Howdaaaay.
So, I got mixed opinions on the whole Maya thing, which I was happy with. I already knew it wouldn't be a popular move. My plan is to have it back to AH by chapter 10. Yay or nay?
But for this chapter *drumroll* it's pure fluffiness and Faxiness and fun. It's got FILLER written all over it, but HEY. We all need fillers.
BY THE WAY. Flute ensemble is staring up this week again, so my updates will most likely not be weekly. However, if you really want to prompt me to update, go to my Tumblr. And no, I did not spell that wrong: no E. Go to www (dot) mis-guided-gh0sts (dot) tumblr (dot) com. I check that everyday, and one message on Tumblr gets me updating faster than a PM here. Go to the tab that says ASK ME - you can send me a message from there even if you don't have a Tumblr yourself.
Disclaimer: Me no own Maximum Ride. Or Adele.
Max POV
"You just passed it." I drummed my fingers on the window and glanced back.
"No, I didn't, Max."
"Mom, yes you did."
"Maximum-"
"I saw Fang sitting on the porch!" I yelled. "You came down the street from the wrong end."
Mom gave me a disapproving glance, but turned the car around and drove back down the street. When we arrived at Fang's new big brick house, I pushed open the door and ran for the porch. Fang had been sitting there, but he stood when he saw the car and held his arms open with a grin. I hurled myself at him, so relieved to see him it was unreal. I was so giddy I was actually laughing as Fang caught me and held me tightly.
"I missed you," he whispered, his breath warm against my ear.
"I've missed you, too."
We could've stayed like that forever, but Nudge came running from the house, jumping straight from the porch to the ground with no regard for the steps. "MAAAAAXXX!" she screeched, running at me. I had only enough time to slightly loosen my hold on Fang's neck before Nudge smashed into my back and hugged me.
I felt like my lungs were being crushed from my body as I tried but desperately failed to gulp air. Nudge seemed to sense my struggle and loosened her hold, but only slightly. Just enough for me to pull slight breaths. After a minute of the double embrace, Nudge let go, but Fang didn't.
"Fang," I said, "I'd love my blood flow to retain some regularity again, if you don't mind."
He laughed, and I felt the laugh rumble in his chest. He squeezed me tight once more, then set my feet tentatively on the ground. I only then realized that he'd been holding me so tight that my feet had been a couple inches off the ground.
Fang's mom came out of the house next with a smile. She just squeezed me lightly instead of attacking me with a ferocious hug.
"So glad to see you, Max," she said with a soft, pleased smile.
"Hi, Kate." I smiled. "It's great to see you, too."
Fang muttered, "Angel with the adults," from behind me. I grinned and backed up slightly until I could practically sense him standing right behind me. He laughed and I felt his arms loop around my waist like the best belt in the world.
Oh my God, do you hear my cheesiness? My absolutely love-choked brain? Like, the chefs of life must be just heaping those processed American cheese slices onto the frying pan that is my life and the dish that represents the love that Fang and I share. . .
Okay, pretend that never happened. Please. Twenty bucks? Bacon? I'm high on being with Fang. FANGFANGFANGFANGFANG MENTAL BLAH FANGFANGFANG BACON FANG!
Kate rushed to the car and started babbling to my mom through the open window. From the sound of it, they won't be done anytime soon. I quietly squeezed by Kate, grabbed my bag from the car, and slipped away again.
Fang took it and walked into the house with Nudge and I following close behind. I glanced around at the front yard. Nice enough. Wide front porch, made of wood that somehow manages to fascinate me with the way that it seemed brand new yet aged at the same time. Garden beds. The house was nice pattern of bricks and rocks that looked like they'd all been hand-sculpted to fit the ones around it, the shutters made of darker, chocolate brown wood.
Fang carelessly tossed my bag on the floor and spun around to face me again. "So, grand tour?"
"Sure." I tossed my coat on top of my bag. I'm already just as much at ease here as I was at Fang's old house. I don't think the house made a difference; I think it was the family inhabiting it.
Fang smiled slightly and took my hand, leading me through an archway, into the kitchen.
"Welcome to the land of food," Fang said majestically.
Nudge rolled her eyes. "Container of unicorns and wonderfulness and cheese."
"Land of food."
"Container of unicorns and wonderfulness and cheese."
"LAND OF FOOD!"
"Guys, guys," I said, trying to calm them down, but I was already smiling hugely at their antics.
Fang straightened up. "Did our dear Max just interupt our pointless arguement?"
Nudge cracked her knuckles. "I believe so, brotha."
Seeming more giddy than usual (and giddy should not be a word to describe Fang), he charged at me like a bear. I giggled and darted back the way I'd come, taking unfamilar routes through the unfamiliar house. I eventually ended up dead-ending at their sliding back door, because I couldn't figure out how to open it. I found out later that the wooden stick thing had been stuck in the tracks. I felt Fang's hands hook under my arms and lift me up like a toddler, thrashing and screaming the whole way to the kitchen.
He plopped me down on one of the granite black countertops and leaned forward, trapping me with his arms on both sides of me. I couldn't help giggling like a little girl at the proximity.
"I won't let you go until you apologize."
"We'll be here for a reeeally long time, then." I grinned and looped my arms around his neck. I felt tall, for once, sitting on the counter, with Fang's eyes at least a foot lower than mine. Fang shrugged and smiled back at me while Nudge practically bounced in the background, her eyes zinging from me to Fang, me to Fang, me to Fang. It was dizzying, watching her.
Fang stood on his toes, as high as he could, and quickly kissed me - just a peck on the lips. It still made me grin crazily and push him forward so I could slide off the counter and hug him again, just completely relieved that I was with him after so long without seeing him.
I rolled over so my head was hanging off the bed, and I was staring at Nudge upside down. "Nudge, I've missed you like crazy, but I can honestly say I have not missed your motormouth."
She laughed in a creepy, skin-shivery way, and kept babbling nonstop about something. I speed-pressed the volume button on her iPod dock, cranking up Adele's really kick-ass voice.
But my knees were far too weak. . .
"TO STAND IN YOUR ARMS, WITHOUT FALLIN' TO YOUR FEET!" Nudge suddenly burst out. She started jumping on the bed, way too hyperactive, and yanked me up next to her. She kept screaming the lyrics. "THERE'S A SIDE, TO YOU, THAT I NEVER KNEW, NEVER KNEW!"
Almost as giddy as Nudge, I screamed along with her. "ALL THE THINGS, YOU'D SAY, THEY WERE NEVER TRUE, NEVER TRUE!" Nudge grabbed my hand and pulled me up onto the bed next to her. "AND THE GAMES, YOU'D PLAY, YOU WOULD ALWAYS WIN, ALWAYS WIIIIIIIIIIIN!"
Fang burst into the room just as the chorus hit, glaring at us as we bounced giddily and screamed "BUT I SET FIRE TO THE RAIN!" over and over. I jumped off the bed and landed on the floor with a painful thud, but I was so hyper I barely noticed the pain. I ran at Fang and jumped on his back, securing my arms around his neck and wrapping my legs around his waist, all the while singing along with the song. Nudge just kept bouncing like an overactive bobblehead.
Fang walked across the room, all the while carrying me on my back while I belted the lyrics in his ear. He quickly turned the volume down on the song, and had to work for a little while to loosen my arms and legs and set me on the floor. I could feel the excitement on my own face, the way I could barely hold still.
"What did you feed her, Nudge?" Fang sat down on the bed and yanked on Nudge's arm to get her to sit down and be calm.
"I dunno," Nudge said quickly, slurring the words together in her haste to get them out. "Maybe I'm rubbing off on her. I always rub off on her. It's funny. Hehe!"
I sat down next to Fang. My hyperness (is that a word?) had passed, leaving weariness in its place. We'd shifted around boxes and furniture all day long. I'd stood on chairs and perched precariously on the very top rung of ladders to hang up a painting or put a china bowl on the highest shelf in the cabinet. I'd gotten a ride on Fang's shoulders sometimes, and once I actually slid down the banister and smashed my butt on the floor.
"Well, Mom just made brownies and she said we can have a few if you want but I doubt it's a good idea with you already so hyped up." He frowned at me as my eyes lit up at the mention of sugar.
"Brownies sound great. Why can't we have brownies? Fang? Why? Why are you trying to keep us from the brownies? Let's go?" After so many questions, the last one ended up slipping out sounding a lot like a question. I ran for the door, and swayed and almost smacked right into it. Never failing to be there, Fang caught my elbow and guided me away from the dangerous enemy that was the door.
Kate was a truly amazing cook. Those brownies were warm and moist and oozing with hot fudge. I ate five, making up for all the gymnastics and acro and cheerleading I'd endured during the week. I'd been so busy for so long that I didn't have enough time to eat my usual rations of food. Most of the time, I barely had enough time to inhale a granola bar. Yuck.
After I finished my brownies, I felt oddly full. That was weird. I was never full. Ever. I ended up hamming it up a bunch until Fang agreed to carry me upstairs. Once we got upstairs, he dropped the amiable smile and agreeableness and dropped me on Nudge's floor.
My fall was cushioned by a black sleeping back and an air matress. I admit that for a second I felt a lot like I was in a Sleepy's commercial, falling back into a cocoon of feather pillows and having them puff around me like a taco shell. But that was over in about half a second and I was bounced out of the air matress and sent flailing a full foot into the air again. I imagined that I probably looked like a ridiculous cartoon, with my arms windmilling and my legs doing a really weird spastic dance. Even if it was only for like, a second until I fell totally ungracefully to the matress again.
I flipped over so I was laying on my (way overstuffed) stomach. I glanced around at Nudge's room appreciatively. Nudge was yawning and curling up on her bed. "We cleaned up really well." The floor was visible now, and we'd make it possible to walk through without having to step on a box. Points for us, right?
He smirked and started backing out of the room. "Yep."
"WAIT!" I shrieked frantically.
He paused at the door and turned around, waiting expectantly. "Yes?"
I frowned hazily. "You didn't say good night."
Fang gave a long-suffering sigh and crossed the room to me again, crouching down to my level. "Good night, Max."
A yawn overtook me for a second and I couldn't respond. "Night," I mumbled sleepily. Luckily, Nudge'd had the good sense to persuade me to change into my pajamas an hour earlier so I could fall over and sleep whenever I wanted. This certainly qualified as one of those fall over and sleep whenever I wanted situations. I curled up on my side, on top of the sleeping bag, and yawned again.
I heard a barely audible chuckle and soft footsteps. I didn't open my eyes. I felt Fang's way-too-warm-but-in-a-nice-way hand pull my hair away from my face. I felt him lightly push me onto the floor and barely had ten seconds to get my brain to figure out why before he picked me up and put me on the matress again. He zipped the sleeping bag around me and I sighed and snuggled into it. He laughed again and I felt something touch my hair, and assumed he'd kissed the top of my head.
I wasn't totally sure, though, because I was quickly tripping and falling into that thing we call sleep.
Fang POV
Do you have any idea what it's like to wake up, open your eyes, and find yourself feeling like you must've just fallen into a vat of milk chocolate, because that's the only color you can see?
It's weirdly pleasant. But, pleasant or not, it'll freak you out, so don't try it, cause you'll scream.
"Woah!" I yelled. I blindly flailed around and my hand whacked against my headboard and I got all tangled up in the sheets. My first thought was that I was being kidnapped and my kidnappers were probably tightening the ropes around me at that moment. I started frantically shimmying like a mental patient trying to shake a straight jacket.
Above my confusion, I heard laughing. A familiar laugh. I struggled to free my head and saw Max on the floor, practically convulsing with laughter.
Calmer now, I easily shook off the sheets that'd been tangled around my legs and arms. I then proceeded to tickle the living daylights out of Max.
"Stoppppp!" she shrieked. She was laughing so hard she was practically choking, and no sound came out. You could just tell she was laughing by the shaking of her shoulders and the sudden, gasping breaths she took before breaking into another fit of laughter.
A sudden knock on the door made us both freeze. Max caught her breath and tilted her head toward the door. I was leaning over her, holding her upraised fists in my hands. Max, of course, had tried to punch me in the stomach to get me to quit tickling her.
Nudge tentatively poked her nose through the door. "Um, I don't mean to interrupt, but Mom's using the new waffle maker to make waffles shaped like monkeys and girraffes and turtles."
Max gasped. "Are you for real?"
My sister nodded. "Yes."
"Holy sweet monkey asses," Max blurted. "Fang, let me up!"
We both sprang up at the same second and bolted for the door, which presented us with a couple complications. We both smashed together when we tried to squeeze through the door at the same time. I eventually just shoved her out in front of me and we both slid down the banister. Max wobbled and almost fell, but I grabbed her around her waist and dragged her into the kitchen after me.
Mom stood, smiling, at the counter. Our animal waffle maker was on the counter in front of her, and a plate filled with perfect, golden brown waffles sat next to it. Max wrenched free from me and ran for the waffles. Once she had them, she darted for the table, shoving a turtle in her mouth on the way.
"Wait!" Nudge shrieked. "You need a plate! And syrup!" Max said something unintelligible through her waffle and set the plate down.
I sat down with three plates and handed one to Nudge and Max. I took hold of the waffle plate and slid some carefully, slowly onto mine. I decided it would be best if I could control the portions that Max ate, so I only gave her two more. She glared, appalled, at the small amount of food on her plate. I grinned and handed the plate off to Nudge.
Max was attempting to compensate for the lack of waffles by suffocating them in syrup. I fought my twitching lips as I watched the syrup fill her plate completely. She seemed completely unaffected, and ate her waffles as if they hadn't just suffered a syrup tsunami.
Without conciously realizing it, I started staring at Max like a creeper, determining the minute differences between her and Maya. I was kinda perceptive with that kind of stuff. She was more fearless than Maya. Her movements were more sure and abrupt. She smiled more and had a prettier laugh. She had that hint of red in her hair that Maya didn't. Her eyelashes seemed like they were longer. Her eyes warmer. Less closed off yet a million times more closed off. If that makes sense. Which it probably doesn't. It does to me, okay?
Sensing my gaze, Max looked up and stared at me questioningly. I just shrugged and grinned. She rolled her eyes playfully and went back to finishing her second waffle. When she was done with that one, she reached for three more. I didn't stop her. What was the point, really? She'd just hurt me if I did.
After breakfast, Nudge dragged Max into her room, towing Max's overnight bag behind her. My guess was that Ella had packed clothes for Max, and her and Nudge had schemed about it. Nudge was probably dying to assess Ella's work alone in her room. Well, not really alone. She's be tossing the clothes at Max at the same time.
I retreated to my room and turned on my laptop while I traded my black t-shirt and blank flannel sleep pants for black jeans and a slightly different black t-shirt. Something most people don't know about me is that my favorite color is black. That was sarcasm, if you didn't already know.
I sat down on my desk chair and opened my Gmail account. There were three new ones. One from Club Penguin, reminding me about the account I'd made when I was ten. Um, wow.
The next two were duplicates, like it'd accidentally been sent twice. I clicked on it. The return address read Lissa Ryan.
I groaned and opened it, scanning the email.
Hi Fang :) I heard from Max and a couple other people that you moved. I didn't know that :( I would've said good bye to you before you left. Anyway, I was thinking that we could hang out again sometime soon. As friends, you know? I've been thinking about you a bunch and I know you're thinking about me :) -Lissa :D
I gagged at her nauseating message. I've been thinking about you a bunch and I know you're thinking about me. What the hell? How much more. . .slutty could you get? That was coming on a little strong, no?
I typed my reply.
Hi Lissa :) I have, in fact, not been thinking about you. But it's nice to know you've been creepily thinking about me. . . Anyway, I don't think we should hang out again anytime soon. So take your fake Barbie perfectness and shove it up your ass. -Fang :D
I grinned, unnecessarily pleased with myself, and sent the message. I quickly closed out of Gmail before Max could start reading over my shoulder and get pissed. She always seemed to appear out of nowhere.
I heard a scream and a crash from the next room. I bolted to Nudge's room just in time to witness Nudge's door flying open and Max rushing out, banging into me.
"Geeeeeeet baaaaaack heeeeeeere!" Nudge wailed, running out of the room after Max.
Max hurriedly disentangled herself from my arms. "No way!"
"Max! This is what Ella packed for you!"
"And this is what I packed for me! I'm fourteen years old, going on fifteen in a month, and I don't need to be packed for and dressed up!" She was perched on the wide bay window ledge, like a bird sitting perfectly still, waiting for the right moment to fly away from the snake.
"That is absolutely not girly enough to compliment your face, Max." She pointed at Max's clothes and shivered.
"This is what I want to wear." Max was wearing just her usual hoodie-jeans-Converse combination.
"Yeah, but that's still nowhere close to what you should wear. Max, you need to embrace your inner girliness!"
"That's not even a word!"
"It is to me! Don't knock my word."
"I'll knock it if I wanna!"
"Okay, okay," I muttered, terrified of getting involved in their fight. "Nudge, just let Max wear what she wants, okay? She shouldn't have to live by what you and Ella want her to wear."
"But look!" Nudge held out the outfit that she and Ella had selected. It was a striped sweater dress type thing with tights.
"And you expected Max to wear a dress because. . . ?" I heard Max sigh and mutter 'thank you.'
Nudge pouted. "But look at the shoes!" She ran back into her room and came back with heeled ankle boots. I frowned, willing for them to suddenly disintegrate.
"Ah. I see."
"You do?" Her face brightened.
"Yep," I said. "You're trying to kill Max, for some reason I can't fathom."
I heard Max laugh and suddenly felt her wrap her arms around my neck and jump. I automatically stretched my arms away from my waist. Max jumped onto my back and wrapped her legs around my waist to hold herself there.
Looking angry and definitely out for revenge, Nudge marched back into her room with a sinister smile. "I'll get you into something girly soon, Max." She turned. Her smile was creepy and sinister as she gently closed the door behind her.
"Well," Max said, "that was creepy."
So, did I tell you it was a filler, or did I tell you it was a filler?
*If you didn't read the top A/N. Kindly read this.*
Flute ensemble is staring up this week again, so my updates will most likely not be weekly. However, if you really want to prompt me to update, go to my Tumblr. And no, I did not spell that wrong: no E. Go to www (dot) mis-guided-gh0sts (dot) tumblr (dot) com. I check that everyday, and one message on Tumblr gets me updating faster than a PM here. Go to the tab that says ASK ME - you can send me a message from there even if you don't have a Tumblr yourself.
So, my friend and I yank open my lit teacher's door when the room's empty and she's the only one in there, meow like homeless cats, and run away.
-dancerxforlifex3