DISCLAIMER: As I hope all of you have figured out, I AM NOT JAMES PATTERSON. I do not own the Maximum Ride series or any of the characters within, just this story line (With the exception of flashback situations from the books). But the characters and his story are AWESOME!! Which is why I'm writing a fic about it, of course. So, continuing on . . . Enjoy!
Chapter Two
Maybe I should catch you guys up a little bit. See, it's been three years since the last time you heard from me. I know what you're thinking, "Three years, Max?! What the heck happened all that time?" Absolutely nothing, and that's the complete truth. Well, I was now 17 and so was Fang, Iggy was 17, too, Gazzy was 15, Nudge was 14, and Angel was nine, but besides that, nothing much happened. We traveled around for a while, me and the flock, just seeing everything we wanted to see.
We stayed in the North and South American continents, though. We decided planes were more of a hassle than they were worth and there was no way we would make it across the oceans on our own. I could tell Gazzy and Iggy were a disappointed, though. Both of them were completely obsessed with Chinese fireworks after they read how powerful some of them were.
We flew down into the Grand Canyon and actually played in the Colorado River on Angel's suggestion. We flew over Las Vegas and actually stayed there a few days. Of course, none of us were legal to gamble, but it was an amazing place to stay. Nudge begged and pleaded for us to go to Seattle, so we could go to the highest point of the Space Needle. Fang had us fly over to Yellowstone National Park, which kind of surprised me. We stayed for a few days in one of the huge redwoods, and all of us loved every second of it.
We went back to see Ella and Mom on more than one occasion. After much arguing from me, Mom convinced us to come back and stay there for all of the holidays. It was so strange, all of us got gifts for Christmas. It shocked all of us. We never celebrated Christmas. Well, we usually knew when it was, but we never exchanged gifts or ate so much food we were worried we would explode (And that's saying something). It was just another day to survive, hoping the Erasers would stop.
And they did. For those three years we traveled, we didn't sight a single one. No Flyboys, either, believe it or not. But we kept ourselves on guard. We trained together, physically fighting each other and trying to hone in on our abilities. Fang and I kept watches as always, we didn't stay in one place for too long, just in case we were being followed or ran the risk of being sighted. It was our usual routine.
But I think we were all more at ease then. Even Fang started to laugh and joke around with us a lot more than he used to. I started letting us stay in hotel rooms, rather than in the wilderness all the time. Not on a regular basis, but I thought we need the luxury for a couple of days a week, even if it was just a cheap, run-down motel. It was luxury to us.
I was still over-protective of the flock, but I let them trail off on their own more and more. Gazzy and Iggy usually went off to theorize about their pyro-tactics and sometimes test them. Nudge and Angel (usually with Total being drug along) went off just to explore, learn everything they could. They often went into the towns we were near and sat in the libraries for hours, just reading. Fang and I usually stuck together, debating about where to travel to next, going out to buy food for all of us, that sort of thing.
And Fang. That was another issue, let me tell ya. Even after three years, we had yet to really establish what was going on between us. Of course, the rest of the flock figured it out and thought it was the greatest thing. They never let us hear the end of it, either. Iggy always jokingly said he would sure to be extra loud when they got back from whatever we were doing.
There were often times when Fang would casually have his arm around my waist when we were sitting together or he would take my hand when the others weren't paying attention. At the nights in the hotel rooms, the others always conveniently let the two of us have our own room, so we shared a bed and slept in it together. Fang always rubbed the spot between my wings or sometimes massaged both of my wings. I would curl up beside him and sleep with my head on his chest. I normally always woke up to him staring at me silently with his dark eyes. I would smile at him and he would smile back.
We did kiss . . . a lot. But never around the younger ones. We made sure of that. And we took special care to block those portions of our thoughts from our nosy little mind-reader, Angel. I suppose you could say we were dating, but I don't think either of us really knew what to do about it. Wow, two teenage avian hybrids going out a date. That would be interesting.
But either seemed to go back to normal, at least as normal as it could be for us. My Voice (AKA Jeb, for anyone who might have forgotten) still came back occasionally, usually just to check up on us. I was still finding it difficult to accept Jeb as my father, but I felt myself letting down my usual wall against him just a little bit.
There were no more brain attacks, no more nightmares, no more Erasers, Flyboys, Whitecoats, Suits, Bloods, Crips . . . Well, I'm sure those last two still exist, but you get my drift. Nothing was around to disturb us. We seemed like we were out of danger. I'll be the first to admit, I really liked it. I wanted more than anything in the world for all of us to go and live and just be happy.
Maybe all of us could go to school. Probably not me, it just wasn't my thing, but the rest of them would be great there. Fang would be Mr. Dark and Handsome, the one every girl fell for, just like last time. Nudge would be the social butterfly, making friends anywhere and everywhere. Iggy would be a genius, having no problem in chemistry, or anything else, for that matter. Gasman would be the lovable trouble-maker, the one the teachers dreaded having, but they liked him, anyway, and all of the kids would love him. Angel would be just that, an angel. She would be perfect in everything, a nice little teacher's pet, but a popular girl at the same time. All of them would do great things.
I was thinking about suggesting the idea of going to stay with Ella and my mother on a more permanent basis, go to school with Ella and live there in the backwoods, so we could still fly and everything. It was a nice thought, a perfect ending to a shitty story, overall. But, of course, that was impossible for us.
So, that's where you came here, more or less. I think you're caught up.
A/N: Hey, guys, just letting you know that the chapters will kind of be varying in length throughout this story. Happy shout-out to Mr. James Patterson for usually having the chapters in the books only about two or three pages! It makes me feel less bad. :)