Hey Y'all!!! I'm just getting back from really bad sickness and stuff and a week long cruise and my first boyfriend (Im13 and he's 15, I know, weird, right?) Plus volleyball season started, and I have practice everyday after school, AND its not like I don't have a social life, right? Anyway... enjoy.

Disclaimer: I'm a hobo. I don't own anything. No, you know what, I'm not. I'm one of those nomadic herders in the Sahara Desert that we're learning about in social studies. That'd be cool. I've always wanted a camel....

Chapter3

Brooke POV

My congo bars were gone. Nick, Jeff and Zephyr practically inhaled them. At least I wasn't alone. I hated being alone....

We sat around watching Seinfeld on the television. Fang was occasionally flipping through the channels to see if anything else was on. Boring.

"Brooke, would your parents mind very much at all if bought a movie on pay-per-view, because there was a really good movie that I heard some girls talking about once, called, like, "Legally Blonde", or something, and how funny it was." Jeez, that girl has the lungs of life. And my (fake) "parents" who are on a (fake) "college tour" with my (again, fake) "sister"?

"'Course not, Chrissy." Yeah, Crystal-Marrisa-Amber-Lady-Butterfly. They won't mind one freaking bit.

"Hey, Fang, can you pass the remote, please?" Instantly, everyone froze. Wait, what did I- oh, crap. This'll be fun.

Fang was the first on his feet.

"Explain," he said, his voice quiet and calm, but his face livid.

"Sit down," I said, leaning. I ought to get comfy. This may take a while.

('.') ('.')

"Fang, Max, Angel, Nudge, Iggy, Gazzy, listen." I couldn't help but laugh ironically to myself as I noticed their eyes widen marginally."I know about Itex. I know you are human/avian hybrids. I'm the human/cuvier hybrid prototype. It means I'm two percent tiger shark. I was a test tube baby, one of three, but only I survived. I was raised at the school, but I was "malfunctioning", meaning I refused to attack people and I was immune to their punishments. They sent me home when I was four, until, ten years later, they decided they wanted me back, apparently to perfect a new hybrid. I ran away, but they'd already killed my family..." I held back tears, knowing it was vitally important that they heard all of my story if they weren't going to kill me. "I was an inside job, no one but the Director knew I'd survived. He created me-"

"You mean she, that she-devil-" Max's fists curled, but reluctantly unclenched when Fang put his hand lightly on her shoulder.

"No, he. But he was caught three years ago, sneaking in to a public hospital and murdering the mother of one of his experiments, and he was executed by the government; then Dr. Janssen was appointed Director. Dr. Janssen didn't know about me, and the previous Director burned all my files, so I just... fell off the radar. After two years of running, alone, from 11 to 13, you have no idea how good just living is." I saw Fang gently nudge Max, but carried on.

"It really is amazing, but I'd trade it all in if I didn't have to be alone. Sadness swept over me, and I bit back tars. When I cry, I look like the Grim Reaper and the Boogeyman got together and decided to make a Frankenstein monster modeled after themselves combined. Yeah, that ugly.

Angel interrupted my train of thoughts by climbing on my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck. I was shocked, but after a second, I put my arms around her and squeezed her tightly.

She let go, and I smiled tentatively at her. No one moved, they just stared at the floor.

"Would you guys like to live with me? You have no idea how nice it is under the radar." I offered, smiling ironically.

"Oh, please, Max, can we?" Nudge pleaded. She and Angel made eyes at Max that gave me a fleeting mental image of baby deer and bunnies until I heard Max sigh.

She smiled a little, "I guess it wouldn't hurt."

"Y'all are welcome here. No one else lives with me, and this house is big enough for all of you. Do you guys want to go look at the rooms?" I said to a chorus of cheers, my sadness behind me. "But first, I need to talk to Fang. Privately."

Max's eyes widened at me, then narrowed at Fang as he nodded his consent before following me.

I led him into "my dad's" office, then turned on him. But before I could say anything he whispered, "Block your mind, Angel can read it." Okay.

"Fang," I said, unsure how to start. "Look, I have known you for only ten or fifteen minutes, and I can already see you like Max, I mean maybe love her, and it's obvious she really likes you, maybe loves you, too; I have one thing to say- you should take her before she's gone, because a girl like that comes along once in a lifetime. She's going to be someone else's soon enough, unless you take the chance. I know, I've glimpsed it in my dreams Plus, one more thing.

If you need any help, talk to me, and I'll see what I can do.

Fang P.O.V.

Weird. That's the same thing Brigid said....

Max P.O.V.

After Fang and Brooke came back, Brooke took us on a tour of her house, and we got to choose our rooms.

The first one on the third floor was ice blue with tiny white flowers dotting the walls, and matching duvets on the beds that were decorated the same as the walls. Angel raced to the bed and pulled Celeste from the waistband of her pants and set her on the bed next to a furry lamb with a blue ribbon in its hair sitting on one of the beds, officially calling this as her room. Everyone walked a little further down the hall to the next room. Nudge squealed at the sight of this one. It was blinding, with two pink walls and two orange walls, with pictures of Paris, and

with fuzzy string lights draped over the headboard ov the hot pink queen-size bed. Nudge dove on the bed, calling it as hers, but speechless(WOW) all the same(literally, WOW). Further down the hall, the next room was a bright green, with its own bathroom and a king-size bed. Gazzy strutted over to the bed, perched on it and called it in his own special way. Brooke nearly fainted at the smell, and I couldn't help but crack up. No one wanted the room after that.

We went into the next room, which surprised me the most.

"It's white!" Iggy bellowed.

"Yeah, I never got around to decorating it," Brooke said a little ruefully.

"No, no, I mean I can see!" Iggy rushed in. Then he stood there, puzzled. "There's no bed?" there wasn't a bed, no anything. Just wall to wall white.

Brooke grinned, and walked over to the only non-white thing in the whole rom, a small black button next to the light switch..

Suddenly, a section of the ceiling slid away, and a hammock the size of a king size bed lowered down.

"Nice perch," Brooke said sarcastically.

"I totally called this room," Iggy smiled back at us as he laid down on the hammock. It occurred to me then, how much would enjoy this, because he hadn't been able to see any of the rest of the house.

"Next room," Brooke sang lightly, waiting on us to follow her.

Down two flights of stairs, she showed us the last two rooms. The first was midnight blue, almost black with a black bedspread and a door to the outside. One wall was completely covered in filled bookshelves. A stereo system was pushed against the opposite wall. "Who wants this room?" Brooke said. Fang raised his hand a tiny bit, and nodded.

"Okay then, everyone can go back to their rooms, Max should see her room by herself," Brooke said, before everyone sprinted back to their rooms. I walked out into the hallway and Brooke stayed in Fang's, a thought I was highly aware of, but too busy trying to figure out how many erasers were stuffed in my room to actually recognize. I stopped in front of the last door, closed my eyes, held my breath, and stepped inside.

Fang P.O.V.

Brooke stayed in my room with me.

"Fang, block your mind." She walked over to the bookshelf and picked up a big book with a lightning bolt on the binding from an eye level shelf. Zeus's symbol.

"Come here."Brooke beckoned to me, then pointed to the wall behind where the book was. A small red button barely protruded.

"I'm going to trust that you'll use this wisely."

She pushed the button, put the book back, then stepped back. A part of the bookshelf lurched, then started to turn like a revolving door. Brooke pulled me through at the last second to face A Max that was frozen, stock-still.

"What do you think?" Brooke asked hopefully. Max didn't answer. She was staring at the ceiling.

Max P.O.V.

My room was AWESOME. It was a perfect square, and in the middle of the floor, was a single king-sized mattress. Two opposite walls were completely covered in the most beautiful pictures of natural landscapes of wild, raw earth. The wall with the door from the hall was entirely covered in maps of the world. The wall with the door to the outside was completely windows, overlooking a pond a hundred yards off. The ceiling was a replica of the night sky so realistic that for a moment I thought I was outside in the middle of the night. It was captivating. I didn't even notice Brooke pull Fang through the wall.

"What to you think?" Brooke's voice was muffled, coming from far away. I didn't answer. "I think she likes it," Brooke whispered. "Let's leave her alone. Show her the passage privately later."

Brooke P.O.V.

As I left Max's room and came upstairs, I was immediately ambushed by Nudge and bombarded with questions.

"Hey, Brooke! How did you buy this house if only you paid for it? Are you rich? Why did you want us to leave Max alone to see her room? Where's Fang? Are they alone together? Are you trying to get them together too? Can Angel and I help? Please?" Nudge rambled on. Woah. I didn't think anyone could talk that much. In one breath. I smiled as she eyed Iggy when he passed through the room, his hand accidentally brushing her shoulder.

"Oh, sorry Nudge," hiis blush taking over his whole face, as did Nudge's, before he hurried embarassedly out of the room. Hmmm.

"Ask me later, I'll have to answer these questions for Max, too, you know," I said. Then I left to go see what Iggy was up to. Time for Talk Number Two.

Enjoy.

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