Maximum Ride is property of James Patterson. Kisha, Deveann, Adriana, etc. are property of me. Kumali, Static, Raivin, etc. are property of Jwan/Cix.

I know that it's been a long time but I hope that someone's reading this! Hee hee, I'm really sorry for the wait.

Adriana's POV

We reached the Mother Tree extraordinarily fast by car. It only took us about two days. During those two days we played lots of car games and picked up on what's been gong on. Nacho has been getting good grades and joined the football team at his school. Static had one of the highest SAT scores in the nation. Lisa had been taking leadership classes. Raivin was learning everything possible there is to learn about flying and wings from her mother and research. Kai's attitude only got worse over the year. Nothing had really happened with me.

When we pulled up to Marigold's trunk we hopped out, prepared for an ambush. Deivihd and View just crawled out of the hole casually. "Qupid told us you were coming," Deivihd informed.

View sighed, "You could have at least bothered to stop the car so she could get off."

Static glared at Kai, "See?!"

Kai shrugged carelessly.

My immediate reaction was to fold my arms and tell him to be nicer but I could clearly see that he wasn't in the mood right now so I resorted to option B, "Jerk." His head whipped around and he scowled at me. I only gazed fearlessly back. "Oh, what? I'm supposed to be scared? Am I supposed beg for forgiveness? Hm?" His frown only deepened. He was challenging me. "I'm not sure you quite understand this yet Kai, but I don't take orders from you, nor to I give a darn what your deal is with me. Get over yourself, you stuck up attention hog!" That felt good, a little over board but he did egg me on.

Deivihd gave View a hesitant glance. Her shrewd eyes were bright with delight. "Disaster in paradise?" He asked.

More like, living in a fool's paradise. Kai's foul mood was getting to me.

"Oh, too funny," I remarked. "Excuse him." Was it not so long ago that he would freely let me speak for him? What happened? "We need to see Dr. Washington," I informed.

View nodded, "Of course. You know the way. Since you're on our side, now, I see no reason that you six wouldn't be able to just let yourselves in." I nodded and stepped to the side to let Lisa go in front of me. We filed in afterwards. Kai's glare was distracting and his thoughts were making me want to punch something so I tried to keep my mind focused on Raivin's eerie music and fascinated expression.

We reached the end of the tunnel what seemed to be much faster now. I knocked on the door. "Coming!" A woman's singsong voice called. I blinked with surprise.

"Oops, we forgot to tell you-" View began.

A busty girl, seemingly nineteen, with long blue and black hair that went down to her prominent waist threw open the door. Her shining green eyes roved over our group. "Ahsik?!" I cried. Her eyes fell on me and glittered with delight.

"You must be Adriana!" She gave me a tight hug. I could have sworn I heard something crack. "Oh, I'm so happy to see you! William told me you had been here! Come on in! I've got so much to ask all of you!" We obliged hurriedly. She sat next to me on one of the many mattresses. "How's your mother?"

I scratched my head, pondering. Truthfully, I hadn't thought much about it. "Probably angry. See... We all sort of ran away from home..."

Kisha's POV - Three days ago, 2 AM

I lay awake in her bed, seething over what my daughter was about to do. I could hardly believe this. She was running away. To do the thing I'd tried and failed to do not more than two decades ago. I stood, my motherly instinct telling me that if she was leaving I was going to at least give her a run for her money. As I stood I nudged Deveann awake. He sat up groggily. "Wuzup?" He mumbled. I groaned, however was he going to take the news?

"I'm going after Adriana."

"Huh?" But it clicked; I felt his remorse suddenly overflowing. "Why is she-?"

"You know why, she's our daughter, what did you expect?" I opened the window at the same time that she opened her own. I jumped out, as she did. Her landing was messy and her sprint was lagging but I figured that she'd pick up on it sooner or later. Preferably sooner. Deveann jumped out after me, landing silently and catching up with me. As we reached her destination, I jumped behind a large tree, only to have Deveann follow. An engine revved up not too much later. We snuck out from behind the tree. To my utter shock, a girl that I didn't know was climbing onto the car. Kumali and Iggy had just caught up and Fang and Max were slowly descending from the sky.

Kumali glanced worriedly at me, "They're responsible kids, right? They can handle themselves."

"STEP ON IT!" Raivin screamed. Iggy broke into laughter thought Kumali looked weary and faint. I could do nothing but put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

As the car drove off you could see Caixein in the driver's seat. "That's my boy!" Fang shouted.

Max smacked him, "THAT'S OUR CAR INSUANCE DRIVING OFF!" She hollered angrily.

Deveann wore an expression fit to match Kumali's. "My baby... is in a car... with that hooligan... my little baby..." he murmured to himself.

"Listen to yourself, hon. You just said hooligan," I informed him. He nodded, briefly sniffling.

Adriana's POV

Ahsik wore a look of understanding, "I see... And the others? Why don't you introduce me?"

I nodded and stood, waving a hand towards the individual as I presented them. "Nacho. He's the son of George and Nudge. Static. The son of Gazzy and Lita. Raivin. The daughter of Iggy and Kumali. Kai. The son of Max and Fang. And Lisa. The daughter of Max and Fang."

She giggled, "Oh ho! Two children? I suppose that's just like those two, taking on more than they can handle."

The corner of Kai's mouth twitched with amusement. I could see him struggling not to show me he'd retained a sense of humour. I could merely gaze in bewilderment at why in the world Kai was treating me so coldly as of late.

That's that. I can't think of much else at the moment but I'll totally try to update soon. Seriously!