WOOOOOOH!!! SUMMER VACATION IS HEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRE!!!! LOL. I'm sorry it took me a while to update, but I'm finally out of school and will have a whole bunch of free time on my hands. This means you probably won't have to wait so much for me to update for this story. (Don't forget, I still have a ton of other stories to keep up with). Anyway, I'm happy to see that I have 81 reviews now. My goal is to reach over 100, and I can't do that unless I get reviews, reviews, and more reviews! LOL. Enjoy this chapter, you guys. MAXIMUM RIDE RULES!!

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"Ohhhh, that country fried steak was goooooood." Miles moaned, rubbing his stomach in satisfaction before he let out a rather loud, disgusting burp that indicated that his stomach was entirely full. He grinned and looked back at his flock. "Excuse me."

"Ewww!" Angel, Mini, and Nudge all cried in disgust.

Whoa. Dè já vu moment.

"You're gross, dude." Fang grumbled, glancing slightly at Miles and giving him one of his daily death glares.

Oh, it's disgusting when Miles burps but it's completely unsanitary when he burps?

Miles shrugged his shoulders, giving Fang a 'whatever' look. "What can I say, man. Burping is just a way of life. Everyone does it," he told him, letting out another long, clamorous belch followed by Kat letting out a simply un-lady-like burp that was almost as loud as Miles'.

"Kat." I gave her a look as if she just did something really disrespectful. Well, she kinda did.

"What?" she grumbled. "Like Miles said, everyone burps and it's just a way of life, so you can't tell me when to burp or not."

Miles placed a comforting hand on Kat's shoulder before her anger began to rise ever more and she started to pick a fight with me. He gave her a stern, fatherly look and told Kat to knock it off and that he needed to listen to me because I was the leader and all.

Okay, even I have to admit that he constantly reminding everyone that I was the leader and it was either my way or the highway was starting to get on my nerves. It was like he was trying to butter me up or something. Geeze. I hate it when Fang is right. That also gets on my nerves.

That reminded me. There was something I needed to ask Fang earlier after he went to the bathroom. When he came back to eat breakfast with us, he looked really pissed off and irked. I knew it was because of Miles, but what the heck did he do that made him so mad? I mean, Miles is a really great guy, so why does Fang hate him so much? I know it's because they're enemies, but Fang also said that they were friends back then. What could've happened to them that made their friendship fade away? And even if they're enemies, there are still times when they act like friends, like back at Eraser Jane's place? When Fang was hurt, Miles went all over-protective/older brother on Fang and they were actually acting nice towards each other. Does that mean that they still consider themselves friends even though they treat each other like sworn enemies? Or are they still sworn enemies but deep down inside, want to become friends again, but are just too stubborn to actually do that?

Ugh, I grasped my head, rubbing my temples a little and releasing the small headache that was starting to target my brain from too much thinking. This is getting way too complicated trying to figure this all out with just the little information I have. Any ideas, Voice?

I still think you should go with my 'they're-gay-but-are-hiding-it-by-acting-like-sworn-enemies' theory.

Thanks, Voice. You're always a big help.

"Hey, Max."

My little chat with the Voice was cut when Angel and Mini were looking at me with their cute gaze.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You see that little town place below us?" Angel asked, pointing down.

Oh, no. I think I knew where this was going.

"I'm sorry, Angel. But we have to take Miles and his flock back to the school so we could 'reason' with Jeb," I told them, giving them soft, sympathetic looks.

"Oh, please, Max." Mini pleaded. "We really want to go to that town place and see what kind of stuff they have. Please."

I looked at Mini and then looked at Angel, wishing I hadn't. They were both giving me the Bambie Eyes. I mean, I could barely say no to Angel when she used the Bambie Eyes, but turns out, Mini could do them just as good as Angel. This wasn't good.

I managed to pull my gaze away from the two six-year-olds and looked up at Miles and the rest of the group. Gasman and Dash were both looking at their siblings and quietly cheering them on, Kat and Nudge were crossing their fingers and shutting their eyes tightly—probably praying that I'd give into the Bambie Eyes and say yes—, Iggy and Conner were also pretty much doing the same thing Gasman, Dash, Kat, and Nudge were doing, and Fang and Miles were just shrugging their shoulders in an 'I don't care' jester. Well, that's the jester Fang was giving me while the look in Miles' eyes had 'you're the boss' written all over them. Ugh.

"Oh, alright. But only for a while. We'll go into town and check into a motel that was close to that restaurant we ate at this morning. But after that, we're heading straight to the School. Deal?"

"It's a deal!" Angel and Mini both exclaimed, charging full speed down the town below us, whipping past me and making me wobble a little bit from the sudden wind impact. And if that wasn't enough, having six other winged kids fly past me gave me such a wind impact, I almost dropped about a foot from the sky. Man, it's like they never went to a town before. Then again, we've never really been to Ventura before.

"Don't worry, Max," I heard Miles say as he flew towards me and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. "They just want to have a little fun. I mean, we're in a pretty interesting city with towns of stuff to look at and that's close to a beach. What kind of kid wouldn't want to look around in a place like this?" he asked.

I gave Miles a small smile and nodded. "You're right, Miles. I'm just sorry it's taking us so long just to get to the School."

Miles shrugged his shoulders. "It's alright. As long as you're happy, then I'm happy too," he said, flashing me one of his famous, adorable smiles that made my cheeks flush slightly. I turned away before he could notice my cheeks changing a small red color only to feel Miles' soft, warm lips peck against my cheek in a quick, small kiss.

I turned back to look at him, my eyes growing in shock, only to see Miles flying down with my flock and his flock. I brought my hand towards my cheek slowly and touched the spot where Miles kissed it. Oh, God, did that really just happen? I couldn't really tell since my heart was pounding twice as fast and I could hear it echoing in my ears.

Random Third Person Switch!!

And just like that, Fang's entire train of thought seem to just completely stop and all he could feel percolating inside his body was anger, rage, wrath, revenge, fury, displeasure, peevishness, animosity, fretfulness, okay, I don't think I have to scroll down through the whole thesaurus for you guys to get where he's coming at. How dare Miles kiss his Max? Even if it was just an innocent kiss on the cheek, it was still enough to make Fang start clenching and unclenching his fist, his teeth bearing as he began to let out low growls.

Flashback

"You've never been kissed, have you?"

Fang—no longer a happy seven-year-old, but now a more keeps-to-himself eight-year-old—looked up from the book he was trying to read and saw Miles standing in front of him with his hands behind his back and an innocent, yet, curious look on his smiling face.

"No." Fang simply said, going back to the book he was reading.

Miles' smile grew slightly bigger as he walked behind Fang and lowered his head so that he was hovering over the dark avian hybrid. "Is there anyone in particular that you would like to kiss someday?" he asked, somewhat cheerfully.

Fang immediately shut his book and looked back at Miles, that stupid grin never leaving his face as he stood up. "Where are you getting at with this, Miles? You know that the only girl I've ever wanted to kiss for the past year was Max. Max and Max only."

Miles' little grin seemed to fade from his lips and change into a small pout, but Fang could still see the tint of amusement in his chocolate brown eyes. "Aww. I always thought I was the first one you wanted to share your first kiss with." He mocked, pouting his lower lip slightly.

Fang gave Miles a disgusted look and rolled his eyes. "Grow up, Miles."

Miles let out a small, taunting laugh as he watched Fang turn his back on him.

"Don't start getting any bright ideas though, dude," he told him, Fang still keeping his back turned so he couldn't see Miles at all. "You and I both know that we've liked Max for almost a year now. You and I also know that it makes the other jealous that we like the same girl. Well, I've got news for you, Fang. Since we're no longer best friends anymore, there's nothing stopping me to do everything and anything I can to make Max mine."

Fang felt a small tint of anger beginning to grow inside the pit of his stomach. He brought his right hand to his stomach and began to tug on the end of his shirt, gritting his teeth to keep himself from growling out loud.

"Max is mine, Fang," Miles told him, walking towards him as he began to feel the presence of his body coming closer and closer to his. "And before you know it, when you least expect it, I'm going to steal her first kiss. Her first kiss—and her heart. So you better watch out."

End Flashback

Back To Max's Normal Point Of View

"Fang? Fang, are you okay?" I asked, waving my hand in front of Fang's face. He blinked a couple of times and shook his head back and forth before noticing that I was flying right in front of him, staring at him as if something were wrong.

"Are you okay?" I repeated, looking into those dark eyes of his.

Fang paused for a moment, as if collecting his thoughts. "Uh, yeah. I'm okay. Um, come on, we're—we're keeping the others waiting," he said, dipping his body down and diving towards the shopping streets of Ventura.

What was up with Fang? It was like he zoned out for a minute there. And—was that, jealousy I saw in his eyes? What in the world could Fang be jealous of?

I'm gonna go on a whim here and say he was jealous because Miles kissed you.

Please tell me this isn't another one of those idiotic theories where you try to convince me once again that Miles and Fang are gay for each other.

I could say yes, but I have a very strange feeling that you'll end up yelling at me if I do.

For the last time! Fang and Miles aren't gay!

Then why did Fang just get jealous when Miles kissed you on the cheek?

Well . . . he could've been just, I don't know, something other than angry. It might've just looked that way. I don't know

Or maybe, he was jealous because you got kissed by Miles himself. Maybe he has a crush on you, Max.

What? That's ridiculous. Fang doesn't like me.

Then he likes Miles?

I groaned, feeling the need to start beating the Voice out of my head senselessly. But instead, I just dropped the subject and flew down with the rest of the flock to the streets of Ventura.

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Well, there you go. I hope you guys liked this chapter. Nothing really special, but, hey. I haven't updated for this story in a while. Cut me some slack. Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you leave a lot of reviews! Maximum Ride rocks! Ooh! And so does the third book! (I'm still in shock that my mom actually got it for me the day it came out!) See ya later!