Well, I was going to say something here, but I forgot….Maybe I'll remember. Oh well. And I really didn't realize, or think, that chapter nine's ending was a fluff cliffy! I tried not to do a cliffy, and did it on accident! Hehheh… And I can't believe that I have 47 reviews!! I love each and every one of you for each and every one of your reviews!!! Okay, that sounds weird…lemme rephrase that—I'm so glad you guys love my story and each of you gets a shiny new virtual car of your choosing! I really wish I could buy you all a real car…*sniffles* And I like St. Fang Of Boredom's last two reviews! They were cliffing hilarious!

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That night, I practically had to knock Fang out so Mom could give him some morphine. He certainly wasn't going to sleep with all of that pain. He wasn't going to fall asleep by himself.

"Please just let her do it, Fang." I begged. My mom was waiting quite patiently beside his bed while I tried to persuade him to let her stick a needle in his arm.

His eyebrows rose infinitesimally. "No." he said simply, using a steely voice that would make anyone do things his way. But I was used to it, and I even had a voice much like it that I used for my own arguments.

"Yes. You need it. You have to sleep." I said in an end-of-discussion voice.

After a few minutes of arguing, I finally just tackled him, while being very careful not to hurt him badly, and held out his left arm. My mom slid the needle in professionally, and I smiled in triumph.

"Cheater." Fang said just a tiny bit sleepy. About a hundred swear words were behind that one word, and only I knew it. Only about thirty seconds passed before his eyelids started to droop.

"Sleep tight." I whispered, my voice smug. Fang managed to scowl before his breathing evened out.

--

Of course, I ended up getting drugged that night too.

I fell asleep ad woke refreshed, my night having been dreamless. It was pretty much the best night of sleep I'd gotten in a long time.

"Wagh!"

Turns out that Fang had woken before I had, and took it upon himself to sit on my legs and stare at me until I woke up.

He immediately started laughing.

"Not funny." I mumbled, smacking his arm. He scowled.

"Ow." He said, looking from his arm to me and back again.

I felt guilty.

"I'm so sorry. I really wasn't thinking. I didn't mean to hurt you." I said sincerely.

And of course he chuckles softly to himself which erased all of the guilt I'd felt only seconds before.

He moved off of my legs. Surprisingly, my circulation had been cut off, so it was almost painful when he moved away and the blood began to flow again.

I felt a lot better. But I knew Fang and I both needed a few more days to be completely fine.

We had a huge breakfast that morning, which is when my mom had to leave.

There were many mushy, soggy, emotional hugs that went around. She even got a hug from Fang and Iggy, which was a surprise.

"By the way, before I forget, I have one more thing to tell you." She said at the door with all of her stuff already in the car.

I sensed what was coming.

"You guys will all start school in a week."

Oh h no.

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In a week, we learned that we at least weren't going to a private school, so we could wear whatever, which was good. But it was still school. We'd had bad experiences with many different kinds of schools.

We were each going to different schools; Fang, Iggy, and I were starting the tenth grade at the local high school. Nudge was starting eighth at the middle school, and Gazzy and Angel were going to the middle school.

The schools were all called Dwight D. Eisenhower. That was pretty much where the similarities would end.

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The night before school, we had all of our school supplies ready. And the funny thing was, I wasn't nervous like all of the other students were at the beginning of the year. I was….I don't know, I seemed more or less unhappy. It was just a general 'I'm going to have to listen to adults' unhappiness.

But I laid in my bed that night, awake for many different reasons.

Fang was getting really close to his expiration date, which I now remembered was about two-ish months away.

I just couldn't sleep.

I wasn't able to fly yet, but maybe in two days.

And I just couldn't wrap my head around going to a normal school.

I eventually crept out of bed, briefly looking at my alarm clock, seeing it long enough to know that it was around two in the morning.

I padded quietly to Fang's room, pushing the door open with my fist.

"Fang?" I called extremely quietly.

No answer. I could hear his super steady breathing, and knew he wasn't pretending to be asleep. I only then realized that I was only in my underwear, bra, and a huge t-shirt.

But it was time for payback. I grinned.

I was almost completely silent as I moved over to his bed. Not even Iggy could've heard me all that well.

I scooted carefully onto the bed and sat on his legs. His breathing didn't change, and he even smiled a little in his sleep. I noticed that he was only in a pair of black pajama pants. My heart gave a weird little kick to see his bare chest.

But I had business to do, payback to give.

"Fang." I said, sorta loudly.

He jerked awake, trying to sit up.

"Ahg!" he said in surprise, then noticed that it was me. His eyes narrowed as I fell over laughing.

I knew that we were only loud enough that we could hear each other. Nobody else would wake up.

"Funny." He muttered as I sobered up.

"Yeah, it was." I said with a little giggle.

"So…" I said after a minute.

"Did you want something, cause I was actually sleeping." He said with a flat voice.

I knew that he knew that I hadn't slept a wink. That's how long we'd known each other.

That's how close we were.

Just like before, when we were rescuing my mom from Mr. Chu and I'd been realizing everything, I felt an overwhelming sense of…belonging. He was meant for me, I was meant for him. There would be no one else for me. He was it. We were perfect matches. I belonged with him, no matter what.

I needed him.

We just stared at each other. I was completely lost in my thoughts, lost in his eyes. I was lying sideways, my position mirroring his, as we laid there, staring at each other, memorizing the already familiar faces of each other.

"I love you." He whispered gently.

My heart swelled to an impossible size. And as corny as it sounds, I was about to burst, I loved him so much.

"I love you." I whispered, my voice just as gentle.

His lips touched mine.

I'd kissed him so many times lately; it was nothing new every time.

But this was the most different.

There was something so different, so intense, about this kiss.

My mouth opened; an invitation.

The kiss deepened, and it felt like we were one person, like we were melting together.

He rolled on top of me, his hands holding my hips down. Somehow, my shirt came off.

My heart thumped nervously.

I wasn't ready for this. I mean, I knew he was going to die really soon, but we were too young.

Somehow, Fang sensed my hesitation, and he pulled away.

"I won't do anything you're not ready to do." He whispered.

He kissed me one more time, and then wrapped his strong, wiry arms around me.

Pretty soon, I fell asleep, feeling completely safe and almost—but not quite—completely relaxed.

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I woke up to gasps, and a groggy Fang, who was waking up for the same reasons.

"Max! Fang!" Nudge said from the doorway, the whole flock behind her, including Total.

"Wow. You guys don't waste time, do you?" Total muttered, shaking his head.

"Wha—what do you mean?" I asked in a bleary voice.

"Well….you guys….you know…" Gazzy trailed off.

I was completely lost. I had no idea what they were all staring at, looking awkward.

But apparently Fang did. His face went from extremely tired, to astonished disbelief in a matter of seconds.

"No! Guys, no! It's not like that! Nothing happened! We talked and fell asleep, that's it."

While Fang was talking, realization dawned.

They thought that we'd….um….gone all the way last night.

I thought about how we must look, all snuggles together. Fang only had the black pants on, and I had my bra and underwear on. I blushed a deep red, and pulled the deep blue comforter around me.

"Oh. No. It wasn't like that, guys. We're way too young. We just…" I didn't know how to explain it. I was actually comfortable with Fang, even with just underwear and stuff on. I loved him with the deepest kind of love I'd ever felt. But the whole flock was a different story.

I could see on Iggy's face that he was glad he couldn't see right now. And every one of them looked liked they just wanted to bolt out of the room and forget anything had happened. This was completely fine with me.

One by one they disappeared, until it was just Angel and Total left.

"You guys should get ready for school. And Jeb made breakfast," Angel said with a very sweet smile, and then disappeared down the hall.

"That was awkward." Fang said after a minute. I rolled my eyes.

"I bet they don't believe us!" I hissed, believing that it was true.

"Nah. They believe us. We don't lie that much to them." He said with a grin. "That they know of."

We cracked up.

Eventually, we calmed down, and with a final kiss, I took my t-shirt and went back to my room to get my stuff and get dressed.

I was the last one at the table. Jeb smiled as I sat down, and I only scowled. Iggy passed me the syrup and about fifteen pancakes on a plate, plus a ton of bacon, and four pieces of toast. I wolfed my food down hungrily.

I finally looked up and noticed why everyone was snickering.

Fang wasn't wearing any dark clothes.

I immediately cracked up and choked a little on the food that was in my mouth.

He scowled at me.

"I accidently added too much bleach to his clothes." Iggy said with a snicker.

Fang glared at him.

I laughed harder.

I noticed that it was one of his regular black shirts, with no design, except that it was white. And his dark wash jeans were faded.

"I have no clothes." He growled angrily to his plate.

I laughed even harder, tears streaming out of my eyes. "You mean that you 'accidently' bleached all of his black clothes?" I managed to ask Iggy.

He responded by slapping a high five with Gazzy.

"I'll get you back, Ig." Fang said in a menacing voice.

"Oooh, scary!" I said with a giggle.

I actually was worried for Iggy. There was no telling what Fang would do. I almost couldn't wait.

And then I saw Fang's white shirt and laughed again.

Eventually, we all piled in Jeb's Tahoe, which is a brand of a big suburban, and we were off to school.

Angel and Gazzy were dropped off first, and both saw some kids they met at the party, and ran off to meet them.

Nudge was a little more hesitant, but she finally got out and saw a familiar face from the party, and waved goodbye to us.

Finally, it was time for me, Fang, and Iggy to get out.

Iggy looked nervous, and Fang had a firm grip on my hand.

"Just go to the office, which is right through the front door, and you guys will get your schedules." Jeb said.

That sounded so final, as if we wouldn't be coming back.

We walked up to the door together, with Iggy touching the hem of my hoodie every few seconds.

As we reached the office, a nice lady sitting in a nice looking desk greeted us with a warm smile.

"You must be the Batchelder children." She said, still smiling. The smile faltered when she saw the death grip I had on Fang's hand. Confusion crossed her features briefly, and then she snapped back to reality and handed us each a couple of pieces of paper.

"Um, now, what are your names?" she asked, seeming confused with her little list.

"I'm Nick." Fang said in a bored voice. Her smile grew less warm.

"Brian." Iggy said in a barely controlled voice. I knew he had no idea what the room looked like, how to escape. I knew that he really wanted to see. I knew that he could hear a bunch of weird noises that were very unfamiliar.

I reached over and squeezed his arm.

"Uh, I'm Max." I said, and the lady's smile disappeared completely.

What? Max could totally be a girl's name. Just like Sam, or Alex.

But that didn't seem to be the problem.

A few minutes later, we had it all figured out.

All of our lockers were right around the same area, but Fang was with Iggy in the morning mostly, and I was with him in the afternoon. That would be okay. But I was not okay with everything else.

Fang and I would only see each other during lunch, and study hall

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A nice long chapter!! I've been sick, so I probably won't have chapters for a while, what with so much make up work at school and everything! And the schools don't exist either. Hope you enjoyed it! Reviewsssssssss!