Max

Fang and I were sitting on opposite sides of a sparkly red booth on black and white checkered floors. The town's pizza parlor (we'd wanted a change from Sonic, where I always seemed to end up), Patty's Pizza Parlor, had a whole seventies (sixties? Eighties?) feel to it. With the sparkly booths and checkered floors, the jukebox and the waitresses on roller skates, it was pretty entertaining.

Fang and I had ordered a large pizza - half supreme for Fang, half pepperoni for me - and were eating it without even pausing for conversation.

I ate three slices, which is half of what I would eat after a game, and Fang ate five. There were four slices left over, and Fang and I were on the verge of rubbing our bellies and moaning pitifully.

"We can do it," Fang said, pushing two of the pepperoni toward me and one supreme and one pepperoni toward himself. He looked down at the two pieces as if he was doubting himself.

"I don't know..."

"Oh, come on." Fang rolled his eyes at me. "You're telling me you can play basketball on a torn MCL but you can't eat two more pieces of pizza?" Fang shook his head, acting as though he was disappointed in me. "Wow, Max. I thought better of you."

"Okay, it's only a Grade I, which means that it's not even a complete tear. Usually people can return to sports after one or two weeks, and the doctors just said that my swelling was slightly more than a usual Grade I so they recommended the brace." I exhaled, crossing my arms and rolling my eyes like he should know this. "Jeez, Fang, you should know this stuff."

Fang raised his eyebrows at me, and then he was stuffing the first slice of pizza into his mouth.

"Oh no you don't," I said loudly, and I snatched one of my slices.

Fang and I sat there and stuffed our faces for a few moments, having found entertainment in our little game of Finish-the-Pizza-Before-the-Opponent-Does! And I am quite proud to say that I actually beat Fang at this game...even though that's not something most girls would be proud of. Oh, well.

"In my defense, I'd already eaten almost twice as much as you," Fang said after he finished the last piece of crust.

I thought of Fang and my game of basketball from the night before, where I'd made a similar excuse.

"Sucks for you," I said, shrugging.

Then Fang, being a dork and also clearly thinking of our game last night, said, "So how bout that kiss?"

"Um...how bout we both go wipe off our faces first?"

Fang laughed, put a five dollar bill on the table, and grabbed my hand so we could head out of the restaraunt.

But at the door we ran into a group of about a dozen guys and girls. They were all wearing Bishop sweatshirts and most of the girls had red and white war paint under their eyes, so I knew that this was a group of people who'd been at the game tonight.

"Yo, Fang!" yelled somebody, and he came up and did that thing guys do, the little handshake chest bump thing. "I didn't think you could make it tonight."

I felt awkward, out of place, and like I didn't belong as Fang made up some excuse. I was slightly behind Fang, and I could see that most of the group had already noticed me. And let's just say I hadn't gotten so many dirty looks at one time in my life.

"Who's that?" asked the guy who was talking to Fang, jerking his head at me.

"That? Oh, that's, um, that's..."

"I'm Max," I said, stepping forward so that I was in full view of them all.

And let's just say that when they all spotted my Nixon sweatshirt, the dirty looks didn't exactly go away. Quite the opposite, actually. And when they all spotted my knee brace poking out from under my black basketball shorts, they all recognized me as the girl who'd gotten hurt at yesterday's game.

Fang's arm snaked around my waist, pulling me to his side, and the awkwardness only increased.

"Well, uh..." The guy Fang had been talking to scratched his forehead. "We better go grab some booths. You two have a good time. Nice to meet you, Max." He shot Fang a look.

"Nice to meet you, too," I said, even though I didn't even know the guy's name.

The whole group made their way slowly past us, and I noticed that most of the dirty looks that had been directed at me were now being shot - twice as dirty - at Fang. Fang just kept his head down and, after the group was gone, he pulled me out to his car.

"I'm sorry," I said after we'd been driving in silence for a few minutes.

I felt guilty. Maybe if I hadn't stepped forward like that they would've just assumed I was another one of Fang's toys. And maybe they wouldn't be so completely pissed off at him. But now they all were (or at least it seemed that way to me), and it was all thanks to me.

"No big deal," Fang finally said. "So where are we going?"

"My place," I blurted without thinking. But it was somehow the right thing to say. "I want you to meet my family."

Fang

Max's house was just ouside of town, at the top of a long, winding gravel driveway. With a forest to the right of it and the highway to the left, it would've been the perfect horror movie scene.

Except there was light coming from all the windows, and the porch light was on to reveal a little porch swing with a quilt draped over the back of it. A little black dog yapped and ran alongside the truck the whole way up the driveway, and I was afraid I was going to run it over.

"Don't worry about Total," Max said, referring to the dog. "He's a total idiot. He chases cars down the highway all day, so he knows to avoid going in front of the tires."

I was nervous when I got out of the truck, but Max grabbed my hand and pulled me up the porch stairs.

"So, uh, who's all here?"

Max stopped in front of the door and turned to look at me.

"My mom, Iggy, Dylan."

She blurted the last name quickly, as if she wanted me to miss it.

"Dylan?"

"Oh, don't worry. I'm sure they'll all be nice."

Max got on her tippy toes and kissed me on the cheek, and then she opened the door and called, "Mom? I've got someone for you to meet."

That chapter was totally one of the worst I've ever written. And I am so sorry for that.

I need some help. I'm going shopping tomorrow to stock up on books for the move, because Mom and Dad are insisting we drive all the way to Georgia. So help me out. What are some good books that I've probably not read yet? I need a long list, so give me as many as possible.

And if you didn't know this yet, the poll is over and the new story is officially started! Head over to my profile and check it out please.

Review! (: