Chapter 1

“Taylor, time for school!” My mom yelled up the stairs. I shivered as I got out of my pajamas. I unfolded my wing a little to stretch them out. Yeah, you heard me right, I stretched my wings out. My mom is Maximum Ride, my dad is Fang. My name is Taylor Ride. My wings were white with brown and black spots. I had mostly my mom’s wings, but some of my dad’s. I did get my dad’s hair though. It’s completely black. I pulled on some jeans and a happy bunny shirt and bounded down the stairs.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, I’m here.” I grumbled. My dad snickered as my mom hit me with a wooden spoon.

“Ow!” I said. She scowled at me and dad smirked at her.

Oh yeah, today was the last day of school. I was in the ninth grade.

“See you! Don’t forget that today is a half day! I’d rather not be forgotten, AGAIN!” I said over my shoulder as I grabbed my backpack and met my friend, Colby. She was awesome. We did everything together.

“Hey, wanna hang out after school?” Colby asked.

“I can’t, family reunion.” I said regretfully. The day went by slowly and finally it was over and you’ll never guess who wasn’t there. After waiting thirty minutes, I sighed and snapped my wings out in a field. I got home and burst through the door, looking quite fierce if I do say so myself.

“Oh crud.” My dad muttered.

“THANK YOU, MOM!” I screamed.  I ran up to my room and slammed the door. I opened my Mac and got on MySpace. No one was on. I sighed and put my head in my hands. I had a horrible headache. I walked downstairs to get an aspirin. Gazzy was here.

“Hey, Taylor.” He said.

“Hi. Hey, mom, where do we keep the aspirin?” I asked her.

“In the bathroom cabinet, why?” She asked.

“Major headache.” I said.

Hello, Taylor.

            I jumped and screamed bloody murder.

“What’s wrong?” Dad asked me, standing up at my scream.

Oh Taylor, get ready to experience major pain.

            Suddenly, my head started hurting real bad. I clutched my head screaming and fell to the floor. Images flashed through my head. I saw a brick building and scientists in white coats and wolf like creatures. The pain subsided. I didn’t open my eyes. My screams had died down to whimpers. I was still holding my head. I opened my eyes to slits. My mom was leaning over me with Gazzy and my dad.

“Brain attack.” Gazzy said quietly to my mom. She nodded.

“Hey everybody. Why are we- OH!” I heard Angel. I slowly sat up.

“What’s a brain attack?” I asked my mom.

“I got them all the time. Did you see images?” She asked. I nodded.

“I saw a brick building and scientists and wolf like creatures and they were chasing after you guys.” I said. My mom looked sharply to my dad, who was looking back at her. They were exchanging words with their eyes.

 

Pretty soon everyone was here. We were eating steak, which Iggy had made. After I had finished, I stood up to do the dishes.

Hi Taylor, like my gift?

            “Who are you?” I realized that I had said that out loud and now everyone was looking at me.

I’m you grandfather, Jeb. We’re coming, for the whole flock, you best run.

            “Ummmm, mom. This may sound weird, but I have a voice inside my head. It said that it was Jeb and that they were coming for the flock.

            The flock stood up and burst out the door. The adults took off. I followed. I had inherited super speed, like my mom. I also had weather and force fields. I caught up to my mom, who was at the front.

“Where are we going?” I asked her.

“We don’t know, but being on the run is kind of old to us, so we know what we’re doing.” I heard a growling. I looked behind me. I saw the wolf creatures. I felt adrenaline rush through my blood stream. I lunged at one and started punching its head. Fighting came naturally to me. I screamed as one of them grabbed me and pushed my wings in.

“Mom! Help me!” I screamed to her. My dad disengaged from the wolf thing he was fighting to help me, but was yanked back by another. Pretty soon they were flying away holding me. I was kicking and punching it. All of a sudden it stopped flying. We were falling. I pushed off from its back and unfolded my wings. I flew back to the flock, flying lopsided because of the way my wing had bended.

“What were those?” I asked as my mom held me tight.

“Erasers.” She answered me.

“Oh. They’re ugly.” I said. Nudge chuckled. I pulled away from Mom’s embrace and followed the adults. We stopped at a cave on a cliff for the night.

“I’ll take first watch.” My mom said. I fell asleep. I woke up. Iggy was on watch. I got up to go for a walk.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“For a walk.” I said.

“Okay, I’ll keep an ear out for you.” He said. I walked away. I was by the edge of the cliff.

“Hello, My name is Ari, what’s yours?” I heard a snarling. I turned around. The eraser pushed me. I stumbled backwards. My heel slipped over the edge of the cliff and soon I was falling, unable to take my wings out because it might hurt them.

“IGGY! HELP!” My screaming woke up the rest of the flock. They ran to the edge of the cliff. Mom and dad launched themselves off the cliff, flapping their wings furiously as they tried to catch up with me. I looked down. The ground wasn’t that far away now. I took the risk and opened my wings out, gasping in pain as they were yanked upwards. It slowed the fall down, but soon I was hitting the ground, my head whipping to the side, rocks and twigs digging into my back. My wings were bent weird. I heard a sickening crack and looked at my right arm. It was in a weird position, twisted and very bruised. Blood trickled out of my mouth. Pretty soon, there was a puddle of blood around me. I was gasping for breath.

“TAYLOR!” I heard my mom shriek as she landed next to me. My dad landed not too far away and ran on light feet over to us. My mom pulled me into her lap. I blacked out after that.

Chapter 2

“Ow.” I groaned. My head was in someone’s lap. I opened my eyes and bitterly regretted it. The light filtered in. My eyes hurt. I quickly closed them.

“Shhh, it’s ok.” I heard Angel.

“Fang, get some water, now.” She said. My dad had the coolest name. My mom did too. Why didn’t I have a cool name? I liked my name though. I felt a plastic cup slip into my hand. I took it and gulped it down. Angel was stroking my hair now.

“Where’s mom?” I asked groggily.

“She’s out getting food. She’ll be back soon.” Angel answered to me.

“What about Skyy, dad?” I asked. My huskie, Skyy , had wings and knew how to fly. She could talk and all.

“I’m right here.” I heard her smooth voice. She curled up next to me, letting the warmth of her body seep into me. I sighed and pulled her into my arms. I buried my face into her recently groomed fur. I hadn’t packed anything. I fell asleep with my head still in Angel’s lap, but when I woke up my head was resting on Skyy’s side. Her flank was rising and falling slowly, so I knew she was asleep. I could hear the others breathing and quietly murmuring.

“I’m worried about her, though. I don’t know if she can make it. All she’s ever known was living in a house.” I heard my mom. I’d show her that I wasn’t useless.

“Hun, she’s our child, she’ll be able to do it.” I heard my dad.

“Max, it’ll be okay.” Gazzy said. Nobody ever called my mom Maximum except for when dad was really mad at her.

“I can hear you, you know. I’m not deaf.” I said, sitting up.

“Oh! Um hey hun, glad to know you’re okay.” Mom said. I crossed my arms across my chest and glared at her.

“Mom, I know what it’s like to be on the run. From your stories, it sounds pretty hard, I admit, but I’m not weak or anything. I’m exactly like you when you were my age except I don’t have five others to take care of.” I said, still glaring. I had gotten to my feet. My mom stood up and glared just as hard as me.

“I don’t think you ever understood those stories. They weren’t stories, they were true.” She snarled at me.

“Max! Calm down.” Fang said.

“Whatever. You obviously think that I’m not cut out for this, so to take this burden off of your hands, I’m out of here.” I said, leaping off of the cliff and snapping my wings out,

“TAYLOR RIDE, YOU GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!” My mom screamed.

“NOT GONNA HAPPEN MOM!” I screamed back and took off. Skyy followed me. We got pretty far before she spoke.

“You shouldn’t have done that. She was just worried.” She said.

“I know, but I’m not a baby. I can take care of myself. I need to go back don’t I?” I asked. She nodded. I turned around and ran into dad and Angel.

“Sorry.” I said, not meeting either of their eyes.

“Come on.” My dad said gruffly, yanking my broken arm.

“OW!” I shrieked in pain.

“Fang!” Angel said. The grip disappeared from my arm. A lighter grip took my other arm and pulled me back to camp. What I saw was heartbreaking. Mom’s head was on Nudge’s lap. She was sobbing so hard. I stopped. Everything felt dizzy. I couldn’t feel the ground anymore. I started sobbing too, crumpling to the rock hard floor.

“I’m sorry, mom.” I managed between sobs. I got up and stumbled over to my mom. I tripped and fell on my rump. I put my head in her lap and fell asleep like that with Skyy curled up in my arms.

I was having a nightmare. My mom and dad were abusing me. I woke up with sweat beading my forehead. I was gasping for breath. I then realized that something heavy was on top of me. I heaved and pushed it off. It was Skyy.

“What was that for?” she asked me.

“You were choking me.” I said. I then realized that no one else was in the cave. I found a note on my backpack.

“Went for breakfast at the town, follow your sense of direction.” It said. I sighed. They always did that. I grabbed my pack, the only one left in the cave and leaped off the cliff with Princess at my side. I soon found the town. I looked around with my raptor vision and spotted them in a Denny’s.

Why did you leave me? I contacted Angel.

            We thought you would sleep more. She said. I sighed and walked into the Denny’s.

“Can I seat you?” Asked a guy, about my age. He had a flirtatious smile on.

“No thanks, I see the people I’m meeting.” I said politely. He kept his smile on and I let out and exasperated sigh as I went to sit with the flock.

“Hey sleepy head.” Gazzy joked.

“Hey Mr. abandon a fifteen year old girl.” I shot back, smiling playfully.

“That hurts, Taylor, that really does.” He said pouting. I hit him playfully on the shoulder. Then mister flirtatious walked up.

“Are you folks ready to order?” He asked, looking at me the whole time. My jaw tightened and I clenched and unclenched my fists underneath the table.

“Yes, thanks.” Everyone ordered. He kept his gaze on me the whole time we were ordering.

“Wow, that dude seemed to take a lot of interest in Taylor.” Gazzy observed, smirking at me. I punched him in the arm hard and rubbed it. The twinkle was gone from my eyes as mister flirtatious walked up with our food not much later. I looked ahead at Angel the whole time. She looked at me sympathetically. After I thought he was gone, I turned my head and there he was, writing something down on a piece of paper and handing it to me. I looked at it. It was his phone number. I ripped it apart.

“Wow, someone’s in a mood today.” Iggy observed.

“I wonder where she gets it from.” Nudge said. The whole flock looked at Mom.

“A girl has her times.” I said, throwing the bits of paper at Nudge.

“Hey, what did I do?” She shrieked. I laughed and dug into my food. As I was finishing my food, some men walked in and looked at our table. I didn’t think it was a problem until they started morphing into erasers.

“Uh, guys, we have a problem.” I said, pointing at the erasers. Everyone was running and screaming. We followed them, making it out of the restaurant.

“U and A, guys.” Mom said. We all snapped open our wings and flew away.

“Well, that was weird.” Gazzy said. We stopped at a hotel for the night in a different town. We got three adjoining rooms. I slept in the same room as my parents.

“Taylor, get up, it’s time to go.” I heard my dad.

“No.” I groaned and put my head under the pillows.

“Taylor, come on.” He snickered as he pushed me off of the bed. I grunted and got up to take a shower. After my shower, I pulled on my clothes and walked out of the bathroom to my mom and dad making out.

“Talk about gross.” I said. They pulled apart and looked away. I figured they were blushing.

“I’m going to get breakfast.” I said, grabbing a room key and walking down the stairs. I went to the dining room in the hotel and grabbed an apple. I saw my mom and dad walk down and look around. I waved to them, but they didn’t see me and instead sat down by themselves. I walked up to the table and sat down. Suddenly they morphed into erasers. I woke with a start. Sweat was beading my forehead. Sunlight was slanting in through the window of the hotel room.

“Are you okay, honey?” My mom asked. I tried to swallow, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t breathe either.

“She having and asthma attack again.” She said to my dad. She bolted out of bed to grab my inhaler. I took it and used it. I got random asthma attacks sometimes. I was breathing heavily when we heard a knock on the door.

“Hey, guys, it’s us.” I heard Gazzy’s muffled voice.

“Just a second.” Mom said. We put on some clothes and opened the door.