Okay, so maybe there was a reason Joshua hadn't graduated yet.
He was a party animal, which was why he never made it to tests on time. He was always throwing a 'Boo! Tests!' party the night before where they would shred SAT booklets. This led to him getting up late the next day and failing his test.
Nevertheless, the parties were off the hook (to some people, they were "hot", and in some areas, they were known as "off the heezy") and Max hadn't missed one since she'd started high school. The absence of Logan wasn't going to stop her from having fun. She was positive of that.
"Max not having fun?" Joshua asked with a tilt of his giant dog head when he saw her. She was sitting at a table looking at the design on it.
"I'm fine, Josh, really," Max said, dodging the question.
"Everyone else," Joshua gestured to the rest of the people - most of the school was packed into the basement of his house, "having a lot of fun. Dancing, laughing, talking. Max not doing any of those things. Max not having fun." This time, it was more of a statement and not a question.
"I guess I just miss Logan a lot," Max said, regretting the words as soon as they'd come out of her mouth. Joshua held his hands up - the universal stop sign.
"Stop. Joshua bring someone to bring the fun back to Max." He ran off into the crowd, leaving Max staring at a bowl of cheez-puffs, then came back with an African-American girl in tow. "Max, meet Cindy. Cindy, meet Max. Cindy have off-the-heezy fun skills."
Max looked up at 'Cindy'. "Hi," she said quietly.
"Hi," Cindy said back. Joshua steered Cindy into the seat next to Max.
"Cindy, bring fun back," he ordered. "Joshua going to see what Sally want this time." Joshua again disappeared into the crowd. Max ate a cheez-puff.
"Joshua thinks I'm unhappy because my boyfriend went to college and hasn't called me since," she said by way of introduction.
"My girlfriend just went to jail." Max perked up, someone was worse off than her.
"Really, why?" she asked.
"She murdered her father because he put the moves on me," Cindy said with a ghost of a smile. "I always go for the bad-asses."
"Let's redo this whole introduction thing," Max decided, holding out her hand. "Hi, I'm Max Guevara." Cindy shook her hand.
"Cindy McEachin. You can call me 'Original Cindy', though," she said. "I just got here with my family. My mom, my step-dad, my hoodrat brother..."
"I've got an idiot brother, too," Max said. "I can sympathize with you."
A/N: Now everyone hold your breath until the next chapter and try to figure out who OC's brother is.