"I call the upstairs room!" I yelled as I hopped out of my step-dad's truck. We'd just moved from California to Texas and, while I wasn't necessarily happy about it, I wasn't overly upset. My mom had just got an amazing new job at a veterinarian practice here in Dallas and I was happy for her. It was what she loved to do and it paid really good money. Plus, living in Texas as opposed to Cali meant lower housing costs.

Thus, our frickin' awesome new house! Which, I'd just called the best room in!

"No fair!" Ella, my younger sister by a year, yelled. "I wanted that room! Why should I have to leave all my friends behind and still get the crappy room?!"

Where most people would have replied with the sound, logical argument that they were leaving all their friends behind, too, I couldn't. The other reason I wasn't overly upset about moving was that I didn't really have anything in California to upset about leaving. See, I'm not the, um, friendliest of people and so I, shocker, don't tend to make friends easily.

"Ella, dear," my mom said, "please try to look at the bright sides. You can make new friends."

"I don't want new friends!"

At that, I couldn't resist. I burst into song. I couldn't help it. Ella was asking for it!

"Make new friends,

but keep the old..."

"Max! Stop that!" Ella screeched. Literally, screeched. I wanted to laugh, but was determind to finsih my song.

"One is silver

And the other's gold."

"Moo-om!" Ella yelled, making the word two syllables.

"A circle is round,

it has no end.

That's how long,

I will be your friend."

At that point, Ella looked ready to murder me and my mom was giving me her patented Maximum-Ride-Stop-That-Now-Or-I-Will-Shave-Your-Eyebrows-Off-In-You-Sleep look. And yes, apparently you can say all that with just a look. I just smirked.

But, I feel I should clarify here. So far, I know it looks like Ella's an uptight, um, excuse my language, bitch and that I get off on annoying her. Ella really is quite nice, but she was upset about the move and I... well, you're right about me getting off on annoying her.

At that point, I grabbed the duffel bag I'd packed earlier to live off of until I got around to unpacking my boxes and ran upstairs. I had a good feeling about this whole moving thing

I. Hate. Moving.

You know how earlier I was saying that I didn't think I would mind moving and how it actually was a little bit fun? Yeah, that was before I had to start unpacking boxed.

This is hell. This is what people have to do when they get sent to hell. Yes, it was that bad. And I was letting everyone know how awful lugging boxes around was, especially in the Texas heat.

"Oh, please, mother, just kill me now!" I whined. "This is torture. And isn't it supposed to be fall? It's September for God's sake! It shouldn't be 106 degrees!"

"Maximum!" Jeb, my step-dad, finally snapped. I shut up, but when he turned his back I stuck my tongue out. Ella giggled.

A few minutes later a went back to loudly vocalizing my opinion on moving. It was a long night.

Beep. Beep. Beep. BEEEEEP.

"Mrrgngggg," I groaned as I sat up in my bed in my new room, trying to remember where the hell I was. It came back to me quickly, though, and I realized it was Monday. I was starting school. A new school. All vestiges of tiredness left me as I jumped out of bed and hit my alarm clock until it shut-up. I was too nervous to be tired.

See, remember earlier when I mentioned I wasn't the greatest at making friends? I was going to try and fix that at my new school. That was the third reason I wanted to move. A fresh start.

I made sure to run into the bathroom and get in the shower before Ella got to, before remember that I had my own bathroom here and didn't need to worry about Ella's tendency to spend ten hours in the bathroom doing... well, I honestly don't know.

I took a scalding hot fifteen minute shower and blow dried my hair so it sat nicely on my shoulders, then pulled out a spray-can of Ella's hair-spray that I'd stolen- er, I mean borrowed and used it, knowing my hair's nasty little tendency to look perfect before I leave for school, then turn into a mess about half-way through the day.

I threw on a pair of jeans and a flowery cami with a black shrug over it, hoping the school wouldn't consider it against dress code. I was about to decide I was done and head downstairs to pace while I waited for an appropriate time to leave when Ella knocked on my door.

"Yeah?" I said, opening the door just a crack, a habit I'd developed in California. I never opened my door all the way and would lean against the door frame when I talked to people in what I thought was a casual way to hide the mess that room inevitably was when I was thirteen. My room is still always a mess, but I now realize that my way of hiding the mess is not casual. Still, it was a habit I'd yet to break.

Ella, of course, looked gorgeous and felt like my appearance paled in comparison. Her sleek brown hair was curled to perfect and pulled back in an intricate half-ponytail thing, her clothes seemed to compliment her body perfectly and her make up seemed to make her already amazingly beautiful features even prettier. I felt like the ugly duckling standing next to a beautiful princess. And she was younger than me!

"Max," Ella started, then began shifting her feet, looking nervous. "Um, would you please please let me try some make-up on you? Please?"

I opened my mouth to say, 'Nuh-uh, no way. Maximum Ride does not wear make-up,' then changed my mind. Fresh starts and all...

"Uh, sure."

"Really?!" Ella's face lit up.

"Yeah, just don't-"

"Oh! This is exciting! You're going to look so pretty! Not, that you're not already or anything but-"

"Ella!" I yelled, shutting her up. "Chill, please. It's way too early to have that much energy."

By that point, I'd already been dragged into Ella's bathroom and pushed down to sit on the toilet seat while Ella prepared her arsenal of make-up. I was starting to regret my decision...

"Don't worry," Ella said, coming at my face with a brush of some sort. "Close your eyes." I obeyed. "I won't do anything wild."

I wished I could see was Ella was doing, but she kept swiping brushes up and down my face until I was squirming with boredom. The worst part was when she attacked my eyes... whatever it was she put on my eyes. It took forever. Finally, though, she puts on some last minute lip-gloss and let's me stand to see my reflection and... wow. I hardly recognized myself.

She was right, it was very subtle despite how long it took. Some foundation to even my skin tone, a bit of blush, eyeliner that wasn't too heavy and some mascara. It looked... really frickin' good. I smiled.

"Here," Ella said, handing me a tube of lip-gloss. "Put this on throughout the day. It'll also help your lips from getting chapped," she added as an afterthought.

I pulled out my phone and looked at the time.

"Oh, shit, El, we're gonna be late!"

"No we won't," Ella said casually, then walked off to grab her backpack. I stared confused at her back as she walked away, wondering if she had any sense of time at all, then decided that this must be why she's late to everything. I shook myself out of my thoughts, though, and grabbed my backpack and ran downstairs, too.

"Mo-oom," Ella was saying when I walked into the kitchen. "Can you please give us a ride? I don't want to be all sweaty at school today." She looked like she was about to turn on the water-works and I found myself grinning evily at Ella's crafty-ness.

"Of course, sweetie," Mom said. "Max? Are you ready?"

"Yep," I said, even though I could feel butterflies getting ready to pop out of my chest.

"Oh," Mom said when she looked at me. "You look beautiful, Max." She sniffed, looking like she was holding back tears.

"Mo-ooom," I whined, using Ella's patented two-syllable "Mom."

"Let a mother get emotional at the sight of her beautiful daughter! I can cry if I want to!"

"Yes, ma'am!" I said, giving her a mock salute. She rolled her eyes, then drove Ella and I up to the high school.

When we pulled up, Ella was rocketed out of the car before we were fully stopped just yelling, "Bye, mom!" over her shoulder as she left. You would never guess the night before she had been dreading this very moment. I took longer to get out of the car. Once I did and my mom had drove off, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath for courage and took one giant step... and tripped. Right into someone.

Whoever I had fallen into caught me, thank God, it would have been awful if I'd knocked us to the ground, but it was still mortifying.

"Oh my God," I said, feeling my cheeks turn bright red. "I'm so sorry-"

The guy just started to laugh. Hard. Like, almost fall over, slapping your knee hard. I was going to be indignantly annoyed with him, then I got a good look at him. He was hot. Too hot to be mad at over a little laugh.

He was over six feet tall, with perfectly styled Strawberry-blonde hair and an amazing face. He was wearing sun-glasses so I couldn't see his eyes, but I was sure they were as beautiful as the rest of him.

He was still laughing, though, and I felt some of my anger come back. Was he seriously laughing at me? Jesus Christ... just goes to show, hot guys are assholes.

"Look," I said harshly, "just because I tripped and made a little bit of an idiot out of myself doesn't give you the right to make fun of me like some-!"

He cut my off mid-sentence.

"Woah, there," he said, like I was some horse. "No need to get mad! Last I checked, you fell into me. Besides, it was funny. I wasn't making fun of you or nothin'."

"Anything," I corrected.

"Fine. I was not making fun of you or anything."

"Hmph."

Hot-Guy smiled, an absolutely dazzling smile I must say. It blinded me for a second.

"I don't think we've met. I'm Iggy!"

"Iggy?" I asked. "What kind of name is Iggy?"

"I tend to be a bit of a, ah, pyro, if you will. It's short for Ignite. What's your name?"

"Maximum," I said. "But I go by-"

"Wait, wait, wait," he said, that alluring, mischievous grin back in place. "Your name is Maximum and you were making fun of Iggy?"

"At least Maximum is a word! And I was just saying I go by Max!"

"Okay, Max!" Iggy said, holding his hands up in a display of surrender. "You win. Are you new?"

"Yep," I said, getting a of whiplash from the immediate subject change, but determined to go along with it. "This is my first day."

"Ooh!" Iggy said, his face lighting up in a childlike excitement. "Ooh! Can I show you around? Pleeaaasssee? I'll be your best friend! Ever!"

I couldn't help but laugh. "Okay," I said, catching on to Iggy's strange ways fairly quickly.

"Yes!" he yelled, and pumped his fist into the air. "What's your first class?"

"Um... Chemistry with Mr. Zatkos. Room-"

"203. Yep. I can get you there. We have the same First Period."

"Cool," I said, excited to have a friend... kind of. I honestly didn't know what to count Iggy as. I went from hating him to being annoyed with him to wanting to be his friend in a matter of seconds.

"Come, my lady," he said, lowering his voice and using a formal tone. He offered his arm to me and laughed before taking it. In his other hand, the left one, he grabbed a red and white striped cane with a cloth handle on the top. I looked at it for a moment, trying to decide if it was another of Iggy's strange little quirks, or something else... then, I noticed him swinging it in front of him and it all made sense. That, plus the sun glasses he was wearing made me feel like an idiot for not noticing.

"You're blind!" I blurted out, then blushed in embarrassment. He just laughed.

"Yep, and doesn't that just make you feel amazing about yourself. First, you almost ruthlessly tackled the defenseless blind kid and now said blind kid has to lead you to your classes."

Now, how is someone supposed to respond to that? The answer, you stumble awkwardly until the aforementioned blind kid starts laughing at you and you want to punch him, but you can't. Because he's blind and how exactly do you explain to someone later that, yes, you did punch the blind kid, but you had a good reason. He was laughing at you for tackling him earlier. Yeah... it was quite awkward on my side. I got the idea that Iggy was enjoying my awkwardness. Bastard.

Iggy was slightly swinging his little striped stick along the floors, but it seemed to be an absent-minded habit, like he didn't really need the stick. A second later, though, he got this really evil little smile on his face and, just as a kid with dark hair was passing us, whacked the kid with the stick.

"Damn it, Iggy!" the dark haired kid yelled. "How do you do that?"

"I got skillz," he said. Now, I know I spelled 'skills' wrong, I'm not stupid, but it would impossible to imagine the word that Iggy had just said not being spelled with a 'Z.'

"Whatever," dark-hair said, then turned to me. "Are you new? I'm Fang."

Fang? I thought. Does everyone have a weird name here?

"I'm Max, and, yes, I'm new."

"Cool," he said, then stopped talking at all. Iggy, however did not. In fact, he didn't stop speaking for one moment and I lost track of what he was he saying until he said:

"Um... hm, well, I seem to have got us lost."

Fang raised an eyebrow at me. "You took directions from Iggy?"

"Well, how was I supposed to know he'd get us lost? Besides," I snapped, "shouldn't you know where we're going?"

"Well, yeah, I do," he said. "I wasn't exactly sure where we were going, though, given that I wasn't informed."

"Chemistry," Iggy said happily.

"Oh," Fang said. "Yeah, we're way off."

"How far is 'way off?'" I asked suspiciously.

"Other side of the school."

"Damn it!" Iggy yelled. "I thought I had it that time... well, we'll have an excuse for being late."

The warning bell went off and Fang cursed.

"Shit, um, I need to get to class before I'm late. Iggy you're right outside room 256. Max, just straight down this hallway and turn right at the end of it, then left down a little side hallway." And with that, Fang left.

"Hmph," Iggy grunted indignantly. "I don't know why he doesn't trust that I can get us there." He had the most adorable pout on his face.

"Well, it could be because you got us lost..."

"Whatever," Iggy said, as we walked quickly to class. The hallways were starting to get empty. "Use logic. I don't care."

"Sure you don't."

We bickered back and forth until we finally made it to our chemistry class. I was amazed at how easy it was to talk to Iggy. I'd never been able to speak to anyone like that before. It seemed like the start to an amazing year.

So, I know the last thing I need is another WIP to start writing, but I've had some pretty bad writer's block and I really wanted to try writing a "The Flock goes to high school" pieces. Plus, it was super fun to write. ;P