Disclaimer: JP give me a buzz if you feel like giving me the rights to MR

Chapter 4

"Hi honey how was your day?" Mom asked me as I walked into the house. I followed the smell of chocolate chip cookies into the kitchen and found her pulling a tray out of the oven. It was so odd. So normal. Not what I was used to anymore.

"Good." I said snatching a cookie off the tray and burned my mouth as I stuffed it down my throat. But my moan was of pleasure, not pain. "Yummy!"

"Here, if you destroy your throat Mackie will kill you." She said handing me a glass of cold milk. Mackie, my manager. The guy who had gotten my singing career off the ground. "Speaking of Mackie, he's scheduled time at a recording studio in Phoenix three weeks from Wednesday. You'll have to leave school early to get there." She finished putting the cookies onto the cooling rack. "Oh! And do not forget you have a concert in Phoenix, not this Friday, but the next."

"I won't forget Mom." I said, grabbing another cookie.

"Good. Now, we have business out of the way. Tell me all about your school day." She got this goofy grin on her face and sat down across the table from me. My mom was my best friend. She was a vet, but with all of the touring we had done the past two years, she'd put her career on the back burner. Part of the reason we'd picked Navajo as our new home was because they had a great position available in their vet clinic. She seemed happier today too, I knew she'd had a good first day back at work.

"School was…great." I smiled, running through my day in my head. "I got lost a lot, but other than that. I made some new friends. My chemistry partner is blind. I know, weird right? But he's good, he knows what he's doing. I sat with him and a bunch of other great kids at lunch."

"That's great honey! You should have them over some time." She smiled. She really did seem happy. I think that moving to Navajo was the best decision we could have made.

…

The rest of the week went more or less the same way. I sat with Fang in first period, Iggy in second, and everyone else at lunch. It also turned out that I had both Ella and Nudge in my choir class (something I wasn't completely happy about taking because I didn't want anyone recognizing my voice, but I had needed a fine arts credit.) and I had Gazzy in my gym class with Fang too. In fact, there was only one thing that had changed compared to the first day.

Her name was Lissa.

Flashback:

"All I'm saying is that it wouldn't kill you to take grammar lessons if you are embarrassed to talk. I mean, that must be your only excuse. I could teach you if you want." I teased Fang. It was my third day of school and I don't think I'd heard him say more than ten words in a single day.

"We don't all need to be taking lessons from Nudge, which, may I add, you are." He smirked.

I huffed. "I am not!" I quickly slammed my locker. He just continued to smirk at me. "Go away," I ordered. He just chuckled, held his hands up in mock surrender, and headed down the hall to Iggy's locker.

"I can't believe you are trying to steal my man." A voice came from behind me.

"Excuse me?" I demanded whirling around to see a small red head girl in revealing clothes and three inch heels, with her hands on her hips glaring at me. Her glare was nothing compared to what I could do, and it was kind of made more pathetic by the splatter of freckles across her face that looked like blood splatter. Actually, she reminded me of Raggedy Anne or Pippy Long Stocking. "I'm not taking any guy. Who are you anyway?"

"I'm Lissa." She said all snarky. Suddenly I recognized her from the jocks and bimbos table my first day. She was sort of the head honcho. Greaaaat. (Please note the sarcasm). "And yes you are. You're trying to steal my Fangy."

"Fangy?" That did it. I doubled over laughing until I had stitches in my side and tears running down my face.

"It's not funny!" Lissa stomped her foot, which only made me laugh harder. "He's my man and you. Cant. Have. Him." She snarled.

It kind of had the effect of a bunny snarling at you. Surprising, but ineffective.

Now, my snarling was like a rabid wolverine. She learned this the hard way. I glared at her, my death glare.

She backed up. "First of all," I hissed, "nobody tells me what I can and can't do with my life. Second of all, Fang has never said a word about you, so I think you are delusional."

That's when she smacked me. This little….little slut just slapped me. Big mistake. That's when I punched her. Hard. I was feeling more like myself right now than I had in years.

"Back off bitch." I told her, and stormed down the hall without another word, the students parting for me like the Red Sea.

End Flashback

I didn't actually get in trouble for punching Lissa. It had been after school hours and nobody had claimed they were witnesses. When I asked my friends they had said that Lissa may be popular but nobody actually likes her, therefore they must have loved seeing her get punched as much as they had.

I asked Fang about Lissa too. He said she was basically his stalker. She'd been after him since eighth grade, and he'd constantly rejected her.

That made me feel happy for some reason.

Friday at lunch Nudge broke from her usual rants about fashion and trends to tell me that she was having her usual Friday night sleepover and it was mandatory that I came.

"But, I don't have any clothes with me." I said. I wanted to sleep over her house, like a normal teenager, but I was worried. What if my wig came off while I slept? What if they realized who I was?

"No problem." Nudge smiled. "I'll drive you to your house and you can pick up some clothes."

I bit my lip. I really, really, really, wanted to go, but…what about my secret. I struggled in my mind for a few seconds, which felt like hours, before I slowly nodded, my craving for a normal life finally winning out. "Alright."

…

"It's this one." I told Nudge from the passenger seat of her Tahoe. She carefully turned into my driveway and parked.

"We're finally at your elusive house!" Nudge burst. "You've never mentioned where you live or anything about us coming over so I was beginning to wonder if you even have a house! But here we are! And your house is nice and mumph phaw—" I slapped my hand over her mouth.

"Turn off the Nudge Channel." I sighed. "You're giving me an ulcer." I felt her smile under my hand. I jumped out of the car and headed towards my house. I was at the front door before I realized that nobody was behind me. I looked back and saw all of my friends still sitting in the Tahoe.

"Are you coming?" I called. They seemed to jump before pouring out of the car and following me. I yanked open the door and led them into my house.

"Max? Is that you?" Mom called. Of course it was me, who else was it going to be. "Oh, of course it's you, nobody else comes here." It's scary how in sync we are. "I got a call from Mackie today, he wanted to make sure—"

"I brought friends!" I yelled over her, my heart racing as my secret was almost blown right then.

Mom cut off, then rushed to the hallway. "Oh! How lovely!" she caught my eye for a second before rushing to shake hands with my friends.

"Mom this is Nudge, Ella, Iggy, Gazzy, and Fang." I said as she shook each of their hands. "Guys this is my mom." There was a chorus of hellos.

Mom was all smiles. I could practically see the gears turning in her head. "Um, Nudge invited me for a sleepover so I came to get some clothes." I said quietly.

"Well that sounds like fun! And of course, go get a bag ready! Next time though, you should really invite them over."

I blushed lightly and nodded, then motioned for everyone to follow me to my room.

"Oh wow! I love your room!" Nudge gushed as I opened my door. I have to admit my room is pretty fricken awesome. The walls were painted a light blue and splattered with neon colors. My bedspread was a solid blue and rested queen sized in the middle of the wall between two windows that let as much light in as I could get. I hated feeling closed in; I was claustrophobic, which isn't always easy when hundreds of thousands of fans are surrounding you.

I had old vinyl records bordering the top of my walls. It was an overall cool affect. I loved it. Nudge headed over to my closet and shrieked.

"What is this? Is this everything? Or do you have, like, another room full of clothes? Please say you have more because this is…is…a disgrace!"

"Hey! Don't diss my clothes," I protested, grabbing a bag and stuffing the essentials into it. "They are perfectly alright." I wasn't going to mention that I did in fact, have another room full of clothes in the basement connected to the music room, purposefully full of my Max Ride gear.

"Oh! Make sure you bring your bathing suit! Just in case we go swimming." Nudge called.

"I don't have a bathing suit." I told her as I threw some pajamas into my bag.

The stream of conversation that had been going on in my room stopped immediately. I looked at Fang, who was looking at Nudge. Everyone was looking at Nudge.

Her eye was twitching.

"You….don't…have…a bathing suit?" she acted as if the thought absolutely appalled her….actually, this was Nudge, I should probably be hiding in a bunker after that confession.

I slowly backed towards the door my hand reaching out for the knob. "Well, not exactly…."

"Oh my god! Where have you grown up? A cave? Tomorrow we are so going shopping! Its October so technically it's the end of swimsuit season so we could find some really good prices and all, but you are getting at least three bathing suits. I mean, how can you be my friend without one? The thought is just…just…oh my god! One of those bathing suits is going to be pink. For tonight, you can borrow one of mine. I'd drag you to the mall right now, but our sleepovers are on a tight schedule."

I didn't catch half of what Nudge said. The only words I heard were shopping and pink. Those were two very bad words in my personal dictionary. Purple I could deal with. Blue, hell I loved it. But pink it's so…girly. I shuddered just thinking about it. As for shopping. Well, all of those girls at the mall scoping out guys, all the guys at the mall, waiting to be scoped…who wouldn't love it?

It was a fricken nightmare.

I looked at Fang and gave him a look that said: get me out of this!

He returned with a slightly sympathetic look that meant: I can't. This is Nudge we're talking about.

Well hell!

A/N: You know the drill: R&R

Peace!