Blacks : HELLO MY ADORING FANS!

We now have a 'most interesting review' competition! Last chapter's winner was Crazymax13...by a lot...and I mean by a LOT.

Fex: ...Blacks? About that ego...xD Oh, yes, the review contest. Crazymax13. Like, what? Seriously, y'all...go read her review...it made me laugh. UPDATE OR I EATITH YO' SOUL FO' CEREALZEZ! I should start saying this. Anyway. Leave us an interesting review! We may feature it in the next chapter :P

Blacks : Indeedydo. Enjoy el Chapter-o! Complete with added Faxness!

Fex: Yep! Oh, and the hair dye that Savannah gets? ADAM LAMBERT, BABY! /heart


"She's fallen asleep." I looked up to see Savannah walking out of the bathroom, her hair wet and piled on top of her head, complete with a blue tinge.

"What?" I said, rubbing my eyes. I'd been awake for all of fifteen minutes, after falling asleep briefly due to the extent of our rehearsing. I was woken my Nikki climbing up the ladder and poking me to ask if I had any latex gloves. It transpired that said gloves were needed because my roommates had decided to dye each other's hair, and Nikki had dropped the disposable gloves that came in the box in the toilet or something. Which led me to here, struggling to keep awake with my American roomie stood in front of me with an exasperated expression.

"I mean, I was just putting the dye in her hair and the next minutes she's slumped over the bath. I thought she'd died or something until I heard her breathing. I swear, that girl never stops sleeping..." She gradually trailed off as she walked around the room, adjusting the towel wrapped around her neck and glancing at the clock.

"Right." I said, standing up and rummaging through my case to find something to wear. After rehearsing solid for so many hours I definitely needed a shower and a change of clothes to feel human again.

"When will the bathroom be free?" I asked, extracting a pair of jeans and a shirt from my case and shoving them under my arm.

"Ehm..." She looked at the clock once more. "Give us a few minutes to wash the dye out of our hair. And dry it. Then it'll be all yours. I don't need a shower after; I haven't been dancing. Nikki might though." Savannah walked over to the bathroom again and opened the door, saying something along the lines of "Wake up, Sleeping Beauty" before the door closed.

I ignored the shriek emanating from the small room a few moments later and set about finding my toiletry bag, which I last saw on my pillow this morning. I occupied myself for the next half an hour by sorting out my clothes; I hadn't noticed it before, but we'd each been given a small set of drawers in various places around the room, and I offloaded most of what I'd brought in my own.

"Ta daa." I heard Nikki say in a sing song voice as she and Savannah emerged from the bathroom.

"Took long enough." I mumbled before glancing up at them. "Oh- wow. It's very ... bright." My two roommates were now sporting electric blue hair do's, making them look strangely alike. "Any reason for blue?"

"Adam Lamber-"

"I was bored of black." Nikki spoke over Savannah who rolled her eyes briefly at me.

"Yes. Adam Lambert inspired me!" Savannah said, twirling around Nikki, her hair swooshing around her. She made her way over to her bed and flopped down on it, long legs stretching right to the end. I noticed our English roommate glaring slightly.

"Stupid long legs..."

Savannah grinned at her.

"Yes, well. I'll leave you two while I shower. You need one too, Nikki?" She shook her head.

"I smell awesome."

"Right." I left her to it and headed into the bathroom for my shower, deciding to ignore the bright blue stains covering the white tiling.


"Fang is so checking you out, Max."

"Shut up, Nikki." I said, ignoring the feeling of eyes staring at my back as I examined the food before me. He wasn't checking me out, just obviously looking at my undeniable beauty. Ha. Ha.

"Ugh. This all looks gross." Savannah said from my left and we both nodded in agreement. The trays in front of us looked vile today; piled high with soggy cabbage and what I guessed to be some form of meat.

"I don't care. I'm hungry. But there is a fat chance of me eating pheasant." Nikki said, finding some leafy looking substance in the middle of the stuff supposed to be food.

"Pheasant?" I asked incredulously.

"Yep. It stinks! I'm surprised they're serving it actually, it's generally only what posh people eat."

"Freakin' English..." I muttered, taking another look at the cabbage-y type stuff and deciding against it. "Ugh. You know what? I might just have a drink today."

"Yeah, same..." Savannah said, but Nikki just shrugged, looking down at her plate of...stuff with a slight frown.

I grabbed a Coke and we returned to 'our' table, where Fang was already sat with Milan, Toby and Diane. "Could we squeeze any more people on this table?" I asked, maneuvering onto a seat between Diane and Fang. Savannah and Nikki managed to sit in between Milan and Toby, and I couldn't help but notice the blush that rose up Nikki's face at her proximity to the dreadlocked boy beside her.

"...Awesome hair, dude." Milan spoke up, and Nikki's blush increased, clashing with her vivid hair.

"Thanks."

I ignored the conversations that broke out around the table as Fang spoke to me. "So, are you trying to starve yourself?" He looked pointedly at the unopened Coke in my hands. "Won't they hurt you for that, or something?"

"No. Have you seen the gunk they're serving today? No, thank you. I think I'd rather be hungry today," I said, looking at the plates on the table, all filled with inedible looking stuff.

"Hmn. You know..." Fang paused, looking at me uncertainly before continuing, "there's a restaurant just outside of here. Whetherspoons or something like that. Looks good."

I said nothing for a moment, mulling over what he had just said. "You mean, us go there? Like, the whole table?"

He smirked. "No. Just us. I think a group of seven teenagers – two of which have bright blue hair – would be pretty noticeable. We'd be able to sneak out for a few hours, no problem."

Was he asking me out? I ignored the tiny voice in the back of my brain telling me that yes, he wasand assured myself it was purely as friends. Though that didn't stop the tiny shiver of excitement that raced down my spine at the prospect of spending a few hours alone with Fang. "Uhm, sure. But I don't have any money on me ..."

"I'll pay." I stopped myself from speaking out at this, being able to pay for myself and all, but I was so damn hungry at this point that I didn't care.

"Let's go." I stood up, half dragging him with me.

"Where are you going?" Diane asked, breaking of her conversation with Toby to glance up at us. I deliberately ignored Nikki and Savannah, who were raising their eyebrows provocatively at me across the table. I mouthed Shut up when I was sure Fang wasn't looking, but they just laughed.

"Out. For dinner. I'd rather not see my food again tomorrow morning," Fang said, looking pointedly at everybody's plates.

"Dude, at least let us come with you!" Nikki moaned.

"Bye!" I grinned, ditching the Coke and fluttering my fingers tantalizingly. "Have fun."

"BITCH," she called after me.

"I KNOW!" I called back. Fang snorted.

Sneaking out 101: Tell them you lost a cell phone.

It works.

Five minutes later, Fang and I were free, walking out on the streets of London. It was still light outside, though the first hints of dusk were on the horizon. People were still out and about, and there was the restaurant Fang had talked about: Whetherspoons.

"What a weird name," I commented.

"Hope the food's better than the name."

"Anything is better than the crap in there."

"True."

God, this was so weird. I mean, going out to dinner with guys was totally not strange, seeing as, you know, Iggy and the dance troupe and all of that. But just one-on-one? With some barely-met and totally hot fellow dancer guy named Fang-not-Nick?

Dude.

A woman in a black cocktail dress smiled at us as we came in. "Date night?" she said carefully in her British accent. I could feel myself flush.

"Not tonight," Fang said.

Well, WTF was that supposed to mean.

"Ah, alright then," the woman said, looking a bit disconcerted. "Well, follow me. Just two, then?"

"Yes," I said, before Fang could. She nodded and walked away, heels clacking.

We followed.

She gave us menus, and I eagerly flipped mine open, looking at all the food. Thank God, it was cheap, so I wouldn't feel overly guilty about Fang paying. Which, now that I remembered it, that fact made my cheeks go a little warm around the edges. It was simple stuff. Some British foods I'd never heard of. I remembered that "chips" were French fries in England.

I ordered an orange juice, and Fang had water.

"So," I said, at the same time Fang said "Um..."

"Where are you from?" I asked. Ohmygod, Max. You noob. You pathetic, pathetic noob.

"Um, Virginia," he said. "You?"

"Georgia," I said. "Savannah."

"Savannah? Isn't that one of your..."

"Roommates, yeah, I know. She loves the irony."

Fang tapped a straw against the condensation building up on his water glass. "Why'd she die her hair?"

"She says that she and Nikki got bored while I was asleep, and Savannah had a box in her suitcase, for an unknown reason."

"Ah."

"So." I said, taking a sip of my juice. "How's life over in the guys' dorm then?"

Fang looked up at me for a second before swirling a couple of the ice cubes in his drink. "Fine. Nothing interesting."

"Oh? How are your roommates then?" Max, you idiot.

"Normal." He grinned, clearly making a dig at my blue-haired friends. "I have two; Tom and Toby."

"You room with Toby? Cool. What about Tom?"

"He's English. Acting." And that was that.

"Oh, okay then." There was silence for a few moments, and I felt increasingly awkward as Fang ignored me and scanned the menu. "Nikki was saying yesterday about how there's only three English here, her, this girl called Zoe and Tom. Heh...weird, huh?" I felt like slapping myself. Max, stop talking now. You sound like a lovestruck prepubescent Justin Beiber fangirl.

Before Fang could reply, however, a waitress came over to our table, notebook at the ready.

"Are you ready to order?" she asked sweetly, looking directly at Fang and flicking her blonde hair slightly. I guess I didn't leave the sluts back in America, I thought, seeing how her blouse had the top three buttons undone and she was sticking her chest out in Fangs direction.

"Sure. I'll have the chilli con carne," Fang said, leaning his chin on his hand disinterestedly. I struggled to not roll my eyes.

"Spicy noodles please." I said, smiling just as sweetly back and enjoying the flash of annoyance that went through her pale blue eyes.

"Thank you. I'll get right on it." I watched as she sashayed in her tight black skirt away from us.

"I just have the chicks all over me," Fang said nonchalantly, trying to suppress a grin.

"Oh yes. I'm just swooning for you as I sit here, Mr. Romeo," I chuckled, glad that the sudden tension between us disappeared.

"Of course you are."

"Indeed." I paused, wondering what to say. I didn't want us to lapse into silence again like before. "So, Romeo, tell me more about you."

He looked startled for a brief moment, before his usual mask of indifference returned. "Not much to say really. I have two parents," I rolled my eyes. "And a little brother and sister."

I grabbed onto this. "Ooh!" I cringed on the inside at how girly I sounded. "What are their names?"

"My sister's Angel. Well, Angelica, but no one calls her that, she gets this look on her face if you try. Curly blonde hair, big blue eyes, the whole thing I guess. She's seven next month. Gazzy is—" My eyebrows raised at that one. "—ten. He's called Zephyr, but we call him The Gasman. Gazzy for short."

"Any reason why-"

"Don't ask." I shut my mouth. By the sounds of it, I didn't want to know. "So, what about you?" He asked, taking a big gulp of his water.

"I can't say I'm particularly interesting either." He smirked at that. "I have a mom, no dad, and a little sister."

"Something in common then, I see," he said, and I was grateful he didn't ask about my dad.

"So it seems. Ella's fifteen. She's the complete opposite of me. Loves fashion, pink, anything girly. She and her best friend, Nudge, are always hanging out in her room doing each other's hair." Fang laughed quietly, hearing the annoyance in my voice.

"Poor girl, having to deal with you all day."

"Hey! I'm not that bad! You've only known me for a day."

"What can I say, I'm perceptive." He gave me an evil smirk.

"Shut up. Anyway, any friends? Or are you the loner you look," I said, grinning back. He opened his mouth to reply but was cut off as our food arrived, thankfully served by a different waitress who wasn't staring at Fang like he was a piece of meat.

"Yes, I do have friends, contrary to your beliefs. What about you?" he said mockingly, grabbing a forkful of his chili and eating it slowly.

"Yes, actually. Quite a few. But Iggy's my best friend."

"...Iggy?" he asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Gazzy?"

"Touché."

"Anyway, I've been friends with Iggy for about five years. He's great. A complete idiot, but he's great." I said around my noodles.

"So there isn't any romance between you two?" Fang cocked an eyebrow, looking at me over his fork.

"Ew!" I exclaimed. Iggy...and me...no. Just...no. "Never. That's just a gross thought! I am quite happy to remain single, thank you very much." I said, taking a sip of my drink and trying to banish any thoughts of me and Iggy.

"You sound like you're in denial."

"Okay, I've known Iggy since I was twelve. He's blind and perverted and an amazing dancer and absolutely fantastic, and he gave me this..." I fingered the wing necklace. "...but no. That is a scary idea."

Fang inspected the necklace hanging just under the hollow of my throat. "It's pretty. He's blind?"

"His foster mother helped pick it out."

"Ah."

For someone who didn't talk much, Fang could get use out of the few words he used. If, say, Nudge were to tell me that my necklace was pretty—squee, by the way, that Fang had said so—it would have gone something like this.

"OMG, Max, your necklace is fawesome! I mean, it's just so little, and the wings, and it looks like it was meant for you! Iggy's so nice to you. I wish I had a friend like that, but all the guys at my school are jerks and I hate them and I can't believe that you don't have a boyfriend yet! I bet Iggy would ask you out if you gave him a chance, and ooh, Dylan definitely would, you know he's been half in love with you forever, and I can't believe that Iggy gave you that! Is it silver? Or sterling? Or just knockoff? It looks real. OMG, I want one. It's so great. I love it."

Fang said "It's pretty," and those two words said more than Nudge ever could.

Aaand now I sound like a pathetic sap, so let's get on with the dinner.

My noodles were fantastic, and I stole a bite of Fang's chili about ten minutes into dinner. His was just as good, though a little rich for my taste, so I went back to my own.

"God, how spicy is this?" Fang said, making a small face, and only then did I realize that a bite of my noodles was dangling from his fork. I laughed at his expression.

"Pretty," I responded. "It's good, though."

"If you say so." Fang picked up his spoon again and went back to the chili.

We talked. Somehow, my criminal past got brought up.

"So, Nikki may or may not have let slip you got arrested," Fang said easily, taking a sip of his second water.

"Oh. That."

"So, who'd you murder?"

"No one!" I said hotly, and he laughed at me. "Really, no one."

"So what'd you do? I've never been arrested, myself, but I've come close."

"For what?"

"Indecent exposure."

I stared at him.

"Joke."

Oh.

"Anyway, so really, what for?"

"I vandalized a house."

His eyebrows raised a fraction of an inch.

"I had an excuse. They gave up Iggy."

"He's a foster child?"

"Yeah." I fidgeted. I wasn't sure exactly how I felt about giving up that particular piece of information, but if it was going to be to anyone, I guess Fang was an okay choice. He didn't seem like the gossiping type. In fact, the image of Fang gossiping actually made me laugh out loud a little, which earned me a weird stare from both Fang and the waitress that had come to refill our drinks, though I wasn't even done with mine yet.

"I hate how they do that," Fang said, staring at his newly-filled glass.

"Me too!" I exclaimed. "I mean, we're done with our food. We're only gonna be here another ten minutes. They think I can drink this gigantic thing before we leave?"

"Such is the plan of the restaurant."

"Hmn. Ugh, I don't want a dessert, you?"

"Nah. I just wanna get back." I worried for a moment that it was because he didn't want to spend any more time with me, but then I saw him try to stifle a yawn. "After today I'm so tired."

"Same. I tried to get some sleep before dinner but Nikki woke me up asking if I had any latex gloves."

"...I won't ask."

"It's best not to."

"I'm never gonna finish this." Fang said, indicating his still full drink in front of him.

"Me neither. Should we pay?" I asked, already catching the eye of a waiter a few tables away from us.

"Sure." Fang stood up and threw a wad of unfamiliar money on the table.

"English?" I asked, and he nodded.

"Got it at customs when I came through." Ah. I had forgotten. I made a mental note to do that.

We nodded to the woman at the entrance to the restaurant as we left. She winked at us.


"Kick it up!" I called down the line to the troupe, chugging my Kool-Aid at the same time.

"Max, we misssss youuuu," Iggy whined through the connection at me, and I smiled.

"Get eliminated so you can come back to us," said Dylan.

"No! That's a terrible thing to say!" Ana reprimanded.

"Yeah, Max, win it," Lesley told me.

"Thanks, guys. I miss you, too."

"I want to meet your roommates."

"Iggy. Shut up. Speaking of which, where's Nikki? I only just noticed." I spoke down to Savannah, hoping she was still awake. Not that she could be asleep, what with Iggy's screeching and all.

"Hot date with Milan, I think," she said, and I could almost hear her rolling her eyes.

"Only one left for me ..."

"Iggy, I will fly over and punch you if you keep hitting on my roommates that, incidentally, you have never actually seen, trans-Atlantic." He flinched. "Anyway, I have to go...it's ten here now, and I have a whole day's rehearsing ahead of me." I sighed.

"BYE!" My friends shouted down the line before I clicked off of it, closing my laptop and placing it at the foot of my bed.

"So you didn't tell them about Fang?" Savannah asked from below me.

"Dude. Iggy would tease me for days, telling me to name the baby after him." I said, crawling under my covers and smirking as I saw Nikki's empty bed.

"Ah. I see." I could hear her yawning around her words. "Night."

"Night."


Today I found out, that in America, chilli is spelt chili. I am shocked.

Fex: Yes, it is. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I feel I must add an outtake section...

See, this is what I meant to write:

"He's blind and perverted and an amazing dancer and absolutely fantastic, and he gave me this..."

And I didn't end up writing fantastic. I ended up writing FANGtastic.

How awkward would that have been?

"...absolutely fangtastic!"

"Excuse me?"

xDDDD

Well, the next one should come quicker, since Blacks is back from her holiday :) don't forget to review!