Prologue

"Just give Max a chance, Chipmunk. I'm sure you're gonna like him."

"Okay." Alvin says in resignation. "I'll give him a chance."

"Good."

Mother and Son turned to the doorway just in time for a snowball to be hauled directly at Alvin's chest. The young genius made a tight expression of suppressed annoyance as his dad came in just behind the his celebrity roommate to be.

"And that was his chance."

"Bro, I so got you." Max smiled, the twinkle of laughter still in his eyes. "Dude, now you get me."

Alvin deadpans, "I'm not really a snowball kinda guy."

"I'm in!"

His dad unwittingly saves him from continued socialization as the two actually played snowball inside the house. Excitement not turned off by the odd display, Abby went over to squeeze her brother's shoulder.

"This is gonna be awesome!"

"Sooo awesome..."

ALVIN

He was pretty well content with his life till now.

Alvin made it obvious to his family that he really wasn't looking forward to having a new room mate. Not that having a room mate per se was the problem, it was the who part of the equation.

As he did not follow Snowboarding, or any sports for that matter, he hasn't heard much about Max or even about the importance of his existence till he learned a few days ago that his dad had signed up, as one of his whims, to be Max Asher's temporary family guardians and therefore, decided to do a little research of what his new room mate would be like.

Charismatic and Simple. Two things Alvin Ackerman was mostly not. He tried to give the Snowboarder a chance, as a favor to his mom, but getting hit by a snowball wasn't a really good first impression.

And Abby thought he was gonna blow it with his choice of clothing?

"Dude, you and me? Sharing a room? This is going to be so rad! I never had a brother before."

Between the first meeting snowball smack and impromptu snowball fight with his dad, Alvin thought one Asher was already one too many. To his credit, though, at least Max seemed less condescending than most Athletes he's encountered.

"Uh, what are you doing?"

"Just checking for monsters."

But not less simple, it seemed. Alvin had to reprocess that.

"Let me get this straight... You're not afraid to launch yourself off the side of the mountain, but you're scared there might be monsters hiding underneath your bed?"

"Bingo."

Alvin really wished his dad didn't have the whim to sign up their family for foster guardianship, and incidentally, him into babysitting a Junior Championship Snowboarder.

You'd think an Esteemed Athlete would've been more disciplined and listen to simple house rules such as Do not Touch.

"You're like some sort of Science Magician!"

"Well, there's no such thing, but... Thank you."

"Hey there Mr. Papapantsless, I'm Max."

"Oh, he won't recognize you." After all, Alvin did programmed his A.I. for Scientific purposes.

You're Max Asher, the greatest Snowboarder of your generation. Your signature move is the 'The Triple, Tater tot, tuna casserole'

Alvin made a look, forgetting that A.I.s can self-learn. He really didn't need even his A.I. going starry-eyed for his new roommate.

But he figured, if nothing else, Max was a generally good guy. One of those Guy-next-Door types, or in this case, next bed. At the very least, he doesn't have to deal with bullying from him.

MAX

He was already loving his new life.

Max loved his parents, no question. But as he grew older, they got busier as well. His dad had a big position in this company he worked for and it involved a lot of field work so he was usually out most of the time and came home late at night.

His mom had stopped working to raise Max properly and instill some good values in him, but when she deemed him old enough to be able to stand his ground and stick to decent morals, she went back to running her restaurants. It started as a small diner, but her recipes were a real hit and so her business boomed and spread. Whenever a new chain would open up, she'd be there for a couple of months till they can stand on their own.

The Ackermans have been great so far. Lloyd had been awesome, treating him like a son already and fooling around with him. Diane was nice enough to not freak out about Snowball fighting indoors. Abby was chatty, but cool either way.

"Hey, so I have to appear on this big event on Ski Mountain. If you're free, you should swing by."

"Well, while I appreciate the invitation, I'll have to pass."

So far, it seemed like the son, his new roommate Alvin was the little more reserved one in the family. But Max was okay with that. His mom taught him that all people were different, and that he should always give them the benefit of the doubt in first encounters.

Plus, he did say that he had some Young Inventors Fair thing and dethrone this girl nemesis person, so of course it was okay. Max wasn't some arrogant dude who thought his events were important than others.

Generally, Alvin was cool in his own way. He didn't make fun of him for his Afraid of monsters under the bed thing, and his inventions definitely had the WOW factor in them.

So far, it seemed like they were off to a good start.