Max was thankfully saved from anymore backyard sleepovers when Joshua told her parents that she'd gotten cheerleading captain. Renfro and Lydecker both looked vaguely proud.

"We knew you could do it all along," Deck said as the family was eating breakfast. "You just had to have the right thought."

"You mean to break Asha's leg and have her cheering in special olympics for several months?" Max inquired.

"That's my girl," Deck smiled. Sketchy snorted into his waffles.

"Only in this family..." he mused. He looked expectantly at Renfro.

"No, you cannot break the leg of your basketball team coach. We're talking about completely different sports here."

"Damn it!"

And of course by the time Max got to school, everyone on the squad knew that she was captain because apparently, Joshua had sent out a mass email (Syl even brought a print out. It read: Joshua visited Asha today at Metro Hospital. Asha says Max captain!).

Congradulations were said, baked goods were brought (by Jondy) and eaten, and by the time homeroom came along, Max was practically glowing with happiness. She wasn't quite sure what she was happy about, as finding someone to replace Asha would be a nightmare and trying to negotiate a deal with the whiny basketball team to get the indoor court would be even worse -- but she was happy nonetheless.

"Class, we have a new student coming in today," Mrs. Vertes, Max's (and Syl's, Joshua's and Brin's) homeroom teacher announced right before morning announcements. "His name is Alec McDowell and he's coming all the way from Gilette, Wyoming."

"Ooh, all the way from Wyoming," Brin rolled her eyes from two seats behind Max. Max nodded in agreement until...

Alec?

It was the Alec. The Alec that had insisted on spending the night with her to "keep her company". The Alec, looking just as fine as he had the night before (even when he was soaking sopping wet), today in dark jeans and a long sleeved gray shirt that clung to him like... well, something really cling-y, Max was sure.

Brin pushed the boy in front of her out of his seat when she caught sight of him.

"Miss Vertes, there's a seat right here if Alec wants it," Brin said, tapping the desk with her pencil. Mrs. Vertes pointed to the seat.

"You can go right over there, McDowell." Alec did so, placing his backpack at his feet as he slid into the desk.

"Hey, Max," he whispered, pulling on one of Max's curly locks of hair. Darnit, and Max had gone through so much trouble to not be noticed by him. She'd hidden behind her chemistry binder and everything!

"Hi, Alec," Max mumbled as the morning announcements started on the television screen up in the corner. The morning announcements, as always, were hosted by One-Most-Likely-To-Get-A-Job-In-Television, and One-Most-Likely-To-Piss-Max-Off-The-Fastest, Ames White (okay, so the last title was Max's own creation, but the guy was a hateful sort of idiot!). Max caught Brin and Syl's looks of shock and introduced them. "This is Brin, and that's Syl."

"Where do you know Maxie from?" Syl asked innocently, curling one strand of blonde hair around her pencil.

"We just met last night," Alec said.

"Oh?" Syl and Brin said simultaneously. They both snuck a peek at Max, who was hiding her face in her binder again. "Ohh," they said suspiciously.

"Look," Max turned to Syl since she wasn't in the mood to crane her neck all the way around to look at Brin, "it's not what you think, all right?"

"What is it then?" Brin asked.

"Nothing!" Max said. "We just live near each other!"

"Ooh, did you meet her parents yet?" Syl asked Alec. "Her step-mom's the principal of the school, y'know. Elizabeth Renfro."

"Really?" Alec asked, looking at Max. "You didn't mention that last night."

"I didn't feel like it!" Max growled.

"And she's the captain of the cheer squad," Syl continued, seemingly determined on giving Alec the short-list lowdown on her life, "been cheering since before she could walk. Trust me, I was in Cheer Tumbles class with her when we were three."

"So was I," Brin added.

"Cheerleaders, huh?" Alec asked as White droned on about the importance of not smashing the sprinklers with sledgehammers (an odd prank that had happened over the summer). He smirked. "I'll bet that's fun." Max glared back at him when Syl noticed something.

"Hey, where's Joshua?" she asked, looking around. Max shrugged.

"He came by to tell me that I was captain, ate some pork rinds, then left," she remembered.

"Who are we talking about here?" Alec asked. "Who's Joshua?"

"We aren't talking about anything!" Max snapped.

"Joshua's our school mascot," Brin told him, ignoring Max's tone. "He's never been late to school before, though. I wonder where he --" her eyes flickered to the television screen. "Oh my God," she whispered. All four seniors turned to look at the television up in the upper right hand corner of the room where Ames White was sitting with his flunkie, Otto Gottlieb holding Joshua in place behind him -- despite the fact that Otto was a full thirteen inches shorter than Joshua.

"Following learning about the Watergate scandal," White was saying, "I always wanted one of the big secrets of my generation revealed. I mean, wouldn't it be great if you just looked outside and -- 'wow, guess who just floated to the top of the lake? Lochness Monster! That son of a gun exists! Died of natural causes, but he's there!' Am I right?" There was some murmurring among the class. "Well, since Mr. Lochness was busy this morning, I brought the next best thing!" The camera zoomed in on Joshua's dog mask.

"Just what is behind Joshua Sandeman's dog costume?" White's voice asked. "Who is the man behind the mask? Who is Joshua?"

"Oh my God," Max muttered. She raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss Guevara?" Mrs. Vertes asked.

"Can I go to the bathroom?" Vertes's lips drew into a line but she nodded.

"Make it fast, Guevara."

"Go, Maxie, go!" Syl pleaded.

"Thanks, Mrs. Vertes!" Max got out of her seat and walked out of the room, breaking into an all-out run when she reached the hallway. The morning announcements were filmed in the library, which was, luckily, just around the corner. Even luckier, Max's friend Zane was the "integrated circuitry technician" (or to normal people, the cameraman). When Max burst into the library, everyone turned around in surprise; White, who was standing on top of his chair to reach Joshua's head, had his hands gripping the bottom of Joshua's mask as he tried to pull it off and Joshua tried to pull it down at the same time.

There weren't any teachers in the room, probably off in the cafeteria eating breakfast or something.

"Yo, Max," Zane greeted as Max strode confidently into the library

"White!" Max yelled. The skinny, pallid kid with spiky brown hair looked at her with narrowed eyes. Zane swivelled the camera over to point it at Max.

"Guevara," he spat, taking his attention away from Joshua. Joshua took this opportunity to tug his mask back down securely and scramble away from the table set up in the back of the library.

"Stop bothering Joshua!" Max shouted as White walked around the "set" to stand across from her.

"Why should I?" he asked. "Are you, Max Guevara, big bad cheerleader, going to beat me up?" he taunted.

"Zane!" Max said. "Get this on tape for posterity!"

"No problem, Maxie," Zane said, starting the tape.

White struck out at Max first, kicking at her. Max ducked, hearing the squeaks and squeals of tennis shoes running on the linoleum floors as dozens of students rushed to the library to catch the scene. Max only managed to get in one punch to the short kid's nose before Joshua took a running jump at White, knocking him to the ground in one leap and pinning him to the linoleum floor with the weight of his costume. White struggled and punched at the thick material of Joshua's costume futilely before huffing and ceasing all movement.

"Maxie wins!" Zane yelled, thrusting one fist in the air in triumph. The small crowd in the library erupted in a chaotic mess of clapping and cheering for a few glorifying seconds until all noise stopped abruptly and the room temperature seemed to drop a few degrees. A person could hear a pin drop in the next classroom as Elizabeth Renfro walked into the library.

"What's going on here?" she asked, glancing around from one student to another. "Joshua, get off of White." With the help of Krit and Zack, who each grabbed an arm and pulled, Joshua got to his feet and White sprang up.

"Guevara punched me, ma'am!" White took no time in blaming Max.

"He kicked me first!" Max said.

"She provoked me, ma'am!"

"He tried to take off Joshua's costume, ma'am!"

"She --"

"Stop!" Renfro ordered, holding a hand up. Both teens quieted immediately and settled for glaring at each other. "White, you have detention for two weeks. Guevara, you have one week," she said. Max beamed.

"But ma'am --"

"No arguments!" Renfro ordered. She looked around at the crowd. "Well? Get back to your classes before the bell rings! Joshua, your head's askew -- fix it or you'll have detention."

Author's Note: I really like this chapter for no clear reason. Maybe it's because White gets in trouble. Also, for clarification, in this fic, Brin is more post-reindoctrination rather than pre-reindoctrination. Before reindoctrination, I doubt Brin would be doing so much to make Max angry.