A/N-A new chapter! I'm so happy you guys are really reviewing, I read each one and it means so much, so thanks to all who review! ^_^ I wrote this all in one day, and it's a couple hundred words shorter, I'm sorry! I'll make up for it next chapter :D

Memories of You

Chapter 6

Nudge POV

I woke up in the morning –and I'll say it right now, there will be no Kesha reference- to find myself sitting in the same high-class hotel, the same penthouse suite, the same luxury hotel room, the same high-definition TV staring me down. If I had to be anywhere without the rest of the flock, this was more like it. I had always wanted to live like this, but, you know. Being hunted + no money + a dog = no hotel for Nudge.

The suite was very spacious. It wasn't like the average motel room we stayed in, either. Two huge queen sized beds in a grand bedroom, with a sitting room and a mini-kitchen, with a bathroom to die for. Over forty floors up, I could probably see all of California from where I was staring out the window, and I could definetly see the beaches. Hello, Nudge, they said.

I had gotten people to buy me things yesterday, what with all the publicity and money I was getting. I couldn't believe it. I had been all over the news, in magazines, on Oprah. I was a regular celebrity, something that I had always wanted to be. It was really amazing. All of a sudden, they were getting me things. If I had snapped my fingers, I could have ordered a French poodle in a bow or Justin Bieber in chains for my own personal use. Well, he was a little too young for me, but whatever.

It was almost enough to get me to forget about Iggy in the arms of that toad.

Almost.

Whatever. I had a bunch of things I had to do today, a bunch of people I had to greet. It had been one day, and at the rate I was going, I could have been meeting the president and having tea with the queen of England by tomorrow. I couldn't waste my time worrying about it. If I stopped to worry about it, I would have cried. And this was a problem that I couldn't just fix.

I hopped off the bed and walked over into the bathroom, closing the door and walking up to the sink to splash some cold water onto my face. The bathroom was almost as large as the bedroom, with an absolutely huge shower and a whirlpool tub. You couldn't blame me for checking to make sure it was all real. Never mind that despite it all, I would have liked to be back in my home, with my –well, -ex, now,- boyfriend.

I had barely managed to make it through the shower, get dressed and straighten my hair when I heard a soft knock on the door. "It's open!" I yelled loudly, which may have been a bad idea, considering that I was in the bathroom, and that was kind of uncomfortable. "I mean, uh, I'm not doing anything, so you can come in," I squeaked.

"Hey, Nudge," said a woman with a business suit and a clipboard with her, and glasses that made her look professional and commanding. I remembered her vaguely from yesterday. She was one of those people who had driven me around, bought me clothes and taken me to photoshoots and that thing with Oprah. "You may or may not remember," she informed me, "but I was with you yesterday, one of those 'publicity people'. I'm here to take you where you need to get today."

"And where exactly are you taking me today?" I asked nonchalantly as I brushed my teeth. "You shouldn't talk down to me, I'm not really a kid anymore," I rolled my eyes and a clump of toothpaste-spit fell out of my mouth. "Eh, oops," I said as I cleaned myself up.

"Charming," she said. "I'm taking you to a…a sort of press conference. They want to know some more things about you."

"I don't see what there is to know," I glared at her in the mirror as I applied a fresh coat of lip gloss. "I already told them everything, the whole story. I don't see what else there is to know. I told them everything I wanted to give away. And what to you mean by 'sort of' a press conference?"

"Save all questions until the press conference," she snapped.

Holy Jesus monkey crap, I wanted to strangle her.

Max POV

"Where. The. Hell. Are. We. Supposed. To. Go?" I seethed to Fang as we walked around Hollywood. I was trying to be cheerful, at least, as the younger kids looked up and pointed at the Hollywood sign, taking pictures with our cell phones and oooohing and aaaaaaahing. But damn, I hadn't thought this through. How were we supposed to find her? If there was a giant sign in front of a building that said 'Nudge Right Here', I would be much obliged, but until then, I was stuck with Fang and a map.

"Uh, well, it looks like we go up this river…or it's a blue road…oh, wait, the whole map is blue. And, um, then we go up past this brown lake thing…which one of you blew your nose in the map?" he glared at Gazzy, who grinned sheepishly. Not cute.

"Damn, this thing is impossible to read!" declared Fang, and he looked up and sighed.

"You're holding it upside down," I closed my eyes and silently counted to ten.

"…Oh. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Thanks, Max!" he smiled and turned it around.

I walked away from him and the others, around the corner to buy a drink or find something to gamble at to calm my nerves. "Hey," I asked a hobo that I saw sitting around. Or, at least, he was ratty-looking and he was holding out a cup. "Have you seen, or do you know anything about, an African-American girl with wings that's all over the news?"

He pointedly held out the cup.

"Oh, okay," I said, and hastily dropped a twenty into the cup by accident. I wanted to take it back, when I realized what I'd done, but he had it in a fierce death grip, as if daring me to yank it out of his hands. "Fine," I scowled. "Now tell me everything you know."

He opened his mouth, and it was disgusting. He didn't have a single tooth. Meaning, he couldn't talk, or give me any information about Nudge. "You…you…" I couldn't seem to find the right words. I lost it and grabbed the twenty out of his hands before he could blink, then ran quickly away.

"So, how'd it go with you and your homeless friend?" Fang asked kindly, waiting there for me when I came back. "Do you want me to stop to ask a robber or a druggee? 'Cause I could always find one…" he winced as I elbowed him in the stomach. Hard.

"Max, Max, I have some news!" cried Angel as she ran up to me, out of breath. She held up a finger, crouched over until she regained some air in her lungs and then looked up at me. "There's a movie premiere later tonight. I don't know what movie, but I know where it is. And Nudge, being popular and a celebrity now, will probably be there."

"Finally!" I cried, and picked Angel up and hugged her so hard she had to regain her breath yet again.

Angel POV

"Come on, Max, we have some time to kill," Gazzy pleaded with her. "The premiere isn't until tonight. Let's do something fun. Something cool. Please? Let's go play ding-dong-ditch on celebrities or something."

"Um, question, you are thirteen, right?" I heard Max ask him skeptically. I wasn't really paying attention. I wondered what was going on with Iggy and Ella. Iggy had practically begged to stay home. I think he was worried about Nudge, but he didn't want to see her for some reason. Still, he had looked reluctant, and that's why I was worrying.

But I bet you forgot about my plan. Remember, my plan to make Ella's life a living hell? I didn't forget. Time to put it in action.

Nudge had left her cell phone, because she hadn't taken anything with her when she ran out of our house. I think, anyway. She has tons of cell phones. But I brought one with me, for the sake of Operation Make-Ella's-Life-A-Living-Hell.

Max and the others weren't paying attention to me, just Nudge, even though I knew Max was going easy on Ella by not ripping her throat out. So this was the perfect time to put my plan into action, my incredibly genius plan of making her life a living hell. I whipped out the cell phone and typed Ella's number in the box. Plan in action…now.

Watch yourself, Ella, I typed in the box, then pressed SEND.

A few minutes later, I got a text back. What? Who is this????

You shouldn't have stolen my boyfriend, Ella, I texted back.

Nudge?

You're gonna pay for being a bitch, Ella.

Wtf?

I'm close by. Just watch your back. I switched off the phone.

But that wasn't the end. It was just the beginning of hell.

Nudge POV

"Do you mind telling me where we're going?" I asked her in an annoyed voice.

"You're taking a taxi cab to the freaking press conference," she tried not to lose her composure. "Now, stop asking so many questions. I'm supposed to be your agent, so I'll control it, okay? Now, you better be grateful. You're getting this all for free."

"Yeah, free plus seven years in a dog crate," I almost snarled at her. She pretended not to notice, the arrogant bitch.

The cab pulled up outside a tall building. "Now we're here, you little twit," she snapped and practically dragged me inside. We entered a room with a long rectangular wooden table, polished until it shone and with chairs all around it. Lights hung dimly from the ceiling and gave the room a dark effect. Everyone in the room was already at a place on the table, except for one chair with a name card in front of it that read, Nudge.

"Let's get this show on the road," I collapsed in the chair with my feet up on the table. This may be news to just me, but it's apparently unacceptable to put your feet up on a table in a conference room with a lot of grown-ups in suits eating miniature caviar –which, FYI, is fish eggs, yuck-. So I received cold stairs and some very surprised looks.

"Oh, sorry. Judging from your clothing, I thought it was casual Friday or something," I drawled. Not one laugh. Not one pathetic smile. Tough crowd.

"Nudge," spoke one. "You've told the press your story about why you're here, why you left the flock. You've told us all how you lost your memory, and in one day, the whole of America feels sorry for you. But you can understand how they want more."

"I don't understand," I said.

"Just work with us here," said another. "What we mean is, they want to know more about you, and what you haven't told them, Nudge, is important."

"You have to understand that this is bigger than you, and that they treated you like crap anyway, so why should you care about the flock? All they did was cause you pain. Iggy sounds like a jerk," said one woman.

The man on the other end of the rectangular table stood up. "What we want, Nudge, is to know where the flock is."

Angel POV

I took the laptop out of Fang's bag without being noticed as we drove down the road in a van that Fang had hot-wired. He would never miss it, I was sure, but I needed to use it. See, I had attached a one-way video-chat camera to hook up this laptop with the one in Ella's room back at Dr. M's house. I could see what was happening on the other side of the camera, but she couldn't. So, pretty much, I was stalking her by spying on her room.

"Hey Fang I'm gonna check on my Webkinz account," I informed him. Poor guy believed me, too. The last time I got on that account was when I was eight. I immediately switched to live video-chat mode. I knew that this was about the time that Ella would get home from school and immediately change out of their ridiculous school uniforms.

Little did she know that I had put itching powder in all of her clothes.

How did I get in her room, you ask? Simple. I am just that freaking good.

Not fifteen minutes later, Ella walked into her room and slung her bag off her shoulder onto the bed, muttering something about Nudge being a bitch. It's a shame I can't read minds over video-chat. Regrettably, Gazzy was sitting right next to me, so he had to know of my plan.
So, as a guy, when Ella started stripping, his inner reaction was hell YES.

Pervert, get a room.

We're in a car.

I literally had to cover his eyes. I mean, he was thirteen, and even though Ella was a bitch, he was practically salivating at the sight of a girl in only a bra and underwear, considering the fact that he'd never freaking seen one. He got less excited and more evil when he remembered what I was doing to her.

Since I had no idea what she was going to wear that day, I caked all her clothes in the invisible itching powder. The sad thing was, I had forgotten to wear gloves during all of that, so now my hands were itchy and blistery.

She returned from the closet with some skimpy little tube top and skirt, no doubt for Iggy, and pulled them on slowly. After brushing her hair and putting it in a loose ponytail, she started twitching and jerking around when she started reacting to the powder.

"What the heck?" she muttered under her breath as she itched under her clothes, even under her bra. Squirming around, she started to spread it and get it on her hands. She picked up a fork from something earlier that day and started itching her back with it, then gave up and started itching her back on the door frame. It looked so wrong.

She pressed herself into the doorknob to itch her spine, and it didn't work well. "God damn it!" she almost screamed, and her nails left trails of red marks as she scratched over her arms and legs. She started scratching her leg with one of her feet, and then started rolling on her bedspread, just trying to get the itch off, to no avail.

Finally, she gave up and became limp, after much stifled snickering from Gazzy and I. And then she did something she would soon regret.

She rubbed her eyelids with her fingers.

"Moooooooooom!" she screamed. "Oh, fuck, it hurts, it hurts sooo bad! It's in my eyes, oh God bring eye drops!"

Nudge POV

"You want me to tell you where the flock is? Where they live?"

I received cold, hard nods all around.

"Why?"

"The rest of the world wants to know. You all have been living in secret for years, giving no updates, after you 'saved the world'. Not even this Fang and his blog will tell your whereabouts. We've been searching for years, and you've been right under our noses."

"But, why should I tell you?"

"Let me put it this way," the man at the other end said. "If you don't tell us, we'll let you go. Back on your own, on the streets, and they won't want you back. If you don't tell us, you'll be all alone, simple as that. No more hotel, no more free clothes."

"I don't care about your stupid free clothes."

"Do you care about being alone? With nowhere to go, and nothing to do? You've lived like this before, but you'll get tired of it within two weeks. You'll want a bed, and real food. It'll all change the day you end up eating bugs and drinking murky water. Do you want to be like that, Nudge? Will starving change your mind?"

I blinked away tears. "You're making me choose between my family and my life?"

"That's exactly what we're saying."

The tears spilled out of my eyes and onto the piece of paper as I wrote down the address.

Max POV

I got a call from Iggy in an hour. "Hey, Ig," I said tiredly as I picked up the phone.

"Max, whatever you do, don't come home for a few days. I'm staying at Ella's right now. They found our house, Max. I don't know how they got the address, but they're all over. I got out of there without being seen, because Ella was there to warn me –and by the way, someone messed with her clothes and now she's all blistery, yuck- but anyway, they found our house. We can't let them find you, too. So don't come home."

"What? How…"

"I told you, I don't know anything. Oh, hang on. There are reporters here looking for me, since Dr. M is your mom. Ella's telling me to go hide in the closet. I gotta go. Love you guys. Bye." And the line went dead as I stared straight ahead in disbelief.

The flock caught my worried look. "They found us again," Angel said faintly.

Nudge POV

I was hanging out, reading magazines while my agent was on her over-an-hour long call on the other end of the room. I couldn't believe how many of them I was in. I was like a freaking movie star. It was what I always wanted, but I couldn't help but feel sick to my stomach at what I had done. It couldn't change now. They would know where we were, forever. The flock would have to move again, all because of me.

God, I missed Iggy so much that it hurt. I just wanted him to hold me again, like it was before I went and lost my memory, and everything would be alright. I was thinking about it again, finally, and hot tears spilled down my cheeks, because I didn't know how long I would remember any of it. I might have memory problems for the rest of my life. I just didn't know.

Where was the flock right now? Where was Iggy this minute? Was he with Ella? God, I hope that it wouldn't last. I could picture miniature Iggy-Ella's, and I felt like vomiting.

I gave a startled yell as I was grabbed out of my chair by a harsh hand on my shirt collar, yanking me out of my reverie and ignoring the tears and the pained expression on my face. I didn't care who the arm was attached to, I just stared furiously at it until I finally looked up, a look of pure rage on my face.

My eyes grew as round as saucers as I realized that it was the man from the other end of the table, the director of it all, the one who was now my enemy, and the enemy of the flock. Oh, wait…now I was the enemy of the flock. My eyes would have watered all over again, had I not been so surprised to be yanked up out of my chair by this turtle.

"What are you doing?!" I shrieked, but I was cut off by the crackle of laughter from him as he held me up higher. I wasn't lightweight either, I weighted a sure of a hell of a lot more than Angel or Gazzy, and I wasn't even as heavy as Max or Fang or Iggy, not by a long shot. Yet this guy had yanked me into the air and was laughing like a maniac. It was cut off abruptly as he stared at me, that evil gleam that I knew so well in his eyes.
"You lying little rat," he scolded, and threw me back in my chair. "What did you mean by giving us the wrong address? You'll pay for this, you're out on the streets now! No one makes a fool of me and lives to tell it, but I'll let you off easy this time, if you hand back the hotel room and go back to your hole." He chuckled darkly, like a movie.

"W-What are you talking about?" I clutched the arm that slammed into the chair when he threw me back. "I gave you the right address!"

"Stop lying!!" he barked. "I sent everyone I had to the address. We surrounded it, and searched it. There was absolutely no one there, and certainly not one of the flock. Did you lie to protect your family?"

"I didn't lie!" I yelled directly at his face. "It took courage for me to give you that address, knowing that I had to save the life I have now! I told you the exact right address, so don't give me that! I don't know why no one's there! I didn't call them to warn them you were coming! Maybe they already know, maybe someone else told them! But I'm one hundred percent positive that's where I live!" And I broke down crying at his feet.

My agent did something I never thought she would then. She ran up to me and pushed the man back. "What are you doing?" he screamed at her. "She's a lying little sewer rat, and you push me?"

"Shut up!" she spat at him. "You made her give up her family, and she's in pain! Just shut up! You're a cruel, cold-hearted old tortoise, and you can go die in your hole for all we care! And even if you fire me, I'll still take care of her!"

I looked up, surprised. He sneered down at us. "I'm not going to fire you today," he declared. "That would be much too kind. You're still dealing with her. But hear me when I say I'll find your flock, and I'll make sure the whole world knows where they are. They're never going to be free again, thanks to that little outburst of yours." And he turned tail and walked off.

We looked at each other helplessly. The worst had only just started.

Don't worry, Angel's plan will continue! Ella will pay...oh, yes, Ella will pay. Until next time!

~Rachel