HELLO EVERYONE! I LOVE YOU ALL! MARRY ME! Ok, so that escalated quickly. Anywhooooooo….so I'm back with a new chappy for y'all! I hope you enjoy it, and if you don't, sucks to be you! Jk, jk…maybe. Now before I start rambling, I think it would be good for me to start this chappy…yeah.
Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, a life, or any friends.
6 MONTHS AND 3 DAYS BEFORE DEATH
"Ari, wake up." I whispered into my little brother's ear as I gently shook him awake.
"Nhmmm," he mumbled and tried to roll away from me. Normally I would have let him sleep for a tad bit longer, but we needed to get to school early today, plus we were already, oh, twenty minutes behind our normal schedule.
"Ari," I hissed and yanked him a little harder. Still no reply. Getting frustrated, I stood up, went to the foot of his bed, and unceremoniously jerked the covers off and skillfully created a mattress-like mass of sheets on the floor. Then, with great care, grabbed the edges of Ari's bed mattress and flipped him onto the sheet covered floor.
"Ow! What the he-"
"Shhhhhhhhhhhh." I hissed at him and frantically motioned to the door, signaling that Jeb was home, so we were in enemy territory. Ari's eyes widened and he zipped his mouth so tight that his lips were almost blue. "Get dressed." Nodding, he grabbed his clothes and began to pull off his nightgown. While Ari dressed, I grabbed his covers and his mattress and replaced them onto his bed. I then packed his backpack and started to comb his hair. I know what you're thinking: "Aw, look at Max being all motherly." Well somebody's gotta do it and I'll be damned if I let Jeb lay one hand on Ari's precious little head.
After Ari's terminal case of bedhead was somewhat sorted out, we began to tiptoe down the stairs and into the exit hallway. Noiselessly we slipped on our shoes in case we had to bolt before we were finished grabbing something to eat. Then we headed into the kitchen as quiet as ninjas. The sight that greeted us is still a shock to me today.
"Ari! Max! You're up. Great. Sit down and let's eat!" Before us stood Jeb, with oven mitts on his hands, a "Kiss the Cook" apron over his work clothes, and a goofy smile on his face.
"J-Jeb. I…I thought you were asleep." Feeling trapped, my eyes flicked from side to side, plotting the best escape route while I naturally slid Ari behind me and closer to the front door.
"I realized that we haven't had a family breakfast in a while and I thought we could do that today. I made blueberry pancakes and chocolate chip cookies. You want some?" Jeb extended out a cookie as if it were a peace offering. The man may have been a scientist, but he was just plain stupid if he thought a single cookie would erase all the evil things he had done to us and this family.
One of the many things you, dear audience, must learn about me is that my one weakness—besides Ari and Fang—is chocolate chip cookies. I would take a bullet for those things. Just thinking about it now, I could really go for one of those…the flaky, buttery crust…the gooey chocolate bits…the sugary interior that you know might give you diabetes but you just don't care…yup, I love me some chocolate chip cookies.
Anyway…before I get too distracted with the delicious allure of cookies, I shoved past Jeb's hand and muttered, "I'm not hungry." It was at that moment that my stomach chose to screw me over and growl. Damn black hole of a thing.
"Well, I think your stomach says otherwise." Jeb chuckled and cocked his head to the side in an almost affectionate gaze. Cheeky bastard.
"We don't have time to eat. Ari and I have to get to school and we are already behind schedule enough thanks to your useless babbling." Crossing my arms, I stared him down.
To my annoyance, Jeb just shrugged and turned to Ari. "You may not have time, but Ari might. So how about it, Ari? You want a cookie?" Jeb kneeled down to Ari's level so he could look him in the eye.
Ari's gaze flicked to me to Jeb and back until he finally looked down at his feet and said, "Just one wouldn't kill me." Before the look of hurt that I knew I would have could morph my face, I looked away and fought to remain neutral.
"Alright, kiddo! Here you go." Jeb handed Ari a cookie which he devoured in two seconds flat.
"Mmmmm. Fthes ez frealry smood!" That sounded like gibberish, yes? What Ari meant to say was "This is really good" but he was too busy stuffing his face with another three cookies for him to speak English properly.
"Thanks. See, Max. Ari likes them. Are you sure you don't want one?" Jeb turned his brown eyes to me and looked almost pleadingly.
I stared back until I had to look away. "I said I'm not hungry. Let's go Ari." Without another word I grabbed Ari's hand and practically dragged him out the door.
"Why do we have to go to school so early?" Ari asked as we plodded through the streets in the early light.
"Because I have to do a project with Iggy and Fang."
"Why do you have to do a project with Iggy and Fang?" Ari continued on as he splashed in some nearby puddle.
"Because it's for a grade."
"Why's it for a grade?"
"Because my teacher's a dic-I mean a really bad dude." I pathetically tried to cover up my slip.
"Why is he a really bad dude?"
"Because he is."
"Why is he though."
"Because you keep asking useless questions."
"Why am I asking useless questions?"
For a moment, I just stopped and stared at Ari as his wide eyes gazed playfully into mine. If I were a different person looking in on this conversation, I might say that my face at that moment would read "How the hell would I know?" to which Ari's face would reply "Because you have all the answers."
"You're asking useless questions because you're bored."
"I wouldn't be bored if we hadn't woken up so early." Ari grinned and purposefully splashed me, soaking the hem of my jeans in mud. Any normal human being would have recoiled in disgust and outrage. Me? Nah. I was beyond caring; just add that stain to my collection.
"Well you won't be bored for much longer. And you know why?" I nudged him out of the street before he could get hit by a car.
"Why?" Ari continued on his merry way as if he hadn't just faced impending death by cab.
"Because Angel will be at school, too." At this, Ari immediately perked up.
"Really?" He bounced on his feet and basically acted like a sugar filled puppy.
"Yep."
Ari whirled around and began to race across the sidewalk, shouting behind him, "Hurry up, Max. We're gonna be late."
Says the boy who was complaining about waking up early just five minutes ago. I snorted to myself. Ah, young love. If only things were that simple for me.
"Hey, Max. Hey, Ari." Iggy came up to us as we entered into the science lab. Normally I would have dropped Ari off at the elementary school, but seeing how it was, like, 5 a.m. his school was obviously not open yet.
"Hey, Iggy. Have you guys started the project already?" I shoved my hands into my back pockets and cocked my head to the side.
"Nah. We gathered all the materials needed, though. At least I'm pretty sure we have it all. Let's go through it, shall we? We have hydrochloric acid, potassium oxide, liquid nitrogen, helium, methane…," Iggy droned on as he listed the items he had splayed out on the desk.
"Geez, what are you guys making, a bomb?" Ari whispered to me.
"Hopefully not." I whispered back, inducing a chuckle from him.
"…chlorine, phosphate, dynamite, tin-"
"Wait, dynamite! Why the hell do we have dynamite!" I rushed over to the table, grabbed the stick of highly dangerous explosive, and proceeded to shake it in Iggy's face. If Ari hadn't been there standing witness, I probably would have slapped Iggy around with it and then shoved it up his…you know what I mean.
"I thought it would add a little kick to our project." Iggy grinned his goofball of a grin and it made me question how exactly he was a pyrotechnical genius.
"No. We are not adding explosives to our science project. End of discussion." I slid the dynamite into a plastic bag and threw it out the window where it landed on a bush.
"Hey, Iggy, I couldn't find anymore copper mesh, but would aluminum work-?" Carrying a large crate of even more supplies, Fang walked in and glanced at me over his armful. "Oh, Max. You're late."
"Well good morning to you too, Mr. Sunshine." I rolled my eyes.
"Now that you are finally here," Fang continued on as if I hadn't spoken, "make yourself useful and help me with this box?"
Raising my hands to my chin in a mock thinking pose, I pretended to contemplate it and then said, "Nah, I'm good. It seems like you have it all pretty much covered. And look on the bright side: it may be heavy but at least it will help tone your muscles for the ladies." I winked at his grimacing face and sauntered over to Ari. "Ari you don't have to hang around here with us boring folk." Turning back to Fang seeing that his hands were now boxless, I asked, "Where's Angel?"
"She's in the cafeteria reading." Brushing fake lint off his pants, Fang straightened up.
"That's my cue to leave. Good luck on your project!" Ari was out the door before he had even finished his sentence.
"Alright, let's do this shit." I clapped my hands together and we began.
"Um…guys. I have a quick question. What the hell are we making here exactly?" I rubbed my neck and laughed as Fang whirled towards me.
"Are you kidding me! Did you not pay attention to anything our teacher said?!" Fang's nostrils flared and I swear one of his blood vessels looked like they were about to pop.
"Not a word," I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly which just made Fang angrier. "So what are we making?"
"We're testing to see how thermite reacts to different substances," Fang said with an annoyed sigh.
"But isn't that kind of, oh I don't know, deadly?" I was just wondering if anyone else saw the absolute insanity of this science experiment. I'm pretty sure our chemistry teacher was trying to make us dig our own graves.
"That's what makes it fun," Iggy's muffled voice answered. I looked up to see Iggy trying to get his stick of dynamite out of the bush outside.
"As long as we're careful, nobody will get hurt," Fang walked over to Iggy, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, and nearly hurled him halfway across the room, all while answering me in a calm voice. "Right, Iggy?"
"Yeah, man. Just don't throw me again." Scratching the back of his neck, Iggy, dramatically, stood up. "That hurt."
"Good. Now for future notice, DO NOT PUT THE THERMITE ANYWHERE NEAR HEAT. Okay? Thermite + Heat = BOOM." With every word he said, Fang enunciated his words with his hands as if he were a parent trying to tell his children to not lick the electrical socket.
"OKAY. Now stop being a dumbass and let's work." Grabbing a couple pairs of gloves and goggles, I chucked them at Iggy and Fang and took some for myself.
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those of you who don't know what thermite it, it is a chemical used in explosives and is highly reactive to heat. To those of you that do know what thermite is, I apologize if I'm using it the wrong way in my story. I am literally not even out of middle school yet so excuse me if I don't know how to properly manage thermite.)
"Hand me the potassium oxide." Fang held his hands out and Iggy placed the chemical into them.
"Nitrogen and phosphate." Iggy didn't even look up as I handed him the materials.
"Hydroc-" I didn't even get the full word out of my mouth as Fang handed just what I needed.
"Here." Without looking up he continued his work and with a smile I continued mine. We worked like that for a while, and eventually we didn't have to say anything because one of our trio would know just what we needed. For a while, everything seemed to be working fine; our experiment was working according to plan and our results were terrific, Fang, Iggy, and I were working like a well-oiled machine, and we would have finished in no time if the devil in pink heels hadn't shown up to ruin the party.
"FANGIE POO! Oh my GOD, I didn't know YOU would be here. It's, like, fate or something." Clicking her dangerously high stilettos together, Lissa hobbled into the room.
"Lissa what are you doin-" Fang was muffled and practically suffocated to death because Lissa had the oh so bright idea to plant her big, fat, FAKE, lips on Fang's.
Fucking whore. "Lissa…what are you doing here?" I crossed my arms over my chest.
"First of all, Max, it isn't nice to call a person a "fucking whore". It's rude and impolite." Lissa mimicked my position by trying to cross her arms over her own bulbous chest, but when her boobs got in the way, she settled for placing her hands on her equally bulbous hips.
"Whoops, did I say that out loud? Sorry I have this thing called a mouth that has the annoying habit of saying the truth. And yes, Lissa, mouths are used for other reasons besides sucking dick." Hearing Iggy failing to muffle chortled laughter made me grin cockily.
"Max, there's no need for you to be so bitter. I know you're still hung up on your mom dying, but you gotta get over it." Lissa batted her pretty little eyes at me in mock innocence.
My eyes grew wide and I involuntarily took a step forward. I would have taken another and one after that until I decked her pretty little ass, but Iggy grabbed my arm before I could.
"Breathe, Max. She's not worth it," he whispered in my ear and I struggled to heed his advice. "Not cool, Lissa." Looking up at him I saw Iggy's pale blue eyes staring daggers and if looks could kill his would have murdered her in ways that weren't even invented yet. If push came to shove, I knew that Iggy had my back which reassured me slightly.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Fang had the common sense to untangle himself from her scrawny arms and get some distance from her.
"Sorry, Fangie Poo. I was just trying to give her some friendly advice. Personally I don't get why she's all worked up. Is it something I said?" Lissa cocked her head to the side and screwed her lips to the side.
"No, it's just your general existence that's got her "all worked up". If you have no reason for being here, leave," Iggy hissed.
"Ouch. That hurts Ignacio. And here I thought all this time that we were friends," puffing her lips out in a pout, Lissa turned back to Fang. "And actually I do have a reason for being here. Right, Dylan?"
"Yeah. Unfortunately we're lab partners." Dylan swaggered into the room with a lopsided grin on his face. Despite saying how "unfortunate" it was to be lab partners with Lissa, he didn't seem bothered by it in the slightest. I frowned.
"Oh come on, don't be like that. You know you love being lab partners with me," Lissa purred like the little seductress she is.
"Makes you wonder the extent of their "partnership"," Iggy quipped, resulting in both me and Fang attempting to elbow him in the nuts.
"To what are you implying, Ignacio?" Dylan looked at Iggy through his wavy hair.
"First of all, don't call me Ignacio. And that goes for you too, you redheaded bimbo. Secondly, I'm just saying that there might be more than one whore in the room," Iggy said after he skillfully avoided getting hit in the nuts.
"Iggy, Iggy, Iggy. I know you're upset but there's no need to lash it out on me." Holding his hands up as if surrendering, he said, "I'm not your enemy. Instead of fighting, I think it would be a wise decision if we all just calmed down and tried to make good of a bad situation, okay?"
"Fine," I grumbled. "If you can keep Lissa on your side then I'll consider not ripping her hair out."
"That's my girl, Max," Almost in a trance I watched as Dylan moved to my side and gave me a kiss on my forehead. Without saying another word, he took Lissa by the hand and moved to the other side of the room with her.
I was blushing before I could stop myself and I tried to hide it by coughing into my hand like a nerd. "Alright, guys, now that that's settled, let's get back to work." Hearing Fang and Iggy grumble their consent, I looked to my right and saw that Fang's face was neutral, but when I glanced down I saw his hands were shaking because of how tight his fists were clenched. Frowning, I tried to ignore the part of my brain that wondered why he was so pissed and dismissed it as him PMSing.
If you have ever been in a high school classroom in your life, you know that they aren't the biggest rooms in the world. And with five kids and a shitload of chemicals and equipment you can bet your ass that there wasn't nearly enough space between me and Lissa to avoid conflict. In order for that to happen, you would need to move her to a different planet, preferably Venus where the acid rain would fit right in to her acid personality. And if that's not possible, you could always just dump her on the Sun.
I admit, most of the struggles I have with people tends to be partially my fault, but this time I was innocent!
You see what happened is this: I was minding my own business and working on our project when Lissa felt the need to announce loudly to everyone that she was going in the back to get some more sulfuric acid mixed with hydrogen peroxide. Ignoring her, I kept right on working like a contributive member of society should. A couple of minutes later, I could hear her come back into the room, and then all of a sudden, she trips and I feel this liquid go onto the back of my shirt. At first I didn't realize what was happening, but then my brain got the picture. Lissa just tripped. With a mixture of sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide in her hands. And looking down, I could see that she still had the beaker where the acid had been, but the acid wasn't inside of it anymore. There was something wet on me and it felt like my skin was burning off. In other words, I was fucked.
"SHIT." Fang screamed as he dropped the thermite he was holding onto a hot plate and charged toward me, Iggy spilled some bleach as he jumped over a countertop, and Dylan hurdle jumped over Lissa. At the moment, they were probably moving incredibly fast, but to me it felt like everything was in slow motion. At that time, I must have still been in shock because I didn't quite understand why everyone was running towards. But then my brain reminded me how I had sulfuric acid mixed with hydrogen peroxide on my back, and then I thanked my brain for being such an advocate believer in reminding me of all the bad things that happen to me.
Without so much as a word, nevertheless a warning, Fang ripped my shirt off. Now I know what you're thinking, "Fang, this is not the time to try to get in Max's pants. Although it would be much obliged, this is not the time." I assure you, dear reader, that Fang was not trying to get into my pants, unfortunately. You see, he was merely trying to prevent the sulfuric acid hydrogen peroxide mixture from eating away at my skin. Knowing this fact didn't spare him from my wrath, however.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING YOU PERVERT!" I roundhouse kicked him to the other side of the room.
"WHAT THE HELL, MAX, I'M TRYING TO SAVE YOUR LIFE, DUMBASS. THAT FUCKING HURT!" Fang screamed back.
"SAVE MY LIFE BY TAKING OFF MY SHIRT?!" In my rage, I didn't even care that I was wearing a pretty skimpy bra. I was livid.
"YES. Oh and by the way, nice tits." Fang smirked. I decided then and there that no matter how much I may love him, I was going to give him an ass whooping that he would never forget.
"I'M. GOING. TO. KILL. YOU." I ground between my clenched teeth.
"I'd like to see you try," Fang taunted. All of a sudden, his expression went from sarcastic to concerned. "Is it just me or does anyone else see the smoke coming out of Max's ears?"
"It's not coming from her ears, it's coming from her ass!" Iggy pointed to my butt as trails of smoke whisked in the air while the sulfuric acid hydrogen peroxide mix ate a hole in my pants.
"What the hell-" I screamed as again, without warning, my clothes were ripped off of me, this time by Iggy. Violently he yanked my jeans out from under me.
"I think that should be good. I don't think the sulfuric acid got to your underwear yet." Dylan with happiness and relief as if my life had just been saved instead of being disrobed violently by a bunch of teenage boys in a classroom. "Just to be on the safe side, though, you might want to get rid of your underwear." When he saw my glare, he shrugged, "Or not. By the way, nice ass."
"Nice virgin panties," Lissa snorted.
"At least I still have my virginity, unlike you." I retorted and was irritated to feel that my nostrils were flaring. "And it's your fault that I'm naked! All because you "tripped"."
"You say that like I meant to trip. That hurts, Max." Again with that damn fake pouting! Does this bitch have any other facial expressions?!
"You know what else will hurt. Me, shoving my foot up your loose, whorish ass!" I yelled as I lunged for her. Before the boys could tackle me or get me to stop, I had already grabbed a handful of Lissa's hair and yanked her into the wall.
"Max calm the fuck down!" Fang tried to grab me but I whirled around and decked him. Remember how I said I had decided to give him an epic ass whooping. Guess what time it is…ass whooping time.
Winding up a kick, I hit him square in the nut sack. When he went down on his knees, I kneed him in the face and punched him in the chest causing him to go down.
"FANGIE POO!" Lissa screamed out, but I spun back to her and yelled, "DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT BITCH!" as I decked her too.
"There we go, Max! Hit her where it hurts!" From the corner of my eye, I could see Iggy shadow boxing as if he were watching a boxing match. From the floor I could hear Fang wheeze out, "You're not helping, Iggy."
Dylan tried, emphasis on tried, to break up this one sided match, but before he could get any closer, I kicked him square in the chest sending him flying. Turning back to Lissa's whimpering form on the ground, I heard a sudden hisssssss. Ears perking, I looked up at the row of hotplates on the side table and spotted the thermite Fang had put on one. "Hey, Fang…"
"Yeah," his muffled voice.
"Did you turn off the hotplates?" My eyes widened as the thermite began to spark.
"Yeah, I'm sure of it…" Fang's voice faded away as he sat up and saw the thermite. "Oh, hell-" he didn't even bother finishing his sentence as he lurched to his feet. Iggy and Dylan each took cover and tried to beckon for Lissa to join them, but with her being as stubborn as a bull, that wasn't happening anytime soon.
"F-Fangie Poo…" Lissa's voice trembled and when she saw Fang stand up, she stretched her arms as if in a warm embrace. "Save me…" But Fang didn't even bother looking at her. Instead he shoved her to the side, grabbed—no tackled—me and together we dove under a desk just as the thermite exploded.
BANG!
Sparks flew everywhere and Fang cradled my head so that I wouldn't catch on fire and so that my skin wouldn't be burnt.
When the thermite eventually died down, we all slowly looked up from our respective hiding places and looked around at the classroom we had just wrecked. All of us were fine and relatively unharmed, except for Lissa's pride, but that wound wouldn't heal for a long time.
Seconds later, we heard footsteps pounding down the hallways and the heads of Ari, Angel, and our principal Mr. Bradley popped into the room.
"W-What happened here?!" Mr. Bradley's chubby face was a shade redder than usual. Behind him, Ari and Angel surveyed the damage, looked at each other and said, "Whoa."
"What happened here!" Mr. Bradley marched over to me and Fang and stopped when he saw me naked. "Ms. Ride, why on earth are you in the nude?"
"Well, you see there was this incident with sulfuric acid hydrogen peroxide mixture-" I began but was rudely interrupted by Lissa.
"Which was not my fault in the slightest. If anything it was yours, Max." Lissa stuck her snooty little nose in the air and huffed as I stared bewildered at her.
"What the hell are you talking about Lissa! You're the one who sprayed acid on her in the first place!" Fang looked seriously pissed.
"At least I didn't leave thermite on a hot plate like an idiot, idiot!" She retorted.
"I'm sorry if I was so concerned about my friend's safety and life that I made the mistake of leaving the hotplate on. At least I was trying to do something helpful unlike Dylan!" Dylan's face morphed to rage as he stormed over to Fang.
"Why you got to bring me into this, huh? What did I ever do to you!" Dylan shouted and Fang stood up to match Dylan's height. For a moment, I thought they were both going to duke it out if Mr. Bradley had not intervened.
"ALL OF YOU ARE SUSPENDED!" Mr. Bradley was shaking with so much rage that I began to seriously worry that the old man was going to croak right then and there. "GET OUT OF MY SCHOOL IMMEDIATELY!"
"Um, Mr. Bradley, sir, I would love to leave school, but I'm kind of, you know, naked…" I beamed at his irritated face.
"Wait here." Leaving the classroom, he came back with an oversized lab coat and incredibly crappy sweatpants. "Here. Put these clothes on and then leave my school." As grandiose as any overweight principal could be, he left the classroom.
Turning to Fang, I said, "What was that you said about us igniting the thermite?"
I'M DONE WITH THIS LONG CHAPPY! I AM SO PROUD! YAYAYYYYYYYYYYY1! OKAY, SO YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO SEE IT, BUT AS I'M TYPING THIS, THIS CHAPTER IS FUCKING 12 PAGES LONG! BUT IT'S THE LEAST I CAN DO FOR NOT WRITING IN A WHILE! Once again, I want to tell you guys that I love and thank you for reading my story. If you love it as much as I love writing it, please comment, favorite, and follow this story. I HOPE YOU HAVE AN AWESOME DAY AND IF YOU DON'T JUST KNOW THAT I LOVE YOU!
Watch the skies,
Dr. Bessy