Chapter Two: A look into the past

An eight year old Maddie Anderson sat in her room, huddled in the corner while clutching her stuffed giraffe. Downstairs the screams of her parents could be heard. They were fighting, yet again. Her parents were very different from one another, they fought often but Maddie was convinced that they still loved each other.

Well she was convinced of this until recently. Her little brother Brian was very sick and in and out of the hospital regularly. The stress of having such a sick child and having careers and excessive bills was too much for her parents to deal with. They decided to separate.

Maddie chose to go live with her mom. She was leaving her comfortable home in the Valley for a smaller simpler home on the "wrong side of the tracks". Her new home would be just down the street from Jay's house. His mom Philaine, who had been friends with Maddie's mom since high school, had pointed it out to them.

Jay and Maddie were stuck together whenever their moms got together. They weren't instantly friends, they just kind of tolerated each other. They would play dumb kid games to pass the time but never went out of their way to do stuff together. They were just different. Jay was hyper and outspoken and lived for surfing. Maddie was more reserved and random and lived for drawing. Yea, they were only eight but they knew what they liked.

Maddie's parents had finished fighting, she could tell because of the loud slam of the door and the screeching tires of her dad's car. And then the shouting of her mother, "Just four more days of this. FOUR MORE DAYS AND I'M OUT OF THIS HELLHOLE!"

Maddie stood up and slowly started packing more boxes, what she had been doing before her parents started screaming. Her mom decided that moving their belongings over to their new house slowly by using her car would be easier and cheaper then renting a moving van. So starting yesterday they'd load up the car and bring several boxes to their new house. Then Callie and Philaine would drink coffee and complain about men while Maddie and Jay played checkers or something equally dumb. They had four more days of this to endure.

Maddie's quiet packing was interrupted suddenly by the ringing of the telephone followed by the loud sobbing of her mother. Maddie ran down the stairs to make sure her mom was alright. Callie was now sitting on the floor hugging her knees close to her and bawling harder then Maddie had ever seen before. She attempted to comfort her mother by patting her back.

Callie just noticed that her daughter was there. She tried to stifle her tears, and turned to her daughter. "Honey," she started,"that was the hospital. They tried everything that they could do but… they just couldn't do anything anymore. Brian's…gone to a better place."

Maddie dropped to the floor next to her mom. While her mom was bawling quit loudly, Maddie just sat there in shock. Her three year old brother was dead. She'd never see him again. It wasn't fair; he didn't even get to live life. She ran up to her bedroom and curled up on her bed forcing herself to go to sleep so that she wouldn't have to think about his death anymore.

She slept for hours, and awoke the next morning at 10 am. She had fallen asleep in her clothes from yesterday and didn't feel like changing them. Heading over to her desk she heard voices downstairs, figuring that they were only her mom and the maid she decided to ignore them. She sat down at her desk determined to draw something, but there was nothing to draw. Frustrated at her lack of creativity, Maddie put her head down on her desk and closed her eyes when she suddenly heard her door open and close. She remained immobile she didn't feel like talking to her mom.

"Hey, are you ok?"

It wasn't her mom that entered the room. With that Maddie looked up, only to see Jay hovering in her doorway. She stood up and went to go sit on her bed. He watched her the whole time, then followed her and sat down next to her.

"I'm sorry about your brother." Jay said sounding sympathetic. Well as sympathetic as an eight year old could sound.

"Thanks." Maddie managed to choke out and proceeded to lie on her bed. Jay copied her lying down also. And they stayed that way. Neither of them talked neither knew what to say. But it wasn't a bored or awkward silence between them; it was just a pleasant and necessary silence. How long they stayed like that they didn't know. But they were abruptly brought out of this silent reverie when Maddie's mom beckoned for them.

With a sigh Maddie and Jay got up and went downstairs. This call for them usually meant that it was time for Jay to leave. When they got to the living room Maddie noticed that her mom looked slightly more put together then she had last night. She figured that a talk with her best friend was what she really needed.

"Maddie, honey, Philaine was wondering if you'd maybe like to go back to her house and play with Jay today." Callie told her daughter.

This invitation came as no surprise to Maddie, after many of Philaine and Callie's get togethers they'd invite each other's kids over. It was basically an attempt to make Jay and Maddie better friends. Normally Maddie would decline, after all she and Jay always had declined, they weren't great friends and neither tried to change it. But today Maddie felt different. She didn't want to just sit around her house thinking about her brother.

"Uh, yea. That sounds fun." Maddie replied. Her response shocked everyone, especially Jay.

"Awesome." Jay said with a smirk, "I can teach you how to skateboard!" Skateboarding was Jay's latest obsession. He had said that finding a good wave is hard, but there will always be concrete to skate.

So Maddie went, and the rest is history. What started as one or two play dates to get Maddie's mind off the death turned into a budding friendship between Jay and Maddie. They'd make lame excuses to hide the fact that they actually wanted to hang out. And when Maddie moved in to her new house it only presented more opportunities for them to skate and play superheroes and watch the Brady Bunch with the volume turned off while making up a new dialogue. Next thing they knew, they were at each others house everyday. They were best friends, and nothing could change it.

Author's note: ok, another flashback chapter. Sorry. I want to kind of set up a foundation for their friendship. Not just have this random girl with no past. I'll try to update as often as I can.

Next chapter….Maddie comes back! And you'll get to know her character better and see how she interacts with everyone else.