Hey, sorry I took so long to update. I know you guys want to cause me pain in ways that are unpleasant to think about, but please, I'm updating now. I've just been super busy, so again, I'm sorry. I got some really good suggestions, and I think I'm gonna use some of them. To the person that suggested gym, she'll have that sixth period, but I've decided to be annoying and put her in choir :D

So, I'm just curious but, what exactly is a beta, how do you get one, and do I need one???

Geeze, I just realized that I made Max good at like…EVERYTHING. BUT she's good at everything she does in the books, and in an AU she would have to be good at a lot too, right? I just chose to make her good at artsy stuff too. I'm more of an arts kid, and I felt like since I wasn't having her talk yet, I should find ways for her to remember herself and her old spunk. Sorry if you feel like it's too OOC, if you don't like it, don't read I guess.

Disclaimer: I have no own-age of MR-age

When I looked down at my schedule after lunch, I almost dropped it in shock. I was furious. Beyond furious. What were they thinking? I wanted to run back to the office and demand that they explain themselves.

…So I did. Sort of.

I stalked into the office, found the receptionist that never looked at Fang and me, and slammed my schedule onto her desk. She definitely looked at me now. She glanced up, startled, at the owner of the angry, loud, piece of paper.

"Maximum Ride?" I nodded, instantly wondering how she knew my name. "How may I help you, Miss Ride?" I took a deep breath and pointed to the word 'choir' on my schedule. "Choir? Are you lost? It's just down that hallway," she pointed out one of the office windows towards a hallway. "Last door on the right."

I wasn't exactly sure how to proceed. I hadn't tried to actually communicate with someone in a very long time. Getting my point across to my family and Fang didn't take any work at all. They just knew me, but a complete stranger? I didn't want to write down everything I wanted to say. I simply stared at her for a moment, while she stared confusedly back at me, before nodding my thanks and following her directions.

I trudged down the hallway, head down, jumping out of the way of people that might walk into me. When I finally got to the edge of the hall that the receptionist lady pointed too, I realized that the hall was practically deserted. There were a few other children scurrying to the room at the end of the hall, but other than that I could finally walk without bumping into anyone.

When I reached the classroom and opened the heavy wooden door, all I could hear was sound. I couldn't make out specific voices, because it seemed that everyone in the room was talking, singing, playing piano, throwing paper, and laughing at once. It was so loud that for a moment all I could do was stand in the doorway and stare.

"You must be Max." A young man with short black hair and a trimmed black beard asked me kindly. I nodded. "I'm Mr. Harrison your choir teacher. I've been told that you are not speaking at this point." Again, I nodded. "I bet you're wondering why they put you in choir, aren't you?" I hid a small smirk and nodded. "I have no idea, but you're welcome in this room anytime. Until you feel up to singing, I don't mind if you sit in the back and do homework, or if you want, you can just watch, okay?"

I liked this man. He seemed to understand me very well considering that he just met me. He handed me an assigned choir folder with all of the music in it and told me that I could have a seat. I glanced wearily at the piano that someone was trying to play in the middle of the room. I wondered briefly if I could pick it back up again after two years of not practicing.

Before dad died, I had been way into the arts. My dad loved it and got me as many lessons, for everything that he could, as he could. That's why I was able to do almost everything. I could dance, I'd taken a few vocal lessons, I played the piano, and I even took some drawing classes. I loved all of it, but for two years all I'd done was a few half hazard sketches in notebooks when no one was bothering me, and of course I practiced dancing almost every day.

The rest of class was pretty boring. I felt…weird. I had been restrained from doing these things that I loved, and now I finally had the chance to do them, and I wasn't. I wasn't singing. I wasn't playing piano. I tried not to listen to the rest of the class singing as I grabbed a pen and sketched the kid at the piano. Apparently the teacher didn't play, and the one student that did had only been taking lessons for about six months.

When the bell rang for sixth period, and I shuffled out of the room and took off in search of gym. Fang found me in the hall and waved me over. I remembered then that we had gym together and brightened up a bit.

"Almost everyone that takes gym has it the same period. As you can tell, we're a pretty small school, and they only offer gym sixth and seventh period. Iggy is in this class too." I shrugged. "Can I tell him?" I shook my head no. "He deserves to know."

I gave Fang a skeptical look like, What did he do to DESERVE to know? Fang rolled his eyes, but I knew the argument wasn't over yet.

The teacher beamed at Fang when we walked in. I found this odd. I mean, Fang was athletic but he wasn't exactly personable. The coach trotted up to us, carrying his clipboard and whistle.

"You Max?"

You speak in complete sentences? I nodded.

"You have clothes to change into?"

That would be a negative on speaking in complete sentences. You have brain capacity above caveman? I could see why Fang and this coach got along. Fang answered 'no' for me.

"There are some school issued shorts and t-shirts in the dressing rooms." He added, pointing towards the girls dressing rooms. I nodded in thanks and went to change. I found a pair of sweatpants instead of basketball shorts, to hide the leftover bruises on my legs, and an oversized t-shirt. I found a stall and changed as quickly as possible.

When I returned to the gym the rest of the class was in a giant circle and stretching. Lissa was in that class, and she was chatting loudly with some of her other loud annoying friends. Ari was there too, but he hadn't seen me yet. I had a sneaking suspicion that he did see me and was simply biding his time until he could catch me alone again.

"Today we're going to race the mile. I know that all of you can run it in at least 11 minutes, so we're going to have a bit of a challenge. Whoever crosses the finished line first gets to pick the activity for tomorrow. Let's head out to the track."

We trudged out to the outside track. I was suddenly glad that I was wearing comfortable shoes. We lined up behind the starting line, and I glanced at Fang. He nodded. It was so easy to revert back to our old ways. We were competitive, and I was calling this race mine. I stretched my legs a bit.

"For Max, four laps make a mile." I took a spot next to Fang in the back. We could pass the rest of these kids easily. "Ready," I glanced at Fang again and gave the tiniest of smirks. I would win. "Get set." He rolled his eyes and jabbed his thumb at his chest. He thought he could beat me? "Go!"

Everyone took off. Of course, a lot of kids started out very quickly and then had to stop to walk for a second. Fang and I started off sprinting, but unlike most of these kids we had a weird almost inhuman stamina. We were tied at the end of the first lap. I almost giggled when I lapped Lissa. She scowled. Iggy was not incredibly far behind us, but he couldn't seem to quite keep up. Fang's eyes were alight, he must not have had anyone to run with when I was gone. I wondered again why it took him so long to find me.

We were still tied at the second lap, and I was starting to feel my muscles warm back up to the rhythm of running. It felt great. I hadn't run so fast and so long in what felt like years. I glanced at Fang again, and he smirked at me. He'd been holding back, waiting for me to get back into the familiar pattern of feet on pavement. We picked up speed at the same time. Now the race was really on. We left Iggy, who had been trailing us by about nine yards, in the dust.

He was half an inch ahead of me at the third lap. I rolled my eyes. I could run faster than this. I did too. It was like breathing for the first time after almost drowning to death. We were halfway through the third lap when I passed him. I turned backwards mid-sprint and gave a girly wave. He rolled his eyes, but I was already turned back around gaining speed at every footfall.

I beat him by about six yards, but I didn't stop when I hit the finish line. The coach called me the winner in a loud, booming voice as I passed him. I kept running a sixth lap. Fang was trying desperately to catch up with me, but gave up halfway through the seventh. I sprinted two more laps before I was finally spent. As I passed the finish line I skidded to a clumsy halt and jogged to Fang for a water bottle.

"I thought you might never stop." Fang said as he handed it to me. I almost grinned, and I had to fight not to. I was sweating like a pig and breathing heavily, but I didn't care. It felt great to just run. It felt like some of the fire I'd forgotten I had came back. Most of the other kids were still running. I glanced at Fang in confusion. How fast had I been going? "You ran 2 and a quarter miles in about 8 minutes."

"It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen," said the coach jogging up to us. "Would you be interested in joining the track team?" I shrugged.

"There's Miss-Showoff!" Lissa accused, sauntering across the finish line for the last time. I took a threatening step towards her before I could catch myself. She took an intimidated step back and one corner of my mouth twitched in another almost smile. The fire grew.

"Go get changed! You'll find out what Max picked tomorrow!" The coach bellowed. Then to me he asked, "what do you pick for tomorrow?" I glanced at Fang.

"Usual?" He asked, knowing my train of thought without me having to do a thing. I nodded and left while he told the coach.

Fang and Iggy were both in my Study hall as well. I read a book, to the surprise of Fang. I didn't want to have to pass note with him. Even writing down what I wanted to say seemed too tangible right now. I pondered again why I refused to talk. At first, I'd stopped because I thought that if I didn't talk about my dad dying, it wouldn't be true. It became almost a crutch after that. If I didn't talk, I didn't have to deal with people. When Walter came into our lives, I refused to speak just to be obstinate. I didn't want to let him win. Now, I was just trying to find my voice again, and though I never wanted to admit it, I was afraid.

Finally, finally, the bell rang for seventh period to be over. I followed Fang to our lockers and grabbed the books I needed. I waited for him to finish, we found my sisters and Nudge, and finally headed home. It was mostly awful, and I hated it, but I was a little proud that I'd successfully finished my first day of school in a year.

SO HA! She has now been through her first day of school. I know what I want to do now, I just need to pace it out and figure out how to write it :D I'll try to never ever keep you guys waiting for so long again.

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