A/N: The wait wasn't as long this time! I think? Oh well... I finished this chapter in a rush, so I'm not too sure about it... that's for you guys to decide!

Disclaimer: I don't own NEthing.

Max POV

Shay and I got to school with plenty of time to spare. I had to get my schedule and check for escape routes, and everything, anyway. I still wasn't quite sure this was a good idea. My last education experience didn't go as I would have like it to. I mean, who wants to see their principal's purple vein throbbing fit to burst in his forehead?

Exactly. No one.

I furtively looked around once we entered the building. It seemed innocent, but... we didn't want a repeat of the Virginia incident.

"Okay, so here are some of the lockers," Shay was saying, "and there's a few crappy classrooms... ooh, the Home Ec. Room, yummy... here's the office... oh look, here's my friend Brandon... BRANDON!" The guy I hadn't seen because he was hidden behind his locker door came into view. He blinked, then stood up and walked towards us; he was maybe an inch or two taller than me, dark-skinned, an Afro-American.

"Hey, Shay," he greeted. Then he turned his gaze on me. "And this is...?"

"I'm Max," I cut in, always hating it when other people introduced me.

"Sup," he said, smiling. He was actually the first person I had heard say that who didn't sound stupid. I smiled back in relief.

Shay checked the clock on the wall. "Aw, we gotta get your schedule, Max, but we'll catch you later, okay, Brandon?"

"Sure thing," he said, raising his eyebrows at me.

"Later," I said, and followed Shay into the office.

Luckily in my first class we were just watching a film, so it wasn't like I had to pay attention or anything crazy like that. I took my cue from the other kids, most of whom were playing Bubble Wrap on their iTouches under the desks.

A piece of paper hit me on the head, and bounced off. I heard a stifled giggle. A girl a few seats away from me was looking straight at me, smiling. Hesitantly, I opened the balled-up-paper:

R u new?

I was as polite as I could be, under the circumstances. I quickly scrawled, Duh, under her note and sent it flying back at her. Apparently, paper just doesn't fly the same way a good old-fashioned grenade does, because the paper flew slightly to the right and beaned some guy in the head. He looked clueless for a second, then saw me staring. His gaze went from me to the paper, and he grinned devilishly. But before he could grab the paper the girl who originally sent me the note snatched it back, and wrote another message before throwing it back to me.

Apparently getting hit in the head with paper is a turn-on for Riley.

I looked up at the guy, still staring at me and smiling. He wiggled his eyebrows up and down in a very good imitation of a pedophile.

So what would be his turn-off? An anvil? Stuffed in a locker? My personal favorite, kick to the groin?

She wrote back, Ooh, definitely the groin one. That would be one less danger to the female gender.

I snorted. Yeah, right. I have a better idea. How about you sacrifice yourself for me, and hit him with a piece of paper, so he likes you?

No way in hell am I giving myself up to a farting baboon wearing a turtleneck!

Hmm.. sounds like my type of guy.

When she read that, the girl pulled a grotesque face just as Riley looked at her. The similarity between their faces in that moment was startling. Just then, the teacher flicked the lights back on and we were unable to continue "taking notes" on the video.

After class, Note Girl met me at the door. She was really pretty, I noticed, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a lot of mascara. She jerked her thumb behind her head and widened her eyes meaningfully. "How are you getting on with your new stalker?"

I looked in the direction she indicated and noticed him hovering just off another group of students, watching us.

I shrugged. "Oh, you know. We have an agreement. He gets to stalk... and I get to chuck rocks if he starts stealing my old tissues or anything. Plus, I reserve the right to a restraining order if he gets too creepy."

"The last one didn't work out too well," she grinned. "Better have a backup plan."

"Hey, Bianca!" a girl walking past with a bunch of per friends called out. "Come on! I'm starving!"

"In a minute," she called back. Bianca turned to me. "I guess you know my name," she said. "What's yours?"

"Max, Short for Maximum, not Maxine, so don't ask."

Eat lunch with me," Bianca urged. "You're really cool!" She began steering me through the crowds of people.

"I'm eating with Shay... She's who I'm staying with."

"I think Shay sits at my table," she said absentmindedly. We got in the lunch line right behind a group of rowdy guys, all shoving each other around.

"Ew, that's disgusting," Bianca complained, turning her face away from a tray of goo I thought was supposed to be casserole.

"Well, it's better than rock-hard brownies," said one of the guys in front of us pointedly, turning around. He was pretty good looking, I had to admit. "God, I think I broke half my teeth off from that crapload of junk."

"Well, now they match the rest of your face," Bianca snapped. "Besides, it wasn't like you were even supposed to eat them. I just made them to look good."

"Speaking of looking good..." he said suggestively, "who's your friend over here?"

Normally I would be pretty darn irritated about that statement, but the way he said it didn't sound at all sexist. Just all jokey, and actually... nice.

"Max," I replied. We pushed our trays down the lunch line. I swear, it was like a gauntlet of torture. Were kids seriously supposed to eat this?

"Max?" he said, grinning in a way that made me sure he was kidding. "That's a guy's name. Have you ever been mistaken for a guy?"

"No. Have you?" I shot back. Bianca snorted. Friendly Guy's two friends – one of which was Brandon, the afro dude I had met this morning – clapped him on the back, oohing. He just grinned good-naturedly.

"Only on my bad hair days," he said, in a very gay voice. Then he snapped out of it and offered his hand. "I'm Zack. This is Brandon and Josh. We'll see you around, Max."

Brandon nodded at me, and the three of them left for a table with a bunch of guys clowning around just like they were previously.

"They like you," Bianca commented. "Everyone else does, too. I can tell."

I shrugged. Why it should matter that I fit in here, I had no idea.

"Hey, Max!" Shay waved at me from the other end of the table Bianca and I were about to sit at. She made a jerk of her head that told me, sit with your new friend, and then went back to talking with the girls near her.

"Girls, this is Max," Bianca introduced me to the girls at this end. They nodded and smiled their hellos. I recognized a bunch of them from my first few classes. There was that pair of gigglers from my first period class, and the crazy one from my second period...

Maybe this living-as-a-human-with-no-knowledge-of-avian-hybrids wouldn't be so bad after all.

Margaret picked us up after school. "Now, how was your first day, Max?"

Uh... it seemed good. Everyone's really friendly." Which was totally true. I had new friends in all of my classes. At least, I thought they were friends. What's the definition of a friend, anyway?

Shay snorted. "What an understatement! It's only her first day, and already Max is like, supa popular."

"So I take it you're going back tomorrow?" Margaret asked. Without waiting for an answer she asked Carrie about a play she had landed a lead role in. I looked out of the window. Looked like it had already been decided if I was seriously enrolling in school. I didn't actually mind that much. Maybe it was just the private schools that were home to evil, vein-exploding, Taser-wielding principals.

Nudge POV

"Nudge, would you please take a spin for me? I want to see if you're similar at all to these penguins we've been seeing," Brigid wheedled.

I'm the most agreeable, so she asked me, Nudge thought bitterly. She shook her head. "Sorry. I'm not really in the mood."

Brigid sighed, and Nudge could guess her thoughts: You never are anymore. The scientist glanced at Fang, who had been staring motionless at the water for a long while now. Brigid sighed again, this time in exasperation, and went below decks.

Nudge felt anger in her veins at Brigid. She didn't care about Max. She never had. She only liked Fang, who only liked Max, who liked everyone the same. And now she was gone.

Nudge went over to stand next to Fang. Somehow, the rest of the flock had appeared silently as well. Angel was the one to offer comfort. "We'll see her soon, guys," she promised. "Very soon."

Fang buried his head in his hands, and the other guys' eyes were getting shinier by the moment. Nudge could feel her own throat closing. The one that seemed least affected was Angel. She looked worried, but confident they would see Max soon. Nudge found herself hoping that Angel had developed the power to predict the future.

As she watched, Angel patted Fang's arm and whispered something to him reassuringly. Yes, Fang was distraught, but no, he hadn't given up on Max. He flew out for days at a time, barely stopping to eat, just looking for her. Sometimes the flock went with him. On these instances, usually someone broke down and started crying in these instances. Nudge got the feeling that Fang had shed a few tears himself, when he was alone. She knew that if anyone found Max, it would be Fang.

He would find her, or die trying, as would everyone else in the Flock.

A/N: YAY!! A little shorter than normal, I think... but better than nothing. Also more rushed than is typical, but again, better than no chapter at all.

I feel like I mentioned veins a lot in this chapter...

Please tell me what you think! Review!