MPOV

We walked into the office where Katrina showed us where it was. We had already dropped off Gazzy and Angel at their Elementary school or whatever it was called. Oh yeah, middle school for Gazzers and fourth grade for Ange.

"James! I won!" Katrina yelled. She socked his shoulder (she's been getting better at that) and they both smiled. Lovebirds.

DO NOT CRY! I mentally screamed at myself. FORGET FANG FOR NOW!

"Forget it, Katrina. I got the last one before we got in here and you know it," Iggy said, laughing. I socked him in the shoulder too. He shot me a look that said 'WTF!?'

I shot him back 'Sexist pig.' We both smiled.

"No, I-" Nudge caught herself, "James! I won! Tell them Maxine!" Nudge said, nudging me. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"You're all wrong. I always win," I said, smiling the smile that I reserved for Fang. But since he, you know, I've tried to start doing things that I reserved for Fang with everyone else. The Flock liked that.

I walked up to the office lady. Stupid redhead.

"Maxine Ride. N-" I almost said 'Nick Ride' but stopped myself, "James Ride. Monique Ride. This one is Katty. We don't know her at all." I pointed towards Katrina as she frowned at me.

"Go sit down. I'll get your schedules. Katrina, get to class," the evil redhead said.

"But I'm their buddy!" Katrina argued. The evil woman nodded, exasperatedly.

"Just sit down you four," she said, moving to the back of the room, no doubt looking for our files. We all sat across the room from two nice-looking blonde boys. One looked totally out of place: fiddling with his thumbs, twitchy, scared to death. The other looked bored.

It was the first one that made his way to us.

"I'm Daniel Rider. What's your name?" he asked.

"I'm Maxine – call me Max. This is James, Monique and this one is just known as 'It.'" Katrina and I smiled and Iggy hit me over the head. I slapped him back.

"Oh. You guys brothers and sisters?" Danny asked, sitting next to us.

"Well, my brother and sister are in Middle and Elementary school. Monique and James were adopted and Katrina and James are off kissing in a tree," I said and both Katrina and Iggy reached over to hit me. I grabbed their arms and pulled.

"Nuh-uh-uh. No way. Two versus one is not fair," I said. I let go of them and they rubbed their wrists.

"So do you guys live around here?" Danny asked.

"Well my family just moved here. Katrina and her sister live in Wilkins Manor," I explained. The other boy stiffened at the name Wilkins.

"Yeah. Sissy Prissy Genevive. The name fits the pwetty pwincess, doesn't it?" Katrina said. I snorted, Iggy laughed and Nudge was still trying to hold in her giggles.

"Yeah. I'm the princess of my family. Ariel, Zephyr, James and Max all say so. Daddy and Mom say that too, but in a good way. Even Nick used to say it!" Nudge realized her mistake as she saw the tears in my eyes flood over.

Do not cry! I screamed at myself, but I was already crying. Iggy pulled me in. His shoulder was bony and uncomfortable.

"Omigod, Max! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to…" Nudge apologized.

"It's fine, Monique," I said.

"Who's Nick?" Danny asked at the same time as Katrina.

"Nick was our…older brother and he and Max were very…close. He died a few weeks ago and Max didn't really get over it yet. The rest of us weren't as close as her. Nick kept to himself and Max," Iggy explained. Katrina and Danny nodded.

"Today was our day," I told Iggy and Nudge. Only they knew what that meant.

"It's okay, Max," Iggy said. By now, the other boy came over to sit with us.

"James, could you get your bony shoulder out of my eye socket? I think I'm going blind," I joked, willing the tears to depart. Thankfully, they did and Iggy released me. I rubbed my eye where his bone had dug in.

"Thanks Max. Because that's what I like hearing," Iggy said with a scowl.

"Well at least we know she's feeling better," Nudge said.

"Yeah because she would never insult someone when she's sad," Iggy said, rolling his eyes.

"I'm rolling my eyes, Iggy," I said. Nudge, Katrina and I giggled. Danny and the other kid didn't get it.

"Oh. I'm blind," Iggy explained. Danny laughed and the other guy didn't do anything at all.

"Daniel Rider? I've found your papers! Nick Rider! You too," the evil redhead said.

"Oh. Got to go. See you at lunch, guys?" Danny asked.

"Okay. Buh-bye," Katrina said, waving.

And then the silent one did something amazing (well for him I'm sure it was).

"Bye," he said. That must've been the only sentence he's ever muttered.

Ever.

Eew I didn't like the ending of this chapter. It was booooooring. So, it's snowing madly outside. My mom's car got stuck in a snowdrift. (it's a jeep liberty. Those are hard to trap).

~Hayley