A/N: Hey y'alls, I'm having a major case of writer's block, so please, please help me. I've never really written anything, even in my own stories, that goes beyond the whole "couple getting together" phase. If any of you have any suggestions at all, please review or pm me or something. I could really use the help!

Another thing. I figured that some of you might be wondering why I don't add in that much action or adventure into my stories. That's because I figure JP has put in enough of that into his series. Y'all don't really need anymore of that; however, he rarely puts any romance in his stories, although everyone can see the obvious attraction between Fang and Max. I'm here to satisfy the rabid feelings of the otaku fangirl, by putting in enough FAX to make most people sick, with just enough action to fit with the style of James Patterson's writing. Okies, just wanted to justify that one.

Umm, I'll do some review replies later, no internet connection now. However, let me just add that this chappie is a bit longer; I think someone requested that.

Disclaimer: Mwahahahaha! I am James Patterson! …okay, I'm joking, don't hurt me.

Chapter Four —

"I don't get this!" I moaned, as I tugged at my hair.

"Don't get what?" Fang asked, as he slid into the chair next to me. Iggy was holding onto his shirt-tail, and he slid into the chair on Fang's other side.

"Biology!" I exclaimed, stretching my lab book taunt in front of me. "Why in hell should I care about the gametophyte and sporophyte generations of a freaking fern!?"

"Should've taken chemistry," he nodded wisely at me. "Chem is easier than bio, if you ask me, although memorizing the periodic tables is a major hassle." He dipped his breadstick into his French onion soup, then bit into it eagerly.

"Screw this." I flipped the heavy book onto the table and pulled my lunch towards me. "Whatever, I'll just fail that class." With zeal, I dug into my lunch.

"Does anyone want to tell me what I'm about to bite into?" Iggy asked, holding up some kind of mush wrapped in a thin pita.

I blinked. "What did you order, Ig?"

"The special." His nose twitched. "It smells rather… interesting, so I'm not quite sure I want to find out what's inside by taste-test."

"Get a burger or something next time, and do us all a favor." I turned back to my cheeseburger.

It was only the three of us, because we had three separate lunch periods due to the large class sizes. Angel and Gazzy had the first lunch, while Fang, Iggy, Ella, and I had third. Poor Nudge was stuck in the middle, the only one with second lunch. Briefly, I wondered how she was doing by herself. She was probably the most laid-back of us all — though that wasn't saying much — so she should be able to make friends easily enough.

"Hey, Max!" Ella came up to our table, her tray loaded with food. She sat down next to me, smiling happily. "How's class been?"

"Ugh, don't remind me." I rolled my eyes at her. "You really need to explain some of those math concepts to me. I'm totally lost."

Ella nodded as she spread some thousand island dressing over her salad. "Yeah, math isn't exactly my favorite subject either." She opened her workbook. Her handwriting was neat and clean, each assignment labeled with the problems and the date, as well as separate sections sticky-noted. "I wanna get the homework done so I don't have to take the textbook home."

I stared at her as she flipped the book open to a bookmarked page. "Yeah, right, you have trouble with math." I rolled my eyes. "Hey, if you're not going to eat that, Ella, can I have it?" I pointed to the breadstick she had set to the side of her tray.

"Sure, feel free."

Grinning, I grabbed her breadstick and stuffed it into my mouth.

It's been nearly a week since the trip to Taiwan ended. Everything has calmed down somewhat, and we were all getting back into our old schedules. The jet lag was also righting itself, although I still experienced sudden bouts of fatigue. We were all happy that it was Friday and that the weekend was nearly in sight.

Quickly finishing up my lunch, I dumped my tray and sat back down, pulling my health book out. I never did my health homework at home, because I didn't like taking the textbook home, so I always just did it after I finished my lunch. Scribbling on a worksheet with my head down, I didn't notice anyone coming over to our table before I saw a pair of feet standing right by my side.

Looking up, I saw Isabelle standing next to me, with four of her friends in tow.

"Hey, Max, hey Ella!" She pulled up a chair and wedged herself next to me, next to Ella, who gave her a smile before going back to her math homework. "Have I introduced you to my friends?" Before I had a chance to say anything, she pointed behind her and started introducing the four people who were standing around us rather awkwardly. "So this is Stephen, he's my neighbor. I've known him since fourth grade." She pointed to a tall boy with a shock of blonde hair that was at odds with his rather dark skin.

"Sup, y'all." He pulled up a chair between me and Isabelle, collapsing in it with a sigh. Ella quickly pulled all of her stuff over and sat next to Iggy.

"You guys can all sit down, if you want." She seemed oblivious to all the dirty looks I (not to mention Fang and Iggy) was giving her. The other three, two girls and a guy, all sat down on Isabelle's other side. I tried to keep the grimace off my face.

"Over there is Sherri, and this is Lisa. We have a lot of the same classes." Isabelle pointed to a peppy brown-haired girl and an Asian girl with rather odd green eyes in turn. I recognized Sherri from English and Health, and Lisa from World History. Then, she turned to the last boy, pointing out, "And he's Johannes. You know him, right Ella?"

Looking up, Ella nodded. "Yep, we're in band together." I knew him too, from Gym and Biology.

"Anyways, that's Ella, you know her. This is Max, Nick, and Jeff, and they started school here this year. They're siblings, and they have three other younger sibs in the other lunches." Turning to her friends, she added, "They were adopted. Their parents are missionaries."

"So anyways," continued Isabelle, who seemed to have just noticed the rather tense atmosphere, "I thought you guys looked pretty lonely over here, so I decided we could merge tables." She grinned at me, and then Fang and Iggy, as if trying to lighten the atmosphere. None of us grinned back, although I tried to give her a smile that turned into a grimace. We weren't exactly people-persons, if you know what I mean.

"So," started Stephan, as he leaned back dangerously in his chair. "Seven siblings, huh? That must be pretty stressful." Rocking back and forth in his chair, he glanced over at me. "You're in my math class, aren't you?"

"Yeah." I pretended to be engrossed with eating my lunch.

"Wow — Max, was it? Aren't you the oldest? You must have a heck of a time at home. I never knew you had this many siblings."

"Yeah, neither did I." I muttered.

"Pardon?"

"I said, what a surprise."

"So, Jeff." Sherri was advancing on Fang, who had been slowly scooting his chair closer to me in a protective stance. "We're in a lot of the same classes together, huh? English, health… chemistry, right?" She gave him a dazzling smile that made me tense and clench my teeth together.

Fang stood up abruptly. "My name's not Jeff." Dumping his tray in the nearest garbage can, he stalked off, leaving me staring after him in a mixture of relief and amusement.

Clearing my throat, I turned back to the surprised people at my table. "Sorry, Nick has a bit of a temper." Sherri looked crestfallen, while Johannes looked amused and wasn't afraid to show it. Stephan rolled his eyes.

"Man, you really have your work cut out for you, Max." He eyed me appreciatively. My good mood burst like a bubble. "So hey, does Max stand for something? Like… uh, Maxine or something?" He ran his fingers through his hair, cocking his head at me.

I glared at him. Slamming my textbook shut, I dropped it into my backpack and slung the backpack over my shoulder. "No, it's Max. Just Max." Throwing away my empty tray, I followed Fang's footsteps out of the cafeteria.

Before I left, I realized that I had just left poor Iggy alone at the table. Oh well. Ella could direct him to his next class.

Swinging the large double doors open, I stepped out into the courtyard… and crashed head on into Fang.

"Oww!" I fell backwards, landing with a thump against the door, while Fang stumbled backwards, his hand on his chin. "What, Fang!? What the hell are you doing here? I thought you left!" He peered down at me, grimacing in pain and rubbing his jaw. Reaching his hand out, he helped me up. I glared at him, realizing in annoyance that he had been shooting up this past year. The top of my head was already level with his nose, and by banging into him, I had only bumped into his jaw.

The pain in my butt and my new realization made me sharp with him. "So were you interested in that girl after all? Regretting your hurried exodus?" I glared at Fang, crossing my arms over my chest. "Well?"

"You are one annoying mutant, has anyone told you that?" Fang winced as he spoke. "I was just making sure you were okay."

"I don't need anyone making sure I'm okay. I can do fine by myself."

"Are you going to force me to give you a better reason?"

"You know me well."

Fang rolled his eyes. "Fine. Truthfully, I didn't want that Stephan guy hitting on you. He seemed a little too interested in your general welfare." He glanced at me. "Happy now that you've made me swallow my pride?"

I gulped. This reason was definitely better than the one that I was afraid of, but hearing the words out of his mouth made me blush. Fang was worried that someone would hit on me — for once, it wasn't the other way around. "Oh, okay then." I quickly turned around, before realizing that I couldn't exactly go back into the lunchroom. "Uh, well then—" I tried to duck around Fang, who had now advanced on me so that he was suddenly alarmingly close.

"Not so fast." He grabbed my arm. "Since we're both free for the rest of lunch, why don't we walk around or something?"

"Right." I was still a little red-faced, but overall I was ridiculously pleased — not that I would ever tell that to Fang. "So I guess we've both ruined the whole 'first impression' thing with Isabelle's friends, huh?" I glanced up at Fang. He was looking directly at me. I looked away, not sure what his stare meant. "Uh, Fang?"

"Hmm?"

"What are you thinking about right now?"

"I was thinking that I couldn't care less about what Isabelle's friends think of me." He stuck his tongue out at me.

"Well, Mom and Jeb said that we should at least make a conscientious effort to fit in." I rolled my eyes. As if we would ever be able to fit into a world filled with humans completely oblivious to the drama unfolding around them.

"And you care about what Jeb says… why?"

"Well, Mom said the same thing."

"Uh-huh."

"Oh, stop it." I laughed, elbowing him gently in the ribs. "Eh, Jeff?"

"What did you call me, Maxine?"

"Freak."

"That's not something you should call your new boyfriend, not to mention your adorable adopted sibling."

"The day you become adorable is the day I start calling you 'my sweet little bunny boy'. Anyways, 'freak' is a term of endearment." (A/N: I also use freak as a term of endearment. Ask anyone I know.)

"Oh really? Endearment, huh? You must have had a tough childhood. I wonder what kinds of words you use to curse people."

"As if you didn't share my childhood. Bunny boy."

"Kitty girl."

"Eww," I cried, trying to contain my laughter. We were nearing the school boundaries, and I pulled Fang down as I sat down on a curb.

He gave me one of his rare smiles, one that seemed to be appearing for me more and more often. "So you get to call me bunny boy but I don't get to call you kitty girl?"

"Nope."

"How about just kitten then?"

"No way!"

"Sex kitty?"

"You freak!" I whacked him on the arm, this time a bit more forcefully.

"Aww, I love you too."

I rolled my eyes. "Now that was scary. I thought I heard the almighty Fang say the word 'love'. Maybe I should start running away now."

Fang grabbed my hand, planting a kiss on my palm. "I don't care where you run. I'll chase you forever. To the ends of the earth. To hell."

"To the School?"

"Eh, maybe not there."

"You are a sorry excuse for a boyfriend, you know that?" Glancing around surreptitiously, I made sure there was no one around before I laid my head on Fang's shoulder.

"Max."

"Hmm?" I turned to face him.

And Fang gently brushed his lips against mine in a feather-light kiss. Softly, he brushed my hair away from my forehead and placed a second kiss there. My heart soared, thumping hard against his shoulder as he pulled me closer to him. "Am I still a sorry excuse for a boyfriend?"

"Well. Well, uh, I guess I can take back my last comment, if that's what you want." I looked up at him, wanting to kiss him again, yet embarrassed to start it. Fang must have had the same feelings as me, because he dipped down again. Our lips were inches apart…

And then we were shocked apart as the bell rang right above our heads.

"Wahhh!!" Adrenaline was pounding through my veins and I was tensed for a fight. Across from me, Fang was in a similar state. We both froze in a defensive position, and then our eyes met. Suddenly, we both burst into laughter.

"That… was… pretty… sad." I managed to huff out between fits of giggles. Fang nodded, hiding his chuckles behind a hand. Together, we headed for the gym.

We had finally calmed down by the time we reached the double doors that led to the lockers, the gym, and the auditorium. Fang was opening the door when he looked back at me, a sparkle in his dark eyes.

"Sex kitty."