Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or any of the flock or their friends or their friend's friends. Maybe I do own their friend's friends. Hmmm…

Chapter 2

Three freaking weeks? How am I supposed to find five mutants kids to be a flock with me in three weeks. It's impossible. I HATE MY LIIIIIIIIIIFE! I wish that-

"Ella." I heard someone's voice from behind me and I dropped the book that I was putting in my locker onto my head.

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry for surprising you."

"Oh…hi, Ben." I muttered while rubbing my head. I reached down, but Ben dove for the book and tried to return it to the top of my locker. Unfortunately, he was about a foot too short and couldn't reach, so I helped him.

"So," he leaned against a locker, "How's life?"

Ben was this kid who followed me everywhere. He was short (Not that I have anything against short people) with brown hair and watery blue eyes. He was nice, but he tried way too hard and was kind of annoying.

"My life? So-so." I grumbled, still really upset about the news that I had received this morning.

"Aww…why?" he asked.

"Nothing. It's girl stuff." I said. Yeah, mutant girl stuff.

"Oh, I get it. You're PMS-ing." he shrugged like he could care less.

"Ben, I'd like it if you left now." I said.

"It's okay. I know the drill. Girls are hormonal. Gots it." he walked backward a little.

"Ben, get out of here."

He scampered off to be freakish somewhere else. I hate that kid. Suddenly, someone opened the locker door next to mine and closed my locker.

"Um…" I said. The girl who has the locker next to me is named Kate. She has long light brown hair and hazel colored eyes, but she wears color contacts to make them blue.

"Hi, Ella." she said.

"Um…your locker is kinda blocking my locker." I mumbled.

She finished looking at herself in the mirror. "What?" she asked.

"Can you move your locker door?" I said, a little louder.

"I need to get my stuff for Spanish." she said, her fake blue eyes fake clueless.

"I need to get my stuff for science." I replied and opened my locker door, causing hers to close.

And the same thing happened about a million times until it came to a girl fight which meant calling each other mean names.

"Freak." Kate said. SLAM!

"Wannabe." I replied. SLAM!

"Chickenlegs." she closed my locker door, grabbed her stuff and left. By the way, this isn't one of those stories where we used to be the best of friends and now she hates my guts and I'm clueless and then at the end we're BFFs. Kate and I were never close. She was always wanted to be the most popular and it wasn't that hard for her because she was so confidant. She wasn't actually that pretty. Her nose was too big and he lips were too small. Also she had awkward broad shoulders. My Mom says it's all confidence and that crap. I think it might have something to do with global warming.

I grabbed my science book and walked into science class. I sat down next to my friend Carlos. He looked at me and smirked a little, and then pointed to the front of the room.

"Check it out." he said with his Spanish accent.

I glanced at the front of the class where the teacher and that kid who no one talks to very much, yelling at each other. He was saying something about how he couldn't do the experiment that we were required to do. Mrs. Walsh was asking why and he was doing everything he possibly could to not answer that question.

"Fine!" he shouted, and walked back to his desk. Mrs. Walsh shook her head.

"What do you think's up with um…" I started, trying to think of the boy's name. I felt like I should know it considering I'd been in science with him all year.

"Jay." Carlos leaned over to me to whisper, "I think he might have something wrong upstairs. He completely freaks out whenever we get near water. Remember the field trip last year?"

Yeah, I do remember the field trip. It really sucked. We basically went to this pond place down the street from the school and it was really small but everyone went in the water except for a few kids. Jay never went near the water. He stared at the pond the whole time with so much disdain you could've sworn he was looking at a murderer. He really doesn't say much though, so I have no idea of what his sanity level is. All I know is that mine is slowly decreasing.

"So, everyone. We've been learning about lakes and rivers. Can anyone tell me what the difference between a river and a meander?" Mrs. Walsh asked. Here's where I blanked out. I figure that saving the world is slightly more important that knowing any of this stuff.

How will I know who's mutant and who's just weird? How do I know if mutants even act weird? Is Carlos a mutant?…No, I don't think so. But it's a possibility.

"I'm going to pass you out a beaker of lake water a a beaker of river water. I want you to write down your observations on the lab sheet that is being passed around and then tell me the difference between the two.

Suddenly, I heard a giant crashing sound behind me and a few people screamed. Jay had pushed his chair over.

"Go to the office." Mrs. Walsh growled.

"Okay." he quietly rolled out without saying anything else.

I heard murmurs behind me. "Mentally unstable." "Nut case." "Wackjob."

My hand shot into the air. "Excuse me, may I go to the bathroom?" I asked. Jay was almost out the door.

"Can you wait for a minute?" Mrs. Walsh asked, looking aggravated.

"No, I'm going to throw up." I said, trying to look as sick as possible.

"Okay, okay. If-"

"Kay, thanks, Mrs. Walsh." I ran out of the room.

"Jay!" I whisper-shouted at him from behind him. He turned around.

"What?" he whipped around. He was really tall and gangly and looked like…well, a geek. He sighed and looked to the side, "I have to go." he whipped around and started walking.

"Um…no! I mean, wait. I mean, Jay!"

"What?" he turned around and looked me in the eye.

"I need to talk to you about something serious." I pulled him behind a corner. "Is there anything weird like going on with you?" I felt like a jerk and an idiot. "I mean…no that didn't come out right. I mean…could we maybe talk about this somewhere else. Like my house?" I asked.

He looked confused. "Uh…no. I…this just is weird. I need to go."

He walked away. I took a breath to say something else, but decided not to. I walked him walk all the way down the hallway. Suddenly, I couldn't see him anymore. I squinted. Nope, he wasn't there anymore.

There was definitely something weird going on with Jay. I was going to say something to him. Sometime.

"Do you have a hall pass?"

Are you serious?

"Um…no. I was going to throw up." I turned around.

"Are you alright?" It was Mr. Gabriel, who was this student teacher at my school who spiked his hair and wore skater t-shirts in order to be one of the cool teachers. I guess he was nice enough. I mean. he's never really done anything to directly harm me or anything, but I just find him a little annoying.

"Yeah, I think I'm fine. I just got a little light-headed. I haven't been getting a lot of sleep. And you know." I shrugged.

"Okay." I started to walk away, but then I felt his arm on my shoulder. "Were you just talking to Jay Simons?" he asked , cocking an eye brow.

"Yes." I said.

"Oh. I would advise you not to do any more of that, young lady." his green eyes looked to the side.

"Excuse me?" I said, out of shock. Okay, teachers are supposed to help kids who have are socially awkward, not try to make other kids stay away from them. Was this a joke or something.

"I'm serious. There are some…issues that we have about Mr. Simmons. I mean…" Suddenly, his whole demeanor changed. "That guy is ca-razy!" Wow, that was really stupid and pointless. Yet another attempt of Mr. Gabriel trying to be cool.

Wait, did he know something about Jay. Did he know if he was a mutant or not. This conversation could make my quest about twelve times easier. Roughly.

"Wait…does Jay have anything…uh, weird about him?" I tried to look as concerned as possible about Jay even though I haven't said one word to him. Ever.

"You should go back to class." he replied, calmly.

"Um…"

"Sweetie, listen."

And that's when I passed out.