EDITED*

Guys, please read this. I'm always making chapters on this story to tell you people stuff. Polls, if I'm going somewhere, etc. So I'm making a Facebook page, under the name dragonpurple pearl. I'll post stuff about delays and stuff in there. Friend please! I'm going to mention this for a while...

A bit about my trip: we went shopping! I bought four Hawaiian dresses! They are really cute and one of them is the one in this chapter! I'll post the dresses and pictures where scenes from this story are based after.

I do not own Maximum Ride or it's characters. Or any reference to something that isn't mine.

WAIT! Big thanks to TMI, my great beta reader!

Monday morning at school.

Fang's POV

After being rudely awakened by Nudge's relentless chatter about some sparkly hot vampire and some other equally hot mutt, I walked to school with Iggy and Nudge, the latter of whom still hadn't shut up. I tuned her out throughout the walk, and when the bell rang for first hour I bolted and went to my first class.

First period was math. I sat in my desk at the back of the room next to Iggy, not wanting to draw any more attention to myself than necessary.

"Yo Fang, what's the answer to question 6?" Iggy asked lazily, twirling his pencil in his fingers.

We were in the middle of a surprise pop quiz. Mrs. Allmer, our teacher, believed in surprising us to see if… well I don't know why. The lady didn't need a reason to pull a quiz on us. She was a standard evil math teacher, straight from the pages of any mainstream teenage book.

"I don't know," I replied, shrugging. "I'm still on the second question."

The day passed normally, with no more surprise quizzes like Mrs. Allmer's class. Before I knew it, it was lunchtime. I sat myself down at the gang's usual table, right alongside the majority of our group. However, one very important person was missing: Max. I asked Ella, who was sitting next to me, if she knew where the other girl was.

"Oh, she had an emergency dance practice," Ella replied casually, pausing midbite of her cookie. "I guess practice was held up."

So I abandoned my lunch (I wasn't really very hungry anyway) and off I was to the gym. I didn't even know that Max danced. It seemed like too girly of an activity for her taste. I assumed it was hip-hop or something but boy, was I wrong. As I entered the gym, I hung around by the door and watched Max. It was only her; no one else was in the gym.

Every move she made was flawless. Every move seemed spontaneous and free, but at the same time meticulously put together. She moved as if she were flying, and her dips and spins made me think involuntarily of hawks, wheeling around in the sky. Max was dancing ballet by herself in the gym at lunch. She was wearing sweats and a tank top, and a blank look of concentration on her face. I couldn't help but think she looked… cute.

Hot.

Huh, where did that come from? We were complete strangers, only knew about each other through Iggy.

…Hormones I guess? What else could it possibly be?

When her routine was over, I applauded. She whirled around, suddenly tensing up, but relaxed when she saw that it was me.

"Hey," I greeted her, walking over.

"Hey yourself." Max walked over to the side of the gym, where a water bottle and a towel sat on the floor. She wiped her face free of sweat, then looked back up at me. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Ella said you had dance practice," I replied, raising an eyebrow at her.

Max scowled instantly. "Yeah, what about it?" she asked defensively. "We finished a little while ago, and I wanted to work on my routine a little longer by myself."

"I came to tell you that the dinner thing tonight," I informed her, smirking a little at her defensiveness. "It's formal."

Max's jaw dropped. "No," she said, horrified.

"Yes..." I raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

"You don't rememb-?" Max demanded. She clapped a hand over her mouth cutting off anything else..

"Remember what?" I asked, now completely confused.

"Nothing. It was, uh, someone else," Max denied suddenly, her shoulders sagging. I stared at her, confused, but she only continued to explain. "In um, grade one, it was photo day and we had to dress nicely. A friend and I decided to wear sweats and stuff and we got in trouble. The principal made us change into something disgustingly frilly. He wasn't happy, and neither was I."

"A boy had to wear frills?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"No! I had to wear a frilly dress, and he had to wear a dress shirt and tie," she laughed.

Suddenly, out of the blue, something stirred in me. A memory.

He was in his room. A girl climbed over the balcony and knocked on the door. He opened it,immediately, recognizing his best friend.

"Fang!"she greeted him instantly, looking excited.

"What?"

"it's formal photo day,"the girl replied, pouting. She tugged at her blondish hair in distaste.

"I know!" Fang threw his hands upin protest. "It's stupid!"

The girl gasped. She leaned in and whispered, "Fang, that's a swear word."

Fang laughed. "No, this is a swear word,"he disagreed. Then he said something that his mother would have washed his mouth with soap for.

The girl clapped a hand over her mouth. "Fang!"she shrieked.

"What?" he shrugged,grinning wickedly.

The girl smiled, and her eyes gleamed. "I know what we can wear to photo day,"she informed him.

"Okay, what is it?"

Fang jerked his head suddenly, breaking out of the memory. Max frowned and put a hand on his shoulder. "You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, fine." I mumbled.

"Well, I have to go get dressed for class, so bye," Max replied, grabbing her waterbottle and walking away.

"Bye."

Next period was science. Iggy and Max were in this class with me. We all sat in the middle of the class, Iggy beside me and Max in front.

Was the mystery girl Max? Did we have some kind of past and did-

No Fang, don't start imagining things. Focus on the class, okay? It couldn't have been Max.

Lissa sat in front of me and every so often I expected her to turn around and start squealing at me. She never did.

"Mr. Ride. Pay attention," Mr. Allsop said from the front of the classroom.

"Sorry sir," I mumbled. Lissa finally turned around, raising an eyebrow and giggling while Max just continued what I assumed was doodling on her paper. This was going to be a long class.

Max POV.

It was about one thirty pm and we had another four hours until the dinner. It turned out that Angel, Gazzy and Anne weren't able to make it, which was too bad.

Fang said it was formal, but I honestly didn't have a clue what to wear.

"Max, I know what you're thinking," Nudge said suddenly. I turned around to face the doorway, where her voice had come from.

I gasped as a dramatic spotlight shone on my door. Ella and Nudge had flung it open and looked like they were going to perform a dance number.

Just kidding. But they did say that and they did fling the door open. And I did gasp. In horror, because they were holding a makeup bag, a comb, a pair of shoes... AND A DRESS!

Hoped you guys like and REMEMBER TO REVIEW. Or else the plot hole bunnies will eat you. And subscribe/friend my Facebook account: dragonpurplepearl