11 days until Christmas!!! AHHH!!! -happy dances-
Iggy: Dang...This Christmas is coming fast.
Me: I KNOW! It's so, awesome!! I also only have, technically, two days of school left. :) And tomorrow I don't have band!
Iggy: Why?
Me: We have to load the truck. Anyway, let's just get on with this chapter which took me almost two weeks to write! Grr...I think it's worth it. Saint said it was McAwesomenetastical or something along those lines, let's see if she's right, shall we?
Disclaimer: Don't own Max Ride, Santa's reindeer, Miracle on 34th Street, or anything else that sounds like I don't own it.
Claimer: I own all of Max's relatives, not including Dr.M and Ella. :)
Thanks to: My epical betas Saint&Fang and my super epical--OHEMGEE!!! ~Rudolph the rednosed reindeer!~ Sorry, that song just came on...Okay, anyway, thanks to my uber-epical readers/reviewers for sticking with me this long and not yelling at me to update. (SO SORRY!!)
Why does Christmas time always put people in a good mood? I mean, everyone I've been around has been happy, giddy with joy. The other day I caught Fang laughing. Fang was laughing! It's just not natural…
Sure, its' only the 12th and there's 13 days till Christmas, but heck, it's December! There's even snow on the ground!
Okay, now you're probably wondering, how is there snow on the ground in Arizona?! Simple explanation: Every Christmas Mom and Ella go to Mom's mom's house in Montana for Christmas. This year was no different, other than the fact that we had to stay with my aunt Margie and her family this year because my grandma's house was not big enough to fit all eight of us in it.
"Max? Earth to Maximum Ride! Mom wants us to help with the tree." Ella said, waving her hand in front of my face. I swatted it away and stood up.
"What?" I asked.
"Mom wants us to help with the Christmas tree." Ella repeated slowly, as if I were stupid. Which I'm not. She grabbed my arm and began dragging me downstairs to the living room which was busy with people running up and down the steps and adjusting the big tree standing at the edge of the room. My uncle Kevin and cousin Mark were brushing snow off the branches, so I guessed they had just gotten back from picking the tree.
It was big and looked nice in the living room against the light beige wall. My other cousin, Carmen, was starting a fire in the fireplace. I was glad because it was freezing in the room. We had been here since the first of December, so I had gotten to get to know my cousins pretty well by now. I shared a room with Carmen and Ella the whole stay, Fang and Iggy shared a room with my other cousin, Max(Yes, it gets quite confusing), and Gazzy, Angel and Nudge share the guest bedroom.
Carmen is only a year older than me, sixteen, and she's pretty cool. She has dark brown hair, like most of the Martinez's(except me), and brown eyes. She's a writer, she writes poems a lot. Every night when it's time to go to bed she's up at her desk with a book light writing some kind of poem. She's read a few to Ella and I, they were really good. Happy, cheerful. Awesome.
Max, on the other hand, is sort of an outcast like me. Well, by the way he looks. He has medium brown hair and gray eyes. He's twelve, like Nudge, and I swear I see some sparks flying between them when they're together.
My other cousins, Mark, Gabriella, and Lesley, are all picture perfect Martinez children. Mark, brown hair, brown eyes, and eighteen years old; Gabriella, brown and brown, and eight; Lesley, brown and brown, and four. My aunt Margie, same. Uncle Kevin, though, must be who Max took after. Kevin has dirty blonde hair, kind of like me(sometimes), and gray eyes.
I jumped as someone wrapped their arms around me. A deep, quiet chuckle sounded by my ear and I calmed down.
"What're you doing?" I asked Fang. He squeezed me slightly then let his hands slide down to my waist.
"You looked cold." He informed me. He released his hold around my waist and grabbed my hand, leading me over to a spot beside the fire. He sat down and pulled me into his lap, wrapping his arms securely around me as if I'd get sucked away. I leaned against his hard, muscular chest, loving the feeling of his strong arms around me. I buried my face in his neck, inhaling his sweet, earth and cinnamon scent.
A camera flash just had to ruin the moment. I jumped up to see Ella with a camera in her hands, Carmen and Gabriella giggling beside her.
"You two are so cute together!" She squealed, snapping another picture. Though I'm sure she won't want to use that one for the pure fact that by then I was glaring at her. The only thing keeping her alive was the fact that Fang still had a hold of me. I tried to jump at her, but Fang kept a firm hold on me.
"Max, honey, calm down." He whispered gently in my ear. My fists clenched and my jaw tightened, my eyes narrowed even more. I'm sure I was about to grow fangs and start spitting venom.
"Max," Fang repeated soothingly. "It was just a picture. Calm down, baby." He kissed my ear lightly, then my neck. That calmed me down a significant amount. Enough for the three girls to run away still breathing. Fang got me calmed down enough so I could think straight again, now I'm wondering why I snapped on Ella for taking the picture…
"Because you're impatient, rude, bossy and arrogant." Fang guessed when I asked. I rolled my eyes and slapped him playfully.
"So very funny." I muttered. He smiled(No, not a grin, a full fledged smile!)and pecked my lips, causing me to smile as well.
Mom walked over at the point and asked us if we wanted to help decorate the tree. I was on my feet in less than a millisecond, pulling Fang up beside me. Mom chuckled at my obvious enthusiasm and we followed her over to where the others were pulling lights and garland out of a box. Mark and Kevin started putting the lights on as the rest of us pulled out all the garland(there was a lot of it).
"Max, hand me that strand of garland." Uncle Kevin said. That of course earned a "Which one?" out of me and Max.
Uncle Kevin sighed. "Okay, for the rest of…well, of the year, Maximum will be called Max. Max, we'll just use you're middle name, Alex. Maybe that will lessen the confusion."
Ma--Er, Alex and I nodded.
"Now, Max, will you hand me that strand of garland?" He repeated. I grabbed the garland he was pointing at and gave it to him, then went back to pull more out of the box. They had a lot of garland…
After we decorated the tree, which involved me being tied up in some extra garland, the adults went to the kitchen, leaving us kids with virtually nothing to do in the living room.
"Want to go upstairs and watch a movie?" Fang murmured in my ear. I looked up at him, then at everyone else. Well, everyone that remained.
"Where'd everyone go?" I asked. Carmen, who was practically the only one left, starting listing the kids and telling where they ran off to. "Gaz, Angel, Lesley, and Gabby ran off to play some board game, Alex took Nudge to show her a video game, Ella went to help in the kitchen and that leaves me, you, Fang and Ig here."
It never occurred to me how well the kids were getting along here. I mean, usually it takes them a while to adjust, but we've only been here a couple days and their already abandoning me for my cousins.
"It's because they know you approve of these people." Fang whispered to me, as if reading my mind.
"How did you…?" I trailed off, expecting him to know exactly what I was going to ask. And he did, or at least he didn't let on that he had no clue what I was talking about.
"I'm just that good." He said, smirking. I rolled my eyes. "So, about that movie?"
"Okay." I agreed. He smiled at me and grabbed my hand, leading me upstairs. We entered the room that he shared with Ig and Alex, and I could tell who slept where. Fang's bed was, of course, black, and it was actually clean. Iggy's bed was on the other side of the room, the sheets were multicolored and his duvet was solid white, it was also a complete mess since he didn't make it this morning. Alex's was blue, his favorite color, and it was against the wall at the end of the room, neat and tidy.
Fang lead me to his bed, which was closest to the plasma TV hanging on the wall.(If you haven't noticed, my relatives have some serious money.) He grabbed the remote, flicked on the TV and started going through the channels. I sat down on his bed and looked around the room. The walls were a dull, dark blue. Sort of depressing, but still pretty. In one corner was Alex's closet and beside that his chest, which was probably now home to Fang and Iggy's clothes.
At the foot of Iggy's bed was a bench. Why was it there? I have no clue, but it was overloaded with dirty clothes and a…I don't even think I want to know what that was…The bench at the foot of Alex's bed was pretty much the same deal, but Fang's was actually clean. All of his dirty clothes were probably the only ones in the hamper on the back of the door.
Fang sat down next to me and put an arm around me.
"Miracle on 34th Street just came on. Want to watch it?" Fang asked. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite remember what it was about.
"What is it?" I asked him.
"It's that movie where they try to send the Macy's Santa to the nuthouse because he thinks he's the real Santa Claus." He informed me. I nodded, remembering now.
"Yes, let's watch that." I smiled.
"Because you can relate so well?" He joked. I rolled my eyes playfully and slapped him.
I think I drifted off sometimes during the movie, because I went from seeing Santa in court to seeing chinchillas and penguins singing "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas", followed by the Beatles singing "The 12 Days After Christmas".
Fang shook me awake a few minutes into an uber-epic game of battleship between me and Blitzen.
"Why do you always fall asleep in the middle of a good movie?" He asked. I shrugged.
"Because Santa's reindeer wanted to play a game of battleship and random animals wanted to sing Christmas songs to me." I guessed. He looked at me like I was on drugs(I've been getting that look often)and shook his head.
"Seriously, what are you on?" He laughed.
"Pot." I said with a straight face. He looked at me and saw my face.
"Max, you better be joking, otherwise I'll knock you into last month." He said seriously, at which point I cracked up.
"Of course I'm joking. I just wanted to see what you'd say." I smiled. He rolled his eyes.
"And what would you say if I were sleeping with your mom and sister, and I'm secretly doing Iggy on the side?" He asked genuinely wondering. I pondered his question for a moment.
"Kinky." I finally said. He started laughing, a sound that I loved, and pressed his lips to mine. I started to kiss back, then pulled away.
"You were joking about doing my mom, sister and Iggy, right?" I asked, just to check. Fang laughed again and nodded. I smiled and kissed him.
~Iggy's POV~
I sat on the couch beside Carmen. We were watching, well she was watching and I was listening, to A Christmas Story. That was my favorite movie. I looked up to that kid, I know I never would've gotten a BB gun for Christmas. Actually, I've had a similar instance…
When I was eleven Jeb asked us what we wanted for Christmas, Max said a puppy. She never got that. Fang said a pencil(I really am wondering why…), he got said pencil, he was ecstatic. Gasman, Angel and Nudge all sided with Max on the puppy, but me. I asked Jeb for bomb supplies. His reply?
"You'll blow your brains out, kid!"
I swear, Ralphie and I have almost lived the same life. Well, other than the fact that I'm a freak bird kid and he's a normal boy.
I felt Carmen scoot a little closer to me. She had been doing that since the movie started. I didn't question why, I mean either she likes me, or Gazzy came in without me knowing and he keeps breaking wind. I like to think it's the first one. Her hand brushed mine as she adjusted herself and my heart skipped a beat.
What the heck? I thought to myself. Why am I acting like this?
I shook the thought away and focused my thoughts back to the movie, but my thoughts eventually wandered back to Carmen. Fang's described her to me, and from his description she's beautiful. I love the sound of her voice, like honey on butter…Or something along those lines. Her hand brushed mine again, soft and warm. I took a chance and grabbed it. She didn't pull away, she didn't seem creeped out, she actually gave my hand a soft squeeze then he brought it up to her face where I felt her smiling. I smiled back, feeling something I had never felt before. A warm feeling in the pit of my stomach, like…a happy feeling. A happy feeling I wasn't familiar with…
Love?
Or infatuation…?
Whatever it was, it felt great.
That my friends, is what we here at the Randomness Clubhouse call Cargy. :)
Iggy: You make me sound all sappy...And what about F--
Me: SHUSH!! -sighs- That will come, Iggles, you just wait...Same for the...other one.
Iggy: -glares- You better not.
Me: OH, but I will.
So, anyway, how'd ya'll like it? Also, wish me luck at the concert Thursday! I'm starting to get nervous...Gah...Now, I'm off to practice.
R&R!