CHAPTER 2

A/N Thank you for reading. Thank you to AriRide for clicking follow and favorite and to VballGal113 for reviewing. Also, please review because I have no idea whether or not you like this. If you are going to flame, please instead say either "*insert flame here*" or that you disliked it and why. Thank you! I do not own Maximum Ride and it may not seem like it yet, but yes, this IS a Maximum Ride fanfiction. Enjoy!

My idea, from the new girl Kalana, was that… Oh, I can't tell you yet, you might steal it. You'll just have to see my idea play out, I guess. Anyways, I would need some people on my side to help me make this complete. First, I had to finish the school day. During all the class periods after lunch, I was on full plan mode, ignoring the teachers' talking. I wrote down every thing that I needed and that could happen, making my plan either a success or a fail. I am trying to later avoid those fail situations, but in order to avoid them I need to take in the, what will be slim, possibility that I might fail.

After school, I head to my first stop in making the plan happen, the pet shop. I step into Little Paws Big Hearts vet and pet store and am greeted by the racket of animals striving for attention. It hurts my heart not to take them all home, but I am here for a reason. I head over to the bird section and study them. I try to draw sketches of them on my notebook for school, only to epically fail.

One of the veterinarians walks up to me. "Do you need any help?" She questions me. I feel breath on the back of my neck as she looks over my shoulder. I am about to reply an almost silent no when my notebook is ripped from my hands. I hear the vet mumble, "From the look of this, it looks like help is defiantly needed."

I look up for the first time since I started drawing the birds. I am surprised to see that the vet looks fairly young. She then hands me my notebook back and in my hands I see a perfect drawing of the bird that I am looking at. I ask her to draw the bird with its wings open. She looks at me like I am crazy until I open the bird cage and let the bird cling onto my arm. I softly pry open the birds wings and feed it some crumbs that the vet handed to me. The bird lets me and stretches out its wings. The veterinarian draws and the bird doesn't move from its stretched out position.

"You know you are crazy, right?" I jump in my mind as the vet talks, breaking the silence. Then all at once, random thoughts flood through my brain. After gaining my sanity I reply, "I am not crazy, I just gained my sanity back in my mind." She laughs and says, "Forgot to introduce myself, I'm Ellie. Also, I mean you are crazy because that bird has never been 'good' for anyone except me." She gestures randomly while she speaks and the back of mind wonders if she is Italian. I have heard that Italians use hand motions a lot while they talk.

"My name is Iris, and I guess I have a way with animals?" My voice trails off into a high squeak and then I almost run for the exit so I don't embarrass myself anymore. I change my mind because I really didn't feel like running today. "Thank you for drawing this for me, Ellie." She smiles at me. "Just don't get yourself hurt, ok?" I look at her with a confused look on my face. Realization dawned on me that she knew. Others had tried, and from Ellie's expression, I knew they had failed. I replied before my brain knew what I was saying, "Don't worry, I will be back." We both knew that this meant more than just me succeeding at my plan; this meant that Ellie and I were now a team. As I am leaving I hear Ellie whisper, "I know how to succeed, but I trust you know too." Only later did I realize I wasn't supposed to be physically able to hear that.

The next day Kalana was sick from school. I was kind of sad that she wasn't there. It surprised me that not being a loner had felt nice. Then I saw the popular girl who had gotten covered in bird goo making her way toward me. Trust me; she did not look like I was going to let me leave this school alive. Well, this might be fun. "Iris Listex where is your idiot friend Kalana Zlahnm." Bird goo girl greets me. I decide it is easier to ignore her. "Listex, I am talking to you." Oh sorry, I thought you meant the other Iris Listex. I think to myself. "Are you going to answer me are what?" From the corner of my eye I see bird goo girl about ready to punch me as hard as she possibly can. I know she won't though; she would risk loosing a nail. I might as well speak now. "Oh, sorry, didn't notice you there." It takes all my willpower to not burst out laughing from her maddened expression. "Iris Listex if you don't answer me I'll… I'll…" Like her threats are going to scare me. Then I remember something that might be nice to know, let's just make her answer me without her knowing. "You are the bird goo girl right? That was hilarious. Also, Kalana is sick today, but whatever you were going to say to her you can say to me." By now the entire student body was watching and now, thanks to me, laughing at bird goo girl, or whatever her name was. She grits her teeth as she replies back to me, "My name is Rachel Bobfit thank you very much and I was going to say that she can NEVER be friends with me and my group." Kalana wanted to be friends with her? Kalana must be trying to be friends with everyone in our grade. Now it is time for Miss Bobfit to get a taste of her own medicine, she already had a taste of bird goo, might as well add her own medicine, too. "Miss Bobfit, I do not think you need to get in a fit over bird goo on your head, plus it is a good thing Kalana isn't going to be friends with jerks like you." With that I left her to be humiliated in front of the rest of our grade.

Once school was finally over, I sprinted over to Little Paws Big Hearts and once I found Ellie, I reported to her what happened at lunchtime. Ellie laughed and made me tell her what happened a million times. Then we got to work on creating fake wings to last a ride over the ocean. I knew it was pointless work. It was nice because I felt that Ellie was, now, my third friend in thirteen years.

Ellie and I worked until the store closed. I was surprised that during this time it was really easy to talk to her. We talked about our lives, our past, our dreams, our hobbies, and animals. I found out she is 25 and just out of collage. She played volleyball for collage, too. I was shocked because that was my parents' favorite sport so I am always playing volleyball in my spare time. I found out Ellie is the owner of Little Paws Big Hearts and the bird who apparently only likes Ellie and me is named Lilyjay. Lilyjay is a white dove with blue streaking throughout its feathers. I found out so many other things about Ellie, too. It is amazing how much we have in common. Our biggest difference between us is Ellie is a little more outgoing and tougher, at least as far as I know.

For days and days we would continue on like this. After school I would come to Little Paws Big Hearts and Ellie and I would work until it closed. Kalana was absent from school for the three weeks that I worked on the wings with Ellie. It worried me to no end where she could be. Even though I only knew her for two days, she was already my friend. Now, it felt, again I lost a friend.

This made me work that much harder as the weeks passed by. Once the second week was through everything was routine again. Be alone for school, rush to Little Paws Big Hearts, work on the wings till dusk, sleep, wake up, go to school, be alone for school, and so on. At least Ellie is entertaining and different everyday.

The start of the fourth week, Kalana still wasn't at school. Only then did I start to realize that she wasn't sick. Kalana was gone for some reason, and I did not know that reason. It was like with my parents, they were gone and I wanted to get them back. I started each day with a plan after that. Ellie helped me after school was over that day. I probably shouldn't show you this, but here is my plan.

Plan

Stop going to school, no one is there that I care about anyways -Forever

Find out what Kalana's name means- Tuesday

Find Kalana's parents and see what information they have- Tuesday after step 2

See if Kalana's parents know where Kalana is- Tuesday with step 3

FIND KALANA- ASAP/ Start Wednesday(probably after steps 1-4)

Help Kalana if she is in trouble- after step 5

Inform Kalana about, well, everything- after step 6

Continue this plan- after steps 1-7 are completed

After writing my plan, I do something I don't think I have done for three weeks; sleep.