Hey guys! Before we start I just want to thank a few people:

To my followers, people who have favorited the story, and reviewers:

ALICEGOMES, 1ssum, Ang3lofdarkn355, MRFL, MissunderstoodPoet, RJtheBookLover, Shygirl28, The Dreamer7778, TwixGirl1212, WeirdUnicorn2.0, Yay Go explosives, YetiTech, Zda92601, buffy18a, superstormkatie, swords362, tesaxton, vampirehunter17, Bookwriter16, GreenDragon213, PortlandChinaDoll, Thrullsmash, Vanitas' Queen21, runforcoverrrs, and WorstBookshelfEver.

Special thank you to WorstBookshelfEver for reviewing with always inspiring and thoughtful reviews, and to runforcoverrrs, who has helped the story along a lot with their support and constructive criticism. Remember, guys...don't be afraid to lay it on me! I can take it and will do whatever it takes to improve the story. Unless you think I should delete it, in which case you're probably in the wrong place. :/

Uh, I've kinda slipped on the disclaimer thing. So, here it is. Here are the disclaimers, beginning on Chapter 12. I'm proud of me, are you?

Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Maximum Ride except for this story and the credit for spreading the joy of the series to all.

Copyright thingy: I DO own, however, these characters: Corliss, Maeve, Erica, Kelsey, Olive, Nate, Rush, and Violet.

Random Maro Fact: I like things super neat but in reality am an extremely sloppy person. So I'm often very frustrated with myself; I can't STAND to have a messy room but I'm too lazy to clean it up. GOD, M! Get it together!

Also, I accidentally poured orange juice into my cereal this morning and proceeded to eat it anyway. I mean, I was gonna have juice anyway so...it all looks the same inside your stomach!

Sorry, I guess maybe that was kind of gross.

Alright, I know this is a really long AN, but I wanted to thank all the people who have been supporting my story and reviewing because I really do appreciate it. You can always pm me as well as review if you have any questions or concerns about the story or maybe just want to talk about the series or other stuff, that's fine too!

Okay, finally...without further ado...I give you...Chapter 13!

I whirled around to face Lissa, who was standing at the end of the lunch table glaring down at us. A tall, gorgeous, dark-skinned girl was standing a little behind her, a slightly anxious expression on her face. It was almost as though she was expecting Lissa to faint from anger and she was there to catch her.

"Look," I said coldly before the Queen Bee could speak. I so wanted to just punch her right in her pretty little face. "I'm still not sure exactly what your problem is—" Here Corliss caught my eye and shook her head once, hard. Huh? "—But," I continued valiantly, "I'm sorry if we got off on the wrong foot. Or something." I glanced at Corliss again, confused as to why she had cut me off, and frustrated about having the word sorry slip out so easily. She nodded.

Lissa took a deep breath and blew it out sharply through her nose. The girl standing behind her looked alarmed and extended her arms slightly. Hm. Interesting. Wonder what that's about. Lissa crossed her arms and shook her hair back, green eyes shining with disdain. "Whatever," She said impatiently. "I've been having a hard time. Okay?" She turned to Corliss. "Sorry if I was a bitch to your sister, I guess. I didn't really mean it." She said.

To Hell she didn't mean it. Riiight. I held my tongue though, something I'm still proud of…hey, you know what? Forget what I just said. All of it. Because really, who am I to say she didn't mean it? She didn't seem sincere, but then I didn't know her. And anyway, sometimes taking the high road gets you where you're going fastest.

"It's okay," Corliss said, reaching out for a hug. Lissa hugged her back. "I understand." Now I was really curious. Some investigating may have been in order.

"Um, so, Cory, we were just thinking about going over to Coach's office," The tall girl who had arrived with Lissa said, shooting the words rapidly out of her mouth. It was almost like she was singing them. I realized then that she had been bursting to speak the entire time. "And seeing if we could sign up for tryouts, because you can never get started too early, right? And anyway we'll have more of a shot if we sign up now because we'll be at the top of the sophomore list, and everyone knows that if you're at the top, you go first, and if you're at the bottom you go—"

"—Yup, got it. Thanks, Moni." Corliss laughed. "I'm coming. Oh, wait, Ella. Wanna come with us? Max?"

"Of course!" My sister bounced up from her place at the table, quickly gathering her things and stacking them into her Backpurse.

"Sign up for what?" I asked around a spoonful of pudding, putting my hand over my mouth so no one would be sprayed with chocolatey goodness. Lissa rolled her eyes. I was getting really tired of seeing that girl's whites all the time.

"Cheer!" The three girls chorused. Lissa just stood there, thrumming her long fingernails on the cafeteria table. She occasionally glanced over her shoulder and smiled at something. I leaned back automatically in my seat to see what it was she was looking at, only to be met with the gaze of TDa—Oh, Elias, right. Corliss's brother. Freaking Frick-Frack. I looked away so quickly I felt a bone in my neck crack.

"Max? Hello? Signups?" Ella waved her hand in front of my face teasingly, knowing full well that wild horses couldn't drag me to cheerleading signups.

"No, I said before I could stop myself. "No way." In my lifetime, a full 15-and-a-half years, I had been to exactly one football game and experienced the extremely sexist phenomenon known as a cheerleader. And I still get headaches thinking about it. So no, this wouldn't exactly be my cup of tea. Actually, I was surprised that Corliss was into it.

Corliss looked at me with disapproval for the first time. "It's not what you're thinking, Max," She said as though she were reading my mind. "There's a lot more to it than that."

"Still. No thanks," I said. "I believe you, though. I didn't mean to jump to conclusions."

"It's fine. Sorry. I'm just used to my sister's attitude."

I raised an eyebrow.

Before Corliss could elaborate, the tall girl jumped in again, dying to have her share in the conversation. Or any conversation, maybe.

"You're Ella's sister, right?" She asked excitedly, her eyes wide and her smile huge. "You're in my Spanish class! Which is cool because I have no idea what I'm doing in that class and maybe you can help m—" Corliss clapped a tiny hand over the girl's mouth, stopping the flow of what seemed like one endless sentence. She pried the hand off her face. "Um, anyway," She said sheepishly. "I'm Monique."

"Max." I don't think I had ever said my own name as often as I did that day.

Corliss checked her little silver wristwatch. "We better go if we're gonna make it. Lunch ends in 8 minutes." Ella slung her Backpurse over her shoulder.

"Let's go."

"Finally," Lissa exhaled, standing up straight and beginning to walk away without so much as a goodbye. I watched her give a teasing smile to the boys at the table next to us. A pair of dark eyes watched her go by.

"See you later, Max." Corliss stepped in front of me, breaking my gaze at the interaction between my two least favorite people so far. She smiled at me and waved, then turned to hurry after her fellow potential cheermates. I watched them push open the large cafeteria doors and step out into the hall, feeling a strange twang of sadness as Ella laughed wholeheartedly at something Lissa said. Then the doors swung shut and they were gone.

I know I didn't give you guys the Max-disses-Lissa-in-front-of-the-whole-school-thing, and I know that's probably what a lot of you wanted. But honestly, I'm sick and tired of the cliché Lissa character, where she's just a total dumb biatch who's in love with Fang and hate's Max's guts. That's actually a little of what I'm doing, but I just wanted to take that and make it more realistic. I know most of us probably hate Lissa for "trying to steal Fang," me included. I thought she was gross. But honestly, I'm tired of her being portrayed as a total psychopath. So this is Lissa the way I picture her (if she's not, in fact, a totally decent person. I mean, do we really know?)

I mean no disrespect towards the people who like Lissa the way I'm trying to avoid making her, because those stories are definitely fun to read. This is just my opinion. :]

Please remember to review! Just push that button down there and give me a shout. Likes, dislikes, comments, questions…anything that has at least a spark of positivity, please. THANK YOU for being awesome and letting me know what's on your mind. And yes, I AM going to update tomorrow, hopefully, since this was such a short filler chapter.

YOUR FEEDBACK IS MY FUEL,

Maro