CHAPTER ONE: Goodbye Arizona
"Maaaax!" Jeb called in his descent up the staircase. "Are you awake?" He made his way down the hall and threw open a bedroom door.
In the middle of the empty room, there Max lay on a single queen sized mattress on the floor, surrounded by labeled cardboard boxes and duffel bags.
"Max." Jeb sighed. "It's time to get up! We have to get going!" He walked around the bed and shook his daughter's shoulders. Max groaned and shoved her head under the pillows. "Maximum get your butt up. The moving truck is already outside!" Jeb continued to shake her and when he got no response, he pulled the blankets off her and began to tickle her.
"Noooo!" Max gasped, trying not to laugh. "I don't want to move! I like living in Arizona with the scorching heat and stuck up high school students. I refuse to go." She said in between giggles.
Jeb stopped tickling her and sighed. "I know. But everything's packed and we really do have to go." There was a long pause where none of them said anything, they just sat with solemn expressions. Then Max stood with a huff and turned to Jeb.
"I'll just pack up this bedding and then you can send Ari up to put the mattress in the truck..." She told him quietly. He smiled at her and kissed her on the forehead before leaving the room. Max waited till he left to plop back down on the mattress. Her eyes trailed over every inch of her room, from the bare walls to the spotless carpet. "I'm really going to miss this place..." She murmured and then stood again.
Without a further thought, Max grabbed a set of clothes from a packed bag and headed to the bathroom.
(~*~Time Skip~*~)
"You know it wouldn't kill you to help, Max!" Ari gruffed as he struggled to drag the mattress down the stairs.
Max smirked slightly and ignored her brother, taking one last look around her childhood house. "I still don't see how you're okay with this." She commented, glancing at Ari. He just shrugged. "This place is our home, Ari! We grew up here. Went to school here. What about all our friends? Aren't you going to miss them?" She continued. "How can Jeb just wake up one day and decide to move us to a gigantic city where we don't know anyone?"
"Ah back to calling your dear old dad by his first name, are we?" Jeb asked as he stepped into the house. Max glared. "Look sweetie, you know why we have to move." He said gently.
"Yeah I know. Doesn't mean I have to like it." She muttered and went over to help Ari shove the mattress out the front door. Jeb followed and helped them toss it in the moving truck.
"Alright have you guys got everything packed?"
"I just need to get one more box from my room." Max replied and raced back into the house.
Ari turned to Jeb. "She'll be fine at our new place, dad." He said reassuringly.
Jeb smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I hope so."
Max returned with a heavy looking box in one arm and something else the boys couldn't make out before she stuffed it into her pocket. "Okay. Let's go." She sighed.
Jeb nodded and hopped in the driver's seat of the truck. Max and Ari walked further down the driveway and unlocked Max's blue rusty Toyota pickup that she got on her sixteenth birthday. Max tossed Ari the keys.
"Here." She said. "You drive."
Ari caught the keys swiftly and stared at her, astonished. "Wow, you must really be upset about moving. You never let me drive your truck..."
She only shrugged and got into the passenger's seat. He jumped in and turn on the engine. Jeb stuck his hand out the window of the moving truck and waved them forward. Ari pulled out of the driveway and followed closely behind Jeb.
Max watched as her beloved, two story childhood house disappeared from sight.