"Max can't kick you out of my house." Ella pulled on Iggy's arm, but he wouldn't budge from the cushion.

Ella dropped his arm and turned to Angel. "Okay, your turn. Make him get up."

"Uh-uh." Angel's lips quivered. "I can't make Iggy's sadness go away." Silent tears began to stream down Angel's cheeks. She fluttered to Iggy, curled up in his lap and pressed her wet face into his neck. Iggy held Angel and rocked side to side silently.

Ella huffed in exasperation, and stomped to the archway leading to the foyer. She collided with Nudge who was charging in, towing Gazzy behind her, dragging him by the hand. "Ouch!" Ella complained, rubbing her nose and checking it to see if there was any blood. There wasn't.

"Where are you going?" Nudge questioned unapologetically.

"What's it to you?" Ella tried to brush past Nudge but was pushed back.

"Me and Gazzy came here to get some answers, so you're not goin' anywhere, Ella." Nudge's eyes flashed from Ella's surprised face to Angel sobbing in Iggy's arms. "What's going on now?"

Ella smiled a fierce grimace. "Total drama cuckoo club. And I'm flying the coop." Ella pushed against Nudge.

Gazzy snapped, "Are you stupid, Ella?" He wrestled his hand from Nudge's grasp and then shoved Ella over to the huge seat cushion and pushed her down next to Iggy. "Can't you tell that Angel is crying Iggy's tears?"

"What?"

"Big boys don't cry," Gazzy explained. "So Angel is crying the tears that Iggy won't."

Ella looked up at Iggy's stone cold face. She tentatively put her hand on Iggy's arm.

Angel crawled off of Iggy's lap and wiped her face. "Okay, Nudge. I think we're done crying for now."

Nudge looked to Gazzy and nodded to him. They both sat on the floor in front of the big cushion. "Ever since Max took off, this whole flock thing went all topsy-turvy. And then Ella went from being my new best friend to not even checking in on me in the morning to see what outfit I picked. And then Gazzy here was, like, all alone, too, you know? 'Cause Fang was always on his laptop and then Iggy no longer would play any card games. And then he always left the house at night and Gazzy was scared to be alone, and …"

Gazzy tried suppressed a choking sadness building in his throat, but a sad lament escaped anyway.

Iggy cleared his throat. "Aw, Gazz. Come here."

Gazzy shuffled to Iggy and sat on his lap. "Sorry, little dude. I totally flubbed up. I didn't think about what you were going through." Iggy ruffled Gazzy's hair.

Nudge wiped her nose on the back of her hand. "And we still don't even know why Max left in the first place. And then Max is all angry at Iggy today. It's like some big secret. I thought we were a family."

Iggy's face reddened. "It's mostly my fault." He cleared his throat. "Well, um … okay, so if you kind of noticed, a lot of us are getting old enough to want to do grown up stuff … like kissing."

"Eww!" Gazzy complained, scooting off Iggy's lap. "Just, eww."

Iggy snickered. "Yeah, it might sound gross. But it's kind of what happens."

"That doesn't explain why you and Max are fighting," Nudge grumped.

"That." Iggy scratched the back of his head and sighed. "Okay. There's only one Max and there's two of us, Fang and me. And so I was jealous."

"Ohhhh," Angel murmured, realization brightening your face. "I thought you were just being mean," she whispered.

Iggy put his arm around Angel. "That, too," he conceded. "So, I told Max that I liked her. But then Max showed me that she belonged with Fang. And then Ella showed me that we belong together."

"Showed you?" Nudge puzzled.

Ella's face turned bright red and Nudge looked at her. "Not that! Gross. Spare us the disgusting details of mating." Nudge blew raspberries on her hand, as if the word tasted bad. "I mean Max. How did Max show you?"

Angel patted Iggy's knee. She scooted forward and explained, "Max got really, really, really mad at Iggy and Fang fighting over her. And then there was this huge ball of fire that exploded in her stomach and she turned into a wolfy-thing."

"Wolfy," Gazzy panicked.

"An Eraser," Iggy whispered.

Nudge jumped off the ground and backed up, instincts hyperactive. "Max is an Eraser?" she screamed.

Ella complained, "What is it with you guys and those things?"

Iggy spoke softly. "Erasers were created to destroy. To erase the existence of … us. By killing us."

Ella gulped.

Nudge had panic in her eyes. "We should go rescue Fang right now. Max could kill him any minute!"

Angel stood up and said with a happy smile, "Fang loves Max. He thinks she's a cute puppy girl. And she's still leader of our flock."

"But she'll kill us!" Gazzy warned. "We have to get Fang away from her!"

Angel put her hands on her hips. "Iggy proved that no one will ever get Fang away from Max. Whatever Iggy did to her … and that was gross, Iggy, I just want you to know … and your stick thingy is gross, too, but I guess you can't do anything about that …"

"What did you do to Max?" Nudge asked.

Iggy sighed. "I tried to make her choose to mate with me."

Nudge swallowed. "Did you mate?"

"No."

Angel explained, "Fang heard Max say she wanted Iggy's stick inside her."

Nudge blushed.

Ella piped up. "So what? It doesn't prove that Fang loves Max."

Angel said quietly, "If Fang didn't love Max, he wouldn't have gone off to find her and bring her back."

Gazzy scratched his armpit. "But what did you do to make Max so mad at you, Iggy?"

Iggy sighed loudly. "I was with Max in her room. Fang broke down the door. And then Max knew what I had done. She knew I'd tricked her into feeling like she could love me. That's why she doesn't want me anywhere near Ella. She thinks that I'm tricking Ella into loving me."

"But I do love you. And nothing Max says is going to change that!"

Then Angel shouted, "Seriously, everybody, stop thinking about Iggy's stick-thing!"