OMG! So much support. Thank you all so much for reviewing, it inspired me to write another chappie! So you're all welcome ;) It has been summer and I have been absorbed in the world of WattPad and traveling back to the US of A to see my old family and friends. 'Twas mucho amazing.

Yeah, yeah, I know you all hate Dylan, I do too (last book coming out… already pre-ordered… I am fully prepared to track down JPatty and do something drastic if Mylan prevails).

Enjoy!

"So, Dylan, cut the crap about feeling the mystical pull towards our house," Fang said, looking at Dylan's blue eyes with a frigid intensity in his darker ones. "And tell me why you're here."

"What do you mean?" Dylan countered, refusing to look intimidated.

"I mean what I asked. Now answer."

"What you said. Mystical pull and stuff." Fang sighed in exasperation.

"Okay… how long do you plan to stay here?" Fang continued to question him.

Dylan suddenly looked uncomfortable, though the blonde boy seemed to be getting a bit angry as well. "I don't know."

Fang's jaw locked. This stupid guy could not possibly think he could just fly into their house and welcome himself in. It was their flock. Max hadn't even wanted him here in the first place. That had pacified Fang a bit at first, even made him tell Max to let him stay the night.

But now? Dylan had gone into Max's bedroom.

He had to leave.

"Not to make you feel unwelcome, but I don't think we want you staying here longer than a night. You are, after all, only a hiker stopping by," Fang told him icily, his face impassive.

"I'll stay as long as Max will let me."

"I don't think that will be very long," replied Fang confidently. Still, he hoped Dylan didn't see the weird, burning pain in his chest just seeing Max and knowing that she didn't want him as any more than friends. It couldn't be too obvious in his eyes, could it? Fang had spent his lifetime perfecting a mask of indifference. He used it often.

Dylan didn't reply, only shook his head and walked away. Fang strode into his room, ripping open the window, punching through his screen, and finally jumping out into the open air, feeling his wings tear through his t-shirt. Oh, well. There were enough black shirts in his closet to last him a while, at least.

Feeling a strange, new, unexplained rage and despair in his gut, he soared past mountains, finally landing where he and Max had had that stupid kiss. There he started running. Flying wasn't enough. He had to push through the snow, using his anger to keep him going, even when exhaustion took him far away from the place where the deed was done.

At last, Fang lay on a cliff where snow had fallen off of, so that the rock showed through the slushy white stuff.

He sat there for a while, listening as his breathing finally calmed down.

….

I rolled over in my bed. Stupid Fang. Stupid weird, overly romantic boy I don't even really know that decided to crash at our house. Stupid Angel, who was trying to talk to me and was no doubt listening to my thoughts right now.

Stupid everything. The world was stupid. Love was stupid.

Especially love.

As I lay there upside-down, my head lolling off and giving my neck a cramp, I finally gave in and let Angel into my room.

"Whatever. Come in, Angel," I grumbled.

She noisily swung the door open, and to my surprise, Nudge was there, too.

"Nudge? Why aren't you out with the guys playing with explosions?" I asked.

She pouted. It was hard to tell if she was really upset or just joking. "They didn't invite me. Iggy and Gazzy disappeared after I went to get more brownies."

"Okey-dokey," I muttered, not really listening.

"Anyways," said Angel. She had a familiar look on her face. I rolled back upright so I could see her straight. It was her determined face.

Uh-oh.

"Nudge and I have a favor to ask you," Angel began, and Nudge nodded furiously behind her.

"Um… do I have to agree to it?" I asked cautiously.

"We'll do it anyways," the devil of a six-year old informed me. I rolled my eyes.

"Thought I was the leader. You're supposed to listen to me," I complained.

"But… Max. We really want to," pleaded Nudge.

"I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU WANT!" I whisper-shrieked.

"Oh. Right. That." Nudge looked at Angel, who nodded at her to speak. Nudge rattled off, "So, Angel and I want to, like, go to school and have a normal experience and meet guys, well, more in my case than hers, though technically I already like someone else that doesn't like me back because I'm only eleven and I get really sad about it but hey, there are more fish in the sea and I'm too awesome to get too heartbroken and oh yeah we want to go to school and make friends and stuff over at the nearby town we promise not to reveal our wings and stuff. It'd be great if the rest of the flock went, too, but the main thing we wanted to tell you was that Angel and I are going to sign up for the public school there, we'll settle all of the legal stuff, and that's final."

She took a breath. I stared at them, wide-eyed.

"You guys. Want. To. Go. To. School?" I asked. My face probably looked amusingly befuddled.

"Yup," said Angel. "Please, please be willing to let us go."

Nudge turned the Bambi eyes on me, and I turned away. "But… I though you guys were fine with online schooling," I said, confused.

"Sure, it's fine, but the main thing is we want to meet people and have an experience. Let's face it, we're going to get bored eventually," pointed out Angel.

I thought for a minute, all the while making sure Angel didn't try sneaking into my head. Sure, it seemed harmless letting them go, but what if there were people from the School trying to trace us? It would be easier for them to find us if we made too much contact with people. Then again, those two would probably stop at nothing to get their way.

"Fine," I sighed, but before the squeals of happiness got too lout, I held up my hand. "BUT-"

They looked up, waiting for an answer- well, Angel already knew, but… whatever.

"I'm going with you two to make sure you don't get in trouble," I told them, defeated. I so didn't want to do this.

"EVEN BETTER!" shouted Nudge, dancing around. "So I read online that the school starts up again after Christmas break, which ends in two weeks I think, since it started on Christmas Eve. So that gives me two weeks to arrange all of our supplies, clothes, and the legal stuff- don't worry, I'll just hack some stuff and make IDs or whatever we have to do- which isn't that long, but it's all we have. Maybe we can even convince the REST of the flock to come! That'd just be plain freaking amazing! And then if we get-"

"Nudge," I interrupted desperately. She finally shut up. "One problem: besides Angel, the two of us are as clueless and unschooled as… well… people Angel's age are supposed to be. I don't know if they'll like two older girls who basically just graduated from Starfall and moved on to other simple online courses."

"Don't worry," said Nudge dismissively. Seriously, when have they talked this up? They must have been planning for a while. "I'm fine for my age- because of my epic hacking skills, I'm pretty brilliant at math and reading for my age-" modest little bird kid we have here, don't we? "- and for you, well…" she looked at me doubtfully. "I'm sure you'll catch up. Math is pretty easy, I found out, for our awesome experimented-on brains, and you can read pretty well. Maybe you'll just be on the stupid side of the class for a couple months. As for science… I dunno. You'll probably be pretty good with chemistry." She giggled. "You know, because we listened to the white-coats all our lives?"

"Yeah, whatever," I said, not listening again. "Hey, Angel. What's up with Dylan? Is he leaving soon?"

She shrugged oh-so-innocently. "I don't know. You're the boss, Max."

Oh, now I'm the mighty leader who makes all the decisions, huh?

"I'll go find him and sort it out," I grumbled, getting up off of my bed and walking downstairs, leaving the two girls to chatter about school supplies.

I looked at the clock in the kitchen- it was about three o'clock. Iggy and Gazzy were off somewhere, Nudge and Angel were upstairs- where had Fang gone? The two of them couldn't be talking for that long… right? What did Fang have to say to the weird kid, anyways?

Looking around, I finally saw Dylan in the living room, sitting on a couch expectantly, as if he'd been waiting for me. I eyed him suspiciously.

"I swear, if you start talking about programmed mates again, I'll kick your-"

"I know," he said shortly. "I was actually wondering how long I'm allowed to stay here. I don't really have anywhere else to go in the first place and, well…"

"Uh, I don't know," I said, racking my brain. "How long do you want to stay?"

A light glimmered in his electric blue eyes. "Oh, I don't know. Is there a spare bedroom?"

"I think so," I said quietly. "Seriously, though, Dylan." He looked up at me gravely, moving over on the couch, gesturing for me to join him. I sat down hesitantly, careful not to touch him.

"We can give you money for the road. You can find somewhere to go to school at, get a job- anything. But you can't stay forever."

"There's no open spot in your flock?" he asked jokingly, but I could tell there was a real seriousness in the question.

"No," I responded curtly.

"You're going to school in a few weeks, aren't you?" he asked abruptly.

"Yes," I aid, caught off-guard. "Were you listening in on us?"

"No, no. The younger, dark-skinned girl and Angel were talking about it in here earlier," he explained. "I was wondering if I could join that school."

I closed my eyes. "I don't think that's a good idea. You aren't staying with us. You should find some other town or state to stay in."

"But Max-"

My eyes snapped open. "Don't. Argue. With. Me."

"I'm sorry."

"Honestly?" I said. "I think you should leave today." Well, no one said I was big on hospitality.

"You want me to leave? Forever?" He sounded shocked.

"Well, you said you just needed somewhere to rest, right?"

"You feel nothing with me?" He was incredulous.

"Nothing," I lied.

His face crumpled with hurt.

"You've only been here a few hours," I said gently. "Why would you think that I'd suddenly fall in love with you?"

"Well, I did with you," he replied, the disarming honesty making me wince.

…

(Dylan/third-person POV, in case you can't tell)

"Look, Dylan. You might think you're in love with me. But love isn't something scientists create."

"I would love you even if the scientists didn't-"

"Maybe," she interrupted him. "I mean, physically, you and I might be drawn to each other. White-coats could easily arrange for us to have chemistry and maybe even lust for each other. But they can't make true love. That comes from what's been developed inside."

He looked at her, his blue eyes deep with sadness. "Max-"

"You know you don't really want to be here."

Maybe it was true. He'd always love Max, the big 'if', the perfect girl. "It's because of Fang," he blurted.

Her breathing hitched. "What?"

"You like Fang," he said, admitting about the boy he'd been so insanely jealous of just seeing him look at Max.

"We're best friends, Dylan, and I know you'd assume that-" her gorgeous brown eyes were wide, and her voice was an octave higher than normal.

"If he makes you happy, Max, then I'll leave." He wished he hadn't forced himself on her so fast. Fang had always been there for her, like Dylan never was. Because he didn't exist then. Still.

"He does make me happy," she said quickly. "But not that wa-"

"Then it was nice getting to know you for the day, Maximum." He half-smiled, hiding the scorching, empty pain he felt inside.

She didn't say anything, only stared at him, her lips parted in good-bye.

Maybe you can find Maya. The clone they replaced her with. Dylan looked down, walking rapidly towards the balcony. He and Maya had been friends in the cages room, until they'd decided to release her into the world, with no more use of the girl. Dylan had been let go a month later.

She'd been nicer than Max, less hardened by the world, because the white-coats had treated her well, and after all, she was a newborn, like him.

Angel was sitting on the couch, her little face devoid of expression. "Good-bye, Dylan."

He smiled slightly at the little girl, and then extended his wings to fly.

So… I think he's gone. Fangy's gonna be so happy! No promises that he's gone forever, though! But still… feel free to celebrate. Next stop… SCHOOL! Not the bad kind. Wait- the LESS bad kind.

Review and stuff. Hope ya enjoyed!