Me: Hiya everyone! I wanted to apologize again for my accidental reposting of the previous chapter. As soon as I found out I made that mistake I fixed it. So here's the next chapter, and of course, here's Iggy to give the disclaimer.
Iggy: How many more chapters do I have to do this?
Me: As many as I tell you to. Now say this disclaimer.
Iggy: Fine. Water Wolf 100 does not own the following characters: Max, Iggy (aka me), Fang, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, Dylan, Lissa, JJ, Sam, Valencia, Jeb or Tess. All of us belong to James Patterson. Humph, I never had to do a disclaimer when I was with James Patterson.
Me: Well, he let me kidnap you so until this story is over you have to do what I tell you…so everyone pretty please read and review! Your reviews keep me writing, so if you want me to finish this story, review
Chapter 10: Insomnia, more fights and school dances
Of course, as my luck would have it I got no sleep that night either. I had gotten into bed about ten but for a few hours I just lay there under my sheets. The minutes turned into hours and I still couldn't sleep. Once or twice I think I almost fell asleep but then I heard the sound of the crash and our screams and I woke up again.
"This is stupid," I muttered out loud. I had never felt so tired before so I decided to take drastic measures. As I climbed out of bed I looked over at my clock and saw that it was going on two in the morning. I tiptoed down to our bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. "You have to be kidding me," I hissed when I saw that the sleeping pills I had been searching for were gone.
Giving up, I went back into my room and flopped down on my bed. I think it was around six when my body finally said enough and I literally passed out. I woke up the next morning to Ella screaming, "Max! Wake up! We have five minutes before we have to leave."
I looked up at her and groaned. "Ella, could you please not scream so loudly? I'm really tired," I said sleepily.
She looked at me with a puzzled face. "I wasn't yelling," she admitted. I then became aware of the pounding headache I was feeling. Ella's words rang through my head, making it scream in pain.
"I need some Tylenol," I grumbled. I made my way into the bathroom and was relieved to see that the familiar white bottle was sitting there. I put two of the little pills into my hand and poured myself a glass of water. Hopefully they would kick in quickly.
"Max, seriously we have to go like now," Ella pestered from the hallway. I sighed and quickly got ready. I put on the first clothes I could find. Which happened to be a pair of old basketball shorts and a homecoming t-shirt from freshman year so I looked like I was going to bed instead of school. "That's what you're wearing?" Ella asked, disgust lining her voice.
"Yep. Got a problem with it?" I snapped. Ella shook her head and walked out the door where Fang was waiting for us.
"Um Max, I know you go for the whole comfortable look, but isn't that pushing it?" Fang asked as I climbed into the front seat. I shot him a death glare and he didn't say another word until we got to school.
Iggy was waiting for us when we walked into the school. "Well good morning sunshine," he said when he saw me.
"For the sake of your physical well being, I'm going to pretend you didn't say that," I growled through clenched teeth. Iggy's eyes grew wide and he backed away from me. They all knew me well enough that when they saw I was in a bad mood it was best for them to stay away.
From the other end of the hallway I saw Dylan coming towards us. I hadn't seen him for a while and it was good to see that his leg was healing well. He didn't need the wheelchair anymore so he was hobbling around on crutches. "Hi Max! It feels like it's been forever since I've seen you," he said a little too cheerfully.
"Hey Dylan. Glad to see you mobile again," Iggy said. Dylan grinned and shifted the weight of his backpack onto his other shoulder. Before Dylan got to say anything, the bell rang and students began milling around towards their classes. Dylan and Fang gave us a small wave and Iggy and I headed upstairs to math.
As the day went on I realized the Tylenol wasn't working and my headache kept getting worse and worse. And along with my headache came a foul mood, everyone was too afraid to talk to me but that was just fine with me. Everyone's voices would drill into my brain, causing extreme pain. Suring lunch, I decided that I would sit in the library since it was quieter. "Max, wait up," I head Fang call from behind me. I stopped and waited for him to catch up. "Lissa texted me saying she needed help with a project."
"Whatever," I grumbled. All I wanted was a nice quiet to sit for a half hour. But Fang wasn't a big talker anyway so it didn't bug me too much. "What project?" I asked.
"Dunno, she didn't say," Fang replied with a shrug. We reached the library and automatically walked to the back. I sat down at the table and began rubbing my temples. My headache still wasn't going away and it was getting hard to concentrate on anything for very long. "Hey, doesn't that look like Iggy?" Fang asked. He pointed to one of the study room in the back of the library for people to work on projects and stuff and sure enough there was a boy in there that looked a lot like Iggy.
"I think it is Iggy," I said. "Check out the t-shirt. That's defiantly Iggy's. I would recognize his dinosaur t-shirt anywhere. It was bright green with a picture of a T-rex on the front and the tail wrapped around the side of the shirt and ended in the back. But what is he doing?" Iggy was standing facing the back wall and he seemed to be trembling.
"Let's go look," Fang suggested. I had a feeling this would be a bad idea but I stood up and followed Fang anyways. He opened the door but just stood there. I peaked around him to see what he was looking at and I almost did a double take. Standing against the wall-trying to push Iggy away, was Lissa.
"Fang! Thank goodness you're here," Lissa cried. She shoved Iggy away and ran into Fang's arms. Iggy stood there, confused.
"Lissa, why don't you go back to the cafeteria? I'll be there in a minute." Fang said slowly. There was venom in his voice and as he said each word. Lissa nodded then scooted her way out of the room and left the library.
"Dude, whatever you're thinking happened didn't happen," Iggy pleaded. Fang ignored him naturally. He walked up to Iggy, grabbed onto his shirt collar and pushed him against the wall.
"How dare you?" Fang spat. I stood there, unsure of what to do. I looked into Iggy's eyes and I knew that he was telling the truth. I didn't know how I was, but I was sure Iggy was innocent.
"Fang listen to me. This was Lissa's doing. You know I would never pull something like this. Messing with a friend's girlfriend is a line I will never cross," Iggy begged hopelessly. As I stood there, watching my two best friends fight, my head couldn't take it anymore. The noise was thundering, the lights were blinding, and nothing made sense to me. All I wanted was for it to go away. As I stood there, holding my head, I collapsed to the ground.
I didn't know what happened after that. The next thing I knew was that I woke up in a bed. It was my bed, but how did I get home? "Glad to see you're awake," someone said from the doorway. Ella was standing there, holding a tray with a bowl of ice cream on it. "Figured you might want something sweet to eat," she explained as she set the tray in front of me.
"What happened?" I asked as I poked at the ice cream. It was my favorite flavor, rocky road and Ella even remembered to add whipped cream to it.
"I don't really know. I was sitting in class when there was a call for me to go down to the nurse's office. When I got down there, Iggy and Fang were sitting there and they told me you had passes out."
"The fight. I think Iggy was set up by Lissa so that Fang would think Iggy was trying to steal her away from him. They were fighting, and then well I don't remember anything after that. How long have I been out?"
"Umm, about eight hours or so. Mom's at the hospital, she told me to take care of you when you woke up. That's the most sleep you've gotten in two days isn't it?" Ella sat down next to me and put her hand on top of mine.
I looked away from her, not wanting to admit the trouble I've been having. "Yeah. That first night, the day of the funeral, after you left I didn't get any more sleep. And last night I think I got another half hour or so."
"I heard you get up, what were you looking for?" Ella asked me.
"Sleeping pills. I was going to use them to help me fall asleep but we didn't have any so I didn't sleep. I guess an hour of sleep in forty eight hours time is enough to give someone a massive headache."
"Why didn't you say anything before? Mom would have let you stay home if you weren't feeling well." I sighed and headed back towards my room, Ella following closely.
"Because Mom would have thought I was losing my mind. I didn't tell you this, but the day of the funeral she suggested that I get therapy. If she heard I wasn't sleeping, I'd have to go see some quack and tell him or her about my problems and I don't feel like doing that. I sat down on my bed and began playing with my hair. Ella sat next to me and took my hand. She stared into my eyes and I wondered what she was thinking.
We sat there for a while, neither of us speaking. Then my phone rang. I got up and found my phone sitting on my desk. "Hello?" I asked when I answered it.
"Max, I didn't think you were going to answer. How are you feeling?" I was mildly surprised when I heard Dylan's voice on the other end of the line.
"Yeah I woke up a little while ago. I'm feeling a lot better now. What's up?"
"I just thought you might like an update on what went down after you passed out. Iggy gave me all the details." I mentally smacked myself when Dylan said Iggy; he was fighting with Fang right before I passed out. "You passed out, then Iggy and Fang rushed you to the nurse. Your mom brought you home, but after school is when things started to heat up. Fang was in a foul mood, and he and Iggy literally got into a fight. It was pretty ugly," Dylan told me.
"What?" I screamed. "Didn't anyone try to stop them?" I screeched into the phone.
"I did, but it didn't work. I got shoved into a trash can. I'm sorry Max; I wish I could have done more. The fight was pretty one sided though. Iggy refused to fight Fang, so mostly it was Fang wailing on him."
I stood there for a minute, dumbfounded. Things had been going well between me, Fang and Iggy. Now it was messed up again, and it was all Lissa's fault. She had something to do with it; Iggy would never betray his friend like that. Not in a million years. "Dylan, I'm going to have to get off the phone now. I need to talk to Iggy and figure out what really went down before the fight. I'll talk to you on Monday." I heard Dylan mumble a goodbye and I ended the call. I then typed Iggy's number and waited for him to pick up.
After about five rings it went into his voicemail and I groaned. I really needed to talk to Iggy and for the first time in his life, he didn't have his phone on him. "Ig, it's me," I said into the phone. "Dylan told me about the fight. Are you OK? Call me back soon, I really want to hear the full version of what happened. From even before Fang and I walked in. Call me back as soon as you get this message. By Ig." I hung up the phone, walked over to my bed and fell face-first into it.
"Iggy was in a fight?" Ella asked softly. I muddled out a groan through my pillows.
"I think I'm going to go back to bed. Maybe this whole day has been one big nightmare and if I go back to sleep everything will go back to normal. Ella sighed and got up from my bed. I listened to her footsteps as she crossed my room and shut the door.
My brain was too full of mush to have the nightmare, so for the first time in two days I was able to get a full night sleep and it felt wonderful. The next morning I woke up feeling better than I had in a long time. Then I remembered what happened yesterday. My bed was too comfortable to make me get up just then, so I simply just sat there and stared at the ceiling.
"Max? Are you awake? Someone's here to see you," Ella called from the other side of my door. I moaned and Ella took that as in 'come on in' and the door opened.
"You're still in bed? It's going on three already," someone said. I looked up to see Iggy standing in the doorway, a smirk pulling on his lips. For someone who had been in a fight the day before, he didn't look to bad. The only thing that was really obvious was a bruise starting to form on the side of his face. "I called you back this morning, but you didn't answer."
"Sorry, I was sleeping," I said sheepishly. I sat up higher in bed and grinned.
"Don't be. It's good to see you actually sleeping again," Iggy said cheerfully. I smiled and forced myself to get out of bed. I stood in front of Iggy, my head barley reaching his chin.
"Are you OK? I mean, the whole fight thing. Dylan said you refused to fight him," I asked. Iggy nodded and gave me a thumbs up.
"Yep," Iggy said with a cheerful grin. "I didn't fight back, but that doesn't mean I didn't let him beat the stuffing out of me either. Just some bruises that's all. I'm fine Max, don't worry." I smiled and wrapped my arms around him in a big hug. I made sure to be gentle, just he was sore from the fight.
"What about Lissa?" I asked after I let go. Iggy's happy smile vanished into thin air, leaving a scowl on his face.
"That girl is the devil. I was in the library studying when Lissa walked up to me and asked if I could help her with something. I followed her and when we got to the study room, she grabbed onto my shirt and sort of pulled me against the wall. And that was when you and Fang walked in. She planned the whole thing; she wanted Fang to catch us. She's up to something, but I don't know what."
The two of us spent the rest of the afternoon trying to think of ways we could get through to Fang that his girlfriend was insane. By five o'clock we still had nothing and Iggy's mom called him and said it was time for him to come home and eat dinner. After he left I went outside to sit on our deck. I glanced over at Fang and saw him in the pool with Nudge.
"Max! You want to come over for swimming?" Nudge yelled from the pool. I shook my head and Nudge pouted a little but continued to swim. Fang then climbed out of the pool and hopped the fence.
"Why was he here?" Fang asked sourly. He was talking about Iggy.
"Because he's my friend, he came to talk to me. Fang, Iggy was telling the truth. Lissa planned this whole thing, you have to believe me. You've known Iggy for years, and you know he would never do something like that."
"I don't buy it. Lissa was terrified out of her mind; no one could fake that kind of fear. Why are you siding with him? You saw the same thing I did."
"Because I trust Iggy. And it's too bad you don't. I can't believe things were finally starting to get back to normal between the three of us. I'll see you around Fang. Bye." I stood up and walked inside, not bothering to look back at Fang.
Weeks passed and Iggy and Fang didn't make up. It was just like before, Fang spent all his time with Lissa and ignored the two of us. August turned into September but there was no change in the weather. That was one thing I loved about living in California, it was warm all the time. Soon there was a buzz through the school about homecoming though I ignored it.
I wasn't big on dances so this year I told myself that I wasn't going to even go. I had been planning on sitting on my couch in my pajamas, eating popcorn and watching movies all night long. It drove Ella to insanity. "Max, why won't you go to Homecoming? It's your last one. Don't you want to make it the best one ever?" she asked me during dinner.
"Nope," I said popping the p. "I'm so done with high school dances. They're boring and overrated. I have a date with the couch that night." Ella was about to protest when I gave her a death glare. That shut her up.
Ella, for once, was actually not pushing me to do stuff I didn't want to do. I figured she was being nice to me after the whole insomnia thing and the fight between Iggy and Fang. I was grateful.
The weekend came quickly and even though I wasn't going to the dance I was excited because homecoming weekend the teachers never gave out homework. So I had the entire weekend to myself, to do whatever I wanted. The night of the dance Ella spent at least three hours in the bathroom getting ready.
Apparently she wanted to look exceptionally good for her date, some freshman boy I didn't even know. When she finally came out it was obvious why she was in there so long. Her long hair had been curled and was mostly pinned up in a messy bun with only a few strands hanging down to frame her face. A small diamond headband sat on top of her head and it sparkled in the light. Her makeup was simple but elegant. As for her dress, well, it was actually really pretty. It was a strapless sweetheart cut with an A-line skirt. The top was covered in sequins and a large greenish bow wrapped around her small waist and tied in the back. The only reason I knew what any of that stuff meant was because Ella explained it to me while we were looking at dresses the week before.
Her date, his name was Matt, stood in the entry way of our house. His jaw dropped when he saw her and he stared while she walked down the stairs. "You-you look great Ella," he finally said. Ella giggled and gave him a small hug.
"Thanks for taking me Matt," she said. I rolled my eyes and pretended to gag. Ella was so lucky our dad wasn't home, or else some blood might have been shed that night. "Well. Matt's mom is waiting for us. Have being home all alone and bored Max," Ella called as she and Matt walked out the door.
Once they were gone, I ran into the kitchen, put in a bag of popcorn and got ready for a fun relaxing night. Mom was at the hospital tonight so I had the house to myself. The timer rang on the microwave and I sat myself down on the couch and started watching John Tucked Must Die. Ella had gotten it for Christmas and I still hadn't seen it so I figured what the heck? Why not watch it? Turns out, it's actually a pretty good movie. When it was over I glanced up at the clock behind the TV, it was a little after ten. I still had about an hour before Ella came home from the dance.
This would have been one of those times where I would have called Iggy or Fang to do something with me, but Fang wasn't talking to me and Iggy was forced to baby-sit Gazzy and Angel. I was now stuck at home, bored and alone. I turned off the TV and simply sat in the darkness for a little while. I thought about how the past few weeks had been so stressful with Fang ignoring us and all. I guess sometime in my thinking process I fell asleep because the next thing I knew someone was shaking my shoulder. "What?" I ask groggily.
"Max, you fell asleep. Wake up, I have to tell you about the dance," I opened my eyes to see Ella standing above me.
"The dance is over already?" I asked as I sat up. I checked my phone to see that it was only ten fifteen, the dance was supposed to last until eleven.
"They called it off. A huge fight broke out and some kids had to be taken to the hospital. So the principal called off the whole thing." Ella sat down next to me and began to pull numerous bobby pins out of her hair. "I don't know who it was though; I think they were two junior boys."
I scoffed. The juniors at my school were pretty annoying, worse than some of the freshmen actually. "Did you have fun otherwise?" I asked.
Ella beamed up at me. "It was the most amazing night I've ever had. Oh, and guess who I saw. Dylan was there and he had a date. I was really surprised though because she didn't look like his type."
"Who was it? Do you know?"
"Tess," Ella replied simply. That one blew me away, of all people, why would Dylan go with Tess? I didn't even know that he knew her. I shook my head, trying to get rid of that mental image when the phone rang.
Ella reached over to the end table and picked up the phone. "Hello?" she asked. "Yes, she's here. May I ask who is calling?" Ella spoke into the phone. I knew the call was for me, but who would call me at ten fifteen on our house phone? "Excuse me?" Ella then yelled into the phone. She groaned and hung up the phone with a click.
"What was that all about?"
"Don't even ask. It was some prank caller; I'm not even sure who it was. When I asked for their name they said something in a foreign language. It was stupid, forget about it." I shrugged and got up off the couch. As I grabbed my popcorn bowl I tripped over Ella's heels that were lying in the middle of the floor. I ended up falling on my face and dropping the popcorn bowl. Un-popped kernels scattered all over the living room carpet and Ella began laughing hysterically.
"Ella, stop leaving your stuff in the middle of the floor," I growled. Ella didn't stop laughing and I picked myself up off the floor. I was halfway through finding all the popcorn kernels when the front door opened.
"Max? Did you trip?" my mom asked as she walked in the door. Ella began laughing harder, and ended up falling off the couch.
"No Mom, I didn't trip. I simply high fived the floor with my face," I replied irritably. Finding popcorn kernels was difficult and I was getting more and more irritated with each passing second. My mom shook her head and walked upstairs.
I finally finished, no thanks to Ella, and as I put the dishes in the dishwasher I realized how stressed I have been the past few weeks. I decided that I really needed a vacation. I needed one really badly.