Valedictorian- A Maximum Ride Fanfiction

1st Period

THE FLOCK'S REACTION was instantaneous. Fang immediately unfurled his wings as far as they would go, all thirteen feet of midnight black feathers stretching as far as the unknown boy's own as if to shield the rest of the flock; Gazzy flipped himself so that he was in front of Angel and Max grabbed Iggy, pulling him off to the side. The stranger cocked his head, sleek black hair cascading over his eyes before he retracted his wings, the cave once more illuminated.

He clicked his tongue again.

"You have wings," He murmured, a slight accent that Max couldn't place tinting his voice as he walked forward up to Fang. Well, duh; Max thought, the grip on Iggy's wrist tightening until he gave a slight hiss of pain. Max gave an apologetic tap on his wrist before letting go, walking forward to meet the new boy with a determined glint in her eyes. This was her job, she was the head of the flock. Not Anne. Not anyone else. She'd keep them safe. 

"So do you," She attempted to say conversationally, but all it did was sound like an accusation. "Bat.. wings." Her finger made a vague motion, circling the area around his back. Fang snorted, retracting his own feathered appendages and rolling his eyes in a way that distinctly said 'Good going, leader'. Gazzy seemed to take this as a 'it's safe' motion, and he immediately flocked over to the stranger, patting the smooth wing skin here and there. Max almost wanted to go and touch his wings herself to make sure that they were real, it seemed surreal to meet a humanoid hybrid that wasn't an Eraser. Human looking. Like them.

With wings.

Like them. 

"I'm a fruit bat." The boy offered nonchalantly, sparing one exasperated look at the blond boy before glancing back at Max and shooing Gazzy off with a few well-timed flaps of his wing. She nodded, that was.. somewhat plausible. He clicked his tongue again.

"Will you stop that?" Iggy groaned, one hand rubbing at his temples. "It's... Loud." Which was, oddly, believable. Though the sound of the waves were like blasting static, fuzzy and loud background noise that was annoying and blocked out your voice- the boy's clicks felt sharp; like a clear, ringing bell, and Max suddenly realized that despite the roar of the waves she'd been able to hear each and every one of them loud and clear.

She watched as the boy tilted his head, a semi-smug smile on his face as his almond eyes crinkled and his gaze shifted from her to Iggy. Max frowned. He stepped past her (and that irritated her a little, she'd come to shake hands, damn it! Common courtesy!) stopping only after he was no more than a foot away from Iggy, leaned forward (it almost looked like he was going to kiss him at this point, Max could hear Nudge's scandalized intake of breath) and then... clicked his tongue again.

Iggy let out a frustrated groan, hand jerking forward to grasp at empty air..

The boy had exhale of breath that could have been a laugh (Max didn't know, she couldn't see that well and each clash of the waves against the rock was deafening) brushing the bangs out of his face with an practiced hand while he took a few blind steps back. This was her chance, Max thought, and tried again- this time grabbing his hand before he could get away. 

He shook, and for a split second Max was almost certain that he was going to attempt to claw her in half or something. But it lasted only a moment, and after she blinked his eyes were back to normal and no one else seemed to notice. 

"S-So, Hey." Her voice wavered, and she hated that. Leader! She was the leader! Real leader's voices don't waver!  Her lips pursed at her thoughts, and the boy stared down at his trapped hand, blank face for once frowning. "Hi, I'm Max." She gave her best 'Hey, I'm a friend!' grin.

".. Ren." He answered after a minute pause, arm twitching in a bad parody of a handshake. Nudge chose that moment to join in, grabbing his other hand and this time Ren definitely did flinch. 

"Ohhh, so this is your cave then! Yep, yep! I can feel it! Totes. Hey, you know what, you're pretty pretty! Like, totally in a macho manly way. Which reminds me! Do you like nachos? Because nachos sort of sound like macho and I really, really like nachos!" Nudge chattered on, and Max mentally laughed at the dumbfounded look in Ren's eyes. Obviously, he had no idea how to handle people who liked to talk. He let go of Max's hand (almost in a daze), giving Nudge his full attention as she talked about this and that and nodding at certain points in her babble. "So .like, you know how I went to a beach? You have to see it! There's so many grains of sand, it's like the stars in the sky! And like, there's so many stars in the sky like, in the milky way- you know? Speaking of milky way, I don't really like it. I prefer baby ruth! Which candy bar do you like? Oh, oh, and while you're at it, what's your favorite color?"

"Yes, no, yes, yes, no, strawberries, I don't care for chocolate, I like pale blue." Ren muttered after a couple of seconds; giving Nudge an awkward pat on the head. He gave several more pats, eyes desolate as if he wasn't quite there. 

Well, this is going well already. Max thought, surveying the faces of the remaining members of the flock. Iggy looked personally offended, ice blue eyes staring out at nothing with furrowed eyebrows as Gazzy attempted to calm him; Fang looked somewhere between bored and mildly amused, Nudge's eyes were lighting up like the fourth of July at having someone who actually listened to her and Angel was staring at the mouth of the cave, off in her own little world. Max frowned. Angel'd been like that lately- drifting, eyes empty, and it was starting to worry her a little. 

"-- Earth to MAAAAAX!" Nudge once again disrupted her thoughts, and Max let out a slight yelp (that she swears up and down didn't happen, she was manly damn it) as the petite twelve year old hugged her middle. "Ren says he woke up here and lives here! He says we can stay here if we want to for like, five days." She gave a happy wave to the asian teenager, Ren giving a half-shrug before walking down further into the cave.

"Is there something there?" Max asked, curiosity piqued. Ren paused in his steps, wings once again flaring out (and maybe it was hypocritical of her to say, but Max thought that she'd never get used to the smooth, sharp shadows that appeared when he did that) before settling back in. He clicked his tongue.

"Just a pond. Freshwater. There's fish there. Don't light fires unless you're near the cave entrance." His lips twitched as if he was remembering something amusing, tossing one last glance at the flock before resuming his walk forward and disappearing into the shadows.

"Weird kid," Fang offered, uncurling his arms from their crossed position as he leaned against the cave wall. Iggy snorted, and Nudge gave an enthusiastic nod. Angel said nothing, still staring out at the dark blue sky, and Max walked over- hugging the small girl to her torso and breathing in the scent of her hair. Angel seemed to snap out of it then, large cerulean eyes giving a questioning look before closing as she smiled. Always her little Angel.

"It doesn't matter," She decided, walking Angel over by her hand and huddling the rest of the flock together in a circle. The waves crashed outside.

Max usually wasn't one to trust anyone, especially with what had happened; but something about Ren was disarming; even to her own hyper senses. When he'd first spread his wings, her first reaction wasn't fight or flight for once, but to stay put until he was done. It was weird, but in the end it seemed like he wanted nothing to do with them and simply didn't care. Nudge and Angel didn't seem to care either, and that was good enough for her. If the emotion and mind readers were completely at ease, then she should be, too.

If there were Erasers, they weren't coming here. Something told her that.

The cave just had the feeling of being completely untouched by the outside world.

"We'll sit here for a couple of days and then we'll split. Nothing's holding us back anymore, we can see the world." 

If only Max had known how true those words were going to become.