Hey everyone! Ready for the next chapter? I hope this one is better than the last one. I know I haven't been really good at updating and I have no excuses this time. Hopefully I get the hang of this sooner rather than later, and you guys won't have to wait for 5 months so that I can update.

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride (sadly) only James Patterson does.

Chapter 5

Max POV

"MAX! MAX! MAX! WAKE UP, WAKE UP! WE'RE MOVING TODAY!"

I'm rudely awakened by both my little brother and Lana, who are screaming right next to my ear. After ten minutes of this, I quickly throw my covers off, sending both our cook and the boy, tumbling to the ground. I stand aside and silently watch as they struggle to get out of-the now tangled-covers. The sheets twist and I can hear them arguing. "Ow! You stepped on me!" "Hehe, no I didn't!" "Yes, you did, you're laughing!" After a while it gets silent. All I'm able to hear is the rustling of the sheets and the breathing of two people. Then, Lana emerges before Ari does; she stands aside as we both watch my little brother in amusement as he tangles himself even more.

He finds an opening and manages to get out. "Finally!" he gasps. His hands are thrown into the air and a huge grin appears on his face. He starts a silly little dance, involving something between flapping his arms and shaking his butt. I mentally smile at how childish he is, how he can still be so carefree after all that he's been through. Sure, he can be serious, but that's only when he knows that we are in a bad situation, but I'm glad that he can still act like that. He's a kid after all, and no kid deserves to live the life that we had.

Lana soon joins my brother in his little dance and I can't help but to dramatically palm my face and give out an exasperated sigh.

"Are you sure you're twenty-seven and not eight?" I ask Lana. Yes, she's pretty young to work in a mansion as a cook and personal doctor, but she started college early and was always a friend of Odessa (Mrs. Whitley). She has no family just like all the people who work in this house. It's one reason why I like the Whitley's and the workers. They are kind, caring, fun and we are one misfit family. Jose is our chauffer and bodyguard, mainly for mom and dad, but he also does it for the rest of us. His wife died a few years ago, and so at the age of thirty-six he works here. Luis is the gardener and also a bodyguard, he's only twenty-nine. I find it pretty surprising that they are all young enough to still have a real family, yet they insist that there are no other people like us. I truly love all of them, and I'm glad they found both Ari and I, even if they had to hit me with their car.

"Max!" I turn around and face Lana. "Don't forget we're moving today, so get out there and help us put the bags away! Oh! And by the way, your friend Sam is here."

With that said the three of us walk out of my room and head downstairs to the living room. I carry the last of my belongings downstairs. Sure enough, when we get there, Sam is sitting on the sofa. He quickly gets up as the movers (?) come in and carry the sofa to the moving van. We all head outside and I place my bags inside the car. Jose, Lana and Luis will all get there by car while the rest of us will ride on a plane. I feel guilty for this, but there won't be any more space in the car and mom and dad won't allow me and Ari to fly over there. As in, using our wings. We all help load the rest of the things, including Sam, before we say our goodbyes. Sam's dad, Soren, is here and mom and dad shake hands with him and exchange words. I go over to him and tightly hug him. He bends down to hug Ari and before I go over to Sam, he stops me.

"We'll both miss you Max. Enjoy yourself in California and be careful." He finally lets me go, and I walk over to Sam.

He smiles at me and pulls me onto a tight embrace. I hesitantly wrap my arms around him; I'm not so good at hugs. "You're not going to cry, are you Max? I don't think I want my new shirt ruined" he teases.

I smile and lightly slap him as we pull apart. My smile fades as soon as I remember what I need to tell him. He notices this and we walk behind the house, using the excuse of going to the garden one last time before we leave, Ari trailing behind us.

I finally turn to face them both and start talking.

"So I was thinking yesterday about ways to track down the other experiments. I finally thought of something before I fell asleep. Ari, do you remember how we weren't the only ones who escaped two years ago? There was one other Avian who escaped."

"You mean the one that you helped escape while distracting the Erasers?" Sam asks.

I nod my head. "How can this person help?" he asks again.

"If I remember correctly, this person said they would help me whenever I would need it. We need someone to help us. This person has some… skills that can help us with our search. Plus, I remember their appearance and cage number. It was right next to mine. This persons' number was 6545. The letter we found said that they knew this experiment was somewhere in California. That's where the two of us are going to live in. Now all we have to do is find this person while we're there and convince them to help us out, which shouldn't be too hard. "

"And then this person can use their skills to help us out which should make things sooo much easier!" Ari exclaimed.

"Yeah and finding one particular person in CALIFORNIA won't be hard" Sam snorts. I sigh, that's the only problem, but once I find this person, the rest should be a piece of cake.

0o0o0o0

The airport is full of bustling people. People are running from one place to another as they try to reach their flight before it's too late. There are a few wails and cries from kids and mom's scolding said kids. I can see families saying their goodbyes to each other. I see families reuniting and I even see couples making out as if it's the end of the world. At seeing this, both Ari and I give each other looks of disgust, I mean seriously people? There are children here! Of course I don't say this out loud, why bother when they'll get right back at it later on? Instead I keep walking in the direction to where our flight should be waiting.

Our "adoptive" parents sit down on the seats while Ari and I just look nervously around. I realize that we are both looking for exits and ways to escape in case for danger. Old habits, I guess. Still we don't relax until we're satisfied and finally we board the plane.

I sit down in my seat and Ari sits down right next to me. To other people he might seem a little clingy, but he's not. I don't like to have him out of my sight, we both know that The School is still looking for us. So as long as he sticks by my side I'm always reassured that no one will take him away from me. Mr. and Mrs. Whitley sit in the two seats in front of us. The flight attendant goes around asking people if they need anything, when she reaches us I stop her and ask for some snack to eat, Ari asks the same and we both wait for the lady to come back with something. Even though we stopped by a fast food restaurant before getting here, we're both getting hungry. Some fifteen minutes later the flight attendant comes back with some peanut bags, two bagels, and some drinks. It's not enough, but it will do. I grab a bag of peanuts and soon enough we finish all of the food. I'm looking out the window, trying to get my mind on other things instead of how this plane can crash any second and how it feels as if it's suffocating me, when Ari speaks up.

"It feels weird, right? Like… I don't know, it just doesn't feel right…it's different" he whispers.

"Yup" I respond. "It's different because we're inside and not outside"

He nods. Its different flying with your own wings, you're out in the open instead of sitting in a death contraption. You can feel the wind all over you and see everywhere, where areas in a plane you can only feel the tremble of the turbines and see out of a small window. My wings start aching just thinking about it, so I get up and head towards the bathroom. As soon as the door is tightly closed and locked, I take off my jacket and slowly spread my wings. I slightly flutter them, trying to work the small knots out and being careful to not knock something over. While In here I use the bathroom and splash some water on my face trying to wake myself up. After this, I put my jacket back on and I open the door and start heading towards my seat, only to collide with someone. For a moment I'm stunned, and then I quickly recompose myself apologizing to the person and finally looking at who I ran into.

It's a guy. He's tall, and that's saying something since I'm 5'8. He's probably six inches taller than me causing me to look up at his face. His hair is strawberry blond and his skin is pale, and he has light blue eyes with a hint of green surrounding the edges. His face seems familiar, but I can't remember from where.

"Sorry" he flashes me a smile and extends his hand for me to shake it. I hesitantly take it, and he obviously sees it, because he laughs a little while speaking. "Don't worry, I won't bite you" he lets go of my hand and keeps talking "My name's Iggy by the way, well my real name is James but everyone calls me Iggy".

Its then, that I finally realize why he seemed so familiar. He's Iggy, one of my former best friends when I was eleven years old! I remember how Iggy would be the mischievous one out of all of us, along with his little brother Gazzy, and he had a baby sister whose nickname was Angel. I take a moment to see how much he had changed. He's definitely not a scrawny little boy anymore, he's tall, as previously mentioned, and I can see some muscle on him. That sparkle is still in his eye, and he has an amazing smile. I also notice how he seems to be more hygienic than when we were little. I take in as much details as I can before I realize I've taken a long time answering back. I look up to see a slight smirk on his face, keeping my face guarded and hoping he doesn't recognize me, I answer back.

"I'm Max" I keep my response short.

He raises an eyebrow at my name and asks the same question I always get from my name, "Is it short for Maxine or something?"

"No, it's short for Maximum" I snap.

"Just asking" he holds up his hands as if to tell me to calm down. I sigh and then I surprise myself by trying to start a conversation with him. Usually I don't speak to strangers, you see I'm not really a social person, but then again, he isn't really a stranger. Just someone I haven't seen in nearly five years.

"It's just that everyone says the same thing and it gets really annoying now."

"Tell me about it, I always get weird looks when I introduce myself as 'Iggy'" he laughs.

I nod my head before talking again, "So where are you coming from?" I ask. I want to see how much he's changed and maybe try to know him better.

"I just finished my family vacation in Ohio, and I'm now heading back home with my family. How 'bout you?" he politely asks. Wow, I never would have expected this from him, he was never polite when we were eleven, and he kind of seems like an arrogant person.

"My family is moving over here to California, we're from Seattle."

He flashes me a bright smile "That's cool, hope you like it here. Well anyways, my little sister's waiting for me, gotta go, bye!" He waves at me before leaving.

After that whole exchange, I head back to my seat, where Ari is already asleep. He didn't recognize me! I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. Now I can't help wondering if my other friends would recognize me if they saw me again. Would my best friend, Fang, recognize me? I cut off my thoughts, I can't think about this. If they do see me it's better that they don't recognize me. I can't put innocent people in danger. Besides, I probably won't see anyone anymore. What are the chances of them still living in the same place, right?

Again, I'm soooooooo sorry! But there you have it! The other members will be introduced later on. So what do you think? Is it good so far? Please tell me what you think. R&R!