A Collab of Alphabetical Proportions

Wow. My last chapter of this fic. Is it just me, or did this month go by fast? I know that this definitely kept me going through January and kept me in touch with Tassel and Akira, WAY more than usual, even though they're my best friends and all.

But I digress.

Disclaimer: Things I don't own – Maximum Ride. Need I go on?

Y is for: Yttrium

Itryum Yitriyum Thisisstupidtrium

"Hey, Ig," Fang said while the two of them were holed up in his room after school in Virginia, doing their stupid science homework that would really have no bearing whatsoever in their future lives. "How do you spell Yttrium?"

Iggy scoffed. "How would I know? I'm blind," he offered helpfully.

"Fine." Fang got off the bed.

"Where you going?"

"Well, I've gotta do this homework somehow," was the reply as Fang went in search of Yttrium.

First stop would be: Nudge. She did mental things like finding correct spellings of words all the time, so she'd be their best bet.

"Hey, Nudge," Fang said as he strolled into the kitchen. Nudge turned toward him. "You know how to spell things."

"Yeah, doesn't everyone?" Nudge giggled. "I mean, everyone's gotta know how to spell something, right, like their name and favorite food and col - "

"Yeah, great," Fang cut her off. "Do you know how to spell Yttrium? Me and Ig are doing our science homework and - "

Nudge cut him off this time. "What the heck is that? Is that a color? Or a country? Oooh, oooh, I know! I'll bet it's - "

"NUDGE!" Fang implored. "D'you know how to spell it or not?"

"Nope," Nudge said, and Fang left.

Who next to ask? He didn't want to go to Max, because… well, she was Max; Gazzy and Angel were too young; and he was certainly not going to go to Anne. He disliked her almost as much as Max did.

So, by process of elimination, to Gazzy.

Fang looked all over the house, but Gaz was nowhere to be found.
He finally decided to go to Anne's room, as much as he didn't want to. If one of the flock was missing, he'd prefer that someone knew where they were.

"Anne?" he asked after knocking and getting no answer. "You in here?"

"Oh, Nick, is that you?" he heard from the closet. He peered in to see her organizing her clothes. Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he asked, "Have you seen Zephyr? I've been looking all over for him."

"He went out with a friend; didn't you know?" she replied. He shook his head. Gazzy has a friend?

"Do you, by any chance, know how to spell Yttrium?" he asked. As long as he was here…

"Um… Y-i-… no… that's a pretty hard one," she admitted.

"Okay. Thanks anyway."

Fang was stumped. The only other possible candidate was Max. He did NOT want to look stupid in front of Max.

"FNICK!" Iggy hollered from up the stairs. "HAVE YOU FIGURED IT OUT YET?"

Damn. To Max, then.

But where was she?

After another housewide search, Fang found Max sitting by the lake, wings outstretched. She must have sensed his approach, because before he reached her, she turned and said, "Hey."

He sat down wordlessly next to her. Once he was there and comfortable, he began.

"Know that you are my last resort. I didn't want it to come down to this, but Iggy… Anyway. Do you know how to spell Yttrium?"

Max looked at him, her brow furrowed. Suddenly, she burst out laughing so hard she was rocking back and forth.

"You… don't… know… how to… spell…" she choked out. Then she abruptly stopped. "Neither do I."

"Oh, come on!" Fang yelled to the heavens. "Doesn't ANYONE know how to spell Yttrium?!"

Angel strolled past, Total trotting alongside her. "Silly Fang," she giggled. "We've had no proper education. Of course we can't spell it." She left, with Fang wondering at how out-of-character that was.

Total sniffed haughtily from the too-tall grass. "Yttrium. Y-T-T-R-I-U-M. Discovered 1787 in Sweden. Can cause lung disease in humans."

Fang raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, honestly," Total huffed as he loped away.

You don't even want to know how many times I misspelled Yttrium during this writing process.

Well, there you have it. My last, fairly suckish chapter that didn't turn out as funnily as I was hoping it would. Ah, well. Can't help it if it accidentally got deleted after I magically forgot to post it with X.

And as I'm typing this, it's snowing like mad outside. Like, I can't see out the window. I love Ohio.

Akira, you're up. TONIGHT.