WARNING: Rated T for course language and sexual references. If you guys feel it should be M let me know and I'll change it, but if that happens it'll probably end up with a lemon in it and at the moment I don't want to do that to this story.

Hey!

So new story! YAY! Read and review and I'm really sorry if Max or Fang is a little OOC. I try to keep them similar to their usual selves as I can but sometimes with what I want to write that just doesn't happen.

HAPPY READING!

Chapter 1: Never

Fang POV (Point of View)

"Due Monday, your project will be to find a word that sums up to the best of your ability each day for the next five days. Then on Monday you will be asked to make a single sentence, using those 5 words, to describe your overall week." Miss Top smiled and paused to let her words sink. There were was a general stir in the class as students discussed our new assignment. I internally sighed, I am not really a man of many words, but beside me Iggy groaned.

"Well at least it isn't an essay or som-" Iggy's whisper into my ear was cut off as Miss Top announced loudly, "There will be a reflection to complete about your sentence." Iggy threw his head down on to his English book as there was a collective moan from the desks around my own. "No complaints please! Any questions?" A few hands raised lazily into the air.

Miss Top pointed to a very skinny girl named Katie who had light patches of freckles over her cheeks. "Can we use more than one word to describe each..." She trailed off awkwardly as Miss Top shook her head so violently I was almost certain her glasses would slip from her pointy nose.

A boy who's name I was uncertain of and who wore a school football jersey was gestured to next. "Can I... like sit this one out. There's a huge game on Friday and I don't have time to do this kinda shit, you know?"

Miss Top frowned and brushed a piece perfectly straight and tamable (The kind Nudge would kill for) dark hair from her face. "Mr Ryans, I do not appreciate that type of language in my class room and as for your question... Well I think you know the answer to that one. NO."

"Miss can we add words like 'is and the' and stuff?" J.J, a friend of mine from grade school, asked flashing perfectly white teeth in the direction of the teachers desk.

The English teacher smiled in return. "You may."

BRING! BRING! BRING!

People shuffled to pack up there books and stationary as Miss Top yelled over the commotion, "You start today! I also expect you to write them down and not just make them up Monday morning before class!" She looked pointedly at Iggy.

First period Wednesday: Over!

"See ya man!" Iggy said fixing his light blue checkered shirt, that was such a startlingly perfect match to his eyes you would've thought Ella picked it out for him (Maybe she had), and began walking to what I think he said was Geography with Gazzy. I nodded in his direction and put my last pen back into my old beaten up pencil case.

I walked into the crowded hall heading in the direction of the gym. I pulled open the awkwardly peeling doors and started towards the guys change rooms. I ignored the strong smell of sweat and deodorant and headed for my locker.

I shimmed out of my black jeans (My favorite; the ripped ones with the chains) and slipped my black shirt over my head stuffing the clothing into my locker before changing into the school regulated black basket ball shorts.

More boys had started to come in and change by now including, one of my least favorite jocks, Sam Heart. A well known heart-breaker and a well known recipient to my fist. What can I say? The guy is a total dick. He hurt my best friend.

No I'm not talking about Iggy - though he is a very good friend of mine – I'm talking about Max. Now your all envisioning a dog of some kind aren't you? Well, your very wrong. Max Martinez is a girl and when I say that Sam hurt her I don't mean physically. Nope, he hurt her in a much deeper way: Emotionally.

"What's up Ride?" Sam sneered at me, shouldering his gym bag. "Staring at me again? Sorry bro! I don't swing that way..."

"Fuck off Sam." I snarled, throwing my shirt on and slamming my gym locker closed angrily.

"HE SPEAKS!" Sam yells over dramatically and his band of supposed 'friends' laughed. "In a good mood today Fangles?"

"Not anymore."

I was about to go through back into the main gym area when Sam's next words make me pause. "Why? Is Maxie-pad not putting out for you. Pitty, she is pretty hot in the bedroom, I would know."

I spun on my heel and was across the floor throwing Sam to the ground before anyone in the room could react "Don't ever talk about Max like that again!" My eyes blazed as the blond boy struggled under my hold. "She is not some kind of toy!" I had him pinned to the ground and, even though he was quite muscular from playing quarterback since freshman year, I was still stronger and had his back hard to the tiles. "If you get within 10 feet of her ever again I WILL break you."

I sprung to my feet, threw open the change room door and stormed out, but then shortly backtracked. I flicked my gaze over the gaping boys who's eyes were still trained onto where their stunned leader lay. "Never touch her! Any of you!" And with that finally message I finally made it out of the slob infested locker rooms.

He had no right to say that about her! I thought furiously. He had spoken about her like a piece of meat. 'She is pretty hot in the bedroom' The made her sound as if she was only good for one thing. 'I would know...' And that was the worst part. He would know.

I was making my way down to the basket ball court when I was tapped on the shoulder by a beaming Max. She stood at a perfect 5, 9" with light brown hair that had become so sun streaked that in this natural light it shone like liquid gold. Her eyes of milk chocolate gazed into my flat, dark ones. She herself just radiated beauty brighter anything else.

"Mrs Trounce is using my bird artwork in Sundays art show!" Max was so excited she seemed to have skipped over the fact that I was openly seething. "You were so right in saying I should show her!... Fang? What's wrong?" Her dazzling smile fell into a concerned line.

I shrugged and pulled Max over to where Couch Philips was wheeling out a cart of volleyballs from the sports shed. We sat on the court where other students had already settled waiting for today chosen sport to be announced. Considering there were about four kids staring to set up high nets and a trolley full of volleyballs waiting for attention my guess is volleyball.

"Okay class!" Coach finally came over clapping his hands loudly. "We are going... Oh, for goodness sake! HURRY UP!" The straggles finally came and sat down at Coaches yell. "So today..." I couldn't help but notice Sam was among them sitting silently next to his goons Jose and, his very annoying best-friend, Dylan.

Dylan looked at Max's turned back and I saw his Caribbean eyes light up. Dylan liked Max. I didn't like that Dylan liked Max. I growled deep in my throats and Dylan's eyes met my death glare. He flinched and looked away.

"Amy Andrews?" I was shaken back to reality when a girl around the age of 21 started calling role. I frowned and looked at Max questionably.

"That's Brigid Dawyer. She is some sought of student teacher and with the coach for the week. Weren't you listening when coach explained?" I shook my head. Brigid was quite short and had her long red hair pulled into a high ponytail, her eyes were blue as the sea.

"Here!" Amy called bringing me back to reality.

Brigid continued with the roll until, "Maxine Martinez?" The entire class went silent, coach even stopped pumping up balls. Max's knee against mine suddenly went very hot. "Maxine?" Miss Dawyer asked again.

"What did you just call me?" Max asked. Oh no. This would not end well.

"Oh so your Maxine. Can you just say 'here' next time?" Strike one! Foul ball.

Max sat up straighter. "I won't say anything until you call me by my name."

The redhead frowned and looked back down to her clip board. "Maximum? That isn't a proper name." Max seethed. "It must be a typo." Strike two! Swing and a miss.

"Brigid..." Coach said warningly but the girl ignored him completely.

"It isn't a typo. It's my name." Max spat. "So please call me by it." Oooh, Max used 'please'. Wonder how long she'll be in hospital.

"Stop being stupid Ms Martinez. No way would your parents name you after an adverb. How about I get the office to ring your Dad to get this role changed? I also imagine he wouldn't be too proud that your playing along with this joke, mine certainly wouldn't."

My heart stopped and I was sure Max's did as well. Strike three. She's out.

No one spoke. It was dead silent.

…...

Max stood up with her eyes blazing. I'm totally certain that everybody was expecting Max to send this lady 6 feet under the tarmac. Max, however, did the last thing any one in the entire school – Save me - would expect her do.

She walked away.

Fist clenched and eyes squeezed shut Max speed walked through the gym doors into the deserted hallway.

I carefully rose to my feet and walked around the students to where the stout student teacher stood. I breathed in heavily and straightened to my full height towering over the girl at 6, 4"

"Do you know what you just did?" Brigid Dawyer was rigid at the ice in my tone. "Her name is Maximum Martinez. She my best friend, hurt her and you deal with me." Even though I was speaking softly my voice filled the whole Gym."You don't know what you've done. I've known her since birth and never have I seen her walk away from a fight. Never. Not even after her own Father abandoned her. How about you tell your Daddy-dearest that." Brigid's mouth fell open.

On that note I turned and walked away. I needed to find Max. I walked the halls quickly, the gray tiles looked even more dull than usual. I expect they were just reflecting my mood back to me.

At the end of the hall I rounded a corner when I saw a flash of blond hair in the corner of an empty classroom. I closed the door behind me and looked around. Sitting against a filling cabinet curled into a ball, with head her in her hands sat my beautiful best friend. I knelt before her sobbing form and peeled away her hands.

"She's r-right Fang. " I sat down heavily next to her and pulled her into my arms, letting Max sob it out into my shoulder. "Jeb was n-n-never proud of m-me..."

"Shhh..." I whispered. My word limit for the entire week completely abolished after Sam & co. plus that horrid Brigid. Max's tears began to soak through the material of my red and white wife beater that was regulation for sport at East Arizona High.

"He left me Fang." I pulled her in tighter and she folded her hands and elbows into her chest so to lean into my chest farther. "Sure he wasn't very good D-Dad in the fir-st place..." Understatement of the century. "...but he was st-still my Father."

I stayed silent. This was the first time since Max's dad had left that she was really speaking about him. When it happened she sought of shut off that part of her life. She never cried about him and certainly never spoke about him to anyone. Not even to her Mother or sister. Where as, Ella was balling her eyes out for weeks.

"I... H-hate him!" I rocked us as her fist banged on my chest uselessly in anger. "I... Hate... Him..." She hit me each word. (Ow! She hits hard...)

She stopped hitting eventually (Thank god! I swear one of my beautiful pecks are bruised..) resorting to simply sobbing harder. I rested my chin onto of her hair.

In a very small and very broken voice Max asked. "You won't leave me? Will you Fang?"

I closed my eyes. "No Max. Never."

"...Promise?"

"On Angels life."

Max relaxed slightly. I continued rocked us back and forth slowly.

/\/\ /-\ X | /\/\ U /\/\ R | |) E

We ditched the rest of the day, choosing to hop over one of the lower lying fences at the back of the school still in our sport uniform.

My foster Mom wasn't very happy.

I had a billion texts all saying something along the lines of, "Nickolas Ride! Return to school IMMEDIATELY!" or "This is the third time this month I've got a call from your school! I am not happy." or "I will empty your closet and let Nudge refurbish it!" That last one almost made me turn back.

I couldn't though. Max needed the break and I was worried that if I saw little Miss Dawyer again I would snap and murder her instead of being diplomatic like in our last encounter.

So after an hour of Anne's constant texting and voice mails that was making me change my ring tone every 6 minuets I lifted my arm to throw my precious phone into the lake I was that peeved off.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Max asked and pulled my arm down from where it was aiming somewhere towards the middle of the water. "Don't do that! Do you remember how many hours you worked to buy that! Just... I dunno! Tell Anne your taking... care of me."

I stared at Max. Did I need to go to the Funny Farm or did the almighty Maximum Martinez just admit she needed taking care of? Never before had to she admitted to such a preposterous thing. Never in my life...

FLASH BACK

8 years previous...

"Race you to the top!" Eight-year old Max screamed at the dark boy chasing her. "Or are you Scardey Cat?" Max laughed as she turned slowed slightly to turn and look at the scowl on Fang's olive toned face.

"I am not Scardey Cat!" Fang cried in annoyance.

"Prove it then!" Max stopped suddenly at the bottom of a huge redwood. Fang was unable to stop quick enough to prevent crashing right into the back of Max sending the two friends into the leaves. Max scrambled up, "On the count of three we climb! First to the top wins!"

Max lowered her hand to Fang who was still catching his breath in the earth. Fang grasped Max's hand and she helped him up.

"One!" Max said grabbing a hold of the tree.

"Two!" Fang smiled lightly at Max.

"Three!" The pair yelled together and they were off! At this time Max and Fang were almost evenly matched. They climbed higher and higher at the same pace. Max was laughing and Fang was grinning as brightly as he ever had.

Everything is perfect right now! Fang thought. Mom is getting better after Chemo and Dad is sooo much happier and doesn't drink as much. Angel is finally talking! And Max is totally and completely my best friend! We'll be together forever! Nothing bad can ever happen while I have Max.

The two children climber higher into the tree, neither ahead of the other. Max was happy and Fang was smiling more than he had done since his Mom had been diagnosed.

Suddenly there was a loud 'snap!' and a girls scream reached Fang's ears. He looked down hurriedly to see Max in a crumpled pile on the ground.

"Max!" Fang yelled and climbed down as fast as her could jumping the last meter of two. He rushed to the girls side. "Max! Are you okay?"

Max didn't respond and Fang was panicking. He looked her over and saw her calf to be quite bloody and red, what looked like white bone was poking through flesh! Max blearily opened her eyes and started to cry slightly. Fang - being the best friend he could be at age eight - gripped her hand and shushed her.

TWO WEEKS LATER

"Max I can carry your bag or something if you want." Fang said anxiously as Max struggled to carry her backpack and use her crutches at the same time. Being in a cast was hard.

"Fang!" Max whined. "I don't need you to take care of me!..."

END OF FLASH BACK

It had been that way ever since. Never allowed to take care of my best friend. Never allowed to get to close - even though our relationship is as tight as one of those skirts my ex-girlfriend, Lissa, wears.

"Here! I'll call her myself if your going to go all emo and silent!" Max explained exasperatedly snatching away the phone I'd spent a year and half working three jobs saving for and hit speed dial 3 (1 being Max and 2 Iggy). I guess I fazed off for longer then I thought. "...Ah no Ms Walker. This is Max... No Fang is fine don't worry... He's right here next to me... I called to tell you Fang is skipping for me. I had a really horrible morning and just couldn't cope so Fang's taking care of me. Like he always does. I'm really sorry... Yeah. He's the best friend I never deserved... Hahaha. Yeah Fang is a little slow in the head... Hahaha! Okay, see you!"

"Slow am I?" Raising my eyebrows slightly. Max laughed again.

"You bet you are! Remember that one time it took you a whole week to figure out that cow joke in year three."

"Which one?"

"Ummm... What did the farmer call the cow that had no milk?..."

I was silent.

Max sighed. "An udder failure. Seriously thought you would've remembered since you laughed so hard... once you figured it out."

I scowled and Max laughed again.

I sat back and looked around our little park. There was almost no play equipment here other than a swing set and a spiral slide. What took up most of the empty space around was the lake. It wasn't very large but it was too big and deep to be called a pond. A part from a few scattered benches around the place was quite bear. Though there was still the trees Max and I used to climb when we were little.

"So are you feeling better?"

Max sighed. "Yeah. I don't know what happened... I just snapped, you know."

"Yeah, I know. You need to talk about things sometimes, Max. It helps you recover from them."

"Whoa! Have you been talking to Dr. Phil recently? Going to get me to go on the show to 'make myself better'?"

I smiled a tiny bit. "No I just recorded the last episode over your favorite Merlin ep."

Max fake pouted. "How could you?! Have you seen how beautiful Arthur is?! No way would delete him." I leaned over and ruffled Max's hair. She scowled unattractively and tried to flatten the stick-upy bits down again. "I am really sorry about before Fang."

"Cry all you want as long as you don't something stupid." In an under tone I added, "Like other people have..."

It was silent for a bit as Max knew what I was referring to.

"I would never Fang."

I closed my eyes and turned my face toward the shinning sun. "I know." I said but in my head I added I don't think I could live through that, so you better not.

/\/\ /-\ X | /\/\ U /\/\ R | |) E

"Okay Angel. That's enough of playing for one day. Or-"

"'I'll explode from the girliness of it all.' I know Fang!" My little sister laughed.

I grabbed her little body and into mine and cuddled her while she squired and wriggled. Hair like halos look appealing but they don't taste the best. "Oh yeah! Well you didn't know I'd do this!" I flipped her onto her back my body was covering half of hers. We were on the carpet away from the Barbies (Shudder) Angel had tricked me into playing with. I lifted up her 'Little Princess' shirt slightly to expose some skin. I lowered my mouth and blew raspberries there.

"Ahahaha!... Fang... Ahahaha!... STOP!" I stopped and lifted my dark orbs to see her sparkling blue eight year-old ones. I shifted onto my knees and helped her up.

"How about you clean these up..." I gestured to the toys on 'my' bedroom floor. "...and then we'll go bug Anne for ice-cream."

"Okay!" Angel kissed my cheek wetly. I made a disgusted face just to make her giggle.

"Go on! Get out of here, child!" Angel scooped up her toys and ran out into the hall into her own room.

I got up and slumped over to 'my' desk. I then proceeded to stare at the blank page in my Creative Writing binder. What word would describe today?

I closed my eyes hoping the lack of light would conjure up a thought.

"Never touch her! Any of you!"

"...never have I seen her walk away from a fight. Never..."

"No Max. Never."

"...admit she needed taking care of? Never before had to she admitted to such a preposterous thing. Never in my life..."

"Never allowed to take care of my best friend"

"Never allowed to get to close"

"I would never Fang."

In black ink I carved the word "Never." next to Wednesday.

REVIEW PLEASE!

Thoughts? Queries? Questions?

Connect the title with the chapter title, young one.

Laterzzzz,

Ella 3