Nothing Sinister, but High School

A/N: ok, so as you know, I've been absent from the writing scene for quite a while. During that time, I realized that I F'ed this story up big time by improvising. Therefore, I have come up with (a.k.a. improvised) a way to get out of it. However this requires using a common and annoying plot device, that I will probably be mauled for using. Dum da dum… call it a dream sequence!

don't kill me

--\

Concussion

Fang's POV

"Batchelder ?" the coach called sharply. He held out a black mesh vest to go over my PE uniform. I cringed.

"It's Fang." I said, stepping up and taking the vest and pulling it over my wings. Coach grunted.

'Stupid Jeb. Had to put his name on all of our forms didn't he? I should just choose my own last name, then carve it into a baseball bat and beat him with it.' I stepped back into line with the other boys, as the coach called names and handed out black and blue vests.

I had managed to tune out the coach's lecture on how tryouts were going to work when one of the guys elbowed me in the ribs.

"Dude, who's she?" the toe-headed jock asked me, pointing at a small group of girls who had just walked in to watch us.

"Which one, my girlfriend or her little sisters?" I said, rather calm considering I knew he was referring to Max, which bugged the hell out of me, and prompted me to call her my girlfriend.

She and Ella and Arianna laughed at us, standing there like soldiers, and I heard something about how we looked like a giant bruise.

"Girlfriend? You two don't seem too close." said the jock, who's name I now remembered to be Bart. He followed Max up the bleachers with his eyes until the coach paused to bark at him to pay attention.

"We're on a break." I concluded simply, wanting him to drop it.

Lucky for me , the coach blew his whistle and we broke up into teams according to the color of vest we were given, Bart had blue, I had black. We worked on teamwork drills for a while before we actually got to have a scrimmage. Max left halfway through the warm ups and I looked up to see if Ella and Arianna could give me an explanation why. They made some hand motion, but I didn't catch it, mostly because of the ball that bounced off my face, that I also didn't catch.

xXx

I blacked out, so sue me. It wasn't the over-inflated basketball that crashed into my face that knocked me out, so much as it was my head crashing into the bleachers as I fell backwards from the impact.

'Wow I must be letting Max coming to see me tryout get to my head. Focus you moron. You're on a break, probably permanent. Now get off the floor.'

I managed to peel myself off of the plastic coated gymnasium floor, thinking about how strange of a dream I'd just had, and how weird it was to have a dream that vivid in the middle of the day.

The next thing I was aware of was a light in my eyes and a hand holding up three fingers, or maybe six.

"Batchelder? You ok? How many fingers? Follow the flashlight." the jumble of voices became one in my head for a moment until my enhanced genetic structure kicked the concussion to the curb. I stood amongst the group of people, my potential team-mates and coaches, the cheerleaders, and the bystanders. Included in the latter group was Arianna and Ella, who was on her cell phone calling Max, no doubt to tell her of my terribly hilarious accident and minor concussion that I suppose was obvious because I heard the word being murmured a lot in my direction. After I was helped onto the bleachers and given a water bottle and ice-pack, I sat and thought about the strange dream I'd had.

'Maybe I should ask Max out. She had a point, dream or no, we aren't fighting right now, we seem to be getting along, and, although I won't admit it to her, I miss her.'

I was too busy with my musings to notice when the person in question sat down next to me, until was shaken lightly.

"You know zoning out probably isn't good for a concussion, like falling asleep." She said to me mockingly.

"Max?" I asked.

"Yes that's my name Dork." she retorted.

"But you just left."

"And you blacked out. Ella called, and I came back to see if you were ok."

"Where were you going?"

"To pick up Angel, Nudge and Gazzy. I sent Arianna to do it. So are you OK?" she shrugged then looked at me as if she were inspecting for damages.

"I'm fine. Thanks for coming back I guess. I actually had something I wanted to ask you."

"That's good, now shush, I'm man-watching." Max turned back to the court where the other boys were practicing passes and free throws.

"Yeah, thanks for caring." I muttered with what I suppose would be considered a deep scowl on my face. She turned back for a moment and flashed me a cocky grin that meant that she was only doing this to bug me and I had just given her proof of her success. Which led me to believe that she tortured me for fun as some sort of payback for something I didn't remember, and when you consider that this is Maximum Ride we're talking about, that seems pretty likely. The girl is twisted.

'Never mind that then.' I thought, turning back to the courts myself.

"Batchelder!" the coach barked suddenly at me.

"Fang." I muttered. Then added, louder, "Yessir?" What? I really wanted to make the team for some reason, and sucking up never hurt anyone… Too badly. And I did already take a ball to the face, how much worse could it get?

"You good to keep going?" he asked, in his gentler voice, which still sounded like a sea lion bark.

"Yes Sir!" I said, standing and heading back to the court. Thanks to whatever higher power there is for genetically enhanced healing abilities.

xXx

"What Happened Today"

Angel's POV

"My brother is the biggest dork in the school. I say this with total certainty, because he just told me that he was going to enter the talent show for being able to far the ABC's. tell me that isn't gross. The conversation went something like this at lunch today.

'Angel! Did you hear about the talent show?' My brother, Gazzy asked me as I sat down at his and Nudge's table with my tray. Nudge put her face in her hands, and I prepared for the worst.

'Are you entering?' I asked

'Yeah! Guess what I'm doing?'

'Don't ask Ange, you don't want to know!' Nudge warned me. Gazzy glared at her and told me anyway.

'I'm gonna fart the alphabet!'

'I don't think your flatulence is actually a talent.-"

"Angel, did you just use the word Flatulence in your WHT journal?" My teacher interrupted my writing, that she had obviously been reading over my shoulder. I turned to look at her.

"You told us to try to write as accurately as possible Mrs. Arbuckle, that's what I said, so that's what I wrote, is that not allowed?" I played the innocent card.

"No its fine, I just didn't expect such a large vocabulary." Mrs. Arbuckle picked up my 'What Happened Today journal, and examined today's entry.

"Are you done?" she asked, replacing the book on the desk in front of me.

"Yes ma'am. May I pack up now?" Still playing innocent.

"Yes you may. And tell your brother that I look forward to his performance." She and I shared an identical grimace for a moment before she walked off to read my classmate's journals before the final bell, and I busied myself packing things into my book bag.

The bell rang and the entire third grade hall rushed outside, including me. I was actually enjoying this school experience, even though Max and her mom made me promise not to use my mind powers at all. Max was also obviously getting used to this life too. I met up with Nudge and Gazzy outside the school building to wait for Max to come and take us to the High School to watch Fang try out for the basketball team.

"Man I hate math tests." Nudge groaned, stretching her back and wings, nearly hitting a passing second grader, who stared in awe until an sixth grader behind him said to shove off because he was blocking foot traffic.

"But you're good at Math Nudge." I commented.

"Doesn't mean I have to like the tests." she retorted

"Fair enough." Gazzy put in.

We waited a few minutes until Arianna showed up, an apologetic expression on her face. She really did look so much like Ari, without all the growly Eraser stuff.

"Where's Max?" Gazzy asked.

"Fang got hit in the face." she said, as if that counted as an explanation.

"By Max?" Nudge asked. Logical conclusion, its been known to happen.

"Naw, by a basketball. He got a concussion, and Max stayed to make sure he was ok. She sent me to come get you guys, so lets go already." Arianna never really had much patience, like Ari. But at least she was nice about it.

And so, off we went to watch Fang sit on the sidelines.

--

A/N: Yay! Another chapter!

Again, improvised, but at least its going the right direction now. Hope you enjoyed Angel's little side bit. If you did I will probably be adding a side bit for different characters to each chapter from here on, if I have some space to fill.

Well I'm off to my European vacation, so for the next twelve days or so, I'll be unavailable. But I will be bringing my draft book, and will be working out the next chapter.

Thanks for hanging in there through my unannounced Hiatus, it shouldn't happen again, though I'm not making any promises.

E'Nox