High school, for the record, sucked. Max knew this, of course, but he did spend a lot of time dwelling on just how much going to a regular high school sucked. It was a lot.

"Max-" There was a voice beside him, as well as a person, who hadn't been there before, and Max jumped about a foot in the air, much to the laughter of the girl beside him. Upon realising it was his sister laughing at his misfortunes, he rested his head against the locker, letting out a sigh of frustration.

"God, Phoebe, get a bell." He hissed, before leaning against his locker, trying to decide if he would rather scowl at her or play it cool and smirk. He decided to go with smirking, swivelling around to lean against the locker with his back, tipping his head to one side and looking expectantly at her. With a roll of her eyes, Phoebe flipped her hair over her shoulder, hitting Max with the scent of apple shampoo.

"What got you so distracted?" She snickered, before her eyes lit up, "Is it a girl? Do you have a crush? Oh, I am so going to tease you-" She was suddenly buzzing with energy, stepping closer and looking him in the eye, almost predatory in her movements, "Who is it?" She bouncing twice, expectant. Max made loud, gagging noises.

"Even if I did have a crush, like I would ever tell you." He sneered, and Phoebe stepped back, face falling, arms curling tighter around her books. "I was just thinking how boring this place is." He said, his gaze drifting over all the non-supes, not even acknowledging when one of the nerds gives him an excited wave - was it Lionel? He thinks the kid's name is Lionel. Whatever.

"Just because we can't use our powers, doesn't mean it's not fun." Phoebe said, smiling tiredly in the face of the well worn argument. Max pulled one of her books from her grip and she didn't so much as protest. He didn't know if it was simply because it had happened too many times before, or perhaps because she was loosening up, whatever it was, Max was grateful for the opportunity to mock her with ease.

"I don't see how calculus books bigger than my head equals fun." He held up the book as if to compare the sizes, resting the corner against his temple. Amused, Pheobe smiled as though she were in on some secret that Max wasn't privy to, taking the book and putting on top of the pile.

"Yes, I agree," she used her 'high-and-mighty' voice, the one that she used when she was trying to act like she was better than Max, "you do have a thick skull." She turned on her heel, hitting him in the face with her hair and another waft of apple shampoo. He called out to her indignantly, but was stopped by the three nerds - Lionel, Jake and Tom… Which was which, he would never know.

"Are you sure you don't know Phoebe?" Lionel said, wriggling his eyebrows. Max could feel himself tense up, scowling at the boys.

"What? Of course I know Phoebe, I mean, we aren't friends or anything - no. I don't know her." He fired off, far too quickly to be even halfway convincing.

"What, is she like, your sister or something?" Tom snorted, and Max rolled his eyes, making loud gagging noises.

"I am not related to that." He said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to where Phoebe had walked off. "Gross." He added, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Why would that be gross? Phoebe is like…" Jake sighed dreamily and Max had to press his lips together to not laugh, "a goddess." He finished, staring at the classroom she had just entered into, probably for some dorky meeting or club. "She's in my AP history class, and she sits like three seats away, except for last Monday, she sat two seats away because we had a substitute teacher and-"

"God, just… stop talking." Max wrinkled his nose, holding a hand up for the rambling geek to stop. Jake obligingly stopped talking and dipped his head.

"What did Phoebe want with you? She seemed really excited for a minute there." Tom said, and Max could feel himself panicking before he could respond.

"Of course she was excited, everyone's excited around me." Max shrugged, shooting for casual and failing abysmally.

"Guys, I think I've figured it out." Lionel said, beaming like he had just been promised free pizza. He pulled the other two into a huddle, whispering quietly enough that Max couldn't hear a word they were saying. After a few moments, he wondered if he could just sneak off to eat his lunch in peace, but the trio turned around, all grinning like they won the lottery, taking turns to shake Max's hand vigorously. "Congratulations."

"You've managed to do what none of us had the courage to do." Jake said, earnestly.

"What?" Max huffed, confused.

"Dating Phoebe, of course." Tom said, and Max felt a wave of nausea as it swept through him. Black spots appeared in his vision and he leaned harder against the locker to avoid swaying on his feet. "We knew you were the king for a reason." Tom added, for good measure. Max blinked away the black spots, swallowing hard before he answered.

"Yeah, of course… Phoebe is… my girlfriend." He said, slowly, laughing nervously. How is that better than her being your sister?! If anything it's worse! His mind screamed at him, and all he could do was offer a smile, "Just don't tell anyone OK, Pheebs wants to keep it on the down low because she doesn't want angry fangirls attacking her or anything." He paused, grinning, self-assured "I'm quite a catch." Max, what the hell are you doing?! His brain just would not shut up.

It took exactly three days for the entire school to find out, and another week after that for Cherry to say something to Phoebe.

"Nathan invited me to his house party next Saturday, and he told me to tell you that you're invited." She sucked in an excited breath before adding, "Oh, and so is your boyfriend." She smiled brightly before scurrying off to class.

"My what?" Phoebe asked, loudly, to which Cherry turned, eyes wide and somewhat fearful, poised halfway through the door.

"Oh gosh, I forgot." She sighed sadly, "We're not supposed to say anything because Phoebe wants to keep it on the down low," she recited, "so that she doesn't get attacked by any of Max's fangirls." She paused, looking down at her shoes, "He's quite a catch." And it was both the most disappointed and disgusting thing Phoebe had ever heard.

She could feel the bile in the back of her throat as she sucked in a deep breath. "Cherry, you do know that we-"

"Tried to keep it a secret but Max is sort of terrible and couldn't help himself." Max supplied hurriedly as he cut into their conversation, wrapping an arm around Phoebe's shoulders trying to steer her away. Phoebe shrugged him off, ignoring the way she wanted to lean into his embrace. "Pheebs, could I talk to you?" He asked, quiet terror in his eyes. Phoebe looked about ready to kill him, but nodded stiffly. "Look, I can explain." He told her in a whisper once he had found an empty classroom.

"I think I'm actually going to throw up." Phoebe said, growing more nauseous by the minute. "Dating, Max? That's disgusting. We're-"

"I know that we..." he gestured helplessly between the two of them, making a face. "But they don't."

"Are you kidding me? We have the same last name." Phoebe cried.

"And I've always told people that our dads are both nuts for Thunder Man, that he saved them and we met at one of their club meeting things." Phoebe looked incredulously at him and he shrugged. "I wasn't kidding when I said I tell people we're not related."

"So dating is somehow better?" Phoebe snapped, hitting him in the arm.

"I don't know, I panicked!" He yelped, waving his hands in a helpless gesture.

"I need to set the record straight-" Phoebe turned to the door, trying to jiggle the handle open, but Max used his powers to keep the door firmly closed.

"Do you know what happens if you walk out of that door and tell everyone we're twins?" He said, his voice full of authority that even he didn't know he could harness. Phoebe froze. "Everyone thinks we're dating. They're not going to stop thinking that if they know we're twins. They'll just think worse things." He paused, dropping his gaze as his voice lowered. "Much worse things." Phoebe could barely hear him, but she knew what he said.

"So tell them we broke up, we never speak of this again." She hissed, and Max made a noise of protest.

"Please Phoebe, just for one more week, I promise." His whole air had changed, taking a step towards her where she flinched back. He halted abruptly and Phoebe winced, hyper aware of her own movements.

"Oh my God, what? Are you kidding me right now?" She sounded almost hysterical. "Max, this is-"

"Wrong, disgusting, sick, I know, OK? I know." He paused for a moment, "But I've been offered a gig and free food..." Phoebe raised a disbelieving eyebrow, like it would convince her, "And I can get Jake to stop touching your hair in AP history." There was a moment in which Phoebe considered it, the thing with Jake really tipping the scales.

"He's like a week away from just taking a lock of my hair." She grumbled, before looking at Max, determined. "Only one more week." She held her finger up in warning, "But the day after Nathan's party, we tell everyone that you cheated on me and we broke it off." She said. Max made sad faces but agreed, finally letting Phoebe leave.

It was disgusting to Phoebe how easily they slipped into their roles, whenever they were waiting for a class together Max would wrap an arm around Phoebe's waist and lean her head on his shoulder. He would carry her books and she would help him with his homework. They never kissed, that was something they knew they wouldn't do, but Max changed Phoebe's name in his phone to 'Babe' and Phoebe added little heart emojis next to his name in her phone.

It was all pretend; Phoebe told Max that she pretended he was Link, back when Link wasn't a jerk. Max told Phoebe that he pretended she was Megan Fox, and well, how typical, Phoebe thought. But the thing was that they were both lying, it wasn't Link and a supermodel, it wasn't even two strangers, it was Max and Phoebe and they hated how right this felt.

"It's Phoebe." Max told Oyster, who had begun sound checks for where they were playing at Jake's mom's diner. Max pressed the phone to his ear. "Hey babe," Max smirked, and Oyster held up his hand for a high five. Max refused and had to stop himself from laughing at Phoebe's scoff.

"I think I just threw up a little." She responded. She was obviously still at home, and he was tempted to tell her, 'don't lie, you love it', but he was terrified of her response, both positive and negative. "I just..." she faltered, "wanted to see how you were doing." She admitted.

"We're good, we start in about half an hour." Max responded, before adding, "What's the real reason you called?" He asked, knowingly. There was silence.

"That... is the reason." Phoebe said. She sounded almost bewildered. "I don't know, I'm here getting ready for the party and I just think, oh, I hope Max's band thing goes well." She hummed in frustration.

"Oh, well, OK... Cool." He paused, "Have fun at the party tonight." Phoebe laughed, loud and bright and it made his heart sing, not that he would ever tell her, or anyone for that matter.

"I think I will, you have fun with your free food."She told him, vaguely distracted, as if she were over analysing herself in a mirror. She usually was, just before parties. He was sure she would look spectacular though.

"Don't think I won't." He responded, trying to forget all thoughts he had about that sparkly blue dress she had picked out for the party.

"Ok, I'll see you later, Max." She said, and he could hear her smile even through the phone.

"Yeah, see you later." His own smile was warm and soft, and as an afterthought he added, "I love you." There was silence from the other end of the line and Max realised he might have just screwed up royally. He didn't hear the end-call tone so she mustn't have hung up. It was agonising, the moments leading up to Phoebe's words.

"I love you, too." She told him. With a click she was gone, and Max was left standing with the phone pressed to his ear as he went slack-jawed at what had just happened. Inside of his mind was a chorus of 'oh no!' and his brain felt numb as he went back to making sure his guitar was in tune.

It was his idea, really, but he should have known that Monday would be the day she broke his heart.