Ahhhhhhh! Finals start tomorrow! The stress is short circuiting my brain. Now some of you might be asking why I have finals at the end of January. The answer is really quite simple: I HAVE NO FREAKIN' IDEA!!! My bets are on the "myth" that my superintendent is crazy and gets some sort of sick pleasure by messing with reason and our poor, hormonally-stressed out minds. Ha ha ha, what an amazing sense of humor you have, DiamondSummit. Oh, why thank you DiamondSummit, you're awfully funny too. Hey, DiamondSummit, maybe we should take a break from this fabulous internal conversation with our multiple personalities and write something people actually care about. Great idea DiamondSummit!

Disclaimer: we own nothing.

Chapter 10

Penguin Party

Jasper's POV

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Sigh. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk…

"Max, could you please find another way to amuse yourself?" Edward asked, not looking up from his book. Bella was out shopping with Alice, Angel, Rosalie, and Nudge. Fang, Iggy, and Emmet had gone out looking for any remains of the fight. Esme and Carlisle were out getting food, taking Gasman with them to judge the amount of food. That left Edward and I to look after the cripple.

Max was not doing a good job handling recovery. It was the afternoon of the second day and she could get up at around sunset. Carlisle had checked her wounds every two hours to make sure nothing healed wrong. Her cuts were already scabbed up. Carlisle predicted she would indeed be back to normal in about a week. Until then, she had contented herself by playing with a yoyo. However, instead of attaching the string to her finger, she just threw it to the ground and sucked it up into her hand again with air currents.

In response to Edward's question, she threw the yoyo at the back of his head. It hit with a resounding crack, causing Edward's head to jerk forward. I felt his irritation rise. Between his irritation and Max's impatience, I was not comfortable, to say the least. Edward spun around to grab the yoyo but Max had already whipped it back into her hand.

Edward glared. Max snickered. I groaned. I could almost hear the western showdown music coming on.

"Please. Don't. Do. That." Edward growled. You didn't need to be a mind reader to see the evil thoughts flitting across Max's mind before she settled with an evil grin. Why Edward? Why can't you just let it go? Please? Edward shot a furious glance at me. I took that as him saying that he would not let it go.

Max started dropping the yoyo on the floor again. This time she kept constant eye contact with Edward, whose jaw clenched with every thunk. Finally, he darted out and grabbed the yoyo before Max could catch it.

Now Edward sat back, rolling the yoyo into the air, the string firmly attached to his finger. Max jerked her wrist suddenly and the yoyo string went taut with the yoyo itself straining to reach her hand. Edward pulled the yoyo back. Max pulled it forward. The tug of war continued for about five minutes until the poor yoyo string snapped, sending Edward falling backwards and the yoyo itself rocketing towards Max's head. Edward caught himself before landing. Max yelped and ducked out of the way just before the yoyo flew by and hit Esme's favorite vase, smashing it to pieces.

"Edward! What have you done?!" Max yelled. Though she was trying to keep a straight face, I could see the corners of her mouth turn up. Edward looked ready to kill to an outsider, but I felt amusement bubbling up against his own will.

"Me?! You were the one to try to vacuum up the yoyo!" Edward shouted back.

"You stole the yoyo!"

"You provoked me!"

"You gave me the yoyo!"

"No I didn't!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Alice gave this to me."

"Alice!" Edward growled. "I bet she somehow figured out what would happen."

"So we can blame Alice for this?" Max asked. They met each other's gaze again, nodded once, and went back to what they were doing beforehand. Sadly, this meant Edward was reading and Max was bored out of her mind. This time she didn't even have a yoyo to play with. I felt bad that they were blaming Alice for this, but their accusations were probably true. This seemed like something my Alice would do.

"This is so boring. Is this what it's like all the time? Being flightless, I mean. We're like penguins! We can have a penguin party, and act like those dancing penguins with happy feet! Only I can't dance for another two hours and Edward would probably end up hurting himself if he tried, so it looks like it's up to you, Jasper! Make those flightless Antarctic birds proud!" Max rambled.

"Max, please stop," Edward said without looking up. She sighed and stopped talking. For about twenty seconds.

"Jasper, I'm bored." Max stated.

"I know."

"Can you find me another yoyo?"

"I would, but Edward might kill me."

"Oh, okay." Five minutes passed before Max started talking again. "Edward, how much longer?"

"Two hours," Edward replied, flipping back to his page in the book he was reading before the yoyo incident. Silence lasted five seconds.

"Has it been two hours, yet?"

"No, Max."

Ten seconds later.

"Has it been two hours, yet?"

"No, Max."

Ten more seconds later.

"Has it been two hours, yet?"

"No Max! It has NOT been two hours yet. Please, is there nothing else you can do?" I yelled.

"Well, I had a yoyo, before someone broke it…" Max mumbled. This was going to be a long two hours. But I really had no idea. My ultimate fear was realized when Max broke out into song.

"Ten thousand bottles of beer on the wall! Ten thousand bottles of beer!!!!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~One hour, forty five minutes later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bella's POV

Finally, after hours of shopping, we were home. My afternoon was worse due to the fact that I was the only one who didn't want to go shopping. At least I wasn't the only one uncomfortable with the amount of money being spent. Or maybe unfamiliar was a better word. Angel and Nudge starred at Alice like she was the shopping goddess. We happened to get home at the same time as Carlisle, Esme, and Gazzy. In the driveway, we saw a weird sight. Emmet, Fang and Iggy were crouched outside the front window, all shaking with silent laughter. Angel looked confused for a second, and then started cracking up. She leapt to the door and pulled it open. A collective gasp went up from every one.

Inside, Jasper was banging his head into the wall, causing the plaster to crack. Edward was holding his head in his hand chanting something that sounded like "fifteen more minutes" over and over again. Max sat on the couch, singing.

"Four thousand, seven hundred, twenty nine bottles of beer on the wall! Ten thousand bottles of beer!!!! Oh, hi everyone! We were just having a penguin sing along until I'm allowed to get up."

"Well, let me check your bandages and then you can get up if everything is looking good," Carlisle said. Edward and Jasper looked at Carlisle like he was their savior. After checking the bandages, Carlisle gave the stamp of approval. With the help of her flock, Max made her way outside. The Cullens and I followed to see Max spread her wings in the front yard. She stood in the dying sunset, looking like an archangel with the wind dancing around only her. The wind picked up in a spiral around her, throwing her wings and hair around her face.

Finally, she looked up and smiled in undiluted happiness and drove her wings down. Max shot up, spinning in the center of her cyclone, beating her wings at the crest of each jump. Her flock leapt after her, her happiness reflected on their faces and eyes. All in the air together, they wheeled and dipped in a graceful dance. A dance that those without wings could only watch.

And watch we did. Silence and awe covered us, mingling with the cooling air.

"That was worth a penguin party," Jasper murmured.

"Which reminds me. Alice, you have some explaining to do about a certain yoyo," Edward growled.

Please review*, because I just sacrificed study time for this!

*preferably before I go insane via finals*