Yay!!! I'm updating!!!!! Sorry I haven't updated in forever!!! Hopefully this nine page (on Microsoft Word) will make up for it a little. Read and review and I will…. Hold on a second….okay, let me think about that and get back to you….

Disclaimer: I no James Patterson. (Shakes head sadly)

MPOV

I walked out of the room stiffly, the bandages making it hard to find a comfortable stride.

I fingered my thumb where the ring should be, that thin loop that had been my constant companion for years.

I hadn't realized how much I depended on that tiny little security. I felt strangely empty without it. Maybe I should go and get it back from Fang…

I even paused in the hall. I actually almost turned back.

No Max, I thought to myself, almost frowning. It's just a ring. A freaking piece of jewelry! I survived eight years in the school without that silly thing- I can survive just three more weeks.

Only three more weeks.


FPOV

I stood in the bathroom for a few minutes after Max left, my mind spinning.

I fingered the little ring in my hand. It fit onto Max's thumb perfectly, too big for her delicate fingers to stay on any of them with out falling off during a fight.

It was too small for any of my fingers except for my pinky. I slipped it into my pocket instead and opened the bathroom window.

I sighed, took a deep breath and jumped. I needed time to think.


MPOV

From my room I heard the clatter of a window opening as the last of my flock flew away from me. I returned to the closet from where I had paused to listen to him fly away. I grabbed a worn out hoodie that was too big for me and stuffed it to the bottom of my green knap sack,

After that I just kind of stood there in the dim light, wondering how my life could have changed so much in the past few hours, wondered what sort of messed up fate had brought Jeb back right when I needed him most, wondered what in the world I had been thinking when I let Gazzy and Iggy off the hook so easily.

I mean, come on! It was the perfect opportunity to smack some much-needed sense into them…

I sighed. Okay Max, I thought (I seem to be doing that a lot lately), I have cried more in the past few hours that I have in my entire life combined, even at the beach, even when Angel was taken right from my side, snatched away to a living hell…

God, I am so selfish. I shouldn't be crying for me, heck, I shouldn't even be crying at all.

I threw my small backpack onto the ground with renewed determination.

I shouldn't be in here wallowing in my self-pity, I should be out flying, with my family, having fun and living purely for the moment.

If only life were that easy. I took a deep breath and jumped out the mysteriously open window above my bed, off to find my flock.

It was hopeless trying to force a smile onto my face when the end was so soon.

There was still that tangible, uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. My eyes felt clogged from being so wet for so long, but even still, I didn't know when I would see my family again, after tonight.

I flew at my super speed, away from our house. My best bet would be to find them at the city park.

About two minutes later, I felt back to normal, no more tears threatening to come out. In fact, I felt like such a wimp! How could I have let that happen? What had become of the fiery Maximum Ride spirit that everyone loved and a lot of the time wanted to strangle in annoyance?

Well, she's back for now. After all, I would need her to get through these coming weeks.


I slowed down to coast on a warm thermal, the air enveloping me in a satisfying cocoon. I closed my eyes as it carried me forward…

"BANG!" I almost fell out of the sky, startled out of my catnap. Adrenaline rushed through my veins. I circled quickly, sweeping the area for attackers.

Then I heard it.

"Woohoo! That was a good one! Ye-hah! Let's do that again!"

Iggy.

Of course.

Although you'd be surprised to find that it wasn't a bomb, a blown up tree, or even a bare patch in the grass that I found.

It was a baseball bat.

Now I felt kind of stupid, all crouched into the fighting position.

But I laughed anyways and dived down to join my flock.

What's a friendly game of bird-kid baseball, anyway?

It's pretty interesting, actually.


Question: In what way does the flock fail at baseball?

A.)No one has any freaking clue how to play besides the fact that you have to hit a ball with a bat. No Gazzy, not a winged mammal. Angel, put that down!

B.)We don't have a baseball, so we use a slightly flattened football. The freaking thing doesn't hit straight! Whose idea was this, anyways!

C.)We're superhumanly strong, so if there happens to be a, say, for instance, lake about 257 yards to the east, then the ball might just lodge into the middle of the lake and some certain six year old with gills will just HAVE to go in after it, proceeding to get herself soaking wet, then disappearing into the water for fifteen minutes, making us think that, "A SEA MONSTER GOT HER!!! WE'RE GONNA NEED AMMO!!!" No Gazzy, no ammo…

D.)All of the above.

Well, I'm, sure any one can easily get an A on that quiz…

So.

Yeah.

Anyways…


I crouched over home plate, narrowing my eyes toward the ball. I was last to bat before the inning or whatever was over.

You know how they always say, "Save the best for last!" Or something like that. Well, in this particular situation it was, "Make Max go last because after she bats we're never going to see our ball again!"

Anyways, back to the game… That cliché, overly used western music they always have on those cheesy cowboy movies played in the background. The camera did a close up on my eyes, the wind tousling my hair back…

"Nudge, turn that freaking music off!! And give that little girl back her camera!!"

Iggy hurled the ball at me.

Bang! Or Snap! Or Boom! Or whatever you want to call the noise.

The bat snapped in half in my hands (Hence the 'Snap!' option) and the ball flew over the edge of the park, out into the distance above the forest.

Yeah, the one that I was crying in this morning.

Everyone stopped for a second to watch it fly. It was eerily quiet in the entire park for a moment. Even the birds had stopped chirping from the noise of bat against ball.

Someone on the other side of the park shouted and all at once we took to the air, racing each other to get to the ball.

Except me.

I took off in the opposite direction, towards the far end of the park (this place is like almost as big as Central Park, New York. Trust me, I would know) to reach first base.

As is turns out, first base is an ice cream cart. I shrugged. Might as well.

One double-scoop mint and chocolate fudge ice cream cone later, I was racing towards the play structure section of the park, back to the north.

I flew through the climbing tunnel and skidded on the ground right past it, onto the really bad and out of proportion chalk drawing of an elephant- second base.

I turned my head towards the forest. It had been about five minutes since everyone had disappeared into the trees.

Whatever, I'll just give them another three or so minutes got find it before I assume they've been eaten or something.

I zoomed off to third base.


FPOV

Okay, so I was flying above the big park, the forest part that stretches for like 250 acres in any given direction (A/N: I hope you know that I am just making all this Arizona geography up because I don't believe that this particular park/forest even exists at all…) when it hit me.

Literally. This freakingfootball came out of nowhere and knocked me out of the sky.

For a second I was stunned, my wing throbbing from the power of the hit. I fell about fifty feet before swooping down to grab the ball.

Why the heck was it so high up here, hurtling so fast and hard going nowhere?

Then the voices wafted up to me.

"Where did it go? That was the only ball we had!"

"I don't know, did you look by those trees, Ig?"

"She's at first base getting ice cream. Come on, there's a line, we still have a chance!"

"I know, I know, I'm looking!"

"My gawd, Gazzy, stop shoving dirt at me!"

"I'm looking for the ball!"

"In an ant hill?"

"Okay, okay, I'll put them back."

"Come on, she just got to the front of the line!"

"Angel, quit sight seeing and help us look!"

"Okay, okay, I'm- Oh! Hey Fang!"

"Fang! Thank goodness! You found the ball!"

"Yeah, bring it down, she's almost to second!"

I almost smiled to myself. Fly away and let Max win, or give them the ball and get her out….

Then I did smile to myself.

"Hey guys, you want to do something more fun?"


MPOV

I looked around suspiciously.

Nothing. Not feather, nor wing.

I slowed down as I coasted over the home plate, doing a little flip to land softly on the only plate that was actually a plastic baseball thingy majigger.

Still no sign of them.

Then I remembered; this had been the forest where that arrow had almost exploded me this morning. I still had the stiff bandages to prove it.

Panic began to rise up my stomach. What if he had found my flock? What if I was too late? What if they were long gone and all I would find would be a couple of burnt feathers and…

I burst into hyperspeed without even jumping first, wobbling startlingly in the air. I let out a "whoa!" which I quickly left three miles behind me, carried away by the wind.

I skidded to a halt mere seconds later, landing hard on my feet.

I paused, trying to get my pulse to slow down. Deep breathes, Max.

Suddenly there was a SNAP!

And I snapped with it.


"Angel!? Gazzy!? Nudge!?" I started running through the forest towards the sound. Okay, yeah, I know that normally you're supposed to run away from the menacing, possibly deadly noise, but you know, I'm just quirky like that.

After about half a mile, I stopped, still breathing calmly, though my pulse was quickened. I hadn't heard the noise again.

See, having hearing like a hawk, I could hear a mouse sneeze from a mile and a half in the air, if I listened close enough. Who knows how far away that noise could have come from?

Something flashed in the back of my eye.

I bit my lip, narrowing my eyes into the forest around me as I whipped my head to the side. I could've sworn I had seen a blond curl…

SNAP! I jumped about three feet into the air before running toward the direction of the sound about two hundred feet to my left.

I skidded to a stop about thirty seconds later, finding myself at the edge of a clearing. My eyes immediately rested on the broken limb lying in the center.

I glanced around cautiously, the tingling feeling that something bad was about to happened shivered up my spine. Hesitantly, I stepped out of the shelter of the trees and into the open space. I had no defense against anything out of the protection of the trees.

About ten feet in, I heard a rustling in the branches surrounding me. My head shot up, and my wings half opened, ready to take flight.

Then I remembered the arrow guy and closed my wings again to make myself a smaller target. Not that it would help. That guy had spot on aim. If not for my razor sharp reflexes, I would be a dead Max.

I continued walking.

Another forty looooong yards and I reached the center where I found the broken limb, splintered and dry, but along with it there was a…picnic?

Right there in the middle of the forest. The freaking forest.

Then I looked closer at the food. Chocolate cake. That's funny, I thought, Nudge loves chocolate cake. Kettle corn from Trader Joe's. Angel's favorite…I got that sinking feeling that sadly, I'm all too familiar with.

I scanned the rest of the food. Gummy worms. Gazzy. Burritos. Iggy. Chocolate chip cookies. Me, of course. And blueberries. Fang. Wait…Fang was here?

This can't be good.


I heard a bang come from the trees behind me and turned around just in time to see red liquid stream down my arm and off my fingertips.

I laughed.

Paintballs.

Bang!

Crap.

Bright blue splattered all over my jeans. I jumped over the branch and grabbed a handful of cookies. Then I burst into the air, straight up at about fifty miles per hour. Okay, not a world record, but…wait- is it? You know, I'm gonna have to do some research on that….

Up in the air I was able to spot an extra paintball gun filled with green resting on a rock near the edge of the forest. (Eyes like a hawk; I can easily read a book from two miles away.) (A/N: It's actually true, too. Hawks have AMAZING eyesight)

I shot downward gain like an arrow and scooped up the little device, regaining my altitude again.

I looked at the paint ball gun, filled to the brim and overflowing with excess paint.

There was a note attached to it, too.

Prepare to meet your doom.

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