Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. Is there an echo in these disclaimers?

Flying through the air, I kept my eye out for a city where we could find a clothing store. But a city in Montana is an oxymoron.

But eventually, we did find a town that had a mall. We found some woods about a half-mile away from it and landed.

We walked over to the mall, trying to look inconspicuous. But when you're wearing clothes two sizes two small or that look like you jumped through an erupting volcano, you're bound to get a few stares.

We walked into the mall. It wasn't very big. At the end there was a JCPenny. It was better than nothing. "Okay, guys," I said, "Now don't get carried away. Just get a casual outfit. I don't know what sizes you guys are, so just keep trying until you got something that fits. Nudge, no playing dress up, and Angel, no mind control. And Gazzy, if you gotta let a bomb like earlier, go to the bathroom."

So we all split up looking for whatever clothes we needed. I went over to the women's clothes section with Angel and Nudge while Gazzy and Iggy went to the men's.

I found a nice red short-sleeve shirt and a pair of light blue jeans. I also remembered my half melted sneakers and went over to get a new pair.

I went into the changing room to see if they all fit. After taking off my shirt, I found that my left bra strap had been ripped. It must have been when Asch hit me in the shoulder with his fire ring. I always hated shopping for bras and panties. I always felt so embarrassed.

After trying the clothes and seeing that they fit, I came out of the changing room. I saw Nudge and Angel going through shirts, smiling and giggling about something. Without them seeing, I slipped into the girls' underwear section. Quickly, I looked for something in my size.

Don't let someone see me, don't let someone see me, and for god's sake, don't let the flock see me.

After what seemed like forever, I found a pair that fit me. I decided I would pay for these before the others picked out their outfits. I went to the registers and found an open one. A guy with a bored look on his face was at the register. He had bad acne which he looked like he picked at a lot.

I put my stuff on the counter. He took it and scanned it without even saying hello or asking how I was doing.

He told me my total and I gave him the card and he slid it through the scanner.

Please let it work, please let it work, please let it work.

And then the card worked. The man handed the card back to me and then said, "What happened to you? You get in a fight?"

A few seconds of hesitation and then, "Yes, yes I got in a fight."

"Well, you might want to consider cleaning yourself up before going out looking like you've been through hell."

"And you might want to consider Clearasil before going out with your face looking like a dartboard."

I took my bag full of clothes and left him to chew on that for awhile.

I found the girls with some clothes. Nudge had a blue shirt with some nice black pants. She even got some reasonable shoes. Angel got some blue jeans like mine, only her size, and had a pink shirt with a teddy bear on it. It was cute, but I couldn't let her have it.

"Angel," I said, "I know this a little awkward for you, but you're not six anymore, you're nine. I think you should wear something a little more appropriate to your age." I hated doing this to her, but I couldn't help but feel she needed to move into something a little more mature. I had to rush her into being more mature. This losing two years had to affect her the most.

Of course, she was probably reading that in my head.

Angel sighed and put the shirt back. She then found a pink blouse. Everything had to be pink with her. I figured that it was all right and nodded my head yes. She smiled and gave me a hug. She also had some white sneakers with her that were nice.

Now it was time to check out the boys. This would probably be even more difficult.

We found them in the shirts section. "Max?" asked Iggy.

"What?"

"What color are the shirts I'm holding?"

"Didn't Gazzy tell you?"

"Yeah, but I don't trust him."

"Aww, c'mon," cried Gazzy, giggling a bit.

Iggy was holding two shirts. One of them was tie-dyed. The other was pink that said "Real Men Wear Pink".

"You're wise not to," I said. I took the shirts from him and hung them back up on the rack. "What color do you like?"

Iggy just gave a blank stare.

"You're right, dumb question." I had been away from them way too long.

I found a light brown short-sleeve shirt that was about his size. I gave it to him. "Here, you go. This will work for you."

Iggy had a pair of boots with him. Gazzy had a white shirt with a pattern of black stripes on it that made it look like a tiger. He had blue jeans and black sneakers as well.

"All right, now that we're all set, let's get out of here."

We all went to the registers. I decided to avoid the one I had been to earlier and found another one. There was a lady there who greeted us and was very nice. If she noticed how awkward we looked, she didn't say it.

I paid for everybody's things with the credit card and we took our bags and got out of the store. Inside the mall, I told everyone that I wanted to sit down on a bench for a bit.

"Why? You getting another headache?" asked Iggy.

"No, I just got to check out this map so we can figure out where we are."

I pulled out the map from my back pocket and opened it up. I looked for Timber on it and found it. Good, so now I know where we were. Now, the note said I needed to find Asch, but I didn't know where he was. So how could I find him? A lot of help that was.

I looked at a clock on the wall. It read 1:57 p.m.

"Guys, I think we should find a place to stay for today and tonight so we can figure out what we're gonna do."

"Sounds like a good idea," said Iggy, "considering how we have no idea what we're doing."

So we left the mall and started walking around town looking for a motel. We got plenty more odd looks from people walking around.

Finally, we found one that was decent looking enough. We went inside to find a man at a desk watching television. We walked up to the desk and he gave us our 78th weird look.

"Can I help you kids?" he asked.

"Yes, we'd like a room," I said.

"Our rooms can only fit up to three people."

"Then we'll get two."

He stared at us for a minute, and then he said, "Its thirty bucks a night for each room."

"Fine," I said, pulling out my card. I gave it to him and he scanned it and gave it back to me. He went to the key rack and pulled out two sets of keys.

"You have rooms A-4 and A-5," he said.

"Thank you," I said, taking the keys.

We walked over to the rooms. "So, how do you want to split up?" I asked, "Boys and girls? Youngest from oldest?"

"Well, you know I can't replace Fang," said Iggy. He probably felt the glare I was giving him because then he said, "Sorry, bad joke."

So we split into boys and girls.

For most of the day, I studied the map, thinking of where in America we could possibly go, except for when we all changed into our new clothes and went to get Burger King later in the evening.

At 9:00 at night, I was ready to give up. I had absolutely no clue as to where I could find Asch. I had no clues whatsoever.

Suddenly, my head started to hurt. I was getting another one of those headaches. This one wasn't as bad though. I had images of a little girl. I had saved her life from a bunch of bullies. Then I was at her house, meeting her mother. She gave me cookies, really good cookies. And she was a doctor.

As the pain went away, it came to me. Dr. Martinez and her daughter Ella. We could go there. They would definitely let us stay with them. I can't believe I didn't think of it before.

Everybody was in the same room watching TV. "Okay, guys," I said, "I know where we're going."

"Oooh, where?" asked Nudge.

"We're going to Arizona."

"Not to the school, I hope," said Gazzy.

"No, there's somebody somewhere else in Arizona that I know that will surely take us in. But it's on the other side of the country, so I suggest we got to bed now so we can get an early start."

"You certainly know a lot of strangers you haven't told us about," said Iggy.

"You know me. People just gravitate to me. So, c'mon. Bedtime."

"All right, good night," Iggy said as he and Gazzy went to their room. Angel and Nudge got into their beds. I helped tuck Angel in. I didn't care how old she was, she still felt like my little girl.

"Good night," I said to them both.

"Good night," they both said back.

I climbed into bed and went to sleep, knowing that our new adventure was to begin tomorrow.

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