Chapter Four.

"Twelve tacos." Peggy said with amazement, "How can a skinny little twig like you eat twelve tacos and not explode?"

Maddie shrugged her shoulders in response and she and the gang left Paco's Taco Hut. The taco takedown (a/n Yes, I stole this from xHappyHardcorex) had just ended and Maddie was the champion. She had beaten both the boys who had only managed to eat ten tacos each.

"I'll beat you next time, you just got lucky." Tony exclaimed.

"Tony, I think you just need to accept the fact that I'm better then you." Maddie replied with a smirk. Tony rolled his eyes and lightly shoved her.

"So what do you want to do now?" Stacy asked.

"Actually, I've got to go home. My mom should be home any minute and we need to 'bond' or something." Maddie said and then turned to Jay, "Walk me home?"

Jay nodded in response and draped his arm over her shoulders. "We'll catch up with you guys later." He told everyone while Maddie waved goodbye. The two of them continued down the street, skateboards in their hands. Maddie missed this; she missed just being with Jay.

"I have something to confess." She said looking up to him as they walked, Jays arm still wrapped around her shoulders. "I didn't exactly tell you everything when I said I was coming back."

"What do you mean?" Jay asked raising his eyebrows.

"Well, the only way that I can stay here is if I actually go to school and have a B average." She responded with a sigh.

"That's it? God, Maddie you scared me. I don't care if you go to school, I mean sure it wastes like six hours that we could spend together but I'll get over it. It's better then you being in Georgia."

Maddie grinned, "Yea, but I've decided that you're coming with me. That's the real confession that you now have to go to school."

"Uh, well maybe I'll go a few times, for you."

"Thanks. What do you want to do when you grow up? Like really, now that we actually have an understanding of what we can do. And it's not all 'I'm gonna be an astronaut' or 'I'm gonna be a cowgirl' anymore. " Maddie asked Jay, now going off on a tangent.

"I really don't know. My dream job would be for someone just to pay me for nothing, just hand me money. But seeing as that won't happen. I'll probably just find some crap job. Work during the day and then skate, surf, drink and screw when I'm not working. What about you?"

"What if you could get paid for skating?" Maddie asked while ignoring his question.

"I dunno, I don't think that I would like it. I don't want someone telling me what to do. I don't want skating to turn into having to do what's expected of me." Maddie nodded with understanding. "Now, what do you want to do?"

"Well my dream job would be to be an artist. Just paint and draw and have people love it and pay me. But most artists really don't get famous until they die so I wouldn't really have any money. And unlike you I don't want some crap job."

"What about writing? You rock at that."

"I think that I do want to write stories or articles. Books would be better because then I could illustrate them. But I'd have to go to college in order to really do well at that, and I don't know if I can even get into or go to college."

"You can do it; you just have to want it bad enough to do everything that you can do to make it happen."

The duo continued walking towards their homes while engaged in the conversation about their futures. As they approached Maddie's house they saw Callie and Philaine sitting on her porch drinking and talking.

"Mommy!" Maddie shouted and ran up the steps to her mother. Callie grabbed her daughter and pulled her into a hug. She then proceeded to kiss her forehead over and over.

"Mommy!" Jay mimicked Maddie in a high pitched voice and ran over to his own mom. Maddie glared at him and gave him the finger.

"Isn't it nice that our kids are such great friends?" Philaine asked with a laugh. Callie decided that this would be a four person reunion rather than just her and Maddie, so she invited Jay and Philaine to stay for dinner. Maddie hadn't realized how much time had passed since she had arrived this morning. It was now six o'clock at night.

"How about we order a pizza" Callie suggested.

"Yes yes yes, I'm starving." Maddie replied

Jay looked over at her, "You just at twelve tacos and now you're starving? Maddie, my dear, you are a freak."

"I think my eating habits are perfectly normal." Callie and Philaine laughed at this. They ordered a pizza and continued on conversing about Maddie's life in Georgia and what she had missed here. Pizza came. They ate. And just like in the past, Maddie and Jay wound up in Maddie's room while Callie and Philaine drank and laughed and did whatever it was that parents did.

Jay plopped down on Maddie's bed and looked around her room. Several of her paintings, drawings and photographs covered the lavender walls. "You know, you haven't drawn me anything in forever. I'm starting to feel neglected." He said as Maddie sat down at her desk. She opened the drawer and pulled out a large pad of drawing paper and a tray of chalk. She then proceeded to put her hair up in a crazy messy bun on the top of her head. Jay had always called this her 'artist hair', because she'd do it like this whenever she'd draw just to keep it out of her face.

"Ok then, pose. I'm going to draw you." Jay struck an elaborate model pose. "Jay seriously, do you think that you can hold that pose they whole time that it'll take to draw you?" Jay nodded and continued to pose. Maddie laughed and started to draw.

"So, how is it being back?" Jay asked, still posing like an idiot.

"Honestly, it's a little weird."

"How so?" Jay was starting to loose his balance and was wobbling around.

"I don't know, I guess I expected it to be like I had never left. You know, like still be great friends with everyone and not have this like awkwardness between them and me."

"Maddie, it's your first day back. We haven't seen you in over a year. Things are going to be weird at first. But you've always got me." Jay said with a grin and started fluttering his eyelids.

"Lucky me." She replied sarcastically. Jay threw a pillow at her, and she responded by throwing a piece of chalk at him. "Well at least things are normal between my mom and me. We talk for a whole thirty minutes then run out of things to say."

"That's how most parents are with their kids. Don't worry about it, everything will get easier." Jay said.

"Wow Jay, when did you get so wise?" Maddie questioned with a laugh. She picked up a piece of chalk and scribbled her initials in the corner of the drawing. "Tada, it's done." She displayed the picture for Jay.

Jay finally stopped posing and looked at the picture. He scrunched up his face and squinted at it. "Darling, you need a new hobby. That looks nothing like me."

"It's called cubism, asshole. And I think it looks just like you." Maddie explained, while gently tearing the paper off the pad and handing it to Jay.

"Oh, well then it's lovely. I'm going to hang this in my room forever." He grinned. "Now, why don't we get out of here?"

"Okie doke." Maddie agreed and grabbed a sweater out of the nearest suitcase. She followed Jay out of her bedroom and then out of her house. Their mothers, who were slightly drunk in Maddie's kitchen, didn't notice the departure of their children. They were heading to Shogo's house. His father had walked out on his family and his mother was a nurse who worked the night shift, so no one was at his house at night. That's usually where the Zboys would end up at the end of the day.

No one was outside of Shogo's house, so Jay opened the door and invited himself in. "They're probably downstairs." He said knowingly. Maddie nodded and followed him through the house and down to the basement. They were greeted with an overwhelming fog of smoke and the blaring music of Jimi Hendrix.

Everyone was sitting on couches, chairs, or the floor and involved in their own little conversations. There were three girls, two blondes and a brunette, that Maddie didn't recognize sitting in the corner with Tony and Red Dog.

"We have arrived!" Jay yelled with flourish so everyone was now looking at him and Maddie. They were greeted with a loud 'hello' from the group before everyone continued with what they were doing.

"Oh yea," Biniak interrupted and started gesturing towards the girls in the corner, "Those are my cousins, the blonde ones, Brianna and Heather and the other one is my neighbor Lizzy. Brianna, Heather and Lizzy, meet Jay and Maddie." Well that explains the unknown girls, Maddie thought while waving hello.

Jay started heading over to the girls and Maddie followed, not knowing where else to go. She didn't want to interrupt or bother anyone else. She sat down next to Red Dog who immediately handed her a beer.

"Thanks." She said while popping off the top.

"Well we owed it to you, for skating to Zephyr earlier." Red Dog explained. Maddie laughed and took a swig from the bottle. Next thing she knew Tony was leading the two blondes upstairs.

"God, he works fast." Maddie said motioning to Tony.

"Yea, Biniak won't be happy that Tony's screwing his cousins, but what did he expect when he brought them over here." Red Dog said. Sid and Stacy came over and took the seats that Tony and the girls had just left and joined Red Dog and Maddie's conversation. Jay and Lizzy had just left to "get some fresh air" so that left Maddie and the boys alone. After her long day, Maddie was extremely tired and had soon fallen asleep on Sid's shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her, and she slept on him for about an hour. It was then that Jay and Lizzy had come back down to the basement. He left Lizzy and went over to Maddie, gently shaking her so that she would wake up.

"I hate you," she muttered when she opened her eyes, "I was having a really good dream, a REALLY good one."

"Well I think it's time that we go home." He said lifting her off of the couch. Lizzy stood in the corner glaring at them. Jay didn't care, they said a quick goodbye to everyone then left Shogo's house. As they were leaving they saw Tony emerge from the bedroom.

"Dude, I just nailed both of Biniak's cousins, at the same time." Tony exclaimed grinning ear to ear. Jay slapped him a high five. Maddie rolled her eyes, and then adopted a motherly voice, "that's my boy," she said while pinching his cheeks. And with that Jay and Maddie left and headed home.

Author's Note. Wow, lots of dialogue. Sorry it's taken so long to update, i've been very busy with summer school and friends and stuff. I've started planning this story out in my head and i think i know where it's going. I just have to choose one of two plots that i've come up with. Also, i''m sorry, i lied in the previous chapter. The skate team wasn't formed in this chapter. Maybe the next one or the one after that. I'm working on it. Review! Please and thank you.