The next morning I woke up thinking yes

The next morning I woke up thinking yes! Spring break! And then it hit me. Me singing karaoke, chasing Nick on the beach, Jere kissing me, and then me running away and sobbing. That was the strangest of it all when he started kissing me I got a flash of a memory? Vision? I don't know what it was but all I remember is dark hair, dark eyes, a cave and campfire and someone rubbing little circles on my back. I also got a very confused feeling, and then I said Fang. But not as if it was like a tooth, like it was a name.

Fang woke up and called a flock meeting. "Okay guys, we know that this is definitely Max we are dealing with. Even though we have never seen her do karaoke before. We need a plan to figure out how to get her memory back."

Iggy played around with his plate and asked "What happened last night that made you so urgent all of a sudden? Did you fall in love with the dancing queen?"

Angel looked at Fang and read what happened last night. When he met her eyes he quickly looked away. Oh my gosh is Fang blushing? Then she dismissed the idea. No way, Fang doesn't blush.

Gasman raised his hand. "Okay I think that we should sneak into their house, find the stash of pills, and then drop a bomb and…"

Fang cut him off "I don't think so. No bombs. Maybe if we can get her to remember us a little bit, we can get her to stop taking the pills."

Angel was practically bouncing on her chair. "Oh my gosh I have the perfect Idea! You can kiss her Fang. If she remembered something when some random guy kissed her, think of how much she would remember if you kissed her!"

Fang was sure he was beet red. There goes my Mr. No Emotion Award.

Nudge was so pumped by this news. "What do you mean Max got kissed by a random guy? Well I am not really surprised because I mean she looked really pretty last night but still, I can't believe she let a random guy kiss her."

"It was the next door neighbor guy." Angel said.

Iggy was looking amused, "So what exactly did Max remember when she was kissed by this guy?"

Fang looked uncomfortable "Err, Umm."

Angel didn't hesitate, "She said Fang's name then ran inside."

Iggy's eyebrows shot up an evil grin on his face. "So that's why fang wants to act so quickly, wouldn't want a repeat of last night smooch action." And he made kissy lips at fang.

Fang whacked Iggy on the side of his head. "Shut up." Then he continued. "Okay Angel I will try, I won't kiss her, but I will try to get her to remember something."

Angel looked a little disappointed but said okay and then handed him the telephone.

Fang got up from the table and went into his room so that they wouldn't hear the conversation.

I picked up the phone on the second ring. "Hello?"

"Hey dancing queen! How's it going?"

"Oh man, that name is going to haunt me the rest of my life."

"Maybe, but I was wondering if you wanted to do something today. With me."

"Okay what do you want to do?"

"Um I don't know, I was thinking beach, food, maybe a little karaoke." I could hear the grin as he said the last part.

"Okay Nick, if you know what's good for you stop with the karaoke cracks." I wasn't amused when I heard suppressed laughter on the other line.

"Okay I'll be at your house at like 12 ish?"

"Sounds good." I replied

"Okay see ya"

"Bye." And I hung up. Then five minutes later the phone rang again.

"Hey dancing queen, it's Jere."

"Ugh why does everyone think they are so clever by calling me dancing queen?" For some reason, it just wasn't okay for him to call me dancing queen; maybe I was just annoyed because I had already heard it once.

"Whoa touchy! So I was wondering if you wanted to go to the movies or something today."

"Oh sorry" I said, though I wasn't sorry at all. "I already have plans."

"Oh bummer." He sounded like he was still mad about the kiss thing but I wasn't about to apologize. "I guess I'll see you later then."

"Bye"

"Bye"

I didn't feel like taking a shower even though I had about three bottles worth of hair spray in my hair , so I just made sure I had gotten all the bobby pins out last night and then I put my hair up in a pony tail. I then grabbed jean shorts - they are my savior because almost anything goes with jeans – and a light blue button up shirt to go over my swim suit. I didn't know if we were going to be swimming, but better safe than sorry.

We met at the beach shack and got our lunch. I was glad that Nick ordered as much food as I did and didn't give me grief about eating so much for a girl.

We walked really far down the beach where there weren't any people and sat down on a drift wood log that had washed up on the shore. It was close enough so that we could put our feet in the water. We ate our lunch in a comfortable silence as if we had known each other for years, not days.

After we finished eating we just talked.

"So how did you like the beach party?" I asked

"It was pretty fun after the karaoke started." He answered a glint in his dark eyes. Hmm very familiar.

I punched him on the arm "Hey watch it you," I said harshly even though I wasn't really annoyed "I did that against my will."

He raised an eyebrow "Oh really? It seemed to me that you were enjoying yourself. You seemed pretty happy after you got through the first couple verses."

I felt a blush heat my face. "Um, well what can I say, I am pretty flippin awesome. Actually it was pretty fun after a while, but I will totally deny saying that. I made this promise to myself that I would try to live life to the fullest to try and make up for losing seven years." I looked down self consciously.

"It's a good idea." He said.

I looked at him "It is isn't it?" We just looked at each other, I had a nagging feeling in my stomach that there was something I was missing but I couldn't put my finger on it.

I changed the subject. "So what happened to the girlfriend you left behind in Colorado?" I wasn't sure what he would make of this statement. I assumed he had a girlfriend just because. And if he didn't this is how I could find out.

He looked uncomfortable then asked "What's going on with your boyfriend here?"

It was my turn to look uncomfortable. "Hey I asked my question first."

"I asked mine second."

I sighed it wasn't that bad of an answer anyway. "How about this, I answer my question and then you answer yours."

He nodded.

I took a deep breath. "Okay, first of all, Jere is just a friend. Seriously, he might not see it that way," I winced as I thought of last night "but that's how I see it, and I would rather have him as a friend."

Nick seemed relieved at this piece of news but I couldn't understand why. We were just friends and we had known each other for like 5 days. "Okay now it's your turn. I would say fair is fair, but I find threatening is much more effective."

He gives me a slightly amused look that turns serious. "There was this girl in Colorado." He started "She was my best friend, my other half, and I loved her, a lot." I saw extreme pain, sadness and loneliness swirled all together in his eyes. "We were close to having, something, but then" his voice cracked and he took in a shuddering breath. "There was the accident."

Fang could barely take it anymore. He couldn't tell her that crazy robots attacked, or about the expiration dates, but he could share a bit of the story, the part that made him want to curl up in a ball and cry. "I was totally useless, I didn't save her. She was dying and I just couldn't do anything. She was just gone, wonderful, selfless, beautiful, brave, loyal, loving friend died right here," he looked down at his hands "In my arms." He felt a hand over his, and then he was pulled into a slightly wet hug. It was weird confiding how he felt about someone dying to the person who had died, knowing perfectly that she would understand.

He heard her comforting words like always "Shhh, shhh, it's not your fault." Max whispered with a voice thick with tears. She gave me a final squeeze then released me. She looked me straight in the eyes, it was enough. Fang was instantly comforted. He needed to get her to remember.

I needed to get him to get his mind off this. "Tell me a story." I said playfully. Trying to change the conversation so that he would get his mind off this tragedy.

He seemed to brighten and I was glad, he wasn't the only one who needed cheering up.

"Do you have a preferred genre?"

I responded quickly "Fantasy." I learned that most of the real life stories that were considered beautiful were heart wrenching, but fantasy usually had a happy ending.

He grinned at me. "Okay here it goes…..

"Once there was this girl, who lived with her family, but it was an unusual one because they were all non related children, no adults, it was also due to the fact that these children had rare gifts. One of the gifts that the children all shared was the gift of wings. There also was a dark place, where evil people in cloaks would try to steal the children away. But the girl saved them each time, either by rescue or outsmarting these people." This story sounded familiar, had I heard it before? Maybe before the accident?

"One day the evil people had the upper hand and she struck a deal. Her for her siblings, she was taken away from her siblings calling out for them not to worry and that she loved them. The months passed and the evil people made her forget her family so that she would be more willing to act. Then the family found her, but when they tried to talk with her she shunned them. She had no reason to talk to these people who claimed they knew her. They spent days trying to remind her of how it was, all the while, hearts breaking at the familiarity of her acting as their protector and mother when she had no idea they had once been a family. Then the youngest whispered to the oldest what they had to do." Nick had stopped. I waited for a moment then said " Wait! How do they get her to remember?" I was appalled that he wasn't going to tell me.

He looked at me and all of a sudden I knew what was bothering me about the dream last night. Those were the eyes I had seen and the –

"Like this" he said then he swooped down and brought his lips to mine.