Hola, my good people. It's been like at least a year since I've even written for the fun of writing. So sorry. Junior year is awful so far.

I can't believe people actually read my writing. I looked back on it and the plot's fine but the writing is pretty awful. No wonder English is hard for me this year. (What's with the word awful tonight?)

Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters affiliated with Maximum Ride (How's that for professional, eh?)

10. MPOV

I was in a dress yet again. It was my birthday. Wasn't I supposed to choose what I wanted to wear? For that matter, wasn't the whole "birthday party" thing supposed to stop when you're 9? I guess not. There was half an hour til my "party" started, and my mom could not seem to contain her smile. (It was only a bit creepy.) I decided not to question her about it. I just gave her odd looks instead. The house was decorated very nicely and the smell of food had been making my stomach growl for the past hour.

Over the past month, lots of things had changed. I hung out with the Martinezes, Iggy, and Ella a lot. They call themselves the flock. When I asked why, they told me "Because we love birds because they're free." Whatever floats their boat, I guess. They were coming over for the dinner tonight. Fang and I had actually started talking and not hating each other. He seemed like a pretty cool guy now. Sad and angry at times, but still really cool. He was probably one of the closest friends I had ever had, maybe with the exception of Ella. A few days ago he had broken up with his girlfriend, Lisa. That made everyone happier, especially him, in my opinion. Dylan was also coming over to dinner, and was super excited about it. I had grown a lot more comfortable around him because of the time my parents had forced me to spend with him to the point where I had told him I loved him. Ella was beyond happy about our relationship. I also came to the conclusion that Iggy totally liked Ella. I needed to confront him about it sometime soon so he would go on and ask her out.

At around 5:45, people began to come. Dylan and his family came first, of course. He wore the same smile my mother wore. (More creepiness) He hugged me, and his mom and dad kissed me on my cheeks. I talked to him for a while, hoping Fang and the gang (that's what I had decided to call them instead of the flock) came soon. After about 10 minutes, they were finally here, last of the 20 some odd guests. I, of course, didn't even know half of them. I only knew Dylan and his family and Fang and the gang. Dinner was delicious. Everyone talked to me and wished me happy birthday and smiled and whatever. I sat in between Dylan and Ella during dinner. Fang was across the table from me, and he kept staring at me. (That was also really creepy.) Dylan never let go of my hand. And in case you haven't picked up on it, dinner was creepy.

After dinner, we did cake and presents. (Despite my protests that I WAS NOT 9 AND I DID NOT WANT TO OPEN MY PRESENTS WITH THE GUESTS HERE, NOR DID I WANT PRESENTS.) My cake was a lovely chocolate cake which I would've eaten half of if there weren't all these people here. Fang, who only seldom smiles, laughed at the size of the slice of cake I cut for myself. Full out laughed. So hard that I had to laugh myself. Dylan didn't look happy about that, and cut a more reasonable size slice of cake. Fang seemed to take the size of my cake as a challenge and cut his slice slightly larger than mine. We still sat across the table from each other, and we glared at each other (playfully) and kind of had a cake eating contest. I lost. And someday he would get revenge. Not tonight because it was my birthday.

Dylan insisted on saving his present until the end. The presents I got were lovely, but really, I had no use for almost any of them, so I had to force myselft to be upbeat about them. Only Fang got me a present that I would actually use—a book. Ella had decided to actually listen to me and not get me anything. Fang and the gang left right after I had finished opening all of their I was ready to see Dylan's big present. I was thinking of saying something really sarcastically flirty when he walked up to me like "Whatcha got for me, baby?", but I decided that it wouldn't be the smartest thing to do.

He walked up to the chair I was sitting in and took my hands to "help me stand up". Maybe it was just to signal that I was supposed to stand up. He gave me a light kiss on my forehead and then got down onto one knee.

"Maximum Ride, I want to spend the rest of my life with you." he said, opening a small jewlery box. "Will you marry me?"

HAHAHAHA SO SORRY FOR THE QUICK CLIFFHANGER

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