Chapter Three- An awkward breakfast
Disclaimer: James Patterson owns Maximum ride and I sadly do not
After a bizarre and confusing dream about running through shelves and shelves of fax machines, I woke up and found a towel and spare clothes sitting at the foot of my bed. I blinked trying to wake myself up. Was I dreaming? Someone was caring for me. I sat staring at the clothes and the towel before something clicked into place and I picked them up and went in search of a shower.
After my shower I felt a lot better. I hadn't had access to water to bathe in other than lakes for a long time and it was not the best feeling having a layer of dirt covering me. I combed out my hair so it wasn't a birds nest and went back to its normal straightness. I stretched out my wings as much as I could in the tiny bathroom to move them around a little bit. After a whole night of them being curled up tightly they felt very stiff. I folded them back in and went into the dining room where I could hear people talking and eating. As soon as I crossed the threshold of the room everyone went silent.
I felt my cheeks burn as I sat down at the table. I said a quiet good morning and I kept my head down as quickly started serving myself food. I ate in silence as I felt everyone's eyes burning holes in me. Jeb Batchelder finally cleared his throat and spoke,
"Well Violet I must say, it's good to see you aren't dead." I dropped the piece of toast I was holding.
"You thought I was dead?" I asked. It was funny that I was surprised by this. I thought I had gone through enough crazy stuff to not get surprised by anything.
"Back when you both came out of the graft surgery." He nodded at fang when he said this "you were both recovering in the same room, I was watching Max while Ter Borcht and the Director were with Violet and Fang. They told us the next morning that she had gone into cardiac arrest overnight and was unable to be revived. I was slightly suspicious because it was the first and only failure of a human avian hybrid. There was always a closed section of the school that only a special group of scientists called the V team were authorised to be in. They said it was too dangerous for those who weren't trained to handle a particular specimen."
"You have got to be kidding me." Maximum muttered.
"Makes sense." Iggy shrugged. Fang stayed silent and stared down at his plate. The awkward silence fell on the table again. The only sounds were chewing and the scraping of knives and forks on plates.
"So the flock is going to go to the CSM headquarters so we can decide what our next move will be about global warming." Maximum said. The flock bit was emphasised to tell me that I was not invited.
"Whatever I'll just go flying or something." I said
"You should come Violet, it'll be cool. It doesn't matter if she comes, right Max?" Iggy asked. Maximum glared at me and I glared straight back. I knew what her answer would be.
"Nah it's alright Iggy. I'd rather be out in the sunshine than being cooped up in a stuffy board-room. Thanks for breakfast." I stood up and took my plate out to the kitchen. From there I went out into the back garden. I took a running start, flicked out my wings and launched myself into the air. I streaked up higher and higher until I was flying above the clouds. I flew east and after a while I found myself floating above the Grand Canyon. I dropped inconspicuously into a tree and joined a group of tourists, keeping my wings folded in tightly. I wandered around the canyon for a while marvelling at it before my stomach started to growl. I sauntered off in search of food.
I found a restaurant where I ordered the usual amount of food. A plate of garlic bread, a pasta dish, a steak, a lobster, a large sundae for desert and a soda or two to have with it. The waiter gave me a weird look and scurried back into the kitchen. A few minutes later he returned with the manager. This wasn't the first time I had been questioned about the amount of food I ordered.
"You appeared to have ordered a lot of food for such a young girl, our portions are quite large. Are you waiting for someone?" the manager asked.
"Nope it's just me, and before you ask yes I can pay." I flashed a large wad of I tex money. "If you bring me my food without any more questions there will be a rather large bonus in it for you." It had been the first time I could afford to pay a manager to stop asking me questions. Usually it took a lot longer to get them off my back.
"Of course ma'am, your food will be brought out as soon as possible."
"Thank you." They left me in peace until they brought out my garlic bread. The meal was good and apart from the first little conversation the service was too. I paid and flew out into the sweltering Arizona afternoon. I flew back to Dr Martinez's house using my memory to follow my exact path back. I landed on the grass softly and went into the house. The first person I found was Iggy cooking dinner in the kitchen.
"Hey Iggy, how was the CSM?" I greeted him.
"Alright, full of global warming stuff. Slightly boring."
"Global warming is an important issue... I think. I don't know that much about it."
"You should ask Fang. He's Mr. Anti-global warming."
"It might be a bit awkward. I've barely had a proper conversation with him."
"Well maybe global warming's the subject you need to use to get him talking. If you can stand the three hour lecture. What did you get up to today?"
"I flew over to the grand canyon and hung out there for a while."
"No way, there is no way you could get from here to the grand canyon and stay there for a few hours and come back in about ... six hours."
"What can I say I'm a quick flyer."
"Well I still don't believe you. Tomorrow, I'll race you."
"Bring it on."
"Cool, so tonight we are making a lasagne."
"We?"
"Would you rather sit in the lounge with the others most of whom hate your guts and it be all awkward or get cooking lessons from me, the chef extraordinaire."
"I guess I'll take the lessons from a conceited cook rather than sit through the discomfort. Just tell me what to do boss."
"Start dicing up that onion. I don't want to do it because I'm too manly to cry" I burst out laughing and so did he.
I wasn't quite sure how much I learnt in that 'lesson' but it was the most fun I had ever had in my life especially when we started having a cheese fight by pelting each other with grated cheese. The final product turned out fine anyway. We ended up choosing to do the dishes so we could dispose of the evidence. We stayed in the kitchen talking long after we were done.
"Well grasshopper I'll admit you have done well." Iggy said.
"Thanks... sensei. This was fun. I have never laughed that hard."
"I'm guessing you haven't laughed a lot." He steered the conversation in a more serious direction.
"No, not really." I mumbled, so the others wouldn't hear. Talking about this stuff with Iggy was more easy than I could ever have imagined but I didn't want the others knowing.
"What did they do to you?"
"Same things as you, just more frequently and worse." I winced at the memories.
"You're safe now." he wasn't lying. I had never felt so safe before. I fell asleep easily that night full of pleasant food and thoughts. Too bad it wouldn't last.
*~*~*~*
I awoke to white, pristine tiles and the smell of antiseptic. I was in a lab tied to a surgical table. My mouth was duct taped shut. I screamed and struggled against the restraints, but they were too tight and my screams were muffled. A white coat shuffled into the room.
"Ter Borcht will operate soon." No! Anyone but Ter Borcht, I made fun of him but me tied up and him with free rein of a scalpel was one of my worst nightmares. I struggled harder if that was possible. Ter Borcht entered the room with a scalpel in one hand and a syringe in the other.
"You escaped me vunce, it von't happen again. Time is up." I screamed as loud as possible as he moved the needle closer to my arm, I struggled against the restraints. It was almost touching my arm. An inch away...half an inch...it was as close as it could get. In a second it would pierce my skin.
My scream was muffled by my pillow as I jolted back into consciousness. I sat up in bed.
"It...was...just...a...dream." I gasped to myself. It had been so vivid, so real. I hurried out of the room so I could recover somewhere else without waking Angel. My nightmares were often bad but I had never had one as vivid as that. I often had a suspicion I was dreaming but this was something different, I had smelled antiseptic. Even though I knew I was awake I was having trouble telling myself it wasn't real. I was battling with the theory they had somehow taken me from by bed and returned me within the space of a couple of hours.
I sat in the kitchen on the floor against a cabinet trying to calm myself down with my head in my hands.
"Are you alright?" I snapped my head up. Fang was standing in the door frame.
"Fine." I breathed.
"Nightmare?" he walked over to the jug and started filling it.
"Ter Borcht was going to operate on me. It was vivid and real, I could even smell the antiseptic cleaners. It just freaked me out a bit." The jug boiled over.
"Uh, do you want hot cocoa?" Fang asked hesitantly.
"Sure, thanks." He made them quickly and handed me mine. We sat at the dining room table. I remembered Iggy's advice on global warming.
"Um, Iggy was telling me about global warming. I know it's a threat to the environment but I'm not sure what it's really about, do you think you could explain it to me?"
Iggy wasn't kidding when he said Fang could go on for hours about global warming. It ended up being an hour long conversation including a slideshow from his laptop. After that I said I needed to get back to bed. As I started to doze off my mind was spinning with climate change and ice caps melting but I was glad for one thing. I had just bonded with my brother.