pl makanusho: I don't own Maximum Ride. You don't own Maximum Ride. But I'm 17 now, so who really cares? *little voice in back of head* i care... SHUT UP!

Strangers- A Maximum Ride Story

by: stripedpolkadots

Chapter 14: Assignments

"Now class, we have two new students today. Who can tell them my three rules?"

A tiny girl with bright red hair cut pixie style shoved her hand into the air, bouncing excitedly. The teacher sighed. "Yes, Trinity?"

"One: No weapons. Two: No cursing. Three: No sleeping in class!"

"Thank you, Trinity. Now, would you to like to introduce yourselves?"

There was a silence, and the boy standing up there with me didn't say anything. I sighed, and took a deep breath.

"My names's Ashley Jennings. Please call me Ash. Um... I'm from Malibu. And... that's all."

"What're you in for?" The question came from a muscley brunette in the third row, and the teacher, Mrs. Keesler, frowned. "Not appropriate Craig. We clear?"

The boy nodded, and gave me a smirk. I looked away and cleared my throat. "Um... just a little breaking and entering."

Craig sneered. "A "little breaking and entering wouldn't have got you here."

Keesler slammed her hand down on the desk. "That is enough Craig! My office, after class!" Craig slumped in his chair and rolled his eyes. "Sure thing."

Keesler took a deep breath and turned to me and the boy. "How about you... Jeremiah, was it?" Craig snickered. "Jer-uh-my-uh huh? What are you in for, cowtipping?"

Jeremiah turned to face him, but didn't say anything. Keesler did though. She exploded. "Craig! Solitary! Two nights!"

Craig turned brick red. "Wha-what? I didn't fucking do anything! I just got out!" Keesler grabbed a red slip. "Cursing? That's three nights. One more word out of you and I'll make it four!"

Craig's lips flapped, but not a sound came out. The class was silent. Mrs. Keesler exhaled and turned to Jeremiah. "So, Jeremiah. Where are you from?"

He ran his hands through his hair. "Alabama." Keesler nodded. "I went to Alabama once. It's very nice." She clapped her hands together briskly. "Ok then. You two can sit at that table over there. Tables are only temporary, normally we have desks. But we just got started on a project last week that needs partners, and tables are so much easier to work with."

I headed in the direction she pointed, but stopped when I realized Jeremiah wasn't following. Keesler seemed to be confused. "Jeremiah? Something wrong?"

Jeremiah's face was red, and he seemed to be clenching his teeth. "The school took away my cane. Said it was too dangerous- that they'd get me a plastic one." Keesler was still confused. "Cane? I'm sorry, I don't under-"

The boy waved a hand in front of his face violently. "Cane. My seeing-eye cane? I'm blind."

The class, including me, gasped as a whole, and I noticed more than one person giving Craig a dirty look. Keesler flushed red and wrung her hands. "Oh- oh my... well, I don't... there's no... I'm so sorry- I just-"

"What are you sorry for? You didn't blind me, did you? If you could just tell me where my desk is, I can manage. I've got shins of steel." But Keesler still looked utterly flustered, and I could tell Jeremiah was getting more and more embarrassed, both by Keesler's reaction and the flurries of whispers in the room. I reached forward and grabbed his wrist. Instinctively he pulled back, and I stepped closer. "Gimme your arm and I'll just lead you there, kay?"

He nodded, and I took his arm again. I weaved my way through the maze of school-issued clear mesh backpacks, and was surprised to see Jeremiah weave through almost as easily as me. What seemed like hours later, we finally reached our seats. We had barely settled in when Keesler came bustling up with a stack of papers that probably killed at least one rainforest. She plopped it on our desk with a sick smile. "Ok you two. This month, we're studying hybrids!" She said it as if she was announcing we were just invited to Hogwarts. "We started last week, so you guys are a little behind, but that's ok, you'll get an extra week to turn in your then, all the information you're going to need is in this packet. Since you're going to be spending the next month together, I suggest you two spend a couple minutes introducing yourselves. Don't waste too much time though, your first deadline is Wednesday." After that she hurried off to settle an argument between the Craig kid and his partner. Jeremiah and I watched her go. Ok, I watched her go, Jeremiah stared in her general direction.

Stretching, I leaned back in my seat and watched Jeremiah. He ran his fingers over everything- the table, the papers, his hair... I blinked. That move, the completely nonchalant run of the fingers through the hair... it was familiar, like maybe I'd seen one of the surfer boys at Permanent Addiction do it a couple times.

I examined him closely. He was attractive, some might say hot, in that skaterboy kinda way, which was odd, because I didn't think they had skaters in Alabama. And from what I could figure, he was at least five inches taller than me, making him about 6"3, 6"4...

BANG. He slammed his chair legs down. "You were at the tour Saturday, weren't you?"

"Yeah... were you?"

He nodded. "Uh huh. I thought you were. Wasn't sure. Can't really remember anything from it... I was so freaked out by the police station."

"Yeah, so was I."

Liar, said the little hag in the back of my head. You weren't distracted by the station... you were distracted by the person in it. I blushed. Yeah, the boy had been on my mind for all of Saturday and Sunday, that didn't mean I had a crush on him. Even if my heart had suddenly stopped beating, my mind splashed with fantasies of me and him soaring through the sky on wings, or jet packs or something. That didn't mean anything at all.

"So... Ash. Any reason you don't go by Ashley?"

I dragged myself back to the present and shrugged. "Just don't think I make much of an Ashley."

"Sure it doesn't have anything to do with a slight Pokemon obsession?"

I laughed, surprised. I had never connected my name with Ash Ketchum's. He grinned back at me.

"Nah, I understand. Don't think I make much of a Jeremiah myself. Just call me Jer."

I smiled. "Sure thing Jer."

He tilted his chair back again, and I resisted the urge to tell him to sit properly. Sometimes I feel like such a mom.

I looked at the stack of papers, and decided they could wait. "So, Jer. Do you know what 'solitary' is?"

Jer thudded his chair down and looked straight at me. "When you got here, did they give you a survey?"

I scowl, thinking about it. The minute I arrived at this stupid place, after a stupid nine hour flight, they led me to this stupid unheated cement room with a stupid cruddy looking floor and a stupid chest high podium. On the podium was a packet of paper about five or six sheets thick. Each sheet had 70 questions on it, random ones like: what's my favorite color, do I have a boyfriend/girlfriend, what was my first pet, etc. There was no chair in the room, I was dead tired, and the pen was chained to the podium, which was cemented to the floor, so I couldn't even take the damn survey while lying on the floor.

"Yeah. I remember."

"On the third page or so, they asked what were your three biggest fears. Did you put them?"

I shrug. By the end of the third page I was so zoned out, they could have asked me anything and I would have told them.

"Yeah, you probably did. They wear you out so you don't even notice some of the stuff they're asking. Anyways, they keep those answers. And if you get sent to solitary, they use them against you. I heard there was a girl here last year who was scared to death of drowning. Well she got caught stealing, and they placed her in a bubble thing or something, and stuck her in this huge tank. And this boy, he was a freshman or something, he hated ants. He spray painted some walls, they covered him in honey and poured ants all over him. Not fire ants, but still. They sting."

I put a hand to my throat and closed my eyes. What did you put on that questionnaire stupid?! Please tell me you were smart enough to put bananas and butterflies!

"But hey, you have to be really bad to get solitary yknow? This place has normal detention for the regular stuff."

I frowned. "Yeah... sure... I don't remember them saying anything about solitary in the orientation though?"

"Nah, my roommate told me yesterday. They like it when the students tell it, makes it a lot worse."

At the mention of roommates, I frowned. "Lucky. My roommate hates me."

"Was she that other girl at orientation?"

I nodded, then realize- duh. Blind. "Yeah, that's the one."

Jer cocked his head. "She in our class?"

I smiled in relief. "Nah, I'm pretty sure she's a freshman."

"She hot?"

I paused, confused. I hadn't taken him for a sexist pig, but obviously I was mistaken.I was about to- well- I don't know what, but it would have been violent- when he burst out laughing. "Sorry, sorry, it's my thing- shocking people I mean. You don't get much entertainment being blind and living on a farm."

I narrowed my eyes and grinned. Snaking my foot out, I hooked my ankle around the chair leg closest to me and pushed. He toppled over and the class went silent. All heads swiveled towards us, and Keesler was halfway across the room already. Jer crawled back into his seat and laughed. "Sorry guys, I slipped. Ma always said to stop tiltin' mah chayre." He said the last part in a decidedly Southern accent. I snickered, and he winked at me. Keesler gave us a stern look, before turning to break up another fight between Craig and his partner.

Jer settled himself in his seat and gave me a long look. I shrugged. "Sorry. Shocking people... it's my thing too."

He grinned and stuck out a hand. "I'm declaring a truce to the shocking people wars. Capiche?"

I gripped his hand and nodded. "Sure thing, farm boy. Now- tell me what you're in for?"

He leaned his chair back and yawned. "Stupidity. I made this kid some fireworks and the jackass blew it up in a dry field."

I raised an eyebrow. "Made? You made fireworks?"

"Don't ask. How about you- what're you in for?"

I blushed, and fiddled with shirt collar. "Oh I just... yknow... set a couple animals free is all..."

Jer narrowed his eyes. "Hold up... you said you were from Malibu?"

"Yeah... why?"

He burst out laughing, and Keesler gave me a look. I gave her my sweetest smile, and it seemed to work.

I turned back to Jer. "What's so funny farm-boy?"

I had to wait a few moments for him to stop laughing before I could get an answer. "You... you let the dogs out!"

"Excuse me?"

"Oh don't tell me you haven't seen it!"

"Seen what?"

"The video, on youtube! Oh come on! Some genious put together all the news clips from the night you freed the animals and synched it to that Baha Men song! I can't believe you haven't seen it! My cousins freaking idolize you now!"

I smiled, half-amused. Unsure about what to think of my newfound Youtube Stardom (step aside Bonquiqui), I decided it was time for a change of subject.

"So... um... tell me about your cousins."

"You sure? This could take some time."

I looked at the clock, then at the large stack of untouched papers. "Uh... okay, give me the condensed version."

He took a deep breath. "Jackson, 6. Troublemaker. Jenny, 8. Entrepreneur. Jared, 14. Computer geek. Julie, 14. Jared's twin, cheerleader. Jessie, 15. rodeo obsessed cowgirl. And then there's me. Jeremiah, 16, token blind kid of Sarocen Alabama."

"I don't know whether that's supposed to be depressing or enlightening."

"Neither do I."

"Ashley, Jeremiah, I hope all that talking has something to do with animal hybrids!"

I jumped, then turned and gave Keesler my Disney Princess smile again. "Of course Mrs. Keesler! Turns out Jeremiah here grew up on a farm- he's very knowledgeable about animals!"

She took one step towards us, but veered to the left, pulling out a whistle, when Craig lunged across the table at his partner. Jer leaned back and put his hands behind his back. "I wasn't raised on a farm yknow."

I blushed. "Oh sorry, I just assumed... yeah, well-"

"Nah, it's okay. For all I know I could have been raised on a farm."

Before I could question him any further, he cleared his throat and reached for the stack of papers. He grabbed it eventually and rifled through. He whistled. "Damn this Keesler lady doesn't joke! This packet as hard as it feels?"

Resisting the urge to That's What She Said him, I grabbed a paper. "Oh Lord, there's math in this! I hate math. And a bunch of squares... waitasec, I think I did these in freshman year biology!"

Jer leaned in closer. "Describe 'em to me."

"Well, they've got a capital letter and a lowercase letter on the outside, and then the box is split into 16 squares, and at the top of the sheet it says... dihybrid cross?"

Jer snapped his fingers. "Oh, Punnet squares, I remember those! They're the-"

The bell rang suddenly, and I looked up, surprised. That didn't seem like it had been an hour. Jer looked in my direction. "Keesler said the first deadline was Wednesday, right? What is it?"

I scanned the timeline. "Ehhh... a 6 page outline for the primary paper, annotated bibliography requ- WAIT. 6 pages?! Is she outta her mind?!"

Jer ran a hand through his hair. "I think we're gonna have to meet outta class. Do you have a restricted room?"

I furrowed my brow, perplexed. "Restricted room?"

"Yeah, you know if- oh yeah, I forgot, you have a maybe hot maybe not roommate from hell who didn't tell you anything about how the school works which is kinda understandable considering she probably does't know either. Um... on your door, there's either a red circle or a green one. What color is your's?"

"Oh, green I think."

"Good, that means you can have visitors."

"Why can't I come over to your dorm?" The more time I spent away from Savannah, the better.

"Girls's are only allowed in the boy's dorm buildings from 12:00 to 4:30 on Sunday's. Period."

"That doesn't even make sense! If the boy can come to the girls- oh forget it. I guess it's party in my dorm room then? What time do you wanna come over?"

He shrugged. "Before dinner sound good to you?"

I nodded, then remembered the whole no seeing thing. "Yeah, sure, sounds fine."

By this time, we were the last students left in the room, and Keesler was waiting by the door, tapping her foot. I stood up, stretched, then extended a hand to Jer. He didn't take it, and stood up on his own. For a second, I felt insulted, but then I just felt a little stupid. "So, tonight after dinner. See you then." He nodded, then slowly began to shuffle through the tables. He hit two before I finally blew out my cheeks. "Oh for chrissakes, gimme your arm Ig!"

He turned around so sharply, he stumbled into another table. "What did you call me?!"

I took a step back, beweildered."Um... Jer? Or..." Wait... what did I call him? "Ig? I dunno where that came from... sorry, I meant to say Jer."

He ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. "Nah, it's ok. For some reason that name sounded really familiar. What were you saying?"

I stepped closer and grabbed his arm. "I said, I'll lead you to your next class. What is it?"

He scowled. "I don't know. None of those idiots in the front office would stop texting long enough to answer."

"Well, where's your schedule?"

"It's one of those papers in the folder. They also failed to braille anything for me but the rulebook. Assholes."

I finally managed to find his schedule in the folder, and grinned when I saw we had nearly the same schedule, except for a few classes. "You have British Literature with me next Jer. Cmon, we're gonna be late if we don't hurry."

1+2+3+4

heh heh... *ducks flaming fireballs* heh... hey guys. that was uber irresponsable of me. uubbberrr.... im sorry. sososorry. but. i DO have legit reasons. ferizzles. 1.) pretty much EVERYONE in my house was sick except me and my dad. soo i missed school for the first time in pretty much years to forcefeed four of my sisters and my brother. then watch them throw it up. and mi madre wasn't much better. so much for doctors not getting sick. And that happened like the day after i promised to update. Aanndd my schools principle up and went back to Louisiana in September, so my English teacher was made principle interim. so he's been uber busy, and usually uses my AP english class for budget meetings and whatever. but then progress report time came around, and he realized we only had three grades in the book for four weeks, and that we were way off schedule. sooo he assigned to 30 chapter books, an MLA format 5page research paper, two poems to fully analyze/write a paper on (paradise lost&to his coy mistress), and another poetry project to dissent. did i ever mention im not to big a fan of poetry? swamped. and i had this Ha-YUGE math project. i HATE math. SO SO MUCH. its the ONE class im not getting an A in!! (i know, whatta nerd. don't judge me.) gahh!! SO. then my cousins and my aunt came over, and i had to play sweet little hostess. ON MY BIRTHDAY. and then thanksgiving. (mm... turkey... ) and then i had to help my aunt prepare the feast for babbar sallah, which is this three day muslim feast (my family's not muslim, but my mom was before she married my catholic dad, so her side of the family is all muslim). i think the official name of the feast is like... eid al-adha maybe? something like that. AND THEN, my mother traveled to nigeria to be crowned next in line to the king of somewhere, no lie. and my sister came home from duke on her thanksgiving break, and i had to be her little servant girl. jk, it was pretty awesome having her back, we're only 11 months apart. :))mm sisterluv. anndd then (last one, fershure), the senior class had to plan the uber important schoolwide/required advent retreat on this fancyshmancy estate, which was really time consumingg, considering we had to drive places, and make stuff, and mow the whole dang lawn of the retreat center because the lawn wasn't mowed over thanksgiving break, but whatever, im not bitter that i had to do that in forty degree weather. especially because the retreat was today and everything went off with only a few hitches (pizza fuhreaking 20 minutes late) and everyone came out closer to God which was the point) OH! and (ferrealz, last one) BASKETBALL SEASON. it started. i had a game two hours away two days ago (which we won, 72 to 58) that involved driving in the pouring rain and a one hour traffic jam. AND we share a bus with the boys basketball team, so it was pretty rowdy. and stanky, lol jk. and i literally JUST got home for a home game (which we ALSO won, 46 to 24... or 44 to 26?) and theres ANOTHER game tomorrow, and its pretty damn exhausting. sometimes im just like, screw homework, im going to bed. sometimes i don't even (gasp) UPDATE FACEBOOK. i know. i know. aaaannnnnywwaaayyss that whole rant was just my plea for you guys not to skewer me. puhlese. because guess what. im typing the next chapter RIGHT NOW. idk when itll be done, but im typing it RIGHT NOW. :)

OH! guess what. im seventeen now!!! woohoo!! my birthday was last week, and it was pretty fantabulous. i didn't really get that many presents, but i got some gorgeous earrings, and fanbloodytastic birthday cards. and this kid who i kinda... BARELY ever talk to, actually got me a card and a box of candy and put in my locker! it made my dayy! (and he didn't give to me cuz he like likelikes me or whatevs, i think hes just an ubernice guyy) but now i talk to him all the timee :) yayayay im 17. tis a sad story however, that half the junior class is older than me. and im a senior. T.T.

annndd im kinda fershure excited right now because the weatherman said it was gonna snow tomorrow! fyi, i live in central texas. snow is a pretty big deal.

OK. i changed the rating to T, because theres just a little to much language for K+. aanndd imma shut up now. por favor, don't hate me. read&reveiw please, and pm me if you see any mistakes, because im kinda exhausted right now so its pretty possible there might be a few. and for all the people who've ALREADY pm'd/reviewed me, imma get back to you as soon as possible. FER SHURE.

read&reveiww por favor! -stripedpolkadots

Hey look out for that moving van
Driving down our streets
You better lock up your man
Before he meets
The new girl in town