I forgot to do the copyright thingy. I dont own Maximum Ride or House of Night. I just own my plot line.

"House of what?" I whirl around and glare at her. "I'd love to go and leave my friends to join some kind of stuck up prep school. Now tell the truth, who hired you?" My voice was dripping with sarcasm. Fang glared at 'Zoey' and my flock put on their toughest faces. They could be so darn cute sometimes.

Now it was Zoey's turn to be confused. "What are you talking about? Are you a gang member or something?" She seemed genuinely confused. But then again, so did Anne. And Anne turned out to be the head honcho of my miserable life. "Max, if you aren't around adult vampryes, you'll die."

Ange? I thought. Can you get into her mind and see if she's lying? I know you said she was a vamprye but I just want to make sure. Angel paused for a moment before replying.

I can only get bits and pieces. She sounded frustrated. From what I got, she doesn't have any bad intentions. She's curious about your mark though.

My what? I thought.

The thing on your forehead. At first it was just the outline of a moon but then you had a brain explosion and wings appeared on it. Angel explained.

"Does anyone have a mirror?" I asked. Fang blinked once, translation, he's so confused that his train of thought stopped. Iggy snickered.

"Now she cares about how she looks." Iggy whispered to Gazzy. Note to self, remember to kick Iggy's butt for saying that.

"I do." Zoey said. She pulled out a compact mirror thingy and handed it to me. I popped open the mirror and stared at my reflection. I stifled a gasp because that's not how I roll. I don't gasp, shriek, or giggle. But on my forehead there was a sapphire blue tattoo of the outline of the moon. And on both sides, wings sprouted out of the outlined moon. The wings were a much smaller, much bluer version of my wings. The ones on my back.

"Whaa?" I asked in shock.

"Max," Zoey's grandmother said. "You must go to House of Night."

"What if I don't want to go?" My voice was surprisingly stable.

"Then you'll die choking on your own blood." Zoey said bluntly.

"Can I have a quick talk with my fl-group?" I asked. "You know, like without you two?"

The Zoey person's eyes flared a bit but her grandmother put her hand on Zoey's arm. "She's surprised my u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya. She doesn't mean of it badly, these are her friends. Remember when you were first marked?" The fire in Zoey's eyes died down and she looked away. Her grandmother dragged her back into Starbucks.

"Let's go." I urge. "She's not looking and there's no one else here."

"But she said you were gonna die if you didn't come. I don't want you to die, Max. You're the flock leader. By the way, I was wondering if we could go to the mall. You should join the House of Night, and I could get you a new wardrobe! By the way, choking on your own blood seems like a gross way to die. Speaking of gross, do you think Gazzy could kill someone if we bottled up all of his farts and released them?" Nudge looked worried and she was chatting faster than she normally does.

Angel gazed at me. "I don't want you to go. I'm your little girl. But it's better than you dying."

Iggy cleared his throat, "It'd be weird if no one was around screaming at me for being a sexist pig."

Gazzy nodded while blinking back tears, "Or yelling at us more exploding something important."

Fang stared into my eyes with a troubled expression. "You have to go to House of Night."

I stared back into those deep, dark beautiful eyes. "I promised the flock would never have to split up again." I sucked in a deep breath. I'm horrible at touchy feely moments like these.

"But if you died it would be worse." Fang said.

"Would I still be leader?" I asked hesitantly.

"As long as you want it." Fang promised.

"You're in charge until I'm back." I said. Then Fang leaned in and kissed me gently on the lips. After a second he pulled away and the side of his mouth quirked. Instead of talking to me, he gave me one of our looks. This one said, I'll be waiting. Our romantic moment was brought to an end by Gazzy, his eyes were bugging out of his head and his jaw was unhinged.

"Gross!" He yelled.

"What happened?" Iggy complained. "Something must have happened! Spare the blind kid and just tell him!"

Nudge was completely silent which was the weirdest part.

Fang rolled his eyes and shrugged. "I just kissed Max." His cheeks turned pink and I felt my own redden as we waited for Iggy's reaction.

"Finally!" Iggy yelled. "We've been waiting forever for that to happen!" I rolled my eyes and then remembered to tell him.

"I'm rolling my eyes, Ig."

Zoey strolled out of Starbucks and glanced at me. I nodded and she trotted over. "Are you coming to House of Night?" I nodded wordlessly. "Great, grab your backs and I'll give you a ride."

"This is it." I said and patted my backpack. She looked surprised but before she could ask, I spun up a story. "I came here with my friends," I point to my flock. "For a vacation. We lost our luggage at the airport, but we have enough things from our carry on items."

"Oh, that sucks." Zoey said.

"Not the best vacation." I agreed. "I'm just gonna say goodbye one last time." Zoey nodded and I ran back to my flock. I hugged all of them and we were all crying. When I reached Fang I pulled him into a hug and expected him to turn into an unmoving statue. But instead, he hugged me back and whispered into my ear.

"I'll miss you Max." A tear dropped onto my hand and I looked up in surprise. Mr. Emotionless Rock was crying.

"Here." I handed him my Max card. "If I'm at some kind of boarding school, I won't need this." His hands close around the card and he keeps crying.

Angel jumped into my arms. "Max-" she gets choked off by sobbing. I murmured encouraging words and patted her hair. Take Total. She said in my mind.

"Why?" I asked gently.

He can give us updates on what's happening. I'm connected into his mind in a really strong way. She was still crying in my mind.

"Time to go." Zoey pulls me away from my flock, my family, the only people I trust. My life, they flock was the glue that held me together. What's going to happen to me without them?

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