Hey Guys,

Thanks for all the reviews. Me so happy…. Bit of swearing in this chapter.

I forgot the disclaimer in the last chapter. Grr… It's annoying

Disclaimer: Maximum Ride does not belong to me. There, I did it. Yay me!

Chapter 2:

Max POV

Music pounded in my ears as I sketched. I didn't realise how much I missed drawing until I started. I let my fingers guide the pencil around the page. I didn't even know what I was drawing, but I was used to that.

A small alarm broke through my concentration and I looked up. The clock read 1.00pm. I groaned. I hadn't meant to stay up so late. I reached up to turn off the alarm and looked down at my drawing. A gasp escaped my lips. It was the picture from my dream. The dream I'd had every night since the fire. Six figures with wings were flying above the clouds as the moon shone down on them. Only three of the faces were drawn in though. I was drawn as the leader in front of a V formation while Angel and Gazzy flew next to me but the last three figures were unrecognisable, along with the black shape in Angel's arms. I sighed; it wasn't like me to leave stuff out of a drawing.

I got up and turned off the light cloaking the room in darkness. Light shone out from behind the black curtains covering the French doors and I looked outside. I was on the second floor of this three level house and I was able to bag the only room with a balcony. Jeb hadn't been home when we arrived but there had been a key and a note saying he was away on business and would be back tomorrow. I didn't mind though. The less time I was away from him, the better.

I threw open the curtains letting in the moonlight. My room was completely black. For some strange reason every room in the house was a different colour and this one just happened to be a black room. The floor had black carpet and the walls were painted black. I had found some electric blue paint in the basement when we explored the house. The walls now featured swirls and other designs in electric blue and my name was featured in paint just above the black bed. I did the same with my door so no one would mistake my room.

Other than that the room was pretty bare. There was a large, modern black bed with a plain black bedspread. A bare bookshelf was in the corner next to a weird black egg shaped chair by the window.

Before I would have complained about the colour and the minimal furniture but the black matched my mood, and I had to admit, it looked good. Angel had found a completely pink room and she'd filled it with soft toys that relatives had given her. Gazzy had chosen the room next door to her which was blue.

It was weird that we had each found a room that suited us but I wasn't complaining.

I smirked as I remembered the guy who had been staring at me earlier. The house next door was a mirror image of ours, so there was a balcony facing mine. I had been drawing the sunset in the egg chair when he went over to his balcony.

He had just been staring at the sunset when he'd noticed me. The look on his face was priceless.

That's was when I had closed my curtains, effectively ruining the view of the sunset…and the guy. Because I had to admit, he had been hot. He had been wearing plain black clothes that highlighted his olive skin, and his black hair was just long enough to fall annoyingly into his eyes. I hadn't really seen his face; I'd only noticed the expression. But I would bet my life that he was just as hot as his body. Not that I noticed.

God. I was trying to hate this place. I could not afford a dreamy little crush on the guy next door. I mean, how cliché is that. I walked over to my bed got under the covers.

I was so exhausted I fell asleep in minutes, but I couldn't keep my mind off the guy next door.

Fang POV

"Faaaaaaaaannngggg!"

I groaned. Why does that happen every Sunday? Iggy insists on waking me up by shouting right outside my room. Is it really that hard to come into my room and wake me up gently? But nooo.

I opened my eyes. The room was bathed in sunlight and I looked at the clock beside my bed. It was only nine o'clock. Why couldn't he just leave me in peace?

"Fang! I swear if you don't get your ass down here right now I'll…I'll burn your bacon!" Iggy shouted outside my door.

That got me out of bed. Iggy was an excellent cook, and eating burnt bacon when he was cooking was just wrong. I changed into my normal clothes, black jeans and a black tee. Nudge sometimes said that I needed to expand my wardrobe. I told her if she tried, I'd dye everything she had grey. That usually shuts her up. For a couple of seconds. When she and Iggy are in the same room I swear my ears are being talked off.

Music from next door pushed me out of my thoughts. There was the girl I saw last night. She was sitting in the egg chair again eyes closed. I brushed it off and went downstairs for some breakfast.

Iggy was waiting for me and he'd already set up a plate for Nudge and I. Our parents weren't home much so Iggy did most of the cooking.

I scoffed down the plate of food in front of me tuning out Iggy's talking until he mentioned the girl next door.

"Huh?" I asked my mouth full of bacon. He didn't burn it thank god.

"I was saying that three people moved in yesterday when you were asleep. Why you were asleep is beyond me when the cheerleaders from the other high school were doing a c-"

I cut him off. "They moved into Mr Batchelder's house? Why?"

"I heard the story from Ella over the phone," Nudge's voice startled me. She had appeared out of nowhere to sit next to me. "Apparently he had another daughter from a previous marriage, but her Mom and stepfather died in a fire last week. So she and her step brother and sister now have to move in with Jeb."

"Oh." I answered. There wasn't much else to say.

"I know!" Nudge practically squealed. In my ear. "We should go over and meet them!"

Iggy was nodding thoughtfully. "How old is Jeb's daughter?"

"17, she's in the same grade as you guys,"

"We should go over, maybe she'll be hot."

"She is," Oops. I hadn't meant to say that aloud.

"What? When did you see her?" Yet another squeal in my ear.

"Never mind," I said. "Let's just go over."

I walked over to the door and opened it. Back at the table Iggy and Nudge were staring at me.

"Coming?" I asked and walked out the door.

I smirked as I heard there hurried scramble from the table and walked outside.

We walked over to the house next door and rang the doorbell. Muffled yells came from inside and the door opened to reveal an adorable blonde haired blue eyed girl. Ugghh. Adorable. I need to stop using these words.

"Hi!" She said brightly. "My name's Angel."

"Hi Angel! I'm Nudge. We live next door. We came over to say hi. Hi!" Nudge answered just as brightly.

"Angel! Who is it?" A yell came from upstairs.

"You guys should come in. Max is still getting ready. She only just got up." Angel said, ignoring the question.

Nudge instantly ran in and took Angel by the arm and started talking a mile a minute. Angel looked a bit overwhelmed but smiled and started talking.

I looked at Iggy and shrugged my shoulders. We both walked in and surveyed the room. It was completely white through another door I could see the kitchen which was completely green. Weird. Even though Ella was good friends with us, we hadn't ever been in her house.

Loud rock music came from upstairs and Angel smiled.

"She's coming"

"Who?" Iggy asked.

"Max," She said simply and sat down next to Nudge on a white leather couch.

Max POV

I woke up the next morning exhausted. It was only nine o'clock but I was so tired. The sun shone through the windows and made me feel comfortably warm in my bed. I so did not want to get up but my stomach had other ideas. I hadn't eaten anything the night before and now I was feeling it.

After a hot shower I went back to my room and walked over to my wardrobe. It was a massive walk in wardrobe with everything I needed. It was fairly full since we had gone and gotten new clothes before the funeral. The main colour scheme was black. Angel had complained so I had picked out a couple of different coloured shirts too.

I picked out an outfit and put it on. I had to admit, black suited me. I wore black skinny jeans with a men's white button up top. Over that I wore a black jacket that was up to my knees and rolled up to the elbows. I wore black leather fingerless gloves and white chequered heels with white socks. A black hat finished the outfit. (A/N link on profile) It was nothing like I used to wear with bright coloured jeans and tops with smiley faces. But damn I looked hot.

I was just pulling on some silver hoops when the doorbell rang.

"Angel!" I shouted. "Can you get it?"

Her muffled yell answered me. I assumed she said yes. I heard the door open and a murmur of voices.

"Angel! Who is it?" This time no yell came back and I sighed. I put on some music and sat down. I was contemplating grabbing my sketchbook when my stomach growled. Oh well, I thought, maybe mom cooked some breakfast. It was only when I'd walked past the twin's rooms when I realised what I said.

I sat down on the floor against the wall and took a couple of deep breaths. Satisfied I'd pulled myself together I went downstairs only to find myself surrounded by strangers.

"Hi Max" A bright voice said. I looked around for the owner of the voice only to find myself assaulted in a hug. I peeled Angel off me and looked at the other people.

"Angel. Who are these people?" I asked her, there was just a slight edge of steel in my voice but either she didn't notice or she chose to ignore it.

"Oh. These are the neighbours. That's Nudge. She's 12. And those two are…" She looked up at them.

"I'm Iggy. He's Fang. We're twins and 17. Fang doesn't talk much." The guy called Iggy said. Fang nodded as if to prove the point.

I looked at them all properly this time. Nudge was a bit taller than Angel and had skin the colour of mocha and dark brown hair that had been tamed into two pigtails. She was wearing a bright yellow dress with frills and brown wedges. (A/N Outfit on profile) No wonder Angel liked her.

The other two boys were the same height but that was where similarities ended. Iggy was really pale and had white blond hair sticking up with black on the tips. It looked like he had been electrocuted. He wore preppy light coloured clothes. I stifled a laugh and looked over at Fang.

Who was…The guy I saw last night. Only this time I could see his face. He had olive skin and dark eyes like black obsidian. He wore a simple black outfit but he looked way better than Iggy. I shook my head. I should not be looking at him and describing all his hot features in detail…Crap.

"Ok then." I said. "I'm Max. I'm 17 too. And by the way, what the hell type of names are Fang and Iggy?"

Angel and Nudge smirked at my use of language and Fang's eyes held a sparkle of humour. Dammit.

"Well for your information they are nicknames. And you should talk. Max? Isn't that a guy's name," Iggy answered.

I put a cold smile on my face and walked over to him. "Well Iggy, since you seem to find it so confusing, why don't you get the hell out of this house." I smirked at him and he flinched under my cold glare. I turned around and walked out into the kitchen but behind me I could here Iggy talking to Fang.

"You're right she is hot. Pity she's such a bitch." I heard a muffled sound of pain as if someone, cough Angel, had walked over to him and stomped on his foot, hard.

I smiled at that and went off to find some breakfast.

Lol. Did you like it? I thought Max needed to put Iggy in his place.

Btw if you find it a bit confusing, Ella is Jeb's other daughter who is like 16. She's good friends with Nudge and she went on the business trip with Jeb.

They'll be introduced in the next chapter I think.

Max's and Nudge's outfits are on my profile. I wanted Max to still have a sense of style though not all preppy and girly.

Anyways, please review and tell me what you think.