Wishing

Gazzy

Seven

Lilly. Lilly. She's all I can possibly think about while I sit on the grass in Max's front yard, waiting for Lilly. I talked to her earlier when she came to drop of a toy Riddle left at her house and she saw me getting ready for school. When I walked past the door though, I only had a white cotton towel wrapped around my waist. She flushed and told me she'd walk with me to the school and then I watched her run out of the house, red hair trailing behind her. A ghost of a smile traces my lips and I stand from the grass to use Max's glossy mirror once more to make sure I looked okay.

After a lot of help from Iggy and Fang we decided on a dark blue, black, light blue, white, and gray regular plaid long-sleeved button-up shirt with the sleeves folded up to the elbows. I had on a new pair of faded jeans and a new pair of black combat boots, which Max approved of completely. It was normal human attire and Nudge said I looked pretty 'hawt' or something like that. Lilly finally stepped out of her house wearing a plain dark red long-sleeved shirt, dark wash skinny jeans, and knee-high furry black boots.

"Gazzy!" Lilly grins and rushes over to me, grinning and my heart skips a few beats when I see her so close. "I'm so glad you're coming with me today," she says honestly and I grin back at her, unable to stop myself.

I reply, "Me too," and she pulls me by the hand along the sidewalk towards the high school a few blocks away. It was freezing this morning and Lilly was shivering and holding her arms, trying to keep warm. So I look down at my black leather jacket in my hand before putting it over her shoulders.

"Thanks," she murmurs and blushes; she slides her arms through the sleeves and starts to walk normally. "So where'd you move from?"

I furrow my eyebrows, suspicious, "What do you mean?"

"Well, Max has been alone for the past two years except for Riddle, so how are you related to Max? Where'd you move from with the rest of your family? Is it true that dark-haired guy is Riddle's dad?" She was asking questions at a ridiculous speed and I placed my hand over her mouth to get her to stop.

"I'm Max's adopted younger brother, I moved from Colorado, and yes that is Riddle's dad." I answer; living with Nudge for my whole life gives me some benefits towards people that liked to talk. Lilly blushes under my hand and I remove it then I let it hang by my side limply.

She nods, "That's cool," her voice takes on the same tone Nudge gets when she wants to ask more questions.

"You get three more questions, go," I say and she looks at me, eyes wide before rattling off three questions.

"How old are you? What's your favorite color? What do you know about those winged kids that saved the world?" she asks quickly, her face flushing red at the last question. I was bewildered that she knew about us and believed we were real, most people just say the world saved itself.

I say slowly and carefully, "Uh, I'm fourteen, my favorite color is red, and I know everything about those kids." She grins but it fades when she realizes we were in front of the high-school; we're both freshmen.

"Well, I have a babysitting job for Max in a week, will you be there?" she asks before we break off from each other.

A grin splits across my face, all my nervousness thrown out the window, "Yeah, you can count on it." I watched her disappear into the freshmen building while I go into the separate building for the main office. Time to learn things I already know.

**MAX'S POV**

"Hey, Max! Yeah I have Gazzy right here!" a bright, perky JJ greets me over the phone and I can't help but smile a little. I wasn't feeling very well today so I was registering Gazzy over the phone while he waited there with her. Something told me Lilly got comfy this morning with Gazzy and I couldn't wait to plan a wedding; when they're older, of course.

So this was my morning with Riddle clutching onto my leg, begging for her Barbie's back after I took them when she threw them at her window. She only did this because she wanted to try and fly on her own, which would've made her drop like a stone. Fang was at his new job working at some radio station downtown and he wouldn't be home until around three. Iggy was off at his new job as a cook in a popular diner, Nudge took Ella shopping, Angel and Gazzy are at school, and I had no idea where Mom and Jeb went.

"Okay well just let him know that Fang will most likely be picking him up after school today." I tell JJ and she replies with a perky 'OKAY' before I hung up and slammed the phone back down. "Come on, I'm driving you to school," I swing her up on my hip and walk her outside to my jeep.

When I get back to the house I have no idea what to do so I go back to the bedroom I share with Fang. I make the bed on both sides and gather Fang's dirty laundry and my own into one basket then walk it into the basement. The next two hours consists of me doing laundry, making beds, fixing pictures, and other mother-like chores. By the time I finished the dishes were done, laundry was done and folded, beds were made, and the floors were sparkling. So I decided to do the one thing I've put off ever since I had Riddle; I needed a haircut and some new clothes.

I snatched my keys off of the table beside the door and leave the house, locking the door behind me. My jeep is already heated from taking Riddle to school, which was a huge bonus at this point. For the next five minutes I drive until I'm in front of the largest mall around this place. I slide out of my jeep and head inside, going straight for the spa so they could decide what to do with me. We all know I'm terrible with fashion so I'd just let them do what they think is best. Besides, I have the Max Ride credit card that I've refused to use, until now that is.

"Welcome!" a lady with bright pink hair, glowing yellow cat eyes, and dark skin exclaims when I walk through the door. "What's your name, sweetie?"

"Maximum Ride," I answer and look around at all of the women looking as if they were having the time of their lives.

"Hey, JJ told me about you!" she grins as I walk closer and smile slightly back at her without meaning to. "You're the single mother, correct?" she asks and I rest my crossed arms on the countertop of her granite desk.

"Yeah, that's me," I reply and she takes hold of my arm.

"Great, we have a special treatment for single mothers, and you want a makeover, correct?"

I hesitate but decide that this is exactly what I needed to try and get Fang back before Lisa crawls her way back into our lives. "Yeah," I answer.

Before I can register it, three girls are literally dragging me into an empty back room filled with all types of things. First they make me strip and slide into a mud bath, which looks absolutely disgusting but I reluctantly do it anyways. They know what's best, after all. Then I'm strapped down on a table to JJ's request when she was talking to the lady about me. A searing pain runs up my body as they yank something off of my legs, taking the hair with it. I bite down on the white rag they stuffed in my mouth to keep my screams mute; that hurt like a mother.

This continues on almost every part of my bare body before I'm shoved into a shower with lukewarm water. I wash my body but leave my hair in the cap they gave me like they instructed. When I step out they don't even say anything before I'm pushed into one of those pedicure chairs. Then my fingernails were done, then they scrubbed at my hair with some special soap, and finally they sat me down in one of those spinning chairs in front of a mirror. Next thing I know they spin me around so I can't see myself and go to discussing my hair.

A green-haired lady turns and starts yanking a brush through my hair and yellow-haired lady starts snipping off my split ends. This goes on for what seems to be an hour as they claw and dry and then one of them puts a single streak through my new bangs. The chair spins around and I'm facing the mirror staring at a girl with wavy blonde hair reaching to her waist perfectly. She had side bangs that cover a part of her left eye and through the bangs was one silver streak.

"No time to gape! We must now pick out a wardrobe and makeup for you!" a lady with neon blue hair snaps. I'm quickly ushered into a room filled to the brim with clothes and accessories; they start piling it in my arms.

For once I don't try to argue and instead I go with the flow like the voice once told me to do; it ended up working… mostly. I'm shoved into a changing room with an outfit and I change from the white robe and into the entire outfit. The white spaghetti- strap tank-top has fashionable rips across the stomach so you could see the skin behind them, but for once I didn't mind now that my stomach was smooth and flat. I has on black skinny jeans, a black leather jacket, white knee-high heeled boots with a furry inside, and a dark blue fedora to sit on my head.

I was pulled out again and they started to pluck my eyebrows and smear eyeshadow on my top eyelids. This continued with black eyeliner, and some black mascara but I still stayed quiet and continued to make myself just to let them do this. When it's finally done they place me in front of a mirror and squeal as I stare at the beautiful young woman staring back at me in the mirror. I looked sixteen again except not as tired and worn out from dealing with a newborn baby.

"Thank you, I love it," I tell them truthfully and all of them squeal before dragging me back in the closet room.

By the time I finally leave, I have about two hundred bags of clothes, makeup, and accessories in my jeep. I wave bye and thank the women before leaving the mall and heading back to my house, hoping I would make it there before Fang. Of course luck wasn't on my side as Fang and Iggy were in the driveway washing a new black mustang. I get out of my car and slide on a pair of my new black sunglasses; they look up when I slam the door to my jeep shut.

My eyes focused on Fang's wet eight-pack and I felt like I was about to drool before I remembered my appearance. I managed to discretely unzip my jacket to show the rips and my stomach just to tease him back. It was freezing cold today like every other day and he was just trying to get to me by doing this. I glare at him behind my sunglasses, but he only continues to stare, mouth slightly agape at me and I smirk smugly.

"Max?" Iggy asks incredulously and I smile innocently then I pull open my trunk and slide bags onto my arms.

This thing was going to be fun; I wanted Fang so bad that it hurt my stomach just to look at him and know I can't wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him whenever I like. And I can't make love to him anytime I want to; yes I do want to do that again and it was the best night of my life. Knowing I couldn't cuddle up to him on the couch during movies with the rest of the flock around. And just knowing he could get with any other girl in the world and not have to worry about cheating on me or feeling bad about it afterwards. I shake the thoughts from my mind hurriedly.

"Are you going to continue to stare, or are you going to actually come help me with my bags?" I ask Fang as I pass and give him a wink even though he can't see it behind my sunglasses. He grabs the rest of the bags and follows me into the house then back to our bedroom where I start unpacking the stuff.

He asks, "Where did you go?"

"The spa," I answer, "those things can be really relaxing for a mom, you know? Oh, and did you pick up Gazzy like I asked you to?"

"Yeah, he went over to the girl's house across the street. I think he said something about finishing homework," Fang shrugs and I step closer to him. I knew he wasn't about to make the first move so I decided that I would have to if I wanted to get together with him again.

I start, "So Lilly, the girl across the street, is coming to babysit Riddle this Friday and I wanted to know if you want to go out and do something. Just the two of us maybe go out to a dinner, a movie, and maybe some ice-cream…" I trail off at his amused expression.

"Actually, I was about to ask you out, but you just beat me to the punch so I guess we could," he replies and shrugs. I slip my sunglasses onto my dresser and finish hanging up my last new shirt and shutting my walk-in closet door.

He starts to leave but I call quickly, "Oh, Fang, wait!" he turns around and I motion him over to me. "I hated you living with those suitcases in the corner so your stuff is all in the first two drawers in the darkest dresser, okay?" I told him and pointed at the darkest one of my dressers in the back corner.

"Okay," he says and starts to back away and then smiles and adds, "I guess I can finally say that I'm at home." And he disappears, literally with that stupid ability of his.