OHMYGODOHMYGOD second last chapter!!! *Whimpers*

Emerald: Calm down, Evie.

Me: I AM BLOODY CALM!!!

Emerald: Yeah, I can tell by the way your face is going purple.

Me: BE QUIET! YOU'RE DUMB AS A BRICK! DUMBER!

Emerald: She's in a bad mood because I'm leaving soon (and because of those wonderful teenage mood swings). She doesn't know how she's gonna manage without me.

Me: *Fumes quietly in a corner*

Emerald: She loves me.

Me: Good grief…

Emerald: I see your face is no longer red...

Me: Please, don't go there. Just do the disclaimer.

Emerald: Okay, okay! Sheesh. Evie does not own Max Ride. She owns my flock and the plot.

Me: Let's go!

"Emerald, what are you planning?" Max narrowed her eyes at me.

"Nothing, Max, honest. I just want to see something."

"Uh-huh. Last time Gazzy said that, the fish bowl blew up less than an hour later."

"Yeah, but I'm not Gazzy." I said, "Honestly, Max, just go on."

She sighed, realising that I wasn't leaving, then motioned for the others to take off.

"How long will you be?" She asked. The grounds were completely empty. The Erasers and Whitecoats had probably scattered when they realised who the person falling from the sky was.

"I donno. Maybe an hour, hour and a half?" I said, glancing round the deserted yard.

"Right, fine. Meet you back at the cave." Max said, before spreading her wings and joining the flock. Iggy was carrying Dreamer. I watched them leave, then turned and walked towards the main building. I passed the Director, lying in the position I had left her. I didn't know what to think, what to feel. It all depended on whether what she said was true…

I opened the school's door and it swung open silently, revealing a long corridor leading further and further into the building.

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and letting the last couple of hours wash over me, then started walking.

***

What was I looking for? I didn't even know. A bright fluorescent yellow sign saying "Director's office, this way!"? Uh, no.

I walked through the corridors, pausing every so often to give a random door a tug, only to groan and keep walking, a determined scowl on my face. The corridor suddenly took a sharp right, and I started running down it. Even though the building seemed completely deserted, I didn't know, couldn't tell, if I was truly alone.

These thoughts distracted me so much that I walked smack bang into a very visible wooden door, and fell backwards onto my butt. How smart am I?

Cursing the stupid door, I stood up and my eyes came level with a gold plague attached to it. Director's office. Hello…

I pushed down on the door handle, expecting it to be locked, but it swung open. I smiled.

It looked like a school headmaster's office, apart from the fact that the wall was covered in science memos, diagrams, posters. There were even a couple of test-tubes on top of a filing cabinet. Hey! A filing cabinet! That could work…

I opened the bottom drawer, and saw a file labelled "Hybrids." That looked promising. I opened it and gasped.

There, right there, was Poppy's name, her full name, Poppy Garland, her date of birth, her parents full names, even names of siblings, and a state name. I swallowed hard and put the pages in my bag.

After Poppy I found Harry, Chase and Dreamer, Jake, and then…me.

I didn't have time to look through them all, so I shoved them in my backpack, which was hard enough as I was quivering so much, then left the school. I would have liked to have brunt it down for good measure, but like I said, I didn't have time.

***

"And you have been where?" Were, predictably, Chase's first words when I flew into the cave almost two hours after the others left.

"Got a bit lost in the school." I said, folding my wings and flopping down beside Jake, "But that's not important. Look what I found!" I took out Chase's pages and handed them to him. He looked at them, biting his lip, then his eyes went wide and he sat down beside Iggy.

"Will someone please tell me what is going on?" Gazzy said, looking from Chase to me to Chase again.

"Oh, my God. My parents. Dreamer, our parents." Chase stammered.

"WHAT! Let me see!" Dreamer yelled, almost flattening Nudge as she ran towards Chase. There was almost instant uproar.

"OH MY GOD, EMERALD, WHERE DID YOU GET THEM?!" Jake yelled.

"DO I HAVE ANY?!" Harry yelled.

"WHAT ABOUT THE FLOCK?!" Poppy yelled, pointing towards Max and the others.

"I found them at the school. That's what was keeping me. We all have some, but I couldn't find any on Max's flock." I turned to the six of them, "I'm sorry."

"Nah, it's okay." Iggy said, shrugging, "You can't help that our files are more secure. We're just superior like that." Angel elbowed him.

"Okay," I said, passing pages out, "When someone sees anything interesting, scream."

"AHHH!" Harry yelled immediately.

"What!" I yelled.

"Just practising." he said, grinning. I rolled my eyes.

***

"Has anyone else noticed there are no actual addresses?" Chase said, ten minutes later. We had all found ourselves on the sheets, including info on our parents and siblings. Wanna hear something interesting? Poppy has two nine year old twin sisters named Abigail and Jade and Harry's mum is asthmatic.

"Hmmm…" I said, "Guess we need to work out some stuff ourselves. At least we know what state they live in." 'Cos what would be the fun of getting the actual addresses straight away?

"But we can't leave yet." Jake said, glancing at Max.

"Maybe we can." I said, standing up and walking to stand beside Max. "Uhhh, Max?"

She put a finger to her lips and frowned. I raised my eyebrows. Huh. Well, if that's how you want it… I turned around and started walking away.

"Hey, Emerald!"

I turned back. Max was smiling at me.

"You guys can leave if you want."

"Serious?!" Dreamer shouted, her eyes lighting up.

"Yep." She said, standing beside me. She held out her hand.

"Well, bye." She said.

"Yeah, bye." I said, then without even planning it, hugged her tightly. She gave a small start but then hugged me back briefly. I let go and hugged Angel and Nudge, and then smiled at Gazzy and Fang. I knew what they would do if I tried to hug them. Then I turned to Iggy. Beside me, Nudge and Chase were exchanging a thoroughly non-verbal goodbye.

"Bye, Ig." I said shyly, feeling myself turn into boiled lobster girl on the spot.

"See ya, Emerald." He said, then pulled me into him. We kissed, trying to ignore the way Gazzy and Harry were wolf-whistling, very distracting.

"Maybe I'll see ya sometime." He said when we broke apart.

"Yeah." I said, then turned around to join the rest of my flock. We waved at the Flock once more, before turning and leaping off the cliff, all of us bracing ourselves to face whatever was coming next.

Thank you, Max, I thought, Thank you so much, for everything.

Okay, to be honest, I don't think this was my best chapter. But Ho Hum.

Emerald: Huh?

Me: Never mind. Epilogue is coming soon :(

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