Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or any characters associated with the story.

Chapter 12: Don't Talk to Random Strangers (Especially Those Whom You Meet at the Botanical Gardens)

So Fang, Iggy and I decided to move off first to the main group while the others wait for each other at the toilet. I was quite the surprised one when I saw two people arguing among themselves about… the word smexeh? Smexy? Sexy?

"I don't understand why you can't say sexy just like NORMAL people do!" a short girl with hair tied up in a bun said angrily to an even shorter girl. She looked kind of like a… mouse. Hey, don't get me wrong. But she really does.

"It's smexeh! S-M-E-X-E-H!" Mousy said.

"Ugh! For the umpteenth time! It's SEXY! S-E-X-Y!"

"But smexeh sounds nicer! It sounds cooler too!"

"Oh, why do I even care?!" Bun-hair said.

"How would I know?" Mousy replied.

"How did we even get on this topic in the first place?!" Bun-hair exclaimed.

"You saw that hot guy!"

"What hot guy? It wasn't me! It was YOU!"

"Alright fine, both of us!" Mousy scowled.

"Is that him? Oh, my god!" Mousy squealed and Bun-hair looked at her weirdly.

Then I realized I had been staring at them for quite some time and Fang and Iggy were looking at me. The way those girls were eyeing Fang made me feel like doing something-worse-than-what-I-have-ever-thought-of-doing-to-Iggy to them.

"Thank goodness you're not like that," Fang muttered as he shifted his weight from one foot to another uneasily.

"Yeah, she'd be, like, probably drooling over both of us every minute of the day because we're so hot. And smexeh." Iggy grinned. I whacked him on the head.

"Look! Even he uses the word smexeh!" Mousy suddenly exclaimed and came over excitedly, pinpointing Iggy.

What can I say? He brought it on himself.

"Hi! I'm Zelda! What's your name?" she thrust her hand at Iggy and he obligingly shook it.

"I'm Iggy," he said in his manliest voice. I could tell. But you see, his manliest voice isn't really that manly.

Poor thing.

"Let's make some crap happen!" Zelda exclaimed happily. I don't know if this was good or bad, but Bun-hair was staring at Iggy.

"And how can crap happen?" I eyed her warily.

"I don't know! Hey! Did you watch Dot and ADD on youtube? It's like totally funny. There's this line which goes like, OH NO, I ATE TOO MUCH BACON AND I TURNED INTO A PIGGG!"

Fang raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, anyway, this is Natalie. Who are you guys?" she said to Fang and I after introducing her friend. "Are you like, going out or something?"

I leaped away from Fang.

"Going out? Uh, no. Nope. Nuh-uh. Nah." Can pigs fly? No.

"Oh. OMG! NAT! THAT MEANS HE'S SINGLE!" she squealed. My eyes hardened and I clenched my fist. Bun-hair, or Natalie, just nodded absently, still staring at Iggy.

"He's smexeh," she muttered absently. Then, she seemed to collect herself and realized what she said. "Okay, I didn't say anything, alright!"

Zelda was having a conversation with Fang. He just nodded absently at every pause. Which was kind of little. Geez, this kid could hit it off with Nudge.

I felt a pang of homesickness right then.

What would Ella be doing? She'd probably be out shopping with Angel and Nudge again. Mum would be at work on some sick animal. And Total would be… sniffing some other dog's butt on the television, I guess.

You can never doubt the madness of dogs.

"So! Do you like, wanna go out sometime or something?" Zelda asked Fang. While I had zoned out, I realized that Natalie and Iggy were exchanging information about each other and Zelda and Fang had been continuing their conversation. I felt a pang of jealousy.

Nah, it must be the homesickness.

I wondered what it would be like if I was really going out with Fang. But then my mind flashed back to the previous days. That would never happen, I guess. Even if I loved him. Things would be awkward anyway.

"Sure," Iggy said enthusiastically.

"No," I said.

"Anything," Fang said.

"Come on, don't be a spoilsport," Iggy coaxed.

"Yeah, don't," Zelda said and a dark look crossed her face.

Huh.

"Oh look, Brandon's calling us. Bye," Fang said and dragged Iggy and I off.

Somewhere, deep down inside me, I knew that this wouldn't be the last we hear from those two. Especially Mousy. Call it womanly instincts.

"Where were you guys? Why did you take so long?" Alvin asked, obviously annoyed.

"Met some people," I replied curtly and led the way back to the group.

"And…?"

"Nothing interesting happened."

"Well, Iggy seems to have a different view on that," Angeline said and looked at Iggy, who was describing Natalie's 'wonderfully harmonious voice'.

I almost threw up there and then.

"Jealous?" Fang muttered in my ear as we followed Mr. Danny into some garden. In this huge garden. Heck, it's the Botanical Gardens, people!

"Of what? Your fashion sense? Nah," I said. We were trailing at the back of the group.

"You know what I mean."

"Nope," I said.

"Okay," he said and reached into his pocket to grab his phone. Then he started texting someone. I peeped.

'Yo Zel, wanna meet up?'

"What are you doing texting her?!" I exclaimed.

"She's nice. Unlike you," he said.

I glared at him and stormed off. I could practically feel the steam coming out of my ears and nostrils.

Stupid Fang.

Stupid, cocky best friend.

Then I heard a scream. I whipped my head around and saw something that I didn't really want to see.

The witches were back.

"Grab him! Now!" Florida ordered.

I felt as if someone had whacked my heart with a hammer when Zachary grabbed Fang and tied him up.

Remember those abnormally strong witches? Even Ari didn't stand a chance.

The class was at the next garden, and in the only people nearby were Fang, who was tied up at the moment (no pun intended), the witches, Zelda, Natalie and me.

I never trusted them anyway.

The witches were on broomsticks. Zelda was sharing one with Zachary and Natalie one with Short. Fang was on the back of Florida's broom.

Florida sat on her broomstick.

Should I call for help? No use getting other people hurt. So that left me against the seven of them.

"Fly, broom, fly!" Florida ordered her broom.

"Fly broom fly!" the witches shouted together.

Nothing happened.

I wondered how they got here in the first place.

"You stupid broom! Fly, for Toads' sake! Fly!!" Zachary screeched at her broom.

"I told you we should have tested the brooms on the way here! And then you had to go, Noooo, what is they see us?" Wi threw up her arms in frustration.

How I can remember their names, you ask? I have a good memory. And then I realized that three of the five witches were holding choppers. Dang those witches.

"What is going on here?" Mr. Danny's voice boomed. I jerked in surprise.

"Mr. Danny! Stay back! They have choppers!"

"As in the helicopters? What's wrong?" he asked, confused.

"No, I mean CHOPPERS!" I screamed as Wi launched an attack at me after throwing her broom to the side.

I dodged it and slapped her.

"Ow!" she screamed. "You're spoiling my beautiful complexion!"

Hey, new trick.

"Slap them!" I ordered Mr. Danny and we lunged forward.

The witches were fighting a losing battle. It was time they realized it.

"This won't be the last you hear from us!" Florida screamed and ran off. Her coven followed her. Natalie and Zelda trailed at the back.

I locked eyes with Zelda. She was looking at Fang longingly.

I shot her the bird and gave her a look that said, bring it on, sista.