Okay, chappie two coming up.

Disclaimer: don't own it. JP does. So go fight him for it.

Nudge was having the time of her life. She never dreamed she would be so popular! Apparently, though, having a mature body and full lips made you a beauty queen. There were girls there that were practically begging her for the secret of her glossy hair, and where she got her lip gloss!

Gosh, Nudge loved the attention. She had never been the center of it before. It was always Max, never Nudge, who was paid attention to; saving-the-world Max, with her sun-streaked blond hair and chocolate brown eyes. In fact, she was getting attention here too; a lot more than she needed, from Nudge's point of view. Fact was, though, Nudge thought smugly; Nudge was getting more.

"Wanna hang out later?" a boy with jet-black hair asked her, leaning against the locker next to hers. This was the eighth boy so far. Nudge giggled excitedly, fluttering her eyelashes at the boy, and she could have sworn he swooned.

"Maybe," was her mysterious reply. As she walked past the surprised boy, she ran her index finger along his cheek and winked roguishly. This time, he did swoon.

Winking roguishly. Will have to use that more often.

Nudge walked to her next class amidst a gaggle of giggling girls---now that's alliteration for you. She chattered aimlessly about hair and skin products, make-up, and boys. She was having so much fun; who knew school would be this enjoyable?

Gazzy, however, was bored. B-o-r-e-d. He wished Iggy was there with him; that would have livened things up a bit. Iggy always made things fun.

But, Gazzy wondered as he swung his legs over the rail of one of the climbing things of the playground, maybe he could find Iggy. Find Iggy easily. After all, he'd been hearing snatches about what was surely him all day.

So Gazzy hopped over the side of the climbing thing and landed nimbly in the gravel. Standing, he peeked around quickly to be sure no teachers were watching him. None were, so he sprinted eagerly across the playground and to the beaconing doors of the school.

Once inside, Gazzy knew it would be harder to find Iggy than he'd previously thought. There were big kids everywhere. He didn't know so many even existed. Okay, scratch that, he knew this many existed… after all, there were probably millions of big kids around the world. Still… this much couldn't be in this school! There were tons of them!

Of course, none of them looked as cool or epic as his Iggy did. But then, no one could look that good. Gazzy always hoped he'd turn out to be half as epic as Iggy was when he grew up, but it was a high-hope that probably wouldn't come true. Not even Fang was half as cool as Iggy.

But, Gazzy also decided, Iggy would be easier to find than he had first thought upon seeing the hordes of teens. After all, measuring the height of the tallest teen in his sight, Gazzy knew Iggy had to be at least three inches taller than any of these kids. He wasn't worried.

That was when a big kid pushed him. Gazzy fell, hard, into another kid.

"Watch where you're going, loser," the kid snarled, pulling Gazzy up by the hood of his jacket.

Okay, this was a bad situation. What would Iggy do? Iggy'd pound the stupid bully into the middle of next week. But Gazzy wasn't as epic as Iggy, so what could he do? The kid was strong, and tall, and mean. And would probably pound him into the middle of next week if he even laid a finger on the kid.

Bad. Bad. Bad. Gosh, being held up by your hood hurt. Gazzy was choking.

"Well, loser? What do you have to say? You better apologize, or you're gonna get it."

Gazzy choked more as the kid yanked up his hood even tighter.

"S-s-s-sorry," Gazzy muttered, gasping for breath.

"What'd ya say? Speak up, loser."

Gazzy could feel the creeps breath on his cheek.

"I s-s-said s-s-sor---"

"Put him down."

Gazzy knew that voice. His eyes widened hopefully and he struggled to look up to see Iggy, standing tall, behind the bully with his arms crossed and his blind eyes staring in Gazzy's general direction.

The big kid whirled with Gazzy's hood still clutched in his fist. He sneered at the sight of Iggy, which Gazzy found rather confusing seeing as he thought Iggy looked pretty intimidating. There was that ferocious glint in his eyes that Gazzy only saw when Eraser's were attacking, or when Max wasn't letting him have dessert. That glint usually meant someone was about to either die or be seriously injured.

"What's up, no-eyes?" the kid smirked.

"Yes, yes, quite an original nickname there. I said, put him down." Iggy's eye-glint was growing brighter. Gazzy thought the kid had better listen to him quick, or he'd end up with a few broken limbs.

"Yeah? What're you gonna do about it?" The kid was really asking for it.

Iggy grimaced. "Well, I'll give you two options. Either you let G---I mean Zephyr down right now and walk away and there'll be no more trouble, or we get into a brawl and end up in the principle's office. And, let me tell you, I doubt you'll be the one getting off light for fighting a 'poor, blind, defenseless young boy.'"

The kid holding Gazzy seemed to fight inwardly with himself for a moment, a flash of arguing expressions flitting across his gruff face. Then, with a grunt, he let Gazzy drop.

Iggy darted forward to catch Gazzy before he could collapse to the ground, and Gazzy gazed up at him thankfully. Iggy straightened hurriedly, setting Gazzy's feet firmly to the ground.

Then, the big kid shoved Iggy viciously and he stumbled, almost falling on top of Gazzy, who steadied him.

"You'll get what's coming to ya," the kid growled before turning to walk away. "Freak."

Gazzy saw Iggy's face tighten at the words, but he regained his balance and looked down at Gazzy.

"You okay, Gazzer?" he asked.

"Yeah, thanks bunches Iggs," he grinned. Then he paused, looking back at the retreating form of the bully. "Uh, why did he call you a freak?"

Iggy scowled. "Because he's a jerk."

"Is it because of your wings? No one knows about them, do they?"

Iggy sighs, taking the Gasman's hand and pulling him to the side of the hall. Gazzy noticed people staring curiously after them or grinning and pointing, but he paid no heed.

Gazzy turned back to see Iggy looking in his direction with quite a serious expression on his face.

"Listen, Gaz, people in school aren't all nice. Yeah, you'll probably make some friends, but there are always bullies, like that one, who just wanna push people around."

"Yeah?" Gazzy prompted, staring up at Iggy with wide eyes.

"Yeah? Yeah, well…" Iggy sighed, bringing a long hand up to his face. "You see, Gazzer, most people don't like… people who are different. Or, they're okay with it, but they think it's weird, or scary, or gross. That's why Max doesn't want us revealing ourselves to the public."

"Yeah?" Gazzy said, acknowledging Iggy's spiel. He knew all this already, and was waiting for him to get to the point.

"Well," Iggy continued nervously. "See, you can be different even if you don't have wings or scales or gills or weird gifts. And people can still feel weird about you, or hate you, or be mean to you just 'cause of that."

Gazzy's quiet for a moment. What was Iggy getting at? What did all of this have to do with the mean kid calling Iggy a freak?

"You mean, different like my farts?"

Iggy laughs softly. "No, Gazzer. I mean, different like… well, like being deformed. Or having a giant birthmark on your face. Or extra fingers. Or a giant noticeable scar. Or being really fat. Or… or being blind."

The Gasman stares up incredulously at his role-model. "You mean… people are mean to you just 'cause you're blind?"

Iggy sighs. "Yeah, Gazzy. Just 'cause I'm blind."

"But you're awesome!"

Laughing, Iggy turns away. "Yeah, you're right, I'm awesome. But still… don't be surprised if you hear people around school talking about the 'blind freak.'"

Gazzy doesn't catch the bitterness in Iggy's voice as he walks towards his next class. Sighing, Gazzy realized he should probably get back to his teachers.

Fang was furious. First, he'd lost Iggy on the way to next period. Then, he'd run into Max in the hall. Well, he'd noticed her. Max had been to busy being horded by a group of at least three guys, who were all flirting viciously.

Max doesn't want them, Fang tries to convince himself. But he couldn't get the vision of her, ecstatically accepting compliments from the guys and… ugh, she'd been flirting back.

Fang couldn't take it. Max was his, wasn't she? That had seemed clear when she'd kissed him on the beach that time when he'd been beat up by Ari. Hadn't it? Hadn't that, like, claimed her as his? Or him as hers? It didn't really matter what order, Fang just wanted Max.

That was when a girl interrupted his jealous reverie.

"Hey, you're Nick, right? We've got Biology together. I'm Lissa."

Fang looked down at the flirtatiously smiling girl in front of him. She had long, flowing red hair halfway down her back. Her lips were painted pink with watermelon lip-gloss---Fang could smell it from a foot away---and her eyelashes were long and feathery. She had her cheeks powdered lightly with blush and was wearing dark mascara and soft blue eye-shadow that brought out her sapphire eyes. She wore tight skinny-jeans and a layer of about three tank-tops, including a lacy undershirt.

"Hi, Lissa," Fang answered warily, noticing how much he loved red hair. "Yeah, I'm Nick."

"Cool." Lissa's smile was foxy. "Wanna walk to next period with me? You've got Math now, right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I do," Fang replied dazedly. And then a brilliant idea spread across his mind. Max wanted crowds of boys coming after her, huh? None of them were as good as him. And Fang was ready to prove it.

He needed to get Max jealous.

On the way to next class, Fang wrapped his arm around Lissa's waist. She grinned and put her hand up on his back.

Oh, Max was going to hate this.

Okay. This chapter was… interesting. Yeah, I do imagine Gazzy idolizing Iggy… as sort of a deity, don't ya think? And yes, I think Fang got more jealous than he was letting on about Max's attention. So, how do you guys like it so far? Good, bad? I'm still awaiting my first flame. It will be a trophy for me. Please don't hold back, for pity's sake. REVIEW.