Well, first off I would like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! And HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO THE REST OF YOU!

Yes. It is my birthday. Don't look so surprised. I'm just that awesome. So MLEH!!

OK, the main reason that I haven't updated in such a long time is because since in two weeks, my ninth grade class is going to London. (Yes, you all should be jealous.) SO all the teachers decided, "Oh! Let's pile all the crap on these poor little freshmen now before they go off on a vacation!" (Here's where you all become un-jealous.) But, my darling best friend and fellow author Care912 showed me that history class is sometimes the best place to write a chapter that you later post in one of your study periods. She IS a genius. THANKS CARE912!!

I have also realized, however, that this will completely screw up the remainders of my GPA, due to the fact that she also suggested to me the idea of printing out fanfictions to bring to class to me. Oh, Care912, are you out to make sure that we fail history class together?

OH WELL! THIS IS OF NO IMPORTANCE!! HERE IS THE NEXT CHAPTER OF DANCING WITH FIRE! ENJOY!

Disclaimer: Though it is my birthday and I wished for it with all my might, I have not been mailed either my Hogwarts acceptance letter OR the ownership papers of Maximum Ride, Twilight, Second Chance, or Montana. But I DO own my own copy of "Brand New Eyes", and a whole basket load of new clothes, and my own Kindle. So I guess I just have to right that letter to Santa now...

And now, ON WITH THE STORY!

--Angel POV--

Either I'm an idiot, or Valerie is just too hard-headed to be considered even in the mildest terms a good thing anymore. Jeez, I should have never let her out of my sight. None of this would have happened if I had just made her stay with me. Or at least within my sights. I swear, if she's hurt I'm going to murder the people who hurt her, and then cheerfully yell "WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!" to her face.

This had been the gist of Demon's mental shrink visit for about, oh, say, ever since we had left the Bunker.

I mean yes, I knew that he had feelings for the girl, and that he was worried, scared, angry, sad, and just about every other emotion under the sun. But seriously, after a day and a half of his mental ranting, enough was enough.

I looked over at Fang, who was splitting his time between glancing at Max and making sure that his brother didn't go trying to find Valerie on his own. Because even if he doesn't realize it, he's just as stubborn as she is.

Demon had become something of a feathered mess ever since Valerie had disappeared without a trace of anything. He was quiet again, reverting back into himself like before. He really wanted to go after her, and it took every ounce of restraint that he had—and the combined efforts of all of us—to convince him that going off and flying to the nearest School location would not have been helping any matters.

He looked strange. Without Val there, Demon didn't look whole. Even now, as we were flying high above what I think was the border between Colorado and Kansas, the space that Demon was flying over that was reserved for Valerie looked like a gaping hole.

The rest of us weren't holding up well either.

Fang's thoughts were all over the place. He was half for the idea of going off in search of Valerie, too. He was worrying about how all of this affected Max. He was trying to make sure that his brother didn't do something stupid. I extended my mind for a closer look.

This is possibly the biggest shit-load we've had in a while. Valerie's been either abducted or she's playing hide and seek. Max isn't sleeping properly again because she's trying to keep up her "I'm the fearless leader and nothing bothers me" charade when I know that she's freaking out over the fact that Val's gone. Demon's going crazy, to say the least. Shit, this is why we stick together. We're family. And now, since my brother's gone and fallen in love with his best friend, we've got two members practically out of commission.

I pulled away after this, my head hurting. Fang, even though he didn't show that much emotion all the time, felt a lot. And since he reigned it in, most of the emotion was bouncing around in his head, punctuating every thought. So when I looked in, it was like your head was being squeezed inward from all sides.

And his brother wasn't that far off.

Right after Val had disappeared without a trace, Demon had re-retreated back inside of his head. And so now, his mind feels even worse than Fang's because of all the emotions and words that he's trying to keep inside of him. Essentially, his head's turned into one giant pressurized brain bubble. Heck, I don't even have to look in on his head anymore since his thoughts are practically throwing themselves at me. I can't stand it.

And neither can Max.

Max always tries to make everything seem like all is fine and wonderful and nothing's bothering her. And I have to admit, when we were all younger, all of us fell for the act. Well, everyone except for Fang, since Fang has had "The Guidebook to Maximum Ride" memorized inside his head since the age of two.

No, wait. Scratch that, that's a lie. He wrote the book.

But, going back to the topic of Max post-Val's disappearing act, Max has been putting on a really good show for us, but her mind, which is usually pretty ordered, has been in shambles. Not as bad as when Fang had left, because nothing will ever be that bad. I mean, her mind was everywhere and nowhere all at once. It was like the ground after a nuclear bomb had been dropped. But anyway, Val's disappearance had affected her pretty badly.

Max and Valerie had become pretty close, bonding over the fact that they were both teenage girls leading their own, as Max has put it countless times mentally, "merry band of mutants". They understood each other, and Max finally had a girl friend that she could trust. And then this happened. Jeez, nothing ever goes well for us for long, does it?

The amount of worry and franticness was weighing us down, and Max suddenly shouted back to the rest of us, "We're landing!"

I snapped out of it, and followed Max towards the ground. I looked around. "Max, where are we?"

She started to walk forward, and we all immediately fell into step behind her. She went up to a house that I'd never seen before, and knocked on the door.

My ears picked up on a voice shouting, "Coming!", and then Max's mom had thrown open the door. She looked tired, and happy, and—

"ZOMG! YOU'RE PREGNANT!" Well thank you, Nudge, for that little clarification.

--Meanwhile, in Montana—

--Valerie POV—

"Tell my mother. Tell my father. I've done the best I caaaaaan…"

For the past two minutes, Colin has been playing American Idol with Exie, Gem, Nate, and Gina. The Cullens have still yet to wake up and smell the werewolf. And Kami woke up and is now sitting on my lap, playing with my hair. She turned away from me and clapped enthusiastically at her uncle, bouncing up and down.

Colin grinned and bowed. I couldn't help but roll my eyes and shake my head. I warmed my hands a little more, and Kami sank back down into my lap, playing with my hair again.

Finally, after Gina went through her rendition of "Heartbreaker" by Aretha Franklin, Edward woke up first.

"You all…" Well, we all have to start somewhere.

Next was Rosalie. "Alright, what was that?"

I threw my hands up. "We have English!" Mini giggled.

Rosalie's very much delayed reaction seemed to snap the others out of it. "What the heck are you people?" So tactful, Emmett.

"Not like anything you've seen before." I answered cryptically, watching and mentally hearing as Edward's impatience started to grow.

"Ya damn skippy!" Drex yelled, slapping Nate a high five.

Carlisle tried again. "Umm, could you tell us why you all smell partially like animals?" Huh. Carlisle stuttered. I feel that I have made a huge impact in society.

I looked at Colin's face. He was obviously having the same internal battle I was. I mean, they had obviously seen the fact that some of us had butterfly wings, bat wings, lion, mouse and fox tails. You couldn't even look at the Refugees without seeing that they were very very different from your average person.

Well, this is a lovely little piece of crap cake.

It was surprisingly Niara who spoke up. "We're just different than your average vamps."

"Yeah, we get that, but seriously? How are you all so animalistic? And how do you make it all seem so realistic? And what were those things that you all ripped to shreds in the forest? And how do you all know how to fight so well?" Alice was bouncing faster and faster in her seat as she asked more and more questions.

I finally sighed. "Well, I can get away with this, since the entire guinea pig thing had happened a while back," I said to Gina. "But you guys can't so I am making a huge sacrifice. Y'all owe me."

I turned to the Cullens. "We're all part animal. That's why it's so real. Those things in the forest were Flyboys who want to destroy us. We had to fight them before, so we know their strengths and weaknesses. Plus, we're vamps. We're stronger than they are, stronger than you are since we're part animal too. And that's not factoring in the entire thing that I'm a newborn vamp."

I sat back in my chair, feeling exposed. Gina and the others were looking at me in awe. "Caramel…"

I shrugged, and Gina saw right through that. She narrowed her eyes at me, but Exie got to me before she did. "Val, you didn't have to. We know how you are."

Before I could say anything else, Jasper said, "So, wait. You all are really… like Jake?"

"Sort of. Yeah. Except that the only one of us who's like them is A.J., since he's actually part wolf." A.J. waved his hand. "The rest of us are different animal recombinants." Gina said, casting me a small glance.

Esme, who had so far been quiet, said, "Like?"

Nate and Drex swished their tails in front of them. "Foxes."

The twins' ears twitched. "Mouse."

Gina, Collin, and Niara all pointed out their swishing tails. "Lion."

Exie jumped up and spun around, singing, "Butterfly!"

Ray and I were the only ones left, and everyone was staring at us. In a sense, we were the most fortunate because what had happened to us was the least obvious. But we were both so used to not saying anything about it that it was a new concept to reveal ourselves. Shiznits.

Ray shifted a little where he was standing, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw him nod his head just slightly. I sighed, and concentrated on making my back re-open to let my wings out.

Breathing slowly, I inhaled once, twice, three times before opening out a wing to its full length. At the same time, Ray opened out his wings to full length.

"Bat." "Bird."

Gina was looking at the both of us with some equivalent of pride in her eyes, and she actually sniffed a little, looking like she was about to cry.

Meanwhile, Carlisle had reverted back to lab-coat mode. "Incredible. Does that hurt? Does this affect your instincts and behavior? How did this happen? How long have you been like this? How do you all manage not to hurt each other like in the wild?"

Immediately, I felt the atmosphere in the room tense up. Kami looked at me with her green eyes, and I couldn't help but be reminded of Demon. I winced at the shot of pain that went through me, surprisingly larger than I had expected it to be.

And then Kami said, "Mommy, are we going to see Daddy soon?"

I stared down at Kami, not knowing what to say to her. And then the compulsively lying part of my brain popped up. "Daddy's gone on another mission, Luz. He and the others are going to be gone for a while, but Mommy's going to take good care of you, okay?"

Kami's eyes clouded over a bit, and her bottom lip jutted out. "When will he be back?"

I sighed, wrapping her arms around my neck. "When they all finish with the mission, then they'll all come back. And they'll all be soo happy to see you, they'll cry." And maybe Mommy will cry too.

Kami brightened up at my answer, and then snuggled back into my chest.

Edward looked at me with questioning eyes. "Valerie, exactly how is Kami related to you?"

A.J. answered for me. "She's not. End of story."

And then Gina got down to the bulk of it. "So how the hell are we going to do this?"

Carlisle immediately perked up, thinking that we were all getting ready to reveal the wondrous inner workings of our subconscious.

Gina kept going on, ignoring everyone's sudden involved look. "Valerie, you obviously can't come back with us when we go to tell the others where you are." I shot her a look, and then she realized just how much she had let slip and immediately shut up.

But the werewolves were smarter and much more involved than we thought. Seth, who had been completely silent for the entire duration of this episode, immediately asked. "So, who are the others?"

Of course. Because that's just how the entire flipping day has been going.

"Umm…Well…." And Gina is of absolutely NO use.

"We're in deep shit now, aren't we, Val?"

I glared at Nate, who was stupid enough to ask the question. "No shit, Sherlock."

So, how did you like it? Was it a good enough filler-like thing? (Honestly, I'm not sure what the hell to call this chapter, since it sort of was important, but not that much.) So yes, reviews for the birthday girl! PWEASE????????????????

Yeah, you totally can't resist the cuteness of my pleading! EAT THAT, PHILLIP! (Sorry, Phillip is what I named my stomach. He and Ashanti (the voice in my head who sometimes takes the form of Valerie or other characters from this fic) have been arguing about whether or not my puppy dog eyes work. And I believe that Ashanti won by saying that they do.)

Peace, love, and:

Moe: -while the seven of us in our Latin A class are hiding under the desks in the dark trying not to have Latin class- "You know, when we're older, I really hope that we're still this cool. Even Zee in her rocket powered wheelchair."

(a.k.a. Skittles31)