Max

"Well, well," said a woman's voice, "Looks like I am going to have to keep a better eye on the couples in this house."

I opened my eyes and waited for my vision to focus while I tried to figure out who the source of the voice was. As my blurry vision focused on my mom, I remembered where I was and who I had fallen asleep next to in my mom's house, on my mom's couch. Oh snap!

I jumped off the sofa real quickly, waking Fang up, "Hey, Max, what's wrong?" he rubbed his eyes, "Oh," he said as he realized my mom was standing there.

"Fang!" I scolded him, "Why did you fall asleep on me? Or at least wake me up?"

"Hey," he said defensively, "You're the one who fell asleep on me, and we both know that you would have been scarily mad at me if I had woken you up. I would rather face your mom's wrath than have to survive throughout yours. No one should have to put up with that much torture."

"Not helping the situation here, Fangles," I muttered. He narrowed his eyes at me. He knew I knew he hated it when people—yes, even me – called him that. I stuck out my tongue.

My mom laughing broke the tension completely, "You aren't going to get in trouble for falling asleep. Ryn and Carter fell asleep, though they weren't touching each other. Besides, I can see that all clothing is still intact, so it doesn't seem to be a problem."

"Mom!" I yelled as my face turned extremely red, "Not a visual I needed!"

She just laughed as she walked off. I looked at Fang apologetically. Surprisingly, he didn't seem fazed. I face palmed, "You know, at times like this, you're cool, collected silence does not help me feel better about the situation."

He laughed out loud then, and I looked up with a confused look on my face, "What's so funny?"

He just kept on laughing while I pouted, not sure if I wanted to know what he was thinking.

"You're expression was," he said after he had laughed so much, he had tears coming out of his eyes, "and what you said. I was shocked by what Valencia said. I guess it just didn't show. I was sure my face was red, but my hair must have just covered my ears up."

I punched him on the arm, "So why didn't you say anything?"

"I was shocked," he said simply. I just glared at him.

My evil stare down was interrupted when Ryn came down the hallway and flopped onto the couch beside Fang, "So how goes it, Max, Fang?"

"Perfect in every possible way," replied Fang. Both of them turned to me expectantly.

"Oh, please," I said, "You were obviously eavesdropping on our entire conversation, and now I suppose you just came in here to figure out what my mother said that caused such a commotion."

"Right," replied Ryn, "and wrong. I heard what Valencia said. Every word. I just decided to interrupt at that point because I could practically smell the sweet aroma of smoke perfume coming from the fire between the two of you. Didn't want anything bad to happen to Fangles here, did we?" she sauntered off towards the kitchen. Right before she reached the door, she turned back and winked then continued forward.

I shook my head and looked at Fang. He smirked. She came back with a bowl full of lucky charms, "The Iggster is not up yet, from what I read in his mind, he had a pretty late night last night. Ella was reading to him. She actually has a good singing voice, too, so everyone is going to have cereal for breakfast. Yayyyyy."

I looked at her. What was going on?

"What," she said, "Do I have something in my teeth. I am kind of eating. I'll get it in a second."

"No, that's not – Nevermind. You seem… happy…"

"And?"

"Would this have anything to do with a boy named Carter?"

"Max, are we going to talk boys? If so, we can start with Fang. Why do you like him so much if he never expresses how he feels? He never says anything to tell you," she looked at Fang who shrugged and smirked. She gave him a wink and turned back to me, waiting for an answer.

"Well, he has never been one for words. He shows how he feels. I guess Fang is more of a physical being," I said. I was satisfied with my answer, but both of them snorted and I realized my mistake, which was even more embarrassing added to what my mother had just said. I face palmed once again, "That came out wrong didn't it?"

"Uh – yeah," said Ryn, "Yeah, but don't worry. I get what you mean. Though I believe a better way to word it is that he is not particularly loquacious." She received nothing but blank stares from the both of us.

"Loquacious?" she said again, "You know, like someone who isn't exactly word savvy to put feelings into words. Like the Fangster, here?" Blank stares.

"Forget it," she said, getting up to put her empty cereal bowl into the sink, "You have much to learn, my pupils. You really need to upgrade your vocab. Seriously? I mean, 'loquacious' is one of the simplest of terms known to mankind. Starting tomorrow, you two will be my new students. As co-leader and leader of the flock, you two need to be on the top of your game here. I know you've tried going to school and stuff, but I can get books and train you. Intellectually and physically."

Ryn walked off leaving Fang and me staring at each other, clueless. And not only that, Ryn had completely managed to avoid my question about Carter. I smirked. What had we gotten ourselves into this time?