I'M SORRY THIS UPDATE CAME KINDA LATE.

I didn't get home til six yesterday and then I had to have dinner, and then one of my favorite shows was on, then I had to take like a half hour shower just to get the smell of chlorine out of my hair, and by then it was like nine thirty and I was really tired and went to bed...again with the sounding like Nudge.
Okay so moving awn.

Fowlmaniac-alright I'm good. I'm paranoid about locations, so all I'm saying is I've never been further south than North Carolina. And I've never been further west than Pennsylvania. And I don't plan to really travel anytime soon, cause I like the East Coast. Kinda. Again with the Nudge rambling thing.

Mimi-you just gave me an idea. I'm not gonna make that happen exactly, but something in that category cause I hate Lissa:D. So THANK YOU :)

Anna Ride-I'm gonna start using that word with my friends. Once I learn to pronounce it. And it doesn't show me what time you sent it, but with the time zones thing and all that.. lol I'm rambling, again.

LovelyMidnightSpark-Trust me, it's awkward squared. And this is kinda random but I just got an idea for this chapter. Like right at this very moment as I'm typing this.

I'm gonna stop being such a Nudge and start the dang chapter.

AND OOOOOPPPSS. I didn't do a disclaimer for the last couple chapters. Let's make up for that now.

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. Do I write like James Patterson? Didn't think so.

Fang POV

Max wasn't talking to me.

The last time she'd voluntarily talked to me was when we were walking to school yesterday morning. She wasn't in art because she'd had to get her homework from other teachers. She'd told me before art that Miss Kenkel had already excused her from class. There was nothing going on yesterday in art anyway. She'd been completely silent during lunch. Distant. During the whole thirty-one-minute lunch period, she had never once spoken directly to me. When I'd gone to her locker after school to walk home with her and Ella, she wasn't there. And after school she wasn't out on her lawn doing homework like she always was.

I couldn't come up with a reasonable explaination for her avoiding me.

I finally caught up to Max right before art. For once, she wasn't speed walking and I caught up to her easily.

"So why has the great Maximum Ride been ignoring me?"

"I'm not ignoring you," she said quickly. Too quickly.

"Hmm. So is that why you ignored me at lunch yesterday, and after school, and before school this morning?" I arched an eyebrow at her.

"Okay listen." She yanked my sleeve and pulled me to the side of the mostly deserted hallway. She glanced around quickly before she spoke. "I really just don't wanna have to deal with this right now. I mean, I have to catch up on my school work and I don't need any distractions."

"Wait, what?" I asked, confused. "What do you not want to deal with?"

"Lissa," she hissed. "Under normal circumstances, I'd crush her like a bug. But I really can't deal with her right now."

"And how does this lead to ignoring me?"

"She thinks that you broke up with her because we've been spending time together lately," she sighed. "I don't have time to deal with her," she repeated.

I was silent as I processed this. "Okay, I see your point; I'll talk to Lissa for you if you want."

She nodded, looking troubled. "Thanks."

I held out my arms to her and she smiled and hugged me. Over Max's shoulder I saw Lissa emerging out of the girls' bathroom. When she saw me hugging Max, her green eyes darkened. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and click-clacked away.

(A/N: Aw I love Fax. This is kinda foreshadowing Fax in the next chapters. Like, the bridge to Fax. Kinda. Time to stop rambling. Again.)

I had math right before lunch. Unfortunately, I had this class with Lissa. And what was depressing was that we were assigned to work together on a project within the first ten minutes of class.

"Fang," Lissa said evenly.

I stayed silent. I'd talk to her only when I absolutely had to. I was planning to tell her to leave Max alone at the end of class.

After a couple minutes of awkward silence, I stood up. "I'll get the graph paper," I offered. Anything to get away from Lissa.

The rest of the class was awkward. Lissa and I barely talked, and when we did it was stuff like "pass the ruler" or "can I borrow a pencil?" or talk about the project. I was surprised that Lissa had actually shut up when I told her that it was time for us to really break up. Every guy who had dated Lissa knew how clingy she was (trust me, there are a lot of guys). Even after a guy broke up with her, she'd follow him around and act like they were still dating. Actually, most people knew this because one of Lissa's old boyfriends had sent her an email about her following him around too much. Only he'd accidentally sent it to everyone on his address list. Oops.

The bell finally rang and I grabbed my stuff and followed Lissa out of the classroom.

"Hey," I said, tapping her on the shoulder. "I wanna talk to you."

Lissa turned around and gave me a flirty smile. "Sure, Fang." She grabbed my arm and towed me into an empty classroom. "Soo," she said as she sat down on a desk. Poor desk. "What's up?"

I took a quick, deep breath. "You need to leave Max alone," I said without any preamble.

Her posture stiffened. "I've only talked to Max once," she retorted quickly.

"Liar."

Her eyes darkened.

"Max told me everything, okay? The girl was just in the hospital and out of school for two weeks. She wants to catch up on her school work so she won't fail. And she's been stressing over how you're treating her, which makes it hard for her to focus. Just. . .please leave her alone. Okay? Don't even mention this to her. If you hurt her, or try to hurt her, or even talk to her, I'll know. Okay?"

Lissa's lip-gloss-covered mouth was hanging open in shock. Without giving her a chance to respond, I left the classroom and let the door fall shut with a bang behind me.

Let's hear it for big-brother protectiveness, eh?

Max POV

I don't know what Fang said to Lissa, but it worked.

After lunch, I'd seen her multiple times in the hallway, and I was sure she'd seen me too. But she got this look on her face, almost like she was scared, and turned around and walked in the opposite direction.

It was awesome.

Fang and I walked home together after school. I asked him about Lissa.

Fang's expression hardened. "She won't bother you anymore, okay? I took care of it."

I smiled softly. "Thanks," I said, and bumped him with my shoulder. That escalated into a mini-fight, during which we tried to knock each other off the sidewalk by bumping shoulders. I lost.

We didn't even go into our houses, we just went strait to my front lawn and started working on our homework. I was completely absorbed in my schoolwork until an annoying tapping noise broke into my concentration. I tried to ignore it, but it seemed to get louder by the second and intruded on my concentration. I glanced up slightly to see Fang tapping his pencil against his social studies textbook. I cleared my throat pointedly, but he kept tapping the pencil.

"Quit it," I said in irritation. A smile hovered on his lips and he kept tapping. I finally leaned over and put my hand over the pencil to stop the noise.

Fang chuckled. I looked up in surprise to see that my face was about half a foot from his. My hand was still over his pencil, my hand slightly touching his. I felt heat rush to my cheeks and I quickly pulled away and looked back down at my notebook, trying to find my spot again.

Aww I'm sorry. I just had to start the Fax. A little. I'll try to be good and hold off a little, cause it still feels like I'm starting the Faxiness too soon.

Alright well The Nine Lives of Chloe King is on in half an hour and I need to shower before then. So I'll quit my rambling and go shower.

P.S. I need song suggestions, for later in the story. You'll find out why. No it's not for a contest or anything. I'm just dead on song suggestions at the moment.

-dancerxforlifex3