Disclaimer: James Patterson owns Maximum Ride. I don't.

Also, a big "Thank You!' to my beta reader. The suggestions helped a lot.

.oO0Oo.

"Come on, Max. We have a guest," Iggy grabbed my elbow and steered me into the middle of the room. He pushed me towards Fang."Be nice."

Fang stuck out his hand for me to shake. I wrinkled my nose and stared at his hand for a few seconds before Iggy elbowed me in the ribcage and, with a small yelp because Iggy is notorious for having very bony elbows, I shook Fang's hand.

"It's nice to see you again," Fang said with a wink. I tried not to vomit.

"I wish I could say the same," I spat at him.

Fang smirked and sat down on the couch, lazily putting his feet up on the coffee table.

I looked at Iggy and grabbed his sleeve, pulling him into our mom's office.

"Woah." He stumbled. "What did you do that for?"

"I needed to talk to you," I whispered. "Privately."

He leaned against the wall and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Shoot."

"How could you invite him? You know we don't get along!" I was practically shouting as I paced back and forth on the carpet. "He doesn't deserve to be here."

Iggy shrugged and put his hands on my shoulders. "Max, I know you hate him. And I know that he broke your heart. But trust me on this, it's about time you guys started over. Do you know why I invited him? He's supposed to be on vacation with Lisa. She dumped him and sent him home. He can't go to his own house because his parents are away on vacation and they're having the house renovated."

I sighed. "Fine. Fang can stay."

"Thanks," said Iggy as he went to rejoin the people in the living room.

I took a few deep breaths and tried not to let my head explode. I leaned against my mom's desk. Fang and Lisa broke up? After all this time? I frowned. The next three days were going to be awful.

"So what should we do now?" I asked, striding into the living room.

"I don't know," said Ella. "Mom left a list of things on the kitchen counter."

I raised an eyebrow at her and went to go find the list. The list turned out to be a three page manual for Iggy and I about things that would be happening over the next few days. I skimmed over the majority of it because it was pretty much how things normally go. But I gasped when I saw the big bold letters at the bottom of the page:

DON'T FORGET: Angel's birthday party is on Saturday. There is an entertainer coming at noon. She'll handle everything.

I bit my lip. Wouldn't it have been nice of mom to tell me this before? I called Iggy over and quickly read the list to him.

"So we have to keep a bunch of six year old girls happy until the entertainer gets here?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Well, that'll be fun!" he said with a sarcastic smile.

.oO0Oo.

We spent the next hour and a half playing Candy Land. Don't ask, it was Angel's idea and she had hidden the TV remote and refused to tell us where it was unless we played at least three rounds of her favorite board game. It was almost noon by the time we finished the game. Angel had pulled the remote out from under the couch and was in the process of handing it to me when Nudge snatched it out of Angel's hand.

"How about we play another game instead of watching TV," Nudge suggested as she shoved the remote into her back pocket.

Iggy leaned back against the back of the couch. "What kind of game do you have in mind?"

"It's called 'House'." Nudge wiggled her eyebrows. "Two of us get to be the mom and dad and the rest of us are their kids. We could play it until Mom gets back."

"And who would be the mom and dad?" Iggy mused.

"Well, Max would have to be the mom. She's the oldest girl," Angel said as she crawled into my lap.

"And Fang could be the dad!" Ella exclaimed. Fang got really pale and he looked a bit like he was choking.

No way was I going to let Nudge talk me into this. It was a bad idea. Nudge's ideas usually ended up with someone in tears, a fire, or someone getting their eyebrows singed off. I wasn't going to let her do this. Fang was not going to be the dad.

"No." I tried to keep myvoice steady. Kids can sense fear. "This is a bad idea."

Angel turned around in my lap and started giving me Bambi eyes."Please, Max," she said. "It's only for a few days."

I groaned, knowing I would regret this later. "Fine. We can play house."

"Yay!" Nudge bounced up and down on her heels and clapped her hands.

Oh no. What had I gotten myself into?