34.
"Max!" Ella screamed as she hurled herself through the front door and barrelled straight into me. Unfortunately she caught me off guard and both of us would have gone barrelling backwards if it weren't for Fang; he caught me (being the closest to him) lightly, and set both of us on our feet.
"Hey, Ella." I answered laughingly, and she squeezed me.
"I missed you, like, so much!" She practically squealed in my sensitive ears, and I resisted the urge to wince.
"Ella, sensitive ears, remember?" I asked, and she nodded, apologetically before stepping back and releasing me, hugging the rest of the flock with the same level of enthusiasm, with the exception of Fang. I looked around and saw that mom was stood in the doorway, smiling and wiping her hands on a tea towel.
"Dinner in ten, I hope you're hungry." She stated, there was a moments pause.
"When are we not hungry?" I asked, and she laughed before heading out of the room and into the corridor.
"Ig, do you wanna go and help mom cook, and Fang and I will lay the table." I said, and the two other mutants nodded before all three of us traipsed into the kitchen. The two of us began to set the table, and only then did I see the problem. There was twelve of us, and eight seats; something about that just didn't seem right to me.
"Uh, mom." I said, making a wide hand gesture with my hand- she seemed to realise what I meant, as her brow creased.
"Oh, well, we have to two stools from the study. But that's it, so I guess we'd still be two chairs short…" She trailed off, only to be interrupted by a voice from the doorway.
"Angel can sit on my lap." Nudge said, grinning big for some reason, Angel nodded along, and, seeing no harm in the plan both mom and I nodded. Big mistake.
"It's probably not a good idea for The Gasman to share with anyone." Fang mulled out loud, "And I refuse to share with Ig, so, Max, it looks like you're stuck with me. There was a small pause, where I nodded- realising that it was actually the best plan that we had- and all eyes turned to mom. She looked uneasy, but either couldn't be bothered to object, or simply couldn't think of a reason that didn't sound stupid and petty (I'm betting on the last one), and let it be.
"Yeah, whatever, Fang. You just want an excuse to co…" Iggy was cut off, as Fang clapped a hand around the other mutants mouth. Fang whispered what I presumed to be a threat, to Iggy, and the blind mutants eyes went wide and he nodded quickly before Fang released him. Mom raised her eyebrow at me, but I simply shrugged. I had a feeling that neither of us really wanted to hear what Iggy had to say anyway, he was one twisted bird-kid.