A/N again sorry I haven't worked on this and I'm not going to keep repeating my reasons but I do hope you like this chapter unfortunately the next one will be the last.

Chapter 22

I sat there with my legs crossed on the decking that skirted t entire outside of the house. The kids had started calling it the E shaped house, seeing as whenever we went flying the kids said it looked like E for escape. Or any other word they knew that started with an e. They were coming more out of themselves, they were acting more like kids each day, even Iggy, it had only been a few days, two years nearly, I think Jeb had said. But I knew that the School was only a thought away, we were still looking over our shoulders.

Every morning I cherished the taste of freedom. I got up earlier each day just so I could watch the light blue sky, turn pink and gradually brighter and brighter as the sun rose up to start the new day. It brought joy and hope to my heart to see it get so light, even if it took a while, after all of the darkness had seemed to swallow up the world.

Jeb was teaching us how to live, the other necessities we needed to know about life, apart from what we already knew how to fight to death apparently not everyone needed.

I wasn't very good at it. I'd tried making what was called an angel delight, it turned out more like the devils sludge. Iggy on the other hand excelled in the ancient art of cooking. Everyone else could just about get by in these lessons Jeb was teaching us, if this was a classroom I'd be sat in t corner with a dunce cap. I was honestly that bad. It was quite funny.

The first tips of yellow spiked up in the horizon painting the pink and reds lighter into orange. I smiled as I felt the heat of the dawn wash over me and the morning breeze brushed over my face with gentle flames. I sighed and closed my eyes, leaning my head back and resting on my arms as I stretched out under the suns gaze, the heat and light prickling my feathers like a flower reaching for the light.

All of a sudden a shadow fell on me and I snapped my eyes open in annoyance huffing out my breath.

"Why are you always out here every morning?"I rolled my eyes as my usually silent and dark companion sat beside me. "Because I need a break from my right wingman at times and I like savouring the taste of freedom, you never know, one day it might just be snatched away from you."

"And Iggy calls me the emo." Fang mumbled under his breath. I smirked and continued to gaze at the sky and breaking dawn with avid fascination.

"Why does this always get your attention though, even Angel says when she peeks at your mind in the morning, your just consumed with thoughts of the sky and freedom. Why Max?"

I frowned okay so Angel was a highly intellectual two and a half year old. None of us we sure of our ages so we had all taken a guess, and picked a date to mark it by. Me, Fang and Iggy were 12, Nudge was 9, Gazzy was 5, and Angel was two an a half, or was it three. I'd have to check later on. None of acted our ages though, we either acted too mature or at times too immature. We could never get the balance right, it was funny.

"I just enjoy it Fang. If I ever get taken back, though I'll fight tooth and nail not to, I want to remember this with as much detail as I can. If you were taken back wouldn't you want to remember everything about every beautiful little thing you saw?"He gave me that silent side glance with his eyes, a slight shift of his shoulders I took as my yes.

We sat there for the next hour or so watching the sun rise higher and higher in companionable silence. That was till we heard Iggy shuffling around in the kitchen.

At the same time we stood up and walked through the glass doors and into the kitchen. "We should really give him a hand with breakfast." I said helpfully, then paused when I saw both Fang and Iggy pause to look at me uneasily. "Fine I'll go wake everyone up instead then." I mumbled walking back out of the kitchen.

I padded up the stairs to Gazzy's bedroom he was bunking with Iggy until we could finish decorating his room, I didn't really think it was safe letting him sleep in a room that stank full of paint fumes and Jeb was worried he'd use the fumes a bomb for something, I didn't know if it was possible but I'm certain he'd find a way. Nudging open the door I could see Gazzy's feet sticking out seeing as he had Iggy duvet wrapped around his head and upper body as he lightly snored. No wonder Iggy was up so early.

I poked Gazzy telling him to wake up. He snuggled deeper into the blankets mumbling about Erasers and tutus and clown cars. I raised an eyebrow.

"Okay then, you think you can ignore the great Maximum Ride? I will show you no mercy." I grabbed his feet at the bottom of the bed, sat in his back and continued to tickle his toes without mercy. He came awake kicking and screaming, squealing and crying in delight. I laughed with him ending up tickling him all over. We both collapsed on the bed giggling and I brought him into a hug.

"That….hahaha…wasn't funny *giggle* Max." Gazzy gasped out as he pulled himself out of my arms and stood up.

"It definitely was and it got you up. So go get dressed, washed and go down for breakfast." I patted his head as I passed, he was tense thinking I was going to attack him again. That was my little trooper always ready and on edge.. Around me.

Next was the room where Angel and Nudge slept. When I walked into the room Angel wasn't in her curtained off section that marked her paradise, it was basically full of silk cushions, teddy bears and resembled a tiny girls version of a nest. She was curled up next to Nudge with her thumb in her mouth. Nudge was sleeping heavily with her mouth wide open, one arm over her eyes, the other holding Angel and a book splayed open on her chest. Neither of them twitched as I walked over to them and picked the book up. I glanced at the cover and smiled, flipping through the colourful pages of pictures and little writing. Sleeping Beauty.

I looked down at my sleeping beauty's and started to nudge them awake, shaking them gently. Nudge refused to move until I whispered the magic words in her ear. "Iggy's making pancakes." Within a flash she was up and gone slamming the door behind her as she ran down the hall and pretty much flew down the stairs. I didn't even have a chance to tell her to get dressed. Angel curled up into a tighter ball on the bed and flapped around for her missing blanket, in the end I scooped her up into my arms and she curled up resting on my shoulder as she yawned and slowly woke up. I started walking down the stairs with her, till she started waking up more and flapping her wings to stretch all of her limbs. Walking down stairs with flapping feathers in your face is heard enough with out a giggling Angel squirming in your arms. "MAX!" Angel screamed as I put her down on the floor so she could run to her chair on the end table in the kitchen. As she was about to bump into the table leg Jeb plucked he up so he could seat her on the chair as Iggy and Fang started dishing out the goods.

Halfway through breakfast and the usual banter being thrown at each other, as well as Jeb warning us not to go too far, Angel asked me the ever bugging question.

"Max can you teach us how to fly again today?" She looked at me with a sweet wide eyed expression. Glancing around the table I saw Gazzy and Nudge doing the same thing. Lord remind me to never let them watch Bambi ever again. Damn you Walt Disney, it was as effective as giving a kid a key to the world. That expression got them anything. I sighed nodding my head.

Since we had got out of the School, I had refused to teach any of them how to fly. They were basically all flesh and bones, hardly any muscle, definitely malnourished, barely enough energy to stay awake an entire day, and they wanted me to teach them to fly? Which was why I was teaching them slowly, they had more flesh and muscle, more food and energy now. So their wings could beat them high and I wouldn't have to worry about them all dropping out of the sky. I had taught Iggy and Fang because they were older, but flying you really had to learn on your own, without guidance though it was harder. I had learned from observing, I had watched…..someone very intently for years so I would know how to fly. I had taught myself from observations.

Ignoring the squeals I left t plates and children all fro Jeb to clean up as I walked outside again. The sun was now lighting everything up as day and the flowers and leaves on trees shone brighter than anything. It was time I stretched my wings.

I spread my wings out and jumped off the edge of the E house, the best part of this place was that the back of the house was nothing but a sheer drop from a cliff face. So I could enjoy the freefalling and rush as my wings slowly opened with the tug of the wind and I eased myself into an arc so I could shoot back into the sky. The rush of the wind lifted my heart and I felt as though I was soaring straight into the sun, its increasing heat warming my eyelids as I got closer. Until a black wing thumped me in the back knocking me sideways.

"You're it." Fang said with a grin.

And that was how we started training the kids, encouraging them to play tag with us, Nudge was good though she had problems turning in the air, it would take a while till she mastered the skill in turning direction. Iggy and Fang could fly normally they just needed to work on their reaction time, Gazzy had trouble stopping and landing, and Angel was struggling to stay in the sky for a long amount of time. We were all at different stages in flying, like babies still learning to walk and run.

It took about ten minutes till everyone was flying steadily in thye sky and chasing each other, I was twirling in the air, going higher and higher, stretching my arms out as though I could reach the sun.

It's so beautiful Max, it never ends… That soft voice whispered through my mind, I folded my wings in and arrowed towards the earth, letting the howling wind rip away the sweet gentle voice from me. Silently I twisted in the air and coasted down to the decking in front of the kitchen. I landed and padded over to the door frame shaking my head and gazing out at my new Flock. A grin tugged at my lips.

"You're not flying?" Jeb asked as he sat at the table with a coffee and a newspaper in his hands.

"No I think I'll let them coach each other."

I plonked down across from him and started eating the biscuits he had laid out on the table. The thing about being a mutant bird kid was that you always seemed to be hungry, so when you ate and ate and ate and ate some more, you didn't even gain a few pounds. Oh the joys of a high metabolism!

"You cant always leave them to care for themselves Max, you cant rely on someone else to do your job."

"I don't rely on everyone to do my job, but I don't really have a job to do, I'm just a kid. Besides you're the adult you take care of everything for us." I smiled in gratitude and Jeb. Once upon a time I thought of him as an evil sadistic scientist, but know he was more like our father, he taught us the basics like cooking and reading, helped care for Angel and the others. Yet in the past week he had been doing less, leaving most of the chores to me, like getting the kids up this morning and making sure they ate and were dressed. Perhaps he was just tired, he hadn't taken a break for himself after all the years he had been caring for us. Yet I also had a sick feeling in my stomach, maybe I was paranoid but I knew to trust my instincts and they were telling me to prepare for a change. It was probably a good thing that I never could get rid of the habit of checking over my shoulder.

At the time though I ignored everything, Jeb's sad eyes, my fluttering belly, the sense of impending doom, all of it. A good distraction was when Nudge came flying through the open screen doors, squealing with Gazzy right behind her, both of them forgetting how to stop as the aimed at me when I jumped up to stop them crashing into a wall.

"STOP FLAPPING!"

They either didn't hear or didn't bother to listen to my instructions as they flew into me and we flew across the room and into the sofa toppling over every piece of furniture as arms, legs and wings got entangled in a mess of limbs. I didn't have time to focus on my bad foreboding again as I put down the rules of no flying in the house and taught everyone else how to fly and stop properly.

A/N Kay hope you liked this this was just a insight to show you how Max and the Flock progress to living as normal a life as bird kids can. The last chapter will be up in a week or a bit so I will do my best to make it the longest I can so we can have a proper good bye to this story. Thank you all so much for sticking with this through thick and thin. Cookies all around!