Hello! Second attempt on a fanfiction! Tell me what you think, mmkies, darlings? Enjoy!

EternalxxLove

aka Cat

xx

Chapter One

The Book

I didn't want to, but, we voted against my idea; and that was Fang's idea. Apparently, we are no longer Maxocracy. Now we're democracy. I roll my eyes just at the thought of it. But, it's okay. They've all grown up.

It's been nearly three years since the School, Erasers, White Coats and Itex. Three years since Jeb, Ari, that bitch Anne and that Borcht idiot.

After the Germany incident, the rest of the flock and I took a two year vacation. Gazzy and Nudge wanted to go to Asia, so we went to China! It was really fun. Fang got the language memorized. He bought translations books at the airport, and he finished reading it on the plane. By the time we got off, he spoke Chinese like it was his second language. Pretty impressive, huh?

We stayed in Beijing for a couple of months. It was almost Christmas when we heard that there was a really pretty ice sculpture in a city to the north of Beijing called Harbin. It was so goddamn cold there! Even for us mutant avian kids!

The ice sculpture was really fun. Since we all have photographic memories, we didn't need take any pictures. We did, anyway. I wanted to give the pictures of China to my mom and Ella.

We stayed in Harbin for a year or so. Damn, things in China are so cheap! It's like, 50 US cents for a big dinner. We spend about 500 US dollars in total! That's food, shelter and tourist stuff for a year!

Anyways, after we got back, we found out that Dr.Martinez died, and Ella lived with her foster parents ever since, since she didn't know who her father was. Apparently, my mom got in a fight with Jeb. He was drunk, and they had an argument about me. He got mad, and took a kitchen knife, the one you use to chop raw meat and stuff, and slammed it on her left shoulder. It was too late when she arrived at the hospital. She lost too much blood.

Then, Jeb got sent to jail. The police said he was always apologizing to a person called Max in his sleep. He became crazy after a couple of weeks. Literally. He hung himself after two months of prison.

I cried myself to sleep the night I found out. I was sad about my mother. Not Jeb. Oh, no. I felt no sympathy to Jeb. I wish he died earlier. I hope he died a painful death.

Don't get me wrong. I didn't really change after I found out. I didn't become all emo, and suicidal. I was still Max.

Now, Iggy, Fang and I are 17, Nudge is 14, Gazzy is 11 and Angel is 9. God, they've grown up. Angel isn't using her powers to conquer the world like I thought she would when I was younger. She's still sweet. No emo clothes and punk music yet. I doubt she will go to that stage. I was a good teenager, wasn't I? Nudge is following my footsteps. God bless that child, she finally shut up. Mostly, anyways. And Gazzy's almost a teenager. He's got into the habit of wearing punk clothes. I have to blame Iggy and Fang on that. They're always wearing black. I think it's really hot on Fang, but Gazzy's only 11!

So, now it's June 2008. For one and a half years have me and the flock had been living with Ella. I have to say, she became emo. She was cheered up when I turned up. But, we have to let her walk on her own one day. She actually got really responsible. She asked me to let her go, and stop taking care of her. So I did.

And guess were the flock wants to go now? Our old home.

It's nearly dawn now. I can hear Fang clicking away on his new laptop I gave him for his 17th birthday. Stupid blog. It's still popular after three years. He and Iggy were talking in low, hushed voices. I've always wondered why boys needed to talk so much, and what they talk about.

We're just outside the town. That's about 1,000 miles from our mountain house. One more day of flying and we're there.

I sat up, unable to go back to sleep. I saw Fang and Iggy turn their heads sharply to look at me. I raised an eyebrow. Iggy stood up and walked away robotically. Fang turned back to his laptop. I suspiciously walked up to him.

Oh yeah, me and Fang. We've been an item for almost three years now. Finally admitted our feelings on the way to China. It was a funny, yet long conversation. No time for that now.

He shut his laptop and smiled up at me. I sat down beside him, cross legged. He leaned forward to kiss me. I kissed back. I felt his hands moves around my waist, and then up to my neck. I wrapped mine around his neck, and hands in his hair.

The kiss then became pretty heated. Tongues and everything. But we didn't get any further than that. Iggy came up to us and cleared his throat. Fang ignored me, and kept on kissing me, but I unwrapped her arms and pushed him off me. He gave me a sad puppy look. I gave him a that-doesn't-work-on-me one.

Well, someone's gotta feed the flock, right?

I turned around to see the rest of the flock awake, doing their own stuff. Angel was cleaning up Celeste. Yeah, that three year old battered bear is still with us. Nudge was talking rapidly to Gazzy. At least she doesn't talk so loud anymore, and when you want her to shut up, she does. Iggy was standing above me and Fang, looking towards the sun. It was almost all the way over the mountains now. The thin pink glow turned into a mass of red.

I looked back at Fang and smiled. He smiled back. He then got up, and pulled me up with him. He embraced me for a moment, and then let me go. I was sort of confused after that, so he called up the flock for me.

"Hey, guys, what do you want for breakfast?" asked Fang, putting his hands on his hips.

Gazzy was the first one to answer. His hand shot up in the air, and yelled out, "MacDonald's!"

I chuckled. My Max credit card keeps on refilling for some reason. It never goes under 500 US dollars. We all wondered who was giving me all the money, but since Itex is gone, we don't have a mortal enemy. So we don't have a treat, therefore, the money if safe, if that makes sense.

We flew back to the town, and took out MacDonald's. I was on my fifth cheeseburger when suddenly, out of nowhere, the flock wanted to go back home. As I said, Fang suggested a vote. He even persuaded me to 'join in'. I voted against it, but was the only one to do so. But seriously, can you blame me? Who wants to go back to their old house that's probably burnt to the ground by now? Not me. But apparently, the flock does.

So, before noon, we set off.

It was nearly night time before we got to the mountains. Iggy wanted to keep on going, but not all of us are blind, and is perfectly fine with flying in the dark like he is. So, we decided to make it a day and camp under some trees. Fang and I stayed up until Iggy joined us. He said we should sleep too, and let him watch from then on. So, we did.

It wasn't the best sleep I've gotten in my life. I couldn't get to sleep. Whenever I did, I would twitch, and wake up. Is it the nerves? But, I never get nervous!

By next morning, though, I was surprisingly awake. Not sleep deprived at all! I cheerfully got out some granola bars and fed the flock. I wasn't hungry, so I didn't eat. Fang was shooting these glances at me all morning. Then, we set off.

It wasn't even noon when we found the house. As I predicted, it was all burnt and broken. The roof was basically gone, so we flew in from the top. Angel and Nudge immediately went to their room. Iggy to his, Fang to his and Gazzy to his. That leaves me to see mine.

My whole bed was gone. Sure, broken pieces of mattress were still there, and two of the four legs were there, too. Ripped pieces of my blanket were all over the room, and the pillow was at the corner, near where the door has once been, and feathers were everywhere.

I walked in my room, swallowing back tears. I remembered when Jeb first furnished my room. I had picked out all baby blue colors, because that was my favorite color. A tear ran down my cheek, but I quickly wiped it away. Then, something caught my eyes.

Yeah, my room was all black now, but this stood out like it was hot pink. It was a battered old looking book, or diary. It was in black leather. In cursive, gold writing my name, "Maximum Ride", was written. My eyes grew wide as I flipped open the first page. Never in my life have I seen this book. But inside it was my writing.

On the first page, it wrote,

'June the 22nd,' that was the date today 'We went back to our old home. Everything was broken. I spend a whole lot of time in my room. Finally, when Fang checked on me, I burst into tears. It took him a while to calm me down, but he did. Thankfully, Iggy took the rest of the flock out for lunch. It was only Fang who saw me crying.'

This book... it was written in my hand writing, but I've never, ever even seen this book before! Suddenly, I felt someone creep up on me. I shut the diary quickly, and turned around. Just like the book said, it was Fang. Out of nowhere, I started bawling! What. The. Hell. Maximum Ride crying?

I couldn't believe what I saw doing, but there I am, bawling like a baby against Fang's chest. I was still gripping on the book, and my hands were on my lap, so I doubted Fang saw it. I was crying of confusion and sadness. I wanted to stop, but I just couldn't.

Was this some kind of evil thing the School is doing? We haven't heard from the School in three years. We checked on the one in California, but it was gone. It looked like it was burnt to the ground. We thought the School was gone, forever, but I guess we were wrong.

I decided to not tell the others, yet. I decided to wait for something else to happen first.

And it did.

After we roasted rabbits Iggy caught (Yes, the blind dude catches small animals. What the hell can he not do, dammit?!) for dinner, I flipped through the pages again. There was more writing from where it left off that afternoon.

'I decided we're going to go to Forks next. It's a nice small town. Not much sun. I think we'll have lots of fun there. And there are people there that can take our minds off the School, Mom, Itex and Jeb. And Ella. Poor girl. I hope she's doing alright.'

Forks? I rambled through my backpack, and brought out an old looking map. I checked it.

It was in Washington, near Olympic Peninsula. We've been to Port Angeles lots of times, and Seattle, too. I never really noticed the small town called Forks.

'Alright, Max, time to consult it.' I thought, folding the map again I spotted Fang sitting not far from me, clicking away on his laptop again. This time, Iggy wasn't around. Good. I'll just tell Fang. There was no need to tell the others.

"Fang?"

I reached out for his shoulder once I got to him. He turned his head around and smiled. He shut his laptop, and pulled me down.

Once I was sitting down, he leaned in again. Jesus, what was with him? Is it his hormones that are making his so horny all the time?

I kissed him back to avoid telling him about the diary, clutched in my hand. I let it go, and put my hands to the sides of his head. His tongue slipped in, and I swiped mine against his.

Eventually, though, we had to stop for air. Seriously, it's hard to breathe when you're making out with someone as hot and passionate as Fang. Call me cheesy, but it's true!

"Fang," I said difficultly in between gulps on air. He looked at me and nodded his head.

"I, um.." I fiddled with the black book, looking down. He must have followed my gaze, because he grabbed the book away from me. He started to flip through the pages.

"Why don't you just say so?" asked Fang, raising his eyebrows at me.

"No!" I protested, waving my hands. "That's the thing! I didn't write that!"

I explained to him what happened in my room. I told him about my School theory. He agreed with me that it might be the School's doing, but he doubted it.

"Can the School have this much technology? You sure you haven't put it anywhere else besides your backpack? Did you leave your backpack lying around?"

"No. I"m positive! I am cautious, Fang. Jeez."

"Alright, just checking." He said with a crooked grin. II frowned at him, and snatched the book back.

"So, should we go to Forks?" I asked, looking at him this time.

"Yeah. We should check it out."