A/N: Forty reviews! Yay! You guys are awesome. Thank you all so much! Also, I seem to have forgotten about the disclaimer on this story too, so here it is.

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. I do own the idea, plot, and any random OC's I add.

There, now you can go read the chapter. =)


Chapter Four

Fang's POV

When I knocked on Max's door, I got a muffled, "Hold on a sec" from inside. I waited patiently for about thirty seconds before the door opened.

"Just putting a shirt on," Max told me matter-of-factly. "You can come in now."

Trying very hard not to let perverted thoughts enter my brain, I walked past her into her room, handing her the tabloid as I went. She took it, staring at the picture on the cover.

"The inside scoop on me?" she said, sounding rather angry.

"Read the article," I said shortly.

She complied, her eyes scanning through it quickly. After about a minute, she looked up from it, murder in her eyes.

"They're lying about me!" she hissed through clenched teeth. "I hate sappy romance novels set in the whatever-eth century! And I never said anything like that quote they've got in there. You don't–" She glanced down at the article. "'Take up a lot of my time'. I choose to be with you for a lot of my time! Ugh!" She threw the tabloid onto the floor and stalked over to her bed, sitting down on it and throwing her hands into the air. "What did I do to deserve this?"

I went over to the bed and sat down next to her. "Can you calm down a little, please?"

She dropped her face into her hands. "I don't want to calm down," she muttered. "I want to blow something up. Preferably wherever it is they print these stupid, lying things."

"Look on the bright side," I suggested, and she looked up at me.

"What bright side?" she asked miserably.

"They got an excellent picture of you," I replied, smiling. "You look absolutely beautiful in it."

She picked the tabloid up off the floor to examine the picture. "I do?" she asked quietly. "Really?"

I nodded. "Quite stunning, actually. When could they have gotten it?"

"I went up on the hill a couple days ago to think," she said vaguely, still staring at the picture. "Probably got it then, somehow." There was a pause, then she added, "You really think I look beautiful?"

"Yes," I assured her.

She smiled at that. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," I replied. "Are you calm now?"

"No," she said, glaring at the article again. "I still want to blow something up." She looked at me. "This has got to stop. I didn't want them posting our secrets all over the country, but I want them lying about us even less."

I could see her point. It was one thing to know people were being told everything about you, down to the color of your bedspread. It was something completely different to know that they were basically recreating you for their own purposes.

"I know," I agreed. "Do you think that this will change Angel and Nudge's mind?"

She shrugged. "I hope so, but you never know. Maybe they'll like being turned into someone different by the presses. They might think it's the best thing since sliced bread," she added, with a hint of irony in her voice.

I rolled my eyes. That statement was getting a little too much use. "Why don't we go find out?"


Fifteen Minutes Later…

"Another flock meeting?" Gazzy asked from where he was sitting on the floor next to Angel. "How come we've had so many?"

"Because we currently have a situation on our hands," Max replied. "The presses have decided to make us their next target, and I'm not liking what they're doing."

"It's another meeting about that?" Nudge complained. "I though we decided to just wait and see what happened."

"We did," Max said. "But something new has happened, and I think it may change some of your minds."

Iggy crossed his arms. "What is it?"

Max tossed the tabloid onto the coffee table, and Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy all went over to look at it. "They're lying about us. I don't know why, or if it's even technically legal, but they are. And somehow they're getting away with it."

"Think about it," I said. "No one actually knows any of these things about us, so no one can accuse them of lying."

Max frowned. "It still doesn't make sense. What do they gain by this?"

"Maybe they think that if they make up a bunch of stuff to fill their articles with, more people will buy them," Iggy suggested. Grinning, he added, "They've got us buying them, anyway."

"So they're using us as a marketing technique?" Max scowled and crossed her arms. "That's just sick."

"Unfortunately," I said. "There's not much we can do about it."

Gazzy grinned. "We could blow them up."

I glanced at Max, who was looking back at me, a small smile on her face. Then she looked at Gazzy. "As satisfying as that would be," she said. "I don't think it's all that smart."

Nudge stood up. "Well, I want them to keep it up. I want to see what they say about me."

Max's face fell, but she looked resigned, as though she'd been expecting Nudge to say something of the sort. "Nudge, honey, I don't think you do."

"Why not?" Nudge asked angrily.

"You don't know what they'll say," Max replied. "They could say some bad things about you, and the whole world would think it was true."

"Well, the whole country, anyway," Iggy revised.

Nudge shrugged. "So? At least they'll know who I am. That's something, isn't it?"

Max went over to Nudge. "They do know who you are, Nudge. Right now, you're a bird-kid hero who helped save the world. Do you want that to get blemished by the tabloids saying you do drugs or something?"

"They don't know anything about me," Nudge said, looking up at her. "You're the great Maximum Ride who saved the world. Everyone knows who you are, and everyone wants to be you. Even Fang is a hero, with his blog and the fact that he's your boyfriend. The rest of us? We're not heroes. We're just the ones who are like you. I want to be more than that, Max. I want to be someone that people look up to. Someone they respect. Someone they want to try to be like. I want to be more than 'that kid with the wings'. No one even knows my name! I want to be famous, Max."

We all stared at Nudge for a minute. Obviously she was somewhat set on the matter.

"Nudge–" Max began, but she was interrupted by someone bursting into the room.

"Max! You'll never believe this!" It was Ella, holding the phone in her right hand and grinning from ear to ear.

Max frowned. "What is it, El?"

Ella grinned wider, even though I hadn't thought it possible. "They want to interview you on TV!"


A/N: I don't think I need to ask you guys to review. You seem to be doing it just fine on your own. =)