A/N: Sorry for the wait. Here's chapter thirteen!
Chapter 13: The White House, Part 2
Fang's POV
I was standing next to Gazzy, listening to him talk about how a bunch of stuff in this room could be turned into a bomb, when Max came over and tapped my shoulder. I turned around.
"Yeah?"
"We need a plan," she said. "How the heck are we supposed to talk to the president?"
I thought about that for a minute. That was a bit of a problem. Maybe we could tell the tour guide we wanted an autograph…no, that was stupid. Or…I said my thoughts out loud, for Max's benefit.
"Maybe we could just tell the truth," I suggested.
She gaped at me. "What is it with you and spilling our secrets lately? First Lissa, now the government? Are you out of your mind?"
I shook my head. I should have known she would jump to that conclusion. "No Max, not that truth. Just tell them we know the little girl who helped the president, and would like to talk to him about it."
Comprehension flashed across her face. "Oh…I get it. That might just work."
I grinned smugly. "I know, I'm awesome."
She punched me in the arm, not particularly gently either. "Jerk." She looked around the room. "Who do we talk to?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe you could ask a tour guide?"
"But what if they don't believe us?" she asked. "For all they know, it's a ruse to get to the president and assassinate him."
"Max, we're just kids," I said. "Do we look like we would want to assassinate the president?"
She looked at me, a grin forming on her face. "Okay, Fang, last time I checked, we were not 'just kids'."
I rolled my eyes. "Obviously not, but these people don't know that, do they? Just try it and see what happens. It's not like they're going to arrest us for it."
"Alright," she said. "We'll try it. You're coming too."
She grabbed my hand and started dragging me across the room. I didn't resist, enjoying the feeling of her hand in mine.
All too soon, in my opinion anyway, we reached the tour guide and she dropped my hand.
"Excuse me, sir," Max said. Wow, who knew she could actually be polite?
The tour guide turned around. "Yes, miss? What can I do for you?"
"Well," she began. "We know the little girl that helped the president, and we were wondering if we could talk to him about it."
The tour guide looked skeptical. I didn't blame him. "How do you know her, exactly?"
Max smiled sweetly, and even though it wasn't aimed at me, I swear I nearly melted. She really should smile like that more often…
"She's our sister," Max said.
The tour guide still looked a little uncertain. "His too?" he asked, pointing to me. I could tell he was comparing me to Angel, and I had to admit, there wasn't much in common.
Max didn't seem at all put out. "Different fathers," she explained. Man, she really had this whole lying thing down to a science.
He frowned. "Don't you have a better way of talking to her? Why do you need to resort to these methods?"
"She ran away from home," Max said, taking on the proper expression of annoyance and sadness. "She threw her phone away. Believe me, we've tried other methods."
He looked us over, then said, "Let me talk to the president. Wait here." He left the room.
"That went relatively well," I said. "He didn't call security or anything."
"Yet," Max added, staring after him. "Maybe that's what he just went to do."
I rolled my eyes. "You and your paranoia. So what if he did? A couple of security guards won't stop us."
She grinned. "I guess not."
I looked around, searching for Gazzy, Iggy, and Nudge. Gazzy was over where I'd left him, Nudge was over by a tour guide, probably talking their ear off. Iggy was…?
"Max," I said slowly, still looking toward Iggy. "Who's Iggy talking to? She looks familiar."
Max followed my gaze. "Yeah, that's because you've met her. That's Tess. She was in yours and Iggy's class back in Virginia."
"Ah." Now that Max had said that I recognized her. My mind went back to the day of the field trip.
"Oh," I heard Iggy say over the crowd of people. "Thanks."
Then another voice, a girl's voice said, "No prob. You know, I was so relieved when they put you in our class. Now I won't stick out so much."
Huh? What was she talking about? Was she blind too? I started making my way back over to Iggy. Then I heard her continue.
"You know, tall for my age, like you. People always say, Oh, be glad about it–you can be a basketball player, or a model or something. But when you're fourteen, a girl, and five ten, the whole thing pretty much sucks. But now I'm not alone. We match."
I heard Iggy laugh, then I came up next to him and lightly brushed his jacket, helping him get his bearings.
"Tess?" one of the teachers called.
"Got to go–room leader and all," the girl–Tess–said. "I'll find you later, when we're walking around, okay?"
"Okay," Iggy replied. He looked dazed, like he wasn't sure what had just happened.
I grinned. "You're slayin' 'em, big guy."
"Hm…" I said.
Max seemed to hear the unspoken words in my 'hm…'. "Yeah," she agreed. "I'm afraid this may bring up complications. He seems really happy with her."
I didn't reply. Iggy did look happy, talking with Tess. Happier than he'd been in a long time. Max was right; it could bring up complications.
About ten minutes later, the tour guide came back. "The president has agreed to talk to you, if you'll follow me."
Max nodded. "I'll just let our siblings know where we're going."
He nodded. It took Max about a minute to let the others know, then she was back. "Okay, let's go."
The tour guide nodded again, then led us out of the room and down a hallway to an elevator. I looked at it. None of us liked elevators, but we did put up with them when necessary.
After a bit of waiting for it to get to our floor, there was a 'Ding!' and the doors slid open. I took a deep breath, then walked inside. Max followed quickly, looking tense. The doors closed, and Max started wringing her hands anxiously, so, in a moment of thoughtlessness, I reached out and took her hand in mine. She looked up at me, startled, but before she could say anything, there was another 'Ding!', and the doors opened. I smiled at her, then let go of her hand and exited the elevator.
The tour guide led us down another hallway, then stopped outside a large door. "Right in here, please."
I looked at Max. She smiled weakly, and opened the door.
A/N: Okay, I've never actually been to the White House, so if any of you who are reading this have, please excuse anything that doesn't completely make sense. I don't actually know if they have elevators, but I figured that was pretty safe. And I'm trying not to go into too much detail on any of the rooms or anything, just to be safe. Anyway, despite any possible mistakes on that note, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Review! =)