DISCLAIMER: I do not own Maximum Ride

Chapter Nineteen – Harmless Hope

Lissa's POV

Lissa was used to people looking at her. She was beautiful and extremely popular. What was not to stare at? But today everyone was staring at her for a different reason. She was the laughing stock of the entire school. So she slept with Daniel Cooper, the ugliest guy in the school (and maybe the universe). Why was that so bad? She'd passed her test, hadn't she? It was simply a calculated move to get the best results for her exam.

Apparently people didn't see it that way.

She had told Max that she would kill herself. But she knew that was a lie. She couldn't consciously harm herself. It went against every single one of her survival instincts. She was a survivor. And she was going to show Max that she wasn't done yet.

Lissa walked into the lunchroom and met complete silence. Everyone was staring at her. The whispers started after ten seconds of silence. She counted. When she noticed that Max's table was empty she felt furious. That bitch couldn't even hang around to see the damage she'd done! Lissa had never been a social outcast before.

She was strong, however, and decided that she wasn't going to run away from her peers. She was going to hold her chin up high. She wasn't weak.

She sat at her usual table – the one in the middle with the best view of the room. She ate her apple and drank her juice until every single morsel was gone. She even took out her textbook and pretended to study. Anything to avoid her classmates' eyes. She not be weak, but she definitely wasn't feeling her strongest. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up because everyone was staring at her.

She hated high school.

Max's POV

Painting swords and decorating shields was boring. She was starting to see Fang's reason for wanting to pull out of helping with the props. He was looking at her now, giving her an irritated look. She smirked at him because she couldn't help it. She'd taken up smirking lately. It was just one of his habits that she'd picked up.

"Why can't the drama department do their own props?" Angel asked sullenly. Angel had been accepted into their group very quickly. She just slid right in and acted like they'd been friends for ages.

"We need more help," Iggy conceded.

"I'll call my brother," Angel replied, whipping out her phone and dialing a number. We all looked at each other and jus shrugged. One more pair of helpings hands wouldn't hurt.

We'd barely gotten through a quarter of the props when Angel's brother showed up. He looked a lot like her with blonde hair and a baby face. He introduced himself as the Gasman, which Max thought was weird. But she didn't comment.

Fang was looking at the Gasman like he knew him from somewhere. She gave him a questioning look, but he just ignored her. Obviously they'd met before. And not in very happy circumstances.

With an extra pair of hands the work began to flow past a lot quicker. Max couldn't help noticing little things about Fang however. Like the way he rolled his sleeves up to reveal the taught muscles of his forearms. She was staring at his arms for a solid five minutes before she realised. She quickly tore her arms away from him before he noticed. Judging by the smirk on his face, he'd already noticed.

They got through about a half of the props before the bell rang for class. Max was glad to get out of that small room. She was beginning to feel like she would pounce of Fang at any second. Could no one else feel the sexual tension slowly building between them? Hopefully not. Because that would just be embarrassing.

When Fang brushed up against her on the way out she wondered if she really could resist him. Actually, she was wondering if she wanted to resist him.

As if he could read her mind, Fang pushed her back into the empty classroom and shut the door behind him. The smile on his face spoke of wicked things to come.

She shivered.

Lissa's POV

Lissa was starting to really feel the pressure. No matter what she was doing, everyone was staring at her. Her friends were ignoring her and the teachers were giving her weird looks, like they didn't quite understand what was going on. She was getting fed up of all the attention. Which was, admittedly, a first for her.

Instead of going to her next class she decided to skip. She got in her ridiculously expensive convertible and sped all the way home. If she got pulled over she would just bribe the cop…

Her father was still at work when she stormed into the house. Her mother was upstairs in her bedroom, screwing the pool boy. Or someone else of questionable background. Faithfulness was considered blasé in her household. To be faithful was to be boring.

No wonder she had so many issues.

In her bathroom Lissa's eyes landed briefly on her razor. She wondered if she really could drag the jagged edge over her vein and spill all that blood. She shuddered just thinking about it. Lissa would survive this. Even if she had to start all over again.

The tears came then. She'd been holding them back all day, but now they just spilled from her eyes without any thought to her pride. It was like they had a life of their own. She sobbed for a while, taking pity on herself and her now-lousy life. Of course she blamed Max and Angel for all of this. But if she was being truthful to herself, it was just as much her fault. Maybe this was fate's way of telling her that she needed to change.

She snorted at that. Yeah right!

After examining herself in the mirror, she wiped her eyes and retouched her makeup. She brushed her hair and pouted at herself in the mirror. She was feeling so much better already.

She pulled out her suitcase from under her bed and started filling it with all of her clothes ad essentials. She'd already decided that she wasn't going to stay in this god-forsaken town. Ari was a waste of space. What she needed was a controlled environment. Somewhere that would appreciate her uniqueness. Like a boarding school.

She smiled to herself as she did the zip of her suitcase up. A nice expensive boarding school would do nicely.

Fang's POV

"Fang, what are you doing?" Max asked, looking for all the world like a cornered animal. He could easily picture her growing wings and flying far far away.

He shrugged his shoulders and couldn't stop the grin that took over his face.

"This isn't funny," she said sternly. She looked sexy when she was trying to be stern.

"We both know that you don't really mean that. You want this as much as I do."

"I do not!" she exclaimed indignantly.

He smirked. "No?"

He took steps towards her until she was backed up against the wall and he was only an inch away from her.

She closed her eyes, as if pretending he wasn't there would make it true. He leaned down and kissed her cheek. Then her temple. Then her ear.

"Fang, stop," she said, but her voice was a lot less firm than it was before. In fact, she sounded rather dreamy.

"Stop what? This?" he whispered in her ear before he gently brushed his lips against hers. It was the barest touch – just enough to make her want more.

"Mmmm," she mumbled.

"Or this?" he asked as he placed his hand on her hip and moved it up under her shirt across her stomach.

Her lips parted just a tiny bit.

"Or this?" he asked as he finally kissed her with all the passion he'd been withholding. She pressed against him and twined her arms around his neck, pulling roughly at his hair.

He pulled away and waited until she opened her eyes and looked at him. She raised her eyebrow in the most tantalizing way.

"You wanted me to stop," he said by way of explanation.

She actually pouted.

He started drawing patterns onto her hip with his right hand. Her eyes clouded over briefly before they came back into focus. She smirked at him.

"I just didn't want you to do this," she murmured as she ran her hand up over his shirt and followed it with wet kisses over the fabric. He tensed with desire.

"Or this," she continued as she traced her hand around the waistband of his pants and let her fingers slide beneath.

Without wasting another second he was kissing her roughly and running his hands all over her body. He knew then that he was playing a dangerous game with Maxine Ride. She could always reciprocate his moves with moves of her own. He wasn't really sure who would win this round.

They pulled away from each other, panting. Her hands were still just under his waistband and his were tracing the line of her panties under her skirt.

"Truce?" he whispered raggedly.

She nodded her head, presumably incapable of speech.

Without further ado, he had her on top of the teacher's desk within seconds. He pulled the blinds shut and locked the door because he had no intention of becoming an exhibitionist. Their clothes were next on the agenda, since he'd deemed them a nuisance. Soon he was kissing Max again and hoping against all hope that they would be together forever.

After all, they'd already been through some pretty tough obstacles. Was it too much to ask that they overcome any more that they faced in the future?

Lissa's POV

Lissa decided that she was going to like this boarding school. The students seemed to resemble sheep. That is, they seemed inclined to follow a chain of command rather than actually thinking for themselves. Yes, Lissa thought that she would have no problem taking control of this school.

The only slight glitch was the fact that it was an all-girls school.

Lissa pursed her lips as she walked towards her new school. Perhaps becoming a lesbian would be a nice change of pace from all the guys she'd dated or lusted after.

One could only hope.

A/N: Next chapter is the epilogue. I can't believe this story is almost over. I hope you guys have enjoyed it. I appreciate everyone's support. :)