Chapter 2

As soon as the bell rang for recess, Fang, Iggy, and I practically ran out of the classroom. Well, we ran until Iggy smashed right into a first grader, who started yelling at him.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Iggy apologized, as Fang and I ran up to him and pulled him outside.

"Fifth grade isn't too bad so far," I said, looking around. There were kids everywhere – boys playing basketball, little kids playing with jump-ropes, and other kids just standing there talking.

"Sure," was Fang's response as he rolled his eyes.

"Our teacher hates us!" Iggy complained. "She gave us homework!"

I was about to agree with him when two kids came up to us. I looked at them warily – were they going to turn into Erasers or try to kill us or something?

Apparently not. "Hi," the girl said, smiling. "You guys are new, right?" She held out her hand. "I'm Jasmine, but everyone calls me Jaz."

I looked at her hand, then back at her. The boy standing next to her laughed. "She doesn't bite," he said. "I'm Matt, by the way."

I frowned. Well, maybe they weren't Erasers. "I'm Max," I replied, still not shaking Jaz's hand. She pulled her hand in quickly and smiled again. Dang, she liked smiling.

"I know who you are, silly! Mrs. Jenkins was yelling at you practically the entire time."

"Right," I said, rolling my eyes. "Glad you noticed."

"I'm Jeff," Iggy told her. "And this is Fnick."

"My name is Nick," Fang said through gritted teeth.

That Jaz girl just smiled again. "Hi, Jeff! Hi, Fnick!"

We all laughed. Except for Fnick.

~~::~~

"Okay, class," Mrs. Jenkins said, clapping her hands, "now we are going to dissect a frog." Half of the class groaned. Jaz cheered. I got the idea that that girl was way too optimistic.

"We have been preparing for this, as you remember," she continued, "and I will assign you partners."

I looked at Fang, then at Iggy. Assigned partners? That wasn't fair.

Mrs. Jenkins started reading off names. "Ryan and Matt, Nick and Jeff…." I pretty much tuned her out until I heard, "Maxine and Jasmine."

"It's just Max," I grumbled. Apparently, this lady didn't understand that my name was Max.

"Hi!" Jaz said, skipping over to me as Mrs. Jenkins started setting up supplies. "We're partners! Isn't that great?"

"If you say so," I muttered, with a shrug. I glanced over at Fang and Iggy – at least they got to be partners.

"This is so exciting," Jaz continued babbling as Mrs. Jenkins put a dead frog in front of us. I frowned. Why did we have to dissect things anyway? The last thing I wanted to do was feel like a whitecoat.

"And then I told her that she couldn't come to my birthday party and she got really mad at me, but we're still friends so it's okay!" Jaz continued to blab. I guess she didn't realize I was tuning her out. Finally she said, "Right, Max?"

"What?" I snapped.

Jaz shrunk back in her seat. "Never mind…."

I sighed. I was really bad at this 'fitting in and making new friends' thing, as Jeb had described it.

For the next half hour or so, I basically just focused on Jaz's instructions –seems she was really good at science – until she said, "So, is Fnick your boyfriend?"

"What?" I asked, turning red. "No way! He's…he's my brother!"

"Right," Jaz said, a hint of doubt in her voice. I guess my having blonde hair and brown eyes didn't exactly make me look like Fang's sister – especially since he had dark hair and olive skin.

"He's kinda cute, you know," Jaz said, smiling real big.

I made an 'ew' face at her. "He's my brother, stupid. I don't exactly care if he's cute."

Jaz peered at my face. "You're turning red." She frowned like she was thinking, then smiled again. "He's not really your brother, is he?"

"Shut it!" I yelled, slamming my hand over her mouth. Jaz, in turn, licked my hand.

"HEY!" I shouted, then lowered my voice because Mrs. Jenkins was giving me the evil eye again. "I mean, hey. You can't talk like that. Of course he's my brother."

"But not….your related brother," Jaz finished, a triumphant smirk on her face.

I frowned, crossing my arms over my chest. "Fine, whatever. He's my….adopted brother. But what do you care?"

"You liiiike him," Jaz teased.

"No, I don't!" I insisted, but my face was still really hot.

Jaz just did that really big smile again. "Well, he's cute. Do you think he'd want to be my boyfriend?"

~~::~~

Well, the day pretty much went downhill from there.

Jaz insisted on being Fang's 'tour guide' and showed him all around the school. She even got to sit next to him! Then at lunch, she stuck herself right in between me and Fang at our table. I gave up and went to sit on the other side of the table with Iggy, who was talking to Matt about explosions.

I kept telling myself, It's okay, she just wants to be our friend. But she really seemed like she only wanted to be Fang's friend.

At the end of the day, we got on the bus to go home – Jeb said that we weren't allowed to fly home. Nudge sat next to me and started blabbing about her day in second grade and telling me about how they watched the Magic School Bus and worked on spelling and writing.

Gazzy happily sat next to Iggy and talked about how excited he was to dissect a frog once he got to fifth grade.

And guess who sat next to Fang?

That's right – Jaz.

"Did you know that my favorite show is American Idol?" she was telling him. "I watch it every time it's on, and I love all the singers! Even the bad ones! Do you watch that show?"

"Yeah," Fang said, giving a typical Fang one-word answer.

"Oh my gosh! Really? That is so cool! You should come over to my house and we can watch it together!"

"Uggggh," I muttered, pressing my face against the window. "Kill me now."

"What's wrong?" Nudge asked.

I looked back at her, managing a smile. "It's nothing, don't worry. I think the 'being a scientist' thing kind of got to me."

Nudge made a face. "Frogs, yuck!"

I laughed. "Yeah."

Finally, the bus got to our stop and we got off – I was relieved to get away from Jaz.

Then that Jaz girl stuck her head out the window and started waving. "Bye guys!"

I managed a wave, mentally rolling my eyes.

Then she looked at Fang and blew a kiss. "I love you, Fnick!"

Nudge and I looked at each other in surprise. Iggy's face showed confusion. Fang just looked oblivious.

She didn't really just say that…

Did she?