Through the Eyes of a Servant Chapter 1, a maximum ride fanfic

Through the Eyes of a Servant | Chapter 1 | by: Rachel // Chapter posted May 9th, 2010.

AU | Max/Fang | PG // 3,500 words

When Max accepts a job as a maid in Fang's household, will it be love at first sight? Or wil anything and everything come between them?

The idea for this story is my own and no one else's. Everything else belongs to James Patterson -although I will be next in line for the throne when he retires xD-. I made no money for writing this story, I simply write for reviews. The alarm clock beeped noisily on the table, sitting about five minutes before a hand reached over and slapped it off. Max groaned groggily as she made her way off the bed, which she was previously sprawled on, contentedly asleep.

Six-thirty in the morning. Just her luck on a summer day.

She yelped as she realized she was five minutes late, five minutes she couldn't afford to lose if she wanted to get there on time. Throwing the covers off and running blindly to what should have been the door, she tripped and fell upon boxes, furniture and trash.

She had forgotten that now, the bed was basically her room, and that the rest was crammed with the stuff she'd tried to bring. For example, if she wanted to use her homework desk, she couldn't just walk there. She'd have to crawl carefully over the bed without banging her head on the ceiling, which was as low as her self-esteem.

Picking herself up and dusting off, she grabbed a towel from the cabinet outside and made her way to her still smaller bathroom, where she hurried through the shower of lukewarm water and put on all the makeup she could afford –not much-.

Wrapping a towel about herself as she scrambled back into her room, she rummaged through boxes, finding a pair of her good jeans and some converse that she had obtained before they had come to these conditions. Throwing on a T-shirt and a ponytail, she sprinted upstairs. It wasn't like it would matter. She would have to change into her uniform in a half hour.

She just had to get to the job. Even though it had been a week since she had officially started, if she was late, even once, the job went to someone else. The warden had made that clear.

Flinging on a jacket and running into the kitchen, her eyes scanned for the Frosted Flakes and a bowl. "They're in the boxes, still," a voice said from the "living" room.

Max jumped at the voice and peered through the door. She should have known. As usual, Jeb was sitting on what looked to be the couch, but when it was covered in plastic wrap you just couldn't tell. Drinking coffee and reading the newspaper, he seemed to be adjusting just fine.

"Then what am I supposed to eat?" she yelped. "I have to leave in ten minutes!"

"Keep your voice down," he hissed. "Iggy and Gazzy are still trying to sleep."

"Not anymore," Gazzy slumped into the room. "Take a break from hating each other, will you?" he asked. Jeb recoiled as if slapped. "I mean, come on. It's summer. I just want to sleep," he complained.

"There's always tomorrow," Iggy sighed as he came into the room as well, already dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. "For you."

"What do you mean?" she snorted. "You've been off of school for a year. You don't have anything to do." I'm the one doing everything, making all the money, for you, her eyes said. If only he could see them.

"I…I got a job," he grimaced.

"Who hires a blind guy?" asked Gazzy curiously.

"The gas station down the street," Iggy answered, reaching into the boxes and grabbing a box of Cheerios. He reached in the fridge, took out the milk and took a swig of both the Cheerios and milk, grimacing afterward. "Uh, Dad, you might wanna buy some new milk."

"I will," Jeb answered in a bored tone of voice, like they'd been through this before. And they had.

"If you can even afford more milk," Max muttered under her breath.

"Look, Max, I'm doing the best I can!" he shouted, standing up from the couch. Max stood, unflinching, while he glared. "I've been trying to find a job! It's just hard, alright?"

"So, let me get something straight," she raised an eyebrow. "It's easy for a seventeen year old girl to get a job, and now it's automatically harder for you, a doctor, to find a new job?"

"There are too many people in my profession," he said simply, the rage was gone and replaced with weariness. "Get going. Just go."

She glared, grabbed a handful of Cheerios out of Iggy's box and made for the door.

"Call when you're coming home," he waved her out, then winced. They had cancelled her cell phone long ago because it was too much.

"We don't have the phones set up yet," she said tiredly, and walked out the door.

Max was greeted at the door of the mansion by none other than Brigid Dwyer, the one who had shown her around a week ago on her first day. The perky, fifteen year old pig-tailed blonde always seemed to be cheerful, something Max was all too quick to avoid.

"Hi, Max! Guess what? It's your eighth day here! That means a week! What do you wanna do today, since it's your week-a-versary? On my week-a-versaries I make cupcakes. I've had thirty-six of them! Maybe you could make cakes, or pancakes, do you like pancakes? I like pancakes, and cupcakes, really any kind of cake, and-"

"Brigid!" Max yelled. "Not this early in the morning, please!" she groaned. The sun had just barely started coming up. All she really wanted to do was go back to sleep. She might consider hiding in the house's enormous towel cupboard and taking a nap…

"I'm…sorry, Max," Brigid said, her eyes starting to water. "I didn't mean to bother you. I'll just go," she sniffled, turning around.

Max rolled her eyes. Great. This is all I need. Little Miss Bipolar and her mood swings. "Brigid, I'm sorry. You can bake something…if you want to..." Come to think of it, I could use something to eat, a handful of Cheerios doesn't exactly do it for me…

"Really?" Brigid's eyes lit up as she turned around. "Oh, you mean it, Max?" she walked up and threw her arms around her. "I'll make you a cross between a cupcake and a pancake! It'll…It'll be a cupcake in the shape of a pancake! How do you feel about fruit on top? Should I put strawberries or cherries on top, Max?"

"Aaah! Surprise me!" Max squirmed under Brigid's death grip, then took a deep breath as she was released, and Brigid skipped away, yelling, "I just know we're going to be best friends, Max!"

Max snorted. That was certainly likely. Brigid was one of the richest servants there. That was to say, everyone, even the servants, were rich here. Everyone but Max. They all worked there because it was "fun". Max worked there to earn money for Iggy's education.

As she quickly walked away from Brigid to the flower vase, with fresh flowers to replace the old ones, she heard running mixed with the quiet chatter of the household, and as the footsteps got louder, she knew that they were small.

A young girl, no older than twelve, maybe thirteen, sprinted up the stairs from the basement, where even Max knew that the children were not allowed to play in. The girl was breathing heavily as her feet pounded against the hardwood floors of the mansion. "Help!" she cried, but the household completely ignored her, which was unexpected, because they were violating a direct order.

Not really wanting to get fired that day, Max ran over to the girl. She immediately recognized her as Angel, the youngest daughter of the house. "Will you help me?" Angel panted. "I was playing in the basement and there was a snake down there as big as my head! My mom doesn't like snakes…you can't tell her I was down there!" she pleaded.

"Sure," Max raised an eyebrow. "I'm not scared of a snake."

Her eyes widened in hero worship. "But it's huge! And I asked Brigid, and she said she hated snakes!" She sighed. "You don't have to help me. I won't get you fired."

"No, no, I want to help you," Max replied, even though ulterior motives were swimming through her head. "Show me the snake."

Angel smiled brightly and grabbed her hand, tugging her down the stairs and into the basement. The basement was just as large as the upstairs, but less extravagant. There were pieces of furniture with sheets over them everywhere.

Angel led Max past every one until they got to the corner. There, squirming and trying to run, was a…garden snake.

"That little thing?" Max asked, puzzled. "He's harmless! He couldn't hurt you or anything else. I bet if he bet you, it wouldn't even hurt," she joked. Nevertheless, she picked up the snake.

"W-what are you doing with it?" Angel asked nervously. "Don't touch him!"

"Why not?"

"Because you might hurt him!" Angel wailed. "His name is Squiggles!"

Max blinked. "I'm not hurting him," She explained. "I'm going to put him outside where he belongs."

"Oh. Well, go ahead. Just don't hurt him," she clarified. "Thanks, um, what's your name?"

"Max."

"Oh. Well, hi, Max! I'm Angel. Like, duh. I'm thirteen," she smiled, well, angelically at me. "How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"Cool, you're the same age as Fang! He's my brother. Have you met him?"

"No."

"You don't talk much, you know? Well, be sure you meet him. See you later!" she hollered, giggling, as she ran away and up the stairs.

What Max really wanted to do was just drop the snake and go. Yet she carried it upstairs, through the front door and dropped it in the garden. She found a watering can and started sprinkling it over the entire garden.

"I see you've met Angel," said a voice.

Her head snapped up. Her eyes widened as she saw a boy suddenly become visible and peel himself off of the wall. It was like he'd been camouflaged. Seeing her startled expression, he continued. "Just, I recognized Squiggles," he grinned.

"Has Angel been hiding him?" She finally found her voice. But you couldn't really blame her. The boy in front of her was tall, only slightly shorter than Iggy, with olive skin and jet-black hair. Clad in everything black, a black jacket, black T-shirt, black skinny jeans and black converse, he was certainly the only 'emo boy' that Max had ever seen.

"Oh, yeah. She has lots of pets. Last week we found a cat under her bed, before that it was a frog in her closet, and I think she even has a squirrel somewhere in there."

"So, um, why was she afraid to touch a snake?"

"Beats me. It's probably because she didn't have any tweezers."

Max walked around to the other flowers with the watering can. Extremely self-conscious, she realized that the maid's outfits were far too short. "Um, can I ask you a question?"

"Only if I can ask you to dinner," he said jokingly.

"Very funny," she said skeptically. "Seriously, though, how did you just appear like that?"

His eyes darkened, if that was possible. "I guess I'm just good at sneaking up on people," he said, then brightened –a little- and held out his hand. "I'm Fang, by the way."

"Max," she said, taking it. "Wait, what? Does your mom own this house?"

"Yeah," he answered slowly. "Why did you think I was here?"

"Ah, just, well, you…you don't look like a rich kid. Where's your geeky little shirt and tie?"

In all seriousness, he answered, "I'm wearing an invisible tie."

A moment later, Brigid came running out of the house. "Max, I made your cupcake-pancake thing! Do you want sprinkles on it? I put strawberries on it if that's alright with-" she noticed Fang and got a particular spark in her eye.

"Hey, baby," she said, and walked up to him.

"Oh, hi," he said emotionlessly. But then, he was emotionless. Max couldn't understand why her heart fell when he wrapped his arm around Brigid and gave her a light peck on the lips. "Max, this is my girlfriend, Brigid," he announced.

"We've met," she answered. I realized then that I hadn't let go of his hand yet.

"Anyway, today is Max's week-a-versary, so I made her a pancake-cupcake thing! Come on, Max!" And she grabbed her arm without further ado and dragged her inside.

Brigid seemed thoughtful as they made their way to the kitchen. "Just out of curiosity, not that I'm jealous or anything, why were you talking to him just now?"

Man, this one is dense. She's making us blondes look bad.

"I was dropping a snake outside for Angel and he was just standing there."

"Oh, that's a relief. I thought he liked you and you liked him –you know we're dating behind his mom's back, you won't tell, right?- and, well, not that I was jealous or anything, but-"

"Brigid!" she exclaimed. "I understand. And I won't tell."

Even if I had seen the girl with the caramel skin watching us from the pantry, I wouldn't have stopped her.

"Thanks!" she smiled brightly. "Now, I present to you…your week-a-versary cake!" What Max found herself looking at was a mistake against nature. There sat a half-burnt chocolate lump of bubbling goop, with some strawberries sprinkled on top and a frosting smiley face. Max grimaced inside.

"What are you waiting for, dig in!" she squealed, and left Max alone with it as she marched off. Quickly she took the cake and shoved it in the trash can.

It was late afternoon by the time she had finished her duties upstairs. She had made the beds of the entire family, done Angel's laundry and folded it neatly in her dresser –which was enormous-, swept the floors three times over and dusted everything under the sun.

Suddenly and without warning, another servant had come to her and said that she had received a call from someone named 'Iggy'. Max ran to pick up the phone, wondering how he got her work phone, but it wasn't important. If Iggy wasted money on a pay phone, something had to be up.

"Ig?" she answered nervously as she picked up the phone. "Iggy, are you okay?"

"No," he croaked from the other end. "Max, the gas station is a dump. It's filthy, run down, and in the city. And today, when I came into work, people were stealing things because I couldn't see them."

"Oh, Iggy," she began.

"No, Max! You don't understand. After that, a guy came in, and he couldn't see that I was blind. So he…he told me to give him the money in the cash register. And I couldn't see him, so…I laughed at him." His voice became choked. "And then he…he shot me, Max."

The phone fell from her hand, clattering loudly onto the floor. By the time Iggy called Max's name into the receiver, she was already gone.

She ran for her life, out of the house and down the enormous driveway. She ran down the street, then cut through the sidewalk into the forest. Zipping past trees and bushes, tripping on everything, and still in her maid's outfit, the brambles cut her legs and arms, but she didn't care.

She almost stumbled and fell as a pair of invisible arms wrapped around her, and then she could see everything, and more importantly, she could see him. "Max," Fang whispered, wiping the tears out of her eyes with his thumb. "You have to get back…they're gonna fire you."

"Look," she sobbed, murder in her eyes. "My brother's just been shot, and it's all my fault."

"How is him getting shot your fault?" Fang asked, bewildered. "Look, come back. You need this job."

Her eyes widened as she stared at him. "Who are you to pry into my personal life, you creep?" she asked. "Yes, I'm a dirt poor girl from a dirt poor family, and let's just say we wouldn't be poor if I hadn't been stupid and changed everything! So for God's sake, let me go! I don't care if I never come back!"

"Just stay, let me help you," he started, but she was running out of time. So without further ado, she spit, full in his face, making him let go. By the time he cleaned his face and looked up, she was long gone, a shadow running down the road.

Fang fell face forward into the tree. Ever since he had first seen her, over a week ago, he had been intrigued by her. Now that he had finally met her, she was hurting, and yet she despised him with all that she had. And he liked her and wanted to help her.

Right when he had been talking to her, Brigid had gotten in the way, as usual. It was more something she decided than anything else; that she would be his girlfriend. She usually chased away every girlfriend he had.

It didn't make any difference with Max. Something about her aura demanded that she deserved something and someone better than him. Something about her made him want to give every penny he had to her, and then some. Something about the light in her eyes told him that she was worth something, even if she was poor.

Maybe some part of him did care about Max. She was certainly interesting to him. The other part of him cared about Brigid, and not hurting her feelings. They had been friends since they were younger, and even he knew that she only accepted the job because of him. There was a time when he had actually loved Brigid.

He didn't know if it was now. Max was now, and she hated him. He just couldn't win, could he?

He stared after her until she became a blur in the distance, then faded out into invisibility, making his way home again.

Max burst through the double doors of the hospital, breathing heavily and panting, but that didn't slow her down one bit. She ran as fast as she possibly could right past the front desk and into the hallway, running down shouting.

"Iggy? Iggy!" she screamed. "Iggy, are you in there? Gazzy? Dad?"

"Shut up out there!" hollered an old man.

"You can shove it, or you'll be on the respirator sooner than you can think, you old geezer!" she screamed.

"Max," she heard Iggy's voice, but just weakly. She flew into the hospital room and there he was, lying on the bed, his shoulder completely bandaged. She gave a sigh of relief, seeing that they'd missed his heart. "Hey, Ig," she said. "You almost gave me a heart attack."

"Well, I do have that effect on the ladies," he said. I slapped him playfully.

"I was in the gas station too," Gazzy piped up. "The guy shot the window and the glass flew at my arm. I had to get stitches," he said proudly, showing me the 'scars'.

"Well, aren't you the brave one?" Jeb asked dryly.

They spent hours like that in the hotel room. Gazzy left and brought back Monopoly, which they set up on the hospital bed and let Iggy play with them. Max was always the car, Gazzy the thimble, Jeb the hat and Iggy the ship thing. They played until they were sick of it. She lost every time; Jeb won four times and Iggy won twice.

It was silenced when the nurse slipped in with a cell phone. "Is there a Maximum Bachelder here?" she asked.

"Maximum Ride," Max answered with authority. "Gimme the phone."

She walked into the hall. "Hello?" she answered. She felt a familiar happiness wash through her as JJ's voice came through the end of the phone.

"Max!" JJ said. She sounded happy but not excited, like there was something pressing on her mind. "Listen, it's good to hear your voice."

"You too!" Max said excitedly. "My job and new school are horrible, it feels so wrong not having my best friend here. Actually, I don't really have any friends here, just this dumb blonde who keeps stalking me."

"I know how that goes," said JJ playfully. "Max…I need to talk to you."

"Sure, what about?"

"Well…remember your old boyfriend…Sam?"

"Sure. What about him?"

"Well…a couple weeks after you left…well…let's just say…we're going out now."

Max remained silent, because she just couldn't find the will to talk anymore. She didn't know why she'd expected Sam to stay single after she left. But hearing that her best friends were together and she was alone…it was too much.

"Max, you there?"

Max knew JJ had good intensions, and that Sam was a great guy. How could you not love him? But somehow, her first instinct was to yell at JJ for what a bitch she had been.

"Max, are you okay with it?"

She swallowed, hard, and waved goodbye to her sanity. "Yeah, you guys would be great together. Plus, I already have a new boyfriend."

"That's great, Max. Call ya later."

"Sure." She pressed end. There was no way JJ was ever calling her later.

Plus, I already have a new boyfriend.

Max's thoughts immediately flashed to the mysterious, dark boy she had only just met.

Okay. So the actual story was written a day or two before I put it up, so it was torture waiting for reviews. You all owe me for putting up the prologue /and/ chapter one all in one day. How's about you thank me in reviews, huh? *wink wink nudge nudge*

Not to mention that this was put up on the ninth, two hours early because I am FREAKING TIRED. I. AM. GOING. TO. SLEEP. End of story.

Oh, and I'm slowly bringing in all of the characters. Total and Nudge aren't here yet, I apologize. Lissa's not here yet? No biggie. Dylan gone? He'll be coming. All you guys have to do is keep reading.

Also, if you voted on the poll for this story, you'll know that it was just to see if people actually cared what I write. Turns out they do! And I feel so happy. But if you just want to give me a request for a story, that's fine. Unless it involves Fang, Dylan, eskimos, sea otters, and a swirly slide. Weird dream I had last night. PLEASE DON'T ASK.

~Rachel