AN: Alright guys, I'm back! Now, I know you guys must be dying to know how Max ended up in the orphanage, but that's the point in stories like this! We hold out the suspense. But I am going to be nice and tell you a little bit about Max's foster families. Ones she didn't like and ones she hated. So enjoy!

(Fang's POV)

"Hey, Fang? Can you go get my laptop for me? It's in my room." Max said, using her I'm-being-sweet-because-I-want-you-to-do-something-for-me tone.

I sighed. We were sitting on the couch together at her house. "Why can't you go get it?" I asked.

Her head lowered onto my shoulder. "Because I'm feeling lazy today." she murmured, looking up at me with pleading eyes. Bambi Eyes, to be exact. I didn't even know Max could do Bambi Eyes! I winced and looked away, but eventually gave in. "Fine. You owe me though." I told her in a playfully stern voice.

"Noted." she said solemnly. I shook my head, giving her a you're-such-a-dork look, which she returned with a yeah-but-I'm-you're-dork look. I smiled. I loved these silent conversations we had with each other.

I ran up the stairs and into her room. I grabbed her laptop and ran back down the stairs. I handed her the laptop and plunked down next to her on the couch again. I started thinking about Max. About how fast she'd opened up to us. About how great of a girlfriend she was. And then I was reminded of something else. "So, Max, you owe me." I said casually, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

Max glanced up at me wearily from her laptop. "Yeah." she said slowly, like she was just waiting for me to eat her or something.

"How exactly did you become claustrophobic? I mean, I know that it was from one of your foster parents, but you never told me exactly how." I said.

She closed her laptop and sighed. She rested her head on the couch, closing her eyes. I grabbed her hand and let her play with my fingers while she got her thoughts in order. "It was when I was six. It was the first abusive foster home I'd been in. The father came back home drunk the whole time I was there. Whenever I did something wrong, he'd beat me and lock me in this little room underneath the stairs. It was a storage room, so there wasn't any room to move, and the stupid thing didn't have a light. That's why I'm claustrophobic." she told it all quietly. Her eyes were now open, distant with memories. I expected her to stop, but she just kept going. I guess she needed to get this all off of her chest.

"There was another foster family. The mom would smack me and order me around a lot. If I didn't listen to her, the foster father would make me sleep outside. And it was in New York during the winter." She shook her head angrily. "Then there was one who gave me a concussion using a baseball bat." I was getting more and more disgusted. How could anyone do this to someone like Max? How could someone do that to anyone?

"There was one that beat me every day for no reason. The older I got, the stronger I got, and the shorter my stays at foster homes were. I remember the first time I beat up one of my foster parents. It had been a guy who beat me just for the fun of it. One day I got so made that I just…cracked. It all just piled up until I couldn't take it anymore. Beat the idiot within an inch of his life." She shook her head again. "Then the idiot police officer that came almost took me to jail, even though I was bruised up so bad you could hardly tell what my natural skin color was."

My hand clenched and unclenched around hers. I was furious. She squeezed my hand, silently telling me to calm down. "Not all of them were abusive though. Some were just annoying. Like old lady Brigs. She was this old cat lady who decided one day she wanted to adopt. She saw me. Cute, innocent looking girl, didn't seem like too much trouble." She chuckled to herself.

"She didn't know what she was getting herself into. We hated each other from the minute we first spoke to each other, which, unfortunately, wasn't until we got back to her house. We both made each other's lives a living hell. We only lasted three days with each other. We almost strangled each other in the end." She grinned at me. "It's funny how I look back at it now and laugh."

"So, you had some good homes?" I asked.

Max nodded. "Yeah. But they never felt like home. They just kind of felt like a hotel room. Have you heard that song 'Temporary Home'?" I nodded. "It was kind of like that." Max continued. "To me, it was just a bunch of windows and rooms. Emily always told me that I would know when I found the right home and family. That it would feel like home. That I would be comfortable around them, and love them like I'd known them my whole life. I had to admit, with all of the other homes I'd been in, I didn't believe it." She grinned at me. "Guess I was wrong."

Suddenly, there was an eruption of "Aww!"s behind us. Max jumped and spun around, raising an eyebrow when she saw Angel, Gazzy, Iggy, and Nudge behind us. Angel ran up to her. "We love you too Max!" she said happily, jumping on Max's lap and giving her a hug.

Max chuckled. "You better. I climbed through the mud to find that little rat dog of yours." she said. Angel rolled her eyes, but the term was more of an endearment than an insult at this point. When she'd first met Total, she called him a rat dog because she said that she'd seen rats bigger than he was. Now, it's more like a nickname.

"Oh! Iggy I almost forgot to tell you. I came up with our motto." she said, giving him a mischievous smile.

"Let me hear it." he replied, mimicking her smile.

"'If two wrongs don't make a right, try three.' That, or maybe 'Growing old is mandatory…growing up is optional.'" she said.

Iggy grinned. "Perfect!"

I looked at them suspiciously. "What are you two talking about?" I asked warily.

"Well, we thought that the band needed a motto." Max said.

"So, we're going with the growing up one. And no buts, so get over it." Iggy said as I opened my mouth to protest. I closed it again and glared at them.

"Isn't that a decision the band should make together?" I asked.

"We did. We talked about it at the last band meeting. You were kind of spacing out though." Iggy said, while Max nodded in agreement. "The others put me and Max in charge of coming up with our motto."

"I actually kind of like it. I mean, come on. No one in this room is more mature that a four-year-old." Nudge said. Angel and Gazzy nodded in agreement.

I sighed. "Fine. You guys do know how to get a point across."

"Yes!" Max and Iggy exclaimed, high-fiving each other. "You rock." Max said, kissing me quickly. This got another round of "Aww!"s from the girls. Max rolled her eyes and smiled at me. "That's starting to get a little annoying she whispered, low enough that only I could hear it.

I gave Max an are-you-thinking-what-I'm-thinking look, which she returned with a heck-yes! look. We both simultaneously jumped off the couch and grabbed Angel and Nudge. I got Nudge and Max got Angel. We swung them onto our shoulders, like sacks of potatoes. I grinned at her. "Pool?" I asked.

"Pool." she replied, knowing exactly what I was talking about.

"What about the pool? What are you guys doing?" Nudge asked.

"Max?" Angel asked quietly. "What are you doing?"

"You'll see." Max said in a sing-song voice. She opened the sliding glass door that led to their pool. Nudge must've realized what we were planning, because she yelled, "NO! MAX! FANG! CUT IT OUT! I SWEAR I'LL–"

She was cut off when we tossed both of them into the pool. Nudge and Angel came up sputtering. Nudge started yelling at us about her hair and Angel started yelling, "How could you?" to Max, her little voice sounding betrayed. Then they both jumped out of the pool looking murderous.

"Crap." Max said.

"I second that notion." I told her. We shared one look, then took off in the other direction, running as fast as we could. Of course we could've taken them. But that would've ruined all the fun. :)

AN: Well, that's it. Review and tell me what you think! (-.-)