Chapter 6: Encounters of the strangest kind

Another chapter!

I've been busy so this is a bit behind my own schedule.

Have to admit, this is a bit of a weaker chapter, but it'll pay dividends down the track.

Sorry for the wait, hope you enjoy it!

To the Chapter!

Somewhere, in god-knows where, Max stared down at his breakfast – two eggs, some basil, and a strip of bacon – all together to look like a smiling face.

Looking over at his dad devour a short stack of pancakes, Max despondently mucked around with his food, as he gazed longingly at the map on the table.

"Max" Goofy said as he waved the map in front of Max's face "I think we need to talk about this."

"Huh?" Max's insides froze, he found out already? Of course, he did, it would be so obvious that the map would divert to L.A but he did not think it would come up this soon.

He was so dead.

He was so wrapped up in the fear of being caught that he only caught the last part of Goofy's public speech to the diner.

". .. official navigator, head 'whichwayer' of this here road trip"

As the diner client applauded, for some reason, Max said quietly "Seriously?"

"I'm not looking at the map any more, matter of fact, you can pick all the stops from here to Lake Destiny. I trust you wholeheartedly son" Goofy said with a touch of pride in his voice.

Max shifted uncomfortably; he was not ousted just yet but these words made it awkward for him to be at ease.

"To the open road" Goofy cheerfully said as he raised his coffee cup.

"To the. . .open road?" Max said hesitantly

With that, they clinked their cups together.

Roxanne raised up a shirt to herself to ascertain its size on her, it wasn't that she didn't enjoy shopping for clothes – on the contrary she enjoyed it immensely - but after spending a few hours at the mall with Stacey and seemingly getting nothing done, the fun with beginning to decline.

Stacey did not share this sentiment.

"Whaddya think Roxanne?" Stacey asked as she came out of the dressing room.

Roxanne wasn't sure what to think, the green dress Stacey had on was a fine as far as she was concerned, but she was also wearing a green headband with a lilac feather sticking at the back at the band.

"It's umm…" Roxanne templed her fingers while locking eye contact with Stacey. "…It's very…you?" she finished smiling at her.

Stacey laughed "Good, it wouldn't do to be normal at parties, it's always good fun to dress up and get out there" she said as twirled her hands in the air.

"Never knew you had a fascination with feathers though" Roxanne teased.

Stacey was about to reply when suddenly her expression became stony faced. Roxanne, confused, didn't have time to react when she felt someone tap on her shoulder, and as she turned around to see it was, she was surprised to find Chad standing sheepishly in front of her.

"Hey Roxanne" he started as he rose his hand to say hi

"Got a minute?"

"Sure?" Roxanne replied

"Ummm…. Just over here will be fine, if that is okay." He turned gesturing her to follow him.

"Oh, okay" Roxanne replied, she did not know what else to say.

After following him around the corner – out of Stacey's hawkish gaze – Chad scratched the back of his head, looking uncomfortable in his own right, as was Roxanne, who did not really know what was coming.

"Ummm" He started.

Roxanne felt herself be on edge, apart from the interaction she had with Chad at the auditorium they normally did not cross paths with each other. So, what was he after?

"So, you're going to Stacey's party with Max I heard?" he asked

"Yes. Well, was. Max is going to the concert that day, but yes, I did agree to go with him otherwise." Roxanne said coolly.

Chads eyes lit up a little, as if he was waiting for this confirmation.

"Well in that case, why don't you come with me?" He finished more confidently.

Roxanne frowned at him a little, the school rumor mill was an effective means of communication, and the odds were low that Chad would not have heard this news already, so it seemed a little odd that he would bring this up now. Although Roxanne tried to be polite about it, she also thought it was a good idea to clear off any speculation.

"Well, he's not going so that's true, but the point was that I would have gone if he had, so I'm really sorry to say no again Chad but I'm not really that keen. Why don't you go with Lisa?" Roxanne said, trying to keep her irritation out of her voice.

Chad waved this off as if a fly was bothering him.

"You've only just met him if I'm not mistaken, how about we go like we did last year?"

Roxanne deepened her frown; she had a limited dating history but there was a brief time when her and Chad 'dated' in the sense that it had been for a couple of months before he got bored and moved onto the more attractive Lisa. The whole episode had left her crushed and emotionally wrecked for a few weeks having not seen any of it coming, and though Chad had insisted that it was not a proper relationship, she felt like it had some sort of meaning – as having a proper connection with someone was very important to her – and when it ended abruptly, Roxanne had decided that in high school dating was not for her unless it was something quite special. As to their 'breakup' Chad and her were amicable enough but she had no desire to relive the experience.

"Thanks Chad, but that was last year and I'll be okay thank you" Roxanne replied stiffly.

Somewhere in the shop there were some voices being raised that Roxanne was vaguely aware of and thought one of them could have been Stacey's, but Chad didn't seem to notice and continued on.

"Well let me know if you change your mind, I'll be there regardless so I can give you a ride at least."

"Just go with Lisa? She's going too I think" she tried to move the topic away from her personally.

Chad laughed again.

"Ah yeah, maybe, just want a little less drama, you know how she is"

Chad paused, the voices were shouting now, one of which was Stacey's but the other one she could not tell. Chad seemed to know however, and quickly rushed on

"But it was good to see you again Roxanne, take care"

With that, Chad quickly walked off and was out of sight.

'How weird' Roxanne thought to herself. What did he mean by drama with Lisa? It's not as if she knew her overly well, and this was the second time Chad had asked her out – after almost a year of minimal contact this was the second attempt in a week, what changed? Shrugging at the situation to herself Roxanne made her way back to Stacey, wondering what she was shouting about.

As she got back to Stacey, she stood in shock as she found her engaged in a shouting match with Lisa.

"NO! I DON'T KNOW WHAT HE WANTS! WHY ARE YOU GOING OFF AT ME?!" Stacey shouted

"I SAW HIM THROUGH THE WINDOW TAKING ROXANNE OUT OF SIGHT THOUGH!" Lisa screamed at her.

Neither had noticed Roxanne's presence, nor aware of the equally shocked and confused shop goers gathering around them.

"I've had enough of this" Lisa snapped at Stacey and stormed off, pushing through some of the customers, she hadn't even seen Roxanne.

Stacey glared at Lisa as she stormed off, Roxanne could feel her seething from where she was standing.

"Hmph! Let's get these and get out of here Roxanne"

Stacey went over to the cash register where the clerk lazily started ringing up her order.

"So, you going to cause more of a scene or are you okay for today?" The clerk said in a tone of boredom as she blew bubblegum and popped it.

"If you like" Stacey said icily as she put the rest of her items on the counter with perhaps more force than was needed.

The clerk offered no reply and as Roxanne and Stacey left the store, Roxanne couldn't hold back any longer.

"Stacey, what on earth was all that about?" Roxanne blurted out

"The clerk was a jerk, and that'll be my next submission for poetry in English class" Stacey said.

"Not her, Lisa" Roxanne pressed further.

"Oh. Her"

Stacey paused

"Le'ts get lunch first"

"No, tell me"

Stacey sighed. "Alright, fine but let's really get lunch"

They stopped outside a burger joint that faintly resembled a diner.

"Here will do" Roxanne said, feeling hungry herself.

After ordering their burgers and taking a seat, Stacey took a deep breath.

"Lisa is jealous of you."

Whatever Roxanne expected – it certainly wasn't this.

"Jealous?" Roxanne said incredulously

"Yes. Well, I don't know if jealous is the right word for it, but Chad and her have been, shall we say, rocky since, forever?"

Roxanne was aware of the rotating door if Chad and Lisa were on or off, so she simply nodded.

"Well, I don't know the full story of course, a lot gets said around school. In any case, she was yelling at me because her and Chad had gone into a store, she was looking at something and then saw that he had gone – walk with you out of sight in our store"

Stacey took another deep breath.

"She knows that he asked you out to my party on the last day of school, although I assume they weren't on at the moment because she tried pulling some moves on Max when the day was over"

Roxanne looked over sharply, this was news to her.

"What did she do?" she said a bit more forcefully than she meant to say.

"Oh, nothing much" Stacey said, recognizing the change in Roxanne's tone.

"I shooed her off saying he's yours"

Roxanne blushed a little, this wasn't technically true but she did like the sound of it even though they're yet to have a proper date, or one at all.

"So yeah, to make things interesting, she knew that you two dated before"

"I wouldn't call it dating Stacey" Roxanne said.

"Of course, but Lisa doesn't know that or see it as such"

"This is exactly why I don't date" Roxanne sighed.

"So, what's Max then?" Stacey questioned.

Roxanne was unable to reply.

"Lisa is just not in a good place" Stacey said, pausing only to take a bite before continuing

"She sees her boyfriend, or whatever they are, talking to his…. well, someone that he used to like, or currently like"

Stacey paused

"Hmph, boys…."

Roxanne hadn't thought about that it like that, though truth be told didn't think about it at all. It must be quite sad to be in something like that she thought sadly, her and Lisa never got along particularly well, although they only rarely came across each other.

"Anyway, don't worry about it too much, even if there was a yelling match, which I won by the way" Stacey said casually.

Roxanne laughed.

"Oh, how are you so insightful and so wise?" Roxanne teased

"Oh no way, I blew my top off too" Stacey laughed back.

Roxanne finished her burger and leaned back on her chair with her hands behind her head and sighed.

"That was good, what's next? Should we grab some banners for the party? We can print some here then get going?"

Stacey didn't reply, but narrowed her eyes past Roxanne.

Roxanne felt a chill creep down her spine, she had just guessed what the reason was for Stacey to be alert as she felt a tap on her shoulder. Roxanne turned around and saw Lisa staring down at her frowning.

"Roxanne." She nodded curtly "Can we have a talk?"

Stacey made an angry noise in her throat in reply, but Lisa held up her hand to her.

"I'm not here to make a scene or go after anyone, I just want to get some facts straight"

"Umm sure" Roxanne said meekly as she stood up, but Lisa but her hand on her shoulder.

"No don't worry, here is fine" Lisa said and pulled up a spare chair from another table and sat down next to Roxanne.

Roxanne felt a little bit intimidated – Lisa was everything she wasn't. Her blonde hair went halfway down her back and her black tank top was cur revealing her midriff, to top it all off, she was already got her summer tan going on too.

In short, the most attractive girl.

Lisa frowned at her.

"So, what did he want?"

Roxanne hesitated, then decided the truth would get out eventually even if she didn't want to be the cause of it.

"He asked me to go to Stacey's party instead of Max, since Max is away in LA and going to the concert there himself."

Roxanne braced herself for Lisa's response but surprisingly it didn't come.

Lisa raised an eyebrow

"Max is going to Powerline?" She asked, then shook her head.

"No that's not the point. So, Chad wanted to go with you to Stacey's party you say?"

Biting her lip, Roxanne nodded her head.

Lisa scowled, but Roxanne thought she saw her eyes glisten a little.

"Thanks Roxanne, I've just had it about it up to here with him" Lisa said in a wavering tone.

She pushed herself back from the table and stood up with her hands curled up. Roxanne could only clutch her hands nervously together.

"Don't trust what boys have to say Roxanne" Lisa said coldly.

With that, Lisa whirled around and strode off.

Stacey – up until this point had been unusually quiet the whole exchange – spoke up.

"Well, that was explosive than it could have been, she stays on the invite list"

Stacey put a finger to her mouth in thought.

"Might take Chad off though, sounds like unnecessary D-R-A-M-A"

Roxanne felt herself ease up, and laughed.

"Let's get out of here, that is more than enough shopping for one day"

Stacey looked offended

"It is not enough shopping"

"I think you went overboard Stacey; this is definitely too much" Alice said as she looked at the large mound of decorations gathered in front of her.

"N-Nonsense" Stacey stuttered, but she looked visibly nervous.

The truth of the matter was that even Stacey thought she may have gotten out of hand, unconvinced by Roxanne's declaration that enough shopping was done, Stacey dragged an unwilling Roxanne along for the journey.

The result, was in front of the three girls.

Roxanne smiled, she was happy enough to see Stacey go all out for the party, it wasn't as if she bought the decoration nor would this happen again for a long time. Although she did a grimace as she saw the total ring up at the store – it was enough for more than enough parties and suspected Stacey's parents would have a stern word with her, at least.

Stacey apparently must have had this train of thought cross her mind because she was more nervous when she got home.

Alice turned to Stacey.

"I suppose you want us to put these up today?" she gestured towards the pile.

"Oh no no, Emily isn't here to help us anyway, I still have to do a few more other things" Stacey answered.

Roxanne had a look at her watch, it was about time she had to head back home.

"I need to get going anyway, have to get home for dinner or dad will kill me."

"Okay, see you later Roxanne" Alice smiled at her.

"Hmmm? Oh, Roxanne, a quick second?" Stacey asked.

Roxanne, didn't get an answer off – which seemed typical of this day for her – as Stacey pulled her outside, and looked at her with some concern.

"Do you want Chad at the party? He was on the list, but if it is too uncomfortable…?"

"No, it's okay, that's between him and Lisa" Roxanne reassured her.

Stacey appraised Roxanne for a moment.

"Well, if you're sure…Max better appreciate this and be on stage" she giggled.

"No problem, I'm sure it'll go well, just a bigger auditorium"

Stacey smiled.

"Well see you later"

Roxanne turned and headed off, as she walked down enjoying the summer sun before the evening came to a close when something unbidden came to mind.

Lisa's words echoed in her mind, she brushed them off. Max wouldn't be like that. But then why were her words ringing in her ears and sent a chill down her back?

"Don't trust what boys have to say Roxanne"