Um… sorry that this took me forever and a half to get up. I have been WAY busy-ful lately with school and rehearsals for the play I'm in. (And piano, I guess, but I don't even have time to do that!) I've been working on this off and on for about a week... Just don't expect anything more too soon… Like I said, WAY busy-ful.

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far! Please keep the reviews coming! I'm always looking for ideas and stuff. Let me know if you see any ways I can improve!

-Deji

PS- I guess I have to do that disclaimer stuff, huh? OK, so I'm not James Patterson. I am Deji. James Patterson made Maximum Ride. Deji didn't. Deji DID make Aspen, and all the characters thereof. And YOU didn't. So don't say that you did. Because that's lying. And I just might have to hunt you down and eat you. …I'm totally serious. Except the eating part. You would probably taste yucky. XP

Chapter Six: Fun Stuff

I poked the contents of my bowl. It vaguely resembled the blue Jell-O that we got every Tuesday in the Institute. Except lumpy. And slimier. The 'oatmeal' wiggled enticingly. I was hungry... but not stupid. Reuben, on the other hand was chewing carefully. His face was somewhere between a grimace and (his attempt at) a politely interested smile. On a normal face it would have been funny. On an Eraser's, it was just disturbing. I wasn't sure what made me lose my appetite more, the food itself, or with whom I was supposed to be eating. I shuddered slightly.

"Hey, are you okay?" Reuben asked, after choking down a mouthful of my cooking. He must have seen me shiver. "No, I'm fine. Just not very hungry." An evil thought popped into my head. He wouldn't say no... he did everything in his power not to offend me. If I had to sit in here, why not enjoy it a little? "Do you want to eat mine? I don't want it." I smiled inwardly as panic ran across his face. With an expression of intense suffering, he accepted my offer, trying to hide behind a toothy grin. "Sure." He reached across the folding table and took the bowl. The oatmeal wiggled innocently as he pulled it across the table.

After several failed attempts at conversation, Reuben decided to stick with pretending he wasn't gagging. I sat and watched him, trying just as hard not to smile. I was shocked when he sat up and stacked the empty bowls. I hadn't expected him to finish eating. At least, not without throwing up. Or dying.

"That was... fantastic." He sounded like he was in pain. I stifled another smile. I didn't even need my abilities in order to see right through THAT lie.

Reuben looked strangely pale. That was saying something- you usually can't tell with Erasers. They... we... tended to walk around in our hairier form most of the time. I guess they like to feel all strong and powerful like that. I just prefer not to get beat up for doing things differently. I'm just weird like that.

Reuben's face contorted, and he stood up. "I'll... I'll be right..." He gagged again, and ran right out of the tent. To the latrines, I'm sure.

I sat alone in the tent for a couple of minutes, grinning widely. His expression was SO funny. After about ten-ish minutes I guessed he was going to be a while. Why was I waiting in here for him anyway?

I looked out the tent flap. Erasers were everywhere, with varying degrees of disgust, anger, and horror painted on their faces. I chuckled apprehensively. They would probably NOT be happy to see me. Oh, well. Better to get chewed to bits by a campful of angry Erasers than to sit and eat dinner with an amorous one.

I stepped out through the flap, preparing to run for my life. A take-off wouldn't work if I had an Eraser tearing my limbs off.

I ran toward the forest, with Erasers jumping up to give chase. Several just fell over again, too sick from my culinary skills. How was I going to lose these bozos?

I zig-zagged through the forest, Erasers crushing the underbrush behind me angrily. I stopped dead. They had surrounded me.

"So, how was dinner?" I asked coolly. They started to advance on me. I looked up. There was just enough room to take off if I was careful...

Something flew overhead, through the patch of blue I was aiming for. Another one followed. I gasped. They were too big and awkward for birds. I pointed upward. "Runaway experiments!"

I took off in pursuit, Erasers filing in behind me. We weren't supposed to kid around about this- they knew I was serious. I caught sight of them again. They were flying in the opposite direction of camp. I poured on the speed. Thanks to my non-Eraser DNA, I could fly just as fast as they could.

"Aspen!" It was one of the Erasers. "Yeah?" "We need to tell Reuben and Julius that we found them. We can't just go in and attack without them, you idiot!" I snickered. So that was the beastly guy's name? Julius? I pushed the button on my earpiece, not slowing down or changing direction. "Hey, I found the experiments. What do you want us to do?" It was Reuben who answered. "I was wondering where you went. Umm... you should..." Julius interrupted."Wait where you are. We will come with everyone still in camp immediately." A disgusting noise came from Reuben's end. "I'm not feeling so g-... I'll stay here and watch the camp." I smiled, careul not to laugh loud enough for the earpiece to pick it up. I'd forgotten that he'd had two whole servings... most of the Erasers hadn't even finished one.

I called out to the Erasers behind me. "We're supposed to land and wait for Julius and everyone else." They immediately started the descent, glowering at the fact that they couldn't chase me down anymore. Others were grinning from hairy ear to ear, probably imagining tearing those experiments to bits. I followed them downward to the outskirts of the forest. I wasn't sure if I even wanted to fight the runaways. Was it really so bad to want to get away? It didn't sound half bad to me... except the whole idea of getting caught, of course.

But tearing up runaways beat getting torn up by Erasers any day.

In my opinion.

...Call me crazy.