Greetings readers! Okay, since some of you are probably going to explode if you don't get Faxness soon, I guess I'll take pity on you and give you just a bit of Faxness. Well, not really Faxness. Basically just Fang getting jealous over Miles. Oh, well. But, I promise you, there will be Faxness soon. I hope you guys'll like this chapter! Here it is! Chapter fifteen to 'Maximum Ride: Trust'. Hope y'all like it!
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"Don't want to be an American idiot! Don't want a nation under the new media!" Miles sang, his head banging to the music that was going on through his head.
"And can you hear the sound of hysteria?" Dash sang along.
Kat and Mini jumped in. "The subliminal mind fu—"
"Okay!" I yelled, before they could finish the word. "How 'bout singing some other song that doesn't involve words that little girls shouldn't be saying." I glared down at Kat and Mini and then glared up at Miles. He just gave me a sympathetic smile and a shrug.
"Max, I'm hungry?" Nudge whined. "Are we stopping at a place to eat?" she asked.
I nodded my head. "Yeah. We just gotta find a place to eat first. So far, all I see are houses."
Kat blew a strand of hair out of her face in boredom. "Well, since we can't sing one of our favorite songs to pass the time, what can we do?"
"I didn't say you couldn't sing. Just think of a song that doesn't have any cuss words in them that children under the age of twelve should be hearing," I told her.
Kat gave me a glare and then looked over at Miles. "Is she for real? I mean, we're not seriously going to listen to this busy-body are we, Miles?"
"Hey! I heard that!"
Miles just looked over at Kat and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, she is the boss, Kat. Just sing it in your head."
(Sigh). I never get tired of hearing him say that.
Kat groaned. "But it's a lot more fun to sing out-loud."
Miles gave Kat a look that told her he was sorry, which quickly changed into an evil smirk. He turned to Fang. "Why don't you think of a song that we could sing?"
Fang—who had his eyes closed since he was either thinking about something, or just resting—opened his right eye and glanced at Miles. He was silent and then closed his eyes after giving him a shrug.
"Oh, come on! What kind of answer is that!?" Miles exclaimed. Fang was silent once more while Miles gave out a groan. "Dude, you're so emo sometimes. I swear."
Whaaaaaat?
Angel turned to Miles. "What's emo?"
Kat gave Angel a smile. "I'll tell ya what it is kid. In fact, there's a song about it."
Miles perked up. "Oh, yeah! A song that should be dedicated to you, dude." He grabbed Fang in a headlock and started giving him a noogie.
I turned to Miles, giving him a confused look. "There's a song that tells you what 'emo' is?" I asked.
Fang escaped from Miles' grip while Miles just shrugged his shoulders. "Sort of."
"How does it go?" Gasman asked.
Kat smiled. "It goes a little something like this." She cleared her throat, ready to sing, but waited for Miles to say his part.
He cleared his throat and changed his voice into the gayest voice I've ever heard. It was actually kind of funny.
"Dear diary. Mood: Apathetic. My life is spiraling downward. I couldn't get enough money to go to the Blood Red Romance and Suffocate Me Dry concert. It sucks 'cause they play some of my favorite songs like 'Stab My Heart Because I Love You' and 'Rip Apart My Soul' and of course, 'Stabby Rip Stab Stab'. And it doesn't help that I couldn't get my hair to do that flippy thingy. Like that guy from that band can do. Some days, you know . . ."
Kat then started to sing. "I'm an emo kid, non-conforming as can be. You'd be non-conforming too if you looked just like me. I have paint on my nails and make-up on my face. I'm almost emo enough to start shaving my legs. 'Cause I feel real deep when I'm dressing in drag. I call it freedom of expression; most just call me a fag . . ."
"Okay!" I yelled, interrupting the lovely (note my sarcasm) song that I knew Miles and Kat were singing to Fang. "I think we heard enough."
Kat slumped her shoulders and gave me a 'what the hell' look on her face. "What the hell!"
Boy, that's ironic
"We barely got to the beginning!" she complained. I gave her a look that told her to stop her complaining. She made a face and folded her arms across her chest. She turned to Miles, who just gave her another sympathetic shrug of his shoulders.
Angel cocked an eyebrow and looked at me. "Max, what's a fag?" she asked.
I managed to give her a very small smile while I ruffled her hair. "Something you shouldn't ever say. Alright?"
She nodded her head.
Kat kicked her feet, her arms still folded across her chest. "Can I at least sing a Fort Minor song?" she asked.
"Ooh! Fort Minor is awesome! Did you know that Fort Minor is like a nickname for him? His real name is Mike Shinoda and he also raps for Linkin Park. I love that band. They're song 'With You' is so awesome and sort of romantic when you listen to the lyrics. There song 'In The End' is sad, but it's so beautiful. I wonder why Mike Shinoda calls himself 'Fort Minor'. What does that mean anyway? I guess it's just something he made up, or, maybe it's a word that he likes. Or two words in fact. Mike Shinoda's also pretty hot too. But he's married. Have you seen his wife? She's ugly! I mean, how does someone that good-looking end up with someone that—not good-looking? I guess it's just the many mysteries of life. I wonder—"
Kat smacked her left hand on Nudge's mouth to stop her from talking. "Did you forget about what I told you when you start yammering too much?" she asked seriously.
Nudge was quiet.
(A/N: Just to be clear. I don't own any of the songs or the people who sing them that have been mentioned earlier. Even Mike Shinoda or Fort Minor. Although, I'd like to own him. -Smiles-)
"Alright. I guess you can sing a song by Fort Minor," I told her. I've never really heard songs by him, but I did hear a couple of songs that he sang with Linkin Park. Totally cuss word free. So, I guess Fort Minor's songs are pretty clean too.
Kat yelled. "You ready!?"
Nudge answered. "Lets go!"
Kat then yelled. "Yeah, for those of you that want to know what we're all about. It's like this y'all. C'mon."
Her and Nudge then started to sing in unison. "This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill. Fifteen percent concentrated power of will. Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain. And a hundred percent reason to remember the name!"
Kat then started to rap. "Mike! – He doesn't need his name up in lights. He just wants to be heard whether it's the beat or the mic. He feels so unlike everybody else, alone. In spite of the fact that some people still think that they know him. But (insert the mother of all cuss words a young eleven-year-old shouldn't be saying)—"
"Kat!" I yelled.
She stopped immediately, looking at me with a small, scared look on her face which turned into a sympathetic smile as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Uh—oops."
Miles flew towards Kat and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Alright. How 'bout we just stop the singing and concentrate on finding a place to eat. Okay?" he asked.
Kat groaned, looking down at the ground that was about two thousand feet below us. "Fine." She kicked the air.
I gave Miles and smile and then went back to looking for a place to eat.
"Hey! There's a beach down there!" Total cried, wiggling his right paw out of Iggy's arms and pointed down.
"I think we're in Ventura if we're close to a beach," Fang stated, looking down at the ocean blue water.
"Ooh! Where there's a beach, there's awesome seafood." Miles rubbed his hands together, licking his lips in hunger. He then turned towards me. "Uh—I mean, if it's okay with you, Max. You are the leader."
"Oh, don't be such a suck-up, Miles." Fang spat, flying towards him.
Miles glared at him. "I'm not being a suck-up. I'm being a polite gentleman. Something you need to learn how to be instead of a sulky, emo punk."
"Stop calling me emo!" Fang screamed in anger.
Miles gave him a smirk. "Okay then. You're more of the gay type then the emo type anyway."
Fang's eyes lowered into slits as his hands began to clench and unclench. "I'm not gay eith—"
Before Fang could finish, Miles started to imitate the way he was talking in his sleep earlier this morning at the theater. "Oh, Miles! Miles, I missed you so much! Oh, Miles, I thought I was never going to see you again! Miles, oh, Miles!"
Fang's cheeks began to turn crimson with mortification. "Would you just let that go!"
"Why? It's so cute," Miles teased, grabbing hold of Fang's right cheek and giving it a hard pull up and down, like how your grandparents would do to you.
Fang pulled his face away from Miles and gave him a glare that told him to stop or else he would pay the consequences. That glare made my body shiver. I've never seen Fang this angry since he saw Miles in extreme pain back at Jane's house. I've also never seen him blush this much. He actually looked kind of . . . cute.
Cute? Oh, so we do still have the hots for Fang
Will you just let that go, Voice. God, you're so annoying sometimes
Hey, it's what I do
I rolled my eyes, about to go back to looking for a place to eat breakfast, when Mini cried out, "Hey! That place looks good."
We all looked down to see a small café-like restaurant called 'Vagabond'. It looked like a pretty nice place to eat, so we decided to eat there.
--
"Black seven to red eight!" Miles yelled.
"No, you idiot! If you put the black seven under the red eight, then you won't get to flip over any cards," Dash told him. "Take the black seven from the stack of cards on the right and put it under the red eight, then drag that back to the stack and you'll get to flip the card that was under the black seven."
"You're both doing it wrong," Kat told them. "If you want to win this game, then forget about the red eight and just keep flipping through you stack. You're bound to find a black seven, then you could put it under that red eight and just flip through the stack."
"That'll get you nowhere!" Mini said. "Dash's way was better. You're supposed to take the black seven from the stack of cards on the right and put it under the red eight and then drag it over to the other side so you'll have cards to flip."
"No, I think Kat's way was better." Nudge got into the conversation. She put her hand on the machine. "A guy that came here a week ago played this exact same game and he did it Kat's way and won the game."
"That's impossible. All the games that this machine gives you are different," Gasman told her.
"You guys!" Iggy yelled in frustration. Everyone looked down at him. "Could you please just let me play my game of Solitaire in peace?" he asked.
Kat shrugged her shoulders. "Hey, you need somebody to be your eyes for this game."
"Conner is my eyes," he told them. "And he was doing a very good job. At least he didn't get into a huge lecture and started arguing over what strategy to use."
Conner punched Iggy in the shoulder.
"Ow," Iggy cried dramatically. "I mean—no offense, Conner."
Conner did a few hand signs on Iggy's right hand that told him something I couldn't really make-out.
"Max! Party of eleven!" the lady at the stand called-out.
"That's us," I informed as my flock and Miles' flock followed behind me. The waitress led us to a circular seat and gave us all our menus.
"Good morning," she greeted, giving us our menus. "My name is Julia and I'll be your waitress. Can I start you guys off with any drinks?" she asked, taking out a notepad.
"Hot chocolate!" the younger kids all chirped.
"With whip cream!" Angel said happily while Mini nodded her head and licked her lips.
"Alright, hot chocolate with whip cream for all the little ones," she said, jotting this all down. "And what about the older kids?" she asked.
"Coffee," Iggy stated, not even taking a peak at the menu since, well, yeah—you know. Conner nodded his head, trying to tell the waitress that he wanted the same.
I looked down at the menu. "I'll have some Diet Coke," I told her. She nodded and jotted this down.
"And what about you two handsome boys?" she asked.
"Coke," Fang and Miles both said in unison. They both noticed and glared at each other.
"I mean, Cherry Coke," they both said in unison once more.
They glared at each other again and then looked back up at the waitress, ordering something else. "Hot chocolate!" they still talked in unison. "Orange juice . . . Chocolate milk . . . Pepsi . . . Sunny D . . ."
They both then slammed their hands on the table, giving each other dark, death glares while the waitress let out a small, yet confused, chuckle.
"That's so cute. Are you two twins or something?" she asked.
Fang and Miles both looked up at the waitress with a disturbed look on their faces.
"Hell no!" they both said in unison once more.
They both glared at each other and then looked back at the waitress. "I'd rather cut myself open and jump into a pool of alcohol with hungry alligators than be twins with this bastard! . . . Stop doing that!" they both screamed.
"Um, how 'bout I just bring you guys some water," the waitress said, getting a little frightened. "Will that be okay?"
Fang and Miles just nodded.
Julia walked off while I saw a bunch of people staring at our table. I knew they were staring at Fang and Miles' actions. It was totally embarrassing.
When Julia came back with our drinks, she also handed us a plate of fresh baked bread. We all dug in and started grabbing a piece.
My heart stopped when Miles and I grabbed the same piece of bread. We each looked up at each other and blushed a slight tint of pink in embarrassment.
"Um, sorry," he said in an embarrassed tone.
"That's okay." I blushed even more.
Suddenly, Fang slammed his butter knife on top of the table and got out of his seat.
"I need to take a crap," he said, a slight tone of anger in his voice.
"Fang, are you okay?" I asked, watching him walk away. He raised his right arm and gave his hand a small wave to the left, his way of saying 'whatever' and walked into the men's restroom.
--
Cold water came out of the facet, filling the sink bowl. Fang dipped his hands in the water and cupped up some water, which he splashed all over his face and smoothed into his hair. He did this multiply times until he figured he finally cooled down.
He looked into his reflection, seeing the little droplets of water falling from his olive-skinned face. He sighed, looking back down at the sink bowl, closing his dark eyes.
Flashback
"Left jab. Right jab. Then, if you're fighting a dude, a good kick in the crotch is a nice way to finish them off," Seven-year-old Miles instructed, demonstrating different ways of fighting.
Seven-year-old Fang shook his head. "You're a very dirty fighter, Miles," he told him.
Miles gave his buddy a smile. "I know. But that's why ya love me." He gave him a small punch in the shoulder.
"Tell us another story! Please, Max!"
Both boys turned their attention to the little African American girl that was tugging on the older girls sleeve shirt. They knew her as Maximum Ride, or Max.
"Alright, alright." Max smiled, ruffling the younger girls hair. Fang's heart seemed to stop beating when he saw Max's lovely smile.
He clutched the left side of his chest, where he figured his heart was and looked down at it with a pissed off look. "Damn. Why does this keep happening to me?"
Miles looked towards Fang and then looked back at Max. He smirked. "Ooooh! Looks like someone's got the hots for young Maximum Ri—hmph!" Fang slapped his hands over Miles' mouth before he could speak another word.
"Shut up you idiot! I don't want her or anyone finding out that I like a girl!" he hissed.
Miles was quiet until Fang finally pulled his hands away from his mouth. "Why are you making such a big deal out of this? So what if everyone finds out that you like a girl. I thought it was common for guys to fall in love with girls."
Fang blushed. "Well—I mean, we're only seven, Miles. Guys our age still think girls have cooties."
Miles' eyes grew wide. "They don't, right? I mean, 'cause I really like Max too and I don't want to start a relationship with her if she has cooties." He rubbed his arms as if he were shivering cold.
Fang rolled his eyes but then did a double take, looking back at Miles. "Wait a minute. You like Max too?" he asked.
Miles gave him a smile and nodded his head up and down. "I don't know what it is, but whenever I see her, I get this gurgely feeling in my stomach that I usually get when I'm hungry. But I'm not hungry. In fact, I feel kinda sick." He held his stomach.
"Like you're going to throw up?" Fang asked.
Miles nodded. "But . . . I think I kinda like it. I like everything about Max. The way she's nice to everyone. The way the younger kids look up to her. They way she smiles or laughs whenever she hears something really funny or sees a whitecoat doing something stupid and beating himself up for doing so. (Sigh) Can you keep a secret?"
Before Fang could say anything, Miles ended up telling him.
"Sometimes, before we go to sleep, I think of Max. I even had a dream where I kissed her!" he exclaimed.
Fang clenched and unclenched his fist in anger. He gritted his teeth and tried not to glare at his best friend. "Y-you dream about kissing her?" he hissed.
Miles nodded, not noticing the anger in Fang's voice. "And, get this, I like it! Just thinking about it sends shivers down my spine. Imagine how I'll feel when I actually kiss her."
That did it. Fang couldn't hold in his anger any longer. He had to punch something. Badly! But since there wasn't anything around to punch, Fang's fist collided with some random whitecoat that was just passing by.
The whitecoat fell to the ground with a thud, not knowing what hit him while all eyes were set on Fang, who was huffing and puffing, trying to calm his anger.
"Dude! That was so tight! He didn't know what hit him!" Miles exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air.
End Flashback
"That's gonna be you, Miles if you keep this up," Fang said, looking back at his reflection, pulling the drain and watching the water go down the drain.
"Max is mine."
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Aww. Poor Fang. Well, this is where this chapter ends. Sorry if it didn't sound all that interesting. I'm having an off day. I'll post more chapters soon! Peace! Oh, and sorry for taking such a long time to update. I got grounded from the computer and other stuff 'til I brought my grades up. I'm still grounded, but I got my computer back. :)