James Patterson - Two Schools Out - Forever

"Max?" Ari asked, staring at the other Max.

"Max!" Nudge shouted.

"Yes," we both answered.

The other Max looked at me, and her eyes narrowed. "They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," she said snidely. "So I guess you're really sucking up."

"Who are you?" I gasped, my eyes wide. "You're an impostor!"

"No, she isn't." The little creepy one, Angel, turned to look at me. Her arm was still bleeding where Ari had bitten it. "You are."

I swallowed my anger. Who did she think she was, her and her stupid dog? I gave a concerned smile. "But Angel," I said, sincerity dripping from my voice, "how can you say that? You know who I am."

"I think I'm Angel," she said. "And my dog isn't stupid. You're the stupid one, to think that you could fool us. I can read minds, you idiot."

My stomach dropped faster than a falling elevator. No one had told me that.

"Yeah, you idiot," said the dog.

I gaped at him. Had he just talked? Was this a trick?

Maximum Ride was checking out the mutants, one by one. They hugged her, and I glared at her. I couldn't believe she had shown up, ruining everything.

"Okay, let's solve your personality crisis," the other Max growled, turning to me. Her face was white, and her hands were clenched in fists.

"I was about to say the same thing," I growled back, getting ready to fight. "Keep your hands off my flock!"

"Oh good, you two have met each other."

We both whirled to see several scientists in white lab coats standing inside the doorway.

"Max, are you all right?" Jeb Batchelder asked.

I started to say yeah, but then saw he wasn't looking at me. It was the other Max he was concerned about, the other one he cared about. I was expendable.

Fury rose in me. I was exactly like Max, I was Max, I was better than she was in every way. But to everybody here, I was chopped liver. Nothing. Nobody.

But then I heard one of the other scientists step forward and say in a deep voice, "Take out the old version. She's no good. She's got an expiration date." He was looking at me to do the honors.

Without thinking, I launched myself at the other Max, right over a countertop, headfirst.

The other Max was braced, but I had insane jealousy and rage on my side. I managed to slam into her, knocking her against a wall. Instantly she regained her balance and squared off against me.

"You don't want to do this," she said in a low voice. "You don't want a piece of me."

"Wrong!" I said snidely.

"Uh, Max?" said Gasman. "There's something you should-"

"Shut up!" I snapped at him, and threw myself at Maximum Ride again. The scientists and Jeb eased out of the way as we got deadlocks on each other and rolled across the counters. She managed to pull a fist back and punch me in the head, making me cry out.

I kneed her in the stomach and heard a satisfying oof!

We were evenly matched-too evenly matched. We attacked in a flurry, with fists flying and roundhouse kicks and bruising connections. But then we retreated, circling each other warily.

"There can be only one Max," Jeb said softly.

"Yeah, the real one," I heard Ari say.

The scientist with a deep voice folded his arms across his chest. "Let's see if what you say about her is true, Batchelder."

I yelled and lunged for Max again, knocking her down. She held me by my hair and head-butted me so hard I saw stars, but I didn't let go. I whaled into her side with my fist, once, twice, three times. The third time, I swore I heard a rib crack. It felt sooo good.

"Which one survives is up to you," Jeb said. "May the strongest Max win."

"Shut up, jerk!" Maximum Ride barked at him, just as I was about to say the exact same thing. She and I jumped up, looked at each other. It was like looking in a mirror. So weird.

But she had to go. There was one Max too many. With another roar I sprang forward, snapping out a side kick that sent her to the ground again. I dropped down onto her, sitting on her stomach, and punched her right in the nose. She winced, her head whipped to the side, and then blood spurted out her nose.

"You think you're so great," I hissed. She struggled underneath me, but I clamped her arms at her sides with my knees and reached for her throat.

This was going to end only one way: with me on top. I was built to survive. This was my destiny-to be able to outdo anything weaker that came before me. That was all I cared about. Max was weak because she cared about everything else-her stupid flock, their stupid parents, the way Jeb had betrayed her, everything other than what she should care about.

I chuckled aloud, thinking how pathetic she was. I was ready to squash her.

But suddenly she arched her back, snarling, throwing me off hard. On her feet again, she kicked my chin, cracking my head back with so much force I almost blacked out. Then she was straddling me, like I had done to her a moment ago. She grabbed my throat with both hands and started squeezing. With blood running from her nose, she looked murderous, unstoppable. One of her eyes was swollen shut, but she still had a choke hold on me. I grabbed her arms, trying to pull them away, but couldn't budge her.

"Max?" I heard Gasman say again. We both ignored him. "Kind of important..."

Oh, my God, I thought, struggling, vaguely surprised. She's going to win. It had never, ever occurred to me that she could. In every scenario I'd ever run through, every training exercise, I had always won. But amazingly, I was getting tunnel vision, and my world was going dark. I tried to buck her off with all my strength, but she was stronger than I was.

"There can be only one Max," I dimly heard Jeb say. It came from a distance, floating over my head.

This... is... it, I thought hazily. This... is... the... end.

Suddenly the pressure around my neck released.

With a huge, sucking rush, air poured into my lungs. Light filled my eyes, and I was gasping, wheezing, gulping in air.

The old Max got off me. I coughed, my hand to my throat. I was struggling just to sit up.

"I'm stronger," she yelled to the scientists. "Stronger than you. Because I'm not going to kill this girl for you. I won't sink to your pathetic level."

"Max," said Jeb, sounding surprised. "There can't be two Maxes."

I looked down at the fake Max, who was sucking in air like a fish on the ground. I'd seen her pupils go to pinpoints, knew just how close I'd come to finishing her. But this rat was leaping out of the maze right now.

"Then you shouldn't have made two of us," I said coldly. "Now it's your problem."

"You don't understand," one of the scientists said. "Only one of you can fulfill your mission, your destiny."

He sounded idiotic and pompous. Keeping my eyes on the fake Max, I circled back to where the flock was gathered, getting ready for fight or flight.

"You know," I told the whitecoat, "it sounds like you guys didn't really think this all the way through. You plugged us into an equation and predicted outcomes. Well, I got news for you, nimrod." I looked up at the group of scientists, at Jeb, at Ari. I was still totally hyped up on adrenaline, my nose was still bleeding, and I felt like kicking more butt. "In this equation of yours, we're variables. We're going to vary." I was practically spitting my words at them. "What you sick jerks don't seem to get is that I'm an actual person." I pointed to the other Max, who was on her hands and knees, trying to get up. "She's real too. She's a person. All of us are! And I'm done jumping through your hoops. You can tell yourselves that you're doing all this to save the world, but really you're just a bunch of psycho puppet-masters who probably didn't date enough in high school."