Trust a Try?

Maybe this sounds very "Did you pay someone $400 an hour for that crap?" of me, but I'm seriously starting to believe I have issues with trusting humans.

Let me lay down on the hypothetical "couch" and think about this rationally. Here's my track record with humans so far laid out linearly:

- My DNA gets thrown into a blender with that of a BIRD, and Maximum Ride is the ending result.

- The humans I grew up around were sicko scientists who preformed a series of wacky tests on me, thereby screwing up any chances of normalcy.

- Jeb, the sole human I grew to trust, dies. ...And by "dies," I mean abandons me and my family, is presumed dead, and then later shows up (with no signs of ever being embalmed!) with a posse of Erasers who want to kill me, to tell me I need to "save the world."

(Woah. No wonder I'm messed up!)

Every human I've interacted with is prejudged based on the way I was raised. I'm always on edge, always anticipating to be hurt - physically or mentally. I'm on perpetual guard.

I must admit, some tiny part of me is still holding out in hopes that there are good humans out there. My one exception to my rule has been Ella and Dr. Martinez, but I had no choice. But, hey, if they're out there, maybe there's more?

-Max

Extra Credit

Here's our School Recon Recap:

- Kids of PS 108, please thank Angel for not having homework tonight. That wasn't your teacher's idea.

- Bells and raising your hand are a good thing. Creepy, but definitely useful.

- Must get basketball and challenge playground boys to slam dunk contest...and WIN.

- According to Professor Gazzy, chem class is really "How to Make a Good Stink Bomb 101."

- Wings are cooler than taking a big yellow bus home for sure.


School's out forever,
Max

Lesson 3: RECESS

After lunch, they have this thing called "recess" where they all go hang out in the playground. No books or teachers involved this time, which is pretty awesome. Some kids would get out street chalk and draw hopscotch on the concrete, or break out into a game of double dutch jump rope.

A lot of the boys were playing basketball at the court. I'm pretty tall compared to the average girl. Compared to the average boy on this playground, I was a giant. I kept thinking how easy it would be for me to quick steal the ball away, and fly higher than Michael Jordan ever could for the winning slam dunk. Bam! Nothing. But. Wing.

And, just like the unspoken hand-raising signal, another bell rang. They all dropped what they were doing and, catch this, went back inside. Unreal!

Lesson 2: BELLS & WHISTLES

A bell.

I felt like I was gonna yack any second, and sweat started to pour down the back of my neck. I quickly examined the room, ready to abort this recon mission at a moments notice...and then the kids started filing out the classroom doors, and into a large room with small brown paper bags in-hand. Food! Whew. I like this bell thing this time around! Bells at our school meant that a new experiment was in order.

Gazzy was in heaven. Unfortunately, our cloud was off limits from the promise land.

Note to self: A good spy never breaks cover. Not even for ham sandwiches.

Lesson 1: THE POWER OF PLAID

It was the weirdest thing we've ever seen. When the kids knew an answer to a question, they raised their hand. Why, I don't know. No one told them to do it, they just did. Borderline creepy, if you ask me.

Gazzy, the consummate troublemaker and voice-thrower extraordinaire, did an impression of their teacher that threw the kids for a total loop! Whatever page the students were asked to turn to in their books, he would repeat...and add 15. It was brilliant, I tell you. Brilliant!

Angel noticed that all the girls were "Dressed like Britney Spears." (The 1999 version, that is.) White button down shirts with lapels, blazers with little emblems on them, ties, and lots and lots of plaid. Maybe they're all Scottish or something? I'm not sure, but it must get itchy and really uncomfortable fast. I'm scratching already!

Uniforms are a confusing thing. Everyone looks the same and, well...uniform. That doesn't sound like much fun to me. Whatever happened to encouraging being unique? I wonder if Ella's school is like this. I hope not.

Max

Back to SCHOOL?

There's a lot of things we as a flock are very familiar with (i.e. how to take on an Eraser, how to identify the "perfect cookie"), but there's one thing we're completely clueless about. SCHOOL. Wouldn't it make more sense for kids to just go out and explore the world to experience life firsthand instead of sticking them in a classroom all day? We did that, and look how we turned out. (Don't comment on that.) I digress...

Since the only school we've grown to know (and not love) is The School, I was painfully curious about this whole "formal education thing" normal kids go through. And with Fang still MIA, I felt that a little reconnaissance work would be a good distraction for the flock. Over the next few days, we'll be watching some kids in action at the local school and solve this scholastic mystery.


Get out your composition notebooks and number 2 pencils. . .

"Migraine" is NOT the word.

My brain started spazing out again. All these bizarre, freaky snapshots started coming to my head - Binary code, static...images of nuclear explosions. The last one is only amusing to me because it feels like there IS one contained in my HEAD.

It's gotta be the stress. And let me tell you, there's a WHOLE lot of it.

Fang's gone, and I just feel all this. . .sadness, which goes without saying. (Yes, I said it. I'm sad over it. Deal.) But, for as much sadness as I feel, there's an equal amount of pressure. Not just on my brain, but on me.

Fang is the co-captain of this flock. When I felt like I couldn't deal on my own, I never even had to say anything - he picked up the slack.

I had a sobering realization today. I am alone here in leading this flock now. Let's just face it. Fang may not ever be coming back.

This rant had been brought to you by DENIAL: It's not just a river in Egypt anymore.


Max

Togetherness.

Hurricane Katrina sure did a lot of damage in the South. I can't believe how powerful & destructive Mother Nature can be sometimes.

I remember on one of our trips, we passed right over a town that had been completely wrecked by a tornado. There was a couch stuck inside of a tree!! (. . .And it wasn't part of a tree house!) It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

I wanted to make a pit stop & see it up close, but Max thought it would be too dangerous. Too many people around, too. I don't know what would have been more shocking - the "tree house" or the kids with wings landing to check it out.

Even though what happened to those people is very sad, what's pretty awesome is how everyone comes together in times like this to help each other out & get through this. It's like a flock, uhhh...family. :-) And nothing, not even a hurricane, can beat that.

~Nudge.