New chapter is here! And relatively on time! Wooo! Your welcome! It's a little uneventful. There isn't really any action. It's more on normal teenage life as a bird-kid which is pretty fun to write. I really hope you enjoy it. Review and tell me your thoughts. REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!

Also, one other completely irrelevant thing. Do any of you have an Instagram? I'm relatively new to Instagram and not many people at my school have one, so I am lacking in the followers department. I was thinking… what better followers could I have than my fellow fanfictioners!? I love my readers! Sooooo FOLLOW ME! karleighmae15

Or don't! It's okay if you don't! I'll still love you, just thought I'd throw that out there.

READ AND REVIEW!

KarleeRay

"Will you do the talking?" Carter's voice trembles with nerves. I look over to see her picking anxiously at her fingernails.

I return my eyes to the road, doing my best to concentrate because, well, we all know how great a driver I am… Before you ask, no I do not have my license. Sue me. It's not the first time I've broken the law.

"I'll help you where I think you need it," I say finally. "But they aren't going to want to hear it from me. They'll want it straight from the source." I sound as if I know exactly what is about to happen, but to be honest, I don't. Years of leading five goofy 'ole bird kids taught me to always sound confident when I speak, even if I'm not. I don't know what Carter's parents will say. I've never brought an addict out of the closet, so to speak. But I'm leading this girl to do the right thing, and it will soothe her mind if I sound like I have a clue what I'm leading her to.

Carter takes a shaky breath as I maneuver Austin's truck into her driveway. I put the thing in park, slide out the driver side door before Carter can change her mind about the whole thing. I wait impatiently as she slinks out of the passenger side, trots up to me, takes my hand in hers.

"Come on. Chin up. You aren't going in here looking like a lost puppy. You know what you're here to do. You have a mission. Nothing else matters," I tell her, feeling serious déjà vu. How many times had I said that to a flock member when we were on the run? How many times had I, myself, been told that?

Carter swallows, gives a tiny nod, and I march us up the stairs. I start to ring the doorbell but Carter gives a wry smile. "This is my house, Max. I'm not required to ring my own doorbell."

I snort. "Guess you're right."

Her smile vanishes as she pushes open the front door, steps inside. "Mom! I'm home!" She calls. "Max is with me!"

Misses McCoy emerges from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. She comes right up to me, pulls me into a hug. She's so much like Carter, with the straight-forwardness and all. "Max! I feel like it's been forever since I've seen your face around here!" She pulls back to beam at me. Carter really is the spitting image of her, with the jet black hair and icy blue eyes. "Come on. Come on. I have potato soup on the burner. You know Mister McCoy, never one for breakfast foods."

We follow her into the kitchen, sit on the barstools at the island. I give Carter a reassuring glance, encourage her to sit up straighter, stop looking like she's carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders… Because I know what that's like, and honey, this can't even compare.

Misses McCoy places an enormous bowl of potato soup in front of me (I've been to this house enough for her to pick up on my eating habits), and a considerably smaller bowl in front of Carter who wrinkles her nose. "No thanks, Mom. Not really hungry."

"Did you already eat?"

Carter swallows, looks into her mother's eyes. "Not but is Dad here? We need to talk."

Misses McCoy gives her daughter a lasting look before starting towards the stairs. "I'll bring your father down."

Carter looks at me desperately. "Max you have to do the talking. I can't do this. I don't want to do this. I change my mind. I'll get help on my own. Please. Let's just go."

I shake my head at her, wolfing down bites of potato soup. "This is the right thing to do," I tell her, trying not to spray. "You're doing it. You can't back out now."

She starts to protest again but is cut off by the entrance of her concerned parents.

"What is it, baby?" Misses McCoy asks, looking as if she almost doesn't want to know.

"Maybe we should all sit, take this to the table," I say, gathering my food and heading to the kitchen table.

Carter sits beside me, and her parents sit down gingerly across from us.

A tense silence fills the air, and Carter shoots me a look full of panic. She nudges my foot under the table as if to say, 'help me'.

I ignore her, stirring my soup around, seeking out more bacon bits. She needs to do this herself.

Finally, Carter opens her mouth. "I….. need help."

I give her a look that says 'Really? That's all you got?'.

Fine. Jeez. Do I have to do everything around here? "Carter has been… having some problems lately… that I think you need to know about," I say slowly, trying to find the right words, the least harmful way to bring about harmful news.

"What kind of problems?" Mister McCoy demands, confusion coloring his distinct features.

I glance at Carter, praying that she'll find her lady balls. Thankfully, she seems to have recovered herself somewhat, and she speaks. "I've been lying to you guys, saying that I went to Max's. Really I've been going to a friend's house across town. They throw really legit parties," She explains as if that makes it all okay. "Um… I did some bad stuff at the parties… I'm not pregnant or anything. Really it was just a few drinks a night…"

Misses McCoy looks appalled. She touches a hand to her heart, staring at her daughter as if she doesn't know who she is. "How could you Carter? We trusted you!"

Mister McCoy just sits back in his chair, crosses his arms over his chest as if he knows there's more to the story.

Carter ignores her mother, plows right on through. "A few drinks at night turned into a few drinks in the morning, a few in the afternoon, and a few more at night. I don't know how it progressed like that without me seeing it, but it did." She breaks off, glances nervously at me. I nod, and she continues, "I tried weed when I was drunk… It was alright. I liked it so I kept doing it… Now I do oxy and ecstasy also… a little crank, I mean meth."

Misses McCoy begins to cry, and Mister McCoy just stares at Carter. He's visibly upset but looks as if part of him suspected this.

Misses McCoy opens her mouth, face twisted in outrage, but Carter cuts her off. "Look I came here so that you guys could get me help! I know it was wrong! I would take it back if I could, but I can't, and you're my parents so just… just help me!"

Not fazed by Carter's desperation, Misses McCoy opens her mouth again to let Carter have it, but she stops, looks at me. "I assume this is your doing, bringing Carter to do the right thing, and I thank you for that. You're a good friend, Max. Carter is fortunate enough to have you, but you shouldn't have to get involved in this. I'll walk you out."

I pat Carter's arm encouragingly as I stand, follow Misses McCoy to the front door. "Thank you," She whispers again. "We'll keep you updated."

"She said she'd keep me posted, but she hasn't even texted me yet! I left at nine this morning! It's 2:30!" I complain to Fang as we walk out of our Basic Hand to Hand Combat Class. We are both drenched in sweat. We'd taken full advantage of "Sparring Day", picking each other as our partners and letting the other have it, full force. I was extremely pleased to see that Fang also felt that because our relationship was more intimate now did not mean to take it easy on the other. When we fought, we fought to win and to make the other better. No cushioning here.

"Look what you did to me!" I accuse, lifting my shirt to show the big purple bruise already forming over my ribs.

Fang shrugs. "You asked for it with that blow to my head. You almost knocked me out."

I glare at him. "I did not."

He simply stares at me.

"Whatever. Why hasn't Carter's mom texted me?!" I demand.

"Maybe she's busy." He slings an arm around my shoulder, pulls my sweaty body close to him as we walk among the mass of students doing their best to get out of the school as fast as possible. I don't miss the way people stare at us, examine the way we interact with each other. Jealousy hangs plainly on some of their faces, loneliness on others'.

"Or maybe she's not going to text me at all. Maybe she just wants me to get lost forever…. Maybe she thinks I'm the one who get Carter into all this stuff!" I exclaim, feeling sort of nauseous and claustrophobic.

Fang chuckles softly as we walk out the front doors of the school. "Stop it, Max."

"You stop it," I counter. He's not really doing anything, but it was the best I could come up with at the moment.

Outside, I scan the groups of kids looking for Nudge, Iggy, and Ella.

"Max!" Nudge yells, squirming through the crowds to get to me.

"Hey sweetie." She wraps my waist in a hug but recoils quickly.

"Yuck! Who was your partner? They must have been good if you're that sweaty!" Nudge trills.

I point to Fang. "Eh, he aight."

She giggles.

"Come on," Fang says. "I see Iggy and Ella."

We follow him through the mass of students until we find Ella and Iggy, standing tensely beside each other, not touching, not talking. Weird. They were usually so lovey-dovey.

Together we walk to the curb, wait for Mom's van to come into view.

I pull Ella away out of earshot of the group, and Nudge follows.

"Everything okay with you and Iggy?" I ask lowly.

"Yeah I thought that was pretty weird too, Max," Nudge pipes up. She turns to Ella. "Usually we can't get you two off of each other and then we walk up and you aren't even looking at each other. It's just so so… not Ella and Iggy, you know what I mean?"

Ella scowls as Mom pulls up beside us. "I'll tell you later."

"Okay spill," I order Ella, flopping down on her bed. She sighs, pauses the TV.

"There's nothing to spill really…"

I roll my eyes. "Are we sisters or not?"

Her shoulders sag. She hates that line, makes her feel guilty. "Look it's just embarrassing, okay?"

I roll onto my back, form shooting my basketball in the air over and over again. "Since when are you embarrassed in front of me?"

Ella sighs. "Fine. Okay. I just don't want you to feel weird because… I don't know. Iggy's like your brother or whatever."

"Go on," I tell her.

"It's nothing really… I'm not even mad at him…." She pauses. "Well okay look, we were making out okay, which is nothing new, but things went a little…. Far."

I nod, pretend like the thought of Iggy having sex isn't absolutely absurd to me. It shouldn't be. He's a teenage boy, and he had always been the most sexist of the flock. Still, the idea seems insane. "Did you do it?"

Ella huffs. "Well we were making out, and he took my shirt off and it was fine. I took his off too, but when he reached down to unbutton my jeans… I don't know, Max. I freaked! I started yelling at him like he had done something wrong! I had no reason to be mad, but I flipped out on the kid!" Ella stands, begins to pace. "It shouldn't have been a surprise to me. We've been dating for a while. I love him. People who are in love show their love. It just caught me off guard, I guess…. But I let him have it, Max! I really did! I even accused him of only wanting to be with me for sex… which is ridiculous, I know," She adds, after I opened my mouth to defend Iggy against that last statement. Iggy is my brother, and I protect my own. "I don't know. We haven't really talked since then, and what you guys walked up on today was just an awkward silence." "Ella, if you aren't ready then you aren't ready," I tell her softly.

"But I am ready…. At least I think I am. I don't know! How did you know you were ready?"

I blink, feeling my face begin to heat. How the hell did Ella know? I hadn't told anyone, not even Mom, though I was fairly sure she knew.

"Oh, please! Give me some credit, Max!" Ella exclaims. "You may be hard to read, but it's like girl code. I read the signs, no matter how secretive they were…. And don't worry. I kept my mouth shut."

I sigh, deciding that it wasn't the end of the world that she knew. "Well, I can tell you this. If you have to ask if you're ready, then you're not ready. I didn't have any doubts when I… well… um my first time."

"Really?" Ella asks. "None?"

I nod. "None at all. It just felt right…" God this is so weird. I don't think I'll ever get used to 'girl talk'.

Ella is quiet for a moment, but her face is full of questions.

"Go on." I say because what the hey? She already knows. "Ask."

"Did it hurt?" She asks, anxiously. "I've heard it does."

I shrug. "Yeah, well kind of, but not for too long… I have a high pain tolerance though so I'm probably not the best person to ask."

Ella nods, soaking in information.

"Alright I'm done here," I say, getting up off the bed. "I'll never get used to girl talk….." I turn to walk out the door.

"But I have more questions!" Ella complains.

"Maybe later…." I consent. "Oh, and Ella? Tell Iggy you aren't ready. He'll understand."

Fang POV

"I don't know, man. Everything was going good, great actually, but I went to take her pants off and she flipped…" Iggy whined, sitting on the edge of Fang's bed. "I mean I thought she was into it. I thought we were on the same page."

Fang frowned. He didn't know what to tell Iggy. Girls were a mystery, puzzles with no clear answers. Fang's mind wandered to Max as it often did. He thought of their first time, of how there were no doubts. Max hadn't flipped out when Fang took off her jeans. They had been completely in sync, on the exact same page, as they always were.

"Fang! Are you listening?" Iggy asked, raising his sightless eyes.

"Yep."

"Well what am I supposed to do? I wasn't trying to pressure her. We didn't have to have sex. I mean, I wanted to. Oh God, I wanted to, but if I thought that she didn't want to, I never would have taken it that far!"

Fang sighed, thinking hard for Iggy's benefit. "I don't know, dude. Maybe she just wasn't ready and didn't know how to… reject you."

Iggy scowled. "So what now?"

"Just talk to her," Fang answered.

"What's it like?" Iggy asked suddenly.

"What?"

"Sex," Iggy said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Fang supposed he shouldn't be surprised that Iggy knew about he and Max. Next to Max, Iggy knew Fang best. Plus, he was a teenage boy. He understood on a better level than the others.

Fang considered his answer. Finally, he smirked. "Let's just say… It's exactly what it's cranked up to be… and maybe even a little more."

Iggy practically salivated. Fang watched as he threw his head back and groaned. "I just had to pick a girl with morals."

Fang smirked. "Your day will come."

"Hell yeah it will," Iggy confirmed.

Fang could scarcely make out the sound of Max's voice in Ella's room, and he wondered if Max was in the same situation as he was, considering that Ella probably had stuff to spill about their fight too. It was almost a tease, hearing her near, but not being able to see her, to touch her.

Fang shook his head at himself. Whipped. He was 100% whipped. Macho Man Fang. Totally whipped.

Who woulda ever thought?