Max and Roxanne soon arrived at the house of PJ and Lucy in Richmond.
"What a lovely house!" Roxanne cried excitedly as she looked at it.
Max had to agree with her when he saw it. It was a grand looking, three-floored house with white bricks, a red tilted roof and a white brick chimney on top of it. It was surrounded by what Max thought was two acres worth of garden. The front garden contained beautiful sturdy hedges in front of the shiny green grass, the tall striking trees and the smooth concrete path in the middle of the front lawn and the smooth driveway that led to the beautiful house. It was so beautiful that nothing could ruin it, not even the cars on the driveway and on the road that were parked so close together that they looked like spilled mixed paint together.
Roxanne had to park her car a block away, but they didn't mind walking to stretch their legs after a good long drive.
"Great driving, Roxanne," Max said, as he got out of her car.
"Thanks, Max," Roxanne said. "Great navigating."
"Thanks. How many times have you been to here?"
"None. I've only seen a picture of this place along with the letter that PJ sent me explaining that he and his family were moving here. And I've only seen the outside, not the inside. This is my first time here as much as it's yours."
Max knocked on the door and he and Roxanne recognised the person who opened it.
"Howdy, partners!" greeted Goofy, who was wearing a cowboy outfit.
"Cool costume, Dad," Max said.
"Yeah, really cool, Mr. Goof," Roxanne said.
"Why, thanks. Your costumes are lovely too."
After they went into the house, they were next greeted by Peg was wearing a brown dress with plastic twigs and leaves wrapped around it.
"You spreading forest magic in this party, Mother Nature?" Max asked.
Peg smiled. "Well guessed, Max. And you look very cool in that outfit. And you look lovely too, Roxanne."
"Thanks, Peg. You look very lovely too."
"Thanks. Now, follow me. Your godchildren are just dying to meet their uncle Max."
"And I'm looking forward to meeting them," Max said as he and Roxanne followed her.
They went into the big living room where Max's godchildren were playing in the playpen with two other children. Outside the pen were the rest of the friends of Max and Roxanne, who were all wearing other fancy dress costumes.
The first one to greet them after Goofy and Peg was PJ, dressed up like a F1 racer, and Lucy, dressed up like a woman who popped out of a painting from a renaissance artist. Neither Max, Roxanne or anyone could guess which woman from which famous renaissance painting she came as (and they have tried Mona Lisa and Venus among many others and both were always wrong) and she wouldn't dare to ruin the mystery by telling them. PJ and Lucy welcomed Max and Roxanne and thanked them for coming to their kids' party.
Then Max and Roxanne were greeted by Pistol who came as her favourite fictional detective Julia Tongs, Lisa who wore a white Ancient Greek dress and came as the Greek Goddess Aphrodite, Bobby who came as basketball legend Tam Gurgle, Stacey who came as a policewoman and her partner Lauren who came as a convict and finally Pete who was wearing a sheriff costume.
Then Max and Roxanne went to say hello to his godchildren and the other children, who were the children of Stacey, Lauren and Bobby.
"Hi, guys," Max greeted. "Do you remember your Uncle Max? May I introduce you all to this lovely lady, my very good friend, Roxanne?"
The toddlers saw Roxanne and crawled excitedly to her.
"Hi, guys," she greeted. "Oh, aren't you all lovely children?"
"Okay, guys," Peg said. "Now that we're all here, it's time for the buffet. And, Pete, you do not get to go first!"
"But, Peg, I've made an effort to –"
"To show up to your grandkids' party? You think you deserve a gold medal for that?"
"Everyone, please just help yourselves to whatever you want," PJ said to the other guests.
Everyone went to grab their food and started to talk to each other.
Max caught up with everyone as he ate the food and the ones he spent the most time with were PJ and Bobby. They congratulated him for his success as T-Rax and he congratulated PJ for being promoted to head chef and even winning his very first Michelin star himself and he congratulated Bobby for his first video game creation being both a critical and commercial success. PJ went on to say that he was thinking of starting his own restaurant chain and Bobby said he was thinking of making his own video game publishing company.
When he bumped into Stacy and Lauren, he asked how they were doing. Stacy said she had been promoted to curator at St. Louis Art Museum and Lauren said she was no longer a lawyer assistant and not only an official full-time lawyer but also she had her own lawyer firm. She has already helped five of her clients won their cases in just three months. They also congratulated max for his T-Rax success.
When Max bumped into others like Lucy and Lisa, they all said they were doing very well. Lucy was now the head librarian at her library and Lisa told Max that her magazine's sales have increased since T-Rax posed for the front cover of the magazine's issue two months ago. Thanks to him, many more models – whether they were celebrities or first time models – wanted to pose for the magazine.
"It was a pleasure, Lisa," Max said.
After eating a lot of delicious food and catching up with his friends, he decided that he needed a bit of fresh air, so he went into the giant back garden. He felt peaceful as he walked around. There was more green grass, tall trees and bushes and a lovely vast patio with a table and a set of chairs around it. He saw he wasn't the only one out here either. He saw Roxanne sitting at the table and looking a bit sad. He went and sat on the chair next to her.
"You here for a bit of fresh air, too?" Max asked.
"Yeah, Max," Roxanne said sadly.
"Is something bothering you? Has someone upset you? Has Lisa been rubbing her success in your face?"
Roxanne sighed. "No. Actually, she seems to become less arrogant and selfish since high school. In fact, she even credits you for helping her become a better person by inspiring her to start her magazine and become a patron for that wildlife charity. I can see why you're the only boyfriend she remains friends with. The others she never wants to see them ever again, especially Chad. She even told me that sometimes she wished that she didn't leave you and went to your college after high school."
Max was lost for words about that. "And did you catch up with Stacy? And what do you think of Lauren?"
"It was great to catch up with Stacy," Roxanne said. "She apologized for not seeing much of me as she should back in school and for not keeping in contact since I left. And as for Lauren, she seems very nice and sweet. She seems perfect for Stacy and those two girls seem adorable like PJ and Lucy's kids." She sniffled. "It was nice to catch up with everyone here, but it's just that I feel like I'm a failure. All of our friends have gone on to have successful careers and families of their own. I feel like I'm the only one who hasn't achieved anything except becoming a slave to that horrible, spoiled man child Hugo. The worst part is that even if I got free from him, I feel like I would have nowhere else to go and I don't know what to do with my life."
She broke down into tears and Max wrapped her in the arms. As he comforted her, for the very first time in his life, he felt very silly for having all those feelings when he felt like he was the biggest failure on the planet. Before he became T-Rax, he might have lost Mona and had a low paying job like being a cleaner at Tanchester Square Garden, but at least he had a job and he still had friends and, as of this year, he still held the title of winning the most college X game trophies. The Gammas' winning records before his win no longer counted after they were discovered for cheating under Bradley Uppercrust III's leadership. All Roxanne had in her life since she left Spoonerville was nothing but misery and being unmarried to a horrible man so she and her dad could become rich.
"Max! Roxanne!"
Roxanne wiped the tears off her eyes before she and Max looked to see Goofy running to them.
"It's cake time!" Goofy called.
"Coming, Dad!" Max called back, as he got up. He helped Roxanne out of her chair.
"Thanks for comforting me again, Max," Roxanne said, as they walked back to the house.
"No problem, Roxanne." Max was glad that he could help this poor woman by comforting her. He wished he could do more for her like help her be free from Hugo for good and help her be the happiest she could be, but he didn't know how, especially since he himself was now enslaved to the Phantom of Rock n Roll.
When Max and Roxanne joined everyone in the sitting room, they all gathered around the big table and the giant rainbow cake on it. PJ baked it himself. It looked and smelled very delicious and it had four candles on the cake. Two each per twin.
After Peg lit the candles and PJ and Lucy picked up their children and Stacey and Lauren picked up theirs, everyone started to sing. "Happy birthday to you," everyone sang to the twins. "Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Patrick and Penelope. Happy birthday to –"
They didn't finish the song because a giant piano cord struck loudly. They all turned to see a figure wearing a long red robe and a red hat sitting at the piano. Then it turned around and everyone shuddered in fear as they saw it. Everything it wore from hat to boots was completely red, with the only exception of a white hippo skull mask covering its head.
"To you," the figure sang.
Max knew who this was.