Disclaimer: I do not, in fact, own Maximum Ride. Yes, I know, what a surprise.

Pretending to be surprised is surprisingly hard. Well, I suppose that that's not the hard part. The hard part is not letting on that you know something before you have to pretend to be surprised. Today was July 29, the day I had picked for my birthday. For the past month, it was obvious my flock had been planning something they intended to keep a secret from me. Of course, they couldn't keep it a secret for long.

About two weeks ago I'd heard Angel, Nudge, and Fern conspiring about my surprise party. They'd been hoping that they could manage to hook me up with Talon, one of the wolf kid members of our flock. I'd have to avoid that encounter. Those three would find a way to make it as awkward as possible, and I don't even like Talon as a friend. He gets too violent and hostile a lot of the time.

Once, my voice had told me to respect my enemies, to realize that they were the same as us, and to see their weaknesses as not only a good way to attack them, but a good way for them to attack us. When I'd told the flock about it, Talon had instantly reared up, shouting that we were nothing like them, and how dare my voice even say such a thing. It'd taken both of the tiger human members of our flock to calm him down.

Yes, I said tiger human. Although I've been referring to us as a flock, we're not really. Not all of us are bird kids. But it's essentially the same as a flock. We travel together, look out for each other, take care of each other. But with so many different species, we figured it was better to just let us call us whatever the species you were would. So to the wolf kids we were a pack, the plant kids we were a garden, to the fish kids we were a school, (why they insist on using school after where we escaped from, I'll never know) to the tiger kids we were a streak, and to the bird kids we were a flock.

Our flock wasn't really that big, though with so many species of human you would think so. We even had a few humans. We had two plant kids, Fern and Frond, two tiger kids, Pocket and Stripe, two fish kids, Aqua and Fin, two wolf kids, Talon and Priam, three humans, Jack, Joe, and Tim, and four bird kids, me, Angel, Nudge, and the Gasman. We had sixteen members, and I was fairly sure the other flock had fifteen.

Okay, I got a little sidetracked there. But anyway, I didn't want to disappoint my flock, I knew they'd be so excited about finally planning something for me, and I didn't want to ruin their fun. Trouble is, every once in a while, I'd almost mention that I didn't want to be hooked up with Talon at the party, or whatever. I figured I could do a decent "surprised" face.

So now I'm sitting here with Pocket, whose going on about how obvious it was I knew. Apparently, if you say one morning, "Wow. You're all being very secretive. I wonder if you are planning some kind of surprise…" is a giveaway. Although, Pocket does say that she appears to be the only person with enough observation skills to have noticed that I knew. I told her not to tell anyone, and she'd been surprised.

"What? And ruin all their fun? It might make Angel, Fern, and Nudge depressed enough to stop trying to get you alone with Talon. Trust me, watching you avoid it is about as much entertainment as there's been around here since the time they locked you in a closet with Frond and left you there all night."

"That wasn't funny. He wouldn't stop whining about how boring it was. And when he fell asleep, he drooled on my shoulder."

"I know," Pocket replied happily, "Watching you chase those three down was the fun part. They laughing so hard that they tripped over each other, and you were so tired, you could stay straight up for the entire chase. Funniest thing I've seen in my life. Not that that's saying much. Not much to laugh at in our lives."

I frowned. She was referring, of course, to our time at the school. Experiments, tests, living in dog crates way too small, hearing the shrieks from the testing room next door. For most of us, our time there had become a broken, fragmented bunch of memories, but one of Pocket's skills was both a blessing and a curse. She could remember anything perfectly. Useful when we get to a new territory. Unimaginably painful for her, because the memories of the school wouldn't, couldn't, fade away.

She actually handled it well. Better than I would have, anyway. She seemed to have a natural happiness that overshadowed the painful memories most of the time. However, occasionally, she'd close her eyes and wince, and I'd know she was stuck in one of those horrible crystal-clear memories that wouldn't go away.

The rest of the night had gone well. I'd only been cornered once, and two seconds later, dinner was announced. We had hamburgers, and as to how they got the meat, I didn't really want to ask. They might have held a lemonade stand or something, but I doubted it.

By the end of the evening, I was full, happy, and grateful to be the accepted leader of such a great group of mutants like me.

MR

I watched my flock quietly. Some had anxious faces, others grieving, a few impassive, and most impatient. Mane had said that today was the birthday of the other flock's leader. Her name was something like Matt. Some kind of boy name. But he'd said that the flock would likely hold some kind of party to celebrate it. A few members of the flock had said that today would be a good day to attack, to strike back for the lost battle two weeks ago. They wouldn't see it coming, be prepared, amidst all their merriment. But some of our members were still injured, and we would have to travel to get there. Even if it might benefit us, no one was going to be left behind. Not as long as I was in control.

Which, judging by some of these expressions, might be challenged, I mused. I wasn't worried about it though. Those strong enough to stand a chance against me were happy with my decision. It didn't really matter, though. If someone thought they could do better, they could give it a shot. Its not as easy as it looks.

"Why are we just sitting here?!" Mane finally shouted. "We should be attacking! Taking revenge!" Mane had been especially hostile towards her former flock. She's not happy she was exiled; I can read it in her face. She really wishes she were back with them, which would be enough for me to exile her without question, but she needed someone to keep her safe. And she wasn't planning on turning on us, I could tell.

"I already answered that." I said quietly. I didn't need to speak louder, anyway. Everyone would still hear me. "We can't leave our injured here. What if the school comes looking and finds them? Or if that party Mane says they'll have extends into our borders? We'd be jeopardizing some of our own flock. No. We wait until everyone's fully healed before we attack."

"Then we should be planning!" I looked to who had spoken. Sarah. One of the humans in our flock. They'd been kept at the school for comparative testing, seeing how humans responded to the same tests we were given. She'd been one of the humans to survive long enough to be there for The Great Breakout.

We always called it that. The Great Breakout. Both flocks had managed to get away when they'd put all of us into one testing room. I figured they'd wanted to see how we reacted to each other. But one of the girls from the other flock had shouted some gibberish and her flock had all screamed and charged. Everyone else followed the lead and managed to charge out of there with no casualties. After that, the two groups had separated and gone away.

"That we can do," I murmured. Iggy, the only other bird kid in my flock, spoke up.

"Lets try to gather what we know about the other flock. The idea Mane had would have been good if we didn't have injured flock members." A lot of people looked up in interest. We'd never really thought about trying real tactics. Mostly, it was practice technique, and when we ran into each other attack.

"Well. Today's Max's birthday." Dream stated. Everyone glanced around.

"And that's about it." Wake said after a few moments' pause. Some looked over to Mane, expecting her to add something. She'd been the most recent person to come over, so she'd know the most.

"What? I told you about Max's birthday. I'm not a total traitor. I'm not saying anything else." A few of us nodded. We understood. A flock was like a family. Even if you are kicked out, you don't just go giving away secrets. And we didn't want anyone from our flock going and telling them our secrets. I knew even if some thought she should tell us, they wouldn't push.

"I've got an idea." Jim spoke up. Another non-mutant. "Why don't we send one of us over there." Most stared incredulously at him. "I'm serious!" he said defensively. "We can have one of us go over there and pretend to be exiled. They'll most likely accept them like we did Mane. Then they could learn about the flock, and eventually meet back up with us. They'd tell us all we need to know, and we could get back at them." I heard various murmurs of assent. This was a good idea. And whoever it was wouldn't have attachment to the flock, as they wouldn't be a real member. At least to them. To the flock, they'd have to be.

"Wait!" Dream said. "It would take at least a little bit before they would trust whoever we send. We'd have to attack by then! Our injured pride members will be healed within two days! And how's our spy supposed to attack his own pride members?"

"It won't be hard. Just go easy on us. They'd do fine. And we'd know to go easy on them. Make it like a spar. We spar all the time." Fred stated. Dream seemed appeased.

"That should work. I should have thought of that."

"I'll do it." I said. I'd been thinking about who should go since they started. Everyone turned and gaped at me.

"But you're our leader!" Kin protested in his little six year old voice.

"Which means I'd have the best excuse for exile. Say whoever I put in charge overtook me, and didn't want my threat to remain." I could see a lot of frowns, but I could tell that most thought it was a good idea.

"That makes sense." Red said. Everyone seemed to support the idea, as most the frowns disappeared.

"Who do you put in charge then?" Iggy asked. I could tell he wasn't happy with losing his only fellow bird kid.

"You." I replied. "You're the next oldest, and even though you're blind, you can hold your own in a fight. Plus, you know my fighting style. They'd believe that you overtook me." Iggy was still uncomfortable, but I could see that he was a little pleased at the praise. I stood up.

"I'm going to bed. I suspect being exiled might take some energy, so I'm going to get some sleep. Night."