The next morning I was ungratefully woken up by someone who I could only guess would have to be Ella - as the Flock knew how dangerous it was waking me up without a life or death situation – bouncing on my bed making it impossible to ignore her.

"Max. Oh Come on Max, wake up." I rolled over underneath the blankets, away from where Ella sat on my bed. "Ah she is awake. Now come on I'm dieing to know what happened at the party. You guys took forever getting home." I gave her no reply so she pulled back the blankets making me glare at her trying to unsuccessfully pull the blankets back up.

"Go ask Fang and let me sleep."

This made Ella laugh,

"Ask Fang? Ha! As if. I'd be lucky to get three words out of him. And plus, one it's almost midday so you need to get up and two Fang hasn't gotten up yet either so that would mean going into his room." She paused for a moment watching me trying to adjust to the brightness of my room and then added, "What were you guys up to anyway? You were out for like ages and I was speaking to a friend of mine from class and I know that party ended like way before you got home and she wouldn't tell me what you guys did."

I looked up at her my eyes and blinked once more,

"You sound like Nudge and what's up with the interrogation? I expected this from mum or something."

Ella shrugged and then grinned,

"This is what happens when you have a sister who didn't get invited and plus mum and dad are away for a couple of days. Some emergency trip or something."

I nodded,

"Right, so do we have adult supervision or is it fend for yourself?"

Ella rolled her eyes,

"By the sound of it dad decided you and Fang were the supervision." I gave a single laugh.

"That wouldn't be the first time."

Ella got a bit fidgety the way she sometimes did when we'd start talking about some of the more unfavourable topics before we lived with her.

"Yeah well anyway it was kind of funny because mum was all like 'maybe we should call the Laurence's from down the street' and then dad started this big long speech about how you're built for this type of thing and how if you actually worked out you and Fangs proper age you'd be like twenty+ or something and that made her calm down until she started asking wether you two would want to moving out soon or what and so now I'm kind of wondering that too." Ella finally had to take a breath and I held my hand up for silence.

"Seriously have you had a bowl of sugar for breakfast or have you been spending too much time with Nudge?"

Ella shook her head,

"No sugar, just excitement. We have the house to ourselves and I really want to know what the party was like."

I sighed,

"The party was alright a bit too crowded though and way too much alcohol and before you ask, no we did not drink. Nothing that interesting happened really. We were just late because we stayed back to help clean up. Oh and I don't think either of us are planning to move out at any immediate point of time unless some unfortunate even occurs and then we all move out. Flock instincts, its not in our nature to separate so even if we did move out at some stage it wouldn't be that far away."

Ella seemed relieved at my last answer and made her loose some of the disappointment from the uneventfulness of the party. But then she brightened up again just as Nudge came in and sat down beside her.

"So we have the house to ourselves for like quite a while so what are we going to do?"

I just shrugged,

"What we normally do I guess."

Ella looked at me like she was surprised but Nudge filled her in,

"We lived for like over a year in a house with only Max's supervision. The worst that will happen is the dishes are left for a while."

Ella nodded,

"That would explain why they were so fine with us being left here by ourselves."

I could not help but frown as I got us and grabbed some clothes out of the cupboard.

"Just as long as they come back," I muttered to myself and Ella and Nudge decided to take this as their invitation to leave. Once my door was closed Ella looked down at Nudge confused.

"Jeb took us away from the school and we lived happily at this house for a few years but then one day Jeb disappeared. We thought he was dead but he actually was working at the school, but after he left Max looked after us." Nudge explained her eyes distant reliving memories in her head. She was quiet for a while before looking up and adding, "Max has always been there for us. Max and I guess Fang too really, they're the closest thing to proper parents we've ever had. We're like some mutated human-bird family." And with that she headed downstairs to play.

Ella stood there for a moment and then shook her head before she to headed downstairs. She was always being surprised with their past events even though they'd already told her so much.

A few minutes later I was out of my room wearing my most comfortable jeans and shirt, tying my hair up into a pony as I headed out. I got to the stairs before I remembered Ella mentioning how Fang wasn't up yet. I gave a sigh, better check he was alright. I gave a single knock before opening the door, we were used to each other just entering the others room and thankfully somehow we'd done this for the whole time we've lived here without walking in on anything we shouldn't. Although seeing as our hearing's normally better than most humans this shouldn't be so surprising.

I looked around the room and sure enough there was a lump of Fang underneath the blankets. I flopped down onto his bed and sat there watching him. I knew he was awake and if I had to be up there was no way he got to stay in bed.

"You had so better not be sick," I told him but after no answer I jumped up and flung the blinds back so the bright midday sun hit him with full force. Giving me a rather rude signal with his finger he rolled over with a groan trying to escape the light. I just grinned, now understanding why Ella found it so fun doing this to me almost every morning. I jumped back onto the bed and crawled over so I was leaning over Fang. And if you haven't guessed already we both –oh and Ella - have double beds while the others have singles as they wanted to share rooms.

"Fang," I called and leaned down closer so my hair just about brushed his face. "Fang," I called again and he rolled over so his dark eyes were looking up at me.

"I'm awake," he muttered and I frowned slightly. Now that I could see him more clearly he defiantly did not look as healthy as usual.

"Are you alright?" I asked trying to not sound worried. He pulled a face,

"I think my drink got spiked." I pushed my lips together to not laugh and he glared.

"No I'm just glad it's not something serious. Mum and Dad are away for a while so we're left in charge."

"More like you're in charge," he said and I gave a single laugh.

"No I might be built to be a leader but that doesn't mean they'll always listen. We work a lot better together." I swore I saw a smile flicker over Fangs face and I flopped down to lay next to him, a little to bumpily though as he pulled a face and the movement.

"Is there anything I can do?" I asked feeling a little bad about waking him up so abruptly. His lips twitched fighting a smile as he looked across at me.

"Kiss it better?" he offered and I raised an eyebrow.

"Where does it hurt?" I asked and he pointed just above his left temple. I lent across and lightly gave it a kiss. Then he rolled his head to the side and pointed to his other temple. I lent across and gave it a kiss. As I leant back I looked up at his even messier hair then usual, I kind of liked it like that. I could feel him watching me and I gave him a smile. "Anywhere else?" I asked and he paused for a moment before pointing at his lips. "Well I'd better fix that," I said before leaning over. His lips seemed to take longer to make better but just as things started to get interesting we heard a crash downstairs and we pulled apart. We both got up and hurried out to see what had happened. As we left the stairs and turned into the kitchen I heard Fang mutter to me,

"They always have perfect timing don't they?" I pushed back a laugh.

"What happened?" I asked and Ella looked up surprised.

"Wow Angel was right you guys do, do this well I swear you were down here before mum would have even been here." She paused for a moment and looked over Fang's half naked body and bed hair plus my I could only guess slightly rumpled clothes. "What you doing before you came down here?" We didn't bother answering and Fang sat down and put his head in his arms. Ella looked up from where she was bent down with a paper towel as she watched me quickly poor a glass of water and put one of those fizzy things in it for headaches and sit it down lightly beside Fang, giving him a nudge to get him to drink it.

"Fang's drink got spiked," I briskly explained before looking down at Ella. "What happened here?"

Ella shrugged.

"Gazzy was throwing a ball around here and accidentally his Iggy's bowl. Nothing was broken just a bit of spilt milk and a loud noise so I told them to go outside and I'd fix it up."

I heard myself growl in anger and glared at Fang as he started to laugh as he drunk his drink. I was so tempted to hit the back of his head. Instead I just screamed out to Gasman and Iggy knowing they'd hear me from outside and making Fang wince at the volume. Ella stood up and put the used paper towel in the bin before sitting down beside Fang and looking across at him for an explanation.

"They were already in trouble before this and you're about to see why Max is the Flock leader." Fang said with a small smile but it dropped into a serious look as Gazzy and Iggy walked in heads bowed. They knew what they were here about.

"Sit," I told them sternly and immediately they sat down at the family table. I could feel Fang and Ella watching me over at the kitchen behind me. I frowned at the two in front of me and I began. "Anything you want to fess up to?"

A couple of minutes later I was finished with the two of them promising to remove all explosives from the house and into a safe spot. I would have gotten them to get rid of them fully but I hadn't fully gotten over my paranoia and having protection in-case of an attack was not going to be refused. I had also gone over the rules we'd had back at the old house and made sure they knew they still worked even though we were here.

After Iggy and Gazzy left I sat down next to Fang and took the last part of his drink. I really hated doing that but that was my job wasn't it? Fang gave me a sympathetic look as Ella whistled.

"You guys have this whole parenting thing down pretty well haven't you?"

I laughed,

"I'd hope so; we pretty much raised the whole Flock from when they were babies. And if you think I'm strict with punishments you should see Fang when he gets ticked off. Now that's when you know you're in trouble."

Fang smirked at me,

"Yeah you'd defiantly know that wouldn't you?" I grabbed his glass and stood up, poking my tongue out at him as I went over and refilled the glass and grabbed a new one for me. Ella grinned at me and Fang.

"Ooh what's the perfect Maximum Ride done?" Me and Fang looked at each other and burst out laughing. Perfect? Hardly. Ella rolled her eyes. "Ok not so perfect, but still what's she done?" Fang sat back and thought for a moment before giving me a quick glare.

"Tried to get that stupid chip out of her arm with a seashell for one."

Ella wrinkled her nose up, she'd heard about that one before. But I just rolled my eyes and sat back down with the drinks.

"I was having a bad day," I defended.

"A really bad day," Fang muttered but before anything else could be said Angel and Nudge popped their heads around the corner.

"Is it safe to enter?" Angel asked and Nudge added, "we heard Max yelling before."

I patted my lap.

"Yeah everything's fine what's up?" Angel came over to me and lent on me, standing between me and Fang and I stroked her hair as Nudge went over and opened the fridge.

"We were thirsty," Nudge said as she grabbed out the milk. "Iggy made lunch a while ago and there are some sandwiches in the fridge for you and Fang." Nudge poured a glass for her and Angel before downing hers and going back outside. But Angel stayed beside me and looked up at Fang and frowned. Fang noticed this and looked at her questioningly.

"You're head's all foggy." Angel said and Fang shrugged.

"Tell me about it," he muttered and took another drink and I pursed my lips.

"Angel," I said sweetly. "What did we agree on before about you looking through our heads?"

"Oops," Angel said. "Sorry Fang I forgot." Fang just shrugged like usual and I guessed his hangover must have been going away.

"Go on have your drink and then go back outside. Oh and tell Iggy he's off kitchen duty tonight."

Fang stood up but when his chair scraped against the floor this time he did not wince.

"You're feeling better then?" I guessed and Fang shot me a grin.

"Yep you made me all better." I pushed my lips together to not grin back and Ella said cheekily.

"Kissed them better did you?"

Fang looked across at Ella and wiggled his eyebrows. I looked over at Ella, my mouth pursed into a line so I would not laugh at her look of surprise. She'd really not expected that one.