Disclaimer: I AM NOT WORTHY!!!!! SOB It's all J.P. and ML'E!
Max's POV
As I ran through thewoods, sobs wracked my body, and I couldn't see where I was going through all my tears. I was used to pain, and used to hiding it from the kids, but they weren't here now, and this was a different kind of pain. Emotional pain is always worse.
Then I tripped, and twisted my ankle. It instantly started to swell. Crap. I thought as I tried to stand on it. Crap. And I fell. I don't know how long I sat there, crying until I could cry no more, and I could only hiccup. Then I saw a shape coming through the trees
"Max! Max! Where are you?" Mel was shouting. "I'm here." I croaked. Yelling would hurt too much. Luckily, it was enough. She had heard, and was walking towards me. She sat down, and patted my back. "We need to talk, but this isn't the place to do it. Come on, there's a shelter, over there." I had been crying so hard that I hadn't noticed that it had started to rain. She pulled me up, and half carried, half lead me to the shelter, only a few hundred feet away, that I hadn't noticed. "There's something I need to tell you. But first off, promise you won't get mad at me. I only just figured it out when you ran off." She said. "I promise." I whispered. "Ok, first of all, let me tell you you're the best friend I've ever had, and I don't want you to hate me or anything, but you really need to know …" She trailed off, then, gathering her courage to speak. Then "I know that you're Max Ride…the Max Ride, the one with wings. The one from the book. Look, before you deny it, I know that Zypher is Gazzy, Ariel is angel, Tiffany-Krystal is Nudge, Nick is Fang, and Jeff is Iggy. Look I only just realized this afternoon, and I was going to talk to you before you went out flying tonight." I sighed and nodded. Then- "but before you decide to leave, yes, I know you're thinking about that, there's something else." She took off her jacket … and spread her wings. Oh. My. God. She had wings too! Why didn't she tell me? The same reason you didn't tell her. The voice said. "Are you ok? She asked. "um yah…um wow, this is a shock. Whatever I expected you to do next, it wasn't that." Her wings were beautiful. A light coffee brown, that exactly matched her eyes. Just then, a twig broke. She snapped in her wings, then turned and saw who it was. Iggy stepped out from behind a tree, and waved sheepishly. "Um, hi" he tried to gloss over the awkward moment but Mel would have none of it. "How long have you known?" she snapped irritably. He sighed and said " From almost the moment I met you." Ok, this was more awkward than I thought. She sighed too, and smiled sadly, patting the bench beside her. He sat down beside her and asked her to describe her wings to him (he's blind). I took this as my cue to leave. I got up, and hurriedly left the shelter (it had stopped raining, and my ankle was healing fast due to my super fast healing avian complex), limping along was hard work, so I decided to sit down and wait for them to catch up. I settled comfortably against a tree. They might be a while.