A/N This story is basically Maximum Ride characters in the Cinderella story. Read a fan fiction about Harry Potter in the Cinderella universe and thought it might be cute for Maximum Ride too. )
Prince Fang, 16, 17
Cinderella Max, 17
Stepmother Marian Janssen
Stepsister 1 Lissa, 18
Stepsister 2 Tess, 19
Foreign Princess Ella, 15
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Other characters:
Max's brothers:
Iggy, 16 (haven't reached his birthday)
Gasman, 11
Max's sisters:
Nudge, 14
Angel, 9
Reviews please!
Chapter 1
Siblings, Maximum, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman and Angel, lost their father two years ago of colon cancer after he remarried a rich lady who had two daughters, Lissa and Tess. All three of them are stingy, proud, and vain. They make the five youngest occupants of the house do all the housework, while they spend hours primping themselves for no one in particular. The siblings' mother died of grief after her youngest child, Angel, got taken by the School, where they graft into innocent infants DNA of other animals, just like the others before her. Their father managed to help them escape when Max's tenth birthday was near, and taught them the necessary skill needed in everyday life.
"Nicholas, you will have to find a bride by your coming birthday," the queen said exasperatedly. The seventeen year old prince, Nicholas, twiddled with the hem of his robes.
"I know, mother, but I don't want to get married. Why can't I just lead a country myself? Is it compulsory to have a woman beside you all the time? I mean, I don't even have time to get to know them properly! You never let me out of the castle! And by the way, just call me Nick."
"Son, we've been through this many times. You cannot lead a country by yourself. It is compulsory to have a wife. It's the law. And you cannot be called Nick," the king said strictly.
Nick retorted, "What if I said I wanted to marry a common peasant or something?"
"Then we will let you marry her," said the king gravely, having thought everything out, "Your mother and I have agreed to hold a ball in your honour and invite every young lady fifteen and above. If you cannot make your choice by the end of the night, you will marry Princess Ella from our neighbouring country, thus making us one. Do you understand?"
"Yes, father," the young prince whispered to no one in particular.
"Good," his father roared, "the preparations for the ball will begin tomorrow and it will be held a week later on the night before your birthday."
Nick sighed and flopped onto his bed and shut his eyes, trying to bring up the memory of the only time he had met a person of the opposite sex other than his mother or the vicious kitchen cook.
He was only ten, but he decided to explore life outside the castle. He had made friends with one of the servant boys, who lent him some ordinary clothes to wear instead of his rich robes.
He remembered starting to skip the moment he was out of the castle grounds, taking in everything that sang with a melodious voice and had vibrant color. He couldn't understand why ordinary people wanted to live in that dull palace of his.
He plucked wild berries and popped them into his mouths, treaded on the ground in the early days of spring, and made a friend from the outside world who looked about the same age as he.
"Hello," the girl said brightly, waving a hand full of ripe berries she had plucked.
"Hi," Nick remembered saying awkwardly, not knowing how to react around normal people.
The girl laughed it off. "I'm Max. Who are you? I've never seen you here before, and I'm usually the only one who bothers coming into this thick undergrowth and trees to collect berries. Are you new here?"
"Yeah, I'm new here," he said, scratching his head slightly, wondering whether he should reveal his name.
"I'll just call you Fang," said Max decisively.
"Fang?" he had asked, nonplussed. "Why?"
"Have you ever looked into a mirror?"
"No. My house is full of them, but I don't really bother much about looks."
"I can tell!" Max giggled. "Well, you've got really sharp teeth that look pretty menacing. If I had seen those on a full grown adult, I think I'd scoot immediately."
He grinned and bared his teeth, trying to look like a vampire thirsty for blood, but failing horribly. He tried to smoothen his black hair but to no avail. They stuck up in whichever direction they pleased, which wasn't really a pretty sight.
Then he chased her about, flapping his arms like a bat would when flying. Max shrieked and laughed heartily, then slowly, he joined in the laughing fest.
They lay on their backs, smiling lazily, and squinted in the bright sunlight, looking at each object in detail, a comfortable silence settling over them. Max studied him closely.
"I think I've seen you somewhere before…" she said, trailing off. Suddenly, she stiffened and shot up.
"Sorry, but I have to go now!" said Max hastily, cold sweat spouting all over her face. He wondered what had suddenly overcome her.
Instinctively, his hand flew to his back and started feeling about. It was well hidden. He sighed with relief. Thank goodness Max hadn't seen them. He watched as she left the forest brisk walking so quickly she was almost running.
As much as he didn't want her to leave, he thought that it was a relief, as his father came riding to him with a worried look on his face which quickly changed to anger when he saw his son, "What do you think you were doing, dressed like that! We've been looking for you for hours! Return to your room. You've been grounded."
The young prince looked at his father and then, not allowing a single emotion to show through, shook his head in defeat and went straight to his room the moment his father set him down from his horse in the castle grounds.
And that was the last time anybody ever saw an emotion reach his eyes, much less his face. Nothing, not even a smile, had passed his face for the last six-almost-seven years.
He couldn't stand letting people know he was disappointed and pity him.
Meanwhile at the other end of the country…
"Max!" Lissa snapped. "Get me my tea! And I want it hot at exactly sixty degrees Celsius!"
Max grumbled, "Fine." That was the second time Princess Lissa had ordered her around just to get tea. On her way down to the kitchen, she met her brothers, Iggy and the Gasman, carrying two large pails of water each.
"You would think they had at least some heart to not let a blind guy go all the way down that bumpy road carrying two large pails full of water. At least Gazzy here has his sight. This sucks," Iggy complained. Gazzy shot him a bright smile, which was as usual wasted like the many death glares Max had given him countless of times ever since their father died.
Remembering, Gazzy narrated, "Ig, I'm grinning like a Cheshire cat." Iggy scowled.
"With people like them," Max started, "you can never tell. Someday we'll probably have to sleep in the streets." She gestured at her too-tight jeans and too-baggy shirt, which were both heavily made of patchwork.
"Flight tonight?" the Gasman asked.
"Flight tonight," Max confirmed. Iggy nodded.
Then a shrill cry issued from above, "Max! My tea!" Max glared in the rough direction of her completely non-blood related stepsister and hurried to the kitchen, grumbling under her breath.
After plopping in a generous amount of tealeaves and watering them with boiling water, Max left the teacup on the counter and sat on a tattered chair in the kitchen, starting to dwell on the memory of the time when she met a weird boy in the forest nearby while collecting berries.
She was stuffing herself with berries from the forest and putting some in her basket three months after her father had 'kidnapped' her from the School when she spotted him. He looked around the same age as her.
She lifted a hand full of berries and waved it, calling, "Hello!"
The boy just looked at her like he had never seen a girl before and said, "Hi."
Seeing him this awkward, she lost her fear of strangers at that moment and said, "I'm Max. Who are you? I've never seen you before and I'm usually the only one who bothers coming into this thick undergrowth and trees to collect berries. Are you new here?"
The boy scratched his head, saying, "Yeah, I'm new here."
Max, as if sensing his reluctance to say his name, spoke up, "I'll just call you Fang."
He looked blur. "Fang? Why?"
"Have you ever looked into a mirror?"
"No. My house is full of them, but I don't really bother much about looks."
Oh, she could tell that alright. "I can tell!" she said, laughing slightly. "Well, you've got really sharp teeth that look pretty menacing. If I had seen those on a full grown adult, I think I'd scoot immediately."
Fang grinned, showing his teeth and looked very much like a bat that fed on blood, tried flattening his hair, gave up, then flapped his arms like wings madly and chased her.
She gave a shrill laugh and shot to a side, running like she's never done in her life.
Then they fell on their backs on the green grass, eyes roaming the forest and scanning every single detail of every single thing.
She looked at him closely, finding him familiar. "I think I've seen you somewhere before…" Then she stiffened and her eyes widened.
She remembered him. When she was five, a cage was dumped beside hers and in it was a boy with black hair which covered his face most of the time. A few days later, a whitecoat came to his cage, unlatched the door and whispered something into his ear.
Max saw his face light up and a smile graced his face. The first smile she's ever seen on him. He followed the whitecoat as he led him out of the door of the room. From then on, he had never been seen in the School. She supposed that he either got killed or was in a room all by himself, hoping very much it was the latter and not the former.
"Sorry, but I have to go now!" she exclaimed, not being able to face another mutant like her whom she never got to know at all.
Faintly, she saw him reach for his back and feeling it carefully, watching her flee from the forest.
Suddenly, she jerked from her day dream by the thought of the tea. She rushed towards it, then groaned as she felt the teacup. The contents had turned cold.
Sighing and shaking her head slightly, she dumped the tea into the sink and the tealeaves into the black trash bag beside the sink. She'll just have to make another one then.
Being the stepsister of two vain idiots was tiring.
A/N Sorry. Long time no post stories.