I was running, and I just kept running. I was escaping from the School, and there were Erasers chasing after me. My wings were cut off, and I had nothing left. The Flock wasn't there, and I was alone. The Erasers caught up to me, and pulled me down. I was screaming, and-
I woke up with a jerk. I stayed frozen for a while, the dream fading away. What was I dreaming of? I don't know. I don't like cats, so maybe it was about a huge and overweight cat. Rolling over, I checked the time. 6:29 AM. Gosh, I still had one more minute. If I had one more minute, I could have remembered what it was about. I reluctantly pulled off the covers and went into the bathroom. I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and brushed my hair and came out. It was 6:37. Talk about a slow day.
I went into school, alone. Bella and Edward disappeared into thin air, and without them, Rosalie made sure I was not even walking to class with any of the Cullens, let alone sit with them at lunch. I sat with Sam's friends for a while, but they were pretty tight-knit too, so I ate my lunch on the stairs. Talk about forever alone.
I unzipped my raincoat and hung it on the coat hooks in the classroom. I sat on the right side of the table, the left side still empty. It's been that way for days. I placed my books there, and started pulling out my homework. Outside, it was dark and pouring. Again.
My mood was not the happiest today. The teacher kept talking about English, and I just kept looking outside.
"Miss Ride?"
I jerked my head to the front. "Yes?"
"Could you answer my question?" the teacher asked. Obviously not.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention."
He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Well, you should. We are on page 237, fifth paragraph. We'll have a test on this next Thursday, Miss Ride. Please keep that in mind."
"I don't care," I muttered, turning the page of my textbook.
"Pardon?" he asked, leaning forward. "What did you say?"
"I said, 'I don't care'," I repeated, louder.
"Would you like to fail the quarter? When the test comes around, you won't be able to know what to study if you don't pay attention."
"I just have to read the textbook, since all you do is regurgitate what it says, just in a nasal tone."
A few people giggled.
His face went red. "Maximum Ride, go to the office."
I rolled my eyes. "Beats listening to your voice more."
The teacher's face started turning purple, and he might have popped a vein.
He glared at me as I walked by with my stuff, picking up my coat.
'I don't care', I mouthed to him as I left. If looks could kill, I would be dead. Then again, so would half of America. So I guess that's okay.
"That is exactly how you don't want to end up like," I heard him say as I slammed the door behind me.
Mom wasn't too happy about the phone call she got about me being at the office.
"He was being immature," I tried to explain.
"He is your teacher, respect him, Max."
"He's so annoying! He has a nasal voice that's not suited for his old age."
"Mr. Newton is not old," she said.
"He's probably, like, forty."
"That's not old."
"Yes it is," I argued.
"There's nothing wrong with being forty. I'm forty," Mom said.
"Why are you turning red talking while about Mr. Newton?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.
"I-I'm not," she sputtered, but her face was crimson.
I watched her. "Uh-huh."
"Maximum Ride, go do your homework."
"See ya," I said, lifting my backpack off the high chair in the island of our kitchen.
I walked up the stairs, pushed the door open to my room, and threw my stuff down at my desk. I flopped onto my bed and turned on the television. It was still on ABC Family from when I watched Make it Or Break it, and I don't know what was showing right now. I flipped through the channels, and settled on the news, showing a huge fire that happened in northern Washington. I rolled off my bed and unzipped my backpack.
I was in the middle of doing my math homework when the fire story ended and another started about an animal sighting. I ignored it until I recognized some words I had heard before.
"…traveling in a flock, these long birds have been spotted by many people, both in urban and rural areas. They travel high in the air, unable to give us a good look at them. If you see them, please call your local news channel, for they may be dangerous. Tom?"
"Yes, Ashleigh. These animals are quite something else. Nobody has seen them land, and there seems to just be the six of them." I crawled forward, observing the grainy picture of them on the screen. Six? It has to be them. "Later tonight, there will be a fireworks display celebrating the birthday of…"
I stopped listening, and ran a hand through my hair. They must be insane. Are they stupid? Or are they just trying to get caught?
This was ridiculous. If only I had slept that extra minute.
I went to school the next day, my homework not done. I couldn't stop thinking about the sighting. The first time they might have just been careless since I wasn't there to tell them to fly quickly and higher up, but the second time? Surely they have been watching the news. I remember every time we stopped we would watch the news to see if anything suspicious was happening. They weren't viral- but they would be. Soon.
I walked into the classroom, and surprisingly, Bella was sitting at her usual seat. Her face was buried in a textbook, probably scribbling down the answers to some homework she needed to catch up on.
"Hey," I said, sliding into the stool next to her.
She looked up and smiled. "Hey. Mind helping me?"
She was doing the homework we had done a few days ago. It was a worksheet from the first day she disappeared. "Sure," I smiled back.
I gave her hints on the answers, since she refused to let me give her the answers directly from my worksheet. We finished up the sheet, and she sighed. "One down. Who knows how many more to do."
I forced a laugh, then stopped. "So… why were you gone?"
"I was in Italy," she said stiffly. "I had… things to deal with."
"Oh," was all I said. Something told me I shouldn't pry.
"So, do you want to hang out today?" Bella said, changing the subject. "We can go over to the Cullen's home."
I wanted to say no because she had ditched me for so long and didn't give me an explanation, but in the end, I agreed.
We walked into the house and I noticed Edward was sitting at the dinner table, and when Bella walked in, he ran over and gave her a big hug along with a kiss on the cheek.
"And Max," I coughed into my fist.
Edward turned to me and shook my hand. "And Max," he said.
I looked at his hand awkwardly shaking mine. "Okay," I said, looking up. "I've been dying to ask this all day. Where have you guys been?" Edward and Bella looked at each other, exchanging glances. "Oh, come on! I'm dying here."
"Well, it's kind of far-fetched," Bella said.
"Are you calling me far-fetched?" Edward asked.
"No," she said. "I'm just saying, for Max, it might be hard to comprehend. If you look at how she reacted to Jacob, then…" she trailed off.
"Just tell me," I said.
"I'm a vampire," Edward blurted out. I froze, staring at him.
"Edward, was there a less blunt of a way to tell her?" Bella asked, glaring at him.
"It had come out like that either way," he defended.
Over here, I had a million things running through my head. Edward's a vampire, Jacob is a wolf, and there's the Flock, along with a hundred more experiments. There was more to this world than I thought.
"Are you pulling my leg?" I asked.
"Pulling your leg? Who says that? Nobody has said that since the last decade," Edward laughed.
I glared at him. "Not funny. I'm serious."
"Well, like Jacob, we aren't lying," Bella said with a straight face. "I hope you can trust me with this too, even though we can't prove it to you that easily."
"Yeah, I'm not going to strip and go all Dracula on you," Edward joked.
"Shut up, Edward," Bella said.
"Go pee in a trashcan," Edward said.
"Well, you can go poop in a bucket," Bella said.
Before Edward could say some other stupid comeback, I interrupted. "So you're being serious?"
"Yes," Bella said immediately, eager that I believed her.
"So why were you in Italy?"
"You told her all of it?" Edward looked exasperated.
"She's one of my best friends. Of course I did." My heart warmed a bit. A best friend? I don't think I have ever had someone I could call my best friend before. Maybe now I can get one of those BFF necklaces. You know, the ones that are heart shaped and split in the middle with one half saying best and the other saying friend? Get it? Those were so clever.
"We were in Italy because I wanted to die. So she came and saved my life," Edward said.
"Oh. Okay." That was straightforward. Edward liked cutting to the chase, didn't he?
I sighed. I knew it was only fair to them that I told them my secret too, but it was hard. They were being so honest with me, and I'm sure they can't just go around telling people this. I'm going with my gut.
The only thing is, I don't know what my gut is saying.
"You guys have been really honest with me, and you don't try to lie. So I'll tell you what I've been hiding."
They looked at me in curiosity. I dropped my backpack off, and took my jacket off.
I was standing in my tank top, and then I opened my wings.