A/N: Sorry! I feel so bad! It was like, 3 days since I last updated! Ooh, I'm so bad. Haha. Well. Hope you like this chappie! It's not my best, but I think it was worth missing my bro's birthday stuff for! It DEFINITLY was. Soooooo boring.
Disclaimer: Maximum Ride is not mine. Fang, however, is.
Flying back home was exhilaratingly boring. All I could hear was Nudge and Angel blabbering on about shoes and hair, and Gazzy and Iggy ahead of us howling with laughter at something that probably wasn't that funny. And my thoughts were occupied with what Mom was going to say to me. I had just told hundreds of people the biggest secret of my life, so who could blame her? As we landed on our front lawn, Mom's car pulled up, and out jumped Ella and Libby, BFF's again. They too, were talking about shoes and make-up and pointless stuff like that.
Mom walked to the door, unlocking it, and walked into the house, flicking the lights on as she went. She put her bag down in her office as the rest of the Flock, Ella and Libby piled into the house.
"I got dinner!" Iggy called as he jogged into the kitchen, almost knocking down Nudge and Angel. "Who's up for some smoked salmon?" The Flock cheered in agreement.
"The blind guy cooks?" Libby looked confused.
"Yep. And he's the best at it out of all of us." Ella confirmed.
I walked in and attempted to walk to my room, without looking at anyone, besides Fang, who was holding my hand lovingly, letting himself get dragged around. I was half way up the stairs when I was stopped by the one voice I was dreading to hear.
"Maximum! Get back down here now!" Mom called up the stairs at me. I was stopped in my tracks, and slowly turned my head to look at her, gathering as much sympathy as I could from Fang. I hoped he understood that the pleading look in my eyes meant that he should back me up. But c'mon, I'd be surprised if he didn't.
"Yeah Mom?" I asked, my feet rooted to the ground.
"Come down here." She said sternly, her face in a death glare, her second death glare in two days. Ouch.
"Why?" I asked sweetly.
"You know why Maximum. You and I need to talk. Without Fang." She looked me straight in the eye, sending shivers, bad shivers, down my spine. In my mind, I called for Angel's help.
Angel! Angel! Hello? Come on, read my mind already… help me out here… I pleaded mentally, whist plastering a Bambi face over my own rock hard one. It took her a while to answer, about 20 seconds, which is long by her standards.
K Max, she told my mind, whist turning to look at Mom. Suddenly, Mom's eyes went a little weird, creepy weird, and she opened her mouth to speak.
"Actually, Fang can come." She said. Ok, that's ok. I mean, I was expecting for Angel to actually get me out of this completely, but sure, Fang makes it better. At one point in my life, the Flock would have killed me for saying that, but now it was accepted. They know I love Fang in a more than friend/brother way… even though they do get annoyed at it at times.
Mom beckoned me kindly (thanks a bunch Angel!) down the stairs and ushered me and Fang into her office.
"Max."
"Mom." Wow, second time that's happened today.
"Fang!" He said, chuckling quietly to himself. Suddenly, hot and delicious smells that I'd missed last night, wafted through the door and into the small room. I took a breath in a smiled at the delicious smell, temporarily forgetting about the problem at hand. I sat down in one of the guest chairs across from Mom's desk and settled into the light plush. I took hold of Fang's hand, which I had released some time ago, and pulled him down to sit in the neighbouring chair. I tilted my head back so it fell of the top of the seat and sighed.
"Maximum." Mom said, snapping me out of my fantasy. "What you did today was not acceptable. You hear me? Not acceptable. You do realise that you have just blown the biggest secret of not only your own life, but five others' as well? This is not acceptable, Maximum! Not acceptable!" I looked up to find my mother standing with her hands on the table, supporting herself as she told me off. Her face was full of anger and aggravation, and the death glare she sent me was not a good sign. Three death glares in two days from the person who would almost positively be voted 'Most Likely Person to Live Their Entire Life without Giving a Death Glare' is not good. At all. I snuck a glance at Fang, and he gave me a reassuring look, reminding me that it would be alright. People were gonna find out anyway.
"You're lucky that the whole school didn't see it! Then the whole town would have known! This is serious Maximum! I can't believe you did that! This is ridiculous!" Mom glared at me. No death glare, but maybe a coma glare. Haha, get it? No… oh, ok… moving on…
"Max. Look." Mom lowered her voice and sat down calmly. "This is big. Bigger than you can imagine. Much bigger. It's important. Now the School will know. And the remainders of Itex. And so many others. We'll have news crews barging through our door, day in and out. All because you made some little mistake of opening your wings!" Her lowered voice got louder as she spoke, and my heart sunk every time she did.
God, this is all my fault! I'm such an idiot! I could've made some dumb lie about how I lived far away and would meet her there by plane, as she needed to go back to her house before. Or acted like some snobby girl with billionaires as parents who know Dr Scary and Nino Pierpont who could just hop on one of her many pink private jets and go to my own house in Hollywood. I could have ran away. I could have acted like I had some mental illness. But, no, I decided to blow our cover as mutant-bird kids and any chance of us becoming normal people around here. Not cool Max, not cool.
It suddenly struck my mind that I was still in the room with Mom and Fang. And Mom was still ranting. "Max, this is unacceptable! You get that Max, not acceptable!" I looked up at her face, red from her underlying rage. She took a breath in, trying to calm herself, unsuccessfully. I looked at Fang, who was staring back at my with his emotionless face. But his eyes flashed concern and sympathy.
It felt like hours before Mom shut up, and if I know her, it might have been. Finally, Mom shut-up, for good this time. Quite a few times I thought she was done and started talking, making her angrier than she already was, which I didn't know was possible.
"You got that Max? I have no idea what to do with you!" She put a hand to her temple, trying to calm down and think up a suitable punishment at the same time, which I can tell you, wasn't working. I nodded my head at Fang, invisible to Mom's closed eyes.
"Well, uhh, I think I smell dinner." Fang said, and I felt like he had just saved my life. As if on cue, Iggy screamed throughout the house.
"Guys! Dinner's ready!" He called. Thank you so much Ig! I mentally thanked.
"Ok, we'll finish this discussion later." Mom concluded, and I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding, in relief. "Go! Get out of my office! I'll be with you in a second!" Wow, I had never seen Mom so mad. This can't be good. Especially for me. Bad time for Libby to show up.
I stumbled into the kitchen and took a seat at the dining table. Fang sat next to me and he glanced at me before Iggy set out the food on the table. Under the table Fang took my hand and laced our fingers together. I smiled to myself at the contact. It was comforting. Mom sat down at the head of the table.
"Dig in." She mumbled, just loud enough for everyone else to hear. Silence. Well, this is awkward.
A/N: Haha, awkwardness. Kind of like how I'm feeling now, with my 7 year old interrogating me about this. I haven't told anyone I know personally that I write fanfiction, and I accidently spilt that I was writing a book thing story. AWKWARD. She's all like "are you gonna show anyone?" and "can you show me?" and "are you gonna show your parents?" and "read me more!". yeah, I made the mistake of reading some to her. Yeah… not good result. At least she thinks it's good! Review and make my crap day better.
