I woke up again and Fang was still next to me. Everyone else was in the kitchen, getting breakfast.
"You stayed?" I asked him with faint surprise.
"Yeah. I didn't wanna move because I didn't want to wake you up. You looked so peaceful in your sleep." He halfway smiled. I sat up and looked at everyone. They said good morning and continued eating. Iggy was smirking and gave me a nod. I ignored it and looked back at Fang who looked kind of confused.
"What?" I asked him.
"Um, Max?" He pointed to the sheets and when I looked down, the blankets were red all over. I threw them off of me and ran into the bathroom. I'm not gonna go into details, but I realized that I did not actually get my period. That meant that someone pulled a prank that completely embarrassed me in front of Fang and Iggy. Wait . . . maybe not Iggy. Maybe he pulled the prank on me; that would be why he was acting so strange earlier.
I grabbed a new pair of shorts from underneath the bathroom sink, (yes, I do actually keep some of my clothes there) and ran into my bedroom. I threw myself onto my stomach and buried my face in a pillow. To put it simply, I started crying. I heard Tess, Nudge, and Ella come into my room and sit down next to me.
"I'm sorry Max." Tess apologized. "We didn't know Iggy was gonna do something like that."
"Yeah. He totally confessed to it after a couple of minutes." Said Nudge. My sister spoke next.
"Max, it was just a joke and I know it was still embarrassing, but there's no need to cry. Nobody got hurt."
"That's not true." I spoke into my pillow. "I got hurt." Nobody said anything back and I heard the door shut as they left my room. After another few minutes, someone else came in. If it was Iggy then I was going to rip his head off. But no, it was the one person I was actually embarrassed in front of . . . Fang.
"Go away." I grumbled. He ignored me and laid down next to me. He started rubbing my back and I hit his hand away.
"Max, I know it was just a prank. Iggy told me." He chuckled. "And I actually almost beat him up because of it." I looked at him and he was smirking.
"Really?" I asked stupidly.
"Yeah. I don't like it when someone makes you embarrassed . . . or hurt."
"Thanks." I muttered. "It was still embarrassing though."
"Why?"
"Because," I started, "even though it wasn't it could've been!" I knew that I didn't have to say anything specific for him to know what I was talking about. "And he embarrassed me in front of you!" I blurted out. I re-shoved my face into my pillow.
"I really don't care Max. This might make you feel better and worse at the same time but, before I knew it was a prank, I took the sheets off and threw them in the washing machine. That's how much I don't care about it. Now can we please go down stairs?"
"Sure." I replied unhappily. We walked downstairs and I saw Iggy who looked terrified of me. Well, let him! If he was scared of me then he shouldn't have done that in the first place. I walked right up to him and slapped him across the face.
"You know how I was gonna get back at you? Well now, it's gonna be three times worse." I whispered into his ear. His eyes widened and I sat onto the couch, stretching across it. I think he got the message. I still wasn't really gonna do anything to him though.
Iggy started panicking and I could practically feel his "scared" vibes. All of the girls stifled their laughter, and then Nudge spoke up.
"So I had to write a haiku for my Language Arts class because we just started learning about them. Did you know that there are three lines in each haiku, and the first line is five syllables, and the second line is seven, and then the third line is five again? Why doesn't it go seven, five, seven? That's weird, don't you think?"
"Nudge!" We all yelled.
"Sorry. Okay so here it is." She took a deep breath.
"Haiku's are pretty
but sometimes they don't make sense.
Refrigerator."
We all started laughing . . . except Fang, of course. At least he was smiling . . .
On Monday, I had my back leaning on the wall when Fang came up to me. He put his arms against the wall on either side of me and asked with a smirk, "Am I making you uncomfortable?" I had a brilliant idea to make him freak out. I hugged him. It totally worked.
On Tuesday, a girl walked by our lunch table and waved at Fang. He waved back and nodded once. I elbowed him in the side.
"Looks like somebody likes you." I teased. He shrugged but looked back at her. I knew what he was thinking.
Wednesday was pretty interesting. For English, Mr. Hunburr assigned homework. In one week, we had to find a poem that meant something to us, memorize it, and recite it back to the class if we didn't already have one memorized.
"If you already have one memorized, please present it now." He announced. I raised my hand and he called me up to the front of the class.
"My poem is Caged Bird by Maya Angelou."
The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and is tune is heard
on the distant hill for the caged bird
sings of freedom
The free bird thinks of another breeze
an the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
I had gotten so into the poem that I completely forgot I was in school. The class started clapping and it actually scared me a bit. Mr. Hunburr had a look of awe on his face.
"When did you remember that poem?"
"When my grandma died a few years back. It was her favorite poem and I decided to recite it at her funeral rather than make up a eulogy."
"Well, it was brilliantly performed." Mr. Hunburr complimented. I smiled and sat back down.
Thursday was when the girl who waved at Fang introduced herself. Her name is Lissa Jones and she's really nice. She doesn't dress inappropriately, she isn't annoying, she's smart, and she can sing too. That might actually be useful in our band. I'll have to talk to everyone about it later.
On the last day of the week, Tess told us that she got Ms. Ellen, her drama/band teacher, to lend the band room to us for practice. Ms. Ellen teaches drama and band, but Tess is her best drama student. I called up Nudge and Ella so they could get here to practice with us. Our first gig was only two weeks away you know.
Okay so two things that were totally random in this chapter were Nudge's haiku and when Max hugged Fang after he asked her if he was making her uncomfortable. I got those off of a website called . I was laughing so hard that i HAD to put it in. . . sorry. I just noticed that Nudge would say something totally random like that and Fang would completely freak out over a hug. Oh another thing that was random was the poem. i was at dance practice for my recital and my friend asked me for help on her literature homework between dances. i read the poem and thought of this story and the actual books, i couldnt stop reading it. One last thing. My recital is on the 6th (Sunday) and my last two days of school are on the 7th and 8th which means that i won't be able to post until the 10th (i'll write a chapter on the 9th). Please review and if you have an idea (thats not obviously going to happen) please put it on your review. ESPECIALLY YOU D! ill try to use it at some point or another and if i dont, ill use it in a different story. :D