Thank you to those who reviewed!

You guys make me really happy.

I get a lot of people asking for this story to end up as a Fax story...

Hmmm..

I dunno...

There are a LOT of Fax stories...

But I will also be taking into consideration the poll I put on my account.

In the poll, I ask you if you want THIS STORY to be FAX or MIGGY.

Vote for your choice, please!

Btw, so far, only one person has voted on my poll and it was for this to be a Miggy story so...?

Any-who, ENJOY!

Let's see what Ari's rules are.. :)

Ari took a deep breath, "You have to wait until your fifteenth birthdays, for one."

Ella screeched, "What?! No! No, no, no, no, no, Ari! That's over a year away from now for me alone! That's not fair!"

Max grimaced, "And even for Maya and I, it's a long ways away. I wouldn't like it if I were in Ella's place. I don't like it for how it is for Maya and I either!"

Maya groaned, "Ari! We're not babies. Stop treating us like them. You change a baby's clothes. We change ourselves. You're not suddenly gonna come into our room dressing us for school, are you? 'Cause that would be just weird, Ari."

"And that's another thing," Ella added, "Babies don't go to school. We do, though."

Ari frowned, "But I wasn't planning to loosen up the reins on you guys until you were eighteen. But if we attended the same college, then until we got our degrees, I guess..."

Max gave him a bewildered look, "Ari, seriously? No! No way in hell is that happening!"

"Language!" Their mom chose that very moment to walk in.

"Sorry, Mom," Max sighed, "But you have to tell Ari how unreasonable he's being."

"What's he decided on for you three this time?" Their mom asked, sitting in one of the couch chairs near them.

"See?!" Maya said before Max could tell her, "Ari, even our mother knows you boss us around!"

Valencia, their mom, said, "Well, of course I do. I am the parental guardian of all of you four, even if I'm not on your backs, hounding you all the time."

Max said, "Well then do something, Mom! Ari won't just step off and we need you to tell him to!"

Ella nodded, "Tell Ari to stop trying to control us. We aren't pets, we aren't babies, we aren't slaves, and we are human beings!"

Valencia licked her lips, "Well how about this? Make a list of what you want, all of you. You too, Ari. And bring them to me. I will decided yes or no for what they are for who. And if we ever want to edit or change something in the lists, then we'll have a once-a-month chat. You can say 'changes' or 'no changes' and then we'll either wait until the next month, or we will talk about what to fiddle around with on the lists. Got it?"

The girls traded looks, "Thanks, Mom!"

Ari sighed heavily, "Fine."

And they all went to make their lists, knowing that when their mom steps in, everything worked out better. After all, no one has ever been able to argue with Valencia Ride. Not when she was a Martinez, not when she was a Bachelder, not when she is a Ride. She will never accept it. In truth, Valencia was Valencia Martinez until she was married to Jeb, Max, Maya, and Ari's father, and when they got married she became Valencia Bachelder. But when he left her, she got together with a new man who was Ella's father, his last name Ride. She took the name, like she took the one before it, but this time she kept it, knowing she couldn't continue changing the names ofher children over and over again. She stuck to Ride.

Max and Maya were in Maya's room, sitting on the blue sheets of her soft bed, when Ella knocked tentatively on Maya's door, "Maya? Max? Can I come in?"

Max looked at Maya and nodded so Maya called, "Yeah, Ells, come on in."

Ella joined them not a minute later, locking the door behind her, before sitting in Maya's bed along with them, a bright yellow notebook in one hand and a orange sparkly gel pen in the other.

Max said, "What ya need, Ella?"

"Now that we finally have a chance to get Ari to step back a bit, I'm lost," She admitted, "I mean, I love the thought of freedom, but I'm so scared that when we do get it something will go wrong. Or, if we don't, then this will never change. But then, Ari's always gonna be watching us, even if he doesn't always voice his opinion or anything. Doesn't it scare you two? At least a little bit, even?"

Max sighed, "Yeah, Ella, it does. But we can't depend on Ari forever. He's our older brother." Max looked away, embarrassed, as she said, "I may not be the nicest of people, but I know that he deserves a chance to live his life as well."

Ella and Maya both were stunned. Maya asked her twin, "What do you mean by that, Max? He's got the life he wants, right? He controls us. He decides everything for us. He -"

"Needs to be freed as well," Max interrupted, looking at her sisters sadly. "Listen to your words, Maya. I will never repeat this, because I am still, after all, Maximum Ride. But..." She took a deep breath, "Ari does everything for us. For us, Maya, Ella. For us, and not for himself. Have you ever once - just once! - heard Ari say he was going out to hang with some of his guy friends? Going on a date? Going to just shoot some hoops, even?"

Maya and Ella shook their heads, speechless. Max.. the one and only... She was speaking with such raw emotion that it was almost unbelievable. Max was never like this. But then again, this was who she was when she wasn't being strong-willed and strong-headed. She wouldn't speak like this had anyone but her sisters been able to hear. She knew that people would look at her different and she didn't want that. But she knew her sisters would understand. Even Ella, who's best friends with the Nudge Channel - a gossip-crazy rambling girl who they all knew was Fang and Iggy's sister - would know to keep it to herself.

Max continued, silently vowing that she would never repeat these words to anyone so long as she could help it, "I haven't ever seen him do that, either, you guys. And that's because he doesn't. What does he do in his spare time? Nothing - he doesn't have spare time. He's always looking out for us. So this freedom thing isn't just for us, you guys! It's for Ari, too. Even if he'll never really know it or understand it, he deserves to be freed from it. In a way, if you look, you will see that he's just as limited and imprisoned as we three are. But it's our fault for his imprisonment just like it's his fault for ours. We deserve freedom, but he deserves it more. He deserves it, with all that he's done for us, Ella, Maya. Doesn't he?"

Maya's voice cracked as she whispered, "He does."

Ella sniffled, nodding her head fiercely as she almost-silently sobbed, "He really, really does."

The door to Max and Maya's bathroom creaked open and a strong-built boy, looking weak, came in. Light brown hair and dark brown eyes, but his eyes were full of emotion. It was Ari. And he'd heard every word.

Ari whispered, "Max? Is it true?"

Max bit her lip, "Ari.. I didn't know you were there."

Maya breathed, "He was spying on us. Why, Ari?"

"I wanted to know," Ari gulped, "what you'd be asking for. I didn't know that -"

"It's okay," Ella whispered, "But it is true, Ari. I feel so shallow for never noticing it. I see now the lines in your face, the bags under your eyes. All the things a sixteen year old boy shouldn't have. I know now that Max was right when she said you never do anything for yourself, because you don't. You're always doing things for us. And we're always so stupid. We run from you, scream at you, beg for you to stay out of our lives... but you don't even have a life because of us. I'm so sorry, Ari! I wish I could turn back the clock so you don't have to give us everything. So you don't have to give us so much. I want to have you have a childhood that isn't ruined by three unwanted sisters you had to deal with and I am so sorry, Ari!"

Ari got mad at her for saying all of that. He went up to her and pushed her to the ground, making her fall from her spot on the bed next to the twins and onto the hard wooden floor. She cried out because it hurt her, Ella Ride, who had never been physically hurt in her thirteen years of life. None of them had ever been hit by Ari, hurt in any way by him. He was always the one trying to protect them from that, so it was a shock to see him get violent - no matter how small the amount of it was - towards any of the three he called his sisters.

Ari glared at Ella, not caring to help her up like Maya quickly got up to do. And Max didn't move, as Max was staring at her older brother, too shocked by his actions to move in any way.

Ari growled, still looking at the smallest of the four Ride siblings, "Don't you ever say that again! I don't ever want to hear you say it again. I love you three. I love you all so much I would die to keep you happy. But you, Ella Ride! Don't ever say you, any of you, were unwanted sisters to me. Don't say you ruined my life, or you really will be ruining my life! You three are my life. Understand that. Because I do not want to ever hear you speak so sadly about such a thing again, understand?"

They all stared at him, unable to respond. Ari... their older brother. He was never like this, but then again, the words that had been said had never been said before now.

When they didn''t say anything, Ari got even more infuriated with the trio. He bellowed, "Do you understand or have I not made myself clear enough?!"

One by one they all whispered a response.

Ella cried softly into Maya's shoulder and nodded her head, unable to speak coherent words as Maya whispered but a single word, "Yes."

Max steeled herself as she said, "We understand. Now please, Ari. Get the hell out of this room."

"Never again, Ella Ride. Not ever," Ari snarled before walking out of the room and having Max quickly hop up to lock the door in both Maya's room and her own, just in case Ari wanted to come back for anything. When that was done, Max slowly joined her two sisters and rubbed Ella's back as the poor girl sobbed.

Maya looked at Max, "I guess we should get that list done, huh, Max?"

"Yeah," Max nodded slowly, sadly. "I guess so. But you stay here. I'll get the stuff."

When Max said the stuff, she'd meant the notebook and gel pen that Ella had brought with her into the room when she joined them. After Ari's visit, the pen had somehow ended up lodged into the wall near the bedroom door and the notebook was thrown under the bed, some papers folded and ripped. None of the Rides were sure exactly how that had happened, but with any of the Ride siblings fighting in anywhere, there was bound to be something messed up.. that's just how it was.

Max crawled under Maya's bed until she got to the middle before she was able to reach the yellow notebook. After crawling back out, notebook in hand, she hopped on her tip-toes until she was able to pull the orange gel pen from it's place lodged in the wall.

It was time to make their lists...