it was so hard to write this. i think i kept distracting myself on purpose so it wouldn't have to end :( and when i finished, i said, yay! then, ah! because while i'm glad i've beat the odds and actually finished a story, i'm also sad to see it go. it took me a while to actually get up the guts to post it and officially end it.
but, as all things must, it has. ended, that is.
here's the final chapter. which probably should have been two chapters due to its immense length, but whatever.
enjoy.
disclaimer: don't own maximum ride.
epilogue: you're gonna go far kid
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
It's like the beeping kept time to my thoughts. I. Hate. Alarms. I. Hate. Alarms.
With a groan I turned over, my arm reaching out to silence the infernal device that dared disturb my peace. But before I could take satisfaction in chucking the stupid thing at the wall, there was a clatter and the beeping stopped. I blearily opened my eyes and saw Con drop his head back down on his pillow, arm hanging down over the side of the bed, the clock radio lying in a few pieces on the floor.
I was so glad he wasn't a morning person. See, 'cuz if Max or Blaze had been in the room, they would have-
"Did you just break the clock?" Fang asked tiredly as he sat upright. He rubbed his eyes, yawned, and flipped back the covers so he could get up out of bed.
Oh, yeah, I thought as I huddled down into the warmth of my bed. Fang's just like Max. Used to having to get up early and go right away.
Con made no movement to follow Fang's example-instead, he grabbed the blanket and yanked it up over his head. I shut my eyes and stifled a snicker.
"It woke. Me up," he said carefully. His voice was slightly muffled, but he still came off sounding as if he were in a fouler mood than I'd ever been in in the morning. "And I'd advise you all to not repeat its crime."
"Well, you seem to be in a happy mood." I heard Total's collar-tags jingle slightly as he got up. They jingled again and something bounced down on the bed near my feet-the Scottie had migrated to the bed not glooming under the black cloud of Con's grumpiness.
"Technically you're already awake," I mumbled at Con. "To repeat the crime we'd have to wait for you to fall asleep again."
"You're lucky I can't reach you right now."
"Awake for thirty seconds and already he's threatening people," said Sy, and I shifted so I could look over at him. And I couldn't help but smile-his head was still buried in his pillow and his hair was falling all over his face. He looked so sleepy and relaxed that if he hadn't gone on speaking I could've thought he was still out. ('Case you hadn't noticed, I'm a sucker for when boys fall asleep. It's like they suddenly become that much cuter.) "He must've been a joy to grow up with."
There was a quick rustle and all of a sudden a pillow crashed down on our bed. It skimmed over my head and hit mostly empty space, but the message was still clear.
"Shut. Up," Con growled. "And let. Me sleep."
"Guys, get up," Fang said, sounding slightly annoyed. I heard him open the door. "We have to leave by eight."
And then he left.
Silly, silly Fang. . .
"Well, if you guys aren't, then I'm not," Total said frankly. He snuggled down into the cushy folds of the sheets that had been kicked down to the end of the bed at some point during the night.
Sy pushed himself up and grabbed the pillow Con had thrown at us. In one well-aimed toss, the pillow flew across the room and smacked into the door, pushing it closed with a snap! I watched the pillow slide to the floor and smirked: when the door opened again, it would catch on the pillow and give us a little extra time. Yay for delaying the start to the day.
"He'll get mad at that, but whatever," Sy said, lying back down.
"It doesn't matter what he'll get mad at," Crabby McCrab-Ass snapped from the other bed. "Just shut up and let me sleep."
I remember chuckling, but then I drifted off again. I don't know how long the four of us managed to steal the z's, but it seemed like only a couple seconds before Gazzy, Janey, Shadow, and Angel were dive-bombing the two beds like they'd been told we were hiding candy there.
"WAKE UP!"
Total yelped and scampered before he was crushed. I cursed as the force of Gazzy and Janey's attack made me bounce. I winced as Gazzy landed straight on my knees, and heard Sy's breath leave him in a whoosh as Janey jumped on his stomach. Off to my left, Shadow and Angel were laughing hysterically while Con cussed them out.
"Max and Fang told us to wake you up," Gazzy told me brightly, grinning as he sat on my ankles. I groaned and sat up, rubbing my eyes.
"How long's it been?" I asked groggily. The alarm had gone off at six-thirty or so (I think), and Fang had said we needed to leave by eight, so it had to've been at least-
"Fang woke up ten minutes ago," Janey said, then shrieked in laughter as Sy tickled her until she rolled off him.
"What? That means it's not even seven!" Con snarled. He angrily yanked on the covers, the sudden motion tipping Shadow and Angel from the edge of the bed and onto the floor. They started to laugh again. Obviously pissed beyond belief, Con lay back down on his bed, once again trying to hide beneath the shelter of his blankie as he mumbled swear words.
What a bratty little cranky-pants. It was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen.
"Hey, kiddies, I think we should let the princess have his nappy-time now," I said to everybody else in the room. I wiggled my feet and Gazzy got off; I may have been tired, but I wanted to avoid another attack. So I rolled out of bed and stood up, quickly darting out of Con's reach so he couldn't smack me for calling him "princess." I herded the kids out of the room, Sy right on my heels.
"Morning, sleepy-heads," Kyla said cheerfully as we followed the kids to where everyone else was, plopped down randomly around wherever there was table-space to eat on. I snagged a muffin from a box by Blaze and sat down in an empty chair. Sy leaned on the arm-rest and almost immediately tried to steal some of my muffin. I batted his hand away playfully.
"Restful night?" Wave asked, deceptively innocent. Blaze and Iggy snickered. Jerks.
"Grow up," Sy said, rolling his eyes. "All we did was sleep."
"I'll bet," Blaze said with a smirk.
"Okay, we didn't do anything, and it's not like I would have wanted to anyway," I began.
"Ouch," Iggy laughed.
"I didn't mean it like that, you dirtbag," I snapped. "I wouldn't have wanted to because I was just sickened by the display of affection shown by you two last night!"
Heads whipped around and questions were asked as Iggy shut up and turned bright red. It wasn't too hard to figure he'd been with Blaze-after all, I'd been the one in the room he was supposed to have been sleeping in. While he spluttered and tried to deflect the accusations, Blaze threw a small bottle of juice at me in fury. I wasn't quick enough to catch or dodge it fully, so it ended up slamming into my shoulder and bouncing off Sy's leg, nearly landing on where Total was curled up near my feet. He irritably stomped off to sit with Aqua and Arthur, who were quietly playing a Nintendo DS a little ways apart from the rest of the group. I wondered idly where they'd gotten it. And what game they were playing.
"Ow! Geez!" I said exasperatedly, rubbing my shoulder. "Overreact, much." I glanced over at the bottle and frowned. "Ew. I don't even like orange juice."
"I call it." Sy bent down to pick it up and, before I could react, stole my muffin and tore off a huge piece.
"Damn you!" I cried, snatching it back. He just laughed and drank his orange juice. I stuck out my tongue at him before picking at what was left of my muffin.
"Couldn't keep your mouth shut?" Blaze hissed, and I looked up to see silver-speckled eyes.
"Oh." Well, now I felt a little bad. But why would she even start with Iggy if she was going to get mad for people knowing? "Well, I highly doubt you could've kept it secret for long. Mind-reader over here." I pointed at where Angel was sitting at the coffee table, attacking what looked like a four-tall stack of Belgian waffles. Across from her, Shadow had five. Fatties. "Plus, if you really didn't want anybody to know you would've sent Iggy to switch with me again before anybody woke up."
"And threatened the rest of us into silence," Sy added.
"Or they could have stayed out here and not bothered us in the first place," Total grumbled from Arthur's lap.
"So are you guys going to be together now?" Gazzy asked, looking at Iggy. "Like Max and Fang?"
"Can it," Blaze snapped; Iggy just looked away and didn't say anything.
"Hey, let's lay off them," Fang said suddenly. Then he smirked. "From what Spark said it sounds like they did plenty of laying on each other last night."
Some of the people who'd been drinking something literally spat it out. Then the entire room, all twenty of us, cracked up so hard some of us cried and got hiccups. It was like that time I'd gotten a whiff of laughing gas-only this time, it was like everybody had breathed it in. All the while Iggy and Blaze just sat there in discomfort, clearly embarrassed. Aw. Sure missed the days when I could laugh at someone else's expense.
All of a sudden something hit the bedroom door so hard it shuddered; we all jumped and personally I had to stifle more laughter. Judging from the sound (and the limited resources at his disposal), I guessed Con had thrown a shoe.
"Hey, wait a second," Nudge said, glancing around. "Is Con still in your guys' room?"
"Let me guess, still sleeping," Blaze said in a deadpan. I nodded (to answer both questions) and Blaze just rolled her eyes. "Of course."
"What do you mean of course?" Max asked.
"Con hates mornings," Avi supplied. "With a fiery burning passion. He thinks they should burn in a hole and die."
"As they should," I said sagely.
"So he always does this," Fang stated, ignoring my comment.
"Uh, yeah," Blaze said in a duh sort of tone. "I mean, sure, when we're on a mission he won't put up a fight, but whenever he's in a real bed, like in a hotel or at home?" She shook her head. "He's like Satan incarnate before eleven."
Max frowned. "Well, whether he's Lucifer or not, we're leaving by eight."
"Then I suggest letting him sleep till seven-fifty." She gave me a look and I raised my hands in a shrug. "What? Works for me before school. Ten minutes before you leave allows for maximum rest, sufficient get-ready time, and minimal time for crankiness."
"Or we could wake him up now, and see how pissed off he can really get," Kyla suggested.
"Let's do it!" Wave said ecstatically, smiling widely. "I love it when he gets angry!"
"I suggest a distance attack," Blaze said. "Whatever's within his reach is a zone of terror. Practically busted my kneecaps the day I tried to wake him up at five."
"Well that's because five is unreasonable," I told her in the tone I use when explaining something to a small child. "Next time wait 'till five-oh-three."
"Yeah, because an extra three minutes will transform him from devil to angel," she retorted, rolling her eyes.
"Uh, yeah," I said. I gestured to myself. "Look what ten minutes did for me. I could've killed you all if you'd made me get up right away. But since you didn't, I'm a perfect ray of sunshine." Then I beamed brightly, as if that proved my sunshine-ness.
Sy half-laughed and elbowed me lightly. "Well, judging from earlier, I think Con needs more than just ten minutes."
"Exactly, which is why we're letting him sleep in. And if he doesn't have to get up until seven-fifty, then I shouldn't have to, either," I pointed out. Looking at Max, I asked, "Why the freak are we up this early if we're not leaving until eight?"
"Well, everyone needs to clean up and get dressed," she told me. "There are only two showers, so-"
"But I'm already clean," I interrupted. "I showered last night. And it only takes me five minutes to get dressed."
"Fine," she said tightly, looking irritated. "Just go back to bed, then."
I smirked. "Well, I would, but I think Con may kill me for disturbing his rest. And I like my head where it is, thanks."
"Then why are you arguing?" she demanded.
"To annoy you," I said simply. "You did wake me up, after all."
Some of the others laughed, but Max just groaned.
There are certain perks to being somewhat famous.
I mean, come on. Max and the flock had been on the map for about a year or so now. The shows had been excellent turnouts, and it was only our first city. The income had been so great, in fact, that we'd been able to rent a small plane just for ourselves. We'd previously would've had to ride through normal channels, but there were more of us now. Seven of Max's flock, plus Total, plus Con and the anti-flock, plus Sy and the fish-kids all added up to twenty-two bodies that needed transportation. And that called for some alterations to the plan.
And thus, our comfy lil' hybrid-mobile, a cozy little aircraft that could seat all of us without much trouble. Thirty-six seats left more than a few empty ones scattered about, so most of us were comfortable. Some of us older kids managed to claim the back while the youngsters scattered about near the front. The empty seats in-between created a sort of barrier, one that lent each group a sort of privacy.
Which was just so great, y'know, 'cuz it seemed as though some people wanted to discuss big-picture stuff. And who would the little kids be if they wanted to listen to that?
"Is it too late to change seats?" I grumbled, watching Max and Fang suspiciously. They were talking, all right, and from the serious look on Max's face I assumed it would be about what we were gonna do once this CSM thing ended. Oh, why must we always have a plan?
"Why, what's wrong?" Sy stopped looking out the window and glanced at me.
"I detest talk of the future," I said, still watching them. At some point they were going to try to rope the rest of us into it. Try to make us have input. I just knew it-it was like high school all over again, when they call you to the counselor's to talk about college. It's like, hello, I'm fifteen! I don't have a clue what I want to do! So leave me alone! But no one ever did. . .
"I detest talking. Period," Con growled. He'd claimed the two seats across the aisle from me and Sy, still in a horrid mood from being woken up early. I rolled my eyes and glanced over at him, but he was just moodily glaring at the ceiling, his head leaned back against his own window. "So stop it."
"Okay, it was funny at first, but now it's just annoying," I told him. "You're awake, you're dressed, and you're not getting back to bed, so get over yourself and just quit being a crab-ass."
"Your mom," he mumbled, shutting his eyes and yanking his jacket's hood up over his head. He didn't get much chance to rest, however, because Blaze all of a sudden stood up and leaned over his seat so she could tap Max on the head. Max half-stood up and turned.
"So what exactly happens when this whole Australia tour ends?" Blaze asked. Con cursed explosively at being disturbed, but Blaze didn't even look down. "We all just pack up and go home, or what?"
"I think we face the problem of not having homes to go to," Max replied, frowning a little.
Blaze made a face. "True."
"Spark's got a home," Iggy pointed out, and everyone listening in on the conversation looked at me.
I shifted. Yeah, I'd said before that I wanted to go home at some point, but now? Not so sure. I mean, banking on what Leander had showed me that final time, Dad was so pissed at me that he was willing to badmouth me to the rest of the family. Mom was probably convinced that I hated them all and was never coming back. And Jeremy? My brother? Yeah, hearing what Dad said had made him cry. And he's the toughest thirteen-year-old human boy I know. I could only hold on to the dearest hope that Kenny still believed in me. It was very rarely that she ever trusted our parents, so maybe she could guess that Dad was twisting the truth out of spite.
"I don't think it'd be the greatest idea to go back there," I said uncomfortably, carefully avoiding everybody's eyes. "Not yet. Maybe Chicago, though. We could check up on my cousins and Taj."
I'm not so sure who all I meant by that "we," but ah well. I was almost ninety percent sure that no matter what they heard from dear old Uncle Phil, Cody and Beck would know that I was coming back. We had epic plans, after all. And I'd promised them a story.
"Yeah, and have us all join a gang and turn delinquent," Max said sarcastically. I blinked and returned to the conversation.
"We're already delinquents," Iggy said.
"And I'm already in a gang," I added. "It's not so bad, Max. Sure, there's the occasional bank robbery and homicide here and there, but we get cake on alternate Thursdays."
Max rolled her eyes, but was smiling as she did so. She glanced at Fang for a second, and he shrugged a shoulder. She then said, "We'll probably end up hanging out in Arizona for a bit. You know, crash at Mom's while we figure out what we're gonna do."
"What is that going to entail, exactly?" I started to ask, but then all of a sudden Kyla, sitting with Wave in the pair of seats in front of me and Sy, interrupted.
"You know, if you guys wanted to live on your own, you could probably just stay at our place," she said.
"Your place?" Max echoed, her eyebrow rising.
"Uh-huh," Wave said. She got up and twisted around so she could more easily participate in the conversation. "We don't know what happened to all the others, but I doubt they'd go there. So you can take their rooms. It'd be fine."
Were. . .were they being serious? Were they talking about a house? I looked sidelong at Sy. "Are they kidding?"
He shook his head. "They're talking about a house we've got out in California. Nobody knows where it is except for us and my mother."
"Your mom?" Fang said, sounding surprised.
"Okay. Explain," Max ordered.
Sy let out a breath. "Itex keeps-er, well, kept houses all over the country for the teams they sent out."
"Like us," Blaze interrupted.
"Yeah," Sy went on. "Places where they could rest up and re-stock and whatever. They're mostly simple cabins or apartments, but a few of them were nicer."
"Wait, if they're owned by Itex, then that's no good," Max said, frowning. "Somebody could find us."
"First of all, Itex is done," I said firmly. "Anything that had to do with it is gone or changed so much that you wouldn't recognize it. They're a new company now, and I heard the new guy doesn't want anything to do with the old regime." Except that he wants us gone, but that ain't happenin'. Since Leander isn't stalking me anymore, he won't know where we are.
"Exactly," Wave said, picking up on my train of thought. "And even if the new guy decided to get rid of the stock houses, there are others we could go to."
"Totally." Kyla turned around as well and winked. "Some of the sneakier, more paranoid scientists stashed secret nicer places for emergency use."
Max straightened up. "Scientists like Je-like the ones who dealt directly with the mutants?"
I remembered that Max's dad, some dude called Jeb, had been a whitecoat who'd gotten her and the flock out of the School in the first place. I hadn't met him, but apparently he'd saved the flock, been like a dad to them, then left and betrayed them and basically went over to the dark side (what a guy). The house they'd lived in must've been one of these so-called emergency places.
Wave nodded at Max. "Uh-huh. Usually the heads of departments. Just lookin' out for their life's work, ya know?"
"And you guys have one of these?" Iggy asked, turning his head towards me and Sy.
"My mom was a head of department," Sy reminded him. Then he shrugged. "She wanted to be sure we could hide out someplace where Itex couldn't find us if anything ever went wrong."
"Aw. The way mothers plan to exploit their children as leverage is just so sweet, innit?" I teased, poking his ribs. He twitched away, grabbing up my hands in his so I wouldn't start a thing like I had last night. I snickered and backed off.
"You guys talkin' 'bout the Santa Barbara house?" Aqua asked, popping up and leaning on the back of my seat. Arthur was soon beside her, leaning on Sy's seat, his face set in the same curious expression as his sister's. They were the only two "younger kids" back here with us, and hadn't made a peep up till now.
"Yup," Wave said, speaking to her over my head. "We're thinkin' of shacking up there with the bird kids."
"Seriously?" Arthur said, eyebrows shooting up.
"Good idea, though," Aqua said, and Arthur glanced at her. "The place is nice. More like a hotel than anything. Lots of rooms for everybody."
"Wicked game room, too. And pools," he said, nodding.
"Wait, pools?" Con said suddenly. He sat up some, pushing back his hood. "As in plural?"
"Sure," the twins said in unison. "One in the basement and one in the backyard."
"The one in the backyard's bigger," Aqua began.
"But the basement one is heated," Arthur finished.
"Dude. That. Sounds. Epic," I enunciated.
"Why's your guys' house so much nicer than any of ours were?" Con demanded. The twins just snickered and ignored the question.
"Wait." Max leaned around Fang so she could glare at Sy. "You guys have a safe house, but you're just mentioning it now? What's the deal?"
"Uh. . ." Sy shifted, obviously not having a good answer.
"Nobody ever asked if anybody had a secret house stashed someplace," the twins interjected. Max looked at them skeptically and they tilted their heads, grinning identical, innocent smiles. Their unison was something else, dude, better than even my cousins'. "You should ask next time. It wouldn't be so much of a surprise."
"Exactly," Sy said, "what I was about to say."
I glanced at Sy and he smiled sheepishly. I rolled my eyes, then poked his side again. He jerked, choking back a laugh.
"So, this secret house," Fang prompted, trying to dissipate Max's irritation. "Nobody knows where it is?"
"Only us," Wave said, nodding.
"But what about Sy's mom?" he asked. "Isn't she the one who bought it in the first place?"
"Well, yeah, but she hates Santa Barbara," Sy said. "She knows the address, but only ever went to the place twice. Once to buy it, once to make sure it was furnished to her liking."
"She could still find it, though," Max persisted. When Sy hesitated, she looked suspicious. "Couldn't she?"
"She won't," Sy said finally, trying to sound careless as he looked out the window. "If it's like Spark said, then the new guy cleaned house. She probably got. . .uh, fired."
I wondered if we'd have to go through the awkward conversation of explaining the firing process of Itex-you know, the one that may or may not have included lethal injections-but understanding flickered through Max's eyes. "Oh."
"Right." Kyla cleared her throat. "So it doesn't matter if she knew where it is. Nobody would be able to find us."
"Us?" Blaze echoed disbelievingly.
"Oh, come on," Wave said flippantly, rolling her eyes. "We all need a place to live. Our safe house is big enough for everybody. It's obvious we're all going to live there. Right?"
There was a bit of an awkward silence after that, but Con finally broke it by saying, "I don't care about the rest of you, but I am not living in the same house as Max and Fang if it means they'll be sending in their brats to wake me up at six-fucking-thirty every goddamn morning."
I don't know if he meant for it to be funny, but it broke the silence and we all laughed.
"You're such a brat, you know that?" I said, playfully kicking at his foot from where it hung down over the edge of his seat. He irritably picked it up and twisted around, sitting in his seat normal. Then he leaned his elbow on the armrest and put his head on his fist.
"Well, if it means I'm waking up before ten, I'd rather live on the street," he said. "I don't care if the rest of you were infused with songbird DNA that gives you the urge to wake up at dawn and prance about singing show tunes, but I wasn't, okay?"
"Do you just hate show tunes?" I asked. "Or is it the prancing? Because we can let you frolic, if you like."
"I just hate songs that get stuck in my head," he replied irritably. "Show tunes are tailor-made for that."
"And one TV plus one remote equals one person dominating what we watch when we're all bored," Blaze said, smirking. "Personally, I find musicals to be hilarious in the way that everybody just randomly starts singing and dancing. So as soon as I learned they annoyed pretty much everyone else, I made a point to watch them as much as possible."
"Ah, the Annoying People for the Fun of It Club," I said, smiling. "Never expected you to be a member, Blaze." She shrugged modestly.
"We never had that problem," said Aqua.
"Yeah, since there were more of us, we had more than one TV," Arthur said.
"Like at the house!" Wave said brightly. "There's three there, two on the first floor and one in the game room. Come on, guys, just think about it. Even if it's only for a little while, it'll be fun. Don't you ever just want to party with your friends like any other kid?"
"It is great when we get to relax, but for us, it never really lasts," Max said. "Your guys' place sounds nice and all, but I think we should ask everybody if they even want to first," Max said. She looked at Fang, but he just shrugged a shoulder.
"I'll go where you go."*
Max half-smiled at him appreciatively, then stood up in her seat and looked back. "Iggy?"
"Hmm." Iggy tapped his fingers on his chin, cloudy eyes fixed up at the ceiling. "I'm not so sure," he said thoughtfully. "Sell me on the place, then I'll decide. What's it like?"
"There are three floors, with ten rooms on the second floor and another ten on the third," Wave reeled off, sounding for the love of all that is holy like a real-estate agent. "The bottom floor's spacey, with a front room, dining room, and kitchen, and in the basement is the pool and game room. There are bathrooms on each floor, and the showers are in the basement just by the pool. The outside's got some yardage around it, obviously, so we can have some privacy, but there are still other houses nearby. They're mainly full of younger adults who've rented out the space to avoid living in the dorms of nearby colleges. That way, since we're all kids ourselves, it's not too difficult to hide in plain sight."
Iggy whistled. "Holy crap. I'm in."
Then it was my turn. Max looked to me, though I could tell from her gaze she probably knew my answer. "Spark?"
"It. . ." I trailed off, smiling and shaking my head. "It does sound kind of perfect."
And it did. It sounded like this house had been made specifically for a situation such as ours. I mean, seriously. A crapload of rooms for a crapload of kids. Pools, game room, privacy. Livin' it up with all your friends and no adults to tell you what to do? It was anything a runaway bird-kid could ask for.
"It is perfect," said Wave decisively. "So-"
"The only issue would be the fact that about half of us would have to share rooms," said Kyla suddenly. Then she shrugged. "But we shouldn't have to worry, because we can pawn that off on the younger kids."
Half? I thought about it for a second, but it didn't add up. So I said so. "Wait a second, I think your math is wrong."
"Hm? No, I think I'm right," Kyla said.
"No, you're not," I persisted. "This place has twenty rooms, right? There are only twenty-one of us. Only two would have to share a room."
"Twenty-one?" Wave said, an eyebrow perking up in disbelief. "No way, there's more than that. You have seven, Con has five, we have nine-"
"Yeah, that makes twenty-one," I started to say, but Wave ignored me.
"-and Frankie's got another six," she finished. "That makes twenty-seven."
I wasn't the only confused one. Practically everyone except for Kyla and Wave herself had some sort of look on their face, and the twins even said, "We're going to live with Frankie and them too?"
My mind blanked out. It was a weird sense of déjà vu: this was just like when Blaze had first asked about Total. Sure, a lot of shit had happened, and I hadn't had any way of contacting them in the first place, but. . .still. I'd forgotten about Joey and Frankie. They'd gone through all the trouble to help me escape way back in Chicago, and then they'd automatically sided with us to throw the London conference to end Itex. They'd been such a big part of it, and I. . .I'd totally let them slip my mind.
I felt my mouth gape open as Sy straightened up. In an almost-irritated tone, he said to Wave, "You got in touch with them? And told them they could go to the house?"
Wave blinked in surprise. "Well, sure. I've been checking MSN practically nonstop since we've had access to computers. I wanted to know if Frankie was okay."
"He's on MSN?" Con said.
"You're on MSN?" Blaze asked.
"Of course we are," Kyla replied, waving them off. "Since nobody could tell us what happened to them, we had to find out for ourselves. They're all right, but Frankie said Joey went to check their own houses and they were all gone."
"Gone?" I finally said, still reeling from the revelation. Geez, how bad a friend was I? It's like, out of sight, out of mind.
"Yup," Wave nodded. "They'd been sold, or just bombed. Their dad wasn't as paranoid as Marein was. So I told them they could go to our place and hang out. That's okay, right?" she asked, looking at Sy.
Sy leaned back in his seat and put his hand to his head. "I guess," he sighed defeatedly. "Not much you're going to let me do about it anyway, right?"
"Aw. Knew you'd see it my way," Wave said, smiling and reaching out to ruffle his hair.
"Okay, wait a second," Max said, and we all looked at her. "Now we're talking almost thirty kids, all underage, all in the same house? No way."
"Max, chill out," Kyla said, trying to sound casual. "The house was designed to take care of all the fish hybrids in case something happened to the Salt Lake Lab or just the company in general. Sometimes we numbered almost forty. Believe me, it's not as hectic as you'd think."
"I don't like it." Max shook her head and I felt myself frown. "It's. . .it just sounds too perfect."
"How so?" Wave asked.
"What, so you just conveniently happen to have a fairy-tale ending set up for us in California?" she said, skeptical sarcasm thick in her tone. "Where no one will find us, where we'll be safe, and where we can all live together for happily ever after?"**
"That's one way of putting it, I guess," Sy said mildly. Max scowled at him and he took a breath. "Look, Max, if you don't want to stay there, then don't. Nobody's forcing you. I know not all of us like each other, or even trust each other. But it doesn't sound like you have anywhere else to go if you're going to be looking for a permanent place, so we're just saying. It's there."
"We should take the offer," I said suddenly.
"What?" Max's gaze shifted from Sy and snapped on to me instead.
I felt like looking away, but didn't want to appear unsure. So I stared her right in the eye and said it straight: "You may be leader, Max, but this time you asked for our input. So I'm giving it. We should take the offer. It's too late to back out now anyway."
She blinked in surprise. And I was shocked, too-I hardly ever sounded so serious. But you know, there are times when even I have to grow up. I can't always take everything as a joke, because that's not what life is. Sure, you can make it fun by clowning around and making people laugh, but at some point you have to swallow the sarcasm and bite back the taunt and actually take charge. Life's the only thing we've got, so yeah, sometimes we have to acknowledge that.
"What do you mean?" Max asked slowly. Most everyone turned to stare at me, waiting for my response. Reeaaally wanted to look away again, but instead I looked around to everyone, meeting their eyes for just a second before moving on.
"Well, think about it," I said, shifting uncomfortably under the weight of ten gazes. "We're unique. The only ones of our kind, you could say. Sure, we piss each other off sometimes-"
Con scoffed. "Sometimes?"
I ignored him and continued. "-but so what? All families do that. And yes, before anybody says anything, we are all a family," I added, glaring pointedly at Con and Blaze. Con rolled his eyes and Blaze frowned. "A weird, dysfunctional, totally violent and abusive family, but still. We're connected in that way that families are. And Joey and Frankie are connected to us too, not only because they're hybrids like us, but because they've also come from Itex and are somehow good kids in spite of it. Just like all of us here. So suck it up, 'cuz you know it's true.
"Now listen. I know the majority of us all hated each other when we first met. I mean, I for sure as hell didn't like Con and Blaze." I glanced at them again, but now they were both looking away. "And when you started chasing us, I started to hate you. You just kept thorning my side and wouldn't leave me alone. But I guess I deserved it a little, considering what I did."
I took a second to breathe. I kept waiting for someone to interrupt me, to tell me I was wrong and didn't know what I was saying, but no one did. They all seemed content to let me talk. So I went on.
"Because of all the hate that had built up, it was a pain in the ass trying to team up so we could figure out a way to end Itex. Even then, it was probably really hard for some of us to look past it and work toward that greater good. But look at us now." I waved my hand in a gesture to everyone on the plane. "Here we are, all in the same vicinity, not even thinking about wanting to kill each other. It's because we've all adjusted enough to overlook the irritation everybody else brings. Or at least, that's how it is for me." I dropped my eyes and felt myself start to smile. "Thing is, I'm used to the pain of all you thorns in my side, so if I tried to take you out now, it'd just hurt worse. So we might as well stick together, y'know?"
My little speech was followed by silence. I kept my eyes fixed on the floor, unwilling to look at anybody, suddenly very self-conscious. Not every day you get to hear somethin' like that comin' from ol' Sparky, huh? Maybe I should laugh it off, pretend it's nothing. Anything to break that silence.
Con tched. "Gag. That was so cheesy I may just throw up."
My head snapped up and I glared at him. It was only more annoying that he was smirking. "Shut up."
"Wow," Iggy said, sounding puzzled. I scowled at him next, but of course he didn't see it. Blaze did, though, and she snickered. "I don't think I've ever heard you sound so sentimentally serious before. That was you talking, wasn't it?"
"Ah, leave me alone," I said, feeling my collar heat up. It's one thing for people to make fun of me when I'm being stupid on purpose, but it's different if I'm trying to be sincere. "If you wanna ignore all I said, then fine. I was just giving my opinion."
"C'mon, you know they're teasing," Sy told me, slipping his arm round my shoulders and lightly kissing my head. "They're acting the same way you would if anybody else had said it."
I felt a frown pull at my mouth. Well, that is true. . .
"Don't be embarrassed by what you said, Spark," Max said, and I looked up at her. Surprisingly, she was smiling. "I hate to say it because I know you'll never let me live it down, but I think you're right."
"Is there something wrong with my ears?" Iggy asked, wiggling his finger in one of them. "Because I swear I thought I heard Max willingly admit to witnesses that Spark was actually right about something."
"Like it or not, it does happen on occasion," said Con.
"Okay, seriously now." I chuckled as Iggy tilted his head and hit the heel of his hand against his temple, as if he were trying to knock water out of his ears. "If it's not my ears, then it's gotta be the air on this thing. It's messing with your heads. The two people who disagree with Spark most are on her side? When did this happen?"
"I'm not on her side," Con snapped back at him. "I'm just saying that yeah, sometimes she's right. And if you guys are facing a dilemma about where you're gonna go, then listen to Spark and go with the fish-kids." Iggy snickered at his outburst and Con irritably leaned his head on his hand, staring out the window. "She's never gonna leave Sy anyway, so if you don't want to lose her you're going to have to go with him."
"What about us, though?" Blaze asked, looking down at Con. He didn't respond to her, so she reached down and poked his shoulder. "Con."
"If you guys want to go too, that's fine," he said tonelessly. Blaze blinked, looking confused. "Itex doesn't control us anymore. It's like when I told Avi she could go home. Before, somebody would've done something if we split up. Since nobody's left, nobody cares. You can do what you want. It doesn't matter to me."
The way he said it sounded like. . .like he wasn't going to go with his flock. I hesitated, wondering if it was just me, but everyone else seemed to be experiencing the same awkward silence that I was. Con, however, didn't take notice. He just kept looking out the window, so he didn't see the look on Blaze's face.
I saw it, though.
And I started to laugh.
Everyone looked at me, but it was Con who asked, "What's so funny?"
I could tell he was going for mild, but I could hear the tension. I laughed some more.
"You. . .you. . .you just made it sound like you weren't coming with us!" I managed to say. "Like you were going to go off and disappear or something! Ha!"
I saw some of the others looking at each other, silently wondering if I was crazy. But who cared about that? Right now, I just had to make sure nobody saw how Blaze had looked when Con had said what he'd said. You never really saw the softer side of Blaze, but I saw it then. She'd looked genuinely hurt by that. And I would not let Con get away with it.
Blaze looked at me and, though I didn't meet her eyes for longer than a second, I winked. The confusion remained in her expression, but it was no longer that sad sort of bewilderment. It was more of a, "Thanks for making it better, but I don't get why you're doing it for me" sort of look. And that's what I'd been aiming for. No more sadness.
Con just stared at me like I was an idiot. "And that's funny how?"
"Oh, come on," I said, half-smiling. "Face it, man. You're stuck with us." His jaw clenched and his eyes hardened, but I kept on grinning in that goofy fashion that I have. "You may have let me go ten years ago, but there's no way we're lettin' you go now. We're all in this together, Con."
"Like in High School Musical," Sy said brightly. I bit my lip so I wouldn't burst out laughing. I mean, just the fact that he even knew what High School Musical was was funny enough, but to know the title of the ending song? Priceless.
"Exactly," I said, my voice high and weird from the strain of keeping back the laughter. "Like in High School Musical."
Con remained still for a moment, but then all of a sudden his eyes closed and he cursed. "Damn it."
"What?"
"Show tune. Stuck in my head," he said, leaning back in his seat and covering his head with his hands. Sinking low in his seat, Con cursed again. "Thanks a lot, Sy. I officially fucking hate you."
And cue the slapstick.*** I started cracking up again, and this time I wasn't alone. Pretty much everybody decided it was okay to laugh at poor Con's misery, and eventually he got pissed enough to throw one of his shoes at me and Sy. I didn't mind, though. My mission was now accomplished. We were all sticking together, whether we liked it or not.
In a way, I guess all of our "missions" had been accomplished. Max was supposed to save the world from Itex, right? Well, we did that. And the rest of her flock was supposed to help her with that, right? Well, we did that too!
Con and the anti-flock's mission had been to get me back for running out on them ten years ago. So yeah, they may not have killed me like they'd originally planned, but they sure beat the hell out of me way back when, didn't they? We've had our differences and our fights and such, but we've had the better times, too. It'd be tough, but I knew we could learn to be friends again. We were kind of already halfway there.
And Sy-well, okay, maybe him and the other fish kids hadn't really had a mission, but they were staying friends with us, right? And they'd even made sure Joey and Frankie were okay. And they were going to provide the house. So I guess you could say their mission was to tie up all the loose ends. And they'd done that.
It was all working out. With all of the previous evil in our lives finished up and tucked away, it seemed as if we could finally settle down and just. . .live.
It was a scary thought. Abandoning our runaway lifestyle and assimilating into society? Yeah, like that was going to be easy. But we could do it. We're tough, we can adapt. And if anything goes wrong, we can always just ditch society altogether and head to Canada to become hermits. It's a great back-up plan. Really. Because Canada is always the answer.
But, no matter what was gonna happen, we were all going to face it together.
Like in High School Musical.
Which Con has apparently seen.
"Stop laughing at me!" Con yelled, throwing his other shoe at me. I took the hit, but yanked my own shoe off my foot and chucked it back. Just as I threw it, though, the plane hit a spot of turbulence and made my shot go funky. The shoe missed Con completely and hit the wall of the plane, bouncing off and hitting Blaze instead.
"Hey!" Because, well, she was Blaze, she stood up, grabbed my shoe, and threw it back. The turbulence was still going, however, and she managed to smack Wave on accident. So she started throwing stuff, and then the twins got in on the action, and then the kids up front came back to see what all the fun was about, and it just all went to hell.
And such was the great Shoe War of 2008, the first of what would probably be many, many pointless fights in the life I'd live amongst the crazy, violent group of hybrids I so proudly call my family.
I couldn't wait for that life to start.
*yes. in my story, fang isn't a little bitch who just leaves and starts his own gang. yeah, i finally read angel. and it was one of the stupidest things i've ever read. especially dylan. i mean, for god's sake, the others start a food fight and then he randomly jumps on the table and starts singing. how idiotic is that? *opens book, finds scene* oh, wait, never mind, he jumps on a chair. much better. *rolls eyes*
**i side with max on this one. hey, i may be the author, but even i know this is too perfectly convenient. but you know what? screw it. the best thing about not thinking the whole story through is that when you get to the end like this, you find convenient opportunities such as the one i found here. and you act on them. because you're the author, and so long as it fits logically, you're allowed to do that :P
***a slapstick was a thing they used back in the day to create a slapping sound. this way, during a comedic play, one actor could hit another, and the comically loud sound would incite laughter throughout the audience. interwesting, no?
but anyway. would ya look at that? it took a bit longer than i expected, but it finally happened, just as i promised it would. three-two-one and we are done. thanks for readin', guys. it's been a blast.