Chapter 7

We flew around for a long time, laughing and chasing each other and just having a lot of fun. I couldn't remember the last time we'd done this – it always felt like Jeb was trying to keep us a secret from everyone.

When we finally landed back in our yard, our cheeks pink and our hair looking pretty wild, only then did I remember Jaz was still there.

"Crap," I muttered. Her jaw was still dropped. I wondered if it had been like that the entire time.

"That….was….so COOL!" she yelled, running over to us. "Oh my gosh, that was amazing! I can't believe you guys really have wings! That must be amazing, being able to fly like that!"

"Yeah," I told her, crossing my arms over my chest and smirking. "It is."

"I wish I had wings, too!" Jaz exclaimed, smiling.

My face hardened. "No. No, you don't. You don't know what we went through." I shuddered, just thinking about it. I didn't want to think about it, but memories popped up in my head.

Sitting in a cramped cage in a dark room, year after year….never thinking we'd get out of there. Always being tested on, treated like we weren't even people. To them, we were just their…experiments. Their creations.

"Max?" Nudge's voice brought me back. "Max, are you okay?"

I realized my eyes had closed, and I opened them slowly. My fists were clenched.

"We don't like talking about it," Iggy explained. "Even thinking about it. They….they took my sight," he muttered, his eyes leveled at the ground. I put my hand on his shoulder.

Jaz looked at him, then back at me. "That's….terrible," she whispered.

I nodded, not really wanting to talk about it. "We managed to make it out of there over a year ago. Jeb helped. He's like my dad. Our dad, really."

"What about your real parents, then?" Jaz asked, her eyes wide.

"I really don't know," I said, frowning. "And we're done talking about it now. Let's go inside."

We'd said too much to Jaz already. I hadn't wanted her to know anything about us, and now, she knew plenty of things that we'd never told anyone else.

And she still wasn't even close to being on my favorite people list.

"Hey, kids," Jeb said as we walked past his office. "Did you have a good time outside?"

I gave Jaz a look that said, You tell no one about us flying. Even Jeb.

"Yeah!" Jaz exclaimed, smiling. "They showed me how they could fly!"

Groaning, I smacked my forehead with my palm and then gave her the death glare.

"You what?!" Jeb asked, turning to face me. "Max, that is dangerous! What if someone saw you? You know how I feel about this!"

"Jaz saw us," Nudge pointed out unhelpfully.

"Yeah! It was really cool!" Jaz told him, smiling even bigger. "Thanks for letting me come over, it's been really fun!" She started to head for the door, but I followed her. The two of us stood alone in the entryway.

"Where are you going?" I asked, frowning. "Telling the Erasers where we are again?" I put my hands on my hips.

"No," Jaz said, mirroring me. "My mom is here to pick me up."

I peered out the window. There was some lady sitting there in a car. She looked non-Eraserish, so I relaxed a little.

"Okay, whatever," I responded. "You know I still don't like or trust you, right?"

Jaz looked a little hurt. "Well, okay," she said. "We're going shopping for dresses soon, right?"

"Huh?" I asked, a little surprised. Where had that come from?

"For Daisy's party," she explained, grinning. "We'll pick you up tomorrow, at ten since it's a Saturday! See you!" Then she ran out the door and jumped into the car, waving as her car drove away.

I frowned. What was I going to do about that girl?

~~::~~

"Oooh! Look at this dress!" Jaz exclaimed, picking up a pink one. "It's so pretty!"

"It makes me want to barf," I muttered, rolling my eyes. "It looks like a Barbie threw up on it or something."

"Well, I think it would look pretty on you," Jaz insisted, holding it up.

"Yeah right," I responded, crossing my arms over my chest. We'd been at the mall for an hour, and Jaz was basically torturing me with dress shopping. I ranked shopping almost as high as getting attacked by Erasers on the 'things I don't want to do' scale.

"Oh, there's a yellow one! That would look nice on you!" Jaz told me.

"Blah," I said, making a face. "Can we leave? Is there a food court?" Jeb had given me money, but maybe I could just save it and not buy a dress, therefore being saved from going to the party.

"Silly, we have to get you a dress first!" Jaz said, and continued looking through the racks of dresses. I turned and started looking out the window, making faces at shoppers that walked by. I mouthed "Help me" to a couple of them and pointed at Jaz.

"So? What do you think?" Jaz asked, and I turned to face her, ready to say that whatever dress she was wearing was hideous.

Jaz's dress was purple, and it actually looked okay on her. (That did not mean I was planning on wearing a dress or anything.)

"Fine," I muttered. "Can we buy it and leave?"

Jaz laughed, putting a hand on shoulder and pulling me towards the changing rooms. "Don't come out until you try this on!" she yelled, pushing me in one of the rooms and throwing a dress at me.

I sighed. I guess I'd try it on….the sooner I bought something, the sooner we could leave.

"Wow, Max! That looks so good on you!" Jaz exclaimed as I came out of the changing room. "You should totally get that!"

I glanced down at the dress. It was blue, which was not so bad of a color, and it actually hid my wings pretty well, which I was obviously more concerned about. "You think?" I asked, biting my lip. "I don't really-"

"Perfect!" she said, pushing me back in there. "Let's get it, then! Change and we can buy it!"

I found myself following her out of the store with a bag in my hand. I never expected I'd ever be buying a dress, and definitely not wearing one.

"Wasn't that fun, Max? We should have girl time more often!" Jaz said as we stood outside, waiting for her mom to pick us up.

I bit my lip. "I'm not really sure… I don't really like that kind of thing."

Jaz pouted. "Aww….but it's so much fun!"

"Maybe to you," I responded, rolling my eyes as her mom pulled up in front of us.

"I'm so excited for the party," Jaz said as we got in the car. "It's tomorrow, you know!"

"Right," I muttered, staring out the window. "Great." This was a really bad idea…