Angel walked between us holding our hands and grinning happily as we walked up the dark asphalt path leading up to the show. 'Art in the Park' as they called was a monthly thing, and Fang always took Angel, and she loved it.
"Max? Fang? Can we get cotton candy? Pretty please? I'll share with you guys!" Angel asked excitedly, jumping up and down. She was looking over at a small table set up with a tent that had a few teenagers making pink and blue cotton candy and pointing happily.
"Sure Ange," Fang said smiling. He had that same smile on when he saw Angel earlier. We walked over and ordered 2 large cotton candies. One for Angel, and one for Fang and me.
I pulled a handful of blue, puffy goodness out of the bag and kept walking passing by lots of different kinds of art. There were tents full of paintings, jewelry, clothes and all sorts of stuff. My favorite was the metal stuff to put in your yard, where there was a giant metal spring man that you put into your yard.
We walked around for a while and Fang and I watched Angel stuff her little face in the cotton candy, and look at all the pictures.
"Max! Fang! Look at these! There so pretty! Like the flock!" Angel yelled excitedly. She had ran ahead and was looking at a tent jewelry in it, and we went up to her and looked at what she was so excited about. There were two necklaces, almost identical. They each had a silver chain, and a there was a charm on the chain, a simple feather. It was the perfect size and was simple, yet elegant, and could be worn by either a guy or a girl, which I thought was cool. A second charm was a silver circle and had a letter engraved into it.
"You can get whatever letter you want engraved in it, for additional charge," a woman said from behind the table where the jewelry was laying, and I briefly looked up and nodded.
"Wow Angel, those are really pretty," I whispered. She nodded, and tugged on my hand pointing at a similar one next to it. I smiled, they were really pretty. Fang was looking at the jewelry to, and it looked like he was thinking about something.
"I'll catch up to you two," Fang said looking at me and Angel. "Ange, why don't you show Max the paintings you really liked from last month."
"Okay Fang!" Angel explained cheerfully as she grabbed my hand again, and we started to walk towards the next tent. I turned around and gave Fang a questioning look, but he just rolled his eyes smirking, and went back to looking at the jewelry. Does he have a special someone? I'd find out later, right now I was watching Angel, who I already loved like a little sister.
After about 10 minutes, of wandering from tent to tent, Fang met back up with us.
"Where did you disappear off to?" I asked as we headed back to our houses. It was already 4 in the afternoon, and we were all tired.
"Somewhere," Fang said giving me his little smirk.
"Wow, that is the most helpful thing anyone has ever told me," I said sarcastically holding Angel's hand as we walked across the street.
Fang rolled his eyes, "Who said I was helpful?"
This caused me to roll my eyes, and then we both laughed. We do that a lot, and we're already pretty close friends for having known each other a little over a week. We were both similar to each other, and that made it easy for us to talk.
"Me. I said you're supposed to be helpful," I replied smiling at Angel.
"Well who said I was supposed to listen to you?" he said and threw me a grin.
"Everyone. I'm Maximum Ride. C'mon, who doesn't listen to me?"
"Like our whole English class?" Fang said making me laugh remembering the debate we'd had in English on Thursday. I was the only one disagreed with the statement, when the rest of the class had agreed. I'd made some solid arguments, if I do say so myself.
"Okay, that doesn't count!" I said laughing. Fang smirked, and continued walking.
We walked down our street, and stopped in front of Fang's house, and I said good-bye to Angel.
"Bye Angel!" I said giving her a hug, and a fleeting smile. She grinned back at me, and squeezed me tight.
"Bye Max! I love you!"
"Thanks, Ange. Love you too!" I called smiling. She was the sweetest thing ever, I thought watching as she ran up the steps to her house and went inside.
"She really likes you Max," Fang muttered as we walked down a little further.
"She's adorable," I replied quietly back.
"Yeah she is," he said smiling slightly to himself.
"Well speaking of adorable, my unadorable sister is waiting for me at home," I said and kept walking towards my house.
"Yeah, well you better go. Bye Max," he said with a wave. I waved back, and then we both headed home.
I walked up the steps and went inside. "Hey, I'm home!" I called.
"Hi Max! Ella and I are in the kitchen! How was your day?" mom called as I walked in, and went to the kitchen.
"It was really fun. Fang and I took Angel to 'Art in the Park' down at Wilder Park, and walked around together for a while. How was yours Ella?"
"Absolutely fabulous! Me and Nudge went to the mall and bought a bunch of clothes, and then went to Starbucks and sat and talked! It was great!" she said sighing happily.
"That's great. I'm really glad you found someone like Nudge here. You guys are gonna be best friends," I said smiling.
"Yeah I hope so! I'm sleeping over at her house on Friday night, and we might hang out Tuesday and do homework together," she exclaimed excitedly.
"That's awesome," I said with a grin.
"Yeah, so tell me about your friends!" She said suddenly, and I smiled. By now, mom had left the room to go run the laundry.
"Well there's Fang, and Iggy and Ben. Well and Angel of course, Fang's little sister," I said smiling thinking about today.
"That's great Max! See it's good here!" Ella said happily and I nodded.
"Our band has a gig 2 weeks from Saturday. At Wilder Park at 7 I think," I explained as I grabbed a package of Oreos from the pantry.
"You're in a band!" Ella cried, apparently oblivious of what I had been doing basically all day.
I let out a small laugh, "Yeah I am. The guys I told you about, Fang, Iggy, and Ben, are all in it too. They were in the band before, but Fang and I are already really good friends and he asked me to join and be their new female lead, and I said sure."
"Oh my gosh! Max! That's so awesome! Congrats! Nudge and I are totally gonna come watch you guys play! You singing?" she asked her face glowing.
"Yeah, Fang and I are lead singers, and Fang plays guitar and he's gonna teach me. Iggy plays drums, and Ben plays guitar with Fang and does back-up vocals," I told her. "You should meet them all. I'm sure you'd like them a lot." She nodded looking ecstatic.
"Oh yeah, did you know that Nudge knows Fang? They're friends, and so are there parents!"
"Yeah," I replied with another smile. "All of there parents raised them together and so they're all good friends. Fang said next time they all get together, he's gonna invite us because you and Nudge are friends, and Fang and I are friends, and he said we should hang out sometime. By the way, our band is called the Flock."
"Are you and Fang like really good friends?" Ella asked suddenly with a sly little smile creeping up her face.
"Yeah?" I replied confused. ":Why?"
"Oh I don't know. But I maybe found you a boyfriend," she said wiggling her eyebrows.
"No, c'mon Ella it's not like that. We're just really good friends," I replied sticking my tongue out at her.
"So, how can you be really good friends with a guy already? It's been a week!" she protested loudly crossing her arms over chest smugly.
"Yeah, and we have a bunch of classes together, and I don't know we're just similar and we can tell a lot about the other person without talking about it. You make everything so dramatic and lovey-dovey. Not all guys and girls that are friends are like soul mates Ella," I said smirking. Fang and I? Going out? That's just weird!
"Yeah, sure Max. Whatever you say. But you're eventually going to get together," she said with a smirk. This actually freaked me out a little bit because Ella could usually find ways to hook people up. I made a mental note to talk to Fang about it tomorrow.
"Yeah, I'm sure you will Ella," I said rolling my eyes. I grabbed a few more Oreos out of the package and then put them back in the pantry. "But you have to meet Angel. You'll love her. She's so adorable," I crooned. Ella nodded at me, her mouth full of cookies. I made a face, and she started to laugh, and cookie crumbs came tumbling out of her mouth and down the front of her shirt. I laughed and then walked upstairs to go shower and get ready for bed.
Since it was Sunday, and we were still off of school, lucky me slept in til 11:30. I was in a great mood, but when I went downstairs by great mood was dampened a little bit because of the gray skies and rain pouring from them.
I started to hum Have a Nice Day, by Bon Jovi under my breath as I walked downstairs, still in my shorts, and t-shirt.
"Fang called for you," Ella announced as I walked into the kitchen to eat breakfast.
"What did he say?" I wondered aloud.
"He didn't say much, just that he was looking for Max, and to have her call him when she was up," she explained, then gave me that smug little smirk she gave me last night. I rolled my eyes at her, and grabbed the phone, and punched in Fang's number.
"Hello?"
"Hey it's Max."
"Good morning sleepyhead," Fang said, and I rolled my eyes.
"I hear you called?"
"Wow, I don't even get a 'Good morning Fang'?" he asked pretending to sound hurt.
"No, you don't deserve it," I said with a laugh.
"Well Miss Sassypants, I did call because I was wondering if you wanted to come over and watch movies in the rain? Well in my house, during the rain, if that makes sense," he said with a chuckle at the end.
"Yeah sure. That sounds good," I said smiling.
"Okay, and you can come over whenever your ready, and then I'll have everyone come over in a little bit and we can introduce you to Gaz and Nudge and Ella can come too. But I'll have them come later, but you can just come over once you're all done primping," he said and I could tell by the tone of his voice he was smirking, wherever he was.
"Yeah, me and my primping," I muttered through the phone. "But I have to go get some clothes on now. I'll be over soon."
'K, bye Max," he said and I hung up.
Ella looked at me, and I raised my eyebrows at her. "Well?" she said looking at me expectantly.
"Well what?" I asked.
"What did he say?" she asked still waiting for an answer.
"I'm going over to his house to watch movies now, and then later today you and Iggy and Nudge and Gazzy and Angel and I think Ben too, are coming over and were all gonna chill and stuff," I explained slowly to her. She gave me a little glare at my tone of voice, but smiled anyway when I told her she was coming over later.
"Okay, thanks Max," she said in a sing-song voice, and skipped away. Her and her split personalities.
Once I was showered and dressed in a pair of jeans, and a sweatshirt I walked over to Fang's house. I used his big brass knocker, and hit it hard against the door a few times. I saw Molly hurry over and open the door.
"Hi Max. Sorry I kept you out in the rain! Fang's upstairs in his room I think," Molly (Fang's mom) said warmly.
"Thanks, and it's no problem, it's not too bad out," I replied with a smile. Fang's mom was so nice. I put my shoes by the door, and then ran upstairs to Fang's room.
"Boo," I said as I walked in, and saw him sitting on his bed.
"Hey," he said looking up from the paper he was holding.
"Watcha doin'?" I asked looking at his paper.
"Nothing, it's just a song I've been working on for the gig, but I'm not really sure about it," he said looking back at it again, humming a tune quietly under his breath.
"Lemme see it," I said coming and sitting next to him on his bed. He handed the sheet over, and I hummed the tune quietly and sang the lyrics to myself in my head.
"This is really good Fang, you should keep working on it," I said looking at him.
He looked up from his lap, "I don't know. Thanks. I've still got to teach you how to play guitar. I want you to be able to play guitar with us in 2 weeks."
"I don't know if I'll be able to learn that much that fast," I said worried.
"It's okay. You'll catch on fast, you're musical as it is. Come on, let's get started, and then we can watch movies with the others and play games and stuff," he said, and headed for the basement and I followed.
Once we were in the basement, he set up the guitars, and I was using his old one. He explained to me about chords, and what each chord was, and what each sounded like. He showed me how to strum and how to play. After about an hour, I had started to pick it up, and could play a few easy songs.
We had been going for about 2 hours, and I was catching on quick, thankfully. We had cleaned almost everything up, and we were putting the last few things away, and then we decided we were going to watch part of a movie, and then call everyone else.
"Thanks, by the way. It's cool being part of your band, and learning guitar and stuff," I said quietly as we sat down together on the couch.
"For what? I need to thank you for joining our band. We've been waiting for a female lead for a while, and then you showed up, and you're perfect for it. You're the only girl any of us could stand to be around," he said as he pushed Forrest Gump into the DVD player. One of my favorite movies of all time, ever.
He paused at the part right after Bubba dies, and I sat up and wiped the tears that had started to form in the corners of my eyes. I'm not much of a crier, well honestly I never really cry, but this movie has always just gotten to me for some reason.
"Life is like a box of chocolates," I started in my best Forrest Gump voice.
"You never know what you're gonna get," Fang finished in his equally bad impression. We both looked at each other, and then cracked up.
"Run Forrest! Run!" we both said at the same time, and started laughing really hard again.
"It's about 3ish now, wanna see if everyone wants to come watch movies, and meet everyone else?" Fang asked me as we calmed down from our little laughing fit. I nodded, afraid that if I spoke I would start laughing again. I noticed Fang and I did that a lot, both thought along similar lines and then start laughing, even though neither of us is that funny.
We went upstairs, raided Fang's pantry of junk food, and carried everything we'd found: chips, soda, candy, pretzels, and chocolate cookies!
"Oh. My. Gosh. These cookies are my favorite! I love chocolate chip!" I squealed.
"I didn't know someone could get so emotional over cookies," Fang said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes. There cookies were good, but none were as good as my mom's homemade cookies. They were the best things in the world, I kid you not!
We were sitting in the basement, when Iggy came bounding down the stairs, as only Iggy can do. Fang and I just smirked from out current spots on the couch.
"Hey Ig," Fang said as Iggy waved in our direction. "Hey Gazzy," Fang said as he got up and went to greet a miniature version of Iggy who had just walked down the steps. He had spiked up blond hair, and pale blue eyes just like Iggy. He also wore the mischievous little grin I had gotten used to seeing on Iggy's face.
"Hi Fang. Is Angel here?" the little blond boy who looked about Angel's age asked. Fang nodded.
"Yeah, she's upstairs. She'll be down in a few minutes. But I want you to meet Max, our new friend," Fang said as he walked over to give Gazzy a hug.
I bent down, "Hey Gazzy. I'm Max," I said smiling at him.
He grinned, "Hi Max! Wanna help me blow something up?"
"Um sure?" I said throwing Iggy a glance, Iggy laughed.
"Not now Gazzy. Some other people are gonna come over, and we're gonna have one of our movie/game days. I'm sure Max would love to blow something up later though," Iggy said smirking at me. I rolled my eyes, but decided to ask why a cute little 8 year old wanted to blow something up.
I was about to ask, but then I heard a shriek from upstairs that sounded just like a sister I happened to have, "Nudge!" she cried, and I grimaced causing Iggy and Fang to laugh.
"Ella!" came a similar sounding high-pitched squeal. "C'mon, let's go downstairs! Fang and Iggy are already downstairs with Gazzy!"
"Okay! Have you met my sister Max?" I heard them talking loudly as they slowly came down the stairs.
"No! I totally want to! Is she like you? Cause that would be so awesome! We could go on shopping sprees like totally every weekend! How fun would that be?" she exclaimed without taking a breath once. Ella laughed.
"Max is definitely not like me, but you'll still love her! She's more sporty and sings, but she hates dressing up and makeup and shoes. Stuff like that," Ella explained giggling at Nudge's downturned face. However her face broke back into a smile as she and Ella reached the bottom of the stairs, and she ran over to me. She had mocha colored skin, gorgeous milk-chocolate colored eyes, and bright white teeth that were broke in a smile.
"Hey Max! Omg! Ella's told me all about you! I'm Nudge, well my real name's Monique, but I mean like what kind of name is that? Gross, right? Well anyway I go by Nudge, and I do competitive dance, with your sister who's like my BFF!" she exclaimed happily giving me a hug. I hugged her back, admiring how she did that entire speech in just one breath. Fang and Iggy smirked at me, and I just rolled my eyes light-heartedly back at them.
"Okay guys! Let's do introductions!" Nudge yelled loudly, getting everyone's attention. Angel had just came downstairs with Ben, and she came over and gave me a huge hug. Ben gave me a wave, and went over to sit with Fang and Iggy.
"Hi Angel," I whispered in her ear, as she sat down on my lap.
"Hi Max! I'm glad you came over again. I like you," she said grinning up at me, revealing her little gap where her two front teeth were still missing. I smiled at her again, and then stood up, holding her hand.
"This is Ella!" she said pointing at Ella and she grinned. I noticed Iggy paying extra attention to her. "That's Fang, Iggy, Gazzy, Angel, and Ben," she said as she pointed to each person in turn.
"Hey guys!" Ella said excitedly.
"And well you guys all know Max right?" she asked and they all nodded, Fang with a little smirk on his face. I rolled my eyes again and laughed.
"Movie time!" Gazzy cried. "Can we watch the Incredibles first?" Gazzy asked, "I like Dash! He looks like me, and lots of stuff blows up!" I laughed, and Fang nodded and went to go push the movie into the box. We all situated ourselves, and Ben and Iggy took matching recliners and Ella, Nudge and Angel snuggled up together on the couch. Gazzy laid on the floor, and that left the love seat for me and Fang.
"Scoot over!" I told Fang loudly.
"No," he said simply giving me a smirk, knowing it would make me mad.
"Guys, the movie's starting now! Don't start!" Nudge said pointedly from her seat in between Ella and Angel on the couch. I rolled my eyes, and moved Fang's legs over anyway.
We all settled back, and watched as the Incredible family was made, and then they went to the secret island to defeat 'Buddy' Mr. Incredible's number one fan from years ago. They took out the robot, and we were at the part where they are driving the van back to the city.
Personally, my favorite character is E, the one who makes the super suits. I don't know, she just cracks me up. The same with little baby Jack-Jack. He's awesome!
The movie ended, and the credits started filling the screen. "That was totally awesome!" Gazzy cried imitating the little kid on the tricycle with the bubble gum. We all laughed, as Fang got up to switch movies.
"Can we watch Blind Side now? I love that movie!" Ella and Nudge crooned in unison.
"Sure," we agreed. We watched this movie too, and Fang and I were still in the love seat. I loved the part where Sandra Bullock's character calls Burt, the football coach, in the middle of the game. You go girl!
As this movie ended, Molly brought us down 2 pizzas, and some 6-packs of pop. We all ate, as the movie finished. It was about 7:00 or so, and we decided we would watch one more movie before we called it a night.
We decided on Toy Story 3 to finish out the night. If the two little kids wouldn't have been there, our movie choices would've been way different, but it was still fun being able to hang out with new friends, and actually feel like I belong. I still missed my St. Louis friends a lot, and was still hoping I could move back, but the more I stayed here, the more I realized I like it here. I also realized I was doing what I had said I wouldn't do: I was becoming attached to this place, and the people here.
About 2 hours later, after we had stuffed our faces with pizza, and watched 3 movies, we decided we were all gonna head home.
We all left at the same time, and we all said good-bye to each other.
"Bye Angel, Gazzy, Nudge, Ben, Iggy and Fang," I said with a small laugh, "See you guys tomorrow. Homeroom." Fang gave me a quick smile, and I smiled back. I gave a wave, and then Ella and I walked home.
"Hey mom! We're home!" Ella called as we walked inside.
"Hey kids! How was it?" she called from upstairs, as she walked out of her room to see us.
"Good, we watchd the Incredibles, Blind Side and Toy Story 3 because Gazzy and Angel were there. It was good though, I really like everyone," Ella explained. I nodded in agreement.
"I'm going upstairs to shower and get everything ready for tomorrow," I said walking up to my bathroom and turning the shower water on.
About an hour later, I curled up in my bed, and fell asleep, surprisingly looking forward to go to school the next day.