I promised a doublé update, and here it is! I'm only sorry it wasn't sooner. Band and choir concerts were this week, as were playoffs for school soccer, along with normal soccer practice everyday. We played championships today, and lost 3-2. =( Oh well. We dominated.

Enjoy!

(Oh, and PurpleTea88, is this spacing better? I'm not sure if it'll work…) Fixed as of 11/21/12

MPOV

I ran into Miss James' class a mere ten seconds before the bell rang. Speed walking as fast as I could, I raced up the aisle and fell into my chair next to Fang just as the bell sounded. Miss James smiled at me from her desk. "Nice save, Max," she commented, marking something on her roll sheet. I grinned back, pushing my hair back behind my ears.

"Thanks, Miss James," I replied somewhat breathlessly. Fang coughed loudly, and I elbowed him in the ribs. He simply smirked back at me. Impudent boy. "I'm so psyched about soccer," I muttered to Fang, using the announcements as cover to whisper to him. Fang nodded, an actual smile gracing his face for a moment. I had to grin back at him. Fang's smile was contagious.

"I can't wait to see the line up Coach will use," he replied in a low voice. I nodded in agreement. I had been wondering that too. Gazzy would probably be either center forward or center halfback, that was obvious. But where would the rest of us be? I didn't know half the people who had made the team, since my friend group at Cromwell consisted largely of the people I had met my first day. Over the two weeks Ella and I had been here, Ella had befriended at least half of the freshman population, whereas I had made about six or seven friends. I was loosely friends with Matt and Lucas, better friends with Max II, JJ, and Terra, and closest with Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Fang. Matt, Max II, and Lucas were fun soccer buddies, and Terra and JJ were cool to hang out with. However, Nudge was the sweetest girl I had ever met, Iggy helped me survive through history with his jokes about Ms Hell, and I felt like I really connected kinesthetically with Gazzy. And Fang... Fang was my best friend. In two weeks, he had managed in his quiet, persistent way to get closer to me than any of my friends ever had before. Not even my old best friend from Nevada, Linnie, knew me as well as Fang did now, and I had been friends with Linnie for five years. Fang was Fang.

"Earth to Maximum," Fang intoned, waving a hand in front of my face. "Hello? Anyone in there?" Fang rapped against my head with one hand. I rubbed my head, scowling at him.

"I was thinking. Maybe you should try it sometime," I shot back at him. Fang rolled his eyes.

"Thinking is overrated. I'm a non-conformist," he replied airily, flipping his hair. I snorted in reply.

The day passed by relatively quickly. Science was uneventful, since Mr Lundom had lectured us on frog anatomy for most of the period, while the class simply spaced out. In PE, Mr Tulney had actually specifically congratulated Gazzy, Nudge and I in front of the class for making the school soccer team, which had been cool. Unfortunately though, he then surprised us with fitness testing. Mrs Aivels had us sweating over complex algebraic equations for the entire period during math, and Terra had nearly fainted from boredom. We survived into English though, where Ms Niota had sympathetically assigned quiet reading on the class book for the period. It was nice to just sit there and read, relaxing for awhile. However, that relaxation was ruined the moment I stepped into history class. My morning went from boring calm to interestingly spitfire.

Ten minutes into class, Ms Hell sent Iggy out of the room for impudence. She let him stew in the hallway for half the period before allowing him back in, and sent him out again three minutes later for 'disrupting the peace'. Then, after she allowed him back in for the second time, Iggy set up shop with a paper airplane business.

"Mr Fields! We do not build and or fly paper airplanes during class!" Ms Hell scolded shrilly, crossing her arms.

"But they're important to my learning process!" Iggy protested, lobbing another plane into the air.

"Mr Fields!" Ms Hell shrieked, looking appalled. "This behavior is atrocious!"

"Your face is atrocious," Iggy muttered, sightlessly staring down his last airplane with a mutinous expression on his pale face. I coughed, trying to hide the smile forming on my face.

"You can't even see her face," I reminded him, nudging my elbow into his ribs. A slight, sardonic smile crept onto his face.
"I still know it's atrocious," he retorted. I snorted in reply.

"What was that, Mr Fields, Ms Ride?" Ms Hell's voice was sharp.

"Nothing," Iggy replied sweetly. I nodded vigorously. Just as Ms Hell was about to turn around and get back to teaching, Iggy lifted his last airplane. I grabbed his arm, but he shook me off, throwing the airplane with pinpoint precision directly at Ms Hell. She turned at the last second, and opened her mouth to scold Iggy again. I closed my eyes and sank down in my chair, unable to watch.

"Mr Fields! This is en-mmph!" Ms Hell's loud, shrill voice was suddenly halted, and a few daring giggles sounded around the room. I opened one cautious eye, only to find Ms Hell yanking a paper airplane out of her mouth. Iggy had somehow managed to fly his creation right between her teeth, literally.

He was gonna get in trooouuubblee.

"MR FIELDS! GO TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE, IMMEDIATELY!" Ms Hell pointed one quivering finger at the door, disregarding the fact Iggy couldn't see it anyway. With a slight smirk on his face, he slowly stood up. "Now," Ms Hell added in a hiss.

Iggy took his time sauntering out of the room, fully aware that all eyes were on him.

Idiotic git. I would have to speak with him later.

Ms Hell continued droning on and on about some war or another, but I didn't pay attention. I was too worried about Iggy. I had only known him for two weeks, true, but I felt like I knew him well enough to know one thing. Iggy wasn't behaving normally. All of his older friends agreed with me. Fang said he had been friends with Iggy since kindergarten, and this mood was foreign to him. It was very puzzling.

Finally, it was lunch time, and I rocketed out of history as fast as I could. I grabbed my lunch from my locker, collected my materials for art class, and beelined for the lunch room. Nudge, Terra, Ella and Fang were already sitting there, the girls gossiping and Fang quietly eating. I slid in between Ells and Fang, elbowing Fang in greeting and smiling at my sister. Fang shouldered me back without looking up from his sandwich, but I detected a slight smile on his face.

"Max, I'm so excited about soccer!" Ella squealed, bouncing up and down in her seat. I nodded, starting to unwrap a granola bar.

"It's gonna be awesome," I agreed.

"And the three R's are heading the list!" Nudge added, her eyes lit up in excitement. "The mighty trio- Richards, Ride, and Rianild!"

Fang raised an eyebrow, and I almost choked on my food. "Nudge?" I managed to cough out.

"Yes?" she asked, smiling brightly.

"Please don't try to make up a stupid nickname for the three of us," I begged, looking her straight in the eye. Nudge's smile only grew.
"That's a great idea, Max! How about, the Rampant R's? No, no, that's too cheesy. And creepy. Hmm... What about, the Terrific Triad of Teammates? Eww, nevermind. That's just plain barf worthy. What about-"

"Thanks, Ride. You're a genius," Fang muttered, shoving me into Ella. I immediately pushed him back.

"Shut up," I grumbled. "I tried to avoid this."

"Tried, and failed."

"I said to shut up."

"I didn't listen."

"Oh, shut up."

"Now you're repeating yourself, Ride."

"Stop calling me Ride!"

"Will you guys stop flirting for a second?" Ella interrupted, grinning cheekily. Immediately, I stiffened, suddenly unable to look at Fang anymore. Fang just rolled his eyes and fell silent. Ella smiled. "Peace and quiet."

I ignored her.

Abruptly, the doors to the cafeteria flew open, and Iggy marched in with Gazzy, Matt, and Lucas. The former was looking pleased with himself, but the other three did not seem happy.

"What's up?" I asked Gazzy as he sat down across from Fang at the table. Gaz didn't even look up, ferociously tearing the plastic wrap around his sandwich.

"Iggy is an idiot," he muttered. Matt and Lucas nodded simultaneously, both looking peeved.

"Tell me something I don't know," I replied, watching Iggy sit down next to Terra. "What did he do now?"

"Almost got us suspended, that's what," Matt groaned, leaning back from the table. My jaw dropped.

"What? How?" I asked. Lucas muttered something under his breath, but none of the three would clarify. "Iggy needs to see a counselor," I grumbled, tearing a bite out of my sandwich. "He has issues."

"You're right," Fang said suddenly, looking up at me. I raised an eyebrow, startled by his sudden entrance into the conversation.
"What am I right about now?" I asked.

"Igs seeing a counseler. Maybe he needs to talk to someone," Fang reasoned. Gazzy snorted.

"I can't picture Iggy talking freely to a stranger therapist. You know what he always says," Gazzy reminded him. "'What do you get if you take away the first three letters of 'therapist'?'" he mimicked Iggy in a surprisingly good imitation of his voice.

Matt nearly choked on his sandwich in surprise.

"Dude!" Matt coughed, trying to remove the sandwich from his lungs. "Don't do that! It's majorly creepy."

"What, this?" Gazzy asked in my voice. I gaped at him.

"How did you...?" I trailed off, staring incredulously at Gazzy.

"I'm always right," Gazzy replied, still using my voice. "Because I'm Maximum Ride."

Fang hid a grin behind his hand, and Matt and Lucas burst out laughing. I reached over and batted the side of Gazzy's head with the back of my hand. "Stop that," I ordered, trying not to smile. Gazzy grinned cheekily back at me.

"Okay, fine," he said, switching to Nudge's voice. Nudge's head snapped up as she looked over to see us holding our sides and laughing as Gazzy mimicked her perfectly. "Like, ZOMG that is such a cute skirt! I have to buy it! And, like, fifty million others in different shades of purple!"
"That was one time!" Nudge argued, grinning.

"Well, whatever then. You win some, you lose some, you go home and eat bacon," Gazzy sighed in Terra's voice. He carried on like this for quite awhile, switching voices until he had mimicked everybody at the table. That boy was gifted.

In the midst of the hilarity, Max II had entered the cafeteria. He sat down quietly at one end of the table, not the barest hint of a smile on his lips. Gazzy walked over to him, grinning broadly. "Hey, why the long face?" Gazzy asked him in Max II's own voice.

Max II didn't even look up.

Gazzy looked worried, and sat down next to him. "Really, what's up?" Gaz asked, using his own voice for the first time in over five minutes. I was frankly surprised he hadn't forgotten how to use it.

Max II shrugged, continuing to eat. The laughter at the table died down as we all looked curiously over at Max II. He seemed really upset. "Max?" Lucas asked quietly. "You okay?"

Max II stood up abruptly, not looking any of us in the eye. "I'm not hungry," he muttered, walking away and leaving the room. We all looked around at each other, thoroughly confused. What was wrong with him?

"I'll go check to see what's wrong," I offered, standing up. Fang quickly rose too, and I gave him a questioning glance.
"I'll come with," he murmured, tossing the his empty lunch bag in the trash.

"Okay," I agreed slowly, wondering why Fang was suddenly so concerned about Max II. I had gotten the impression Fang didn't really care for him, so this was slightly surprising. "Let's go."

We walked out of the cafeteria I'm silence, glancing around for Max II. He was nowhere to be seen in the hallway. "I'll check the bathroom," Fang murmured, slipping inside the boy's restroom. I waited patiently outside for a moment until he emerged, shaking his head. Without another word, we continued looking for Max II.

Finally, our search ended in the science hallway. Max II was sitting against the wall, his head in his hands and his binder lying in front of him. I silently sat down next to him, and Fang stood in front of us. "Hey," I said softly, breaking the silence. "What's wrong?"

Max II was quiet for a moment, not moving. I was about to think he wasn't going to respond at all when he lifted his head. Max II looked directly in my eyes, and sighed. It was a sad sigh, and I immediately felt depressed as a result. What could he be so upset about?

"I didn't make the team," Max II mumbled, his voice hoarse and weak. I immediately understood, feeling exceedingly stupid. Of course. Max II had specifically told ms he was looking forward to tryouts, and now I had completely forgotten. I had been so excited about Ella and Nudge making the team, and about getting to play with Fang and Gazzy, that I hadn't even noticed the absence of Max II's name from the roster this morning. What a great friend I was.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I know," he replied, sounding as if he was struggling to speak. "Can you just... leave for a minute? I just need a sec."

"Of course," I agreed instantly. "But Fang and I are right here for you."

Max II made a sound that seemed to challenge that statement, but fell silent again. I lifted my hand from his shoulder, quietly standing up and grabbing Fang's wrist. I tugged him down the hallway, leaving Max II huddled by Mr Lundom's classroom. "I feel stupid," I confessed in a hushed voice, letting go of Fang's wrist as we turned a corner. Fang nodded, looking more solemn than usual. "I would die if I didn't make the team- I can't imagine how Max II feels right now."

Fang remained silent.

"Thank you for your wisdom," I told him sarcastically. Fang cracked a small smile at me.

"Art?" he suggested. I nodded. And with that, we continued down the hallway to go to art class. I felt too subdued to play soccer with the rest of the guys like nothing was wrong, while Max II wallowed in sorrow in the science hallway. I didn't blame him about being upset, not at all, but his mood had affected me too. I was just glad I had made the team.

But I couldn't help but get the feeling that there was a conflict rising between Fang and Max II... It was just the way they acted around each other. I glanced at Fang, who was staring stoically straight ahead as we walked. He might seem intimidating to any casual observer, but I had actually witnessed him allowing his little sister to braid his long, dark hair into multiple pigtails. Fang was kind of a softie, once you got past his emotionless exterior. And Max II didn't seem any worse, as far as I could tell. I didn't see why he and Max II clashed.

Boys were so confusing.

Review please! Oh, and does anyone have suggestions for Nudge to use in her attempt to find a nickname for Richards, Ride, and Rianild? Special dedication to those with good ideas! =D

~TMI~