Hey guys! Took me a bit longer to get through this one, work has been a bit crazy, but also as promised this chapter is at roughly the same length as the last three chapters combined - at the very least its much bigger.

I did the time stamps to show that it was within an hour - a nod to Max saying he had to cancel his date in an hour but he might have been caught up with school

Anyway, enjoy! If you like it please leave a review, I'm always keen to hear what I could improve on or if you like it.

On with the chapter!

-Drewby


Chapter Four: Start of Summer

2:30p.m

Despite only a couple of people having been near the principal's office at the time, word had started to get out that Roxanne had agreed to go out on a date with Max to Stacey's party. Eventually the rumors had kicked into overdrive and were being happily encouraged by Stacey.

Roxanne was sitting in class next to Stacey, she was a bit bemused with her. While she was excited to go out on a proper date – even if it was to a group party – she couldn't help but feel that it would have been a bit nicer if it could have gone under the radar.

"Well, it was going to happen at some point anyway" Stacey whispered defensively when Roxanne pointed this out to her in class.

"Sure, but- "Roxanne began to say, pausing to make sure Mr. Ark couldn't overhear them talking, end of the year or not some teachers were determined to have absolute control over a classroom until the end.

"...must everyone know? It's only been twenty minutes since we got back from there" Roxanne continued.

"Thirty actually" Stacey corrected her

"That's not the point-"

Stacey raised an eyebrow at her, she had been doing this a lot today. "If you think Max hasn't told his friends by now then you're crazy, also you are going on a date with him remember? It's not as if you're going to come to the party by yourself."

"Do you think he has told his friends already?" Roxanne enquired

Annoyingly, Stacey only grinned at her in response.

Just as Roxanne opened her mouth to talk again, she caught sight of someone walking past her class. It was a boy wearing a violet shirt and a pink hat that was snapped backwards, though Roxanne didn't know exactly who he was she just clicked and remembered him as being one of Max's friends that helped him down during his Powerline reenactment in the Auditorium.

Just as she looked his way, he looked in her direction and upon seeing her he gave a double thumbs up and continued walking down the hall.

Okay, maybe Stacey was right.


2:45 P.M

Mr. Ark continued to plow on with class and not a single person was paying attention to him. Stacey was doodling in her notebook about party plans for the next Saturday, so she was checked out. The rest of the chat chatted quietly amongst themselves and Roxanne found herself the topic of a couple of conversations.

"…so yeah, she's going with that goof kid" Julia, one of her classmates two seats in front of her was saying to her neighbor, Matthew.

"Him? You can't be serious?" Matthew replied

"No, that's what I've heard"

"But, why? He's a bit…well, weird, isn't he?"

Roxanne found herself becoming annoyed at the conversation, she always disliked people talking about someone else behind their backs finding it rude at best and vindictive at worst. Still, as she though to herself, she didn't really know Max, but wasn't that the point of the date, wasn't it? Just to get to know each other better?

2:55 P.M

Apart from a couple of people that gave Roxanne some sly remarks about going on a date with Max – some kind, some simply curious if there was more to the story than appeared – the day is nearly over and most student would be glad to see it out the year.

Two of Roxanne's friends – Emily and Alice – had wanted more information, and Roxanne assured them she would make it clearer when they walked home from school and give them a proper update rather than just rumors.

But everyone had their eye on the clock.


2:58 P.M

Why wouldn't it go any faster?


2:59 P.M

Students were now making a break for it for the final minute. Doors smashed open from every class joining the stream of people heading towards the front door.

5 . . .

More student broke into the hallway

4. . .

The student body surged closer to the exit like a tidal wave

3. . .

A couple of teachers by the front door saw the student barreling down on them and quickly rushed off to the side to avoid them.

2. . .

There was no stopping them now.

1. . .

The first couple of students just reached the door.

3:00 P.M

The front doors burst open as the bell rang and the students exploded out of the building cheering.

Summer was finally here.

Roxanne packed her bags with her books, Stacey had already shot off ahead of her trailing Lisa for some reason, but she was in the company of Emily and Alice, who were waiting for her to pack her things. Emily was a short blonde girl who was sitting on Roxanne's desk as her legs dangled over the side, and started to ask some rather personal questions.

"Well?" She asked after some time

"What?" Roxanne said, feeling the heat rise up through her, she wanted to downplay it still.

"tell us everything! What happened between you and Max?" Emily asked teasingly.

"Oooo yes go on Roxy, C;mon!" Alice chimed in.

Roxanne gave them both a blank look, she did promise them some details although she wanted to at least give some privacy to the matter. Alice was standing in front of her with her long black hair tied off to one side and had her hands on her hips as her black dress fluttered a little from the breeze in the open window. Roxanne looked to Emily who was still sitting on her desk and then again to Alice.

"Go on." Emily said.

Roxanne broke out of her thoughts and blinked, hoisting her bag over her shoulders she giggled and beckoned both of them to join her in leaving the classroom.

"The whole school is talking about it" Alice said as they walked down the hall together.

There was no one else in the hallway, Roxanne could hear faint chanting by way of the front of the school.

"Max! Max! Max!"

"Okay, okay." Roxanne said quickly as Emily once again opened her mouth to talk.

So Roxanne proceeded to tell the both of them of what happened after the events of the Auditorium; how Stacey and herself saw him in the Principal's office and that she actually made the first move to talk to him and how he accidentally knocked the books out of her hands and that they talked and in the end she had agreed to go with him to Stacey's party together for a date. The three girls were so deep in conversation about Max and answering back and forth about the situation that they didn't realize their feet carried them three blocks away from the school and reached Sunset Street, Roxanne's home street.

"Oh, don't forget we're relaxing at my place tomorrow!" Alice called out as Roxanne walked up the path to her house.

"Of course, see you tomorrow!" Roxanne waved out to them both.

Emily and Alice both waved back and continued walking down the street about future summer plans. Roxanne watched them both from the front porch until they had turned the corner and turning back to her house, went to go inside.

"Daddy I'm home!" She called out as she dropped her bag by the front door, normally she would drop it off to her room but the days events wore her out and she felt like doing nothing for now.

"Hi sweetheart" Roxanne's dad called out from the living room. "How was your day?"

Roxanne paused in her reply

"It was…good! Glad its summer now, no more homework!"

Roxanne's dad came out of the living room to greet her, wearing his trademark white singlet, blue and brown striped shorts. He looked all signs of a man gone to seed, but despite this he still retained a lot of muscle from his old football days and his physical work at the used car yard, including his buzz haircut.

"We'll be going to Pete's for dinner tonight though, we turned over a lot of cars this year so far so he's hosting a BBQ. Families are invited too so no cooking dinner tonight for us! He said proudly.

"That's great daddy, looking forward to it" Roxanne replied back smiling at him.

Just as she collected her bag and reached the based of the stairs to get to her room, there was a knocking at the door.


3:50 P.M

Roxanne's dad grumbled as her went to answer the door, he was certainly in no mood for visitors. Roxanne started to climb the stair and as she nearly reached the top, a voice floated up to her.

"…does Roxanne live here?"

Roxanne froze, was that-? It couldn't be…?

"…does she even live on this block?" the voice asked, sounded rather nervous.

Roxanne shot down the stairs leaving her bag behind on the step she was on and got to the front door where her father took up all the space and was growling at someone.

"Oh wait!" Roxanne called out as she tried to get around her father.

"It's okay daddy, Max is a friend from school" Roxanne told her father as she made her way around him looking up at him.

Roxanne's father gave her a couple of pats smiling at her and then suddenly growled towards max – who was on the porch looking extremely pale – again like he did before. Roxanne wasn't too bothered by this, her father was very protective of her but since Max didn't know that too well, she tried to get her father out of the picture to give some comfort.

"Go on, go on, good daddy" she said, coaxing him back into the house and he reluctantly lumbered back inside.

"Hey Max" she said facing back towards him, and upon seeing him she suddenly felt nervous, hugging herself with one hand and grabbing her hair to twirl it as she often did.

Max gave her a goofy grin and quickly spouted some nonsense, the poor boy was probably already nervous from seeing her father and still hadn't quite recovered from it, she supposed he was trying to say hello.

She smiled shyly and kept twirling her hair.

"You wanna, uh" she started to say, but her finger got caught up in twirling her hand causing it to become stuck, Roxanne had to use her other hand to untangle herself and tried to continue.

"..have a seat?" she finished with a nervous giggle to try and mask her own nervousness.

She didn't wait for his reply as she made her way to the white railing on the veranda, and as she reached it and lifted herself to get on the railing, Max came over and put his hands around her hips to help her up. Roxanne gelt butterflies in her stomach again and smiled down at max, he was so polite.

Just as she was about to say something, both of them heard a creak. They looked over and saw her father peeping through the letter slot on the front door growling and his eyes glaring towards Max. Max had quickly taken his hands off her hips and put them behind his back looking guilty while Roxanne had put her hands on her hips and gave her father a reproachful look.

"Daddy!" She scolded him and his eyes became and wide and quickly withdrew from the slot, creaking again as it closed.

"I promise he'll better behaved when you pick me up for the party" Roxanne reassured Max as she adjusted her sitting position and leaned in towards him a little.

"Yeaaaah" Max started off.

"That's…sorta why I came by"

"I'm really looking forward to it Max" she answered him honestly, smiling at him as climbed up to sit next to her.

"Yeah. I…was too" he said glumly.

Roxanne felt a chill go through her, he had just said was, she thought she misheard him, she had to know.

"Was?"

"You see, my dad's…" Max started saying, but he didn't correct her.

She started to get of the railing, feeling the disappointment crush her, of course it happened too fast, the whole big show at school was just that, a show. Now he was here to backtrack on the date with her, Max was still talking but she slowly made her way to the front door.

"Oh, don't worry about it Max, it's just a dumb party" she said emotionlessly.

Max kept talking but she didn't listen to him, or chose not to, he had put his hands around her hand but she just wanted to go inside and forget about it, so she gently but firmly extracted herself from him. He continued to talk about how his dad was making him go on some sort of trip with him and she said it was fine, but she felt like her answers were robotic and that she didn't heed him.

"I'm sure I can find someone else" she said finally, Max looked stunned at her words.

Roxanne didn't really mean it, but she didn't want to carry on the conversation, she already felt let down and just wanted to be alone in her room.

"I'll just, talk to you later" she said, putting her hand on the front door, feeling thoroughly miserable.

"MYDADISTAKINGMETOTHEPOWERLINECONCERTINLA" Max blurted out.

Roxanne had the door halfway open and turned back to face Max.

"Your dad is taking you clear across the country just to see a concert?" she asked with skepticism.

"Well, you see, my dad, knows Powerline. They used to play together in a band" Max rushed to explain.

Roxanne looked at him briefly before a car horn tooted, she looked towards the source of the noise and Max's dad was inside a small yellow car which had a massive number of things bundled in a sack which was at least twice the size of the car on its roof – it certainly looked like it was packed for a cross-country trip.

"Come on son! Let's get this show on the road!" Max's dad called out from the car

"Just a second! You, party animal you." Max yelled back, Max's dad looked surprised for a second, then gave a cool grin.

Roxanne was stunned for a second.

"You're really serious?" she asked Max, but it felt like a statement.

"Absolutely, so you still aren't thinking about going with someone else, are you?" he asked nervously.

"Well, I guess"

"Because!" Max approached her suddenly, startling her a little "I was hoping I could wave to you on stage when we join Powerline for the final number"

Roxanne's jaw dropped to the floor. There was no way that he could be saying this but he seemed so cool about it, and it explained why he dressed up at Powerline at the school to impress her, what other reason could it be she thought. Max would go on stage with none other than Powerline!

Roxanne fluttered her eyes as he said all this, the butterflies were back in full force.

"This is incredible!" she placed her hand on his chest, making her nervous but excited.

He took her hand and put it between his again like he did before, only this time she didn't pull away from him and smiled instead.

"Well, I wouldn't miss our date for anything that wasn't incredible Roxanne" he said quietly.

This was all too much for Roxanne; the butterflies in her stomach, the excitement at the prospect of seeing Max on stage at the concert, his sincerity, and her own emotions had combined into this big burst of affection for him.

Before Max could say anything, she kissed him.

It was only on the cheek, but Max had no time to react, he staggered backwards down the stairs in a daze and Roxanne stood at the top of the stairs watching him go.

"Have a great time at the concert Max"

He continued to walk down the path although he was moving erratically as he did so.

"I'll see you on T.V!" she called out excitedly.

Max seemed to regain his composure, although he was facing away from her, she thought he was saying something but she couldn't hear him. He got into the car and with a jamming of the gearbox Max and his dad began to drive off down the street, Roxanne saw him look back at her and she continued to wave until he and the car were finally out of sight.

Roxanne stood fixed on the same spot for a couple of minutes to reflect on the conversation and to enjoy the quiet, she couldn't believe that in a weeks' time he would be on stage with Powerline and would wave to her on national TV!

"So, who was that" Roxanne's dad asked grumpily as she stepped back into the house.

"I told you already daddy, Max is a friend from school." She paused

"He wanted to talk about Stacey's party."

"Oh, heard something about that" he grumbled again

"What did he want?"

"He couldn't go, he was on his way out of town, so he wanted me to pass it on to Stacey, it was a last-minute family trip." She spoke.

Roxanne's dad seemed to perk up a little

"Oh right, I see. A shame, eh? Woulda been good little blowout for you kids after the school year" he said happily.

Roxanne felt bad lying to her dad about the conversation, she didn't tell a complete lie – after all Max really wasn't going to the party – but he had seen Max list her up as he peeked through the door, so it was best to not draw attention to that. There was also the matter that she would rather keep it private for now, so decided it was best to steer it out of dangerous waters.

"It's okay, so when do we go out to dinner?" She asked trying to deflect the conversation.

"Called me up while you were outside actually, its tomorrow night instead, forgot he promised the wife some other plans" he looked a little crestfallen at this.

He sighed.

"Well let's make some dinner soon, I'm just going to drop off some letters and bills first"

"Okay daddy, see you soon."


9:00 P.M

After not having anything inside the house that could be turned into a meal Roxanne's dad gave up and went out to get pizzas for the pair of them and sat together in the living room watching old sports replays that he had taped many years ago. Eventually she felt drowsy and excused herself to bed while he cracked open yet another beer.

Roxanne jumped into bed and stared at her ceiling, it was just a little over twelve hours ago that she had helped Max up from falling down the bleachers at school and in the space of a day went from not knowing who he was, to agreeing on going out on a date with him.

She laughed a little, not even in her wildest imagination could she have though of a day like today, but what a day it was.

Roxanne closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, but she already lived through her dreams today.