Max had been sitting in the little pizza place for 10 minutes, getting bored, when Rockie finally arrived. She spotted him immediately and came to sit across from him in the booth.

"Hi..." she said slowly.

"Hi!" Max thought for a second. "You know what, I'm going to get straight to the point, because I feel bad about it. I'm sorry I didn't believe you. You were right, I was wrong. It's just... I hated to admit that my parents could... you know..."

"It's fine. I thought about it, and I guess I understand how that could be hard to see... even though I don't like my parents very much."

Max grinned and chewed a breadstick. "So..."

"Yeah." This wasn't turning out how Rockie had planned. She didn't have anything to say!!

It turned out that her worries were unnecessary. Once she had relaxed, she realized that the silence wasn't at all uncomfortable. Still...

"Didn't you want to talk to me about something?" Rockie asked quietly.

"Oh. Yeah. Just wanted to tell you... that... you know, since you're my sister and all... I think we should spend some time together. You know. Since we didn't know each other before now... we shouldn't lose any more time." Max picked nervously at his pizza.

"Sure! That sounds like a good idea to me, Max," she smiled happily.

"Great! So... do you want to come to practice sometime?"

"You mean... the Blade Breakers' practice?" Max nodded. "Oh. Okay!"

-\-/-\-/-

They left soon after that, for Tyson's house. Once there, there wasn't much room for talking, because they walked into the middle of practice.

"Hey, Maxie, where were ya?" Tyson asked as Max walked out to the back yard.

"Out... oh, I brought Rockie to practice. I hope you don't mind too much," Max added quickly.

"Nah, we can always use a new face around here," Hilary butted in.

"Only if she blades," Kai said in his usual quiet yet still heard voice.

"KAI!!" Hilary protested. "That's not nice." Then she turned to Rockie, "We've never been properly introduced. I'm Hilary ((what's her last name?! I swear, I knew it last week!!!))."

"Call me Rockie," the newcomer said with a smile.

-\-/-\-/-

From that day on, Rockie made it her mission to be accepted by the Blade Breakers. She hung out with Max almost constantly, coming to all of the practices; she helped the team with everything from homework (that would be Tyson) to planning the team's training schedule (with Hilary). She stayed out of Kai's way, taught Rei how to cook a dish her mother had invented, and actually listened when Kenny lectured.

A few times, she brought her best friend Carlie along. Carlie was about a head taller than Rockie and quite pretty, with shoulder length dark brown hair, and thin-framed glasses. Kai liked to glare at her meanly, but Rei got along with her well. ((Doesn't Rei get along with everyone?))

Now, when the Blade Breakers got a call from Mr. Dickenson, saying that there was another American tournament coming up, they of course started training twice as hard. Rockie — who was now expected to be at practice — helped them prepare, and in exchange, they helped HER prepare.

"Okay, study this list carefully. Put faces with names and keep them that way," Hilary instructed as she gave Rockie a packet of papers.

-\-/-\-/-

Rockie flipped through the pages that night at home. "Okay... short green hair, fancy clothes... violet eyes... OLIVER!! Yeah! And then that one, with the red hair is... Tommy? No, that's not right..." she studied all of the teams thoroughly. The team insisted that it would make the whole trip a lot easier on her.

-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/- A/N: sorry for the apparent pointlessness of this chapter, but it gets EVERYTHING out of the way. I've got a plan for something to fill the gap where it skips ahead a lot, so it's not like she just did that stuff and suddenly was their best friend. Oh, but it really wasn't pointless. It's one of those filler chapters. It's actually quite important, because without it, you'd be totally and completely lost in the NEXT chapter. I know it's not good. You don't need to tell me. The next chapter should be better, unless I get that awful bug... I think it's called writer's block... okay, I'm gonna go now before I give myself nightmares!!