Uber short, sorry bout that.

All superior ratings at Hershey and all first *woopwoop*.

Who watched Jane By Design? And furthermore, who would be willing to discuss it with me?

Okay so I got dragged down the hall the other day by my friend, and my feet just slid because my Uggs were giving me zero resistance and I was like really. I wanted to hit him but he's taller.

HEY SO LIKE MY FRIEND GOT ME TICKETS TO GO SEE JUSTIN IN CONCERT IN NOVEMBER AHH OMFG THE NEXT FIVE MONTHS ARE GONNA BE LIKE NUTS AHAISDHFAUI

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that belongs to James Patterson.

Max POV

This day could not get any better.

The game ended up getting cancelled, because by the time lunch was over, the clouds had turned inside out and poured cold rain all over everything. The rain continued all the way through the day until last period, and that was when they finally called the game off.

Usually, when it rains, students that walk home can hop on a bus for a couple blocks before being let off closer to their house. But today, Iggy had begged me to stay and help him fix his locker jam, so I'd missed it.

"I hate you, by the way," I grumbled to Iggy. We were standing under the overhang of the school. Iggy's mom was supposed to come pick us up, and we'd already been waiting here for ten minutes.

"It'll pass." Iggy shivered.

I stared out at the rain that pounded down on the pavement and heaved a sigh. I wouldn't have minded walking home so much if Fang had been there. . .he would have lightened my mood so much that I would never even notice I was soaked. I missed him for about the millionth time in a week, wishing that by some miracle, he'd be able to come back home, soon.

"Um, Max?" Iggy nudged me with his elbow again to break my trance. "Mind reading that message for me?" He handed me his phone. "The voice readout thing isn't working because I spilled orange juice on it this morning," he admitted sheepishly.

"Okay." I opened the message from his mom and scanned it, my face growing more and more appalled by the second.

"You're quiet. What?" Iggy demanded.

I stuffed the phone back into his hands. "Your mom isn't coming," I huffed. "We have to walk."

"I'm blind!" he cried, panicked.

I sighed heavily. "I mean, I guess I could take a detour and walk you to your house so you know where you're going. . ."

Iggy engulfed me in a giant hug. I gasped like a fish, feeling like he was squeezing all my airways shut. I tried to kick him when I felt my feet rise off the ground, and he released me and put me back down. I couldn't even get mad at him; the hug was much-needed, something that reminded me of Fang.

"Let's go." I grabbed Iggy's hand so he'd have a sense of direction as we plodded through the soaking rain. I would've been able to cover my head with a jacket. . .if winters in Florida were cold enough for heavy jackets on a relatively humid day.

By the time we reached Iggy's house, my hair was soaked and plastered to my face and neck. Iggy waved unseeingly at me once he was in the house, looking guilty. I didn't bother waving back. I was too irritated.

Cars rushed by on the road, obnoxiously splashing through the muddy puddles that had collected along the curbs. Once or twice I got splashed, and swore loudly when it spattered the white Under Armor shirt. I didn't care so much for it when it came to cheerleading, but I used it for other sports too. Oh, and did I mention that it was white?

When I was almost two blocks away from my house, I was totally out of patience for the whole "walking to the moon and back" in the rain thing. So I just gave out and sat on the curb, not caring about how wet I was, not caring that water ran in thick streams down my bare legs, not caring that it was dripping down my back, not caring that it stuck my eyelashes together and made it altogether impossible to see.

A car came racing down the street, but slowed once it neared me. My muscles tensed, readying me for a quick getaway if it was needed. The car pulled up next to me and the window rolled down. A blatantly cheerful face stared at me from through the window.

"Need a ride, sweetheart?" I stood up, peering in through the car window in confusion. Once I saw who it was, I backed away and started walking at a maniac pace.

"No," I said frostily, ignoring the squishing in my shoes. How does he even have a license yet?

"I dunno, you look a little, um-" His eyes roved over my soaked cheerleading uniform "-wet." His tone was still amused and friendly.

"Dylan, go to hell!" I broke into a tiny jog, feeling my backpack bounce against my shoulders.

He easily kept pace, slowly cruising down the road. "Just tryin' to be friendly."

"If you were sooo friendly, you'd have friends," I spat.

He snorted. "Oh, cut that ridiculous crap, Max. It doesn't make you sound edgy or whatever."

"I thought you were friendly?"

"I thought you were dating Fang?"

"I am," I hissed. He was crossing into a waaay touchy subject for me here; the whole long-distance relationship.

"Well, better make sure he knows that." He was whistling, all carefree, the douche.

I took a deep breath so I wouldn't strangle him. I stopped walking, and he stopped driving. I slowly approached the window and squinted at him, not caring that my hair was dripping all over his seats. "Explain that."

"Oh, nothing," he said in a faux-innocent tone. "Just that I visit up there a lot; I used to go to school there. Saw him walking around with some girl. Smiling, laughing, y'know." He shrugged.

"He's allowed to be friends with other girls, jackass," I reminded him.

"And he's allowed to kiss other girls too, right?"

My blood was rushing through my veins at a dangerous pace, and it was making me dizzy. "He's not kissing other girls," I insisted obstinately.

"That's not what I saw," he said, his wide turquoise eyes fixed on my face, anxiously awaiting my reaction.

"You're so full of it!" I broke into a full run down the sidewalk. Anywhere to get away from stupid Dylan. He was such a liar. Fang would never ever ever kiss someone while he was still dating me. Ever. I knew him; he was better than that.

My lungs burned and I threw more water up on myself by splashing in puddles, but I tried my best to put it out of my mind until I reached my front porch. I breathed hard and rapped on my door, not in the mood to search my soaked backpack for my keys.

My mom opened the door, looking cautious. "Where are your keys?" she demanded.

"I didn't feel like digging them out of my backpack." I stepped into the foyer and kicked off my soaked shoes and socks. I tossed my backpack to the side, not caring that it rolled into the living room like that huge boulder in Indiana Jones, almost knocking over the lamp next to the door.

"Okay. . ." My mom eyed my soaked uniform. "I'll get you a towel. I'd rather you not drip water all over my house." She scurried over to the linen closet and tossed me a towel. "There. Dry off as best as you can before going upstairs."

I halfheartedly mopped off my arms and legs, but gave up and simply wrapped my hair in the flimsy beach towel before walking upstairs. When I reached the top step, my foot slipped on the polished wood, still sorta wet from my socks. I went crashing to the floor at the top of the stairs. My elbow painfully whacked into the railing and my knee cracked down on the wooden floor. Before I could catch myself, my head smashed into the sharp corner of the banister. I scrambled onto the landing, trying to make sure I didn't go tumbling down the stairs while I assessed my injuries.

The ball of my left foot was red, and my shin hurt like hell from crashing into the step. My elbow and knee were both throbbing to the beat of my aching head. Beautiful.

"Max, what was that?" my mom's voice demanded.

"Just me inflicting injuries on myself again," I called calmly. I painfully got to my feet and hobbled into my bedroom, where I collapsed onto my bed with a sigh. I pulled clean sweats and a t-shirt out of my dresser and traded my soaked cheerleading uniform for the clean cotton comfiness. I am such a great alliteration-artist. See what I did there?

"Hey, Max, you have some kind of package waiting for you downstairs." Ella poked her head into my room. "Oh, and why weren't you on the bus home today?"

"I missed it," I said simply, picking at the dead skin that had accumulated on the bottoms of my feet from barefoot acro rehearsals.

"Oh. Well you might wanna go get the package. The return address was Fang's address."

I was up and off the bed, heading down the stairs within two seconds, injuries momentarily forgotten. Just the fact that Fang had sent me something brightened my day considerably.

When I got to the kitchen, there was a relatively flat, rectangular box waiting on the counter. I tore at the tape until I got it open and I was staring at a folded piece of paper on top of an aluminum-foil wrapped tray. I curiously unfolded the note and glanced at it.

Hello my dearest Maximum Ride.

Remember how I said I had a surprise for you a little while ago and you asked if it was my mom's brownies? Yeah, well, your wish came true.

Much love from your dearest Nicolas Thorne.

I eagerly ripped the foil off the top of the aluminum tray and glanced inside. A full tray of caramel/chocolate marble brownies stared back at me.

"Score!" I hollered. They were already conveniently cut into squares, so all I had to do was grab three and hobble back up the stairs (with extreme caution this time). I didn't even know if it was legal or whatever to send food in the mail (or sanitary), but it wasn't like I was complaining. When life hands you brownies. . .don't complain.

I flipped open my laptop with one hand while chowing down with the other. The second I signed on, Fang's video chat request popped up. The boy is nothing if not dependable. Seconds later, the top of Fang's head was onscreen while his head was bent over his phone, typing a text message. I just ripped off another piece of brownie and popped it into my mouth.

Fang raised his head finally. "I see you got my gift." He smirked.

"Yes," I said through a gooey mouthful, so it sounded like "yeff." "Ey are fo ud."

He shook his head, indicating he hadn't understood a single word I'd said.

I swallowed and cleared my throat. "I said, they are soo good." I looked sadly at my now-empty, crumb-stained hands.

He laughed. "Good to hear." His expression changed. It was more elated than I've ever seen it. "I have another surprise."

I rolled onto my stomach and propped my head up on my hands. "Shoot."

Fang was practically glowing. And glowing is a word I'd never, in a million years, consider applying to Fang. But seriously, I had never seen him so excited in the short time that I've known him.

"I'm staying with you during winter break. My family will come down on Christmas Eve and Christmas and New Year's and all that, but other than that I'll be living at your house for a full week."

I looked at him seriously. "Don't lie to me like that time you said you found the entrance to Narnia in the back of your closet."

"I'm dead serious. You can ask your mom."

I raised my eyebrows at him, but he didn't waver, and his wide smile didn't either. I paused while I let that sink in.

"OH MY GAWD." I bounced on my bed on my knees, but my recently injured knee protested, so I settled for hugging my laptop with blatant cheerfulness (if that's a word) and screaming yay about a million times.

"I'm coming down on Friday after school," he announced with a grin. "Isn't that awesome?"

I nodded like a crazed bobblehead. I couldn't stop smiling. "I can't believe I get to have you with me down here for a full ten days." I shook my head in amazement. "Oh my God. This is perfect timing. I've been missing you so much lately." I hugged my laptop again, amazed at how perfectly things had worked out.

"Same," Fang said. I heard his mom's voice shouting to him through the computer. He winced. "Oh. Um. Apparently I forgot to turn off the stove. Dinner's in danger. I'll text you later."

"Okay. Bye."

"Bye."

I shut my laptop and thought about it some more. Fang would be living with me for the whole winter break. This could not get any better.

I realized after I wrote this that I started with almost the same line I ended with. Hehe.

Okay so this is probably the best comment I have heard all week. My friend had a baggie of animal crackers at lunch.
My friend: Oh my god look!
(She showed us a bunch of broken animal cracker limbs and stuff)
Everyone: So?
My friend: This isn't right omg my animal crackers are cannibals
I died lol.

Hey REVIEW. PLEASE. SERIOUSLY REVIEW. And thank you to those people who make me smile with their reviews :)

PM me if you wanna discuss the ending of Dance Moms Miami, or the premieres of Dance Moms, Jane By Design, and Pretty Little Liars.

-dancerxforlifex3