Chapter 6: Over the Edge
Bella Pov
"What's going on?" Emmett asked as Edward pulled into the school parking lot. Basically all the kids in the school were crowded round the playing field.
We all got out the car and made our way to the front of the crowd, standing a little away from everyone else. What we saw was nothing we would expect.
The new family, the Rides, were all standing in the field, running after each other. They all stopped suddenly and walked towards each other. They met in the middle. Max said something to Nick and he nodded. A coin was flipped and the four others cheered at the result. They shook hands and turned and walked away from each other, to opposite ends of the field.
"Get your losing face ready," Max called to the boys. She turned and grinned at them. I gasped. I couldn't help it. She was beautiful. Like, Rosalie beautiful. Except she had some sort of spark to her that made her even more attractive. I glanced at the Cullens. They were all staring at Max as she laughed.
"Ready?" Tiffany-Krystal called, "Three, two, one and chase!"
They all started running, amazingly fast. I know Alice said they were athletic, but this was something else.
It seemed they were playing some sort of capture game. It was girls against boys. Angelica got her brother immediately, simply walking up to him and dragging him over to the base. He seemed confused. I remembered her sweet smile and laughed.
James was chasing Tiffany. He caught up to her, grabbed her around the waist and carried her to the goals which were the boy's base.
Max had paused and was watching her family have fun with an ecstatic look on her flawless face. The wind whipped her hair out behind her, whirling it round her head like a halo. She was in a white shirt, with a short black skirt and leggings. Her outfit showed off her athletic figure perfectly and as I looked round the crowd I saw more than one interested face watching her.
It was between Max and Nick now. The girls were screaming encouragement to Max telling her that if she just got to the trees she was safe. Nick was no where to be seen, but Max was being very careful as she made her way across the pitch. Suddenly, Nick appeared, out of thin air. The crowd made a collective gasp. No one had seen him there.
He lunged for Max, but she was already practically flying towards the trees. She was ten feet from winning when Nick tackled her.
He knocked her to the ground, falling on top of her. Jason shouted something and Max yelled back, struggling under Nick.
She got out, but Nick swung her round. She turned, her leg coming up and round, smashing into Nick's chest. Hard.
My jaw dropped as Nick simply got a hold of her foot, twisting it round. Then Max bent the leg she was standing on, and jumped. I felt like my eyes were gonna pop out their sockets as Max brought her second foot over the first, knocking Nick's arm away with her foot. She spun, fast and tight, looking like an Olympic gymnast. She landed neatly in a crouch as Nick fell back, away from her. Finally she pelted past him into the trees.
The girls exploded into screams, smashing into Max and slapping high fives. Max laughed at the boy's faces. Her smile lit up her face. It was impossible to look away.
"That's what happens when you go against Maximum Ride," Tiffany taunted.
Max walked over to where Nick was lying on the ground. She looked down at him.
"You know Fang," She said conversationally, "If you keep working then maybe one day you'll be able to beat me," Max smiled sweetly at him.
Emmett burst out laughing next to me.
The six of them looked up at us, surprised. They obviously hadn't noticed the crowd that was growing around them.
"Alice! Bella!" Tiffany squealed. Once again squealed.
She ran over and started talking at about three hundred miles an hour.
I tried to keep up with her, but failed miserably, so went over to where Emmett was introducing Max to everyone. Rosalie looked like she was ready to shoot Max as Emmett talked to her.
"You've already met Alice and Bella," Emmett was saying.
"I have?" Max looked at me. She had no idea who I was. I didn't need Edward to tell me that.
Nick smirked at her.
"You were out of it when we met them, they were house warming," James explained.
"Oh," A look of understanding crossed her face, closely followed by embarrassment. "Sorry about the introduction," she said lightly.
I grinned at her. Even smiling nervously like that she was striking.
The bell rang and Alice danced along to the office, followed by Max's family. I noticed they were just as graceful as the Cullens.
I wandered along behind them, absentmindedly. Abruptly I fell over thin air.
I went sprawling forward, into Max. She was standing at the top of the stairs, at the one bit that there was no railing, and was knocked off her feet. She went over the edge, falling toward the ground. Edward caught my shoulders to stop me from following her.
"Max!" Angelica screamed.
I saw the shock on Max's face as she fell. She recovered exceptionally quickly, and twisted in the air. She landed on her back, at the side of the football pitch, and lay motionless.
Nick sprinted down the stairs and across the muddy pitch, over to where Max lay. He gently felt her neck then turned her over. Her eyes snapped open when he made to pick her up.
"Max-" He began, but was cut short.
"I'm fine. I landed in the mud. It softened the impact," Nick didn't look convinced but he put her down anyway.
Max looked around. Luckily we were the only people there as everyone else was in first hour.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Edward asked her, "My Dad's a doctor; he taught us how to take care of others. Do you want me to check, just in case?" He looked concerned.
Well of course he looked concerned. This girl just fell from like 10 feet and is claiming to be completely alright.
"No, that's alright really," Max assured us, "I'm fine. I've had worse."
Emmett looked impressed, Alice concerned, Jasper tightly controlled, trying not to rip their throats out. Rosalie, on the other hand, looked like she wished Max had been killed by the fall. Edward was watching the new kids closely, a slightly confused look on his face.
Max's family was all gathered round her anxiously asking if she was alright. She nodded and all seemed convinced except Nick and Angelica. Max bent down to the little girls level and looked at her hard. The girl nodded and hugged her.
Max was obviously the leader of this small group of kids, no matter if she wasn't the oldest. I watched as she walked the others to their first class.
"Something's not right," Edward whispered in my ear as he walked me to Goverment, "Their thoughts are like hidden, blocked. When I can hear them though they're really strange, like complicated. They're hiding something," He looked at me, determination lining his features, "And I'm going to find out what."
