(A/N) I was pretty excited to get this up. And my gosh, I was so surprised with all the feedback I got and with how many people wanted to be in this… I'm trying to think of various ways to include everyone, but I don't know how many of you guys I'll be able to fit in here. But I'm trying. If I don't capture anyone's personality right, please, please, please TELL ME! I will not be offended!

Fang POV

Max was already in the classroom. I stared at her, hoping she would meet my gaze. She didn't.

I had a pretty nice teacher for homeroom this year. Iggy and Nudge were in a different homeroom, but I saw one of my friends, Sam, was in the room. Well, he was sort of my friend. He was really preppy, but he could be pretty cool sometimes.

I slid into the seat next to him. "Hey, Fang. How was your summer?" One thing about Sam: he's very polite.

Shrugging, I focused on the teacher as she said, "Oh! It seems we have an unfamiliar face this year!" Her gaze focused in on Max.

Max's face flushed. I knew Max hated extra attention, and she didn't appear to be very comfortable. I glanced around the room and examined people's reaction to her.

Several guys in the class were eyeing her with something that looked like admiration or maybe interest. People were interested in her. Well. That's just fascinating.

"So, dear, what's your name?" Mrs. Henderson asked.

Although Max hated all the attention focused on her she said confidently, "Max."

Mrs. Henderson scanned the list in her hands and said, "Ah yes, you must be Maxine Batchelder and I hope th-"

"No. It's just Max." She cut in. I saw Mrs. Henderson's eyes raise. Max looked back at her defiantly.

"Well, alright then." Mrs. Henderson fidgeted a bit under Max's hard stare.

Once homeroom was over, we all left the room. I saw Max talking to a group of people. Suddenly Sam walked up to her and started talking to her. She looked as though she was laughing a bit before walking off to her locker.

Iggy, Nudge, Max, and I all had history next period. One of the girls Max was talking to followed her. "…yeah, he's pretty cute too! You should talk to him, you said he seemed nice, and he is. And cute. But I already said that."

Max was laughing quietly. Nudge was walking into the room and slid down next to Max with a girl who had brown hair with lighter highlights. She was nodding her head to something Nudge was saying although she had a spaced out look in her eyes.

I sat down next to Iggy and he said, "That's Nudge's new friend, Susie. She seems really nice."

Susie started laughing. "She seems like a nice girl." Iggy nodded and we started talking about random stuff that didn't matter until the bell rang.

We continued with our day until lunch time. We rushed to the cafeteria. Max, Iggy, Susie, the girl Max was talking to earlier, Nudge, two other girls, and I were all sitting at the same section of a table.

One girl was staring at me. I recognized her vaguely, I had never really talked to her before, but I remembered her name was Ray. She bent over and whispered something in Max's ear and Max clutched the table a bit. Ray said something back to her before all the girls started laughing.

Ray gestured to a girl whose nose was buried in a book, her eyes wandering over the pages quickly. "She's Rebecca. She's what we call a dork. But she's cool in her own way."

"What?" Rebecca asked, picking her head up.

The other girl shook her head, "Don't worry about it Rebecca. I'm Deni. Or Den-den." She had curly brown hair and very dark eyes. She was slightly tan.

We were talking throughout lunch when Sam came up to our table. "Can I sit here?" He asked, pointing to the chair next to Max.

"Yeah. Why would I care?" Max asked, sounding a bit confused.

Sam looked surprised as if some girl would be immune to his charm. Yeah. Whatever. Like I care.

At the end of lunch, Sam fell into step next to me and said, "She's hot."

"Who?" I asked him.

He rolled his eyes and replied, "Max. I can't believe she doesn't have a boyfriend." I rolled my eyes. Max wasn't hot. Was she? I never really noticed. "Haven't you heard what everyone's saying about her?"

I shook my head. "Well, I can't believe you turned her down. She's amazing. Did you see her eating?"

Um no. Sorry I'm not a stalker and I don't watch random people eat. Why would I? But I didn't think that would be an appropriate response. So instead I just said, "No."

"She actually eats! She doesn't eat like she's afraid of being fat or whatever. But like she'd need to worry about that anyway. With her body…" He trailed off smiling suggestively.

This annoyed me. Sure, I might not like Max, but that doesn't give someone the right to say something like that. Or maybe I do like Max. You know, as a friend and all. "She's nice." I said without thinking. And she was when she wanted to be.

"I guess. But it doesn't matter what she acts like." He said shrugging. "I got to go, so later, man." Suddenly I didn't like Sam as much.

We got released early since it was the first day of school. I saw Brigid standing at my locker beside Max. "Hey, Fang!" She said before smiling at me.

I casually nodded my head at her. "So, how was your day?"

I shrugged. Her smile faltered the tiniest bit. "My day was pretty good. You know, I really like talking to you…" She said before placing a delicate looking hand on my shoulder.

I gave her a half smile and she grinned at me and said, "I really hope we can, you know, hang out or something." And that was when I realized she was flirting with me.

I nodded and she walked away. But on her way she bumped into Max and sent both of their stuff flying everywhere. I bent over and helped Brigid. I didn't want to offend Max again.

Glaring at Brigid, Max turned to me and asked, "Why are you friends with her?"

"Why do you care?" I shot back.

Max ran a hand through her hair. "I honestly don't even know." That same frosty tone from before was back. "After all, if you want to be friends with people like that, I don't even get why bother with Ig and Nudge."

"Aren't we friends?" I asked her before I thought my question through.

She looked at me skeptically. "I don't know. Are we?"

"I hope so." I blurted out. I attempted to suppress a blush after I realized what I said. Max had to suppress laughter. She sounded a bit surprised.

Max grinned at me unexpectedly. "Well, I guess so then."

A couple of people were staring at us, wondering what was going on. I knew they couldn't hear what we were saying.

People would judge me depending on who I was friends with. But it doesn't matter what other people think. Everyone has their own opinions.

(A/N) How did I do? Fang and Max are friends now! So you better be at least slightly happy!