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Chapter 2

"Apartment C14, this is it," I grinned brightly, watching as Fang sniffed the wooden door like a hound dog searching for a raccoon.

"This chick better be good, or next time you're out sick I'm throwing the food fight of all food fights," Iggy whined as I knocked on the door. Immediately, barking erupted from inside the apartment. Loud, deep barks that Fang returned, wagging his tail ecstatically.

"Come in!" A voice called from somewhere in the apartment, sounding faint and distracted.

"Here goes," I said, patting Fang's head before grabbing the brass knob and turning it, pushing the door open. I was greeted by a Tibetan Mastiff bounding its way towards Iggy and I. Me, having known large dogs like this my whole life, knew to take a step to the side. Iggy however, didn't quite get the hint, and was tackled by the large, fluffy dog.

"Aaaaahhhhhhh! Not the face! Somebody call the SWAT team! Take this gorilla down!" Iggy shouted, shoving uselessly at the dog's chest.

"McCloud! Come!" That same voice called and instantly the large Mastiff spun around, trotting back into the apartment with Fang at his tail. I rolled my eyes, walking after the dogs and leaving Iggy to get over himself.

"Hey, I'm Max," I spoke up, walking into the living room to find a girl with waist-length blonde hair who I assumed to be JJ holding a black, brown, and white Welsh Corgi in her hands.

"Hey, I'm JJ," she said, glancing up at me before setting the Corgi on the floor to run over to Fang and sniff him up. Fang happily sniffed the Corgi's back before licking his face once and barking. "And I'm guessing the Great Dane is Fang," She added, reaching her hand out for him to sniff and lick before she began to pet him.

"Yes, that is him. So you really think you can get him to keep from taking a bite out of the mailman?" I asked curiously.

JJ snorted in answer. "Of course I can. That's the easy stuff," She insisted just as Iggy strutted in.

"Are you a dog trainer or a ring master?" he joked as McCloud walked up and sniffed him, his tan fur instantly becoming attracted to Iggy's dark jeans.

"A little bit of both," JJ answered, standing up and looking to me. "Okay so maybe since this is your first day, we could just get him used to King, McCloud and Rosie."

"There's a third part of your freakshow?" Iggy asked, a look of bewilderment coming across his face.

"I think you're the only freakshow here," JJ countered before putting two fingers to her mouth and whistling. A minute went by before a rottweiler loped out of what I guessed was JJ's bedroom, light gray sprinkled all over her face. Immediately I could tell she was easily nine or ten years old. She moved slow and had a bitter look in her eyes until she saw JJ. Then something came over her and she wagged her short stump of a tail a couple times and trotted over to her.

"This is Rosie. She's a little older and she's not very good with other dogs, but she's gonna have to meet Fang if she's gonna even remotely get along with him," JJ explained, kneeling down to Rosie's level and petting her. "Listen girl, you gotta be nice to the new pup okay?" JJ talked to her.

Rosie let out an annoyed growl and walked up to Fang and sniffed at him, but the second he sniffed her she just about took his nose off. "Rosie!" JJ scolded, glaring at the dog. The rottweiler whined once before marching back into the room she had come out of. Instantly, Fang followed her, and a little bit of fear entered me.

"They won't get into a fight, will they?" I asked, starting to head for the room.

"Well it wouldn't really be much of a fight. Rosie would bite Fang's head off before he could blink," JJ explained.

"Um, I'm sorry, I don't think you understand. Fang is a lean-mean killing machine," Iggy said smugly. A moment later there was a vicious bark, a squeaky whine, and my precious Great Dane came galloping out of the room with his tail tucked between his legs in fear. He hid behind my legs, shaking slightly.

"Yeah, that's one vicious beast," JJ chuckled.

"Oh come on, Fang, you're making us look bad," Iggy muttered and I rolled my eyes, petting Fang's head.

"Leave the poor dog alone, Iggy, he hears enough from your dad, he doesn't need it from you too," I snapped.

"What, is your dad allergic to him or something?" JJ asked, raising an eyebrow at Iggy.

"Well yes, but he's also the mailman, and is constantly calling animal patrol on Fang,"

"Your dad sounds like a brat," JJ muttered and I laughed as Iggy blushed furiously.

"Well, yeah, he is, but I love him. Anyways, we're here to turn Fang into a fluffy koala bear who could never bite my dad's hand off."

"I think that's already been accomplished," JJ gestured to Fang, who was now laying down, letting King nip at his ears and tail without the slightest care in the world. I smiled at the scene, glad Fang would have some dog friends around.

"Yeah well, not according to Jacob… or the dog park owner. He kicked Fang out the second day. The pups' picture is up on the 'banned for life' wall," I spoke up, looking back to JJ. She had an amused glint in her eye, but I couldn't tell if it was towards Iggy or Fang.

"Yeah well, we'll give him a lesson of a lifetime. He'll be pedigree material when I'm through with him."

"Wonderful. Max your Great Dane's going to turn into a poodle under this woman's care," Iggy muttered sarcastically. I rolled my eyes.

"Is he always that negative towards girls or am I special?" JJ asked jokingly and I grinned.

"He's going through that 'I make a fool of myself in front of girls' phase, give him some time," I responded, causing JJ to smirk and Iggy to scowl; the back of his neck a bright red color.

"Alright, so how about we talk about what kind of discipline Fang needs?" JJ suggested, and I nodded, eagerly wanting the diagnosis done and over with so we could get started on the medication.

JJ gestured towards the three various black leather couches in the living room and Iggy immediately plopped down on the recliner while I took the couch; JJ sitting across from me. "Um Iggy, you might want to move-" JJ started, but my friend cut the trainer off with a simple wave of his hand.

"I'm quite comfortable where I am, thank you very much," he snapped, and I turned to glare at him as JJ shrugged.

"Fine, suit yourself," and with that we began talking about all my precious dog's flaws and quirks.


Ten minutes later is when I heard Iggy cry out in pain and watched JJ grin in amusement without even glancing in his direction. I, however, had no clue what was going on and therefore spun around fast enough to give myself whiplash. What I found was truly a sight to see. McCloud sat in Iggy's lap, his teeth latched onto the skinny boy's arm as he growled low in his throat.

"That's McCloud's chair," JJ spoke up casually, "I'd get out of it if I were you." Already one step ahead of her, Iggy yelled in fear and struggled to wriggle out from under the dog's large mass before falling in a heap on the tile floors, slight scratches on his arm from where the dog had bit down without ever actually breaking skin.

"I hate that dog," Iggy grumbled, causing McCloud to bark in his direction. Iggy screeched and jumped away, successfully banging his head on the wooden coffee table right behind him and creating a hilarious scene.

"Are you… okay?" I gasped out in between fits of laughter, watching the strawberry blonde as he rubbed the back of his head with disdain.

"Just dandy," Iggy snapped sarcastically before getting to his feet and glancing at the love seat. He seemed to be mentally thinking out his choices and if it was worth another dog sitting on him and biting him. Deciding against it, he just leaned against the wall near the flat screen TV that stood directly across from JJ and I, reflecting us back to ourselves in an odd way.

"So, anyways, do you really think he'll be good to go in about two weeks?" I asked, attempting to configure how much that would cost.

"Oh yeah, definitely. You don't have to pay up front or anything either. He can start tomorrow if you want. Just get him here by four and he can stay and learn until you have to drag that one back home and tuck him in," JJ gestured towards Iggy lightheartedly and I grinned, turning to my friend who was grumbling under his breath, his gloriously cocky demeanor from earlier changing to one of doom and gloom. I wondered what had gotten into him. Maybe he had just finally met someone who could keep up with his little game. I bet that killed him.


"Max! Can you help me with my homework?" Ari asked from somewhere upstairs, probably in his room. I sighed, reaching for the remote to pause the show I was watching about bratty little kids who talked back to their mothers and got away with it. I normally wouldn't be into something like that but it was hilarious and every now and then I got some more good comebacks to write down.

"Coming!" I called, pausing it, then changing my mind and just turning the television off since my brother's borderline dyslexia would probably end up keeping me in his room all night. Fang, who was sleeping at the bottom of the stairs, lazily lifted his head in curiosity as I stepped over him to help my little brother. He made a throaty growling noise in the back of his throat that was slightly high pitched, leaving a question on his free-flowing tongue.

Where are you going?

"Come on Fang, let's go help Ari," I spoke up brightly, blinking the sleep away from my vision as I trekked up the stairs and down the hall to Ari's room. Fang loyally trudged behind me at a slow pace; only keeping up because his long legs equaled long strides.

"Hey Kiddo," I knocked once on Ari's open white door plastered with band posters. A variety of classic rock and punk metal decorated his walls and swarmed throughout the entire room. He even had a popular classic rock band I didn't care to remember the name of blasting through his speakers that he got for Christmas last year.

The boy's chocolate eyes met my own from where he lay flat on his stomach on his bed, his legs slowly kicking up and down as he shot me a weak smile. "Hey, can you just do my math for me?" He pleaded, getting straight to the point as he grabbed a sheet of paper and thrusted it towards me. I chuckled and shook my head, sitting down on the end of the bed and taking it from his hand as Fang hopped up and curled onto one of Ari's pillows, easily drifting back into sleep.

"Ari, cheaters never prosper," I told him, reminding him of mom's wise words when he got a zero on his last math test because the teacher caught him cheating.

"Yeah, but they're smart enough to just get by, and I just need to be smart enough," Ari countered and I shook my head at him, frowning slightly.

"Ari, Don't settle for just being smart enough. You can do so much better," I encouraged, tipping his chin up to look at me. He sighed, looking back down at the math homework.

"Max, I'm academically handicapped. I'm in the dumb kids class. I have to hide who I am to my friends. I will never get above average — hell, I might not even get to average at this rate. I just want to get through this year."

"I hated seventh grade too, Ari. In fact, I hated all of middle school, but you know what got me through it? Getting to come home to Mom every night and eating her cooking, and getting to come home to Fang and playing tug-o-war with him, and even getting to come home to you. You guys got me through middle school, so now I'm going to do the same for you," I grinned and ruffled up his hair, pulling my hand back to notice dark splotches on my hand. He had added more dye to his hair. Again.

"Thanks Max," Ari muttered, sitting up and falling into my lap, hugging my neck tightly. "You know, you're really annoying sometimes, but I'm glad you're my big sister because I don't think I'd ever make it through without you."

"Oh come on, you're smart enough to cheat without getting caught most of the time, I'm pretty sure you'd be smart enough to make it without an amazing older sister,"

"Eh, maybe, but I'm glad I don't have to try to," Ari joked and pushed me playfully. In response I tackled him, pinning him down as he squirmed underneath me in an attempt to break free. Just to humor the kid, I loosened my grip and let him escape before he effectively grabbed my waist and threw me off the bed. Ari tumbled after me and we landed in a hysterical heap on the floor, laughing together like we did when I was nine and he was six.

Fang howled quietly before getting up to all fours and pouncing off the bed into our pile. "And you know, if it ever gets to be too much, Fang can always eat your homework. That's how I got out of some Geometry," I suggested.

"How often does it work?" he asked.

"Once for each teacher a year. So save it for the extra hard stuff," I winked and got to my feet, picking Ari up under his arms and swinging him back onto the bed as he laughed.

"However, since you have me right now I guess I can help with whatever you're doing," I spoke with false reluctance.

"Wonderful," He handed the crumpled math paper to me once again and together we stayed up half the night finishing his homework.