A/n So I'm pretty proud of myself for updating. Not a great chapter but oh well. Oh and props for room inspections for Anonymoushairbrush.
Zammierox: Well I'm glad I don't have to go yo-mo (my new nickname for yogurt molesters) on you.
Erica126: My sister had the same reaction. She thinks I have a sick twisted mind and gave me a brochure for a physiatrist.
ObsessiveReader1223: I find nothing wrong with the term yogurt-molester. And I think you're psychic just FYI.
From the start of classes that day pretty much sucked. It started out bad and just got worse and worse.
Darth Vader started off the days suckiness. He came over the intercom again, panting heavily and talking in a deep electronically altered voice. Like last time, the reason he was talking over the intercom was me, the difference was that this time he knew it was me.
"Will Maximum Ride, Nicolas Hawkins, Jeffery Lancaster, Monique Pierce, Zephyr Emerson, and Angel Emerson come to the main office immediately," Darthy dearest breathed into the intercom. Someone really should buy that dude some medication.
Mart shot us a suspicious look then waved us out of the classroom so she could get on with her lecture about types of mold. I was truly disappointed to be missing out on this conversation. (Sarcasm.)
We walked down to the office in silence. We were all still freaked out from the previous night so we were all pretty quiet.
As we reached the doors I roused myself from my thoughts and turned to give the guys the game plan, "Here's what we're gonna do: deny everything, and follow my lead. They can't prove anything." I said.
I waited for everyone's nods to make sure that they understood, then pushed open the doors and waltzed in like I owned the place.
Once I was inside I gave the office a quick once over for escape routes. There was a window in the corner I could break if necessary and there was a clear path to the door at the other end of the room. I was gauging whether or not I could jump to the taller window in the back of the room when the receptionist motioned us through to the main doctor-principle dudes office. I didn't remember his name, just his super fat beer belly and his Nazi-dictator accent.
He was sitting there, grinning like some kid who had just been told that Miley Cyrus died and it was now illegal to play her songs. Except, you know, he was a fat old Russian dude instead of some poor innocent child forced to listen to the wailing voice of a slutty "singer" who may or may have been taught to sing by a dying cat. Other than that it's a perfect simile.
He was sitting at the head of a desk with his fingers spread apart in that pose Donald Trump uses when he's about to fire someone. Dr. Ter Borcht was written on a nametag on the desk.
"Hello borchty," I said in a sing-song voice, flopping down in a chair across from his desk. Fang placed his hands on the back of the chair behind my head, and even without looking I could tell he was glaring at Bortchy.
Nudge, Iggy, and Angel sat down in the other chairs next to mine, and Gazzy stayed by the door, listening and watching out the doorway to make sure nobody came an attacked us.
"Hallo Miss Ride," he spat, "Do you know vy you ah here?"
"Nope," I said popping the p sound "But I'm sure you're going to tell me."
"You ah here because of you're little ahd-venture last night."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." I said grinning angelically.
"Ve know it vas you! Ve half proof!" he spat at me.
I closed my eyes and used the back of my hand to wipe the spit off my face, then slowly turned back to face him. "And what proof is that Bortchy dear?"
"Mud tracks and brouken locks!" he said. What I assumed to be a grin spread over his face, but with the way the skin was stretched it was hard to tell.
I felt my heart skip a beat and my breath catch in my throat, but I remained cool on the outside. "And how does that incriminate us specifically?"
"You ah ze only children not behaving properly with ze pills!"
"Maybe we're immune to your 'violence-suppressors'" I said making air quotes around 'violence suppressors.' I figured he might as well know we knew what the pills were actually for. I didn't really care if he knew that we broke into the storage building/lab. I just didn't want him to be able to prove anything to the cops.
"Ze pills vurk!" he yelled, getting angrier, and angrier.
"Then our 'violence' would be suppressed and we wouldn't do it."
"No! Ve know you broke in to ze storage building! Admit it!"
"No."
"Ve could call ze police on you!"
"I doubt you'd wanna do that considering you've been breaking a few laws yourself Bortchy dear. I'm pretty sure what's in that building isn't exactly legal."
"PROOF!" he exclaimed and I just sat there smiling.
"I have never entered that building in my life," I lied smoothly. I had never actually admitted to going in there.
His face turned a lovely shade of purple but he didn't utter a word. The room was so silent I could practically hear the steam coming out of his ears.
I waited another moment before standing up and walking towards the door. "Well this was a lovely meeting, really it was, but I need to go listen to a lecture on mold and other unimportant organisms so I bid you adieu. Or whatever goodbye is wherever the hell you come from."
And with that I walked out of the room with the guys following in my footsteps. I stomped out the door and across the grounds. Rather than go back to my class I just headed back to my room. I had too much thinking to do. And I wouldn't get that done in class.
I decided the first order of business was reading my file, so I grabbed that as soon as I got to my room. I opened it up and scattered the pages onto my bed, then grabbed one at random to read first.
I sat down on the bed with my feet crossed underneath me then pulled my hair out of my face. I started to read the page but quickly got bored. It was just the usual stuff: previous schools, criminal records, medical history… Boring stuff like that.
I was about to swap pages when a knock rang on my door.
"Come in!" I called assuming it was just Fang or Angel. I glanced upwards as the door creaked open to discover that it wasn't actually, either of them. It was some housekeeper lady looking truly shocked to see me sitting there.
I quickly swept an arm across the bed, shoving all the papers between it and the wall, then turned to the lady standing in my doorway.
She was a Hispanic lady with dark brown hair pulled into a bun. Here eyes were a dark shade of brown and staring at me in shock. Unlike most of the staff here she wasn't old, fat, or ugly.
She couldn't have been more than 25 and even in the bulgy gray uniform you could tell she was fairly thin.
"What are you doing here!" she whisper-yelled at me.
"It's my room! What the hell are you doing here?" I said in a normal voice.
"I'm here to do your room inspection." she said in a professional tone.
"Skip it," I snarled.
" I am required to search each room every day. It will only take a few minutes."
"No,"
"I am also required o tell you that the pictures on the door could be considered offensive to some students. You will take it down within the next week or we will take it down for you." she continued on, completely refusing to acknowledge that I was still sitting right there.
"No. I am gonna keep the picture up and you are gonna leave now." I plastered on a big fake smile and stared at her.
"I cant do that," she said.
"You. Will." I snarled and go up close to her face. I gazed down at her in an incriminating pose and she shrank back with a squeak. She gave a small nod then turned and scurried from the room.
"And you wont tell anyone about this!" I yelled down the hall after her.
Once she was out of sight I closed the door and fished the file out from under the bed.
I grabbed some more pages and started reading.
Subject: Maximum Ride
Project: Hominidae-Avian B6
Project description: Six human subjects to have avian DNA merged into their systems before birth. Avian characteristics to be activated by an Oxymentrozine and Benzolydetrohidrate solution when human bodies fully developed. Subjects to be monitored closely throughout lifetime and raised as average children. Three subjects to be created in close proximity and three to be created within six years of each other. All subjects to begin metamorphism at same time.
Project manager: Jeb Batchelder
Project team: Jeb Batchelder, Valencia Martinez, Richard Hawkins, Steven Pierce, Mark Emerson, and Elizabeth Lancaster
June 27, 1997
Measurements: Born at approximately 7 lbs. three oz, 19 inches long.
Subject Notes: Subject is biological child of Valencia Martinez. Baby is healthy. Subject to reside in Phoenix, Arizona until ready to metamorphosize.
Abnormal characteristics: None
Abnormal Behaviors: None
January 5, 1998
Subject notes: None
Abnormal characteristics: Growing at 5X average human growth rate
Abnormal behaviors: Appears overly violent and aggressive
January 5, 1999
Subject notes: Growth rate slowing to normal
Abnormal characteristics: Slightly stronger than average 2 year-old, hyperactive
Abnormal behaviors: Bites kickers or punches when angry, doesn't play well with other children in daycare
There were more words on the page, all blurring together as I stared numbly down at the pages, my mind not comprehending what I was seeing. It was my file, well several pages from it, and it pretty much caused everything my world revolved around to come crashing down.
At that moment I knew why I was at the school. It wasn't because Jeb hated me, or because I was a teenage criminal. No, its because I was an experiment. I had been destined to be an experiment since birth. I was designed that way.
My own mother had done it. She was on the research team. And Jeb. That's why he moved in with us. Too keep an eye on me. To recorded data on me. My mother must have been doing it wrong so he stepped in.
It explained everything. And it sucked.
I sat on my bed not moving as I stared at the rest of without actually seeing. There were more dates, one each year up until this one. Each with notes on how I was different. How the mutations had changed me.
I don't know how I long I sat there for until Fang walked in.
"Max, what's wrong?" he asked sounding pretty freaked out. I must have looked pretty bad, but I am proud to say that I wasn't crying. Just sitting there staring.
I made a strange whimpering sound and he gently pulled the file out of my hands and set it on the bed next to me. He sat down and pulled me into his arms.
"Its okay, Max. It's okay. It will al be all right" he whispered into my hair. I let out a strange choking sound and collapsed into his arms.
And that time I let out a single tear. Because it wasn't okay. It wouldn't be alright. I was an experiment. And if I didn't do something soon I was probably going to be changed into something totally horrible. Or die.
A/n Rant of the day: Capri-sun drinks. I always manage to punch the straw through the entire thing so all the juice leaks out. Even if I "respect the pouch."
