Okay, before you all skin me alive for updating waaaay after promised, I shall attempt to come up with a legitimate excuse…

…

But I can't seem to find one… All I can tell you is that I'm extremely sorry and that I've been really lazy this summer, so updating is slower for everything because I can't seem to drag my lazy butt off the sofa to write. (If only I had a laptop. Then again I recently found the notebook that I sometimes write in for when I do not have access to my PC. It was under my dresser. :P)

HAPPY 4TH!

Disclaimer: As the author of this FanFiction, I can honestly say that I own nothing Maximum Ride or any other Lizzie-no-owny book/TV show/movie/whatever thing I may have referred to.

Recap:

"I think we should get out of here," Iggy skittered nervously, glancing toward the spot he and Gazzy had been meddling in. "Right now."

I nodded in agreement, resigned to the fact that he and Gazzy had undoubtedly done something that we really shouldn't stick around for.

"Okay. U&A. guys. It's time to go home." I jumped out of the building, enjoying the sensation of free falling for a few seconds before snapping out my wings and shooting upwards. My flock soon joined me, and we started home; don't ask me how I knew what direction to go, because I couldn't explain. Some invisible force was just pulling me in the right direction. Soon the School was the size of a walnut below us. It was peaceful until…

BOOM!

The earth-shattering explosion was strong enough that we could feel it this high in the air. The School – not to mention everything within a ten-mile radius – was wiped clean off of the face of the earth. I sighed in exasperation, looking accusingly at the two pyromaniacs in my flock. They blinked innocently. "Oops?"

I rolled my eyes. "'Oops' is right." But I just couldn't bring myself to care. "Oh, well. At least we don't have to worry about being hunted to our deaths." I rubbed my forehead and started flying toward home again.

Hours later, six exhausted bird kids landed on the front steps of a mansion, unlocked the door, and collapsed in the living room to wake up at 1:00 PM the next day and finally, finally be able to get on with their lives as normal.

Well, as normally as you could when you had giant wings sprouting out of your back.

We'd been gone three months since that day at the carnival. It seemed an eternity ago.

The School was no more. No one would ever be created or harmed there again. At first we all felt bad about the experiments' demise, but Angel and Nudge told us that even if we hadn't gone and exploded them, their expiration dates were close. If by any odd chance they weren't retired by the built in code, they were slated for extermination. The poor things would've been chained to a wall and had Erasers released. If we had had time to unlock their cages, they wouldn't have gotten far without the power of flight. Only one or two had wings, and they were so sickly it was a wonder their hearts were still beating.

Fang and Iggy went back to their apartment, but they were at our house so much anyone would think that they lived here. Actually, they would live here when we had the second floor ready for them. Angel (of course) brought it up, and as awkward as it could've been for Fang and me with the whole 'girlfriend moves in with boyfriend, not the other way around', it wasn't.

After about a little more than a week of trying to settle back in, "we" decided to go to Disney World. This is how it happened:

Yesterday

"Hey, Max?" Uh oh.

"Yes, Angel?

Here we go. What am I getting into now? "Can we go to Disney World?" Angel was a smart kid, I'd give her that. She said it where the whole flock could hear. And she knew that the whole flock would want to go.

Gazzy, Nudge, and Iggy stopped what they were doing and crowded around me, begging and pleading along with Angel to go to Disney World. That gave Fang – the smart one – time to slip into a corner and turn invisible, literally. It was another one of our powers, which were developing quickly. Crap. Now I couldn't push the decision onto him. If only I could've gotten that power and slipped away unnoticed…

I squeezed my eyes closed. Invisible… Invisible… Invisible… Come on, freaky mutant powers, work for me here! I opened one eye a slit to peer at the rest of the flock, who were watching me strangely. I'm guessing it didn't work.

"It didn't work."

"What did I say about eavesdropping on people's thoughts without permission?" I bet most big sisters or mothers have never said that. 'What did I say about talking when I'm on the phone?', sure. 'What did I say about sitting on the dog?', sure. But 'What did I say about eavesdropping on people's thoughts without permission?', no. No way.

The flock's begging went up a notch. Iggy even got down on his knees and wrapped his arms around my ankles.

"Please, Max, PLEASE!"

"I'll be good!"

"No bombs! I promise!"

"I WON'T LET GO OF YOUR FEET UNLESS WE CAN GO!"

They all gave me the Bambi eyes at once. Free will… Weakening… Angel's eyes started to water, Gazzy's lip trembled; Nudge was sniffling. Iggy still had my legs in a bear hug.

Oh my gosh. I can't believe I'm going to say this.

Angel's entire face lit up and she jumped several feet in the air. "YES! WE CAN GO!"

Nudge and the Gasman started bouncing around with her, cheering. I looked at Iggy, who was celebrating on the ground. "Iggy, please release my feet from your passionate embrace."

Fang walked around a corner, spotted quite the interesting sight – Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge hopping around in delight, me rubbing my temples and muttering, and Iggy with my ankles in a death grip, starting to cut off the circulation, no doubt – and just backed around the corner again.

"Thanks for that, Fang," I called after him.

We rented a huge, luxurious (not to mention expensive) hotel suite with three bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen, a main room with TV and sofa, and an equally luxurious balcony with a giant Jacuzzi hot tub. It was perfect for takeoffs and landings. We shipped our stuff through the post office a few days before leaving. Honestly, we weren't going to lug all of that stuff with us in the air, and why would we waste time and money on plane tickets when we had perfectly good wings on our backs?

The flock and I landed in an abandoned ally a few blocks away. (If there were any thugs or gangs or other shady figures, we probably scared them off. Honestly, even if you were all dangerous and illegal, it'd scare the you-know-what out of you if some winged people – resembling angels – dropped right out of the sky, would you stay to see what was going on?) It was already dark out, and we started our walk to the hotel.

When we arrived, we checked in and went to our suite. Gazzy and Angel were quick to claim separate rooms. Iggy headed over to his partner in crime, and Nudge dashed to Angel's side.

That left Fang and I to share the last one, which wasn't anything to complain about if only Iggy would keep his trap shut.

"Be good, now! Use protection!" he said sternly.

"Iggy!" I scolded, looking pointedly at Angel and the Gasman.

"Oops."

"Yeah. Oops." I glanced at the angelic siblings. "Don't ever listen to Iggy." They nodded, slightly confused, but knew not to ask since it was Iggy who said it.

The next day, we had a normal breakfast (if you can call that much food "normal") using the complimentary eggs, bacon, toast, and pancake batter supplied, cooked Iggy-style. As sexist and obnoxious as he was, that boy could cook.

Fast forwarding through the normal morning routine – everyone going for the food all at once, fights over random, stupid things, some inappropriate jokes from Iggy and glares from me – we ducked into a nearby alley (Stranger Danger!) and took off, flying high enough to not be seen as quickly as possible. When we reached Disney World, we landed and headed in as if we weren't super-powered mutants.

Disney World was crowded, hot, and expensive, the lines were long… so, basically a normal amusement park. Iggy was looking around hungrily, drinking the sights in; Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge were excitedly pestering all of the Disney characters walking around; Fang and I were just going with the flow, happy that the flock was happy, and going on a few roller coasters with Iggy. (We wore our bathing suits under our clothes for any water rides.)

After a long, exhausting, fun day at Disney's Animal Kingdom Park, I was ready to curl up and sleep for a week. Sadly, I couldn't do that, seeing as we were still in this seemingly alternate universe. To think that we had five more days of this! One day for each of the water/theme parks. But the best day by far was the last – Magic Kingdom Park. I know what you're thinking. How un-Max-like!

Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy and Angel slipped away in the crowd as Fang took my hand and pulled me through the endless ocean of people. "Where are the others?" I asked worriedly. I was a bit paranoid, but I think I have a reason to be after the whole crazy-scientists-kidnap-us-and-graft-wings-on-our-backs fiasco.

"They're fine. Probably getting something to eat." He smirked at me. "I think Nudge and Iggy are big enough to take care of the kids by now. Well, they are legally." A hint of a smile crept onto my face as he led me to a deserted place behind a building. "C'mon." He'd spread his wings, about to take off.

"Fang!" I whisper-yelled. What was he doing? "Do you know how many people there are here?"

"Relax," he said. "Nobody's here, and if someone does see us… we got rid of the School, right?" Fang walked toward me, closer and closer as I backed up. "So what's the problem?" My back hit a wall. Fang was pressed up against me, so close I could almost feel his heartbeat. Well, crap. "Just this once?" His breath fanned over my face, his Fang-smell overwhelming me. Fang's face was right there, and I couldn't focus on anything else. My eyes fluttered shut.

Then Fang was gone, and I glared at him as he unfurled his wings and took off. I grudgingly followed, trying (and failing) to be annoyed at him. Higher and higher we flew, Disney World a colorful swirl of lights glittering in the darkness. I didn't realize where he was leading me – looking back on it I know that I really should've – until we were there. The top of Cinderella's castle.

We landed, folding our wings in and gazing at the ant-sized tourists swarming below. I wondered idly if we could spot the rest of the flock, or vice versa. Then Fang was in front of me, chasing away all thoughts. He grasped my hands in his larger, calloused ones. Fang stared deeply – intimately – into my eyes, searching. And he did the last thing I expected.

"Marry me?"

I was so shocked that all I could do was gape at him, eyes wide. I opened and closed my mouth, trying to speak, but only succeeded in looking like a fish. So I asked the first thing that came to mind.

"Aren't you supposed to be on one knee?" Why did I say that? Stupid, stupid, stupid! A small smirk slid across Fang's features, and he slid fluidly down in front of me, taking out a beautiful ring. So that's what Nudge bought on her particularly pricey 'shopping spree', 'borrowing' Fang to carry her bags.

"Better?" I nodded mutely. Fang? And me? Me and Fang? As in, Me & Fang? And so I thought.

I thought [very un-Max-ly] over what I was feeling about this, about him, right now. I thought about the past months, of all we'd been through. I thought about how the flock seemed complete with him and Iggy, how my life was complete (I am such a sap.) with him in it. But most importantly I thought about the rest of my life with him. My mother once told me that if I could see myself growing old with that person, having their children, coming home to them or them to me, that he was the one. Sure we were young, but the engagement could, would last a while; all that mattered was that I was his and he was mine. I gave him the only answer that made sense.

"Yes."

Fang slipped the ring on my finger. He pulled my lips to his, wrapping his arms around my waist and crushing me against his chest. My hands tangled in his silky hair as I kissed him back deeply.

We were blissfully oblivious to our dear flock, who were hiding on the other side, listening to our every word.

Looks like happy, clichéd endings weren't as fake [and rare] as I thought they were.

I hope that last scene wasn't too mushy. I don't like it when Fang's all like, "Oh, Max, I lurve you, I'd diiiiie without you, blah, blah, Nudge Moment." And then Max responds,

"Oh, Fangles, I lurve you more, don't ever pull an Edward Cullen and leave me because I'd diiie, blah, sob, cry, cry, sob, sappy emotion overload, blah, even longer Nudge Moment." Smooch.

I've never actually been to Disney World. :( All my friends have been. I had to Google it to even see if it had roller coasters; how sad is that? I feel so… so… so un-American! I REALLY want to go!

(Please don't give me any grief about the American comment. I honestly don't know if people from other countries want to go there/have been there. I'm naïve about that particular thing.)

Anyway, thanks for sticking with me! I'll finish "Adventures Within BMPB?" shortly, and "Just A Fairy Tale" too. I'm in the process of writing a new story. The first chapter will be up sometime this year, hopefully. :) It'll be a lot better than this (hopefully), now that I have a grasp on the whole FanFiction thing.

-Lizzie