A/N I'm back!
Thanks to magiclover13 for your reviews and support :)
I don't own Maximum Ride or Twilight
~MQ
Max
"It's pasta, Rose," comes the reply. The voices are suddenly deathly quiet.
A model-like blonde stalks in the dining room door, looking like the ultimate ideal of graceful. She's pale, and inhumanly beautiful. "Oh, joy, our house-mates have arrived," she says sarcastically, taking us in with a quick glance.
"I rather think we're the unlucky ones," I say to the others, and they laugh – or, in Fang's case, smile slightly.
The blonde scowls, and wrinkles her nose at the delicious pasta. "Who made that?"
"Our Official Head Cook," jokes Gazzy.
Behind the blonde stand five others, who I didn't notice before. A big, muscly, intimidating, dark-haired man who has his arm around the grumpy blonde's shoulders; a brunette girl and a bronze-haired guy who stand with linked hands; and an 'opposites' pair – a tall, lean, blond guy who looks like he has bite scars all over him (I freeze when I see this) and a tiny, grinning pixie. I stand up, and the rest of the flock do too.
We regard each other in silence.
"So, are we going to introduce ourselves? Or shall we just continue to stand in awkward silence?" jokes the pixie.
"Why don't we move to the living room?" suggests the mediocre-looking brunette girl.
I sigh, and gesture for them to go first. There's no way I'll have them behind me.
Once we're seated on the couches, I raise my eyebrows for them to go first.
"I'm Alice," says the hyper pixie. "And this is Jazz – Jasper," she adds, elbowing the bitten one. "That's Emmett," – the muscly one – "Rosalie," – the snotty blonde – "Edward," – the bronze-haired guy, who's looking at me in frustration – "and Bella," she finishes, pointing to the quiet brunette.
"I'm Max," I say.
"Nick," says our one-word-per-sentence expert.
"I'm James," Iggy announces. "And I'm the Official Head Cook, and I'll thank you not to insult my excellent cooking."
"I don't mean to be rude," says Bella, "but … your eyes … are you blind?"
"Yes," says Iggy shortly.
"And you cook?" asks Rosalie, who is really starting to annoy me.
"Yes," repeats Iggy.
"Excuse me," Rosalie mutters, and I smile slightly.
"I'm Tiffany-Krystal, but you can call me Tiff," says Nudge, and has just opened her mouth to keep going when Gazzy puts his hand over it.
"If she starts, she'll never stop," he explains. "I'm Zephyr."
"And I'm Ariel," says Angel.
There's complete silence, except for Bella and Edward muttering about reading nothing. What's the point in talking about that?
Angel, get us out of here please, I think to her.
Seriously, Max?
I don't like them.
You owe me, she grumbles, but I can feel the underlying agreement.
"Max, I'm tired," she says, yawning. "Can we go to bed now?"
"Sure. Let's go." We get up. "Good night," I say stiffly to our 'friends'.
"You've had a big day, huh?" asks Emmett condescendingly.
"Exceedingly," I say with an exaggerated yawn.
He rolls his eyes, and I roll mine back, and as I leave I can't help thinking that maybe Emmett isn't so bad as I thought.
We reconvene in Angel and Nudge's room. Iggy blocks the sound, and we're free to talk.
"What was your impression, Angel? Did you get anything?"
"Well, Emmett's mind is the most open. He was thinking when Alice was talking, 'man, they smell weird,' and 'Rose has such a nice name'," – we all laugh – "and when we were talking he thought, 'I think they're lying. Why would they lie about their names?' and stuff like that. Alice's head was full of blurry pictures. Edward's was full of echoes. Rose is so full of herself, I swear that's all she thinks about. I couldn't get anything from Bella, and Jasper's thoughts were occupied with Alice."
"Okay, everyone work on saying your fake name so it sounds convincingly real," I say. "Anything else, anyone?"
"Alice has really nice style. Bella looks boring. They're all so beautiful. Like, Eraser-beautiful," says Nudge.
"They haven't attacked us yet," says Iggy. "We don't have to move, do we?"
I consider this. "Just be careful. And goodnight," I add, slipping out of the room with the boys.
"We forgot the marshmallows," says Gazzy abruptly.
"What?" I ask, caught off guard.
"You said we could toast marshmallows. But we forgot, what with our lovely friends turning up," clarifies Iggy.
I sigh. "Tomorrow," I promise.
"We'd better do the dishes," Fang mutters. I nod and follow him into the dining room to see our plates have vanished.
"I'm cleaning for you tonight," says Alice, poking her head in from the kitchen. "Sleep well!"
I raise my eyebrows, smile slightly despite myself, and echo her well wishes. Wow, I'm sounding really old fashioned – who says 'well wishes' anymore?!
Fang nods to her and we leave.
"Chatty, isn't he," I hear Alice comment to someone, and Jasper's distinctive voice chuckles.
"We can set a curtain up between the beds," I say when we reach our door. "If you're uncomfortable," I add, not wanting to seem weak or girly or whatever.
He rolls his eyes. "Just go to bed Max," he says. I nod and pick up my pyjamas, - I know, I'm shocked too; Mum bought us all some – and go to the bathroom to change and brush my teeth.
When I get back, Fang is already asleep – or if he's not, he pretends very well. He looks sweet, like I never thought Fang would, with his hair tumbling over his closed eyes. I slip between the sheets and flick off the light. "Goodnight," I whisper.
In the morning I wake up and see Fang, awake, watching me. "Hello," he says.
I blink. I'm not at my best in the morning.
Suddenly someone pounds on the door. "Come on, school starts in half an hour," says Nudge.
"Damn, I forgot," I say, jumping out of bed. "Tell I – James that he'd better have breakfast ready when I come out," I tell Nudge.
"It's already ready." I hear footsteps go down the hall. "Thank goodness there's no uniform," I mutter as I pick up some jeans and a shirt. I let Fang have the bathroom this time, and pull on my bra and undies quickly. The skinny jeans give me some trouble, though, and I have just begun to thread my belt through the belt-loops when Fang walks out, ready to go.
"Ah!" I jump a bit, I'm ashamed to say. He turns away, his cheeks tinged with pink. I pull my shirt over my head – it's red, and says Carpe Diem – and say, "I'm decent."
"Finally," mutters Fang, turning around again and picking up his shoes.
I jam my feet into my combat boots and roll my eyes.
We scarf down pancakes. Our six other friends look mildly disgusted. It's either the food or our eating habits.
"Okay, gang, let's go. Seize the day," I tell them all, referring to my shirt. We stand up, dump our plates in the kitchen sink, and head to the door. "Ariel and Zephyr, you're in the same year – year four. Mum decided you knew about the same amount," I tease Gazzy. He looks offended, and Angel grins. "Year four," I repeat, "so Zephyr, you've dropped one, Ariel, you've moved up. James and Nick are with me in year nine. Tiff, you're on your own in year seven. Call Ariel if you need help."
We stroll across the campus. Angel gives us discreet directions, then eventually stops. "Okay, Gazz, you and me go that way to the junior school."
"See you at lunch," I say, and we keep going. We jump up the steps – come on, it's fun – and go into Administration again.
"Can we have our schedules please?" I ask.
Mrs Stephens hands them to us wordlessly.
We thank her and head for the main building.
"Okay, folks, welcome to Hell. Fasten all seatbelts and enjoy the Ride," I say, and push open the doors.
A/N The chapters are all quite short because I'm aiming to upload one per day, so ... forgive me?
Thanks guys!
~MQ