Hey, I am somewhat proud of myself for getting this chapter done quickly. I mean, seeing as the rest of my chapters took about seven years to post…but yeah, I am pretty much on my high horse right now. And nobody…in all of Oz…no Wizard that there is, or was…is EVER gonna bring MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE DOOOOOOWNNNN. (Sorry, I'm listening to the soundtrack of Wicked in the background and it's influencing my writing. Don't be surprised if flying monkeys are including in this chapter. Just kidding. I think.

Disclaimer: Yeah, Maximum Ride is NOT mine. If you haven't figured that out by this point, there's really no way for me to help you. However, my characters are mine. Especially Jay. Because I've developed an unhealthy crush on him. And I don't think it's okay.

LET'S GET THIS CHAPTER STARTED!

Chapter 11

We were roughly escorted into a room that looked like one of those insane asylums. You know the drill, padded and white, like a giant hollow marshmallow. Maybe that's not an accurate way of describing it, but I was hungry as heck. The last time I had eaten was before I went to Zendi's house and that was…a long time ago.

There was the lady from before who hated kids. She was sitting behind a desk with four overturned pieces of photo paper in front of her. She was just sitting there, staring at us with her soulless black eyes. She had a small smirk on her face. I bet she also laughs at funerals.

Three teenage Whitecoats were standing behind her. What was this, an internship to work in Hell?

"Ma'am…?" Mr. Troll said slowly, as if he was afraid to interrupt her awkward staring. "Is there any way that I could convince you to allow me to oversee the meeting? I feel as if it's my duty-"

"You know what your job is. If and when your job is necessary, I will inform you immediately. Until then, I would like you to leave," she said.

"But, ma'am-"

"Don't you dare," she snarled, slamming her fist down on the table and making Jay jump about a foot in the air.

"Ha-ha," I said, under my breath. Mr. Troll heard me and gave me a look. I can't exactly say it was a scary look. It looked more like he really had to go to the bathroom. But, I'm sure he intended it to be scary.

He walked out of the room, and I heard his footsteps all the way down the hallways.

"Take a seat," the lady said.

"There aren't any chairs," I said.

"I told you to take a seat,"

We sat on the ground in front of her desk. The floor was cold, but that wasn't really at the top of my, "Current Things to Worry About" list.

"David, take their temperature," she said to the young Whitecoat with bug eyes and a shock of red hair.

"Why?" he said.

"I need to make sure that they're healthy and not going to spread mutant diseases to us."

"That doesn't make any sense, Mom," the boy said. He was her son? And he didn't want to do stupid stuff to us? Smart child.

"David, honey," she turned around to face him. "Be quiet now and take their temperature or else."

Her voice was sweet. David swallowed and ran over with a thermometer. It was one of those new weird ones that you have to run across your forehead.

"Sorry about this," David said, not meeting our eyes. He moved it across my forehead quickly and then Jay's.

"They're healthy," he said, and shoved the thermometer in his pocket.

"Wonderful," she said. "Children, my name is Miss Marshall. You may take off your electricity-enhanced restraining devices."

"You mean…the child leashes?" Jay asked, tugging at one of the straps on his.

"Obviously. I have a few questions for both of you."

"Oh," I said, taking the leash off and tossing it on the ground next to me.

Questions are good. I'm good with questions. In fact, I was in my school's Jeopardy club. Shut up, it looks good on a college application.

"If you fail to answer the questions correctly, we will be forced to convince you to tell the truth using undesirable methods," Miss Marshall said.

"Oh. Well, okay."

I mean, what else was I going to say? I didn't really want to find out what she meant by 'undesirable methods' because something told me that they might be slightly undesirable.

"If you don't know the answer say I don't know," Jay whispered. "I've been in this room before. It's wired with lie detectors. If one starts flashing," his eyes flicked over to me, "they might kill us."

"I think I'm going to wet myself," I said, trying to regain my composure.

Jay laughed into his hand.

"What are you two talking about?" Miss Marshall snarled. "I did not give you permission to have a personal conversation."

"That was hardly a personal conversation, ma'am. You were completely included in it." Jay said.

She pursed her lips and looked around. I realized she was trying to figure out why the lie detectors hadn't gone off. She sighed, exasperatedly and picked up a piece of photo paper and showed me it. It was a blurry shot of a tall, thin girl with messy blonde hair, flying through the air. With enormous wings.

I sucked in a breath of air. "Max!" I blurted.

"You know who this is?" Miss Marshall said. "Can you tell me who this is in relation to you?"

"She's my…uh…half-sister," I said.

"What do you mean?"

"Max is my half-sister."

"Yes…I understand that. But, do you know anything about Max?" Miss Marshall asked, waving the picture around.

"She really likes chocolate chip cookies. My mom's chocolate chip cookies," I said.

"That's not what I mean."

"What do you mean, Miss Marshall?" I said. Wow, I was almost veering into 'Max' category with my snarkiness. Max always has great comebacks. I'm usually the one who maintains the quiet "girl-next-door" façade, but you know what? I'm pretty sure the quiet "girl-next-door" isn't going to survive in the School very long.

"Do you know where Max is?" Miss Marshall said.

"Like…right now? Where she is right now?" I said, feeling my palms get sweaty.

"Yes. Where she is right now?" Miss Marshall rolled her eyes.

First of all, I had no idea where Max had gone after I'd last seen her. For all I know, she could be living it up in California with a tan and millions of boys wooing her. Though, I kind of doubt that, seeing as Max is way too high-strung to ever talk about hot guys in casual conversation. Trust me; I've tried.

Second, even if I did know where she was, there was no freakin' way that I was going to tell Miss Evil and Very Scary over here. Max is my sister and there's not a chance that I was going to betray her and hand her over to the school.

I mostly remember Max's and my last conversation. She was talking about how my mom should set up a cookie business called "Dr. Martinez's Homemade Cookies" so that we could become billionaires and give free samples to girls named Max.

But, I don't think she told me where she was going…

I glanced over at Jay. He shrugged.

"Ella," she said, using my real name instead of my mutant label. "You need to tell me where your sister is because if we don't know, we can't…keep her safe. She might be in danger and you might just be the only thing keeping us from helping her. Not to mention that without this information, you're basically useless to us and it would be very easy to dispose of you," she smiled.

Well, as you might have guessed, that gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

"Do you know where your sister is?" Miss Marshall asked again.

"No," I said.

The whole room went silent except for the ticking sound of the clock on the wall. Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick…

"No, you don't know or no, you won't tell me?" she said.

"Both," I said, quietly but powerfully. "You don't want to help my sister; I know that for a fact. This is the school. You kidnapped me, but I'm not an idiot." I felt everyone's eyes on me, including Jay, but I didn't break eye contact with Miss Marshall.

I felt really strong, like I could take down a professional wrestler or something. Miss Marshall stared at me like I'd snapped her with a rubber band.

"Are you sure that's your final answer?" she said.

"Yeah. I'm positive," I said.

She simply said, "That's unfortunate."

Suddenly, I heard a screeching sound from right outside the door, followed by a long stream of obscenities that I won't write here.

"Experiment R-25, stay where you are or else," said a man's voice.

"Or else what you f**king motherf**kers!"

See? Little asterisks work quite well right there.

Miss Marshall jumped up as a girl in a scratched up white hospital gown bolted into the room and closed the door. Her brown hair was a mess of knots and her makeup was smeared all over her tan face.

"Kate!" I said, happy to see her for the absolute first time in my entire life. I didn't know she had even been kidnapped.

"Ella! And…you!" she said, pointing at Jay. "It's so great to see you guys. You'll never believe-"

Suddenly, the door was thrown open by something that looked like a walking wolf.

Eraser. Max told me about them. They were half-wolf and completely insane.

But, I never imagined them to be so…tall. That thing was HUGE.

"Oh, dear God," Jay said, crawling backward. "It's gonna eat us. We're gonna die."

"What's the meaning of this?" Mrs. Marshall barked.

"R-25 was in the middle of examination and she escaped," the Eraser said. It was really awkward, seeing a wolf talking. "I was sent as backup."

A man in Whitecoat attire stepped out from behind the Eraser. He looked sheepish and his face had a long scratch running from the corner of his eye to his jaw. .

"You needed reinforcement to help you trap a girl who's part kitten?" Miss Marshall said. She put her index finger and thumb on the bridge of her nose and sighed. She seems to do that a lot. "Get out of here."

"If you'll just come with us-" the man grabbed Kate's clawed hand. She started shrieking.

"Leave the girl," Miss Marshall said.

The Whitecoat and the Eraser left.

"I still have a few more questions." Miss Marshall said.

"Me too. First of all, where the hell are we? Second, if you don't let me out of this place, I'll call my dad and we'll sue your ass off," Kate said. She flashed me the thumbs up. Leave it to Kate to be the bravest person ever.

"Your second 'question' was not a question." David said from behind his mom.

"I swear to God, I'll kill you. I don't freakin' care if it's not a question. Go screw yourself," Kate said.

"Children," Miss Marshall said.

"Bitch," Kate said.

"Alright, that's it. You," she pointed at me, "have failed to answer my question and you," she pointed at Kate, "are insubordinate and are acting inappropriately. I have no choice but to leave the questioning until a later time when you are all less rebellious. For now, we will begin the tests." She punched a button on her desk. It didn't say, "That was easy!" so I began to worry about what it was actually for.

Miss Marshall stood up and walked out, motioning for the Whitecoats-in-training to follow her. On the way out, she grabbed my arm and whispered into my ear, "I know Jeb Batcheldor got you into this and that you're looking for a group of mutants. I give my word, I will stop you. Have fun, Ella Martinez."

The mechanical door slid shut behind her and the lights flicked off, leaving us in complete darkness, with no way out.

So…yeah. That was Chapter 11. I really hope you read and review because that would be amazing and fantastic and it would make my day. Just saying. Not that I'm desperate, but I'm totally desperate. And thank you to all who DID review because I love you and I think you're amazing even though I don't really know you at all. THANKS GUYS.

Okay, I'm gonna try to finish Chapter 12 soon. WHOOP. YEAH. OKAY. I'M GOING NOW. BYE.