No one rarely said a word the day after they returned to the motor inn. All of them were so tired when they got back that in the morning, Carley had found Max collapsed on her bed in her room lying face down. Lilly locked herself up in her room, and sometimes, whenever they passed her room, they could faintly hear her crying.

Thanks to the food and supplies they took from the station wagon in the forest, each of them managed to get some food in their stomachs. They still handed out the food in rations so no one would get carried away.

Not less than five days after the St. Johns incident, the bandits had started targeting the motor inn. Luckily, Lee, Carley, and Kenny had taken nearly each bandit out that came close to their home during the first few attacks.

Today, the group was going about their usual business. Clementine was drawing with Duck. Travis was lying on his stomach them watching them draw. Ben was up on the RV holding a rifle in his lap keeping watch. Lee and Kenny were currently repairing the fence that protected them. Lilly was in her room, most likely sulking.

"Hey, does anyone know where Max is?", Carley asked as she approached the two men. "'Fraid not, Carley. Haven't seen him since this morning," Kenny replied. "Try asking the kids, they might know where he is," said Lee. Carley nodded and walked over to Clementine, Duck, and Travis.

"No way! The Hulk would totally win," Duck said to Travis.

"Yeah, but Superman is like steel. The Hulk would break his hand if he tried to punch him," Travis argued.

"Nuh-uh! Hulk would grab him and throw him out of Metropolis!"

"But then Superman would just fly back."

Carley smirked. "Boys...", she thought. "Hi guys," she said, gaining their attention. Travis rolled onto his back and looked up at the woman. "Oh hi, Carley. What's up?"

"Have you seen Max anywhere?", she asked. All three of them shook their heads. "No, I haven't seen him since I woke up today," said Travis.

"He looked kind of sad last time I saw him," said Duck. "Well, he was good friends with Mark...", Carley said sadly.

"I did," Clementine piped up. "I saw him come out for a little bit, but he went back to his room. I think he's in there right now."

"Thanks, Clem," Carley thanked as she stood up and walked over to Max's room. She then lightly knocked on the door.

"Max?", she called. "Max, it's me, Carley."

When she received no answer, she sighed. "Max, I'm coming in," she said before she opened the door and walked inside. She shut the door behind her and looked around, seeing no sight of Max anywhere. Carley rose an eyebrow.

"That's weird..."

Her gaze fell on Max's bandana, which was placed on his bed next to his bag. She walked over to it and picked the bandana up. "Never seen him without this thing off," she mumbled to herself before placing it back down. Her eyes then wandered over to Max's bag, noticing several items inside. One of the most notable was a few photos. She then heard footsteps and a gasp, causing her to look up.

"Oh sh**..."

Carley's jaw dropped. Were her eyes deceiving her?

"Holy crap...", she breathed.

Max stood in front of the bathroom door looking at Carley with wide, terrified eyes. With his bandana off, she could see that he had long, black hair that ended under his shoulder blades.

"Is that... Max?! Is this a dream?", she thought.

She took a step back. "M-Max?! You're a G-GIRL?!", Carley asked, clearly surprised that the boy she had known for over three months was in fact, a GIRL.

Max gulped and looked down at her feet. "Y-yeah..."

Carley calmly took a step towards the girl. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I was scared...", she admitted.

Carley blinked in surprise. "Scared?"

Max chuckled. "Yeah... I guess you want an explanation, huh?"

Carley nodded. The two sat on Max's bed and the teen sighed. "So, where do I begin?", Max asked herself.

"Is your name even Max?", asked Carley.

Max frowned. "No, my full name is Maxine, but I prefer Max..."

Carley found herself smiling a little at the teen's response. "Why were you disguising yourself as a boy?", she asked. Max sighed. "Think about it, Carley. I'm a girl, and there are a ton of psychos out there," she said simply. This hit Carley like a ton of bricks.

"Oh..."

"During the first few days when the walkers started roaming around, I was hiding in a tree when I saw a few bandits gang up on a woman. She wasn't armed, so when she refused to give up her supplies, they started beating her up."

Carley's eyes widened. "I couldn't bear seeing it, so I climbed into another tree away from them and covered my eyes, but I could hear that once they were done, they took her food and forced her to come with them. Don't know what happened to her after that, but I thought that if I disguised myself as a boy, I would be safe," Max explained.

"She dressed up as a boy to protect herself..."

"When I did supply runs, I ran into a few people, but I managed to get away from them. On one of my trips in town, I was picking up some food and books to read when I heard gunshots. I followed them to this store and crawled through a hole in the wall, finding you guys fighting off walkers. I wasn't so sure about helping you and was thinking about leaving, but when you were cornered, I just had to save you."

Carley smiled. "I'm glad you did."

Max smiled back before she looked at her feet. "Yeah. Me too. I didn't exactly trust you guys when I first came here, but after the first few weeks, I decided that all of you were trustworthy. I wasn't so sure about telling you all I was a girl, cause I was afraid that I'd lose your trust and would throw me out."

She was surprised when she felt Carley place a comforting hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see the woman smiling at her.

"It's alright, Max. We wouldn't be mad about that."

Max looked at the woman in shock before she smiled back. "Thanks Carley..."

"I think the others should know about this too," Carley said bluntly. Max froze. "What?! I can't tell them!"

Carley rose an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"These people trust me, and if they found out that I was lying to them this entire time, they'd be angry with me," Max said. "They won't be, trust me," Carley reassured.

Max was silent for a moment. "Alright, but I need to think about it first," she said. Her eyes then wandered over to her bag. She reached over and pulled out a few pictures. "What's that?", asked Carley. "Some pictures of me and my friends," Max said smiling lightly as she showed her one of the pictures. In the picture, a younger Max was shown struggling to get out of the grip of a boy with black hair that was playfully giving her a noogie. Next to them stood a girl with brown hair with a wide grin on her face and a girl with brown hair wearing a blue jacket and black shorts. She had a sad look in her eyes, but she smiled anyway. The thing that stood out about the girl was that she had one green eye, and one blood red.

"This is Scott, Lizzy, and Anne," Max said. "We took this the day before..."

"The day before what?", asked Carley.

Max frowned. "The day before Anne was bullied in public."

"Which one is she?"

"The one with the mismatched eyes. She was born with heterochromia, and she was often picked on for that. Before I even knew who she was, I could see her being bullied and teased at the playground when the teacher wasn't looking."

"And no one did anything about it?", Carley asked incredulously.

Max shook her head. "Nope. They either were too scared to help or thought it was funny. One time, when I saw Anne on the swings by herself, I decided to come over and sit by her. We talked for a while and she ended up becoming friends with Scott, Lizzy, and I."

"What happened after that?", asked Carley.

"We tried to stop the teasing, but it never stopped, even after the bullies were caught. Everytime we tried to help her out, we ended up getting shoved headfirst into trashcans," Max said, frowning at the memory. "One time, I was even elbowed in the stomach."

"Didn't the teachers try to stop it?", asked Carley.

"They threated to suspend them, but the bullies found their way around that easily and started teasing her after school in public, so we tried getting her parents to help, but their idea of stopping the bullying wasn't pretty good. After a while, she covered her right eye with her bangs, hoping that the bullies would leave her alone, but they never did and started calling her more names. One day, she was walking home and was harassed by the bullies in public, and when she was shoved to the ground, she must have snapped, because she jumped right up and started punching and kicking them with all she had."

Max then growled and clenched her fist. "The a**holes hit her right back. The fight got so bad that someone had to call the police while a few people held the bullies back. By the time Scott, Lizzy, and I had gotten there, the bullies were taken to Police Headquarters and Anne had a black eye, bloody nose, and several bruises."

Carley cringed at the description. "We visited her a couple times when she was in the hospital, and when she was released about a week later, no one would go near us. After that incident, she started learning how to play the guitar, and we posted a few videos of us singing on the web," Max said as she found herself smiling at the memory. She then pulled out another picture, showing the four of them inside an airport.

"When's that one from?", Carley asked. "It was from the day Anne left," Max explained. "Her grandpa noticed how she was teased and offered to enroll her in another school. Her parents were against the idea because they thought that the teasing would stop after a while, but it never did. Her parents tried to make her stay, but she just walked out the door and didn't look back. Her grandpa managed to get her into another school, but she had to leave Georgia. We came and said goodbye to her and took this picture right before she boarded her flight."

She put the two pictures down and looked at another one. Max was shown trying to throw Lizzy off her back while Scott was laughing at the sight in the background. Carley herself smiled at the humorous scene.

"This one was taken several days before the walkers showed up..."

Carley noticed the sad look in Max's eyes. "The last time I saw them was when I was wishing Scott good luck before his audition for the talent show," she said before she felt a tear come to her eye, but quickly wiped it away before Carley could see. "I hope that they made it out alright..."

Carley placed a hand on her shoulder. "So do I, Max. So do I..."

Carley and Max stepped back outside finding the entire group going about their usual business. Carley glanced at Max, who had her hair wrapped back up under her bandana again.

"You sure you wanna do this?", she asked. Max nodded.

"Yeah..."

Carley then stepped forward. "Hey guys?", she asked, raising her voice a little. "Max has something he wants to tell you."

"What is it?", Kenny asked.

"It's something everyone needs to hear," said Carley.

Kenny blinked in confusion. "OK...?"

"Where's Lilly?"

"Still in her room. I'll go get her," Lee said as he walked towards Lilly's room. A moment later, she stepped out of it and walked towards the group.

"What is it?", she snapped.

"Everyone come here," Carley said as she and Max walked over to the RV. The group was slightly confused, but complied and gathered around them. Some of them took a seat and got comfortable.

"What is it that's so important?", asked Kenny.

"Max has something he has to tell you all," she said. She looked at Max and nodded. "Go ahead."

Max took a deep breath.

"I'm not who you think I am."

This earned looks of confusion from everyone except Carley. "What do you mean?", asked Ben. Max looked up at them with eyes filled with regret. "I've been lying to you about who I am for the past few months... and I think you should know."

"What the h**l are you talking about?", asked Lee.

The teenage girl sighed and reached up for her bandana. "The truth is that... I was never a guy in the first place," she said before she yanked her bandana off, letting her long, black hair spill down below her shoulders.

There was a collective gasp between the group.

"What the f**k?!", Kenny exclaimed.

"Holy sh**!", Lilly yelled, taking a step back.

"You're a girl?!", Lee asked.

Max closed her eyes. "I'm sorry...", she said before she turned to leave. Suddenly, she felt a tug on her jacket. She looked down and was surprised to see Clementine looking up at her.

"Why? Why didn't you tell us that you're a girl?", she asked. Max sighed and knelt down to Clementine's level. "Clementine, when I was out there before I met you guys, I saw some people do bad stuff, so I disguised myself as a boy to keep myself safe," she explained.

As soon as she said those words, it all made sense to the group.

"So that explains why you snapped at me when I tried to take your bandana off a few days ago!", Travis said. Lee remembered that moment and suppressed a chuckle.

"But why didn't you say you were a girl?", asked Kenny.

"I was afraid you'd kick me out," Max admitted.

"Why'd you think we'd kick you out?"

"Cause I'd thought you'd be mad at me for lying to all of you."

"Well, we're not," Lee said. "We're just a little surprised, that's all."

"Is your real name even Max?", asked Ben. Max got over her shock quickly and said, "It is, but my full name is Maxine. I absolutely hate being called that, so I prefer Max."

"Um, Max?", asked Clementine.

"Yeah?"

"Do you want to draw pictures with me?"

Max smiled. "Sure," she said as she allowed Clementine to drag her over to a spot.

"Well, it looks like Clementine's taking this quite well," said Carley. Duck then bounded over to the two girls and began drawing with them.

Lee smiled. "Yeah," he agreed. Lilly said nothing but turned around and stepped back into her room.

Carley shook her head and sighed. Lee then looked back at Max, Duck, and Clementine and smiled.

"Max, you're just full of surprises, aren't ya?"