Freedom

Chapter Nine: Spa Day (Part One)

Last on Freedom:

Fang got up and walked towards his home as Anne began to speak.

"Look, I know Maura hasn't been nice to you, but we've talked and from now on she's going to treat you like she treats my other children. I want you to feel safe and comfortable because you are my child as well. We're all having dinner at their house tonight and I hope you two can work things out."

Was this woman for real? After what I'd gone through with Jeb, I didn't think I could ever find someone who would treat me like their child, trust me and accept me so easily—I had doubts about it. What if when I turned my back, she betrayed me? I couldn't rely on her or trust her entirely. I had to keep in mind that it wasn't just me anymore and I had to think strictly about the child I was carrying in my womb and his or her well-being.

"I'm not exactly feeling well right now—do you think I could go rest?"

"Yes, but keep in mind that we're resolving this problem with Maura by the end of the week."

She smiled kindly at me and gave me the keys to her house.

It felt as if she had given me a timed bomb and 'we're'? Since when had we become a unit?

XxX

"Max! Max, wake up!" female voices yelled.

I groaned and moved onto my back. When I opened my eyes, I was met by the sight of two girls that looked like they were hyped up on sugar.

"What?" I grumbled and moved on to my side since my wings were too delicate to take on the weight for more than a couple seconds.

"Get up, Max!" Angel yelled, followed by Nudge.

"Come on, you have to get up," Nudge whined loudly.

I opened my eyes briefly and said, "And I'm pregnant. Now leave."

"Max, we're going to a spa today, you have to come!" Nudge exclaimed. "You, Mom, Maura, Angel and me! Isn't it awesome?"

"What?" I asked, sitting up abruptly.

"Yeah!" Nudge replied enthusiastically. "Mom thinks it'll be really fun."

I raised an eyebrow at her and thought, 'Oh, yeah, this'll be REAL fun.'

"Besides," Nudge continued, "if you can't come, then none of us will be able to go. Please, Max? Please?"

Angel joined Nudge in pleading and soon enough all I could think about was getting them to be quiet.

I shook my head, trying to ignore them and remembered Anne's words. I needed to face Maura, sooner or later and hopefully, she wouldn't start any trouble.

I took a deep breath and said, "Fine, I'll go."

The girls squealed and started to jump up and down.

"When are we leaving?" I asked.

"As soon as we finish eating brunch, Nudge replied, "but I would say around ten-thirty at most."

I took my phone from the nightstand and saw that it was nine thirty-four. I got up, stretched and walked toward my closet. Unlike the one back home (well, what once was my home), this closet was smaller, but somehow, that made it cute. I huffed at my choice of words. Cute. Who the hell describes closets as cute? Must be the stupid hormones.

XxX

After thirty minutes or so, I came down the stairs, dreading having to face a roomful of strangers. They were all very nice so far, really, they were the type of people who you saw in movies: nice, sweet and innocent (of abuse at least).

With half a heart telling me to go back to my room, I crossed from the living room over to the kitchen and wished I had the superpower of invisibility, but alas, Jeb wasn't that smart to have the ability to give me more than one superpower. Besides, he must have thought that I was too good to have more than one anyway. Maybe he thought I'd outsmart him if he had.

The conversation didn't stop, but everyone looked up at me almost at the exact same time. I glanced down at what I was wearing—a simple T-shirt and jeans—and looked back up at the teens and kids who were looking at me, noticing how they all had nicer clothing than me. Well, at least Fang seemed to be on the same level clothing-wise as I. Everyone else was wearing bright, summer colors as well as shorter and more skin-revealing clothes… At least Maura wasn't around.

"Hi, everyone," I said. "Mornin.'"

"Good morning, Max," Anne said and came up and hugged me. "You seemed tired last night, did you sleep well?"

I nodded.

"Why don't you go sit down?" Anne asked warmly, gesturing toward an empty seat. "I'll get you breakfast."

I nodded once again and sat down, catching pieces of the conversations going on.

"Hey, Max," Angel said, waving at me from across the table.

I smiled at her (gosh, she reminded me so much of Ari) and waved back. I noticed that one of her front teeth was missing, but decided to keep it to myself, seeing as she might take it the wrong way.

"Hey, Max, can you help me with my math homework?" Iggy asked from across the table.

"Isn't it summer?" I rebutted.

I hadn't been to school in a while but I was pretty sure school let out in the summer.

"So?"

"Why do you have homework?"

"It's not really homework. Mom just wants me to keep practice, so I can be ready for the school year."

"Wait, aren't you blind?" I asked, staring at Iggy's sightless blue eyes.

Anne put a plate of breakfast food in front of me, then left the room.

"Yes, I'm blind, Max, but I can still do math and science and language arts like every other normal kid. I get that I'm blind and that's new to you, but if you ever brought that up with another blind kid, he'd get seriously offended, and there are a lot of blind kids in our school."

Our? I thought. I would definitely have to talk to Anne about my education level.

"Sorry, Iggy," I said, hoping I didn't offend him.

He was seriously one of the coolest guys I had met in a while.

"It's fine, Max, but seriously, can you help me with my homework?"

"Iggy, why don't you ask someone else?" I asked, evading the question. "It's not that I don't want to help you, it's just that math is not my best subject."

"Fang over there's grouchy and Mom hates algebra. She barely passed it in high school. You're the only other person who could help me, please Max?"

"Okay, I'll give it a try," I found myself saying even though I possibly couldn't have been of much more help than his sister.

"Alright, Nudge, can you write the numbers out?" Iggy asked his little sister and passed along the piece of paper and pen he was working with.

Nudge wrote something in the paper, then passed it down the paper to me. I looked at as if it were the most alien thing in the world. I now understand what he had meant by writing out the numbers: they had previously been in braille.

I stared at the paper, trying to focus and figure out the equation, but I couldn't find a way around it. I stared and stared, but nothing magical happened. Nothing popped out, telling me to follow this direction or that—and I had a mad scientist as a father. I felt my cheeks start to heat up as Fang move slightly toward me and looked over at the paper. I glanced around and noticed that Nudge, Angel and Gazzy had left the room.

"Oh, that's easy," he said and gently took the paper and pencil away from me, starting to do the math in the back of the paper. "I'm surprised you haven't figured it out."

"Yeah, well," Iggy replied, "it's summer and today I'm tired. Beating you in video games is hard work, man."

Fang chuckled and continued to work on the math problem as I watched what he was doing. When he finished he looked at me and the blush that had been receding reappeared. It was embarrassing to be caught staring, but I simply brushed it off.

"Ig, so you know how there are two ys?" Fang started and proceeded to talk about how to solve the math problem. I listened intently, trying to catch on to what he was doing, but I didn't know squat about what he had just done.

Once they were done, Iggy did a little verbal cheer and asked Fang back for his paper.

"Can you describe how Max looks, Fang?" Iggy asked, looking in my general direction.

Fang studied me, squinting for a moment.

"Dirty blonde hair," Fang started and my insides started to feel insanely warm, doing flip-flops. "Brown eyes, oval brown eyes, fair skin, long, light-brown lashes, brown eyebrows, a small nose, pink lips and she has a beauty mark near her left eye."

"May I feel your face?" Iggy asked.

"What?" I squealed, jumping a feet high in the air, taken by his odd request.

"It's the way I familiarize myself with everyone. I've done it with everyone, not just you."

I glanced at Fang, his face neutral, yet I could see the slight tip of his head toward the teenage boy.

Trying to calm myself down, I got up and move to where Iggy was sitting, sitting next to him and taking his outstretched hand and placing it on my cheek.

"You're tense," he said. "You should relax."

He's not going to hurt you, he's not going to hurt you, I chanted. And if either of them try to hurt you, you have exits you can use.

Iggy's hand explored my face silently, taking his time and stopping at my shoulder.

"Does your baby move around?" he asked.

I nodded, but remembered he couldn't see it, so I took his hand and placed it on top of my belly. Iggy waited patiently and after a little while, his face lit up in recognition.

"That's awesome," he said, smiling widely. I was pleasantly surprised to see his blind eyes light up with happiness. "Fang…man, you gotta try this. It's so cool."

Fang half-smiled at his friend and shook his head.

"Igs, I don't think Max would appreciate it too much if I did. You get away with it 'cuz you can't see it, that's all. Being blind makes you special, especially in this situation."

"I don't mind," I blurted out, hating to be spoken for. "I already got Iggy on my case, one person is nothing. Might as well get all the belly-hugging over with."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," I said impatiently. "I'm sure."

Geesh, it's not like you're asking me for sex, I thought. Just make your move and quickly.

Fang got up slowly from his chair and took his sweet time to walk over to us. He looked me in the eyes and looked unsure what to do. I extended my free hand, reaching out for his and when he did give it to me, I placed it next to Iggy's.

About a minute later, Iggy asked Fang, "Did you feel it? Isn't that cool?"

"Yeah. The coolest," Fang said, as if he were brushing off my baby's accomplishment. For a minute I wanted to forget that he was a normal, stupid teenage boy and pretend he was Jeb, then pound his face in. "That's why it's called the miracle of life, Igs."

After I got used to their hands on my belly, it wasn't so bad. I was happy that I could share my little miracle with them, even if one of them didn't seem to have the same appreciation for my baby as I did, but then again, they were just fourteen-year-old boys. They didn't know what I had gone through and what my baby meant to me, and they would probably never know about it.

XxX

After twenty minutes of driving, we finally stopped at what I assumed was the spa. I went through the motions of getting off the car and following everyone inside. Once we got there, a lady tried to get me into a bathrobe, but I absolutely refused to get into one. Not only was I afraid of making a mistake and letting my avian secret out (and I would no doubt go to a lab, tested on and possibly found by Jeb), but I was also very pregnant and I was sure that in itself wouldn't make for a very pleasant sight. So instead of going into the changing rooms, I stayed back with Iggy, Gazzy and Fang (who were stuck waiting for Gazzy's and Angel's dad).

Iggy and Gazzy were talking while Fang I stood somewhat awkwardly next to each other, he had his hands stuck inside his jean pockets and just as he took out his cell phone, I smelled something terrible. I held my breath in, not sure what it meant or what to do about it. Would it be considered rude if I stealthily placed my hand over my nose and mouth? I could just say I was feeling nauseous, right?

"Gazzy!" Fang yelled.

"What?" the young boy asked, looking innocent.

"You know what I mean," Fang said, "if you got the urge, go outside or something, dude." Fang waved his hand over his face and coughed while Iggy seemed to not be all that affected by it aside from the slight grimace on his face. Maybe he was used to it or maybe he was just being a macho man.

"If anyone asks, I'm going to be outside," I said, and walked away from the cloud of…gas. I opened the door and walked over to a bench in the corner.

I sat down on the bench and breathed in the humid summer air. I didn't know what I was supposed to do—it was like I was a meteorite wondering around Earth, but never quite crashing. I was so lost—when I had decided that I was going to escape my prison, I had a motivation. If I had stayed there, both the baby and I could have possibly undergone more experiments and violence—I didn't want a life of uncertainty and violence for my baby and I, but…I felt so stuck, as if I were standing in quicksand. What was the meaning of my life?

"I think you dropped this," a guy's voice said, a brown feather coming into view.

I glanced up at Fang, who just stood there with a straight face. "Where did you—why are you giving it to me?"

"It must have fallen out of your pocket or something. Does it not belong to you?"

He didn't wait for my answer and just put it in my lap, then sat down beside me.

"Thanks," I said, and thought of an excuse that wouldn't give my secret away. "I, uh, enjoy bird watching and sometimes I collect feathers I find."

"Cool," he said. "What are your favorite birds?"

"Eagles and sparrows," I replied. "How about you?"

"Raven," he replied, then glanced at me with a smirk and said, "and angels."

Was he insinuating—? Or was it a cheesy pick-up line? What was going on?

As if he'd heard a cue or something, his neck snapped to the side and glanced inside the spa shop.

"I think they want us back inside," he said and stood up.

I nodded and got up to follow him.

XxX

Author Notes:

I have seen a blind kid in math class with a type writer and a teacher who's his/her helper, so it's not impossible to learn braille and use the typewriter to do schoolwork.

Any suggestions on how to get Max and Fang's mom to talk things out are awesome. Thanks for reading and merry Christmas :).