A/N: I'm sooooo sorry! I've been horribly lazy and not updating! It's all my fault and I feel awful! I hope this chapter will make up for it, because I have some pretty good ideas to make this one long and hopefully exciting! So, instead of continuing to listen to (or read, in our case) me ramble, go ahead and start on the chapter!
Disclaimer: Let's be frank here (unless you'd rather be Charlie, in which case I shall be Frank). If I owned either Maximum Ride or NCIS, would I write on fan fiction? The answer, my dear readers, is a big fat N-O. I would be partying it up with sexy male actors and Tony and Ziva would already be married!
Approximately a week after the whole big argument about "to go to school, or to not go to school," Nudge was dressing up in the best clothes she'd bought on our trip to the mall, while my whine played in a continuous loop in the background.
"Max, since when did I become the mature one in our relationship?" she asked, giggling. It'd been the fifth time that I'd suggested we just skip class and fly over to the park for a day of super-duper bird-kid fun. The sun outside our window was bright, smiling ironically in at us.
"Says the girl in the unsensible, teeny-bopper outfit," I retorted. She turned back to me, frowning.
"You really think it's that bad? I thought it was cute," she replied in all seriousness. I chuckled at how ridiculously normal this situation would seem from the outside.
"No, Nudge, you look adorable, Honey," I told her, honestly. It looked pretty, but was it appropriate for a girl in our situation? Absolutely not.
Her outfit consisted of designer skinny jeans (totally unpractical- try performing a U and A in those things), a "cute" pink top, and her new sparkly silver high-tops. Her soft brown curls were pulled back in a pony tail from her pretty caramel face.
My best outfit? Not-blood-spattered jeans with minimal rips and a baggy Beatles t-shirt that had been on sale. I know- totally fancy, right? That's why Nudge is responsible for being the girl of the family. I just didn't have what it takes. Fortunately, you don't need cute, preppy outfits to be the leader of a merry band of mutant bird-kids. All that takes is a spoon full of determination, a sprinkle of love for my family, and a no-nonsense mom voice that would put even the sternest of mothers to shame.
Angel joined us in my bedroom while I was checking to make sure my wings weren't too showy underneath my t-shirt. Her favorite pink tutu was slipped over her light jeans, which added to her curly blonde pig-tails and round blue eyes to create a cocktail of almost lethal cuteness.
"Hey, Angel!" chirped Nudge.
"Are you almost ready to go, guys? Ziva and Tony are already waiting in the car outside. They've got Lizzy in there with them." Speaking of my baby half-sister, she apparently had some super-growth elixir mixed into her genetic pool, because when we'd first found her on the doorstep of Gibbs's house, she'd looked about a year and a half. Now, a week later, she could pass for a four-year-old and talked like Nudge was her biological mother. She acted so typically Nudge that, at first, I was afraid that was the case. Then, I'd remembered that Jeb was the biological father and had been way too freaked out to think about that any more. Angel, obviously poking around in my thoughts (just living up to her name, I guess), made a super grossed-out face.
"Kk! I'll meet you guys downstairs! Gotta do a bomb-check on Gazzy and Ig before we go!" Nudge announced enthusiastically before taking ridiculously bouncy steps out the door. A few minutes passed before Angel realized that I wasn't planning on following.
"C'mon, Max, we can't be late for school! Make sure you pack your books!" she reminded me as she skipped contentedly out of the room after Nudge, pink butterfly backpack in tow. I groaned.
"Of course, 'cause it'd be just tragic if I lost those," I muttered, once she was out of humanly possible ear-shot.
"I heard that!" she called from down the hall. Oh, right. We're not human.
The ride to our new school in the government-issue black van was painfully long and silent. When we finally reached the bland brick building, I waited for the rest of the Flock to get out before hesitantly climbing out after them. Noticing my reluctance to leave the vehicle (which was weird for me, 'cause I have no special love for small, enclosed spaces), Ziva turned to me.
"Max," she started, gently, as if I were a wild animal that would spook easily. I guess she wasn't that far off. But, it was irritating none the less. "Please try to act as if you actually care. For the kids."
"Aye, aye, cap-i-tan. I will carry out your orders to the best of my ability," I replied with a sarcastic salute. Plastering a huge, artificial smile on my lips, I marched on after my flock. A couple of teachers stood outside to shepherd stragglers in through the heavy double doors. Huge smiles made themselves at home on their faces, as if to say "welcome to Hell!"
And Hell it was, my dear friends. The moment I pushed through those big blue double-doors into the over-crowded hallways, I regretted my rash decision to come here. If this was what the Voice had meant about jumping off of cliffs, I'm going to have to seriously consider before we go visit the Grand Canyon anytime soon.
Pushing through the throng- what a stupid word, "throng," psh- was like wading through a river of acne-ridden, moody hippos. They all stared at the newcomers like we had some kind of disease. Had they been told about our wings? Did they recognize us from the air shows my mom and the CSM had us do? I imagined every one of them with claws ripping through their fingertips and long fangs sticking out from under their lips, blooding running in a stream down their muzzles-
"Hi! I'm Ally! You're new here, right?" I focused my raptor eyes on the girl in front of me, fortunately stopping myself from jumping in surprise. She was lucky I didn't punch her right there and then. Max rule numero uno: Never, ever startle Maximum Ride out of her thoughts. But, being oh-so-merciful, I put on my best enthusiasm mask. Remember what Ziva said. It's for the kids. Not that I'd started taking orders from grown-ups. No matter how surprisingly cool the grown-ups were. It was just that I'd agreed with her suggestion.
"Er- hi. I'm Max. This is…" I trailed off, realizing that the rest of the Flock had already mysteriously wandered off. Fang was still in eye-sight, watching me carefully. He always had my back. "Never mind." Ally's smile never faltered. I wondered idly if it hurt to smile so much like that.
"Well, I can show you to your classes. Can I see your schedule?" she asked, her voice still sing-songy. I reached into my new backpack- plain black, if anyone was wondering- and pulled out the paper with my class schedule on it. She grabbed it, examining it carefully. Her smile widened, if possible, as she handed it back to me. "Awesome! We have almost all our classes together!"
"Cool," was my humble reply.
The following's a list of things that I will not miss when we finally get out of this whole "school" situation:
1. Crowded hallways- always horrible.
2. Algebra.
3. Pigheaded football players with grabby hands that are now fractured in five places- Tony and Ziva had to come in and speak with the principal about me sending jerks to the hospital on the first day.
4. Blonde bimbos that happened to notice how hot Fang is. I considered sending them to the hospital, too, but Fang and Iggy held me back. I'm stronger than either of them separately, but together, it wasn't worth the struggle.
5. Classrooms with minimal exits- so not fun.
6. Lockers. Remembering the combination takes energy that could otherwise be conserved to- I dunno- fend off an army of mutant robots.
Other than that, I had a fantastic day at our new school. When Tony and Ziva came back to pick us up in the van, I was so relieved that I barely noticed Nudge's bubbly recap of her amazing day or Iggy and Gazzy's suspicious whispering behind me.
"How was everyone's day?" asked Ziva in an only a tiny bit sarcastic motherly tone.
"Oh, just wonderful! I love going to school! I made tons of friends, and I learned so much in just one day!" Nudge gushed.
"It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Met some new people. Got to hear Gazzy describe Max breaking a guy's hand. It was pretty much a good day," Iggy replied.
"Oh, yeah, Max, that was awesome! You gotta show me how to do that!" Gazzy whooped.
"Maybe. It'd come in handy when fighting something actually dangerous." By the looks both of the adults in the car kept shooting me, I figured that lesson would have to wait a while.
"Hey, where are we going? Back to the house?" I asked. A change in subject seemed appropriate.
"No. We have to go back to the office for a little while. Gibbs called on our way to the school and said we have a case. We'll be too busy to protect you at home, and we can't assign anyone from another team because this mission is classified. The other case is just a cover. That's why you guys have to stay with Abby or Ducky whenever we go back to the office now. It'll be too dangerous to have you out in the open," explained Tony from the driver's seat. It suddenly occurred to me that Ziva never drove us anywhere. It was always Tony at the wheel. Hm. I'd ask them about it at a more convenient time.
"So where's Lizzy, then?" asked Nudge, jumping up and down in her seat. She'd been humming an obnoxious pop song through the beginning of the conversation, and I thanked whoever was up there that she had some kind of distraction to stop that horrible noise. Hey, I love Nudge; she's a really great little sister. But she can annoy the Hell outta me, sometimes.
"She is staying with Ducky back at NCIS," answered Ziva.
"Er, that's cool, usually, but didn't you say you had a case? Won't it be kinda- sick- to have a baby, who looks and acts like and has the intelligence level of a four-year-old, in the room while the Duckster cuts into a dead body?" I asked cautiously. Ziva glanced back at me, eyebrows raised.
"Well, he'll probably give her to Abby before he starts 'cutting into dead bodies.'"
"Oh. Right. Okay, then." The rest of the car ride was filled with Nudge's humming and the occasional comment from Total, who had mysteriously appeared in Angel's lap, about him missing his little doggy wife, Akila.
"Gibbs! You're just in time! I got a hit on the facial recognition. Our victim is ex-Petty Officer…" Abby trailed off, turning to find her new feathery friends and their dog standing in the doorway, instead of her silver-haired team leader. She frowned for a minute, before seemingly deciding that she enjoyed our presence, as well. "Hey, guys!"
"Hey, Abs. Whatcha got for Gibbs? Oh, and he sent us with his love and a Caf-Pow," I told her as enthusiastically as possible-for me- handing her the caffeinated drink. Her black lips stretched into a wide smile as she clunked over in her knee-high boots to receive her reward.
"As I was saying, the murder victim is ex-Petty Officer Jeb Batchelder. What kind of name is that? Batchelder… Batchelder… Where have I heard that name before?" she asked. I stared at the picture on the monitor behind her in shock.
"That's my father."
A/N: Dun, dun, dunnnnnn! Alright, now that that's over, I'd like to cover some things:
First, I know this is sorta another filler chapter, and I know that that sucks. However, this was essential to plot-building, so it must be done.
Second, I know I promised some kind of action and that this is pretty crappy, but I just needed to space it out a little bit more. It'll go a lot faster once I've given some explaination for the action, which will now begin to pick up.
Third, I don't want to sound desperate and stuff, but I'd really, really appreciate it if you reviewed, because I feel like either you don't like it, or you don't care enough. It would really boost me self-esteem if you reviewed. Thanks!