After a few weeks at the safe house, we all fell into a sort of daily schedule.
In the morning we would train. After having them watch for a few more days, Jeb let Angel and the Gasman join in the training. For little kids, they were pretty good, once Gazzy even beat Nudge. After we trained for a few hours we would have lunch, usually prepared by Jeb and/or Iggy. I thought it was weird that Jeb had the blind kid doing the cooking, but I figured it was to make him feel like he was doing something useful.
After lunch, we were free to do what ever we liked. Nudge and Angel would play together, but if they were playing a game it usually ended in tears because Nudge thought that Angel was cheating with her mind reading. Jeb or I would end up having to referee the games just to try and keep the peace. Thankfully after an hour or so, the two were back to playing, argument completely forgotten.
Angel and Nudges spats were the nice and calm part, though. Iggy and Gazzy were worse.
After watching an episode of Mythbusters on TV, the two discovered how to make explosives out of things they could find around the house. On more than one occasion they'd set off the smoke detectors, and once the actually caught one of the curtains in the living room on fire. Jeb wasn't happy about that. After that incident they were banned from using anything explosive or flammable in the house. So what do they do? They go and do it outside! Jeb gave up trying to control them after that.
I usually spent my time reading, watching TV, or going on the computer, that is when Jeb wasn't on it. All he usually did was do stuff on the computer. Whenever we asked what he was doing, he wouldn't tell us. We all knew it had something to do with the School, though.
Fang kept to himself most of the time. He would play games with us if we begged him, but for the most part he just disappeared till dinner.
Following dinner, we'd watch a movie from on demand, then go to bed. Well, most of us went to bed. I would wait for Nudge and Angel to fall asleep, and then I would climb out my window and meet up with Fang on the roof. It was becoming a bit of a ritual for us. We'd sit there and talk about the day's events, or look up a t the sky, and sometimes, we didn't say anything at all, we just enjoyed each others company.
After a few weeks of fight training, Jeb suddenly stopped.
"Now that you all have a basic knowledge of how to protect yourselves, I think it's time to move on to another subject." He said to us when we'd come out for our training. "I think it's time that you learned how to fly," he continued. "Now, I really don't know how to teach you to fly, so you guys are going to have to help me out, ok?"
We just looked at him like he was insane. Yeah, cause we all came with instruction manuals on flying ya know?
For the next hour, we all tried to find new ways for us to get airborne. We couldn't just start flapping from the ground, so we tried jumping straight up. It worked, sort of. A lot of time we ended up hanging in the air for a few seconds and then fell on out butts. By lunch, Nudge and Gazzy had made the most progress, and we all had sore rear ends.
Flying lessons went on for several days, and it seemed everyone but me managed to stay in the air but me.
"Don't get discouraged Max, it can't be easy." Said Jeb after several failed attempts.
I tried to practice outside of training, but I wasn't making much progress. I would spend hours on the side of the house where no one would catch me as I landed, very ungracefully, on my backside.
I tried to not let it show that it was bugging me, but I guess I wasn't as convincing as I thought I was, cause Fang caught right on.
"So, how are your private flying lessons going?" he asked with a smirk, one night on the roof.
I blushed with a mix of anger and embarrassment. "Oh, y-you saw that?"
"Yeah, nice landings," He said sarcastically. "But I think they would go better if you tried using your feet."
"Whatever." I'd heard enough; the last thing I needed was his opinion on my flying, or lack of it. I got up and walked toward the edge of the roof where my window was.
"Oh, come on. You know I didn't mean it!" he called, but I didn't want to hear it. "Max! Look, I'm sorry, I didn't think you'd take it so personally." He said as he came up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder.
I shook off his hand and turned around to face him. "You don't know what it's like to keep trying something over and over again, but to never have it work right. Everyone else has gotten it right, but for some reason I can't. And I don't need your smart comments on top of it!" I practically yelled at him.
I felt tears beginning to well up in my eyes, so I turned around so he wouldn't see. I looked down at the canyon below. Then I got an idea. It was completely insane, but it was just insane enough that it might work.
"I'm sorry," Fang was saying, but I didn't hear him, I was already backing away from the edge. "I shouldn't have said those things, it was stupid of me I just – what are you doing?"
I was about in the center of the roof now, and I was lining my self up so that I was facing the edge of the roof that was over the canyon.
"I'm going to fly." I stated simply. Then I started sprinting toward the edge of the roof.
"Wait, Max NO!" yelled Fang as I jumped over the edge, and started plummeting to the canyon below.