This story belongs to and was written entirely by keepdreaming93.

Disclaimer: Characters belong to James Patterson.

Max POV:

Nudge was the most perfect person for this. She and Ella had the most wonderful time dressing me up and doing my hair and makeup like I was a freaking Barbie doll.

I wasn't enjoying it as much as they were. I basically sat there, holding back screams as they did everything for me, including the shopping. They enjoyed that the most, I think.

"Oh, my god, when we saw this, we knew right away it was perfect for you, Max."

Which basically meant that it was wrong for me.

I was incorrect.

It was absolutely terrible for me.

It was too low, too girly, too flowery, too everything!

But I put that low cut, flowery shirt on with a jean miniskirt that barely covered my ass, and they put in a headband, one with a blue flower on it, so that my blonde curls flowed evenly around it. I would barely let them put any makeup on me, so they just put eyeliner and mascara, the lightest blue you could imagine, and a clear lip gloss that went over my pink lips.

I wasn't being treated like a Barbie.

I was a freaking Barbie.

"Oh, my god," Ella said, and I thought that something went drastically wrong. Like nothing could cure my ugliness. "You look gorgeous."

"Beautiful."

"Stunning."

"Amazing."

"Breathtaking."

Etc.

"Okay. Let's just go."

"To the mall?" Nudge asked, excited.

I looked at her as I stood up from the chair, not looking in the mirror. On purpose.

"To breakfast. But we can go to the mall after, if you want."

She squealed in delight. Ella smiled brightly. I mentally groaned.

So I emerged from my room, Ella and Nudge after me, after I told them not to tell anyone that they dolled me up, and went into the hallway.

There I had my encounter with my first person.

"Oh my, Max," Iggy said.

"Shut up, Iggy. You can't even see me. You're blind, need I remind you."

"I know, but, you're, I don't know. I can just tell."

Which meant that Ella told him she was dressing me up.

"You smell really good," he said.

"Thanks, buddy," I replied, then Ella and Nudge split off as I made my way downstairs.

"Oh. My. God."

Gazzy.

With that, my mom's head turned, along with Fang's, and Ella and Nudge also faked their surprise as they came down from the stairs. My mom smiled, this weird, mischievous smile that kind of creeped me out.

Fang's jaw dropped wide open. It surprised me when I realized that's what I wanted. I wanted him in awe of me, to want him to want me, since he decided not to stand up for me while Lissa insulted me.

So when his eyes roamed all over my body, lingering at my legs and chest, I simply smiled sweetly, like I knew how to play this role perfectly.

"Wow, Max," Gazzy said. "You look..."

"Incredible," Fang breathed. I tried with everything I had not to blush. I wasn't sure if I did or not.

"What's for breakfast? It smells delicious."

Nobody answered me. My mom laughed quietly and turned back to the stove, Gazzy left his eyes wide open, Nudge and Ella joined us, Iggy was doing whatever he was doing, and Fang practically raped me with his beautiful onyx eyes.

"It's rude to stare," I snapped.

He met my eyes with his own, blinked. "What's all this for?" he asked.

"Got a problem with it?"

"No, not at all."

He didn't look like he minded, eyes raking over my body in a way that made me slightly uncomfortable. I moved to the table as my mom set plates down. Iggy game down the stairs, and both him and Fang came and sat on either side of me, and Fang moved his chair closer.

Iggy and Ella started flirting right away, and my mom and everybody else were talking about me and my new style and what not. Fang just stared. Nudge looked proud.

Then it came, like every morning: "Mall today?"

"Yes. Perfect," I replied. Everybody looked at me, wide eyed. But I wasn't crazy. I just really wanted to kill Lissa, and she was there, every freaking day.

Right where I knew she would be, sitting at a booth with Brigid and Aleah, chatting, eating ice cream. A guy whistled as I passed, just like other guys had been doing all frigging day. Whistle, say, "Damn, girl," or "Holy shit" and stuff like that, Fang would tense up next to me and mumble things under his breath.

Guys suck. They really do.

I mean, do they honestly expect me to turn around, shake their hand, introduce myself to them like I actually would like to date a sexist pig like that? Morons.

"What is your problem, Fang?" I asked him as he mumbled yet another thing under his breath. He looked up at me, meeting my eyes through heavily lashed ones. Any girl would kill for those eyelashes, that beautifully dark skin, those lips, perfectly sized and parted and probably warm and hungry-

Oh sweet baby Jesus. I am not swooning over Fang.

"Nothing," he said, looking at the floor now.

"Yeah. That's why you keep mumbling stuff under your breath when a guy notices me," I say sarcastically. It's just us two, the rest of the kids had spread out, into various stores and what not.

I take a step closer.

"Nothing, Max, it's stupid." He sounded really, really cute when he said that.

"What you think isn't stupid," I tell him. What happened to being mad at him? Not caring? Down the drain, that's where it went.

"God, it's just...you shouldn't go out like that."

My face falls. I can physically feel my face fall, my cheeks flush, and I'm the scared girl I was yesterday.

Then confident Max comes back out.

I take a step closer, our chests almost touching, and place a finger under his chin to tilt his head up so that he's forced to meet my eyes.

"So you're saying you don't like it?"

Holy crap, did I just say that? Did I just say it like that, all low and husky and...sexy?

Well, he's staring, biting his lip, so I suppose I did. God, he's biting his lip. I can imagine that bottom lip, between the two of mine, me sucking that lip into my mouth, tracing that bottom lip with the very tip of my tongue.

"Max, you look really hot," he admits, "it's just that you look really hot to everyone. All these stupid guys hitting on you..."

I smirk. "Why do you care?"

"I don't know. I just do. I mean" -now he's smiling, which kind of is freaking me out- "it's fine for you to get all dressed up for me, but just, in public...?"

I'm pissed off. Very pissed off.

"Honey," I say, bravely running a hand down his very, very hard, muscular chest, to his abs (also rock hard!) and then up again. He shivers, and something is pressing against my stomach (any guesses to what that may be?) and I pinch his cheek. "This wasn't for you."

Then I leave him to have fun with his massive boner.

I go to Sam, which is a dick, but it doesn't matter. I feel tempted to kiss him, because that sure would make Fang jealous, but I knew I would regret it afterward, wish that I hadn't, so I didn't. I simply gave him a hug, a lingering hug, and he, too, has a boner. I pull back and leave my fingers on his bicep.

"Wow, Max." He gulps and drinks me in, making me not flattered, like Fang was making me, but uncomfortable. He looked like he was going to rip my clothes off and fuck me right there. "You look beautiful."

Okay, I had to admit that was flattering. Fang calling me hot was cool, but beautiful was better. I hated Sam being better than Fang. He wasn't better, I guess. Just better at that moment.

"Thank you," I say, rolling my shoulders back.

"Well, it's um, almost noon, you want to go get lunch or something?"

"Uh, well, I'm here with Nick, and I don't know..."

Sam glanced over my shoulder, while I looked at him and those hazel eyes.

"He looks perfectly fine to me," Sam said. I looked over to Fang. Lissa's there, her hand on his bicep, breasts on his chest. I want to gag, but instead I look over to Sam and smile.

"Alright, let's go," I say, taking his hand, dragging him passed them.

"Max?" she shrieks loudly, and the small part of the mall that we are occupying shuts up, leaving me, Lissa, Fang, and Sam. Oh, and the silence.

"Lissa?" I mimic.

The mall goes back to their conversations, probably thinking one of those over dramatic teenage reunions was occurring.

Thank god.

"What the hell...?"

"Ready to die?"

She looks confused.

"Huh?"

"'The day that Maximum Ride wears a skirt I will kill myself.'" I quoted her. Fang's eyes pop open wide.

Success.

FANG POV:

Max heard. She heard what Lissa said to me. Holy shit.

"Lissa, does this qualify as a skirt?" she asked innocently.

Then she not-so-innocently put her hand on her knee and slid it slowly up her leg, her thigh, and underneath that tiny piece of fabric that was covering where I wanted her most.

Bigger boner. Hey, buddy, meet Max, your whole reason for existence.

Lissa stared at her. "Hm. Dramatic, Maximum. From freaky prude to slut in, what, six hours? I must say I'm impressed."

"Me, a slut? Really? May want to look in the mirror before you go off and tell other people that, Lissa." It's funny, because even though Max could have totally burned Lissa by now with her being a smart ass and all, she chose to be kind of nice with it.

Why in the world...?

But I had to admit, Lissa was a slut. Extremely slutty.

Sam grabbed Max's hand-wait, Sam? Why was the dick touching Max?

But before I could retaliate they were gone, his arm slipped around her shoulders like he owned her, Lissa staring at me.

"Can you believe her?" she asked me, stepping closer. "I mean, I never would have thought she would make a drastic change like that. Well, she can't wear it well anyways. She's not...pretty enough."

I wanted to laugh.

Lissa was pretty, sure. But she wasn't pretty enough to say that Max wasn't pretty. You had to be abnormally, genetically modified pretty to be prettier than Maximum Ride.

And nobody in the world was that pretty, therefore making Max the prettiest girl in the world. Yesterday she was the prettiest girl in the world and now, today, she's a million times prettier.

Which makes her...?

She's just perfect, I guess.

"Lissa, what are you doing here?" I ask, almost under my breath.

"What do you think I'm doing here?" She runs a hand down my chest and it doesn't feel anywhere close to as great as it felt when Max did it. "For you to tell me that you changed your mind."

Her fingers slipped underneath my t-shirt and she traced my abs, making my breath hitch.

"Excuse me, sorry."

Max. Max just saved me. Lissa's fingers moved from my shirt and flew to her side.

I turn barely toward Max-damn, she looks so hot-as she reaches into my back pocket and slips out her wallet.

"Sorry. I forgot this was in here."

Then I swear to god Max pats my butt and she's off again, Sam not bothering to draw an arm around her shoulders this time.

Max looks really, really gorgeous. Max is really, really gorgeous. She was gorgeous in jeans in a tee shirt, helping the kids learn how to make brownies, in sweats and a tanktop, tucking the kids into bed, and now, in a miniskirt and girly top, the clothes perfectly defining her features, she was gorgeous. I wanted her: her looks and her attitude. Her smart ass remarks, her tendency to hit me, how she takes care of Angel even though she has a real mom, now, her chocolate eyes, beautiful and aware, her honey hair, cascading down her back in curls, streaks of light in it, her lips, her blush, her body. I wanted her-every part of her.

And she was my best friend.

"Lissa, I haven't changed my mind."