Hey y'all! Remember me? Yeah, didn't think so. I have taken a loooooooong hiatus from FF (Basically my ENTIRE freshman year…boo on me…) but I have come back to bother all of you who have me on author alert once more! 'Cuz guess what? You: What? IT'S SUMMER! Oh yeaaaaaaaaaaaa :)SOOOOOOO ima start writing again!* Yays* And my first inspiration has come from the book about one Miss Maximum Ride, so sit back, folks, and enjoy the…well…Ride

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The Rusty Yellow Tricycle

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"Max! Get your lazy butt out of bed! The curling iron is hot and I am NOT letting you leave this house with your hair looking like died in it!" screamed my younger sister, Ella. I groaned and rolled over, pulling my bright purple pillow over my ears to block out her the threats coming from the direction of the bathroom we shared. "I swear on my life, I will drag you out of the bed by your fingernails! We are going to make a good first impression, damn it!"

"Don't swear, young lady!" I faintly heard my mom yell from downstairs. "And get out of bed, Max!"

"Whyyyyyyyahhhhhhhhh…" My question morphed into a yawn as I pulled myself from beneath the thin white sheets and observed that somehow my black comforter had been flung halfway across the somewhat large room. Restless night, I mused as I trudged belatedly towards the bathroom. Ella was already in there, her dark hair pin-straight and her makeup about halfway done. She was swiping mascara on as I entered, still unsure of quite what was going on and yawning tiredly. She looked at me sideways, and did a double take, her expression morphing from one of triumph to one of horror.

"Shower. Now." She said firmly, brandishing a bottle of condition at me. I glanced at myself in the mirror, and unfortunately had to admit she was right; my waist length blondish/brownish hair was knotted and clumped, and my eyes had a bruised purple look about them. I wasn't exactly at my prime Max-ness. (Yes, this is a real word. I swear.)

"Fineahhhhhhh." I said, my answer turning into another yawn.

"Jesus, did you get any sleep?"

"I don't know, ask him yourself." I replied as I stripped off my tank top and shorts and climbed into the shower.

"The hot water's almost gone, so be quick!" Ella warned. I turned the squeaky knob to the hottest possible setting, and stood up, luxuriating in the warmth—

And then was showered in ice. I yelped retreated to the other side of the tub where the water only hit my feet.

"Thanks for using all the hot water, Ells!" I said angrily, now fully awake. Ella, however, was unfazed.

"Should have gotten up earlier. Now wash your hair and let me fix it. Cold water dries it out less anyway." I resisted the urge to flip her the bird as I carefully maneuvered myself in the shower, making sure that only my head got wet as I scrubbed most of the knots out of hair and left the rest for Ella to deal with. I stepped out, dried off and was tossed a bra and panties by Ella. Apparently this was all I was allowed to wear at the moment, because she didn't offer anything else as she pushed me into the chair in front of her and hefted a blow-dryer and a brush in her experienced hands. I closed my eyes and let her work her magic.

It was weird being back in our old house in Arizona. We had moved away with my mom when I was only 5, leaving my friends, school, and father behind. Now, 10 years later, my father was dead and we had come back to a place I barely remembered.

The houses in our neighborhood were really close together (think jumping distance) and the house we were in was nice enough. Better than our apartment in Seattle, anyway. It was two stories, pale blue, and had a big back yard that I think I played in with the next door neighbors when I was little. There was a deflated soccer ball back there, a rusty yellow tricycle, and a collapsed trampoline that we hadn't bothered to move yet, since we had only arrived here about three days ago, and had spent those days situating ourselves. There was nearly no trace of the man who had lived here alone until the day he had died in a drunk driving accident on the way home. My father. I didn't remember him, and I didn't want to. All of my memories of this place were of my mother baking cookies and of me playing with the neighbor kids, whose names were…Iggy and Fang, I believe. Siblings, like Ella and me. I remembered, the summer before we had moved, our group, four year old Ella, five year old Iggy and me, and six year old Fang, had been inseparable. Thank God that was all my mind would let me see of this past life. I didn't think I wanted to see any more.

The blow-dryer clicked off and Ella put some goop in her hands working and massaging it through my hair before attacking me with the curling iron (You think I am being over dramatic; think again, bro.). Ella was pro, though, and finished me in about half an hour. She glance at the clock.

"Shit! We have, like, ten minutes to catch the bus! I'll run down stairs and grab us some bagels and whatever, and you put on the outfit I laid out for you on the bed!" Ella dashed down the stair and was immediately was pulled into a lecture from out mother for her mouth. My darling sister didn't know that, in my mom's house, you could cuss, but it had to be quietly. That woman had the ears of a cat, I swear. I walked out into my bright, sun-lit room. It had windows on three sides, but most of the light was obscured on one side by the house to our right. All my windows were uncovered since we hadn't had time to get blinds get, and they were open, letting warm, dry air filter through the upstairs of the house. Ella's room adjoined to mine, and we had the bathroom between us to share. I checked out what she had laid on the bed for me. There was a black shirt with the words "Yeah Buddy" in white and teal, teal short-shorts and teal converse. I wa shocked that Ella had forgone her somewhat more…frilly style to put together something I would actually wear. I was about to bend over to retrieve the shirt when a flash of movement caught my attention and I glanced up.

There was a shirtless boy. Staring. His mouth was slightly open and his hand was still on the door handle as if he had just walked into the room. And he was really, really, really hot. Did I say really enough? But unfortunately, as soon as I processed how extremely hot he was, I also processed that I was still in my bra and lacy blue thong.

"Shit!" I screamed, before diving into the bathroom.

X

"And that, Mom, is why I screamed the "S" word." I explained to my highly disapproving mother as I gobbled down the last remains of my bagel and slung my teal owl backpack over my shoulder.

"Alright, well, we'll talk about this later, because I have to go to work. Bye girls!" she said, before strolling out to the driveway and getting in her white Cambry, her curly black hair bouncing with every step. I waved goodbye and turned on the TV, sitting down on the foor because we didn't have furniture yet. A minute later, Ella clicked in, her five inch green heels not making her fall down a staircase or two like they would me. Her wrist jingled with gold bracelets, and I took in her clothing. It consisted of clothes I would never, ever wear. First of all, there was a skirt. A frilly skirt. And a pink shirt, and a flowerer in her hair. Topping it off was a bright pink Victoria's Secret satchel. She glanced up from her iPhone, her eyebrow raised.

"Are we planning on leaving today, Max?" I nodded and pulled out my own iPhone, checking the screen.

7:31, it said in innocent white script.

"SHIT!" I screamed for the second time that day, as I jumped to my feet just in time to see the bus pulling away from the curb. Ella groaned and I cussed some more. It was a three mile walk from here to the school, and we would never make it in the 15 minutes we had to get to our first periods.

"We CAN'T be late on our first day!" Ella said frantically. "Do you know how bad that would look?"

I didn't actually care, but nonetheless I didn't want to walk 3 miles, especially after having to endure the curling of my hair, however there seemed to be no other option.

"C'mon, Ells, let's get going. We might be able to make it if we run." I said matter-of-factly. There was no use in standing around feeling sorry for ourselves.

"Easy for you to say." She muttered, looking down at her 5 inch heels as I opened the front door and started briskly walking. I was at the bottom of our cement walk-way when a black pick-up pulled off of the curb where it was parked and began driving in the direction we needed to go.

"Hey! Wait! Just a sec!" I yelled as it passed me, running to keep up. The truck slowed to a stop against the curve and the driver leaned across the passenger side to unroll the window while I stood hopefully facing him. His face was obscured by the door and all I could see was a mess of blue-black hair. He straightened up and I was about to start talking when I realized who the guy driving the pick-up was.

It was the boy from the window.

Well, damn. I was kind of hoping I would never have to see him again. I choked on my unspoken words as my face heated up, and he did a double take.

"Oh, hey." He said. I was hoping he was as embarrassed as I was and would pretend it never happened before he did something that somehow angered me and tugged at my memory.

He smirked.

He smirked.

"Oh, you're the stripper from the window. Nice to see you own some clothes—well, not THAT nice."

"Whoa, this is the dude who saw you naked?" said Ella really helpfully. Kicked her in the ankle and gave her an annoyed look.

"I had a bra and panties on, Ella. Thanks for your input though!"

"There weren't very much panties." The guy said conspiratorially to Ella with a wink. My face was probably in full tomato-mode by now. I think I said something really smart like "Shut up." before Ella butted in.

"Yeah, we missed the bus, so can you take us to school?" the guy shrugged and leaned back from the passenger side. It was one of those trucks where you have to fold down the seat in front to get to the seats in back, so Ella folded the seat down and motioned for me to climb in.

"Um, no. I need more room than you, so I get shotgun." I said matter-of-factly. I was 5'6, whereas Ella was barely hitting 5'2.

She groaned and complained "But you always get shotgun!"

"'Cuz I'm always bigger!" I said as she climbed in the back. I clicked the seat back into place and slid into the car, shutting the door and beginning to roll up the window.

"Leave it down." The guy reached across me, stilling my hand, and where he touched me…something weird happened. You know how people say they feel sparks when the touch? Yeah, turns out that can actually happen. We both quickly jerked out hands back and looked oddly at each other for a moment.

"Static electricity much?" I asked, breaking the awkward silence. He just raised his eyebrows and began to drive. There was more silence.

Awkward silence.

Really awkward silence.

"A gay baby was just born." Ella wispered from the back.

"Believe it or not, Ells, saying that doesn't make the silence less awkward." I intoned.

"It did for me."

"So," said the guy, breaking into our conversation. "You're…Ella?"

"Yup." She answered.

"And you are…?" he asked me.

"Max. Max Ride. You?" he braked suddenly at a red light and turned to me, his deep brown eyes like liquid. I don't think I can convey to you his extreme hotness, but think male model. Then multiply that by your grandmothers age.

"Max. Don't you remember me?" Come to think of it there was something vaguely familiar about those eyes—"It's me. It's Fang."

YAY! They meet again:) I'm not one to beg for reviews…(actually I TOTALLY am)…but they make me write faster!