Disclaimer: I would like to take a moment to diss a claim. Here it goes: I AM NOT THE OWNER OF MAXIMUM RIDE OR ANYTHING IN THIS STORY MOST LIKELY EXCEPT MY CHARACTERS LIKE JAY, BEN, ZENDI, AND KATE! SO FAR!

Also, Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental. No similarity to any person either living or dead is intended or should be inferred. Haha, this statement always makes me giggle.

Chapter 3

I woke up in the nurse's office with a cold thing on my head.

"She told me she was feeling light-headed. I think she just passed out." I heard Mr. Gabriel say. I opened my eyes, but immediately closed them, feeling dizzy.

"Okay, thank you for bringing her here." the nurse said. What was the other choice? Leave me passed out on the floor in the middle of the hallway? Yeah, wouldn't have been suspicious at ALL.

"Any time." he said. "By the way…" then I just heard whispers.

Okay something weird was definitely going on here. There was no way that Mr. Gabriel was flirting with the nurse because she was old and smelled like antiseptic. So, he was obviously saying something to her. I didn't like where this situation was going. It's like when you have a dream and these people are all talking about you but you're just watching and not doing anything because it's a dream and everything.

"Hit her head?" the nurse whispered.

"I know. She fell and hit that wall really hard. So…if she says anything…"

"Got it. Say no more. Have a good day, Mr. Gabriel."

That was when I jumped up and pointed a finger at him while he started to leave.

"Oh, sweetie, don't stand up." the nurse said. "You'll make yourself nauseous."

"I did not hit my head on a wall. I just fell down…and…and…" Nurse lady was right. Why do grown-ups have to be right all the time?

"Just sit down," Mr. Gabriel said.

"He's lying though. He was talking about Jay Simmons and then…"

And then I puked all over her shoes.

I obviously got sent home. Because apparently they don't want you puking and getting other kids sick at school. Who knew? But Mr. Gabriel had been saying something about Jay, something about me not talking to him. And then he told me to listen and I feinted like in a bad Spanish soap opera. I mean, he was a teacher, right? Teachers are not supposed to tell you not to interact with other students and then make you feint. That's right, I think he MADE me feint. Wow, I sound nuts. That's probably because I am, now that I have two weeks and six days to get five people to be in my mutant league. My level of sanity is slowly decreasing. By the end of this, if I'm not dead, I'm going to be in a straight jacket, at least.

"Ella? How are you feeling?" My mom walked into my room where I was angrily typed an account of what happened today.

"I'm fine, just a little freaked out about finding my mutant brethren in two weeks and six days." I slammed down on the keyboard and just let random letters and numbers fly across the computer screen.

"Yeah, I know it's going to be hard for you." she leaned against the doorway. "But, you are strong."

"I'm failing gym class." I said emotionlessly.

"You're failing? Never mind. You just need to get some positive inspiration." she smiled.

"What, do you have a radar that tells me where the mutants live on our street? That would make my life so much easier!" I said.

"No, I don't have that."

No, duh, Mom.

"But I do want you to think about how mutants act."

"How would I ever know a fact like that?"

"Well, what do you do to accommodate with your situation?" she asked me. But it was one of those questions that she knew the answer but she wanted me to say it so that she knew that I knew it. Teachers do it all the time.

"I stay away from cats because they freak me out. And I don't show off my canine teeth at the dentists because they're long and everything. And…"

"Good, what I'm getting at is that mutants are going to act strange around certain things because their DNA is…" she trailed off, trying to find the right word.

"Totally screwed?" I provided.

"Exactly." she said, while walking down the stairs. "Take Magnolia for a walk. It'll get your mind off it."

No it freaking won't. I thought inside my head. But I didn't say that because I'd probably be grounded which would not be a good thing for my quest. "But it's raining!" I yelled down the stairs.

"Bring an umbrella!" she yelled back. I hate when Mom's bring out the logic.

I threw on my blue rain coat and the only umbrella we had, which was from when I was eight and was going through "the princess phase". It had all the Disney princess's on it. I've been made fun of by people for using it, but it's an umbrella and if it covers my head from rain, I'm happy.

I found Magnolia on her back in the living room looking like someone had shot her. I kicked her lightly and she shook herself and got up.

"Come on, we're going on a walk." I said to her. Why do people talk to dogs. You see people do it all the time and no one thinks it's weird. But if you talk to a weird person, it's like, no way, what the heck are you doing?

"Can you sit?" I asked Magnolia. She looked at me with a blank expression. I swung her leash and she seemed to get excited about that.

"Now can you sit?" I leaned in to her face. She tilted her head like I was crazy. "Alright, dog." I clipped her leash to her collar. "Let's go."

"Be back at seven." mom yelled from the kitchen.

"Yeah, I know." I opened the door. The rain came down steadily, pelting my umbrella.

Magnolia trotted ahead pulling on her leash. Suddenly she perked up her ears and started barking crazily.

"What is it?" I yanked on her leash.

"Hi, Ella!" a chirpy little voice said.

"Hi, Zendi." I sighed. Zendi was a little girl who lived down the street from me. She pale skin with dark brown eyes and light brown hair. She was about ten probably, but she seemed to always be outside talking to me. Her name was strange, but her parents are really weird about names. Her older brother's name is Hendrix, which apparently was this rock star guy. Only problem is that Hendrix is a complete nerd.

"Are you on a walk?" she asked, skipping along beside me.

"Yes." That would be why I'm walking outside with my dog.

"Cool. So, did you know," Here we go. "That the sentence 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' uses every letter of the alphabet?"

"Nope. I did not know that." I said, stopping for Magnolia so she could sniff where other dogs have…um…marked.

"Oh, well, Hendrix told me that yesterday."

"Hendrix is a smart cookie." I said, tugging on the leash slightly. Hendrix is the kind of kid that is famous for being locked in lockers and stuffed into garbage cans. I have no idea why, though. That was sarcasm, by the way.

"Ella, is it true that snakes are highly flammable and will blow up if you shoot them?"

Okay, that was a really awkward question. Little kids are like that sometimes though. Anyway, Zendi was so adorable that I really didn't care what she was saying.

"Well, I'm not really sure." I shrugged. "Maybe."

"Really?" she asked, her dark eyes widening. "That's so sad."

"Actually, snakes don't feel pain the same way we do." That was what my mom told me about my fish when it died from wedging itself under a rock for a week. I guess that's what you get for buying a black fish and naming it Sally: An emo fish.

"But, they still feel pain." she mumbled.

"I guess you're right, Zendi. You should probably go home, though. It's raining like crazy." I patted her shoulder. She always wore this long turtleneck with pink and red stripes down it even when it was summer. It was one of those phases that kids have. I had a faze where I only wore overalls for a year. That's right: I was that cool as a child.

"Yeah. Hey, Ella, would you ever shoot a snake?" she tilted her head.

"No. It would blow up and I'd die." I replied. Magnolia chose that moment to see a squirrel and try to pull me down the street.

"Don't you care about the snake?"

"Um…Zendi, I have to be going. I…my mom…see you tomorrow."

I let Magnolia pull me around the corner and down the hill and back to my house.

"Ella, what took you so long?" my mom asked when I walked through the door, soaking wet with my hair hanging in clumps and some of my eye makeup smeared down my face. I would probably be scared of my reflection.

"I just got a little hung up talking to that girl, Zendi."

"Zendi Jones?" Mom turned on the kitchen sink.

"Yeah. She was talking about…snakes. Or something like that." I shook my hair and a little bit of water sprayed around. Another thing that just is like an instinct for me is shaking out my hair out when it's wet.

"Stop it. Don't shake your hair out in the foyer."

"Fine." I stomped into the living room and shook my hair out more. The phone started to ring. The thing about our phones is that one has a really high pitched ring and one has a really low one, so it's like an acapella phone choir.

"Hello?" my mom tucked the phone between her chin and her shoulder. "Oh, okay. Yes. I'll be right over." I heard the beeping sound and my mom set down the phone. "Ella. I have to go on a work call. Get in the car."

"Can I stay home and watch TV?" I whined.

"No, you're not staying home tonight. After all, you never know what could happen in the exciting life of a veterinarian." she waved her hands, like she was performing a magic spell. Moms are so embarrassing.

"Mom, I had a rough day."

"Nothing a good car ride can't fix."

"Mom!" I groaned. But I opened the garage door and climbed into the car anyway. Maybe I'd fall asleep and she'd just leave me in the car or something.

We got there in less than twenty minutes and we ran to the house because there was lightning cracking through the sky and I have a major phobia of thunder storms.

Their house was light green like a lime and had cute little white shutters and a swing on the tree. It was very quaint. I could imagine a four year old girl playing in the yard.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of time to stop and admire the house and landscape because I was at the door, knocking hysterically, trying to get inside. I pushed up against the door and rang the doorbell, which is not an easy thing to do when you're freaked out by a thunderstorm.

Without warning, the door opened and I fell inside. "Sorry." I murmured from my position on the floor of their house.

"Oh, it's fine, dear." a nice woman helped me to my feet.

My mom stepped in the doorway with her vet stuff and shook the lady's hand.

"Can you close the door?" I asked, looking at the angry purple clouds passing over us. It was already night, so the storm was probably not that dark. It was just that it was almost night time. At least, that's what I told myself.

"Of course." the lady said. She had red hair with dark streaks in it. She was probably in her late 30s. She had a sweater with cat hair all over it. She shut the door. There were white rugs all over the place. But the more noticeable thing was that there were cats. Everywhere. It was like a nightmare where there were all these eyes staring at you constantly.

"Wow. You have a lot of cats." I nodded and almost tripped over a fat black and white cat lying across the ground.

"Sorry about him. He had not moved from that spot since a year ago." she waved her hand as if that was completely normal. Suddenly a thought occurred to me and I looked down at the cat. Oh, good, it's alive. I sighed in relief. It would be so horror movie-ish if there were all these dead cats just lying around. You shouldn't just leave your cats lying around when they're dead. You just don't do stuff like that.

"Oh, you're Ella Martinez, aren't you?" she said. "I'm Miss Simmons. You go to school with my son Jay."

Oh crap.