Different (Maximum Ride Fanfic)

Chapter 1: The Mission

Chapter 1: The Mission

I twirled around in an office chair, and I burst out in fits of laughter when the world around me went blurry. The faster I went, the harder I laughed. Once I got to the point where I felt sick to my stomach, I stopped the spinning, and the world spun around me. "Dizzy," I murmured before falling over with the chair falling over on me. I laid sprawled out on the ground with the chair digging into my stomach, but I didn't care. All I cared about at that very moment was the dizziness. It needed to stop now. It's making me want to throw up.

"If you don't want to be dizzy, don't spin around on the chair," Ari said with annoyance leaking into his voice. He was leaning back against the chair in the corner of the room, his brown eyes narrowed hatefully towards me. 

"Ah, but I love the feeling of dizziness," I told the hybrid while pushing the chair off me. I put the wheels on the floor before sitting backwards on the chair. I started making my way over to Ari. "You wanna know why?" I stopped moving towards Ari once our knees were touching. "Because it makes me want to throw up. And do you know who I'm going to throw up on?" I lowered my voice while saying that. "You."

Ari growled before shooting to his feet. He grabbed the front of my shirt with both hands, pulling me off the chair, and he lifted me up into the air. "I swear, I'm going to kill you with my bare hands, you son of a-"

"Ari, put him down," a familiar voice said from behind me. "Right now."

He looked around me to see who it was before wrinkling his nose in disgust. He let go of my shirt, letting me crash into the chair. The chair and I both fell to the floor again, and pain shot through my side when it dug into my body. I scrambled off the chair and simply laid on the ground, my cheek pressed against the cold floor. I half closed my bluish-black eyes, and I breathed slowly through my mouth.

"You know that he is important, Ari," Jeb said sternly. "You know not to be rough with Jupiter. Why can't you ever learn?"

"Oh, Jeb, why can't you learn?" I pushed myself into a sitting position, ignoring the pain shooting through my body. I got to my feet and rubbed my side while looking over at the scientist. "Ari isn't capable of learning. The experiment he went through to make him the Big Bad Wolf went wrong at some point, and he lost the ability to learn."

Ari growled threateningly at me, and I shot him an evil smile. "I'm going to kill you," he growled, his features turning wolvish, more than it already was.

"Go ahead," I said while turning my body towards him. "If you do, I would know that you love me. The more pain you bring me, the more I know you love me." I put a hand over my heart. "Want me to be honest with you, my little dummy? I've always been in love with you. Your idiocy, your charming wolf features, your hot body. What's not to like?"

"Enough!" Jeb shouted, making the two of us look over at him. He sighed before clearing his throat. "Jupiter, there is a mission I need you to go on. It's quite important, and you're the only one who can do this mission. This will be the first mission you'll be going on alone, and you cannot fail. If you do, there will be severe punishment, and I do not want that for you."

I raised an eyebrow while shifting my weight to one leg. "I'm going on a mission? Wait, don't answer that question. I'm going to go on my first mission alone, without anyone else there to help me? Jeb, that's insane! I won't be able to go on a mission alone. Especially alone. You're crazier than I thought, dear scientist."

"I hate to say this, but Jupiter's right!" Ari stepped forward. "He can't go on his first mission alone. He's going to ruin everything. Let me go. I have a better chance of actually finishing this mission without-"

"No, Ari," Jeb said, interrupting him. "You cannot do this mission. You're not fit to do this mission. Jupiter, you're going to go to the Flock, and you need to bring them here to the School. Pretend to be one of them, whatever it takes to bring them here. If you bring every single one of them, then you'll be rewarded with something valuable."

Confusion washed over me, and the corners of my lips curved downward into a frown. Flock? What's that supposed to be? Who are they supposed to be? Is this some kind of failed experiment that escaped from the School or something?

Once I realized what Jeb was talking about, I let out a gasp, and my eyes went wide. "Do you mean...them? The ones that you took from the School? The ones that I've despised ever since I heard about them?"

"I do," he answered.

"Jeb!" I was nearly shouting now. How could he do this to me? Why would he make me suffer by making me go on a mission that involved them? How could he throw my very first mission on scum like them?! "How could you do this to me?! You know very well that I hate them from the bottom of my heart! You hate me, don't you?"

"I do not hate you, Jupiter," Jeb said with a reassuring tone. "This is the only way it'll actually work. You are like them. You are-"

"Don't compare me to those scum!" I screamed, anger flooding my voice. "Don't you dare compare me to those lowlives!"

He let out a sigh while pinching the bridge of his nose. "Jupiter, calm down, and hear me out. You have wings just like them, and they don't know anything about you. If they think that you're on their side, then they'll let you into the Flock. I know how they are. I've known them before. You need to gain their trust. Make up some story to bring them here. Say that you have a sister still stuck here, and you need their help to break her out or something. Just finish the mission. I know you can do it."

"They sure as hell don't know anything about me," I growled. "And that's the way I want it to stay. As long as they don't know about my existance, I'm more than happy, Jeb. Which one would you rather have? Me happy and them away from here, or them here and me hating you with all my heart?"

He didn't say anything for a while. "If it means that the Flock is here, alive, then I'll risk being hated by you, Jupiter. Your hatred towards me will not change anything. I care more about the Flock than you, and there is nothing that will change that."

My anger was replaced by sudden sadness. My bottom lip trembled, and my entire body went numb. Jeb, the only person that actually showed any signs that caring about me, likes this Flock, those free birds, more than me, the one who's always been there with him? 

"Right," I said with a quiet, shaky voice. I lowered my head to hide the tears that were forming in my eyes. "Right. I'll...do the mission, Jeb. Just give me more details about it, and I'll get the mission started as soon as I possibly can. I'll...I'll do it."

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Whoo! First chapter for the Different book! I hoped you enjoyed it, and I'll update as soon as I can.