Hi, So, although I've been reading Fanfic for quite a while I've never had a go at writing any. But this plot has been bugging me for a while so I thought I'd give it a go. Anyway, bare with me whilst I get my head around how all this works. And I'll apologise in advance if this is similar to anything previously written. I also apologise for the fact I haven't read any of the books for a while so characters may be a little out of character.

Disclaimer: Characters belong to JP.

On with the story :)

I swore softly, glancing behind me as I darted down yet another alley way.

Nope, those idiots were still behind me.

Now, I bet you're wondering who I am and who exactly I am running from?

Well, to answer your first question my name is Max, or Maximum Ride, to give me my full name. And before you ask, I am female, despite how I often act and dress.

I'm 17 years old with shoulder length brown hair streaked with blonde, naturally I might add, and brown eyes, the colour of chocolate, milk not dark.

The idiots I'm currently running from work for my so called father. And the reason I was running from them? They wanted to take me home, and that was somewhere I never wanted to see again.

I hated my father, he wasn't even biologically my dad. My real dad had died when I was eight and my mother remarried. Her new husband was rich, a noble supposedly, though I've never seen anything noble about him.

But because he is rich and a noble he thinks he can control everything, including me. That belief grew when my mother died from a 'tragic accident' two years after marrying the bastard.

He made my life miserable and now, to top it all off he wants me to get married. Yep, married. To one of his rich friends that's old enough to be my father, maybe even my grandfather.

And why does he want me to marry this old man? So he can become richer, that's why. He's using me as part of a business deal and that was the final straw.

So I brought forward my plans to run away. I had been planning to run once I had turned 18, but I found out that my 'father' wanted me to marry the day of my 18th birthday. That was in two days. Hence why I was now running through the streets trying to lose the two idiots who were hot on my trail.

So, back to running.

I weaved through the dark, quiet streets. I knew exactly where I was going, but I needed to put a little more distance between me and my pursuers first.

I knew these streets reasonably well, the men behind me it seemed, didn't.

I darted down another alley way which I knew led to a dead end. No, I'm not stupid. This alley ended in a brick wall, a wall I could climb over with some ease. Behind me I heard the footsteps of the men slow as they realised that the alley led nowhere. Their mistake.

I sped up my running and ran straight at the wall, using my momentum to scramble halfway up and grab the top. I hefted myself up as I heard the footsteps speed back up as they realised I was getting away.

I glanced over at them and gave them a cocky wave before letting myself drop down on the other side and took off at a run. By the time even one of them made it over the wall I was long gone.

I strode through the dark streets humming to myself. The trick in this town is to look confident. I was heading for the docks where I planned to board a ship to take me as far away from this blasted town as possible.

Now most people tended to try and avoid being out after dark in this town, because after dark is when all the thugs and creeps come out. Our town seems to be particularly rife with them. I'm pretty sure most of them work for my father.

I stood in the shadows, my eyes running over the ships that were at the port. There were five ships there in total. Two of them I knew belonged to my father, one of them belonged to the guy I was supposed to marry. So that left me with a choice of two. Both were at the furthest end of the dock.

I walked towards them slowly, neither ship was flying a flag so I had no idea what kind of ships they were.

Then I heard voices, voices I recognised belonging to the two men who had been chasing me earlier. Damn! I had hoped they had given up.

I jogged quickly towards the two ships, just to see that one of them had a sleepy looking guard at the top of the gang plank. They were dressed in a uniform I recognised to belong to the royal guards. Which most likely meant that it was a treasurery ship. So that knocked that ship out of the running. As I jogged to the gang plank of the final ship I was praying for four things.

One: That this ship didn't have a guard

Two: That the men looking for me wouldn't see me slip aboard

Three: That there would be somewhere I could hide

And finally, Four: That the ship was due to sail out soon.

My first prayer was answered. There was no guard aboard the ship so I ran up the gang plank and threw myself flat. I could still hear the men's voices moving closer. I reiterated my second prayer, my fingers closing round my necklace in an unconscious gesture.

I could hear them talking clearly now "She's not here. I told you that guy was too drunk to know what you were talking about"

"He seemed pretty sure; you don't think she's aboard a ship do you…"

"No, there all guarded. He was drunk; he probably saw a worker or something. Come on, lets not waste any more time here. You know what will happen if we don't find her…" Their voices trailed off as they moved away. I let out the breath I hadn't realised I had been holding and peeked out to see the two men moving away down the dock.

They obviously hadn't come up far enough to see that this ship wasn't guarded. Told you they were idiots.

I waited till they were out of sight before moving. I needed somewhere aboard the ship to hide. I went with the classic. The ship had a small boat to one side of the deck; it was probably used as a landing boat, or maybe a life boat.

It was covered by a blue tarpaulin and I figured it would be as good a place to stow away as any. I'd slip off the ship at the next port. I shrugged off my small back pack and lifting the edge of the tarpaulin I pushed it in to the boat.

I jumped a mile when the boat said ouch!

So there we go, my first Chapter of fanfic. Let me know what you think and whether I should continue. Also if there's anything that could do with improving :)

Oh, and if anyone can come up with a better title I won't object :)