Um...yeah, last chapter when she was at the concession stand the game was over. I thought I made that clear, but sorry if I didn't. I'll make sure everybody gets that next time.

Max

"Hey, Tyler," I said, jogging up to him. I grimaced a little bit when my left hip trembled.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, brushing it off. "What'd you need?"

"Your family's waiting by the doors," Tyler explained, and he laughed when I rolled my eyes. "And Maddie." I broke into a huge smile.

"So you're the messenger, huh?"

Tyler rolled his eyes at me. "Who was that guy? He was wearing a Bishop sweatshirt."

"I'm well aware."

"Well you're grumpy so I'm gonna go talk to somebody else," Tyler said, but he stopped to say something else. "You coming to the party tonight?"

"Nah. Maddie and I are having our own little party. Besides, there's school tomorrow."

"Loser," Tyler teased, and then he went off to find somebody else to talk to.

I sighed and quickly ate my popcorn, tossing the bag into the nearest trash can. I rounded the corner to the doors, but the game had ended about fifteen minutes ago so there weren't very many people left. My family and Maddie were there.

My family only included Mom, who was a vet and looked nothing like me, and my brother Iggy who was a sophomore. He played basketball too but he, like me, had made varsity his sophomore year. Maddie stood off to the side texting somebody.

"Hey, guys," I said, shifting my bag onto my shoulder a little more. My hip was still bothering me.

"Nice game, Max," Iggy said, and Mom just nodded. She didn't really understand basketball. She'd just put me into a league when I was seven so that I would have something to do and I wouldn't complain about being bored.

"Excited for Districts next week?" Maddie asked, coming over and nudging me.

"Oh yeah. Can't wait." I rolled my eyes to show that I was sarcastic. I never really got all that excited for a game until about ten minutes before it started. Then I started to make up scenarios in my head to get myself pumped, and I would get way into the warm-up music.

"Well you're going with Maddie tonight, right?" Mom verified, but she didn't wait for me to answer before turning to Iggy. "And you're going to that party?" Iggy nodded. "Just don't drink. And don't ride in a car with somebody drunk, even if they're not driving. They could distract the driver and then -"

"Mom, I know," Iggy interjected. He almost blushed. I knew he had a little bit of a crush on Maddie. Well, not really a crush since it's high school. Basically he thought Maddie was hot. Which always made it awkward.

"Well we'll see you girls later," Mom said. "Have fun. But not too much!" She winked at me, and then she and Iggy left.

"Let's go see if Lonn's here," I suggested. "My hip feels funky."

"But your ankle's fine? I swear Max, as soon as one injury is halfway healed you get another." Maddie rolled her eyes, but she linked arms with me and we set off to Lonn's office.

I figured he'd be there, because he always stayed at least half an hour after any athletic event, since he was the athletic director and it was his job to help out if any athlete had an injury. I'd become pretty good friends with Lonn in the four years of my high school career. When I was a freshman I tore my ACL and was out for the last half of the season. Sophomore year I broke my nose in practice (it was still a little crooked, but only from a certain angle and in certain lighting) and had to wear a ridiculous mask for the whole season. Last year was good until I was shoved at the last game and got a concussion in the last ten seconds of the fourth quarter. This year so far I only had a sprained ankle, but my hip really was feeling weird.

"Lonn?" I asked, sticking my head in the door.

"What is it now, Max?" he sighed.

"My hip feels off."

"Which one?" Lonn asked as he patted one of the padded bed type things. I hopped up onto it and pointed to my left hip. "Where at?" I made a small line from my upper thigh to the outside of my hip. "Tell me if this hurts." Lonn applied pressure to my hip in random places.

"Nope. It only hurts when I walk on it. It felt like something pulled on my three-point shot, and jumps after that hurt."

"That's what it felt like, a pulled muscle." Lonn nodded.

"In her hip?" Maddie's eyes widened from the chair she was in. She'd never gotten an injury. Well, a bloody nose junior year, but that wasn't even basketball-related. That was when she was overly protective of her boyfriends and she thought she could beat up a flirty freshman girl who ended up having a father who'd boxed in high school.

"Yep." Lonn leaned back.

"Well can I play on it in Districts?"

"Well with your description I'd say it's grade II, which means it'll take at least two weeks to heal. It won't get any worse, though. So you can play if you can handle the pain. You'd have limited movement though, so I'd suggest stretching before Districts."

"Sounds good. Thanks, Doc." I winked and hopped down, reaching for my toes and proving that I would stretch.

"Adios, Lonn," called Maddie as we left.

We got into her car (we were leaving mine in the parking lot and she would drop me off to get it tomorrow morning) and blasted the air, despite the fact that it was in the low forties. We were still sweating.

"So where to? Taco Bell or Mickey D's?"

"Dumb question," I replied.

"True." Maddie started to drive toward Taco Bell while I fiddled with her iPod, going through her songs. I finally settled on "Best Love Song" by T-Pain (my new fave song!) and set her iPod down, plugging it into the car sterio and blasting it.

"'Turn up the bass,'" I sang loudly, "'turn up the treble -'"

"Shhhhhh!" Maddie commanded as we pulled into the Taco Bell drive-thru. When they were ready, she said, "I want the number four with a Sprite. And..." Maddie looked at me, squinting her eyes as she tried to recall what I always got. "And a hard-shell taco with just lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. With a Dr. Pepper."

"Erm...no meat on that hard-shell taco?" verified the guy's voice. He sounded confused. Maddie and I giggled.

"That's right."

"O...kay. That'll be seven sixty-two."

"Okey doke."

After we got our food we headed over to Maddie's place. Her parents were out of town for the week, so we had her whole giant house to ourselves. And her college brother Dylan and a few of his friends were hanging out in the basement, I think.

"We should go to the basement and do karaoke!" Maddie cried as soon as she finished her food. I threw away my wrapper and took one last giant drink of my Dr. Pepper before throwing that away too.

"No. You know I hate your brother. And besides, I want to at least get to bed by midnight since there's school."

"Ugh, you're no fun. Whoever wakes up earliest tomorrow gets to shower," Maddie reminded me. She threw on some shorts and a clean T-shirt, as did I, and then she fell back onto her bed.

Secretly I set my alarm on my phone for five minutes before hers went off. No way was I not showering before school tomorrow.

Then I made a makeshift bed on the floor of Maddie's room and fell instantly asleep.

Yeah, yeah, it's a filler, so what? I needed to get Max's pulled muscle there before I did a chapter on Districts. And I was going to have her run into Fang again in this chapter, but I figured that'd be a little unrealistic if they ran into each other twice in the same night. So.

Somebody reviewed last chapter and corrected some of my...not-correct basketball stuff. I don't remember exactly who because I don't have my reviews pulled up. But I will go ahead and apologize right now to anybody who I may offend with my...not-so-great basketball knowledge. I'll try to get things right.

Review, por favor! (: