"Seven hundred, eight hundred, nine hundred, a thousand," Max counted out into Brin's palm. "There, are we even?"

"Nowhere near it," Brin scoffed. "But give me your lunch money again next week and I'll consider it."

"Come on, Brin! I was saving up for some Strokes tickets!" Max said. "They were going to be a birthday present for Sketch. You know, 'Thanks for not ratting to Renfro, have some backstage concert passes that I starved myself for a month for'?"

"That's right, the Strokes are in town, aren't they?" Brin asked. She raised both eyebrows at the money. "I was thinking on getting some tickets for myself. Guess now I can pull it off. Thanks, Maxie." She sauntered off in a classic villain saunter, leaving Max with a sour expression on her face.

"So, have you thought about Nationals yet?" Jondy asked from her position next to the soda machine where she was licking a large, Sabrina the Teenage Witch themed popsicle. Max shook her head.

"Nope. I'm really trying not to," she said.

"You know, they're in –"

"Yeah, I know, less than three months," Max said, finally managing to jimmy Brin's locker open. "But, well, I was thinking that I'd get started on planning and everything when OC and… them got back from Aspen."

"Still no calls, huh?" Jondy asked.

"Not one!" Max said in an exasperated tone. "I mean, it's been a week already and…" she grabbed the large pile of money from inside of the locker and counted it.

"Maybe you really hit him too late with the boyfriend dealio," Jondy suggested. "Maybe you should have told him right off the bat and he would have understood and not felt like you were leading him on." Max frowned at Jondy.

"Who are you talking about?" she inquired. Jondy scowled back.

"Who're you talking about?" she asked.

"Cindy. You?"

"No one," Jondy said quickly. "I mean… I was thinking about someone totally different. I thought you were… Syl," she lied. "Krit hasn't called her for a week and… God, it must be the sugar high." Jondy pitched the popsicle in the trash bin and made a slightly frightened face.

"Maybe it's the new diet," Max thought outloud. "I heard on the news that the low-carb thing's really bad for your body." She quickly rolled up her money and stuffed it in her backpack. "I've got money, we can go get burgers or something. Then stop by 7-Eleven for some Red Bull?"

"I would," Jondy said apologetically. "But Mom's ragging on me to stop drinking so much soda. She says it's hurting my teeth."

"Red Bull isn't soda," Max told her. "It's sweet life-giving elixir and I wouldn't be the same without it. Well, we can still get burgers, right?"

"Sure!"

Original Cindy and Alec returned back to 338 Waverly on Saturday, January 4th. Two days before school started and three days before Sketch's birthday.

"Cindy!" Max said happily, grabbing her friend and hugging her tightly.

"I see ya'll haven't gotten into too much trouble," Original Cindy said. She looked at Sketchy. "What's with the head bandage?"

"It's a long story," Sketchy said grouchily. A long story that included some Happy Hanukkah blunts and explained why Max had to wash some blood off of the driveway at three in the morning before Renfro and Deck got back from work.

It was best left for a better time.

"Dude, there's a dent out in the cement out there," Alec said, walking into the house and straight into the kitchen. Being on the road for seven hours tended to create an appetite.

"Shut up, fool! You'll ruin the homecoming!" Original Cindy chastised. She turned back to Max. "So, how's everythin'? How was Christmas?" she asked.

"Quiet," Max nodded. "Very quiet. Sketchy bumped his head on the bottom of the pool once," she nodded to Sketchy's head bandage (because lying was so much easier than telling the truth). "We had to take him to the hospital and they just stitched it up and we were good to go!"

"Sounds like a blast," Bling said dryly as he walked past them carrying three luggage bags. "Now, if you'll excuse me?" Original Cindy and Max quickly got out of his way as Bling took the suitcases upstairs.

"You brought Bling with you to Aspen?" Max asked in a whisper.

"Yeah," Original Cindy nodded. "Mom and Dad paid him another thousand per week if he could work over holidays."

"I wish I had a manservant," Sketchy grumbled before crashing on the couch. Cindy made a face at his unusually angry disposition.

"Ignore him," Max said. "He's just mad because Dr. George lowered his morphine prescription. So, tell me everything about Aspen? Was the snow white? Was the skiing fun?"

"Snow was gray. Skiing was a bust. It always is." Original Cindy waved a hand to punctuate her sentence. "The only reason Original Cindy go down there anymore is because of the hot ladies!"

"You mean... there's no familial bonding and fun snow?" Max asked. Original Cindy shook her head.

"Original Cindy met this one hot mama that was so old, her daughter was older than I am. She was fine, too. But we're not going to get into that right now." Max rolled her eyes.

"Come on, we've got to go practice," Max said. "I doubt you've been remembering your cheers while you were shacked up at Hot Mamas 'R' Us."

Soon after Original Cindy and Alec returned to Seattle, things got back to normal. Well, normal as in everybody still had two legs, two arms and one head. But then again, that was about as normal as things got around there. That was, until…

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Max groggily reached for her alarm clock, picked it up, and slammed it back down on her dresser – successfully smashing it to pieces.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"Grrrr!" Max rose out of bed. She didn't sleep much, but when she did, she liked not to be disturbed by people who chose to visit in the middle of the night. The person who chose to visit in the middle of the night chose to annoy her even more by ringing the doorbell repeatedly.

It was probably Sketchy – high and locked out of the house after accidentally falling asleep at Druid's house.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Ding-dong-ding! Ding-dong-ding! Ding-dong-ding!

"God, I'm fucking coming, all right?" Max shrieked. It was a good thing that everyone else in the house slept like a log, otherwise she would have been in definite trouble by her parents for swearing.

Ding-dong-ding! Ding-dong-ding!

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Or at least everyone else slept like a log, unless a stranger came a-knocking at three in the morning with, apparently, little else in their mind but waking up the entire house. Original Cindy was up within seconds of Max reaching the stairs, and Alec was coming out of his bedroom as Max and OC reached the kitchen.

"Whovefuckisit?" Alec murmured sleepily as he rubbed his eyes with his fists.

"Sketchy," Max said, stomping towards the door. She fully intended on letting Sketchy know exactly what she thought of his knocking so loudly.

Knock! Knock! Kno-

"WHAT?" Max shouted, wrenching open the door. Instead of finding Sketchy, she found a small, teenaged girl – not much older or younger than Max herself – with brown hair tied into two ponytails under her raincoat hood. She was soaked in rain water and hugging a small backpack to her chest.

"Does Alec live here?" the girl asked. Max turned around, only to find herself completely alone in the living room. There was some light pounding on the stairs that told Max exactly where OC and Alec had gone.

"Uhhh…" she looked around. "Sleeping. Can I help you?" the girl nodded.

"Yeah, my name's Rachel Berrisford," the girl said. "I know him from a while back. I need a place to stay."

Ending Note: Bleh, can't type right… so sleepy. I sort of planned the thirtieth chapter to be the middle point of this story. I'm not quite sure how that's going to work out, but I'm pretty adamant on wrapping this story up in less than a hundred chapters.

You know those reviews? They really help with this whole writing thing. And now I'm going to sleep.