Family

This all crashed down on me way too fast. Okay, backtrack. My name is Maximum Ride. At least, I think it is. Without my wings, who am I? I am nobody. I am Jamie, a normal teenage girl. Being a normal kid with a normal family and normal DNA is all I've ever wanted. But why do I feel so terrible?

Marcus grabs my hand and starts pulling toward the door. "Come on, sis. Mom and Dad are waiting." I pull my hand back.

"No. You're not my brother. I don't know you."

Marcus frowns. "Ouch. Hurtful, much?"

I turn to the Flock. "Come guys, let's blow this joint." I start walking towards the door. A few steps forward, I realize that I don't hear footsteps behind me. "Guys?"

"Max. You wanted to save the world. And we did," Angel says softly.

"Angel, don't tell me you actually buy that nonsense. Let's go."

No one moves. Everyone's suddenly too fascinated with the floor to even look at me. "Guys!" Gazzy moves towards Angel. "Gazzy, don't tell me you too."

"Max, we have parents. We have a family. Is it bad to just go with them?" Gazzy asks, looking at me with huge Bambi eyes. What was I supposed to say? Forget your family and stay with the Flock?

Nudge and Iggy move across the room to stand with Angel and Gazzy. "Max, just accept it. It's all over. Be happy. It's really not that hard," Iggy says, shoving his hands into his pocket.

Fang stands in between the rest of the Flock and me. Since when did this get to picking sides? And why do I feel a sense of déjà vu? "Fang, please. Not you." He walks over to my side and I let go of a breath I hadn't known I was holding. He takes my hand in his.

"Max, what if this is real? What if there are no Erasers, no School, no being on the run every day of our lives. What if we had a chance to live like normal kids? Why wouldn't you want that?" He gently pulls me towards the others. I bite my lip and reluctantly follow him.

"So does this mean we're all going to go our own ways now?" I ask, blurting out the question that's been bothering me. Now that they had families, they don't need me to be their leader. They had no reason to stick around with bossy, stubborn, pain-in-the-butt Max anymore.

"Of course not, Max. We're still a Flock – with or without wings." Nudge chimes in. I smile and envelope her in a hug. Angel joins in and soon it's a group hug. We stack fists before pulling away.

"Thanks, guys. Let's go meet our families." Before leaving the room, I look up to find the birds outside still chirping away freely. They don't know if they're in the middle of a war of in the middle of peace. They'll be singing in rain and shine alike. Because to them, it doesn't matter. As long as they can still sing, they will.

I don't think I'll ever know whether this is the real world or not, but I know that the Flock is real. That's the one thing they can never take away from us, war or peace, rain or shine, reality or fiction: our memories, our family, our love.

A/N: I hope you liked it. :) Should I continue with their parents? Please leave a review!