ALRIGHT!! Because it is Spring Break, I have realized that it would make no sense to just not update again during this lovely amount of free time. Never mind that I'm supposed to be using said free time to be doing my bio project. That isn't important.

BUT YES!! I HAVE WRITTEN THE NEXT CHAPTER OF DWF!! IN 2 DAYS!! BE PROUD, AS THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!! EVER!! The closest I ever came to posting this fast was on the birthday of DWF.

Oh, and because I got a lot of confused reviews from various people on different things I would like to clear some stuff up. One, Val isn't Max's real, biological sister. She's no one's sister. She is only referred to as sister because everyone is close. Like in the Flock; none of them are really related, but Angel is Max's baby, Nudge is the talkative older sister, and Iggy is the totally awesome uncle/ big brother figure.

Another thing, on the topic of the names, don't worry about the multitude of nicknames that half the characters have. I know a lot of you have gotten confused about that stuff in the past, and I'm really sorry. Don't even bother trying to memorize all of them, because most of them were a one time, never brought up again, type of thing. So just know that Valerie is Val, Demon is D, and that's pretty much it. Sorry again!

And now, disclaimer: No. Just no. Because I'm still not James Patterson, and it's never going to be that way. I'm still too angry at him to even consider the prospect of being him and owning Max Ride. I could think about being Stephanie Meyer, but I'm sort of still bitter against her because Leah isn't with Jacob. So, no again.

And NOW, ON WITH THE STORY!!

-Val POV-

Ummm… At the slight risk of sounding like a complete airhead, what the hell? And…uh… yeah, that's all I got.

Max, Nudge and I were still sitting in semi- shock in Principal Waters' office. I couldn't get over the fact that she seemed like an older version of a teenager. Who really, really loved her alcohol.

Finally, after staring at the principal long enough, I managed to force myself out of my chair and say, "Yeah. Okay."

Picking up my messenger bag stiffly, I motioned to Nudge, who grabbed her book bag and walked out of the office with Max following behind us.

The door shut, and the secretary looked up at all three of us and our shocked faces. She sighed and said, "Yeah, that's what all the new kids look like. We've been trying to get her to quit drinking at school for a while now, but that's not really working out, as you can see…"

And then she went back to typing on her little keyboard like it was completely normal to tell three relatively new students that their principal had a problem with alcohol abuse. I shook my head in disbelief, then readjusted my shoulder strap and walked out the office.

Class was going to be over in about five minutes, so we didn't even bother going back to class. Instead, we opted for sitting outside on one of the benches that the school had decorating the way between the buildings. After crashing all over the bench and the sidewalk, we sat in silence, until Nudge broke the nice, noiseless atmosphere. And I expected no less of her.

"Can I be the first to ask what the hell just happened in there?" She stated bluntly, and I nodded in agreement.

"Are principals even supposed to be drinking in school?" I added, resting my head against Nudge's knee, since I was the one sitting on the ground.

Nudge and I waited for Max to say something, but I have to say that I never expected the next thing that came out of her mouth: "I liked her."

We younger bird- children turned to face her, and Max shrugged. "She seemed pretty cool to me."

Ah, Max. You never fail to disappoint me. I can never predict what's going to come out of your mouth next.

"Explain please," Nudge said, not taking the classic Max moment with as much stride as I had.

Max shrugged. "She seemed pretty cool. She didn't care that we had knocked out all 18 of those other skank- bags, and the only reason that she even gave us the punishment was because she had to come off as "fair". She was pretty cool."

I thought about Max's reasoning, and had to agree with her. Nudge, on the other hand? Not so much. She jumped up from where I was using her as a head rest- Way to be considerate, Nudge darling…- and turned around to give Max and I a mini rant. "What the heck?! Max, she was just telling us off, and then out of nowhere, she pulls out a bottle of whiskey from her desk! How does that not come off as odd to you?!"

I stepped in there. "That was pretty odd, but still. You've got to admit that Waters was cool."

Nudge threw her arms up into the air, and I snickered under my breath. It's just so easy to get Nudge flustered, not to mention fun. "I give up. I will never understand you two."

I smirked a little, meeting her questioning gaze. "I don't see why you try. I don't try to figure out what the heck goes on in your head."

At another wonderfully timed moment, the bell rang again, and I hopped up from where I was on the ground. "And now I have… aw, chiz. I have art now."

Max looked at me sideways, confused. "But I thought you liked art. The teacher's insane, lets you have paint fights, and she's a tad violent. You're a perfect fit."

I sighed, walking in the middle of our group. "Yeah, but I have art with Skye. She's gonna flip a chit or something when she sees me."

Max gave me a half sympathetic, half "I am so happy that I'm not in your shoes" look. I glared at her, and happily reminded her that Fang was in her class.

"And so, my dear, you are more screwed that I am," I said, and while Nudge walked away laughing at us, I stuck my tongue out at our older almost- sister and dashed into the safety of the art studio before Max could wrap her hands around my neck.

As soon as I walked into the art studio, everything got really quiet. My smile faded as I realized that everyone was staring at me. I got really uncomfortable really fast, being reminded of the days back in the Institute, although I tried not to show it. Finally, I snapped, "What?"

Then, because the timing today was just impeccable, Emily walked in with an icepack on her cheek. She sent me a horrible glare, although I noticed with a swell of joy in my chest that she was clutching her shoulder bag so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.

And no, I am not a sadist. I just find that causing this girl to be uncomfortable and or in any type of emotional or physical pain makes my day. Two completely different subjects.

I cocked a hip out and crossed my arms again, the smirk making its way onto my face. Wordlessly, she turned and walked to her seat, slamming her stuff down upon arrival. I chuckled under my breath, muttered a word that rhymes with "itch", and took my regular seat next to the window.

A few seconds later, Skye came stomping in, and as soon as she made eye contact with me, her eyes narrowed. I rolled my eyes-Here it comes…- and watched as Skye almost stampeded down the aisle to seat herself beside me.

As soon as she had set her stuff down, she turned on me. "What did you do now, Valerie? I knew that the relative peace of this school couldn't hold up much longer with you here."

I turned to look at the front of the class room and made no eye contact with her. I tried to keep a straight face, and was failing horribly. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Skye narrowed her eyes at me, and just as she was about to keep talking, Kendra came in from the paint supply room.

Kendra was around Max's height, wore ripped up jeans pretty much all the time, and had black hair and dark brown eyes. She was the school's art teacher, and Max was right; she was my favorite teacher. First off, she let us get into paint fights. Second, she had that sarcastic, "I take no crap" attitude. Third, she was not afraid to speak her mind.

Plus, she let us call her by her first name, unlike the rest of the teachers at the school. She said that it made her sound like an old lady.

"Alright, people. We have to get some actual work done today. We can't have another paint fight like last time because that took forever to get out of my clothes. So, here's the agenda for today. We're doing self portraits! And no, I don't care if you think that you're ugly, fat, or in the middle. You have to draw what you see. Some of your stuff will be put on the bulletin board outside, and I don't want anybody coming and asking me "Who's that?" It should be pretty damn obvious. Any questions?" She said, and the glint in her eye told us that she wanted us to shut up and start, so no one put their hand up.

"Ok, go ahead. And don't bother me." Kendra started handing out large pieces of paper and pieces of charcoal. Then she sat cross- legged on her desk and started playing with a rubber band. That was another one of the more insane things about her; if you annoyed her in any way, she'd shoot a rubber band at you.

Immediately, I started working on penciling in my actual outline. I had learned a while ago that I suck at doing people standing up- For some reason, everyone always ends up lop-sided or something...- and did a rough outline of myself sitting down leaning against a tree. Photo me was going to be facing front, with one leg drawn up and the other bent under the first. I was supposed to be looking dead at the "camera", so to speak. I would figure out the rest of the details later.

And then, Skye went back to chewing me out, and started to whisper yell under her breath. "Val!"

I sighed, still not looking her dead in the eye. If I did, I would never be able to keep up the almost innocent act that I was trying to pull off. "What happened?"

Out of my peripheral vision, I saw her put down her piece of charcoal and turn fully towards me. "That's what I should be asking you."

I didn't answer, and Skye tried to approach the situation from a different angle. "You, Monique, and Max were all called to the principal's office. And then one of Emily's cronies walks into English and she has a forming black eye. Not to mention the fact that when Emily walked in with that bruise on her face, she glared at you like you were, I don't know, someone who was fully clothed. Or, you know, you. So, once again Val, what the heck happened?"

I finally put down the pencil that I was using and said to Skye's face, "I am not going to say anything. You're a smart girl, Evelyn, you can figure it out. And plus, if I even tell you, you're going to lecture me on why not to do it. When Nick, Jeff and Trent find out, they're going to chew me out enough. Sheesh, bunch of hypocrites…" I muttered under my breath, trying not to draw too much attention to our table.

Before Skye could say anything else, I gave her a look that said "End of discussion. Drop it." and went back to penciling myself in.

When I had managed to get most of the important elements down on paper, I was about to reach for my iPod when Kendra added in, "Oh yeah! You're allowed to use one color only to really add to the picture. It can be whatever color you want. Don't ask me anything about if the damn color looks good, okay? Pick one, and do whatever with it. If you ask me that question, or any form of it, I'm going to use that color and scribble all over your portrait with it. And then say that it looks good." With that, she went back to playing absent- mindedly with her rubber band.

For the remaining 25 minutes, Skye and I worked in silence. I mentally sighed. I sort of felt bad for brushing off her questions like that, but I preferred to keep it under wraps until everyone got together again after school. I hated repeating myself.

And besides, Skye knows I'm stubborn, so she probably realized that this wasn't going to go her way from the beginning. So I shouldn't really feel that bad. That thought made me feel a little bit better.

Finally, the bell rang, and I packed all of my stuff away into the back room and waited for Skye to finish getting all her stuff together before we walked out together.

As soon as we walked into the hallway, trying to get to math, everyone parted ways for us. I had to restrain myself from smirking. Well obviously if they didn't know before, they know now.

Skye just looked a little angrier because she still didn't know what the heck was going on. I'm not sure now if it's a good thing that we ignore school gossip or not.

As we walked into math class, one kid brushed past me, whispering in my ear, "Nice job." He kept walking past me, and I only saw his face when he turned and smiled at me over his shoulder. And, almost involuntarily, I half- smiled back.

I walked to my seat, which was in front of Blaze, behind Mira and beside Jinx. At the exact same time, they all turned to me and opened their mouths. Before I could even say anything, Skye stepped in. "Guys, don't even bother. She's not gonna say anything. I tried, but Val's unbelievably stubborn."

All three of them let out groans and turned back to their desks. Jinx tried one last time. "You sure you don't want to tell us anything?"

I chuckled a bit and took on an overly incredulous look. "Jason! I never said that I wouldn't tell you anything!"

Immediately, Mira spun around in her seat and Blaze leaped over his desk to get closer to the information that I might have been letting leak out.

I continued. "I never said that I wouldn't say anything…. I said that I wouldn't say anything yet. Silly Jason," I said, shaking my head, my smirk fully back on my face.

All three of them groaned even louder than before. Mira shot me a wordless glare, and Jinx said, "Not cool, Val." Blaze walked almost dejectedly back to his seat, and Skye, who sits next to him, rubbed his back for him comfortingly. "I told you. I don't know why in the world you got your hopes up."

I chuckled to myself again, busying myself with writing down all the stuff that Ms. Gutierrez had started writing on the board immediately after she walked in. This was the one class that I didn't have to really worry about anyone trying to bug me in, seeing as Ms. G went through her lessons so fast you had to really work to keep up. Or, you know, possess vampire speed.

Seeing as it was the last class of the day, I was getting a little worried about how Demon was going to take the reason. Well, not just him. I was wondering if Fang and Iggy were going to flip out over the amount of people we had… incapacitated.

Oh well. It's not like they could go back in time and see what happened and stop it from happening.

Math class passed by in a blur, partially because I was daydreaming so much. Eh, I'll get notes from Skye later. Packing my stuff up, I walked out with Jinx practically hopping beside me with glee. I rolled my eyes and stopped outside of my locker to drop off and pick up whatever books I would need before heading outside to face ultimate doom.

When I got outside, I was met with a large round of applause from a surprisingly large amount of other kids. Jinx elbowed me in the side, whispering shouting, "Take a bow!"

Playing along, I did a little mock bow and kept going on my way, a smile now on my face. At least until I got to where the rest of my larger band of not- entirely- winged misfits were waiting under a tree.

"Oh dear," I said to myself, and I tried to nonchalantly leave the premises without being noticed.

Then Max saw the look on my face and shook her head. Don't even bother, she thought at me. It didn't work. He'll just drag you back, kicking and screaming.

It was after she sent that message that I realized that Fang was acting as her bodyguard, making sure that she didn't run away. To add to the horridness of the situation, Demon was standing beside Fang, staring dead at me and ready to run if I did. Yup. I'm screwed.

Even with death by fellow bird children staring me dead in the face, I held my head up high and walked over to the tree where everyone had gathered. Skye and Mira walked along behind me, humming a funeral march under their breath. Damn you both. I will come back and haunt you after I die.

We reached the tree and after I dropped my bag by the tree where everyone else's stuff was, I was immediately flanked by Nudge on one side and Max on the other. Facing us were Iggy, Fang, and Demon. Behind them was the rest of our larger Flock- including the non-winged people, the twins and Nessie. And let the trial begin.

After staring at each other defiantly for a few moments, Iggy pierced the silence. "Okay, what the hell happened?" I had to chuckle, because he sounded so much like Nudge had right after the principal incident.

I was about to answer when Max elbowed me in the side and pointed toward the entrance of the school behind us. I turned, and had an intense sense of déjà vu.

There was the Skank Parade again –Do they give up?- with Stella, Emily, and Hannah leading them over. I could already feel the evil grin setting itself on my face. "What's up, Emily?" I called from across the now almost empty parking lot. I could feel Demon's stare burning into my back, and I rolled my shoulders to try to shake of the uncomfortable feeling of being watched.

Her face turned bright red- Sigh. Still not a good color for her….-and she stomped over, the rest of the skank parade falling in line behind her.

Nudge leaned on my shoulder with her elbow and Max took one step forward. I held her back with a hand on her shoulder and a look. Pssh. No anger management problems my foot.

Soon all 18 members of the school's street corner crew were standing in front of us. And they all looked really pissed off. Yup. I still got it.

Demon conscience popped in his few words. You never lost it.

Almost narrowing my eyes externally, I mentally glared. I need to put you in a box before they put me in the happy house.

Stella- the one who liked Fnick- stepped forward first. She glared at all of us before saying, "We just wanted you to know that as of right now, your time at this school is going to be a living nightmare."

Max snorted. "Why? Are more of you coming?"

Emily burst forward, still obviously steaming about our little chat earlier. "Why you little-" Well obviously she's the loose cannon of the bunch…

She attempted to lunge at Max, who ducked under her arms and got out of the way. Emily blinked a few times and was confused when she realized that she was a) not choking Max or something, and b) standing beside Nudge and I, who were waving at her enthusiastically. Or at least, Nudge was. "Hi!"

Emily recovered quickly and stuck a finger in my face. "YOU!! You, you, you—"

I interrupted her, moving her hand to the side. "Shh. Don't think too hard about the next word. Your brain might explode."

Her face turned even redder. "You witch!"

I clapped my hand together, lighting up. "See! I told you a word would come to you! But you'd better sit down. That must have taken a lot out of you."

And with her claws once again ready, Emily launched at me. I quickly ducked under her arms and spun away from her. I then did a little backwards dancing, and Max laughed at me. "Too slow. Too slow."

Hannah managed to keep calm, an astonishing feat, seeing as I could be the most annoying person ever when I really tried. "I don't get why you're trying," she said, and I looked over at Nudge. It was her turn. She immediately perked up.

"Try to provoke you guys? Oh, it's simple, really. It's really fun and doesn't take up that much time. And it's free." Insert classic innocent Nudge beam here.

Hannah shook her head, glaring at Nudge. "No, you idiot." And then the fake thinking look came back. "I don't get why you're trying so hard to keep them away from us. I mean, we're obviously prettier, and the guys totally want us. I mean, who doesn't? Right Jeff?"

Nudge let out a sarcastic chuckle, and answered back before Iggy even got a chance to say anything. "Oh, Hannah. I don't think that you realize it, but Jeff takes out the trash. He doesn't keep it with him."

"Oh, nice one, Niquey!" I said, strutting over to give her a high- 5. Max was too busy laughing at the look on Hannah's face to high- 5 anyone.

Finally, one of the lower level skanks in the general crowd piped up, seeing as all three of her leaders were frozen in shock. "This isn't over, you know! You can't just insult us like this and expect to get away with it!"

Max assumed my default pose- arms crossed, hip cocked out, one eyebrow raised- and said, "Watch us."

I chipped in my last few words too. Yes, I do have a problem with not having the last word. "Now shut up and get back to your stripper poles!"

There was a collective shriek of indignation and then slowly, they started to trickle out one by one. Finally, the only ones left were the few random students that were nowhere near us, we winged children, and the McCarthys.

Most of the aforementioned people still wanted an explanation for the reason why the skank parade was after us in the first place and now had an assortment of bruises and black eyes. Oh yeah. That problem still remains.

Nudge and I looked at each other, mentally debated making a run for it, decided against it, and then proceeded to begin victory dancing on the spot. Max stood there smirking off in the direction of the retreating fan girls.

Hope cracked first. "Ok, what the hell was that?"

Nudge and I continued to victory dance, deciding that this was a much better way of avoiding questioning. Max, on the other hand, was involved in an intense staring competition and silent conversation. And I think Fang was winning.

Finally, Max cracked under the pressure. "I would just like for it to be known that it wasn't our fault. They started it."

"Real smooth, Max," I muttered under my breath, stopping the victory dancing.

"Keep going," Demon said, the first thing he'd said since I got outside.

And then the Nudge Channel turned on. "Well, all of them blocked our way in the hall after we ran away from you guys and were all like 'Stay away from my man or we're gonna hurt you!' And then Val was all sarcastic and pissed them off some more—"

All heads snapped my way. "Traitors. Both of you."

Emmett fist- pumped. "I knew Val was probably the one to start it! Jasper! You owe me $15!"

As the money was handed over to Emmett, Jasper turned my way. "Why, Val? Your self control is amazing, but why do you have such terrible anger management issues?"

I shot him a death glare, and he took a step back. Ha! Win!!... And this doesn't prove anything!

Nudge continued. "Anyway, I looked fun, so Max and I started saying sarcastic stuff too. And then Emily said something really nasty and Val punched her in the face—"

Once again, all heads snapped my way. "No, I do not have anger management problems. Stop looking at me like that!"

Fang sighed. "Oh, Valerie…"

Nudge started up again. "And then she said something sarcastic again with that evil glint in her eyes—"

"Val, we need to get you help."

"I swear I will knit your intestines into a sweater if you do not shut up, Jeff."

"Shutting up."

"And then we kicked their butts, left them in the hallway groaning, tried to go to class, got called the principal's office instead, and then finally we learned that we have detention. Oh, and the principal here? She DRINKS! And, uh, yeah. That's it."

"I knew she never got over that," Max muttered to me.

"This is Monique we're talking about. You really expected her to drop it?" I snapped back under my breath.

Shawn interrupted. "Ok. I'm sorry. I might have missed something. So they were angry because…"

Contributing to the conversation, but only because Nudge and Max were glaring at me, I sighed and said, "The head three hoes want Jeff, Nick, and Trent. We're apparently standing in their way of getting them. To make a long story short, they want us out of the picture."

Demon thought that through and then tried to clarify. "So, you knocked out a whole bunch of almost naked girls and got detention just so that you could save me from a bunch of potential stalkers?"

I turned to face him and nodded. He stared at me for a little while, and then snatched me into a bear hug. "GAH!!"

Holding me in the air a little away from him, he beamed at me. "Thank you, Val."

I smiled, a little confused. "Umm, you're welcome. Anyway, it was enjoyable, beating the mascara out of her."

He shook his head, lowering me to the ground. "You really do have anger issues."

I pouted a little, putting my hands on my hips. "No! And besides, if you'd heard what she'd said you would have decked her too."

Demon shook his head again. "Nope. Val, you have always been the violent one."

I narrowed my eyes. "Name one time when I have been violent besides this episode."

Demon immediately shot back. "We were in the orphanage in NY. One of the parents came to meet you, and you didn't like him. So when he came in, you jumped out of your chair and kicked him in the shin."

Translating that memory into the real one, I smiled fondly. "Oh yeah…" Then I snapped out of it. "That doesn't mean I'm violent!"

Demon shot out another memory. "We had left the orphanage to get the groceries. We walked along one block and a guy came up to us asking you for the time or something. I can't remember. But anyway, he walked up and you immediately shouted, "No! Get away from me, you creep!" Then you punched him in the stomach and ran in the other direction."

I shrugged. "He was looking at me funny. And that just proves that I have people problems, not that I'm overly violent."

Demon rolled his eyes. "Ok. I'm going to tell you this one, and you can not possibly deny the fact that you need anger management. We were out on the street and a woman saw us. She was a little old lady and she was wearing a—"

I was suddenly struck by the same memory and felt the intense need to blush. I recited along with him, "—A burgundy sweater and a black skirt."

Demon smirked. Stupid evil demon child. "Oh, so you remember what happened after that?" You're enjoying this aren't you, you butthole.

"Yeah…"

"And you still deny the fact that you have violent tendencies?" Demon said, with that stupid sexy smirk on his face. Wait, what?!

I shook my head to get that completely untrue lie out of my head. And then what Demon had said set in, and I pouted. "No."

Demon smiled, and I was suddenly reminded of the smile that was on older- Demon's face when he looked at our kids. Oh jeebus, Nudge. What the hell did you do? "Don't worry. You're my violent Valerie."

And then he pulled me close and kissed my forehead. And we both froze. Did he just…?

I jumped back from Demon, both of us wide-eyed. And I couldn't breathe all that well anymore. "Oh my gosh…" I whispered under my breath, and then, as if what had just happened wasn't awkward enough, I was suddenly looking back at the Demon from Nudge's sick fantasy.

Before anyone could say anything, I had my bag thrown across my body and was shakily walking to the McCarthy car. "Bye guys," I yelled over my shoulder, throwing my stuff into the back of Emmett's jeep and leaving everyone else- including Emmett, who was the one who was supposed to be driving me home anyway- standing in shock.

Iggy's, "Oh shit" was the last thing that I heard before I locked myself in the jeep…Well, that, and Emmett's "...Wait, how the hell did she get my keys?"

I put my head in my slightly shaking hands and groaned. "This can't be happening…"

And the stupid piece of skin where Demon had...kissed- Jeez, I can't even think the stupid word!- me was still burning. Crap.

Don't get too excited. I could just as easily make all of you want to turn around and kill me in my sleep. So don't get your hopes too high. I don't want to accidently kill you guys or something. There's still a lot more to this story.

But how did you like the chapter? I loved writing it, even though I was half watching Ugly Betty and some new show called Jerseylicious while I was writing it. (Please don't ask. I don't understand myself most of the time, but I just roll with it anyway.)

So, yeah. REVIEW PLEASE!!

Peace, love, and:-

Child one: Hey, do you want to play on the swings?

Child two: No.

Child one: So what do you want to do?

Child two: Acheive world peace.

Child one: Cool.

a.k.a. Skittles31