me: Wow, Oh. Glory-Genius. You rock. I didn't even realize how funny that sounded when I wrote that.
Angel: Don't worry. We all three say the most randomist comments.
Total: Why don't they make pineapple flavored rawhide bones?
Angel: MRA has meat-flavored for her dogs.
me: In the garage. Watch out for Mom and Dad. Don't zap out wings.
Total: YAY!
me: ...Okay? Anyhoo - enjoy!
-line-
"FANG!" Angel yelled over my bed. My eyes snapped open and I sat up so fast my forehead slammed hard against hers. I nearly fell on the floor. "Ow!"
"Sorry. What is it?" I glanced at my bedside clock. 3:30 A.M. I groaned inwardly.
"Mom! She keeps...screaming in her sleep! Something's wrong, Fang, very wrong!" She sounded frantic. Angel+sounding frantic=bad. Angel must have had nightmares. That's the only time Mom lets her sleep with her. Mom probably had -
"Probably just a nightmare." My words move faster than my mind. Especially at three o'clock in the morning. But I threw my legs over the side of the bed and stretched. I followed Angel down the hall towards Mom's room, and I heard nothing. Angel was probably bluffing. Mom was probably just moaning or something.
But about halfway down the hall I heard a shriek. I jumped ten feet in the air. "Fang!" Mom yelled. "Iggy! Nudge!" I burst through the door as soon as she said 'Nudge.' Mom grabbed my hand and squeezed it so tight I could see it turning purple. "It's time, Fang!" She screamed again. Every idiot knows what 'it's time' is.
"This is going to be one premature baby, Mom." I looked at Angel. "Wake up Iggy. Tell him I said to call Daniel Ferguson. He'll know what I'm talking about." Angel nodded and ran off toward Iggy's room. I helped Mom up and led her to the kitchen. I opened the refrigerator door and gave her a bottle of water and grabbed a stopwatch.
Iggy stumbled in. "Daniel's on his way. How far in between?"
I shrugged. "FANG!" Mom cried. I pressed start on the stopwatch. I took out the bag from under the table - that Mom checks everyday for this exact moment - and filled it with water bottles as I dialed Max's number. It took a few seconds for her to pick up.
"Hello?" she said slowly.
"It's Fang. We've reached an...early situation."
"Apparently. Can this wait till morning?"
"No. Mom's having -" I heard Mom groan/scream my name. "Three minutes, Mom! You're doing good! Now Max -" I was cut off by the line going dead. Great. We had went over what to do, like, one time. No one thought it would happen so soon. Way to go, Fang. You're a genius. I have got to stop talking to myself in third person.
Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy jumped down the steps. I was surprised the whole block wasn't awake.
Max came through the door, Ella and Kara behind her. I sighed with relief. They were still in their pajamas, like us. Well, most of us, I sleep in my clothes. They just had on light jackets, since it was going to reach low forty degrees this morning before sunrise. Max took a rag from under the counter and wet it with cold water. She laid it on Mom's forehead.
Mom grabbed mine and Iggy's hands and squeezed them so hard both of our knees locked. I knew what Max was thinking, weakling.
"Mom," Iggy groaned. "Circulation..."
"Sorry." Her grip loosened. Headlights poured through the windows.
"Daniel is here, Mom," Iggy said. "We're going to get you to the hospital, I promise." He helped her to Daniel's car while I grabbed the bag and the stopwatch and followed the younger kids and Martinez's out.
Upside: Daniel has an SUV. Downside: SUVs usually hold seven. We have ten. Upside: We were all pressed together. Downside: Max wasn't sitting beside me. Which made the second upside a downside. And I was sitting between Mom and Nudge, who both have the power to bust eardrums.
When we got to the hospital, my hand was purple, even after Mom let go. She was immediately wheeled to her own room with Daniel, which was strange. I think they're close to dating. He's probably leave when she starts having the baby. The rest of us sat in the lobby.
Angel and Nudge poured over fashion magazines. Iggy and Gazzy were trying to break the 'all-time record' in thumb wrestling. Ella had taken Kara out for a walk. Which left me and Max sitting in the surprisingly comfortable lobby chairs in awkward silence.
Then I felt like led had been dropped on my shoulders. Jeb. The letter. This would be my only time.
"Max?" I asked. She turned her head. She had been watching Gazzy's happy dance for his five-in-a-row win against Iggy. "I really need to talk to you." I looked nervously at Angel and Nudge, who were watching us, hiding their grins with June J-14 issues. "Alone." Nudge giggled.
She frowned but stood up, letting me lead her outside and to the side of the hospital, which is actually a longer walk then you'd think. Finally, our only company was the light traffic of late-night travelers on the highway, who didn't give a flip about us.
"Max, I don't know how much this says, but it's from your father." I pulled out the envelope from my pocket - I don't even remember putting it there - and gave it to her. She frowned, taking the letter, but didn't open it. She just continued to give me a rock-hard glare. "He said he'll see you next month. And he said -" I couldn't go on. My voice stopped in my throat.
Max waited. "It's okay, Fang. Tell me. I can take it."
Yeah, you think that now, I thought. I cleared my throat and opened my mouth, letting it spill out.
"You father is getting the death sentence in a few months."
Her face fell. Her mouth opened like she was going to say something, but she didn't. Her eyes widened and tears threatened to pour over. She stood there in shock. Slowly she moved her lips to form words. "But, you don't mean -"
"Yes. They're going to -" I couldn't bring myself to say kill your father.
She shook her head as tears ran down her cheeks. "No. No! You're lying. Telling lies! You're LYING FANG!" She yelled so loud car windows rolled down and heads popped out. She turned and ran for the back of the hospital.
I watched her go until she was out of sight. Then I walked to the nearest bench and sat down, my elbows on my knees, my forehead on my palms. I wasn't cold, but I was trembling. Max... Max... she ... I just added to the pain in her life.
Her mother died, leaving her with the weight of her sisters' fates on her shoulders. Her father was thrown in prison for being protective. Her mother, real mother, had hurt her physically. She had a horrible, abusive boyfriend that was behind bars, but there wasn't an official break up between them, or was there? Her worst memories from the past were faced when she was inches from her own death... And I made it all worse.
I wanted to scream, cry, destroy. I wanted to find whoever caused the fire that killed Mrs. M and rip them to shreds, because I had a gut feeling - more then a gut feeling, I knew - that the fire was not an accident. And who caused Jeb to go to prison - wait, Jeb already killed them. Then I'd kill the officer that arrested him. The judge that caused the death sentence. The doctor or officer that would go through with the murder Jeb didn't deserve!
I wanted to find everyone who had ever caused Max and her sisters pain and hurt them. Sam. Max's real mother. I'd kill them both.
What was happening to me? I was thirsty for murder - this wasn't me! I held myself to the bench. Deep breaths. Deep breaths... I yelled out in frustration. Every part of me said to stand and kill, but my heart said no, stay and wait. I forced my brain to listen to my heart.
Slowly I dared to look up. I felt my forehead sweat under my hands. Ella and Kara stood there, watching me carefully. "W-what is it?" Ella asked. "You kept muttering things."
"Ask your sister." Ella and Kara exchanged giggling looks. I knew what they were thinking, that she had rejected me. In a way, she did. I shook my head. "Come on, girls, we better head on in." I stood up and started walking back to the hospital. They followed closely behind.
Daniel was sitting there when we walked in. He smiled at us. "You're mom's doing good, Fang," he said quietly. "She'll be fine. Where's Max?"
I forced my shoulders to shrug casually. "I don't know. She ran away when I told her...about...well, when I gave her the letter." Angel and Nudge exchanged smiles with Ella and Kara. I groaned and rolled my eyes, slumping into the chair beside Iggy.
It was pouring rain outside before Max came in. She was sopping wet, and the only sign she had been crying was that her eyes were red. Thunder boomed. Lightning shook the lobby. She looked right at me. "F -" she stopped, not wanted to say my name. She looked away and shook her head.
I felt guilty. Well, at least the murder streak feeling passed and no one was hurt...yet.
Cause that's when the doors slid open.
That's then Max threw herself over the chair to hide.
That's then the red-head woman glared at us with hate.
-line-
me: Can you guess who it is? She was in the books. I just didn't know how to describe her since JP kept changing her.
Angel: You did good!
Total: *chews on meat bone* So is there going to be bloodshed?
me: I told you it's rated T!
Angel: My turn!
me: Go!
Angel: REVIEW!
Total: Or the red-head woman will come for YOU!
