Okay, so the last chapter wasn't as good as I hoped it would be. But don't worry, this chapter will be much better! I will answer most unanswered questions here. So… enjoy!

And BTW I'm starting my second fanfic! It's called "The Girl in the Wheelchair". Check it out once it's up!

Disclaimer: For the last time, I don't own Maximum Ride, but I really wish I did.

Max POV

Practically the entire building and the next few over woke up to screaming, cursing, and threatening. And, big surprise, it was all coming from Iggy and the Gasman.

I jumped out of bed, followed by Angel and Nudge, and had to use all of my willpower to not whip out my wings and fly right through the ceiling. I tried opening the door to their dorm, but rammed my shoulder right into the door instead. It was locked. Damn, where can a girl get a key in this place?

I banged on the door, and almost knocked Dylan's head off as he swung it open. I barged in, coming face to face with an arguing Iggy, Gazzy, and Fang.

I could just barely make out what they were saying, or screaming for that matter.

"You weren't drugged! How could you just sleep through something like that? What if our bodies didn't take the stupid drugs like normal people's bodies do? We could of died from a reaction or something!" The Gasman was screaming.

"How in the hell could I have not woken up from that needle? I should have felt it right? Right? Jeez! How can such a loud girl be so dang quiet? She didn't make one flipping sound! Man, I swear I'm going to bomb her for doing this! And Fang, why didn't you wake up? You said you weren't drugged! Yet you were tied up and duct taped!" Iggy was yelling.

"I don't flipping know! I have no idea how any of this happened! Why are you yelling at me? It wasn't my fault! I didn't know she was going to kidnap me! I don't even know how she got into our room!" Fang was shouting.

All this was happening at the exact same time before I cut in.

"HEY! CARE TO TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON?"

Everyone went silent. Can't beat the power of Max.

"They're blaming me for being kidnapped." Fang explained.

"We're wondering how he slept through being kidnapped!" Gasman said, motioning with his hand to Fang.

"I think I can answer that." I made a 180 turn, and looked straight into Miriam's bloodshot, sleep-deprived eyes.

"Why are you always just walking into our room like that?" Fang asked, his voice still raised from screaming.

Miriam cringed. "It's not really that hard. I just follow the sound of the screaming and end up walking in with the something to say." Huh. I never realized before how loud we were every time she walked in on us, whether we were arguing or not.

"Okay, back to your answer…?" I said, trying to speed things up. I just wanted the arguing to stop and our lives to go back to normal. I was sick of all this nonsense. Going to school was a horrible idea. Why in the world did I ever agree to it?

"Yesterday, at dinner, I didn't notice it at the time, but when I think back about it, I swear I saw Silica doing something weird. Fang, do you remember when Silica was talking to you?"

"Yeah," Fang said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said. "Silica was talking to you yesterday? When?"

"At dinner. You weren't there because you were planning for the party. I didn't say anything because it didn't seem like a big deal. She just talked about school stuff, what classes I liked, how the food was, stuff like that." He was right. We never would have suspected Silica yesterday at dinner time, so it really didn't seem like a big deal. It seemed like a big deal now.

"Yeah, and it was like, two minutes after I tried talking you into going to the party again." Miriam said to Fang. Then she turned to me. "If Silica was the one stalking both you guys and me, then I know for a fact that she listened in on our conversation and knew he rejected me again." She then turned back to Fang. "How early did you go to bed last night?"

"Um, I think right away. I was really tired." Fang said, scratching the back of his head.

"Exactly what I thought. I think Silica might have put something in your drink. Some sleeping stuff that would make you tired, but not keep you unconscious, and not wake you up unless, say, you were hit on the back of the head with a big rock…?" Miriam said. Realization and understanding crossed Fang's eyes. I was, however, seriously confused.

"Wait a minute, I don't get this. Silica put junk into Fang's drink. That explains why Miriam didn't have to inject him with sleeping drugs, and why he didn't wake up when she kidnapped him." I didn't know who I was talking to, mostly myself, I think. I turned to Miriam, and turned on my offensive side. "What do you mean Fang was hit on the head with a rock? And how do you know Silica was listening to your and Fang's conversation? And why do you think she put something in his drink just because he rejected you?"

Miriam swallowed, then cleared her throat. "Well, the only way I could get him to the party was if I dragged him in the sand. One second I wasn't paying attention, and a rock made impact with his head. That's what woke him up in the first place. He was half dead at the party because I panicked, picked up the rock he ran into, and hit him on the back of the head with it. I know Silica was listening because in the letter she sent me with his room key and the money, she told me she would be watching. And she said if I failed trying to talk him into going again, I had to take drastic measures. Does that answer all of your questions?"

I tapped my chin, "I think so… For now."

There was an awkward silence. I really hated these. Long silences made me uncomfortable. Lucky for me, Gasser broke the silence.

"So… Fang actually was drugged?" He asked.

"I guess so." Total said. Total? Where has he been this entire time? I haven't seen him since… when?

"Total? Where'd you come from? And where have you been?" I asked. I looked at Fang, he seemed to be confused as well. If Total went missing, Angel would have said something.

"Not here. There's been too much tension. I've been escaping down to the living room the past few days. Hanging out with the students, telling them about Akila." He sighed. He really missed Akila. We had to leave her back with my mom and Ella. Maybe after all of this was over, we could convince Ms. Hamilton to let her come and stay here. "But don't worry," he continued, "Angel knew about it. I didn't want you guys worrying about a dog in your situation."

I shook my head, pinching the bridge of my nose to prevent a headache.

I left the room, went back to mine so I could take a shower, then went downstairs for breakfast, fully dressed and ready. I had a mini box of Fruit Loops, and orange juice. I chewed slowly, thinking about anything but the past few days' events. I sat alone, at one of the breakfast tables. While I ate, I listened in to all the random conversations around me. It wasn't eaves dropping, I was just trying to distract myself.

Apparently, they were building some new stuff next to the school because parents felt their kids weren't getting enough freedom and fun after school and on weekends. Why didn't anyone think of that before building a school in the middle of the flipping desert, where there is no civilization whatsoever? Most of the kids around me were gushing about it, and I was kind of sort of almost possibly scarcely microscopically interested in it.

So, to entertain the students more, they (whoever "they" are) were building an arcade (complete with the all-time favorite air hockey machine which I was unbeatable at), a small bookstore (like Barnes N Noble only you don't have to pay for the books with money. You buy the books with "credits" you get by doing stuff in school like homework, good test grades, blah, blah, blah), and a mini theater where the teachers play a different movie every night for the students.

I thought about it. The Gasman and Iggy, and to a rare extent Dylan and possibly Fang, would enjoy the arcade, Nudge could get fashion magazines and stuff with Angel from the bookstore, and basically the entire flock would like the mini theater. Maybe we could get use to living here for a while. Even though I desperately wanted to, I couldn't tell the flock to pack up and go back to Colorado after one week. Silica or not. Near death experience or not. I made a promise to Jeb, to my mom, and to my flock that we would give this school a chance. Barely one week was not a chance. I decided to wait a month, see what happens, then think it through again. Worst comes to worst, we leave because the flock thought they could handle learning and schoolwork, but they actually couldn't.

I finished my cereal, threw out the paper bowl and plastic spoon, and almost ran into three students whom I didn't know and couldn't care less to know. They all had their arms crossed, and looked at me as if I were about to get beat up.

"Um, excuse me." I said. "I have to get to my room. My sisters are probably awake by now."

"Oh I doubt that." The shorter one said. She was standing on the right side of the three. She had short dark red hair that barely brushed her shoulders. Her eyes were a brilliant hazel, but at the moment sent shards of anger at me. Her face was heart shaped, and her figure was slim, but muscular, and she was about 5'3". I could easily make mincemeat out of her. "You and your freak siblings are known around here for three things," she continued, "one: sleeping in until three p.m. whenever you got the chance." So not true! We never slept later than twelve, one o'clock at the latest. "Two: eating like pigs with black holes for stomachs." Well, that one was a little exaggerated, but it made a pretty good simile. "And three: ruining every fun event at this school since you got here!"

…What…?

"Yeah, you and your bird gang ruined the entire party last night." The one in the middle said. She was relatively taller, but not as tall as me, with a tiny pixie-like figure. She had straight jet-black hair that fell just past her hips, dark grey eyes with blue rims, and wearing too much purple eye shadow. Her friend on the left agreed. She was about an inch taller than the red-head. She was obviously an athlete, I could tell by her strong looking arm and calf muscles, with natural light brunette hair pulled into a high, messy ponytail.

"Who are you? What the hell do you want from me?" I asked, crossing my arms, and looking superiorly down at them.

The red-head answered. "I'm Audrey, next to me is Tasha, and next to her is Robin. And we want you guys to stop butting in to everything and to just try to blend in. We were all fine before you guys showed up, now everything's screwed up."

I glared down at her, looking scarier than ever. "For your information, Audrey, none of my flock, well besides Fang, had ever been known for blending in. It's just not possible for us. And to tell you the truth, we weren't butting in to anything. Last night we were trying to save our friend's life."

"Well you didn't really do a good job," Robin said. "It looked to us like your friend almost had his butt handed to him. Or, should I say, his head, in his case?" She smiled, as if she just said a funny joke or smartly dissed a nerd or something.

I stepped toward her, and put my face just inches from hers, so there was no way she could not see the scowl on my face. "You listen here, Robin," I said, very scarily and softly, "You, nor any of your little friends ever talk about my flock that way. You understand? Because if I hear you making smart little jokes about my family being tortured to death, your going to get your butt handed to you. Or should I say, your head?" I stepped away from her, not taking my glare away from her plate-sized eyes. "Don't mess with bird kids." I said, a little bit more loudly this time, "I mean it. You'll live to regret it."

Despite my latest death threat, I was proud of myself. I stood up to three know-it-all self-centered brats for Fang. For my entire flock, actually. The trio grunted, then stormed off. I walked back to my room, a small grin creeping onto my face.

One month later.

RRIIIIINNGG!

That was the bell, telling the school that it was finally the last period of the day. It was Friday again. So my flock and I had gym this period.

I said bye to my new friends, Charlotte and Marcus, who sat on either side of me in class. I met them a couple weeks ago at recess. We all realized we had a lot in common. Charlotte and I both have the same taste in style and music, and both take care of our family (she has two little brothers and one little sister that she takes care of), and Marcus and I both love flying (his dad is a pilot). So I started hanging out with them a little when I couldn't hang out with the rest of the flock, mostly because they're hanging out with new friends too.

I headed off to gym. Fang caught me by surprise when he wrapped his arm around my waist and kissed me on the cheek. I think I blushed a little. Things were almost back to normal. After school, I was facing Dylan in air hockey again. He could never beat me, and had never accepted it. Then I had to go to the bookstore to pick up a book Nudge ordered. Since when was she so into reading? After that, the entire flock and I were meeting at the theater with all our new friends to see Ninjas on Horses Attack 3. It was suppose to be an action movie about ninjas on horses attacking Tokyo. For the third time.

Not really my kind of movie, but the flock was really looking forward to it.

I said hi to Mr. Salome, and sat down on the bench with Fang at my side. Mr. Salome said today we were starting volleyball. I'd never really played volleyball, but I always wanted to.

It was a relatively fair game. It was Nudge, Dylan, Total and I verses Fang, Angel, Iggy and the Gasman. I have to admit, it was really fun. I spiked the ball a couple times, and we won fifteen games out of twenty. Mr. Salome said you win by getting fourteen points first. We got fourteen points in less than six minutes. It was a new state record.

I could hardly wait for all my after school events. And I remembered something as I was leaving gym. It was like… a distant memory stuffed in the back of my head. I remembered telling myself that this school was a mistake. But that I would wait it out. Wait a month. I shook it off. I wasn't leaving. Not yet. Everything was better than it had been in a very, very long time.

I walked out of the school with my hand in Fang's, looked up at the sky, and was thankful that everything worked out.

Your welcome. My voice said. And I smiled.

What did you think? Good or bad for my first fanfic? I know it was really long, but you got to do what you got to do. ; ) So… please review! Thanks for reading!

And I am working on my new fanfic "The Girl in the Wheelchair". The story's much better than the title. : D