A/N: Oooh...another long break in my updating pattern. Shit! Sorry guys. I've been super busy. We're totally redoing my room, and I have volleyball practice, and I just got braces! Talk about hectic! Anyways...I'm sure you guys didn't come here to read about some random person's life...I'm betting you came to read some Max Ride fanfic! Am I right?! ......... Man, I'm good! (JK. On with the story!)

Disclaimer!: I don't own Maximum freakin' Ride! I own this plot though, so suck on that!

Attention! Attention!: Hear ye! Hear ye! I have an announcement to make! I just wanted to give credit to snow-hawk-666, who gave me the inspiration to write this chapter. She was one of the few who responded to my desperate cry for help for this chapter. Thanks to the other reviewers who submitted ideas.

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Chapter 8: Someone's in the Kitchen With Max...

Max POV

"Hahaha! Score! I win!" I yelled gleefully, plucking all the cherries off of my tree and placing them in my bucket. It was about 1:00 a.m. and me and Fang were playing a game of Hi Ho Cherrio. Now...I may suck some major giraffe abortions at most board games, but I kick some serious ass at Hi Ho Cherrio. Fang shook his head mockingly and said in a stern voice,

"I think all this victory is going to your head, Miss Ride. It's about time you lose anyways." He swept the board off the table and replaced it with a checker board.

"Hey no fair! Checkers is your best game! Besides, you know you're going to beat me. I suck at checkers." I pouted.

"Precisely why I've chosen it." Fang said smoothly, laying out his pieces. I groaned under my breath, but went to laying out my peices on the board as well.

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Three meciless games of checkers later, I was slightly more than frustrated about not being able to beat Fang, and ready to go to bed. I huffed, irritated, and began to stuff the game back into it's box. "Aww, Max. Don't be a bad sport." said Fang, trying to surpress his laughter. I finished putting everything away in the cupboard and was about to head off to bed when he grabbed me around the waist. "Don't be mad at me." he whispered in my ear. "I was just worried that your ego was getting a little too big, that's all." Okay...Fang sucked at apologizing. I just sighed.

"I'm not mad. Tired is more like it. I'm sorry. I don't mean to take it out on you." I whispered back, leaning my head backwards into his chest. I could feel him smirking. Just the way his muscles tensed slightly and the room all but filled itself with sunshine at his rarely sighted grin.

"I could...make it up to you..." Fang whispered. "Help you feel a little less tired...more relaxed..." He kissed the back of my neck lightly, making me shiver. He placed another feather-light kiss on my temple and then began to rub my shoulders. I swatted it off.

"Nah...I think I'll just head off to bed." I told him, pulling away. I blew him a kiss, winked, and ran up the stairs, leaving him looking rather irritated with me. I laughed a little and decided to check on the kids before I went to bed. That was a sort of habit I had developed over the years. I wanted to make sure everyone was safe before I dozed off. Iggy and Gazzy were sound asleep, snoring loudly. I ran across the hall and peeked into Ella's room. She was still up, rearranging some stuff under her bed. We bade eachother goodnight and then I hurried downstairs to check on Nudge and Angel. Angel was curled up in the middle of her bed. I threw another blanket over her and turned to Nudge's bed. It was empty. The covers were all crinkled and there was a small card board box sitting on top of it. Out of curiosity, I poked my head into the box. A brown paper bag was the first thing I spotted. Inside of it was a large stack of money! A couple twenties, a few tens and a fifty were all packed in there. Now...I knew Nudge was making money off of her job back in Renton, but I never knew she had so much! A pile of random magazines were stacked in the corner. Most of them on designs and fashion. A few of them had spots where someone had obviously clipped something out. And a few footnotes could be found here and there, oposite pictures with complicated designs on them. Certain pages in each magazine had been bookmarked with paperclips. A sewing machine Nudge must've bought a little while ago was tucked away in the oposite corner, and a pile of various clothes pieces were stacked in the middle. I was poking through these when I heard the door creak open.

"Max? What are you doing in my stuff?" Nudge had come back from wherever she had been before (probably in the basement or something) and was now staring at me with a deer in headlights look. I put the shirts back where they were before.

"Sorry, Nudge. I guess I got carried away. I was just wondering why you had a large box on your bed." I told her pointedly. Her brows furrowed together.

"It's just...ya know...stuff I've been playing around with in my spare time." she said, hurrying over to put the box underneath her bed. I quirked an eyebrow at her.

"You've been 'playing around' with a stack of money?" I questioned skeptically.

"Well...I--I had to use that to buy...some stuff I might need." she said slowly, carefully choosing her words.

"Stuff you might need for what?" She looked stumped for a minute, but opened her mouth eventually. She was about to respond, when a small voice piped up off to my left.

"What's going on?" Angel had woken up and was now staring at us groggily, her words slurred with sleep. I walked over to her side.

"Nothing, Angel. Go back to sleep, hon." I whispered. She squinted at me for a bit longer before flopping back onto the pillow and resuming her quiet snores.

"Well...I'd better get to sleep." said Nudge hurriedly, practically pushing me out of the room. When she'd finally jammed the door shut, despite my protests, I stood in the hall, severely confused, for a minute before shrugging it off and heading upstairs. I changed into my pajamas, not even bothering to look at the clock. I was afraid of what time it was. Then I flopped onto my bed and stared up at the ceiling, wondering what was up with Nudge, before drifting off a few minutes later.

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The first thing I did the next morning when I woke up, was sniffed the air. But instead of the delicious smell of Iggy's cooking wafting in...there was nothing. Just the normal 'house smell'. I frowned. Making my way downstairs to the kitchen, I found the house to be completely still and silent. It made me edgy. The kitchen was deserted. The clock read 11:00 a.m. on the dot. The others should've defintely been up by now. I exited the ghost-kitchen and poked my head into Nudge and Angel's room. Empty. The basement was quiet as the grave as well. Defeated, and rather confused, I wandered back into the kitchen and sank down into a chair. I thought for a minute. Then I got a bowl, a box of Life from the cupboard, and some milk, then set out to make myself a bowl of cereal...All by myself! I'm no cook, but I think I can manage something as preschool as making myself a bowl of cereal. I opened the bag and made to pour myself some Life into the bowl, but ended up dumping most of it on the floor anyways. Well...maybe just a coke and a granola bar will do. Tossing cereal into the garbage, I came across a small note taped to the counter. It was in Nudge's neat scrawl.

Dear Max,

Everyone went out 2 run errands and stuff. The guys went out just around town 2 hang out and do so called 'guy stuff'. Me and Angel had 2 run 2 the mall to pick up a few things, and Ella's at cheer practice. If you need 2 reach me, u know my cell number. And we figured u probably wouldn't be able 2 tell the toaster from the refridgerator, so Iggy left u a plate of eggs on the counter. Just put um in the microwave. U know...that square thing with all the buttons in it? LOL. See ya when we get back.

P.S. I wanna talk 2 you later. I have something important 2 tell u.

Luv, Nudge

I frowned. I wondered what she wanted to talk to me about. And that crack about my cooking skills was totally unnecessary. Unnecessary, but funny, I have to admit. I crumpled the note and tossed in the garbage with the crumbling remains of my cereal, and popped the eggs into the microwave. Iggy's eggs to the rescue! After cramming on eggs, I played checkers with myself for an hour trying to improve my technique, watched a t.v. special on how to train yourself to be a ninja, made three card towers (after which I played 52 card pickup) and then settled on t.v. Finally, after flipping through ten different channels of nothing but infomercials, I clicked it off. I sighed dramatically. I had absolutely nothing to do, and apparently all day to do it. I glanced at the clock. It was only 1:47. I sat thinking for a while. More tv? I don't think so. I didn't feel like going out. I wasn't hungry. (Not that I'd be able to make anything anyways.) Desperate, I finally turned to the only thing I could possibly think of. I dashed upstairs, grabbed the cd player and a random cd from Fang's room, before hurrying back downstairs and plugging it in. I finally got a look at the cd. Michael Jackson. I know what you're thinking. What's Fang doing with a Michael Jackson cd. Well...that's a long story. It all started on an Easter morning. We were all sitting around the table, just minding our own business .........................................................................................................................................................

**Max rambles on for a good half hour. Trust me...the whole story would have bored you all to tears**

But anyways...that's how he ended up with a Michael Jackson cd. Putting that crazy story aside, let's get back to reality, shall we? I shrugged off my odd music choice and popped the cd in, turning it up to full volume, and switching it to 'Thriller'. I figure...what the heck? No one's here. I'm all alone. Why not jam out and dance crazily? And that's exactly what I did. After a few warm up moves, I was starting to get into it. I'd seen the music video for this song on the internet not too long ago, and my memory's pretty good, so I could remember most of the moves. The whole thing was pretty sweet. Before I knew it, I was singing along with the lyrics and doing crazy moves on top of the coffee table. Jumping off of couches, using a discarded water bottle as a microphone...the whole nine yards. "Cause this is thriller! Thriller night!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, doing a wild jump off the arm of the couch, and sticking the landing. "You're fighting for your life inside a killer..thriller...tonight!" I twirled around and did the moon walk towards the stairs.

"So that's girls do when no one's around..." said an awed voice from behind me. I screamed and jumped around, only to find Total staring at me on the bottom step. I groaned, and turned off the music.

"You didn't see any of that." I told him sternly. He chuckled under his breath.

"Sure I didn't." he muttered sarcastically, wandering into the the kitchen. I had completely forgotten about Total until just then.

"Where have you been this whole time?" I asked, following him into the kitchen. He shrugged, looking around for something to eat.

"I've been up in your mom's room. She's got this massage chair that vibrates and..." he trailed off, a glazed look coming over his eyes. "I didn't know you were up until I heard the music. I came down to see what was going on and I found....well...it was certainly thriller worthy, that's for sure." He fake shuddered.

"Haha..." I said driely, plopping down into a kitchen chair, secretly glad to have a little company. "Well...you'd be wise not to mention that to anyone else, or I'm sure you'll find it certainly will be a 'thriller night'. For you, anyways..." I threatened. Again, Total just shrugged it off. Just then, the phone rang loudly, interrupting our little argument. I jumped up and grabbed it from the hook, eager to hear an actual human's voice. "Hello?" I said, sounding a bit excited just to be answering the phone.

"Max?" It was Ella on the other line. "It's Ella." she said.

"Yeah...What's up?" I could hear background noise on the other end. Loud voices and a whistle...some cheers. She must be at cheer practice.

"Listen...can you do me a favor?" she asked, sounding like she was in a hurry.

"That depends on what it is." I said slowly.

"All right...some of the girls from cheer and some guys from the football team are coming over after practice, and I was wondering if you could make us some lunch? We're all starving, and I told everyone that I would have snacks back at my house, but I forgot that Iggy was out and...Now I need your help." Ella obviously was not informed about what a disaster I was in the kitchen.

"Oh, I don't know Ella...I'm not very good at that kind of thing--" I started, but she interrupted.

"Please? Pretty please with cherries, and nuts, and sprinkles and every other ice cream topping ever invented, on top...I REALLY need some help on this one. And besides...Justin's coming over and...I think he might like me, and..." she trailed off. Of course...if there was a boy involved, she would defintely pressure me into this somehow. The best thing to do in this situation, would be to just give in. I sighed loudly. I felt like being dramatic today. "Oh, please?! It would only have to be like...cheeseburgers or microwave hotdogs, or something." she begged.

"Fine..." I said reluctantly. She had no clue what a disaster this could, and probably would, turn out to be. She squealed with excitement.

"Oh! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have no idea what a big help this will be!" she said, sounding relieved. I rolled my eyes. "Okay...practice is done in about 45 minutes and it'll take us like fifteen or twenty minutes to get packed up and changed and stuff, and some girls shower and....We'll be back in about an hour and fifteen minutes, give or take a few scenarios." I thought for a minute. I might be able to manage something in that amount of time. Finally, I agreed and she thanked me again before hanging up. *Sigh* The things I do for that girl... I glanced around the kitchen. Total was staring at me. His curiosity had obviously been piqued after hearing our conversation.

"What are you going to do..." Total groaned as I opened the refridgerator and peered inside.

"What do teenage girls like to eat after cheer practice?" I asked, poking around. Total looked at me like I was insane. Ha! I probably was!

"I don't know. Why?" he questioned, suspicious of anything that concerned the words Max and cooking in the same sentence. Well...conversation, actually.

"Because, Ella's friends are coming over and I'm supposed to make snacks for everbody." I said, now checking the cupboards. Total snorted and started to laugh. I glared daggers at him.

"Honey...I can cook better than you can! And I'm a dog!" He was rolling around on the floor, howling with laughter.

"Total, this isn't funny!" I said loudly, still not sure what to make. He snorted again.

"Yes it is!" I rolled my eyes.

"Well...at least help me out. If you were a hungry teenage girl coming home from a long day at cheer practice, what would you want to eat?" He thought for a minute.

"A diet pill and a glass of water." He said this very seriously, resuming his seat on the kitchen chair. I groaned.

"Seriously, Total..." He sighed.

"Alright, alright. Jeese. Laugh a little..." he told me quietly, thinking. "Well...a smoothie would probably sound good. And maybe some chips and salsa." I thought for a minute.

"Yeah...I can do that." I got up and ran upstairs to grab Fang's infamous laptop. I quickly googled some recipes for smoothies. "Okay, Max..." I told myself once I had found one that sounded fairly easy. "You can do this." The first and only direction was:

Put all ingredients into blender and blend until thoroughly combined. Empty into glasses and serve chilled.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. The ingredients were fairly simple too. Some sort of fruit, some milk, some ice cream...ya know...just normal stuff you'd expect to find in a smoothie. How hard could it be? I dug the blender out of a hidden cupboard, and then started pulling all the ingredients together. "Okay..." I muttered. The blender should be plugged in. I knew that much. I searched around for an outlet, finally finding one on the far wall next to the fridge. It looked like the blender was gonna have to go on the floor. After carefully plugging it in, I added the first couple ingredients. Some strawberries I found in the fridge, some milk, a little vanilla ice cream burried in the back of the freezer, and a miniscule amount of water. I managed to get it all in there with no more than a couple spills. Okay...we had about four missing strawberries, a little lake of milk on the counter with an island of vanilla in the middle, and everything was dripping on the floor, it seemed. I wiped my hair out of my eyes. "Alright... I guess I should start the chips and salsa now. I hunted around the kitchen, and finally discovered a bag of Tostitos in a bottom cupboard, then I went in search of some salsa in the pantry. I didn't know where anything was in this kitchen. Maybe because nobody let me near it for fear they would come home one day and find the house in ruins. But I would show them. Maximum Ride can cook. Maybe not as well as other people, but well enough that she can feed some hungry cheerleaders and football players. Eventually....I couldn't find any salsa. We must have used it all up on taco night. So, instead, I took action. Finding some tomatos, and onions and proceeding to chop them up.

"What are you doing Max?" came Total's worried voice from over to my left.

"Well, we don't have any salsa, so I'm making some myself." I told him proudly.

"Uh...shouldn't you at least look up a recipe?" I rolled my eyes.

"I know how to make salsa, Total." I said firmly, continuing my chopping. Soon, the tomato was finished and I moved onto the onion. "Not bad." I thought, looking at my perfectly chopped tomato now resting in a large bowl. Well...perfect in my eyes at least. I heard Total leap off of his chair and start to wander around the kitchen. A chunk of hair fell into my eyes. I quickly swooped my hand up to brush it away, but my oniony fingers managed to make contact with my eyes. The juice stung like heck, and I dropped the knife onto the counter and stumbled backwards, blinded, but looking for the sink. I knew it was somewhere behind me, so I continued to amble backwards, waiting to run into the counter. It never came.

"Whoa! Max, look out--!" I heard Total's frantic voice below me, and the next thing I knew, my ankles hit something warm and hard, and I tumbled backwards. I flung my arms out behind me to ease the fall, but instead, my elbow bumped the blender buttons and everything went flying. The walls, the fridge, the floors, me... everything got sprayed with a gelatinous pink goo. And my eye was still burning from the onions. I had successfully tipped over my tray of salsa and the contense littered the floor along with everything else. I groaned, looking at the clock through the haze of pink goo shading my eyesight. I only had about half an hour before they came back. There was no way I was going to be able to clean this up and make more food by the time they got here. I heard Total shake himself off. "Well that went well. I'm going upstairs to take a shower." he said, before strutting out of the kitchen. I put my head in my lap, not sure what to do.

"Max? What are you doing in a kitchen?" a voice said from behind me. I jumped a little, startled. Fang was leaning against the doorway, an empty soda bottle clenched in his fist.

"Fang!" I shouted with relief. "You've got to help me! I was supposed to make lunch for Ella and a bunch of her friends, but instead it ended up like this...and--Where are the other guys?" I said this all in one breath. Fang stepped carefully into the kitchen, avoiding the goo.

"Um....they'll be back in a little bit--what did you do?" he asked looking around in horror.

"I cooked." I told him, sounding a little hurt. And at that, Fang burst out laughing.

"Trashed the kitchen is more like it!" he said, howling with laughter. I frowned at him.

"It's not funny..." I pouted, climbing up off the floor. "Now...the girls are gonna be hear in, like, half an hour! Help me clean this up!" For the next ten minutes or so, we scrubbed, sponged, mopped, and swept everything clean. When we were done, the kitchen sparkled. Fang dumped the chips into a bowl, and dug out some salsa from the very back of the pantry where I hadn't thought to look. Next, he stuck a frozen pizza in the oven. When he was finished, he pulled me to his side.

"Next time...do us all a favor...stay out of the kitchen. Please?" he said. I sighed.

"Fine..." He bent down and kissed my cheek. Before he exited, I grabbed his arm so he couldn't escape. "I need you to do something for me." He groaned. "No...it's easy." I assurred him. "I need you to run down to that fast food place on the exit and grab, like...fifteen strawberry smoothies." He looked at me sternly. "Please...they'll be hear in a couple minutes, and I'm sure they'll be thirsty." Finally, he agreed. Jeese...you'd think I was asking him to shoot himself in the head, or something, the way he was acting. I grabbed my only purse and pulled out a twenty for him to use on the drinks. I kept it slung around my wrist as I watched him leave. He was halfway out the door when he spun around and pulled me into a tight hug. Then he swooped down and kissed me fiercely. When he pulled away, I was gasping for breath. "Why the passionate goodbye? You'll only be gone for a few minutes." I panted. He still hadn't released me, and he stared at me up and down, like he was trying to take it all in. Why was he acting like this? This wasn't Fang-like behaivior.

"I don't know...I feel like I should..." he trailed off. I stared at him, confused. He pulled me to him again, and I felt his hand slide into my bag. I saw him slip a small, folded up piece of paper into it, before withdrawing his hands. "Goodbye. I love you." he said softly. One more passionate smooch, and he was gone. I was about to see what the piece of paper read when the telephone jolted me out of lala land. I ran to answer it. It was Ella again.

"Hey, Max. It's Ella. We'll be there in just a couple minutes." That was all she said before she hung up. I quickly hurried back into the kitchen to check on the pizza and grab the chips.

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Fang's POV

I sighed loudly as I climbed into Steve's car, which the happy honeymooners had left behind for the trip. Max and her kitchen antics...Would that girl ever learn? Doubtfull...very doubtfull. I backed out and before I knew it, I was cruising down the highway, on the way to rescue Max from her silly situation. I felt like superman...But for smoothies, ya know? That would be the best super hero EVER! After a while, my mind wandered back to Max. It was hard to believe that in just a few short months, me and her would be...married. I liked the way that sounded. We still hadn't said anything to anyone. I thought for a minute about how to announce it, but decided to think about it some other time, when my mind wasn't so blank in the ideas section. But God...I loved that girl so much. It drove me crazy sometimes. Sure, she could be stubborn, and demanding, and sometimes just a plain old pain in the ass, but I needed her. She was my other half. In all my 19 years, I had never known anyone else like Max. No one that I could just be myself around, like I can around her. No one that I can say nothing but say everything to, except her. And no that I have loved, like I love her. I thought of how I felt before I left. I wanted so badly for her to understand just how much I need her. If I could, I'd make it so that every second of the day, she'd be right by my side so I could know she was safe. As long as I knew that she was safe, I could be okay. I never wanted anything to hurt her. Especially not me. The words on the radio sounded familiar, so I cranked up the volume. It was You Be the Anchor by Mayday Parade. This was one of my favorite songs. I cranked the volume up even louder, until I couldn't hear anything but the music ringing in my ears. Bouncing off the walls, and tumbling around me. Max was safe...she was okay. The world was safe, and everything was good. That's all that mattered. I grinned like a madman as I turned the corner, the image of my flock, my family, plastered onto the back of my eyelids. They were safe...I could be okay.

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A/N: Haha! I wanted that chapter to be a little more...lighthearted. Ya know...give you guys a break. It was just a time filler, but everything that happened in that chapter was vitally important to later in the story. Keep reading. The ending might've been a little stupid, but I just got out of a major writer's slump and I'm still a little slow about this. I'll try to update as soon as possible. Can YOU guess what's gonna happen next in the story? I bet you can't! Go ahead and try! You might be able to. I'm never sure if my story lines are too obvious or not. Oh well...as long as you review, I'll be happy. See ya next time, folks!

P.S. Fang's character might be a little OOC, but that's just cause I NEVER do his POV. But I needed to for this chapter, 'cause it was important! Very important! Wee....

P.S.P.S. Another special thanks goes out to Mayday Parade, who wrote that awesome song "You Be the Anchor". For some reason, that's the song that popped into my head while writing this chapter. Mayday Parade is an amazing band, so go ahead and check them out! The chapter may have seemed pointless to you, but to me...it was the plot former. That special little chapter where everything comes together in my head, and I know what's gonna happen at the end. Again...thanks to snow-hawk-666 who gave me the kitchen idea for this. Without you, there would be no chapter. Thank you for helping me figure everything out! And thanks to my other wonderful reviewers!

What is this now? A triple P.S.? Anyways...has anyone ever noticed that in practically EVERY Max Ride fanfic, there's always SOME mention of Fang's infamous laptop somewhere in the story. It's just sort of a given. So....I now proclaim Fang's Laptop as a main character in the Maximum Ride books! You have my blessing, Fang's laptop!

*MurderingxMyxTeddyxBear's Blessing*

See ya!