Chapter 20 - Work and Discoveries

Mom still hadn't come up with a punishment for me when she had returned home from work for the night. I had made sure to be extra attentive while Ella, Fang, and I worked on the farm. I knew it wouldn't make Mom feel any better about the situation, but it made me feel better.

I didn't try to linger on the facts too much the next day through school, either. Mostly everyone knew that James was the one responsible for the stink bomb – and everyone loved him for it – but he wasn't around for students to congratulate him for a prank well done. I had no idea if he was even going to our school anymore, but I wasn't able to scoop out any info from my peers. Aside from Fang, I had no friends, and even then we weren't able to talk in gym. No one knew of my involvement, to which I really wasn't sure how I felt about it.

After school I met with Mr. Reinhard at his office. The whole time he just made me file papers and lick envelops and other assorted secretarial duties. He thought that I wasn't guilty for the stink bomb, but he wasn't backing down on his punishment either way. He didn't question me about it either. Everything he had me do was mindless, and I was almost glad for it. I knew this was going to be a lot easier than whatever Mom has in store for me.

At one point, there was a knock on the door at the reception room, even though it was wide open. The receptionist, who I learned was a real fun-loving woman named Mrs. Andrews, and I shared a significant glance as the tall man sauntered in. It was Mr. Darnell.

He looked at us with a grin that would melt the hearts of thousands of girls at the same time. "Hello, is Mr. Reinhard in?" he asked in a sultry voice. I swore Mrs. Andrews gulped.

"Yes," she said. "He's in his office."

"Thank you." He knocked on the door and Mr. Reinhard allowed him in.

When he was gone, she and I looked at each other again. "Wow, I must say he is pretty hot." She fanned herself with her hand. "He's lucky I'm happily married, though."

"Do you know who he is?" I asked her after I'd managed to fake a laugh at her joke.

"Mr. Darnell? He's on the Board of Directors. He wants to help our school get firsts of the tax cuts so we can improve." Her dark brown eyes looked serious through her bifocals. "He's going to improve the lives of the students who go here, so you should be grateful for him."

I pursed my lips. I couldn't explain why I didn't like him, but I knew something was off.

Trust your instincts, Max, the Voice interjected. Always be on guard.

Oh, great. The Voice finally decides to make an appearance… or sound? I really didn't know. Either way, I hadn't heard from it since yesterday morning; it was actually nice to have my mind to myself for a while.

Thanks a lot, I'll keep that in mind, I muttered to it as he and the principal emerged from his office, shaking hands.

"You gave me a lot to consider," Mr. Reinhard said. "But I think we'll accept with that offer."

Huh? What's that about?

After an hour of tongue-numbing, boring work, I was finally set free. Mom picked me up in front of school, looking resigned. "Max, I'm sorry for how I acted yesterday," she said once we drove off. "I came across wrong, but I was so shocked. It's not like you to be involved with making…" She paused at the look I shot her. "…I mean, helping someone plant a stink bomb. I'm sorry, but you still have to face the consequences."

I nodded; there was really no way of getting around it.

"So that's why I'm employing you for the week at the clinic," she said proudly. "We needed some volunteers to clean out cages, feed animals, sort out medicine, and other various jobs that we need done. I know you think it will be easy since you're used to taking care of farm animals, but animals that have been cooped in cages can be very restless. They don't get as much exercise as our animals."

I stared at her in disbelief. "My punishment is hanging out with more animals? Are you serious?" I smiled.

The look she shot me was smug. "Like I said, it's not as fun as you think. Besides, it might teach you another form of natural stink bombs."

Mom's vet practice was only five minutes from our home, so technically she didn't even need to commute there. If she really wanted to be eco-friendly, she could walk every day, at least while the weather was nice. The property we owned was shaped like a square - on the north side was the clinic, the south side was our home and the farm, and in between was a thick field of trees. Ella and I always used to play in there when we were little, so much that my mom had a tree house installed in the thicket's center. It was still standing, the last time I checked over the summer, and it wasn't rotting since most of the trees' leaves act as its canopy.

The clinic was a relatively small building, constructed of a light wood, with welcoming all-glass doors and posters of animals hanging from the lobby walls. The lobby was similar to any hospitals': a white, large waiting room with black seats lining the walls, a large reception desk with files in the backroom, a double hallway with one leading to the examination rooms and the other to the operating rooms and the kennel.

"You'll need to get changed," Mom said as she threw something at me. "Put these on and get to work." I held up the articles of clothing in my hand and scowled. It was aquamarine scrubs, the ones the doctors wear. I thought vets were more original than that.

I sighed and slouched into the outfit, putting it over the clothes I was already wearing, and followed her to the kennel. She explained what had to be done, but I was more terrified by how long this would take than the job itself: rows of five kennels stacked on top of each other lined opposite sides of the walls, most filled with animals in casts or IV drips. It was a miserable sight.

"You know what to do," she said after she'd explained everything. "If you need help, I'll be in my office." She strolled out of the room with her white lab coat flowing behind her. I sighed. Where to begin?

I started with the closest kennel. Inside was a spunky Chihuahua with big beady eyes. I couldn't see anything wrong with him, but I saw that his newspaper needed to be changed. I opened the cage door and stuck my hand in, but every time I tried to swipe the paper he would nibble on my fingers. If every animal was going to act this way, it was better to give up now. Then again, Mom would be really angry and come up with something worse than this. Probably scrubbing toilets or something. I shuddered.

I can't tell you how much time I spent filling food dishes, cleaning litter boxes, scrubbing empty cages with bleach, but let me tell you it was one hour too many. I was frustrated, especially when an animal was cranky and would think that my hand was a chew toy to vent their anger on, and this job seemed endless. Did Mom really expect me to do this all in one day? What am I, Superwoman?

The door opened to my left, or at least I thought it did. My face scrunched in confusion. I could have sworn I heard the door click shut. I was busy trying to disentangle myself from a very friendly kitty when I'd heard the noise. I peered again, puzzled, but I gave up with a shrug. I must be going even more insane than I already am. The cat finally got bored with me and I swiftly shut her gate. I turned around and stood up.

Then I fell on my ass and was preparing to scream at the top of my lungs. A hand covered my mouth to squelch most of the noise.

"Shh, stop screaming," a calm voice said. Then his face was smug. "If I knew I could scare you this easily I should have tried it sooner."

I shoved his hand off my mouth. "Ugh, Fang this is not funny!" He started laughing and I forced myself into a kneeling position. "Why are you here, anyway?" I growled. "Do you want to rub this in my face?"

Once he finished, he looked me dead in the eye. "I came to help you," he said levelly.

I paused; I hadn't expected that response. What was he trying to pull? "Did my mom send you here as a joke? To say that I'm not working fast enough?"

He shook his head. "Actually she told Ella and me to stay home, but I didn't think it was right. You've been gone for three and a half hours, including detention, and from the looks of it you aren't close to being done." He chuckled.

I glowered at him and stood to my feet. "So you are here to rub it in my face."

"No, I promise," he sighed. "Enough is enough, I'm here to help."

I eyed him, trying to detect any signs of lying in his features, but as always they were completely impassive. His eyes hard and unreadable. "What's the catch?" I asked. He wouldn't just be helpful all of a sudden, would he?

"There's no catch. I want to help."

This was pointless. He was offering to help and I'm being a jackass. "Okay," I sighed in defeat. "All the cages with animals make sure their newspapers or litter boxes are clean. If they need more food I have a bag here and more in the back. Water jugs are there, too. Any cage that's empty needs to be cleaned with a bleach mixture that's in that jug." I pointed to a container on the metal table in the center of the room. "You might want to put some gloves on first."

He nodded and prepared himself for the task ahead. I had no idea when he started to become such a nice guy, but I wasn't going to question him about it or else he might leave. Especially once he starts this job. We worked together, one takling the cleaning while the other dished out food and kept the animals occupied. I hadn't gotten to the other set of cages yet, but with Fang here I got to them faster than I expected.

There was one question bugging me. "When have you been practicing your invisibility?" I wondered allowed. For all I knew he hadn't become invisible since two days ago.

"In school." His reply was short and even, but I could detect his smugness. I was starting to read him better.

My eyes widened. "When? You weren't sneaking out of class, were you?" I couldn't imagine him doing that unless he got bored in class, which I imagined he did often. I'd seen the A's he got on quizzes when he'd take papers out of his backpack.

"Nah, mostly random places, like the halls or in lunch. I used it to sneak back in the lunch line for seconds today."

To his surprise, I laughed. He turned and raised an eyebrow at me. I shook my head. "I guess I should have expected something like that from you, as opposed to what James would do."

He blinked, his face frozen the way it was. "What about him?" he asked.

Oops, I realized I had just given James away. There was no way Fang would not stop bothering me until I told him. But I could tell him, right? I'm supposed to trust him.

If you feel you can trust him, than don't be afraid to confide in him, the Voice told me.

I groaned aloud. Fang's face had altered slightly, in a look that said "what are you doing?" I shook my head again. "The Voice," I said. He nodded in understanding. I sighed, wondering how he was going to take the news. "Well… we aren't the only ones with powers," I began.

"I wouldn't consider having a voice in your head a power," he joked. He's lucky that I was occupied with scrubbing or else I would have smacked him.

"All the same, we aren't alone. When James and I were programming the bomb he, uh, became blind so he could see through walls."

He was going to say something but then changed his mind. "What?" he concluded on saying. For once Fang sounded confused.

I scratched behind a Jack Russell's ears as it leaned its head into my palm once I moved to the next kennel. "It's really weird, but he couldn't see anything around him. He was only blind for a couple minutes, but when he becomes blind he can sort of see through everything around him. It's like he switches seeing things in front of him to see through them."

He thought for a moment. "But then wouldn't he still be able to see if he can look through objects? Wouldn't he know what he was looking through?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, I guess he can only see whatever is behind those objects. That was why he knew someone was coming into the gym when we were there."

"Who caught you?"

"Mr. Darnell. Have you seen him at all around school? He's tall and muscular, with brown hair and blue eyes. He's on the Board of Directors supposedly."

"Oh, him," he said after a pause.

I looked over my shoulder to see him scrubbing a cage, with a little too much force. I smiled smugly at him. "What? You feel threatened by him because he beats your hotness?" I joked. "He seems… nice, I guess. He seems a bit too perfect, if you ask me."

"I don't like the guy," he admitted. "There's something off about him." Then his tone changed and he smirked at me. "You think I'm hot?"

My cheeks must have flushed red because his smile grew when I turned away. "No, of course not." To be honest, I'd never really thought about it. Fang was… Fang, I guess. He was the annoying, strong, smart foster brother that I'd known for a short time. Ella always gushed about how 'adorable' he is, but even if I did find him attractive, there was no way he could be described as adorable. He wasn't boyish looking at all like most of the freshman guys were. He had an angular face, menacing eyes, and a gloomy wardrobe. Fang and adorable don't mix.

He shot me a look that said "Suuure, you don't." I threw a sponge at him. God, he was annoying.

We heard heels tapping down the hall coming in our direction. We looked at each other. "I think it's my mom," I told him. "Hide in the closet or become invisible or something." I panicked.

He nodded, extremely calm, and closed his eyes. For a second I thought nothing was going to happen, but then the air around him started to shimmer, like erosion. Then he was gone completely. I blinked a few times in utter shock.

Mom entered the room. She peered around with a puzzled look on her face. "Weird," she said. "I thought I heard voices."

I hear voices in my head, too, I wanted to say. Well, maybe one voice. I tried not to smile. "I was talking to the animals," I said instead. I pointed to the Husky whose cage I was at.

Mom didn't look convinced. "Well, I think we'll be wrapping it up soon," she added as she casually looked into the supply room, but I knew she was checking for hiding kids. "It's almost seven, and I called Ella to tell her to start dinner so it will be ready when we get home. And you have homework to do; I can't keep you here all day."

I smiled. "Yeah, cause you know I'm just jumping up to do that."

She rolled her eyes. "Just start cleaning up. I'll let Dr. Johnson know what got done and what didn't."

"Okay." She left the kennel and both Fang and I sighed in relief. He suddenly reappeared at my side and I had to remind my senses that he'd been there the whole time.

"You need to get home before we do," I told him as he stood up. "Can you stay invisible the whole way there?"

He seemed unsure for a bit but then nodded. "I think so. Staying invisible for a long time wears me out."

"You'll have to run home," I said as we both started washing up at the sink. "We'll be driving around our property so at most it will take ten minutes." He nodded as he mapped the area in his mind. "You probably followed the road here, but there's a shortcut through the woods that separate the farm from the vet practice. We cut a path that connects the two areas when I was little since I used to play in the trees all the time. The brush has grown out a bit since then, but it's still the best way through. Run the whole time and you can beat us."

He mentally calculated the journey and then sighed. "I think I've got it." He wiped his hands on a towel. "See you there."

I nodded and walked him to the door. "You'll have to go through the main lobby since there isn't another way out. Wait till no one is looking." We checked through the window and we both gawked. Mom was standing in the hallway ogling a guy I'd never seen before. He was about my height, thin, light blond hair and green eyes. Fang and I stared at each other in disbelief.

"Who is he?" he asked.

I felt my heart drop into my stomach. "I don't know, but I'm going to find out."

I'm so sorry I didn't update yesterday! Mojo escaped his cage and i don't know how, so I had tons of trouble writing. I'm afraid he's ran to a place where I will never see him again (aka my brother's room). *sighs* I need him! Hang posters in your areas in case he left the house! So sorry if this chapter really sucked, but it does give out a lot of important details about what is to come... hehehe ;)

Luna, I'll remember that for the future. :) "Shooting the bird" is a nicer way of saying that you flipped someone off. I've seen JP use that phrase in the MR series, so I decided to stick with it. And also something you'll learn with me is that I'm a Fax purist, as in I really don't like any other pairings. So in any of my MR fanfics you won't see Eggy, Niggy, Miggy, Figgy, or anything else. It will always be Max and Fang. I mean, I could write those other things but I'm not totally comfortable with them. Sorry to all you other pairing fans!! Kina Kalamari, as cute as that may be, Fang wasn't planning on going to the dance. He was joking, and he knows Max would never go with anyone, let alone him. I am well aware of what is the norm for Fax stories, but as I'm sure you've noticed I don't do things the way everyone else does. But there's a pretty big reason why I made part of her punishment being unable to go to Homecoming events... Why? You'll see in a couple chapters (which, btw, will be a Fang chapter!). NITESIDE IS DA BOMB, is this long enough for you or do you want it even longer?

That's enough ranting/explaining. I should shut up before I give too much away. Please Review!!!