Disclaimer: I am not the wonderful James Patterson, though I wish I was. Enjoy my story anyways :)

sidenote: Three years after MAX

Prologue

My name is Maximum Ride, or Mary Alice Martinez as my mother was planning on naming me, and this is the story that I feel I need to tell. Pay attention because I'm only going to say this once. What I did was far from excusable, but I need to get it off my chest in case I ever die (which could happen any time soon what with expiration dates popping up all over the place lately. RIP Gazman).

It starts with the creation of my daughter and goes from there. Most people don't know that I had a kid and I guess that's best since I'm still out there trying to save the world from all the wackos that created us. Not that that's the reason why I did what I did, I'm not making excuses for myself, but I want to tell this story truthfully.

Her conception was nothing special, though bless his heart, Fang tried to be romantic. We had been dating for two years and were about to get legally married (despite my objection to the whole having to be official on paper for it to matter thing that Mom was worried about). She was human so she didn't understand. But Fang got down on one knee to ask just for her so I knew that he was the real deal. We were in young love at sixteen but age didn't matter to kids brought up in lab cages.

Our "first time" wasn't on our wedding night because things changed quickly after we got engaged. No, we made love on the top floor of an abandoned building when we were taking shelter from the rain and out looking for a home to rent for the Flock. It was a week before the day he popped the question so maybe that's why he asked in the first place, but that part doesn't really matter now I guess.

I hate to admit this, but it took me six months to realize I was pregnant.

Don't judge me when I say that because I'm not normal. Being an Avian had its perks when it came to the "time of the month" as other girls called it. For Nudge, Angel, and I, periods were once every six months like clockwork. Every 19th of December and every 23rd of June all three of us would receive our gift from Mother Nature. Don't ask me why we all had the same cycle or any of that because quite frankly it is too embarrassing for me to talk about much longer.

Anyways, June 23rd came and went and I showed no signs of bleeding and whatnot. I wasn't too worried since Fang and I had only done "it" once (I told you things changed after we got engaged). We were experiments so we assumed that we couldn't reproduce with our genetic combinations. When my second cycle didn't come either, then I started to worry a little bit.

It was in the middle of one of the biggest fights for our lives when I realized I was actually pregnant. It was December 25th, Christmas day, and the rouge Flyboys and other reject experiments were there for some holiday revenge on me and the Flock.

I hadn't been feeling well all morning, but I didn't think anything of it. Though it was rare, birdkids did get sick. Ella didn't think it was nothing though, and she was the one to actually suggest that I might be with child. I ignored her because the idea didn't make any sense.

I was sixteen, on the run from the School, and barely on speaking terms with Fang anymore ever since the whole "he can't stop looking at other girls even though he claims he wasn't" fight a few months back. But when I felt that little nudge in my abdomen (and not from an outdated Eraser), I knew that I was really caring another life inside me.

I knew in that split second that my life as I knew it was over. Nothing else seemed to be in my mind at that one moment. It didn't matter that the Flyboys outnumbered us a hundred to six or that Angel had just taken a beating to the head and Iggy was running out of bombs. I was having a baby in three months.

This is where I start doing stuff that I'm ashamed of. I took off that night after making sure that everyone was sleeping. I was a coward and only left a note as an explanation. I knew that Fang would be mad, but it was something I felt I had to do. To this day, I doubt he knows he's a father. I hinted at it in my note, but I didn't have the heart to tell him what was really going on and that was cowardice too.

Dear Flock,

I'm sorry, but I have to leave. Stay with my mom as long as you can, but leave when it's dangerous for either party. I love you guys and Fang, I forgive you for everything. This is something I have to do in order to ensure the safety of someone I really love. I'll return when I can, but don't wait up for me. Everything is different now.

Fly On, Max

I waited out the three months alone and in a medium height cave. Well, alone isn't the right word since technically I had a visitor.

When I was too big to fly anymore, I called Ella. She was a vet in training and would keep this secret for me because I was her sister and she owed me. When she came with food every morning, I would make her swear again that she wasn't going to tell. She swore on mom's life so I knew that she hadn't in fact told. She would try to tell me about what the Flock was up to, but I would always shush her. I didn't think I could handle it.

March 4th came all too soon and like that, I had a daughter. Ella helped me through it as best as she could, but most of it was all me. I wished so much for Fang to be there but I knew that it was better this way. He wasn't ready to be a father and I was no where near ready to be a mother. It was too dangerous for her to stay with us. The School was still after us and I wasn't about to put another innocent life in Thier hands.

My little girl was perfect; ten toes and fingers, and no visible wings (though I knew she had them). She was special. She could hide her wings completely in ways that the Flock couldn't so I knew she would have a better chance of being normal than any of us could ever dream.

Ella thought she looked like me, but she was stretching it. No, this little girl was all Fang. She had his olive skin tone, little mats of his dark black hair, and his nose. What she got from me was my brown eyes and my smile (though she frowned or was crying most of the time so it was hard to tell). Her little wings were something beautiful too. They were almost completely black with a purple tint like Fang's but the tips were my tan color.

I stayed with the baby, nursing her for two months before I decided that I was getting too attached. She needed a normal life and that was something I couldn't offer her. I was sixteen and stupid enough to think that I could raise her for as long as I did.

Ella helped me pick out the church to leave her at. It was a Catholic church on the Nevada border and we scoped it out for a month before either of us decided it was good enough.

I left a note for whoever found her in hopes that she would be better taken care of.

To Whoever Finds My Daughter,

Alexis is special. She's not a freak, or a sideshow, so treat her like it and there will be Hell to pay. She has wings, but you'll probably find that out on your own. She is truly unique and know that one day she'll be big enough to fly away and leave; let her. She's probably going to be a free spirit like me so don't get worried if she has an attitude or a good left hook. Love her like your own, because I can't. I'm too young to raise her so I'm putting my trust in you. It is not often that I do, so you'd better treat her right. I have a world to save, so I'm leaving my little girl in your care now so I can save it.

Fly On, Maximum Ride (yes, the Maximum Ride)

I also left a note in the empty locket I got from Fang on our first date but that was for Alexis. I had to take out the picture of the two of us together and the one of the Flock smiling down for my mom, but I wanted Alexis to have as normal of a life as she could.

That's what I named her, by the way. Alexis.

Fang actually came up with the name when we were registering at school, normal school, when we first went to live with my mom. He thought I'd make a pretty Alex, but I fought him and decided to be just Max. I guess even in running away from him, he was still in every thought I had.

That hasn't changed over the past year, by the way. At seventeen, I made the hardest decision in my life when I left Alexis bundled up in blankets in a basket on the church steps.

After a week of watching Alexis at the church with the happy nuns, I went back home. I knew that they would care for her because though they all noticed her beautiful little wings when she slept, none made any move to gawk at them or snap pictures.

Ella was happy to see me again and so were the Flock. Except Fang. He was no where to be found. Nudge said he took off in search of me right after I left and hadn't been back since. Angel says she doesn't think that he had any plans of returning, but the others are more hopeful. I'm not sure what to believe anymore and as more days pass, I have even less faith that he'll return to me.

I hope that one day he'll come back and I can tell him about Alexis. Who knows, maybe by that time I'll have found the cure to experation dates and it won't all have been for nothing. Gazzy died in the middle of the night, his date kicked in a few weeks ago, and I don't know how our Flock can survive without another member.

My expiration date had been turned off, as well as Fang's, but I'm going to have to make another deal with the devil himself to keep Iggy, Nudge, and Angel's from popping up. Gazzy's came first despite his age due to the fact that he was a "failure" in the scientists' eyes. That fact made things even harder to bury him.

Now our little Flock is down to four since Fang has gone AWOL and Gazzy is dead. Iggy acts like he's tough enough to protect all of us "women" but he's more of a softie than I am, especially without his two best friends.

It makes me wish I hadn't given up Alexis. I cried for the first time since I was three and had my hand almost completely eaten off by an Eraser the night that I returned home without Alexis and Fang. My life felt empty. As if I was missing something I didn't know that I wanted.

I swore that night that I would reunite my family, biological or not. I wasn't going to let anyone else I loved slip from my grasp.