Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Maximum Ride characters, only the OCs and even then they are based off of real people I know.
School Names:
Max – Megan
Fang – Daniel
Iggy – Ian
Chapter Ten: Volleyball Tryouts
We came back later to find everyone sitting down on the couches. Angel, Ari, and Gazzy were dressed in clothes and using towels to dry their hair. Star and Total were fighting again, I'm not sure exactly where they have been this whole time. They tend to disappear a lot. Especially after we kept complaining about how their constant fighting was starting to get a little annoying.
Anyway, Hassan was also drying himself off with a towel and Nudge sat watching them, a smile on her face. I guess they set the trap up without any problems. Wait a second, why was Hassan soaking wet?
"Uh, Hassan why are you wet? Did you fall into the pool or something?"
"I tried to save Angel from drowning but it turns out she can breath underwater." he glared at me.
"Ops, I guess I forgot to mention that..." I rubbed the back of my head. After everyone was dried off we watched movies until it was time for bed.
The next day me and Max had volleyball try-outs after school. Several other kids were there, mostly 7th and 8th graders, but also one or two 6th graders. Rachel and Cricket – two high schoolers helping coach volleyball – stood at the front of the small gym, waiting for us to be quiet.
"All right everyone!" Rachel said, her blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail.
"We're gonna be running stairs!" Cricket said, she looked like an older version of Nudge. Soon we were all running stairs, running from the bottom floor all the way to the third floor and across the hallway onto the other side and down the stairs there and then running back to the other stairs, forming a complete circle.
"Everywhere we go people wanna know who we are so we tell them we are the falcons! The mighty mighty falcons!" some people were yelling as they ran the laps.
Another girl started a cheer too. "When I say go you say fight! Go!"
"Fight!" we all repeated, including Max. She seemed to be enjoying the tryouts.
"Go!"
"Fight!"
"When I say maroon you say white! Maroon!"
"White!"
"Maroon!"
"White!" after that the cheers ended. That is, until I started one.
"We're number one not number two! We're gonna beat the whup! Outta you!" I said while attempting a cartwheel and only succeeding in falling flat on my butt. Don't ask how, I just did. Max helped me back up and everyone finished running laps.
Right now we were all in the small gym, practicing our over- and underhand serves. A majority of the girls there had their hair pulled back into ponytails. A few didn't need their hair pulled back because it was short enough to not get in the way. Iggy and Fang were sitting down in some plastic chairs watching and waiting for the volleyball tryouts to end.
"Come on Fang!" Iggy said, he was facing away from me and Max. "Why won't you describe what the girls look like in their volleyball uniforms?"
Most of the girls here were wearing short shorts and some were wearing tank-tops, so anyone guess why Iggy was wanting Fang to describe the girls trying out? Me and Max looked at each other before throwing our volleyballs up in the air and hitting both of them in Iggy's direction. They both bounced off the back of his head.
"Ow!" Iggy rubbed the back of his head and turned to our direction.
"Sexist pig." Max said. Come on everyone, you know he is, but we still like him anyway.
"All right everyone!" Rachel shouted. "Get over here or your going to be doing butt spells in front of all the boys!" Insert possible nose-bleed here if Iggy could still see and was really an anime/manga character instead of from a series of books. Wait, he is from a manga now. Oh, well. They all look like they are described in the books but not exactly like they do in the manga. Everyone was soon surrounding Rachel and Cricket (why do they call her that anyway? Note To Self: ask Rachel about it later).
Now they both went into a long speech about how its OK if we don't make the team and what-not, and soon we were all in a circle with our hands out ready to throw a volleyball we had there up into the air, my idea when Iggy had attempted to serve over the net and the ball instead ended up there instead of us setting it on the ground.
Rachel then proceeded to repeat one of her favorite sayings, "Remember, like my shirt says, volleyball is One Goal, One Team, One Family, One Love."
"One, two, three, OHANA!" Cricket started the counting and we all shouted the last part and attempted to throw the volleyball up in the air. Note the fact that I said attempted for instead of being thrown high into the air making this the perfect movie moment the ball decided to ruin it by instead rolling down everyone's hands and bouncing off my head. Ah, well. Me, Max, Fang, and Iggy walked away from the small gym and headed towards the Elementary field where Panda was waiting for us.
And, boy, would we be surprised when we got home.
XxX
Clarus watched the little kids from under the couch. She would have stayed to watch Sammie and Max try out for volleyball if it wasn't for that by the time she realized they weren't with them they were all in the car and on their way home.
Clarus will just have to content herself with watching the same old shows that the younger Flock members, Star, Total, Ari, Calen, and Aboss were watching. Aboss kept giving Angel chocolate and fixing tea for Calen, as well as picking out Nudge's favorite type of nuts from the bowl of them they had on a low table in front of the couches.
Girls beware when that boy gets older...
Clarus took another step closer to get a better look at the TV, and that's when the tile she was now standing on started tilting and she felt herself fall through the floor and onto something somewhat soft...
XxX
When we got home what better surprise should we get than finding a cream-colored mouse with a white belly barely able to be distinguished from her light-colored fur, blue collar with a gold tag that read #5718, and two bright green eyes – a third one closed – with pupils black as night staring up at us.
Her gaze mostly drifted to look at Max, Fang, and Iggy.
"Is this...Clarus?" I asked as I leaned in closer to look at the small mouse. Her tail with its fluffy tip rested near her feet. She was curled up in one corner of the glass hamster cage, resting her head on the soft cotton that covered the bottom of the cage. Her black nose twitched in annoyance, probably from me seeming to underestimate her so much just by looking at her.
Don't get me wrong, but I had imagined that she would probably have red fur or some other creepy features. I mean, she is an experiment from the school. Sure the Flock doesn't look weird, but they were some of the less gruesome experiments from what I've read in the books. I had thought that an experiment used to see if traveling between different dimensions was possible would be one of the more gruesome-looking experiments.
That's when a small blue and white swirling portal opened up inside the cage and – before we could do anything – something came out of the portal and shattered the glass cage.