Hey guys!!! Alright so I know it's been FOREVER since I've updated, but I've just been so incredibly busy, you have no idea. But here it is, chapter 3, at long last. JSYK, it was 8 pages long on word, compared to the last two which were only 2 pages. That's alot for me :)
BTW, i got the whole tying the wings up idea from another fic I read, but I can't for the life of me remember which one it was or who wrote it, so if you're the one who came up with it, just PM me and I'll give you all the credit :) sry if ur mad at me for stealing your idea, it was just to great not to!

Fang POV

Looking back on yesterday, I kinda have to laugh at myself. Why did I get jealous? Beats the hell outa me. But just think about it from my perspective for a second. I walk into this dimly lit, smelly, loud store that I already don't wanna be in, thinking about her as usual, I turn the corner, and there she is. Holding hands with this pansy looking prep guy standing way to close to her with a goofy smile on her face. Not a pretty picture, in my eyes, really.

"What was that all about?! You nearly killed the guy with your 'Glare of Death.'" she shouted at me after the scenario with Conner was over.

Conner. What a stupid name.

"I don't like the way he was looking at you." I replied truthfully. He kept staring at her with this stupid grin on his face. It was just annoying. She seemed taken aback.

"You don't... wait what?" Okay, so she was definitely taken aback.

"You heard me." I said quietly.

I saw a flurry of emotions cross her face before she finally just looked annoyed.

"Well, I hope you're happy. He'll probably be scared to talk to me at school now because of you." she said.

I just laughed, in my head of course. That was the point, Max, I thought.

Max POV

You know, sometimes I get the feeling that the whole world is conspiring against me. I, myself, am the biggest example to this statement. I mean, I'm a genetically engineered freak with wings. If that's not some kind of conspiracy, then I don't know what is.

And so now, because the world just decided one day "Hey! I've got an idea! Let's make Max Ride's life a living hell!" I got to wake up at six in the freaking morning today for my first day at Bellwood High. I swear, if I ever find the guy who decreed that school should start at 8 AM, he will be receiving a severe can of whoop-ass, compliments of me. After living with my mom for almost a year now, I had definitely become accustomed to sleeping in.

Anyway, after almost succeeding in destroying my alarm clock, (It startled me, okay? I'm not used to those obnoxious things.) I groggily arose from my bed and headed to the kitchen for some breakfast. Of course Mom was already up and at 'em, cooking what smelled like bacon, eggs, and pancakes. Yum.

"Good morning, sweetheart." she said cheerily, trying to make light of the fact that she was sending me to the last place I wanted to be that morning.

"Uhhnn." I replied, not in the mood to form coherent sentences.

"Morning, Max!" Nudge said as she bounded into the room. "Mmm, I smell bacon!"

"Help yourself, guys. And try to hurry up. You don't want to be late for your first day of school."

"Oh, I know, I can't wait! Max, I need your help picking out an outfit! I've narrowed it down to two choices."

"K, whatever." I said, as Ella and Angel walked in.

"Oooh, are those pancakes with strawberries?" Angel asked.

"You bet, sweetie." Mom replied. "Alright, so everything is ready to eat. You all dig in while I get ready for work." she said as she walked out of the room.

-Max, are you okay? You don't look very happy. I heard inside my head.

Angel. She has many, erm, special talents.

-Yeah, I'm fine, honey. Just not so thrilled to be going back to school, is all.

-Oh, I see. Well you're not the only one. Fang's not excited about going back either.

-Why not?

-I don't know, something about you and this kid named Conner.

Right as she said this, he walked into the room. In his boxers. Just his boxers. Lets just say a few things crossed my mind at that moment, and we'll leave it at that.

-Ew, Max, stop thinking those things about Fang!

-Well, if you'd get outa my head, you wouldn't have to hear them!

That's the downside of having a seven year old mind reader in the house. She hears everything. But at least she keeps her mouth shut. And she's handy to have around with Fang, the silent one.

"What's for breakfast?" he said.

"Stuff." I replied.

"Well, thanks for elaborating."

"Anytime. And would it kill you to put a shirt on?"

He smirked. "It didn't seem to bother you a few seconds ago." he said quietly.

I could feel my face getting hot. I turned to glare at Angel, who was sitting ever so innocently at the table, eating her strawberry pancakes, obviously trying to avoid eye contact with me. I take back what I said about keeping her mouth shut.

"Yay, breakfast!" Gazzy shouted as he walked in, followed by Iggy.

"Hurry up and eat, guys. We leave in an hour." I said, trying to distract myself.

As soon as I sat down, I directed a thought to Angel.

-We'll talk about this later. She just smiled and kept eating. Its hard to stay mad at that kid, I swear.

I ate quickly, and hurried out of the kitchen before anyone else was done, and headed for my room to get dressed.

I opened my top drawer and pulled out a spool of string to tie my wings up. It was a trick we figured out a long time ago so that we wouldn't have to wear super baggy shirts in public anymore. If done right, it looks as though we're wingless.

After I was done tying, I went to my closet and retrieved the clothes that Nudge bought me at Abercrombie & Fitch. I promised her I'd wear them, unfortunately. At least they weren't so bad. Just a pair of jeans and a cute dark blue t-shirt. Nothing frilly or too girly looking. Although, the jeans were a little low cut, and the shirt was tighter than what I'd usually wear. I definitely looked more feminine than usual.

I decided to wear my hair down, with the thin blue headband Angel bought me a few weeks ago.

"It brings out your eyes!" she had said. I headed to the bathroom.

I was in the midst of brushing my teeth, when someone knocked on the door.

"I'm in here." I said, but it came out sounding kinda like "Om ih err" seeing as I had a mouth full of toothbrush.

"I know! It's me!" Nudge said. I opened the door to find her standing there with a little pink bag. One look at her face, and I knew what she was up to.

"No, Nudge. Absolutely not."

"Oh please please please, Max! PLEEEEESE let me do your makeup! I've gotten really good! I have the perfect eyeshadow that would totally bring out your pretty brown eyes and-"

"No! I don't wear makeup! You know that." I replied.

"But it's the first day of school! Don't you wanna look extra gorgeous?"

"Not really."

"Come on!"

"No."

"Please?"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"FINE!"

I didn't feel like standing there arguing with her all morning, so I caved. It took all of five minutes, but it was some of the most excruciating five minutes of my life.

"Alright, you can look now!" she said after she was done.

Let me tell you, I don't scare easily. But just then, I was scared to death. I guess Nudge figured that out when I didn't turn around to look at myself in the mirror.

"I didn't do that much! Just some silvery blue eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara. You already have amazing skin, so you didn't need foundation." She said, although I honestly had no idea what she was talking about.

"You look amazing!" she said, and spun me around. I just stared at myself for about ten seconds.

"I look... weird." I finally said.

"No, just different. And very pretty." she retorted.

Well, to me I looked weird. My eyes looked brighter and wider and shimmery and I just looked plain girly. I sighed.

"I guess I don't look that bad." I said. Mostly to make her feel better, but it was kinda true. I looked okay.

All good feelings of how I looked drained from me, however, when I walked into the living room where everyone was sitting and waiting.

"Whoa! What happened to you!" Gazzy exclaimed.

"Oh, Max, you look so pretty!" Angel exclaimed.

"What? What did she do?" Iggy exclaimed.

"I got her to let me do her makeup!" Nudge exclaimed.

Hell, I half expected Fang to exclaim something too, but he didn't of course. He just looked at me. For a long time. I was starting to feel really self-conscious when he finally said something.

"You look... nice." he said.

"Thanks." I said, lowering my eyes to my feet. Shoes, I thought. I need shoes.

Grateful for an excuse to get out of there, I went back to my room to get my black converse that Ella had decorated for me. They were covered in light blue swirly clouds all over with beautiful silver wings drawn on the tips. Ella is quite the artist. They're my favorite pair of shoes.

Just as I had finished putting them on, Mom yelled "Time to go!"

Oh joy, I thought.

I took my time getting to the front door, grabbed my backpack off the floor, and stepped outside. It was a gorgeous day. What, no rain? I thought to myself. It definitely would have matched my gloomy mood.

-Come, Max, cheer up!

-Angel, please stay out of my head.

-Sorry...

"Everyone in the car!" Mom shouted. We all piled in the mini-van she had invested in after realizing there were seven kids living in her house. There was just enough room, if we squeezed Ella, Angel, Nudge and Gazzy together in the back. Fang and Iggy took the middle seats. I sat in the front with Mom.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road." Mom said, smiling as usual. She always seemed to have a smile on here face, no matter what was going on. That's just one of the things I love about her. When you're with her, everything just feels better.

Better, but not necessarily good. Because we were still going to school. Which undeniably sucks. A lot.

The trip was mostly silent, save for the occasional bickering coming from the very back, usually between Nudge and Gazzy. Since the high school was closest to the house, Mom dropped off Iggy, Fang, and me first. When we pulled up to the school, I was kind of shocked. It was so... small. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't this. It just looked like a huge, brick house. There couldn't be more than 300 students there, tops. The only school like qualities it had was a sizable parking lot, a bus drop-off area, and a sign in the front that said Bellwood High School: Home Of The Knights.

Mom turned to me before I got out of the car.

"I know you don't want to be here," she said, "but just try to make the best of it, okay? Who knows? This time around, school might be fun for you."

"Thanks Mom, but I really doubt it." I said. She gave me a sympathetic look.

"Well, just be good and try to stay out of trouble. It'll be over in a few hours."

"Bye, Mom" I said, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Goodbye, sweetheart." she said to me. "Bye Fang! Bye Iggy!" she called out to the boys who were already out of the car.

I grabbed my backpack and stepped out of the car. Here we go, I thought. I gave a rueful look back at our car, that was now driving away.

"We need to go to the office and get our schedules." Iggy said.

"And that would be... where?" I asked.

"Somewhere in the school, I assume."

"Thanks for the helpful input, Ig."

"No problem." he said with a smile.

"Come on, guys." Fang said, serious as usual.

We were walking up to the school, when I heard a voice call my name. I turned to see who in the world it was, and low and behold, there was Conner walking up to us.

"Hey, Max. How goes it?"

"Uhm, you know." I said stupidly.

"Oh, well, uh, have you gotten your schedule yet?" he asked.

"No, but we were just headed to the office to get them. You remember Nick, right?" I said motioning at Fang, who was once again glaring. Conner nodded.

"Sup, man." he said. Fang just did one of those acknowledging head nod things.

"And this is uh..." Damn, what was Iggy's name again?

"Jeff." Iggy said, saving me.

"Are they your brothers?" he asked me while eying Fang. He'd obviously caught on to the fact that "Nick" didn't like it when he talked to me.

"No." Fang said before I could say anything.

"Oh... well uhm, I could show you guys where the office is, if you don't know. I know it's your first day here." he said.

"Sure, that be great." I said smiling.

When we entered the school, I could feel everyone's eyes on us. I guess in a small school, its a big deal when there are new people. Several guys smiled at me, most of which I ignored. I did note that several girls smiled at Fang as well, which I'll grudgingly admit, made me kinda jealous.

"Here it is." Conner said, and pointed to the door. "I've gotta get to homeroom. I'll probably see you in a class. It's a pretty small school." he said.

"Okay, bye Conner." I said.

"See ya, Max." he said with an adorable smile. "Bye Jeff... Nick." he said before walking away.

We stepped into the office, if you could call it that. It was so tiny, it felt crowded when just the three of us walked in.

"Hello! You must be the new students! We've been expecting you." an old lady in a bright pink shirt behind the desk said to us. Great. We were expected.

"Max, Jeff, and uhh... Nick isn't it?" she said while sifting through some papers.

"Yes. That's us." I said, walking up to the desk.

"Well here are your schedules." she said handing each of us a slip of paper. "And you'll be receiving your books in class. My name is Mrs. Shirley, and if you have any questions during the day, please don't hesitate to ask." she said cheerily.

"Uhm, thanks." I said, before turning to walk out.

"What's my schedule say?" Iggy asked as soon as we were out of the office.

"Well..." I perused his schedule for a moment. "It looks like you're in all my classes. Probably on purpose. I guess Mom told them you're blind."

"Oh joy, all my classes with you." he said sarcastically, and I punched him in the arm.

"What about you, Fang?" I asked and he handed me his schedule.

"We have... three classes together. And lunch. Oh, and it looks like we all have the same homeroom too." I said.

"Hmm." was his reply to that. Because, you know, it would just kill him to actually talk more.

Of course, everyone was still staring at us as we made our way to homeroom. I even turned around once to check one of my wings was, like, showing or something, but they weren't.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." Fang bent down to say in my ear. I chuckled.

"I guess we're just that interesting." I said.

"What, is everyone staring at us or something?" Iggy said loudly, and everyone looked away.

"Nice." said Fang.

"Glad to help." Ig said smiling.

I guess we made it to homeroom just in time, because as soon as we walked in, the bell rang. Everyone scrambled for a seat, so the only one's left were dispersed throughout the room. Fang took the seat in the back left corner and Iggy took the one up front. So that left me with the one in the very middle. I sat down and hoped everyone would keep their mouths shut. I wasn't in the mood for making new friends. But since when have my hopes ever been fulfilled?

"Hi. You must be the new girl Max." said a warm, friendly voice. I turned to my left where the voice came from. An extremely pretty girl with dark brown hair and light blue eyes was staring right at me. She had the most perfect bone structure and amazing skin. I felt like I was staring at the cover of a magazine. She was the kind of girl you look at and automatically feel inadequate. Yeah, that gorgeous.

"Uh, hey. Yeah, that's me." I said.

"Welcome to Bellwood." She said with a beautiful smile. "My name's Serena."

I just smiled back, and turned away. She wasn't done with me though.

"So what classes do you have?" she asked. I reached for my backpack and grabbed my schedule.

"Math, Spanish, Lit, Chemistry, Art, Lunch, and World History." I said quickly.

"Who's your Chemistry teacher?" she asked.

"Uhm... Hendricks." I replied.

"Cool, we have Chem together." she said smiling.

"Yeah, cool." I said, with a little less enthusiasm.

"So, uhm... who's your friend over there?" she asked, discreetly pointing at Fang.

Great, I thought. He hasn't been here for twenty minutes and girls were already asking about him.

"That's Nick." I said looking ahead.

"And is he your brother, cousin... boyfriend?" she asked.

"No. He's just a friend." I said, trying to keep my cool around this chick. She was starting to piss me off.

"So he's available?" she said eagerly. Okay, now she was really pissing me off.

"No!" I sad a little too loudly. Fang looked over at me with a questioning look. Then he looked at Serena. Apparently she was looking at him too, so she smiled at him. And he smiled back.

If I ever wanted to punch somebody really hard in my life, it was right then. In fact, there were a few more unpleasant things I would have like to do to have done to Serena, but we'll just stop at punching, okay? Besides, all he did was smile at her. That doesn't mean anything, right? He was probably just trying to be polite.

And that's what I told myself all throughout homeroom, not even listening to the teacher as he called role.

"Max... Max? Is Max Ride here?" the teacher said. Serena nudged be a bit. I turned to glare at her, when the teacher called my name again.

"Oh, sorry. Uhm, I'm here." I said, embarrassed. I could see Fang smirking out of the corner of my eye. It's going to be a very long day, I thought.

Fang POV

First and second period pretty much flew by. It's not like I was paying any attention anyway. I wasn't holding out much hope for third period on the interesting meter, either. I walked in and sat down in the back. I wasn't paying any attention to who I was sitting next to, nor did I care, until I heard a voice address me.

"It's Nick, right?"

I turned to see who it was and what she wanted. I wasn't in the mood for talking.

"Yeah." I said. It was that girl from homeroom. The one that smiled at me and that I smiled back at. Just to be polite, of course. I mean, she was pretty and all, but she had nothing on Max.

"I'm Serena. I met your friend Max in homeroom."

"Huh." I replied.

"Do you guys live together?"

"Yep."

"But you're not related."

"Nope."

"And your parents are okay with that?"

I turned to face her. "I don't have parents." I said seriously.

"Oh, uh... I'm really sorry, I... I just... sorry." she looked embarrassed, so I softened my expression.

"It's okay." I told her, and she smiled.

"No, it's not. I have a bad habit of jumping to conclusions. But I know what it's like to not have parents. Mine died when I was seven, so I live with my grandparents." she said. I felt kinda sorry for her, but then I looked back on my life and realized she had it good. At least she had parents and knew who they were. I was raised in a cage, until Jeb came along. Even he was kinda psycho, though. But I guess it was kinda sweet how she was trying to relate to me. Even though she really couldn't. I turned to say something to her, but she had the weirdest look on her face. Like a mix of surprise, confusion, and kinda offended. She quickly wiped the complicated look off her face when I turned to her, though.

"So how are you liking Bellwood so far?" she asked.

"It's alright." I told her.

"You know, you're kinda quiet." she said.

"I've been told." I replied with a smirk.

"So you and Max... are you guys like, together? I mean she said you weren't, but she got all defensive when I asked if you were available."

"Uh, no. We're not together." I said looking ahead. Unfortunately, I thought.

She sighed. "But you want to be."

"Says who?" Can she like, read my mind or something?

"Uhm... I just guessed." she said quickly. "Besides, it's not like she keeps it a secret." she said passively.

"Keeps what a secret?" I asked, confused.

"That she likes you. I mean, come on. I'm not stupid. She gets all tense when I ask about you and practically screams at me that you're not available. If that's not obvious, then I don't know what is."

I just stared at her.

"And you gathered this from a two minute conversation." I said finally.

"What can I say." she said looking right at me. "I'm just good at reading people."

"Right." I said. This girl was kinda freaky. But who am I to talk about being a freak. I'm a 15 year old kid with wings. That's pretty much as freaky as it gets.

I could feel Serena's eyes on me, and I turned to ask what she wanted. She had that look on her face again. You know, the complicated one?

"Are you okay?" I asked her. She just kept looking at me.

"Uhm, yeah. Sorry... I was just spacing out, I guess..." she finally said.

"So, uh... what class do you have next?" she asked.

"Chemistry with Hendricks." I replied after checking my schedule.

"Really? Same here. So does Max." she said

"Yeah, I know." Max and I had Chem, Art, and World History together.

I decided at this time to actually tune in to what the teacher was saying. She was going through the lesson plan for the year. Apparently this was math class. Algebra 2. Once again I could see Serena staring at me out of the corner of my eye. She wasn't looking at my face, but at my... back? Were my wings showing or something? I turned around to check, but nothing looked out of the ordinary.

"Is something wrong?" I asked her.

"No..." she said, still staring at my back. Then she looked at my face, questioningly, like she was trying to figure something out.

"What?" I asked, a little weirded out. Then she snapped out of it.

"So who do you live with?" she asked.

"Max's parents." I replied.

"Do you have any siblings?"

"Not in the real sense of the word." I said, thinking about Max, Iggy, Gazzy, Angel, Nudge, and Ella.

"So is it like a... foster home?"

"No, not really."

"How many kids live with you?"

"Six."

"And do they all have-" she stopped herself, looking embarrassed. God, this chick was weird.

"Uhm, never mind." she said
"Are you done interrogating me?" I asked with a smirk.

"No." she said smiling. "So you live in a house with six other kids. Wow. What's it like?"

"Crowded." I said. She chuckled.

"So you, Max, and Iggy are the same age? How old are the others?" she asked.

"Well, Angel is seven, Tiffany is-" Wait, whoa. I stopped, realizing something. How did she know his name was Iggy? At school, his name was Jeff. Alright, now this girl was really starting to freak me out. But just then, the bell rang, and she rushed out of the classroom.

"Wait! How did you know-"

"See ya next period!" she quickly cut me off as she was racing out of the door, leaving me speechless and confused. Which doesn't happen that often. This girl had some serious explaining to do.

Max POV

School officially sucks. I thought it did before, but no. This is ridiculous. If it wasn't for Iggy, I'd probably jump out of a window.

And before you go thinking I'm suicidal or anything, I have wings, remember?

So I walk into fourth period with Ig and find Fang sitting at a long black table... with Serena. Apparently in deep conversation with her too. Luckily the desks fit three people, so I plopped myself right next to Fang. Iggy sat at the table behind us.

"'Sup buddy?" I said loudly, interrupting their conversation.

"Can I help you?" he said. Ugh, the nerve of him sometimes.

"Hey, Max." Serena said, cheerily.

"Hi." I said flatly. "So what are you guys talking about?" I asked, like I was actually interested.

"Nothing." Serena said quickly. I just glared at her. Then I heard someone call my name.

"Max! Hey." said Conner, as he walked into the room and sat next to Iggy.

"Hey Conner." I said with a flirtatious smile. If Fang wants to flirt with other girls, then I should be able to flirt with other guys, right?

"So how's Bellwood treating you?" he asked.

"Better, now that you're in one of my classes." I said. Okay, so maybe I overdid it a little. But it was worth it. I could feel Fang's glare without even looking at him.

Conner just chuckled. "I see you've met my cousin, Serena." he said.

Whoa, his cousin? Small world.

"Yeah, she's in my homeroom." I said, faking a smile at her. She just stared at me with an offended look on her face. What does she have to be offended about. She's the one hanging all over my man.

Wait, did I just say that? Forget I said that. It never happened, okay? Glad you get it.

"So how do you know Conner?" she asked, still looking a little offended.

"I met him at the mall." I said, not wanting to talk to her. Like, at all.

"Oh." is all she said, as if she got the hint. Then she turned back to Iggy.

"So, uh, Jeff, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yep."

"And you're blind?" she just straight up asked. Normally people would avoid the subject, not wanting to offend him.

"Yep." he said, again.

"What's it like?" she asked.

"Well, try living life with your eyes closed for about a week, and you'll know." he said, and she laughed.

"OKAY CLASS, QUIET DOWN!" boomed a voice at he front of the room. "My name is Coach Waters, and I'm your Chemistry teacher. I'll just let you know right now, I don't tolerate talking during my class, like some other teachers. You will speak only when spoken to. Understand?"

There was a murmur of yeses throughout the classroom. Chem teacher? More like drill sergeant.

The rest of the class was immensely boring, considering the fact that we weren't allowed to talk. Occasionally I would sneak glances at Fang, whom I caught several times sneaking glances at Serena. Which made me really mad. Why am I such a jealous person? I'll never know the answer to that.

By the end of the period, I was practically asleep, so when the bell rang, it startled me. I saw Fang turn to Serena to say something, but she was already half way across the classroom.

"See you guys tomorrow!" she yelled on her way out. I turned to Fang to question him, but he was staring after her with a confused look on his face. Which is weird, because Fang usually never betrays emotion in his face. Ever.

"Bye Max." I heard Conner say, so I turned around.

"Bye." I said and smiled.

"C'mon, guys. We got art next. Which is great, you know, for me. It's not like I can't see or anything." Iggy said sarcastically. I just sighed. I had officially made it through the first half of my first day of school.

Only 179 and a half more days to go.

I'll try not to take as long with Chpt 4, I promise! And I'm sure you can already guess what's up with Serena, but you'll have to wait till the next chappie for the whole scoop :D

~Dami