudge, and I have the same second period.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Ella looking at me, amused, and then when I turned to her, she gave me a knowing look. "What?" I asked, feeling somewhat dumb that I didn't know, but she only continued to grin. "Nothing, nothing. But I think that we should try to hang out with Brigid some today. She seems like she'd get along well with us."

I momentarily glared at my Converse-clad feet, but then changed my expression to neutral. I didn't want them to know that I didn't like Brigid very much—sooner or later they'd figure things out and assume that I'm like, in love with Fang or something. Which, in case you're wondering, totally isn't true. At all. Nope, nope, nope! He's basically my brother, and so it would be incest if I dated him. Kind of. Almost. Not really. Oh, you know freaking what? Whatever. I don't even care at the moment.

Nudge started chattering again, breaking me from my sort-of trance, and we soon arrived at our destination, making it in right before the late bell rang.

---

"You," Ella said, pointing her plastic fork at Iggy, "are completely insane."

He only smirked cockily and said, "But that's why you love me!" Ella blushed, looking down, and muttered, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Just shut up and eat the dang food." I rolled my eyes at them, shoveling ravioli into my mouth. As per usual, it wasn't particularly appetizing, but I was starving so it was okay. I hadn't had time that morning to eat breakfast, having woken up late since my stupid alarm clock was broken (psssh, it totally has nothing to do with me throwing it at my wall, what are you talking about?) and I couldn't find my shoes.

Fang slipped into the chair beside me, setting his lunch tray down in front of him, greeting quietly, "Hey."

I only nodded in response, looking at the rest of our friends. I glanced at him since I'm dang curious and he was just looking down at him food, pocking at it in disgust. I laughed slightly at his disgusted expression and he snapped his head up to look at me. He only grinned a Mona Lissa smile without saying anything.

"Ah, so we're back the norm, are we?" I asked, shoving more food into my mouth and chugging my water down. It was gone very soon after. My record of draining a water bottle was six seconds.
"What?" he inquired confused for a moment. I shrugged and wiped my mouth with the sleeve of my jacket, setting my cup down. "We're back to you not talking much, I guess."

Before he could say anything else, Ella looked at me, impressed. "How do you do that?"

I gave her a weird look, raising one eyebrow like I always did. "Do what?"

"Chug your drink down in a matter of seconds."

I shrugged one shoulder, answering simply with a smile, "I just do."

She opened her mouth to say something else, but like Fang, didn't get to because there was a small, awkward cough from behind me and we all turned around to see none other than Brigid standing there, rubbing on arm uncomfortably, a sack lunch held in her other hand. Her eyes were cast downward, set on her high heels. "Um…I was wondering if I could…um…sit with you guys?"

I answered, "No," the same moment that Fang answered, "Yes."

I whipped my head around to stare at him with a baffled expression on my face. I quickly masked it over so as not to seem rude to Brigid and said politely, grabbing Fang's wrist and standing up, "Excuse us for a moment." I dragged him away from our very confused friends, and out into the hallway.

I hissed angrily, "She's not joining our group!"

"Oh come on Max," he said, "she just wants to sit with us for today. Don't jump so quick to conclusions."

I crossed my arms, stared at the ground, and didn't say anything.

"Don't you want to give her a chance?"

"No."

He sighed in an exasperated way, like I was going to give him gray hairs early or something. "Max…"

"Fang…" I mimicked, still keeping my arms crossed, but looking up at him, fake pouting. He gave me an annoyed look. I just shrugged and trudged passed him, back into the cafeteria. He grabbed my arm before I could even get passed the double doors though, stopping me. "Max, seriously."

I yanked my hand away irritably and kept going, but he was having none of it. He jumped in front of me before I knew what was happening and grabbed both my wrists. I struggled against his grip, trying to leave. "No," I stated in a stern tone, trying to leave. "Let me go," I demanded angrily through clenched teeth, getting more and more ticked off as seconds went by. He ignored my command and continued to stare at me with a burning intensity. "Don't you think you're being even a little unreasonable?"

"No, no I do not. Now if you would be so kind as to let go of my wrist, we'd get back to our table and not have everyone staring at us." He looked around quickly and just seemed to notice all the wondering eyes trained on us. Everyone—at least everyone in our grade—knew we were best friends, and to see us fighting was as rare as a zombie apocalypse.

Yeah. So now you understand why they'd be staring.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly through his mouth, leaning his head down a little so it was near to my level. Darn that boy for being so much taller than me. "Please?" he tried one last time in an almost whisper, his dark eyes begging. I stood there for a moment, staring at him. He stared back, still looking pleading. "You look kind of like a puppy," I informed him quietly because that's just me for you. He chuckled slightly at my random announcement, probably used to how incredibly out of the blue that was.

He slipped his hands from my wrists to my hands and rubbed circles in my palm with his thumb. He knew I liked that. "You don't have to like her…just give her a chance," he said. There was a pause. And then he added almost inaudibly: "…For me?"

Crap-crap-crap-itty-crap-crap! He knew he had me there. And I, being I, just had to freaking give in because I literally had, like, no self-control once so ever.

I groaned but he knew that he'd won, the corners of his lips coming up in a sort-of-grin, his eyes lighting up triumphantly. He let go of my hand and I rolled my eyes at him, annoyed, but followed him back to the table nonetheless.

Brigid was already sitting down, eating her lunch, and she had been chattering with Nudge, since I guess we took longer than I had originally planned. She was seated—what do you know—right next to Fang. "Surprise, surprise," I grumbled to myself. No one said anything while we sat back down. I probably looked pretty aggravated, while Mr. Emo Pants over there just looked impassive…as per usual. They all knew that he had played the "For me?" card. That and the Bambi eyes was the only thing that would make me agree to anything that I didn't want to agree to. Nudge and Ella actually used the Bambi eyes to get me to say yes to dye dark red streaks in my used-to-be-completely-brown hair in that past September. Though I must admit, the streaks didn't look all that bad.

"Well…that took longer than expected," Iggy stated, breaking the silence like a thin sheet of ice. We all turned to look at him and he just shrugged, going back to eating his lunch. Brigid looked down shyly, "I'm sorry. I didn't realize that I'd make such a fuss." I rolled my eyes at her and said monotonously, "Oh, trust me, you didn't." Fang glared at me slightly and Ella kicked me from beneath the table. "Ow!" I exclaimed and scowled at her, setting my fork down and feeling the sore spot she just left on my ankle. Crap. It was over a previous bruise too. "There's no need to turn to violence, Ellie-bell," I said and she just shook her head at me, taking a sip from her water bottle.

Brigid continued to look uncomfortable for a while, much to my pleasure. But sooner or later, she warmed up to us (mainly Fang, Ella, and Nudge) and started talking and talking away, going on like the Nudge Channel, except she left polite little pauses for them to answer. Ugh.

I decided that I definitely didn't need a reason for not liking her—I just didn't. I really, really didn't.

---

"IGGY!" I shouted, running down the stairs, two steps at a time, barefoot. "GET BACK HER RIGHT FRIGGING NOW!" Although I'm sure I must have looked pretty terrifying, he only laughed and continued to flee.

"GIVE IT BACK!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, pouncing at him, trying to grab the red, old, spiral notebook from his hands. I missed though, since he managed to jump to the side right as my hands skimmed the spine of it. I stomped my foot in frustration and ran after him once again, turning a corner into the living room where my mom and Mrs. Walker were just talking. Angel and Gazzy were outside and Fang was doing…whatever it was that Fang did. It was Thanksgiving night, if you wanted to know, and my family was spending yet another year with the Walkers.

I had been dumb enough to bring my writing journal to their house and Iggy somehow managed to get a hold of it. I continued to chase him outside where he suddenly stopped and held my precious journal out of reach. I probably looked beet red, and you could basically see the steam coming out of my ears. "I SWEAR TO GOD THAT IF YOU DON'T GIVE IT BACK RIGHT NOW, I'LL—"

"You'll what?" He asked tauntingly, holding the notebook just a little bit out of my reach above his head. I glared at him and growled menacingly. "I'll do this," I said, right before I kneed him were it counts.

Okay, so maybe that was a little harsh, but I wasn't too hard and I wanted my frigging book back—if he read any of the stuff that I'd written in there, then I would be royally screwed. No one could know what was in there. No one. Not even Angel, whose Bambi eyes were incredibly hard to resist, even for me. Not even Fang, who knew just about everything about me. Not even my mom who I was incredibly close to, even for a mother and a daughter. No one. I wrote all of my deepest, darkest secrets in there—the ones that I normally buried very far down in the clutter of facts and thoughts and feelings in my head. All of the feelings that I'd been able to admit to paper but not even to myself were in there. I wrote down stories that I'd had stuck in my head for quite a long time, most of them some certain form of those previously-mentioned-feelings to get them out and released in a…not-as-girly way. Sometimes I wrote them in forms of songs instead and those were probably the most embarrassing. I could never let someone read it…EVER.

I snatched the notebook from him while he groaned, dropping to his knees on the ground, and I ran away, back into the house, cackling all the way. I fist pumped the air in triumph and ran into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind me and then making sure that it locked.

I sighed in relief, leaning against the door with it pressed against my chest. "Oh thank God, I have it back," I muttered. "I can't believe…" I started to say to myself, but I didn't finish, instead just thinking it. I slid down the door, on to the floor and flipped through a couple of pages of it, thinking back to when I wrote it. I wondered if he'd read anything—and if he had, how much did he read? But I didn't leave to ask him; he was probably still in pain.

Heehee. I'm a mean person.

"Max?" I heard my mother ask, coming down the hallway looking for me. I got up with a sigh and unlocked the door, tucking the spiral behind my back and only popping my head out of the door. "Yeah Mom?" I said, making sure that she could only see my head and a little bit of my shoulders. She gave me a stern look.

"Why is Iggy rolling on the floor, groaning?"

I stifled a laugh, quickly catching myself. "I don' know. Maybe he's just being Iggy?"

She gave me another look.

I groaned.

"I'm sorry, okay? He took something very important of mine and would not give it back. You know how that goes over for me."

She only rolled her eyes at me, but I could tell she was hiding back a grin, and motioned for me to come out of the restroom and talk to her. And I did, but not before throwing the spiral onto the tile floor and closing the door behind me.

"I understand that he took something of yours—but seriously Max, you had to kick him there? Knowing you, he'll probably never able to reproduce now."

I just shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly, grinning a little to myself.

She only shook her head at me and told me to come downstairs for dinner. I came with her with no complaint, starving from forgetting to eat lunch. I also knew that Mrs. Walker was cooking dinner that night, and I swear to God that she was the best cook ever.

As per usual, just about everyone was already seated at the table. Angel was next to her brother Gazzy, Iggy (who scowled at me as I walked in) occupied the chair next to him and Mrs. Walker sat at the head of the table, Mr. Walker next to her. My mom sat next to him, and there were two empty seats for Fang and me. I took the one next to Mom, the chair making a screeching noise as I pulled it out. It only took a couple of seconds after I sat down for Fang to come back from whatever he had been doing. Once he was seated, Mrs. Walker said, "Angel, would you like to start us off in our prayer, saying what we're all thankful for?" Angel nodded excitedly, blonde curls bouncing around her head, blue eyes shining happily. We all held hands, and she said, "Dear God, thank you for all the stuff we own. Thank you for the food and my teddy bear Celeste and our house and our family and Jesus and everyone else in the world. Thanks for Max and Mrs. Martinez too, 'cause Max is like my sister since all I really have are brothers and they're both like our family." I smiled as she mentioned me, and then Gazzy started.

"I'm thankful for our home and this food, 'cause gosh, it looks and smells real good. I'm also thankful for our family and the Martinez's. I'm thankful that Iggy's such a cool big brother and that Angel's such a, well, angel, and that Fang even though he's kind of quiet and stuff; he's still a cool brother too."

I opened my eyes slightly and looked over at Fang. He was smiling faintly, eyes closed, head tilted up a little. Shutting my eyes again, I squeezed his hand gently. He squeezed back.

"Uh…I'm thankful for my family plus the Martinez's, my home, our money since that's kinda helpful, this dinner, bombs—"

"Iggy!"

"Right, right, sorry, Mum. I mean, uh, I'm thankful for family, friends, our home, money, dinner, and life. There. You happy now?"

I could basically feel Mrs. Walker grin while she replied, "Very."

She continued, "I'm thankful for my lovely husband, our amazing children, our home that's been so gracious to us, Jesus, who laid his life down for us, God, who gave his one and only son up for us, this dinner, my almost-daughter Max, my best friend Valencia, and my parents."

Mr. Walker's turn I guess. "I'm thankful for my wife, our children, friends, home, life, God, Jesus, and everything else that I probably don't have enough time to mention."

Well, that was short and straight to the point.

My mom: "I'm thankful for my family, my daughter, my friends and music, our safety, and everything else that we need to live."

It was my turn to say something. "Uh…I'm thankful for our house, my amazing friends—" I squeezed Fang's hand again, and as expected, he squeezed back. "My mom who stayed strong even though she raised me alone, the rest of my family, my education, my music, my writing journal, my religion…I guess, and the Walker's, who have always been my second family."

There was a moment of silence after that before Fang started awkwardly. "…I'm, uh, thankful for family, friends, education, the Martinez's, money, our safety, music, and books…"

Wow. That was the most I'd heard him say all day.

After he ended, we all dropped hands and started eating, but I didn't let go of his, instead eating with my left hand. (Even though I'm right handed and it was incredibly hard.)

"Oh, goodness, this is freaking delicious," I moaned.

"It's luscious," Iggy said, putting emphasis on the last word since he knew I hated that word. I rolled my eyes and started ranting half-heartedly, since I was in too good of a mood to really be livid about it. "Who uses 'luscious' to describe food anyways? Normally, you hear someone say, 'luscious locks of hair' and definitely not 'luscious pie.' I mean, come one, who wants to eat something described like that?" The pyromaniac just grinned in response, going back to eating.

---

Fang's POV:

After dinner was over and the kitchen was clear, everyone settled into the living room and watched TV, talking up a storm. I wasn't really in the mood, so I excused myself to the bathroom to stay there a little while. I wanted to think.

Oh, God. Yes, I was thinking about Max. She was beginning to become way more…moody, almost. I told Iggy this, but he just shrugged and labeled it PMS. I didn't think that was it though. I figured it was something a lot more significant, but I just couldn't think of what.

And she'd been so rude to Brigid ever since she moved here. I wasn't sure why; I mean, Brigid had never done anything bad to Max…had she?

I closed the bathroom door behind me, locking the door out of habit and looking myself in the mirror. I sighed. I mean…I was her best friend…I was supposed to know what was going one with her always, right? But then again, I hadn't really told her everything either—but that was different! I couldn't risk putting our friendship on the line just because I was, you know, completely in love with her.

Meh. Details, details.

I took a step back but then jumped when my heel came in contact with something. I looked down behind me to see a spiral notebook sitting the ground…more specifically, Max's spiral notebook.

Okay, okay, so I know that I wasn't supposed to look at it. I know that she always told me never to even touch it without her say-so. I know that she always said that she would kill me without a second thought if I ever read what she'd written in there without permission. And I know that I'd already done that once before and felt incredibly bad about it.

But for some reason, my mind completely disregarded that information when I saw that it was already opened to the page she'd last been one and that no one was around to see me.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a terrible person. Whatever.

I did feel sort of bad when I read some, knowing that I wasn't supposed to and that it was so freaking important to her.

This is what I read:

---

"Tell me the story!" she begged her mother. Normally, she wouldn't tell her children stories at nighttime, but she decided that she should. With two pairs of bright green eyes staring at her, waiting to be told something up to their expectations, she couldn't say no. So she turned to her twins, both holding a stuffed animal in their hands, and both looking eager. She smiled to herself, shaking her head a little, and then she began the story.

"Alright. So…Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess. Her name was—"

"Annilee!" Megan, the oldest (by ten minutes) interrupted. Her mother just nodded, agreeing to the name. "Uh-huh. So there was a beautiful princess named Annilee. She lived with her mother and father, who also happened to be the king and queen of an amazing kingdom called—"

"Kyran!" her other daughter Sadie suggested.

"That's a stupid name for a kingdom," Megan grumbled. Sadie scowled at her sister, offended. "Annilee is a stupid name for a princess." They began to bicker with each other, as siblings often do.

"GIRLS!" their mother screamed, interrupting their banter. She gave them both pointed looks and they cowered back into their pink-and-purple comforters, looking sheepish. Megan smiled apologetically, muttering, "Sorry Mum."

She rolled her eyes, continuing the story. "So they lived in Kyran, which was one of loveliest kingdoms that anyone had ever heard of. Do you know why?"

They shook their heads.

"It was lovely because everyone there was happy and—"

"Why were they happy?" Sadie asked, titling her head to the side, her brown curls bouncing on her shoulders.

Mother shrugged. "They just were."

"But why?" she pressed on, leaning forward in her bed, since Sadie had always been the more curious of the two eight-year-olds.

"Does there have to be a reason?"

"Well…there must be something. My teacher Mrs. Myers says there's a reason for everything. So why were they happy?"

"Honestly dear, sometimes you're too reasonable for your own good."

Megan stuck her tongue out at Sadie when her mother wasn't looking.

Mum kept on. "There's not necessarily a reason for everything—some things just…they just are."

Now they both looked confused.

She sighed. "Sometimes people do things or feel things just because they can. I could suddenly start jump roping for no reason at all."

"But there's still a reason." Now Megan was going on about it. "You're doing it because it's fun, right?"

"Not always. You can, but not always. If I think something isn't particularly fun, but it's not terrible, could I still do it anyways? Yes. I could. That doesn't mean I'm always going to, but if I did, then there was no real logic behind it, was there?"

They shook their heads.

"Exactly," she said. "Now, as I was saying, the

---

But there wasn't anything left after that. I realized that Max had a tendency to do that—start something and then drop it in the middle of it, I mean. She did that with the last story. Or maybe she just didn't have time to finish writing everything down.

I didn't want to ask her.

Completely ignoring the feeling in my stomach, I flipped through the book a little before I stopped at a certain page that had, for some reason, stuck out to me. In big, bold red letters at the top of the page, it said "RADIO". The rest went like this:

He grew up just a little too fast

Lost and needs it's on his past

I can hear him humming

From the other side of the room

I guess he's got rhythm

'Cause he hums every time he's blue

Oh

Radio

Bleed me a melody

Something that'll make

This boy cry

Radio

Bleed me a melody

That'll make him wonder why

He was so cold

Broken glass and a pretty face

Silent morn, full of hate

Quiet face, silent mind

Screaming for consequence

Bleeding for more

Radio

Bleed me a melody

Something that'll make

This boy cry

Radio

Bleed me a melody

That'll make him wonder why

He was so cold

I hum a song that reminds him

Of a time when he wasn't tumbling

Down, down,

Tumbling down

Radio

Bleed me a melody

Something that'll make

This boy cry

Radio

Bleed me a melody

That'll make him wonder why

He was so cold

Sounds like me, but why would Max write that? True, I didn't have a hard life. I do shut myself out, and I sink myself in music and books.

…Wait.

I shouldn't even be reading Max's book! Frick, this is her personal stuff! If she ever finds out I AM DEAD FREAKING MEAT. Frick, frick, frick.

At this response to my realization, I hurriedly closed the book, making sure that it was where I'd found it, unlocked the door, pulled it open, and ran out. I went into my room, which was across the hall from that specific bathroom, but to my unfortunate luck, Max had been coming up the stairs, probably to see me. (I hadn't actually seen her though, so I found that out later.)

I sat on my bed after locking the door, and thought for a moment about what I would do. Confront her about it? …I wasn't particularly fond of the idea, since she'd, you know, kick my butt into next Tuesday. Just let it go and pretend like I'd never touched it? …I liked that idea more. But at the same time, I felt terrible for invading her privacy. I mean, she already told me just about everything, so why couldn't I just let her have even a couple secrets to herself? It's not like I didn't keep secrets from her. Great, I thought, now I'm talking myself into thinking that I'm a terrible person. And I was starting to get a headache, partially from the fact that everyone downstairs was being freaking loud and our walls were super thin, and partially because of…you know.

I didn't have time to finish contemplating it though, before Max burst into my room. She looked a little exhausted, and hadn't I locked the door? What? I also didn't have time to finish thinking about HOW THE HECK SHE GOT IN THERE before she started talking.

"FANG, where's my book? Have you seen it? I've told almost everyone I know, especially this family, DON'T TOUCH THE BOOK. HELP ME NOW. Wait," she said closing the door with one hand, than walking over with her eyes squinted, "Did you possibly take my book?"

I shook my head furiously, and Max quickly grabbed my shirt by the collar and pulled me close to her face. Man, I wanted to kiss her so badly right then... I could've just— "BECAUSE IF YOU TOOK MY BOOK, I WILL KICK YOU WHERE I KICKED IGGY, EXCEPT I WILL POUND YOUR FACE IN ALONG WITH THAT, AND HURT YOU SO MUCH THAT IT WILL KNOCK YOU INTO THE NEXT TWILIGHT BOOK. IT WILL HURT, THAT MUCH," she yelled in my face.

See what I told you?

I got up from my bed and set my hands on her shoulders. She looked confused at my random change in expression and mood, but I ignored it. "Max, calm down," I said, pulling her hands down so that they were by her side. "I didn't take your book, it's okay."

She gave me a suspicious look, eyes narrowed. "You didn't?"

I nodded like I was talking to a kindergartener.

I thought my brilliant plan (sarcasm, my dear readers) was going to work when she suddenly pulled away, put her hands on her hips, and stated coolly, "Total bull crap."

"What?"

"I don't believe you."

"And why is that, m'lady?"

She had turned around and started heading towards the door, but I followed her. She leaned against the door and stood, staring at me, ankles crossed. "You're such a dork," she mumbled. I tried my best to look natural, which wasn't very hard for me, and pressed my hand near her head on the door so I was leaning in slightly. Stop it brain, you're ruining my casual act…

"Because I can tell when you're lying."

"Oh really?" I thought that if she really could, then why couldn't she tell whenever I lied to her about what I was thinking? If she could, wouldn't she have already been able to tell that I loved her?

"Yeah, I can. You wanna see?"

"Go ahead. Enlighten me."

"Okay. Well, tell me three things. Two truths, one lie," she said, grinning. I shook my head but went along with it. "Okay, okay, um…" I thought for a moment before saying, "Um, one: I know all the lyrics to every song on the album 'For Emma, Forever Ago', two: before I moved here, at my old house, I had a tree house similar to the one outside, and three: I'm completely and utterly in love with you."

Her breath hitched in her throat and my heart was pounding. We leaned in subconsciously. "…The last one?"

"Nah." And then I leaned down and kissed her.

…

…

Okay, now that I'm done teasing you all, no, that did not happen. But that's what I wanted to say—I wanted to say that I was in love with her at the end, as my last truth to tell her, but as we all know, I was too chicken to. So instead, I just said, "And three: your hair looks like a rats nest when you first wake up in the morning."

She gaped at me, whacking me upside the head lightly. "Fang! Shut up!" she fussed at me. I snickered, trying to cover up what I'd just been daydreaming about. Completely oblivious to my previous contemplative state, she ducked under my arm and sat back down on my bed, jutting her bottom lip out and furrowing her eyebrows as a fake pout. "Aw, stop that, you know make me feel guilty by doing that," I said, though we both knew I was teasing at the last bit.

She crossed her arms and turned away from me so her back was facing me. "I'm not talking to you," she said in her little-kid voice. I rolled my eyes and counted in my head. The moment I was to ten, she turned back around to look at me. She was still fake pouting, except this time; she fluttered her eyelashes at me and tried to look sad. I just shook my head, looking away. "Stop, it's un-bearable," I told her sarcastically. I knew that she was smiling when she threw her arms around my neck in a sort-of-hug and said, "You just can't control yourself around me!"

I muttered, "Yeah, well…you never guessed what the lie was."

"First one," she answered without hesitation.

I gave her a confused look. "How'd you know?"

She shrugged, letting go of my neck and sitting cross-legged next to me. "You looked less sure. Plus, when I try to sing 'Re: Stacks' you always mess up at the beginning."
"So you're just using background knowledge?"

She shrugged again. "For some of it. But most is analyzing. And my amazing deductive powers."

I rolled my eyes. "What's up with you and cursing?" I asked, totally out of the blue.

"Ah, we haven't been so good. You know, he won't even talk to me anymore. It's like he's completely ignoring my calls, honestly."

I gave her a look. She grinned and then answered seriously, "I just don't like it. See, I'll tolerate when someone else does, but I don't. I'm waiting, you know?"

"No, I don't know."

She sighed, frustrated. "It's like…okay, so, you know how Bon Iver curses in his songs, right?" I nodded. "And I never complain about it but I complain about other stuff cursing?" I nodded again. "Well, that's not because I'm being biased, that's because the other stuff is cursing mindlessly. They're cursing to fill in blanks. Stuff that I listen to that curses is using it in an emotional way—they're using it to express how strongly they feel about the topic. Blind Pilot curses some, but it's not mindless. That's why I don't say that stuff often, because if I did, it wouldn't mean anything when I was really, really mad. If I said 'fuuuu—'all the time, then if I were seriously pissed and I said that, no one would give it a second glance."

"That makes sense."

"Yeah. I'd hope that it would."

"…"

"…Fang, give me my notebook."

"But I didn't—"

"NOW."

"…Okay…"

---

The following week after Thanksgiving break was relatively normal, besides Max being so darn rude to Brigid every second that Brigid was around us. I just couldn't figure it out—and that's saying something, considering I could always tell what was bothering her, no matter what. I tried not to let it bother me that she was all of the sudden closed off from us, but it did. And it bothered me a lot. But I guess that kind of makes since, considering I was her best friend.

The weirdest thing that I think happened that week was this:

I was walking down the hallway, you know, as people normally do to get to classes, and, as normal, I saw my friends. Nothing wrong with that, you know, just every-day stuff, nothing special. Yeah, well, Lissa was there…and she was having a chat with Maxikins, and I guessed that it wasn't a very nice one, taking in account for Max's expression. She looked beyond pissed. Like she'd just been to Hades and back, thrice.

So, naturally when I walked up, I stood behind my dear best friend, set my hand on her shoulder almost as habit, and looked skeptically at Lissa, who was smirking at Max. When she looked up at me, that devious look never left, but a flirtatious one joined. Oh, crap.

"Hey Fang," she greeted, batting her green eyes at me and doing that weird little wave girls always did, where they wiggle their index finger, middle finger, and ring finger. I just nodded but my stoic expression never left. "Uh, Max," I said, since she was still glaring daggers at Lissa. "Time for first period, come on."

"Yeah, Max, run along…just listen to him. After all, that's the only thing you seem capable of doing."

Her hands started trembling in rage. I wondered what Lissa had said before then to make her so mad. I caught her arms before she had time to punch her in the face. Either that, or she was going to strangle her. It's not like it would've been surprising anyway.

"Stop," I warned, turning her to face me. She kept her eyes on Lissa though. "She isn't worth it," I told her. She final ripped her gaze from giving her long time rival death glares, looking me in the eyes instead. She nodded once, but didn't stop her sour look. Lissa unwisely kept on, probably trying to see how many of her buttons she could push before she exploded.

She put one perfectly manicured finger to her chin and tapped it thoughtfully. "'She isn't worth it.' Hmm, now where have I heard that sentence before? Oh, yeah, maybe it was when—"

Before I had time to do anything, Max's arm snapped out of my grip and her fist flew towards Lissa's face. She socked her in the nose with a sickening 'crunch' and I figured it was broken. Unfortunately for us, there were actually other people in the hallway who had seen the exchange—no teachers yet, thank God, but definitely quite a few students. Max didn't even seem to notice them. Lissa stumbled back, holding her nose which everyone knew was bound to be bleeding, but quickly retaliated by grabbing a fistful of Max's hair and smashing her head into a locker once or twice before I yanked her hand from my friend's hair.

"Oh, God," I mumbled, trying to hold Max back. It didn't seem to be working though, because when she's angry, she's like a freaking bull—or a lioness. Either one works.

"MAX!" I screamed, but she didn't hear me. She kept yelling profanities at Lissa, the crowd around us growing with every word. Let me repeat that: she was cussing Lissa out. And in case you don't remember, Max never cussed. She was out to kill, eyes full of hate that I hadn't seen in a rather long time, hands still trembling. Lissa didn't look smug or even that mad anymore—she looked terrified and it seemed that any other emotion besides that had been…deleted, so to speak.

"What is your freaking problem?" I had honest to God never seen her as mad as that before. You could basically see the fire in her eyes. She kept on, "You can't just give me one day—one, single, freaking day—to not have anyone torment me, can you? No, because apparently I did something so terrible that I deserve you ragging on me every second! And you think that I'm the bad one in this situation; you think that I'm the one no one honestly likes? News flash: it's the opposite! So just take your little freaking posse, AND JUST LEAVE ME. THE HECK. ALONE!" Max finished ranting right as a teacher finally noticed the entire ruckus that had been caused. The swarm of students parted for Ms. Channel like the Red Sea for Moses. "What's going on here?" she exclaimed, seeing Max's livid face, Lissa's frightened one, and everyone else's slightly confused ones. Her eyes darted from Lissa to Max, to Lissa to Max, to me, to everyone else. Lissa didn't say anything. Max glared at her. Apparently she still had a little steam left in her. "What?" she spat, looking and sounding a lot more cynical than normal. "You're not going to tell the teacher on me?"

For a moment, I actually felt bad for Lissa because she looked genuinely sorry, standing there shell-shocked from Max's speech, staring at her shoes, tears about to overflow from her eyes. And evidently Max saw that too, because her features visibly softened some and you could tell the regret starting to flit into her eyes. But then, instead of apologizing like I thought she would since she's just sympathetic like that, her eyes started filling with tears too. She let a couple sobs escape her throat before running away to…I guessed the bathroom. "Awww, crap," I muttered, (well, actually, a different word for that) giving a fleeting look at everyone else before running after her. The last thing I wanted was for her to cry. I'd seen her cry a total of five times in the entire eleven years I'd known her: twice when we were little, once in sixth grade when we had our first fight, once in eighth grade when that jerk-butt-stalker dude hurt her feelings, and once just that past October when I'd announced my move. This would be the sixth time.

She wasn't in the girl's bathroom like I expected, but rather, just an empty classroom. And her tears had stopped coming so she just sat on top of a desk, her knees tucked up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them, and her head resting on the tops of her knees.

I walked in quietly, and I thought that she hadn't noticed my presence until she suddenly said without looking up, "I'm not crying anymore, if you wanted to know. And yeah, that was the sixth." And I swear that I heard her voice choke up at the end like the tears were about to start coming again.

I sat next to her without a word, rubbing circles between her shoulder blades while she leaned into me, closing her eyes. I thought she had fallen asleep before I realized that she was crying again, so I wrapped my arms around her like it seemed I did more often all the sudden. She didn't cry for long though, so that was good; at least she wasn't extremely upset.

When she was done, she pulled away and looked me in the eyes. I remembered that she hadn't been able to do that the last time I'd caught her crying. I wiped a tear from her cheek with my thumb, since our lives couldn't possibly get anymore cliché. "That counts as number seven, doesn't it?" she muttered, trying at a watery smile. I give a small (of course) smile back. "I'll make an exception and say it's the same time. The score is officially six then." She gave a short, choppy laugh. "And what about you?"

"Five still," I informed her.

"Always the overachiever," she said, kidding around like she wasn't still upset. But we all knew she was.

"So…what was that about?" I pushed a piece of her hair out of her eyes so she could see me better, hooking it behind her ear. She smiled at me, but didn't say anything, instead just wrapping her arms around her knees after bringing them to her chest again. "Fine, fine, you don't have to tell."
"It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, if that's what you're wondering," she blurted out suddenly. I looked at her but she wasn't looking at me. "She just said some more stuff about you and some other, pretty harsh stuff about me. Harsher than usual, I mean," she clarified, seeing my expression from the corner of her eyes. She took a deep breath. "I guess I just kind of…lost it. Lunged at her. Yelled at her. In some ways I think she deserved it…but that look on her face after I said all that stuff…"

I started rubbing between her shoulder blades. "It made me kind of start to re-think things…is she really that bad? I mean," she turned to me, a look more of curiosity and determination etched in her expression, "there has to be some sort of reason as to why she's always so mean to everyone…more specifically: us. People aren't just that mean to anyone they come across. There is a legit reason she hates me, I just need to find out what it is."

I gave her a weird look. "I understand that you feel bad for her, but don't you think you might be overanalyzing things a little too much?"

She shook her head and gave me a disappointed look. "No. I don't. Now, originally, I thought the reason she hates me was because I hang out with you all the time and she likes you and thinks we have a thing going on and blah, blah, blah, details, details, but I don't think that's the only reason anymore."

"Oh, Lord, here we go," I mumbled under my breath, but, like always, she heard me.

She actually looked rather offended. "Excuse me? Well then, I guess I won't tell you my plan if you don't support this."

I sighed and shook my head, but agreed to help her. "Fine, I will."

She grinned slightly and was about to say something else, when it said over the intercom, "Maxine Ride and Elizabeth Hart, please come to the office immediately. Maxine Ride and Elizabeth Hart, please come to the office." She rolled her eyes, grabbing her bag and jumping off the table. "I managed to get sent to the office before second period. A new record for me!" she said sarcastically. I shrugged one shoulder and walked with her as far as we could before we had to branch off, me to first period, and her to the principal's.

---

MAX'S POV:

"Maxine Ride and Elizabeth Hart, please come to the office immediately. Maxine Ride and Elizabeth Hart, please come to the office." Grabbing my messenger bag and rolling me eyes, I jump off the desk. "I managed to get sent to the office before second period. A new record for me!" I told him sarcastically, him just shrugging in a reply. Fang walked with me as far as he could until we had to separate so I could be sent to the principal's. "Woo. My favorite activity."

I was the only one in the hallway, save some kid who appeared to be in my grade, though I doubted that I'd ever talked to her. We did that awkward thing where you try not to make eye contact and end up just staring either ahead of you, or at your shoes so as not to make things uncomfortable. Even though that just ends up making things worse…yeah.

After that unpleasant experience, I was at the office and had to wait a bit before going to see the principal. Unfortunately for me, Lissa was already there, an ice pack on her nose, a tissue in her hand, and a sorry look on her face. Though she didn't show that to me when she looked up. I suppose she tried to look indifferent, but I'd already seen the apology in her eyes earlier and while they were trained on the ground.

To make things slightly less awkward, I sat down a couple seats away from her and taking my iPod from my backpack, popping the earphones in and blasting Relient K from them.

After a moment, I saw the secretary motion for me to take my earphones out and go in. I did, stuffing my iPod in the first pocket and walking slowly inside, Lissa in front of me.

The principal, Dr. Hawkins, sat in a huge, mahogany desk with plenty of papers and trinkets and things covering it, hands laced together in front of him. The fancy plaque thingy read, "Dr. Christopher Hawkins." He had salt and pepper hair, cut to a sort-of-buzz cut, and was considerably young.

I sat myself down, just putting my bag in my lap, and crossing my legs out of habit. I shoved some bothersome hair out of my line of sight, seeing Lissa cross her ankles and sit up straight, smoothing her miniskirt out to make it seem longer. I rolled my eyes.

After a long, boring speech about how inappropriate our behavior was, he told us that we each had detention every Friday for two weeks. She looked rather upset by this news, but I didn't really care. Mom wouldn't care as long as everything was all right and I hadn't gotten hurt. Sure, she'd lecture me a little, but nothing more than that.

The rest of the day passed without worry, Brigid still sitting with us at lunch. The more I was around her, the less I liked her, so I tried my best not to be around her. Mom did just as I had predicted, lecturing me for a minute about how I wasn't to get myself into fights, and then she hugged me and we talked about what had happened.

Days passed. Then weeks. It got colder and colder outside, until I was reduced to having to wear thicker jackets even though I really hated them. The upside was that I got to wear my cardigans and scarves constantly and not burn up in it.

It was two days before Winter Break, and as normal, Brigid was blabbing away to Fang. I was in a particularly bad mood that day because I'd had cramps all day, felt like I was about to throw up, looked like crap, barely got any sleep the night before, and had a major headache. So when she started chattering rather loudly about this and that to him, it annoyed me. But when she actually asked him out on a date, I couldn't take it. Fang nodded after a moment, and she squealed, kissing him on the cheek. My gut twisted and I felt worse. I gave them both a glare and then stepped into the girls' bathroom. The weird thing was that I swear that Fang glanced at me anxiously before saying yes. Ella followed me, looking worried, but I ignored that and splashed cold water on my forehead.

"Brigid again?" She asked, already knowing the answer. I nodded, shutting my eyes and leaning against the wall behind me. "Why do you hate her so much anyways?"

"I don't hate her," I mumbled, pinching the bridge of my nose and sighing. I could almost feel the realization hit Ella smack in the face. She gasped, and then squealed loudly, "Ooooh, you're jealous of her!"

I peeked over at her, opening one of my eyes a little, giving her a confused look. "What are you talking about?"

"You're jealous of Brigid because Fang likes her!"

I pushed away from the wall and leaned against the sink instead. "I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yeah, you are."
I snapped completely. "I AM NOT JEALOUS OF BRIGID!"

She looked taken aback and I instantly felt terrible about yelling at her. There was a moment of awkward silence before I said meekly, "Oh, Ells, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"

But she cut me off by putting her hands up to stop me and saying, "It's okay. I shouldn't have pushed you. I know how you must be feeling right now."

I nodded in thanks, looking down and thinking over what she had said. "But what do you mean, 'how I must be feeling right now'?"

She looked at herself in the mirror, fixing her hair dark brown hair and fidgeting with her hands. "Just, you know, having to deal with watching the guy you like, go out with someone else."

My eyebrows creased. "But…I don't like Fang like that."

She gave me a confused and slightly concerned look before going back the mirror, flipping her hair a couple times to get into a position she liked.

"I swear, I don't like Fang like that," I promised, putting my hands up in surrender. She shook her head, hair bouncing around her. She said like a mother would to her child (even though I'm older),"Everyone but you knows that by now, hon."

"But…I don't like him that way."

She sighed in an exasperated way. "Are you seriously this blind?"

I didn't say anything.

"It's obvious by the way you two look at each other that there are way more than best-friend-feelings. We've all known this for about four years."

"Four years?"

"Yeah, four years. Isn't that what I just said?"

"But…wait, wait, wait," I interrupted, feeling heat rise to my cheeks, giving something away. I wasn't sure what that something was, but it was something since a knowing look stretched across her expression. "I swear, I don't like him in that way. Don't you think that I should be the first one to know whether or not I like someone?"

She groaned, looking annoyed at my lack of cooperation. "That's the thing. You have known this, haven't you? You just won't admit it."

"Um, no," I said, flailing my arms around. I was always one for using hand motions. "I haven't known this but apparently it's already been decided without my say-so that I'm, like, completely in love with him!"

"But you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Well, he is."

That certainly shocked me into not saying anything. There was silence for a long while before I spoke up again.

"What, you mean he's in love with Brigid?"

"No. He's in love with you. He doesn't love you—he's in love with you."

…

…That definitely wasn't what I was expecting.

We didn't say anything else for what felt like forever; though I knew it was probably only, like, five minutes. "He doesn't," I finally mumbled, looking down at my shoes. My headache was getting worse and worse as seconds ticked by, and this random probably-not-true announcement wasn't helping it. I leaned against the sink again, suddenly feeling like I was about to puke my guts up once again.

"Oh my goodness, Max!" Ella exclaimed. I winced at the sudden loud noise, but she didn't seem to notice. If she did notice, she didn't care at that moment. "Are you blind and deaf? I, along with just about every other sane person on the face of the Earth, would kill to have what you two have, but you can't even appreciate it because you're too darn stubborn to even realize it!" She took a deep breath, calming herself down. Ella didn't get mad a lot, but when she got mad, she wasn't too gentle about…well, anything. "He likes you! He's admitted that to us since he was twelve! That's pretty darn young! Nudge and I wanted to tell you soon because you can't come to see that, but he made us promise we wouldn't because he wanted to tell you on his own time. I'm sorry that I broke that promise, but it's pretty obvious that without a push, you two are going absolutely nowhere."

I didn't say anything. Oh, God, I was going to be sick. My brain was overloading and everything was becoming harder to understand. Feeling that tingling in the back of my tongue, I ran towards one of the stalls and leaned against the toilet, holding my hair back.

Ella followed like she seemed to do a lot, and took my hair for me while I emptied my breakfast.

Once I was done, I leaned my head against the side of the stall door, calming down my breathing, the terrible feeling going away. My headache hadn't left yet though. It took me a moment, but I got up, flushed the toilet, and washed my mouth out with cold water. I thanked Ella for holding my hair and she led me down to the nurse's office.

The only problem was that I passed out right as we made it there.

---

Fang's POV:

I couldn't believe Brigid asked me out. I mean, it's not like I didn't like her or anything, but I was still kind of…not over Max. I kind of felt like I would be almost cheating if I went out with her.

But then again…Brigid was a nice girl and I related to her. She wasn't mean or anything, just a little clingy, but no one can be perfect, right? And anyways, I needed to get over Max. She obviously wasn't returning the feelings anytime soon, was she? I thought it would be better for both of us. That way I wasn't putting our friendship at jeopardy and we could go on as normal—she never had to know that I had taken a fancy to her since we were kids.

…Anyways.

So I said yes to going out with Brigid. The look of bliss on her face made me happy that she was happy, but I still had that tiny feeling in the pit of my stomach telling me that I wasn't doing the right thing. I ignored it.

Brigid squealed and then tried to cover it up. I grinned a little. She was just like a child waking up on Christmas morning, a look of pure joy in her eyes. She beamed at me, perfect white teeth showing, before kissing my cheek and hugging my torso. I was a good four or five inches taller than her.

"Great! I was thinking maybe this Thursday, since we get off tomorrow obviously, and we could go to this one place downtown that…" she kept on about the date while I listened patiently to her. I felt…a little better knowing that I wouldn't have to deal with the heartache anymore, but at the same time, I still felt how I had predicted: like I was cheating on Max with Brigid. I shook it off and then noticed that neither Ella nor Max was there anymore.

I cut Brigid's excited chatter off. "Do you know where they went?"

She stopped, and looked around, seeming to have just noticed their absence as well. "Um…I don't know. Max wasn't looking too well earlier, so maybe they went to the bathroom?" I nodded, but kept scanning the area for them. "I'll go see what's going up with them," she offered and I nodded in thanks as she got up from her seat.

I waited a couple of minutes before she came back and hurriedly told me that Max had passed out. I jumped from my seat, nearly tripping in the process, and raced down the hall to the nurse, Brigid behind me. She was doing pretty well; especially considering it must've been hard to run in the shoes she was wearing.

When we got to nurse, Max had actually already woken up, but wasn't looking too good—she also looked like she'd literally just woken up, like, a couple minutes before. Her face was pretty pale, and she was sweating and cradling her head in her hands. Ella was sitting on the bed-type-thing with her, looking upset. "Hey, what's wrong?" I asked the moment we entered. Her eyes flickered up to me and she shrugged. "Sick, I guess," she managed to croak. Ella told me that her mother was going to pick Max up, since Max's mom was still at work and hadn't answered her phone. I nodded and pulled a chair up with them, Brigid just standing behind me. We weren't really doing much, having already finished exams the previous week, so I doubted that anyone much cared if we stayed in the nurse's office for a while.

"What are y'all doing in here?" Nurse Amy asked, looking at us questioningly. She was holding a wet rag in her hand.

"Um, we wanted to see how she was doing," Brigid said, gesturing to Max and Ella. Nurse Amy nodded and she let us stay with them before Ella's mom came. She understood, I guess, and knew that it wouldn't matter if we missed class.

It wasn't but ten minutes before Ella's mom came and hurried Max off to her house. Ella rubbed Max's back in a comforting and empathetic manner and asked if she was sure that she'd be all right. In response, Max nodded but didn't look too certain. She and Ella hugged, and Ella whispered something to her, looking a little worried. Max shook her head with a perplexed look but dropped it. She gave me a tentative, one-arm hug, which was sort of out of character for her, but I brushed it off. Brigid waved a little, looking sincerely concerned. She did wave back, though hesitantly, like she wasn't sure why Brigid would say goodbye in a civil fashion.

After they had left, Ella gave me a genuine glare—something I rarely saw from her—and turned away irritably in the direction of her fifth period class. I shook my head in bewilderment and instead of focusing on that, focused on the conversation that Brigid had taken up again.

---

"FANG!" My mom screamed up the stairs to me, standing at the bottom of the stair way, purse in hand. "ARE YOU COMING OR NOT?"

I popped my head out of my room and looked at her. "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"

"SHOPPING."

"I'LL PASS."

"NO, MISTER, I MEANT CHRISTMAS SHOPPING."

I didn't say anything for a moment, thinking over it for a moment. I had so many other things I needed to finish; did I really have to go shopping then?

Oh, wait, I mentally face palmed. I had two days before Christmas and I had only gotten Mom, Dad, Iggy, and Gazzy's presents.

I'm smart.

"YOU DO NEED TO GET YOUR FRIENDS' PRESENTS, RIGHT?" She tried again. I nodded and told her to give me a second to get my shoes and stuff on.

"GREAT. IGGY IS COMING ALSO, IN CASE YOU WANTED TO KNOW."

Twenty minutes later, we had arrived at the mall. Obviously, there were a bunch of teenagers hanging out, since school had just gotten out and Christmas had nearly arrived. I saw tons of people that I knew, and unless for some reason we didn't like each other, they would nod at me in a sort of joking way, making fun of how I always did that. I'd grin a little and nod back. Iggy would greet back with fake enthusiasm, when we all knew that he was just poking fun at people who act like that constantly.

It was less embarrassing to be with Mom while Iggy was there. I really could've gone alone, since, you know, I had my license and all…but I knew that Mom would be upset if I chose to go later just I didn't want to go with her. So I sucked it up and went along with it.

"What the heck am I supposed to get Ella?" Iggy muttered. I patted his back sympathetically, shrugged, and rolled my eyes. It was official by then that they were, indeed, going out. And despite common belief, Ella was a lot harder to shop for than you'd originally think.

"Are you and Brigid going out or what?" he asked suddenly.

I shrugged again, not wanting to really talk about it. Thankfully, he realized that and left the subject alone. Brigid and I weren't really going out—we were still friends and all, and the date had gone considerably well, but…I just didn't know really.

Max was annoyed with me. For some reason, she'd decided to flip at me and then not tell me why she even did in the first place. Ella had also, and neither would explain themselves, though at least they weren't incredibly angry at me anymore. For a couple of days, Ella wouldn't talk to me and glared at me whenever no one else was around. Max didn't do that, but for a while she wouldn't say anything and scowled at the ground. She and Ella shared more private conversations all of the sudden, and it made no sense to any of us guys. Nudge—the lucky girl—either understood exactly, or they told her, because she started acting a little more irritable with me too, but not for very long, thank God.

That having been explained, I really wanted to get Max something incredibly this year. I wasn't exactly sure what it was going to be, but I was hoping that the fantastic gift would make her forgive me for whatever the heck it was that I had done to make her so mad, and then realize her undying love for me.

…

*Cough *.

…Anyways…

I had been thinking of a couple things, but I still wasn't completely sure. I didn't want to get her something cliché, like, say…a ring, because that was definitely not Max's scene. But I felt like anything else wouldn't really be enough, you know? And—dear Lord, \help me—I was worried. Ha, Fang worried? Over a present? Yeah, I know…Shut up about it.

Mom ran off after a moment to go get some shopping for us done while we went to the food court to eat. I didn't know why she'd have us come along to the mall while she was getting our presents, but I didn't comment on it.

Not too long later, we finished eating and Mom joined us to go finish up. A thought hit me and I had to stop myself from grinning. I knew exactly what I was getting Max.

(HFFN: Ha-ha, no, it's not going to be cliché…I hope…D:)

Thankfully, it didn't take very long to get Dad, Angel, and Nudge's presents. For Dad, anything golf related. For Angel, anything pink and she was pretty much happy. And for Nudge, she would take anything from Forever 21, up-to-date, or what she would describe as "cute". Ella on the other hand…well, like I said, she was a lot harder to shop for then the rest.

It took us about forty-five minutes to an hour to get Ella's Christmas present. Iggy forced me to help him, but since he obviously knew her better than I did, I didn't end up being much help. Sooner or later, he settled on what he would get her. See, Ella had always had an obsession with photography, so he spent all of the money he'd had saved up to get her this super fancy camera and lighting equipment. It was some sort of Canon camcorder, though I couldn't ever remember what exactly it was.

By the time that we had arrived back at home, we had just about everyone's present. What I was getting Max wasn't found at the mall though, so we had to make a thirty-minute detour to Guitar Center. (Hey, look! There's a hint for 'ya, in case you wondered.)

"I wish this wasn't so expensive," Iggy mumbled as we hopped out of our car once we had parked it in the driveway, glancing at the bags in his hand that held the camcorder and equipment. "Well, at least you know that she'll love it," Mom chirped, stepping out with a couple bags, plus her purse. Iggy nodded, muttering something to him as we made our way inside.

---

Max's POV:

Twenty-four hours later and we were finally having our Christmas (Eve) dinner. Everyone was seated around the dining table, laughing up a storm and generally enjoying themselves. I was smiling like crazy, really enjoying being with them. Christmas was, honestly, my favorite holiday, even if I wasn't very religious. 'Course, I didn't just like it because of presents and jazz, but other reasons. I just…loved winter a lot. Sadly, though, it wasn't snowing and it hadn't snowed on Christmas Day for the past thirty-seven years. I would've been so psyched if it had snowed even just a bit, but…nothing. I wished that Nudge and Ella were there, but they were off with their family.

"Okay, time for presents!" Mrs. Walker announced, and Angel squealed, excited. Gazzy did too, but tried to cover it up since he was a boy and he didn't want to be seen squealing…even if he was only eight. My Lord, he was just so much like Iggy, it was insane!

That put aside, on with the story. Everyone jumped from their seats and went into the living room. Mom, Mrs. Walker, and Mr. Walker watched us get set up. I sat on the couch with Iggy and Fang, while Angel sat in front of Iggy's feet and Gazzy claimed the black La-Z-Boy. The parents got the other couch and the rocking chair in the corner of the room. All of us were centered around the fireplace, the Christmas tree in the right corner near the parents, though Angel and Gazzy always handed the presents out to us. We had done the same routine every year for nine years, and we weren't about to stop then.

"Angie, Gasman, you want to pass the presents out?" Mom asked them and they nodded enthusiastically, starting. We also went from youngest the oldest when opening presents, so Angel was always first. When they finished, Angel arranged her presents around her like it was a fortress. The younger ones always seemed to get more, but none of us very much minded anyways, so it's not like it mattered. Angel opened the present from me first, and it was so cute, the way her entire face lit up when she took a white bear with black button eyes out of the bag. "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!" she exclaimed, hugging it to her chest. "Thank you sooo much Max!" I nodded and smiled, telling her that she was welcome.

Next, Gazzy opened the one from Mr. Walker, and it was one of those really cool remote-controlled helicopters with built in cameras so you can record stuff from the angle that the helicopter is at. He beamed and thanked his dad, attempting to get it out of the package right away.

Then it was my turn. Yes, I was the third youngest, as sad as that sounds, but only because Iggy and Fang are twins, and they're only two months older than me, thank you very much! I opened the one from Iggy to find the Chameleon Circuit album, Still Got Legs. "Thanks Ig!" I said, actually meaning it. Mrs. Walker had me hold it up so she could get a picture of me with it, and when that was done; I flipped it over to see all the songs on the back. I already knew a lot of them, thanks muchly for the internet, but it was nice knowing that I had them and hadn't downloaded them illegally from one of those music-sharing-youtube-to-mp3 websites. I always felt bad about doing that, but I did it anyways. Every music lover has done or is going to do that at some point in their life.

Iggy decided to go before Fang, and he opened the one from Gazzy. 'Course it had to do something with explosives, and therefore he absolutely loved it. The Gasman was super happy that Iggy liked his gift, grinning at us, dimples showing. Fang went after, of course, and opened the one from his mom. It was a black, gold, and red sweater with a large letter "N" on the front. "Oh my gosh, it's a Weasley sweater!" Iggy suddenly realized, looking really excited about this news. Fang gave him a weird look and nodded as if talking to a young child. "Thanks Mom," he said, putting it back in the bag. She smiled but made him take it back out to take a picture.

After a while of unwrapping things and nearly every last bit of wrapping paper was tossed carelessly in front of us, I was done to the last two presents I had to open—the one from Fang and the one from Mom. I opened Fang's second to last and removed the wrapping paper from strangely packaged box, to reveal a light blue, concert ukulele. I gasped. "Oh my God, this is literally exactly what I asked for!" I said, a little in shock. The ukulele I had before that was just a normal, brown/gold soprano but I'd wanted a concert for a while. "This…is flipping EXCITING!" I said, taking it from the package and strumming a few chords to try it out.

"That's not all," he said, pointing to the side of it. I flipped it over carefully and saw that on the edge, it said:

---

Maximum Ride, like a name in a fairytale…

~Fang

---

"Awww!" I said. Normally, I wasn't so gushy but, God! That was just so nice of him!

He grinned a little at my blissful expression. "Other side," he told me, and I flipped it over again.

---

"Have you ever fancied someone you shouldn't? Hurts, doesn't it? But it's a good kind of hurt."

---

"Thank you!" I said, getting up from my seat and hugging him. "I love it," I said into his shoulder and he grinned slightly. For the rest of the time, I played/strummed my new concert ukulele a little, not used to the size. My soprano was a lot smaller than that one.

I felt bad that I hadn't gotten Fang something super awesome in return, but he seemed fine with his present, so that made me feel a little less guilty.

It was getting late before something else that was pretty eventful happened. Angel and Gazzy were getting to bed, hoping that Santa Clause would come faster than. Everyone else stayed up a little longer and talked and sooner or later, we cleaned up the living room, since we'd made a pretty big mess with all of the wrapping paper and ribbon and boxes and things. Mrs. Walker went to sleep at around ten o'clock, since she had always liked to go to bed early, but no one else did.

Anyways, that happened. Nothing worth telling you happened for another hour though, when my mom and I were getting ready to leave and Mr. Walker was getting to bed. Iggy had locked himself up in his room (or as we all called it: his Cave) and so it was just Fang and I standing around, waiting for my mom. We started up a normal conversation, and I again thanked him for the present, and he said that it was no big deal.

That was when we noticed the mistletoe hanging on the doorframe, as cliché as it was.

"Oh, God," I muttered, laughingly nervously, and hooking a piece of hair behind my ear. What? Maximum Ride? Nervous? Never! What are you talking about?

Fang grinned slightly and glanced at it. "Tradition," he explained quietly, before bending down in one swift movement and kissing me on the lips like it was normal.

It's not like it was a long kiss—it only lasted about three seconds, but it was enough to make my brain turn to mush for a moment, and then when I realized what had just happened, it was also enough for me to look down awkwardly and blush a scarlet red.

"Umm…That…" I stumbled, trying to think of something to say. "That was…"

"Different?" he tried.

I nodded, still not looking up. "Uh, I guess that word works too."

Before I could embarrass myself any further, my mother came to my rescue by walking back in the room and announcing that it was time for us to go home. I nodded and followed her mutely, trying to keep away the blush…but to no avail.

"Bye," I called behind me to Fang, who had Mr. Walker standing next to him by then. "I'll, uh, see you tomorrow."

Oh, good Lord, I much more awkward could I even get? Honestly!

Then I had an epiphany…one that I probably should've had a long time before then, but better late than never, right?

I realized why I was so nervous about the mistletoe, and why I was brain dead after, and why I got that weird fluttering in my stomach when he smiled, or why I felt like I was lying to myself when I repeatedly told Ella that I wasn't jealous.

Oh crap. I had taken a fancy to my best friend! CRAP-CRAP-CRAP-CRAPITTY-CRAP-CRAP!

The only question I had left was:

Did Fang still like me?

---

HFFN: 17, 796 words = 29 pages on Word. I warned you that it'd be super long.

RW: You won't understand the thing with the quotes on the ukulele unless you've seen season 5 of Doctor Who. You don't have to understand though, just know that's it's supposed to be cute.

HFFN: Yes, they kissed. Yes, they're both freaking out. Yes, Fang and Max are OOC. And YES, this was a very cliche and average chapter, but oh freaking well.

RW: Review pleeaasse!

~The High-Fives For Nothing and Ravenclaw Wings