MAX POV

It wasn't ME that wanted to buy a house.

It wasn't me at all. It was totally Fang. Why? He said, and I quote, "We need a home."

So, we bought a house. It's surprisingly cheap these days, what with the economy acting weird. We'd looked for almost three days for an accepting city, and when we finally found one-quiet, no erasers-it was in the rainiest town in the country. No, really. I googled it.

So yeah, the flock was settling down in the cold, wet, rain. Did I mention that I HATE the cold?

Why was I going along with us? Because Fang voiced his idea, and the younger kids let out excited peals.

The first night in our new house (residing in Forks, Washington. Hehheh. The name was the only thing I liked about the town) was less than peaceful. We'd gone on a HUGE shopping spree earlier that day, and, with the maximum ride credit card, had bought. . .

Was it something we needed, like clothes or food?

No, we bought a car, of course.

Nudge and Gazzy were begging for food, so I gave up and ordered pizza with my brand new. . .cell phone (another thing that I had no need of).

The flock hid behind couches when the doorbell rang. I-since I'm the leader, I have to open the door-walked over to the door, looked out the peephole. Pizza guy, complete with acne, standing there.

I opened the door. His looked up at me and his jaw dropped.

"What?" I said irritably. Number Seven on the Things I Hate list; people staring at me.

"Your pizza. . ." He stammered.

"Just give it to me," I said, snatching the pizza from him and throwing him a twenty, slamming the door. The flock crept out of their hiding place.

"Yes! Give me food!" Total said appreciately, sitting in his chair, obviously forgetting the fact that he was a dog. "After all, I deserve it more than you runaways."

Obviously forgetting the fact that he was a dog that lived by the grace of these runaways.

"Max?" Angel said, her eyes wide, her blond curls tumbling around her face. Ever since we'd been to Antartica, four years ago, she'd been determined to grow her hair out long, like some sort of famous singer.

"What?" I said, handing her a slice of pepperoni.

"I mean, I know that you hate this kind of stuff ever since Anne's place but please please please can we go to school? Please? I could play mind puppet with the principal so he wouldn't ask us about our parents and everything. . ."

"No," I said. We all were sitting down at the table, the flock watching our conversation with rapt attention.

"Why not?" Angel sniffed a little.

"Because. . ." I couldn't think of an acceptable excuse in time.

"Max!" Angel moaned, and then. . .she turned up the bambi eyes. I winced. "Uh, fine."

The younger kids errupted into cheers. Fang rolled his eyes at me, and whispered, "Sucker."

"Who let who have a freaking dog?" I responded, chewing on my pizza.

FANG POV

First class; English.

I was all alone in this class, and it was awkward, to say the least, standing in front of a bunch of strange kids who were gawking at me as if I were freaking-god. Maybe I should have worn less black. Nah.

"This is. . ." The teacher, a man who I hadn't bothered to learn the name of. . ."Nick. . .what was your last name?"

"Smith," I lied tersely, looking out into the students, searching for Erasers. Although fighting erasers would be better than freaking English class. I mean, it wasn't my idea. Okay, it was sorta my idea.

Normal student, normal student, normal, normal, normal. . woah.

I tensed. That kid in the back row, he had to be an eraser. Super model type, all the way. Blond hair, icy fair skin, golden eyes. . .the look he gave me was scary.

"Then you can sit next to Jasper," The teacher said, pointing to the student Eraser. Of course. As soon as this class was over, I was telling Max that there were Erasers in this town and we were leaving. I mean, I liked the idea of having a home, but not if we had to go to school.

I slid over to the empty desk next to him. My senses were on hyperaware. Would this Eraser attack me right in front of the class? Would I have to do an up-and-away? I really wished Max was there. Then she could make all the decisions.

As soon as I sat next to this. . .Jasper. . .though, all the fear and panic faded away and I was la-di-dah, like Max on valium.

Some conscious part of my mind realized that I wasn't supposed to feel like this, and I tried to bring my adrenaline level back up, but it disappeared again. Of course this wasn't an Eraser. I would be freaking out, my instincts telling me to run. I was totally relaxed, now. Yay. . .

"What's your name?" I asked Jasper, although I already knew it.

Ripples, voices echoed throughout the room. Oh my god, he talked to Cullen! C-u-l-l-e-n!!!! He's so cute! I want to ask him out! His name was Nick, right?

"Jasper Cullen," He said in a low purr of a voice, his fingers drumming the desktop.

Then I realized I was talking to a complete stranger. That looked like an Eraser. The panic started up again, and then calmness filled me. I shook my ahead and focused on the lecture, watching the would-be Eraser out of the corner of my eye.

IGGY POV

Ah. First period was P.E. Of course. I would have to start my first day of school a total freak. Even more than a total freak than I already was.

"This is Jeff Smith, and he'll be a new student here," The P.E. teacher announced. He handed me some clothes. "Jeff, this is the uniform."

"Um," I said, hating to have to say this, "Um. I'm blind."

I could feel the P.E. teachers astonished gaze on me. "You're. . blind?" He said. "But. . how. . .?"

I yawned. "Well, I looked at the sun for too long, the way they tell you not to. Yeah, and so, you know, I lost my eyesight." Lying was second nature to me.

The teacher didn't know what to say. "Well, I guess. . .I guess you don't have to do P.E. I mean, you couldn't possibly keep up with the other students." I wonder if he knew that I could have him pinned to the ground in one second. And have a bomb shoved up his butt in another. I'd managed to sneak several bombs into the school. . .my fingers twitched. Nah, Max would be mad.

"But I can't just leave you alone. Would anyone like to sit out today with Jeff, before we can get this situation. . .arranged?" The Teacher asked, desperate.

I heard several students raise their hands. "Um. . .how about. . ." Mr. P.E. Teacher said, frantic.

"I'll totally do it, Mr. Clapp," A girl's high piping voice said cheerfully. "My arm hurts anyway. Oh, ow." The words were a completely innocent lie and I had to choke back a laugh.

"All right, Alice." Mr. whats-his-face said. "Go sit on the bleachers."

I heard the girl's footsteps and followed them, concentrating on the sound, and then heard the girl sit. I sat next to her, a few feet away.

"Hi, I'm Alice, you're Jeff, right?" Alice asked, and I could hear her leaning forward.

"Yeah," I said reluctantly, trying to pinpoint the girl's precise position. There was something odd about the way she smelled. . I couldn't figure it out. 98% of me was thinking wow, she smells good. 2% of me thought predator. But she seemed nice enough.

"Where are you from?" The girl asked.

I thought back. The flock had just crashed Max's mom's place, in Arizona, but we'd been born in the school, in California. So, yeah. . .

"Arizona," I said.

"Wow! Bella's from there too! So awesome! So this place must be weird, huh?. ."

"Bella?"

"Oh, my sister. We were all adopted."

"Huh," I said. "Me too. My family, by missionaries," I told Alice the composed story, that Max had been using for years. It was a good one.

"Your family? So there's six of you? That is so cool!" Alice said enthusiastically, bouncing up and down in her spot. I swear, she reminded me just like Nudge. Nudge. . .I daydreamed for a minute about Nudge. She was registered as a Sophomore.

The bell rang. "Oops! That's the end of class! Gotta go! Jasper's waiting for me!" Alice said, and sped off.

MAX POV

Finally, lunch break, thank god.

I was so going to strangle Angel for coming up with this stupid idea. Only I would never strangle Angel, my baby. So I would strangle someone else.

Fang and I had just had Spanish together. The teacher, a Mrs. Goff, had quizzed us the entire period, and my oh-so-faithful voice had failed to chime in for the entire period with its oh-so-useful knowledge. Which, if it had been pertaining to translations, would have been pretty useful.

Iggy, Nudge, Fang and I sat together, scarfing down food. Fang was quiet, quieter than usual. I looked around the lunchroom, examining our surroundings.

Finally, I broke. "Nudge?" I asked tenatively, "How was class?"

Big mistake.

"Oh my god!' Nudge said. "Class was totally awesome, first I had Algebra, which sucked, but it was still awesome, because there were cute boys in my class and I met this girl with this kind weird name, and she's called Ren-es-mee but she goes by Nessie, which kind of reminds me of a loch ness monster, I wonder why that's her nickname, but she is super-pretty and she said she was adopted, and she has an older brother named Edward and she's really nice and her last name is Cullen. Isn't that cool? I think I'm going to change my name from Tiffany Crystal Monique Butterfly Rainbow Smith to Tiffany Crystal mmmph." The mmph came from Iggy putting his hand over her mouth. I shot him a thankful glance, which he missed. It's the thought that counts.

I had scarfed down my pizza. I stood up. "I'm going to get seconds, okay?" I said.

EDWARD POV

"Look! New kids!" Alice said, pointing. "I talked to one in P.E. He was blind."

"Yeah, they're the Smiths," Jasper said. "One sits next to me in English. He was all weird, twitchy and anxiety, but I calmed him down. But-get this-he smelled like birds."

"Yeah," Alice said, "Jeff too."

"Daddy," Renesmee said. She was chewing on her lettuce. She didn't like human food, but Carlisle had said that eating "plenty of both types of substenance" would keep her healthy. "I sat next to this girl named Tiffany, and she was one of the Smiths. She smelled like a bird."

I looked at her with faux sternness. "You have to call me Edward in public," I reminded her.

She pouted.

"So, can you get a read off them?" Bella asked, leaning closer to me. I wanted to inhale her scent, breath her in, but what we wanted would not be acceptable in public. I shrugged and focused.

"That girl. . .Max, her name was. . .she's looking for escape routes. Jeff is thinking something about bombs. Nick. . ." I grinned. "Nick is thinking about how beautiful Max is."

"Ah," Rosalie said tartly. "Budding romance. Just tell us if they're suspicious of us or not."

I shrugged. I hoped that everyone would find true love the way that my family had. "Tiffany. . .er, what was her name? It was long. Anyway, she's thinking about shopping."

"Maybe we'll be friends!" Alice suggested brightly.

"Like she needs another shopping partner," Bella muttered under her breath, knowing that Alice would hear her anyway with her vampiric hearing. I smiled. Bella was still being tugged along, with Alice, on shopping expeditions. Our daughter, at five years old, looked about fifteen, and loved shopping almost as much as Alice.

I watched with disinterest as Max rose from her seat, her thoughts intent on food. I watched with disinterest as she walked over to the lunch ladies selling pizza.

And I watched as she crumpled to the floor, pain exploding through her mind.

FANG POV

"Max!" I shouted, jumping up and sprinting over to her.

She was curled up in a little ball, her hands over her face, moaning. I picked her up, cradling her. Was she having a brain attack again? She hadn't had one of those in four years.

Whispers rippled out from me. Nudge and Iggy were by my side, staring anxiously at Max. I heard voices murmuring, "Is she all right?"

"Hello," A voice said. I jerked my head up. A boy, a young man, stood a few inches shorter than me. He reminded me of that Jasper I met earlier. I narrowed my eyes. He had coppery hair and golden eyes and very fair skin. His voice was a purr. Erasers?

"My father's a doctor. Maybe I could help. My name is Edward Cullen." The boy said.

I narrowed my eyes, and backed away. Max writhed in my arms. "Nice try, eraser," I snapped. I trusted this boy as far as I could throw him. . .which was pretty far. Okay, less far than I could throw him.

He wrinkled his perfect nose. "What? Pencils?"

With Max incapacitated, I was in charge. We needed to find a safe place where we could wait for her brain attack to end. If it didn't end. . .well. . .we'd think about it later.

"Ig, Nudge, on three, we run out of the building and go over to the middle school, get Angel and Gazzy, get out of here," I said in a low voice, to low for pretty boy to hear. I backed away.

Pretty boy cocked his ear, as if he was listening to something.

"Fang. . ." Max moaned. I looked down at her, and gasped.

On her neck was a tattoo. Three numbers. The year was this year. And I was pretty sure the month was this month.

Max's expiration date had showed up.