Me: Hello, my friends! Say hello, Gaz.

Gazzy: Hiya!

Me: Tell the nice people why you're here today.

Gazzy: *rolls eyes* She forgot the disclaimer 'till now. Genius...

Me: Hey! I didn't forget I just didn't do it...

Gazzy: Ya forgot!

Me: *huff*

Gazzy: What? You did…

Me: Just say the thing.

Gazzy: *Imitates my voice perfectly* I do not own Maximum Ride or the characters in it. So please don't come at me with pitchforks and fire. That would be rude.

Me: Gaz!

Gazzy: *cackles*

READ AND REVIEW DARLINGS!

Love you!

MAX'S POINT OF VIEW

Funny thing about having traumatic experiences-the world keeps going. You don't get a break, not even for a moment. You still have to get up everyday, same as always. It's life's way of saying 'get over it'.

So that's exactly what I did.

I went to school everyday, took care of my siblings everyday, worried about my two favorite quiet, dark haired friends everyday, all while avoiding my reflection. If I saw it, I would look away. When I saw the girl looking back at me, she would looked shocked, tired, then angry. Her eyes would flare, as if to tell me I didn't belong here. Like I should never have been born.

Which was true. I shouldn't have been born. And yet, here I was, in all my alive-ness. I was grateful my mother chose to have me because I liked being alive and all, but it seemed so wrong that she had to carry me around for nine months, a constant reminder of the horrors she endured. I was a constant reminder of those horrors. I felt ridiculously at fault for bringing her pain. Brought in the world simply because my mother was much too merciful to rid herself of me.

It gave me a new sense of purpose. I knew how much easier it would have been for her to have an abortion. But she allowed me to live, something I could never repay her for. I owed this woman everything I had and was. I didn't like owing someone I didn't know. I decided just to do what I think would have made her proud. That seemed like enough.

Besides. What else could I do?

TIME SKIP

I cringed, ripping a brush through my tangled hair. That's what I hate about showering. Being clean is nice and all, but brushing my hair afterwards makes me thing it's just not worth it. My hair is the longest it has ever been, now reaching the bottom of my rib cage. I mostly had shoulder length hair growing up, because I would wack it off every time it got annoyingly long. Anne didn't like that I cut my own hair, but I always did it as straight as I could and you could never tell with a ponytail so she quickly got used to it.

It was as annoying as ever, but I learned to live with long hair. What can I say? I'm one tough cookie! Bearing the burdens of hair and such...

"MAAAAAAX!"

I jumped, dropping the brush on my socked foot. Youch!

"What, Nudge?" I asked, exiting the bathroom sanctuary. Nudge smiled sheepishly at me, moving from one foot to the other nervously. I raised an eyebrow at her, expecting the worst.

"Can I go to Jj's church with her on Sunday? You can come with us, if you want. And the twins, if they wanna, I guess. But they have to be quiet, so they might need to stay home. But I guess Anne's not home yet, and they can't be home alone so they would have to come with us. But I'm sure they would be quiet, if you bribed or threatened or something. Not that you would do that, cuz you're a nice-ish person, ya know. But we'd have to dress up, like with skirts and dresses. I know you hate skirts, but it's only three hours long, so I'm sure that's not super long. Or I could go by myself, with Jj of course, but you could stay here with the twins and I could go and sort of check out the place, like to see if it's worth going to, right? That would work, right?" Her wide bambi eyes were almost enough to make me forget her motormouth. Almost.

"You want to what?" I asked incredulously.

"Jj invited me to her church. She said it's really cool and you know I've always sort of wanted to know what church is like and-"

"What church does Jj go to?"

"It's got a weird name. Ladder Saints of Jesus or something? They're the Mormons. Like, with the missionaries that would knock on our door in California?"

"The Jehova Witnesses?"

"No, the other ones. The black name tag ones."

Oh dear, I thought. We were not a religious family. Anne was always 'working' but didn't care if we went. I had never encouraged the kids to be religious. I had a hard time believing some higher power would leave kids without parents. Or kids whose parents shouldn't have had them in the first place. I gulped. I knew Nudge would never forgive me for not letting her go. It seemed pretty important to her.

But did I have to go? Probably. Nudge would do something totally sacrelig if I wasn't there, I was sure of it. I didn't know much about churches, but I'm sure there were rules. I didn't know much about Jj, and didn't know if I could trust her to shush Nudge and keep her in line.

If I went, then the twins would have to come as well. Which was even more frustrating. Those kids would get us kicked out for sure. But then again, if that happened, would they like it? Not really. Would they ask to go again? Probably not. I could show them it's not that special, they would be bored, and we could move on until they find something else to be curious about.

"When is it?"

Nudge, sensing her win, jumped up and down excitedly. "Thank you, Max! It's on Sunday, obviously. I think it starts at twelve thirty, three hours long like I said, so it ends at three thirty. I can get the address and stuff from Jj. I can help the twins with what to wear, too! I'm so excited!" she exclaimed, running down the hall to her room, to relay the information and plan her outfit, no doubt.

What was I getting myself into?

TIME SKIP

Church. Church was very different than I thought it would be. It was...peaceful. Officially, the church name was 'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' or Mormons. They were odd people, but nice people. They didn't ask much about me besides my name and who I came with. First, Nudge and I learned about 'The Word of Wisdom', which was all about keeping your body healthy and clean. I could agree with that, as the kids ate nothing but junk and I had always been agaisnt drinking and smoking. Let's be real here, the stuff is addicting. Why would you wanna be addicting to something that makes you act bonkers? I don't know.

After that, Nudge and I split up for age grouped lessons. I went with other 'almost-adults' and learned about families. Apparently, Mormons believe that everyone is here for a purpose. And, if we act right and get our crap together, we can be with our family forever. While I had no intention of spending eternity with my birth parents (Heaven forb-wait a sec...), it would be nice to have my siblings around. They told me even adopted siblings could be sealed together in the temple, which made me feel better.

It was weird to think there was life after this one. We had no proof, no solid evidence. Just a Bible and a Book of Mormon, written by crazy old guys. And yet, the Mormons didn't seem to be gaining anything... I did some research, alright? None of the teachers, priest guys or leaders got paid. It was all volunteer work. The members skip two meals a month and donate the money they would have spent on meals that goes to other members, to temples under construction, and humanitarian efforts the church hosted. They seemed pretty straightforward, as far as weird religious people go.

But don't think I was ready to agree with anything they said. I wasn't sure I wanted to get my hopes up that my family and I could really be together forever. That seemed to good to be true, and I wasn't some gullible sucker. I was just hoping my siblings hadn't already signed us up to be baptized or something. We met in a big room to have the final meeting, where everyone got together and listened to a few speakers and sang and had the sacrament, which was supposed to help us remember Christ. Nudge whispered to me about all the fun she had, while Angel and Gazzy quietly colored little pictures they were given as part of their lessons.

It was an odd church, that was for sure. But my siblings loved it and I didn't want to spoil it for them. Not yet.

So I sat through another hour of singing, and preaching, not that it wasn't interesting, before taking my family back home. I sat them all down and looked at them carefully.

"So," I said nonchalantly, "what did you think?"

Nudge beamed, still in her dress and heels. "Oh Max, it was great! I learned so much and everyone was really nice. We learned about families and other stuff about wisdom and junk. They said I can come with them to help volunteer at the food shelter on Tuesday! Can you believe it? They're giving out food for poor people! Isn't that great Max?"

I shrugged, then turned to the twins. "How about you two?" Angel looked at Gazzy, nodding for him to take over.

"We liked it," he said happily, "we got to color and sing and learn. Sorta like school, but not. We wanna go again, too." Great. Just great. Maybe, just maybe I'd go again. But I said maybe!

"Alright, alright. Everybody go get changed and let's start dinner." I said, waving them away. They bounded up the stairs, giggling to one another.

I realized that going to church made them happy and a little more hopeful on the world. If it wasn't true, we would eventually die and that would be it. We wouldn't know the difference, right? So what was the harm? They didn't seem to be teaching anything ridiculous or hard to do, in fact, half of it I had always tried them anyway. So maybe it wasn't so bad.

Maybe.