Um, hi, really sorry that this is waaaay overdue. Stuff has been SO crazy. Like, dance team auditions are in a couple weeks and I still have yet to learn what a flying disc is and nail it.

Let's all take a moment and appreciate how awkward my life is. I won't write you a monologue or whatever, PM me if you want details.

Aaaaaand, let's all take a moment to clap for the awesome people I've been having epic PM conversations with for a really long time. I've been talking with the amazing ScarlettWings about anything & everything dance related (plus socks, and the cutting of socks...) &the equally as amazing SugoiASIAN-FTW about PLL. (For those of you that don't watch PLL *gasp* it stands for Pretty Little Liars.) &Idk if Ally463 reads this, but we've been keeping up a steady PM convo since November. She's so totally awesome. And last but totally not least, I have awesome convos with thatonechickMR as well. About multiple things. SOOOOOOOO you're all so totally awesome, and covered with Liam Payne amazingness sauce. (See next line for explanation.)

ALERT. I've become what some of you may dread. A major Directioner. Expect 1D references from here on out.

Pretty sure my friend told me she likes my best friend today, but I'm in deNiall.
(That was a One Direction reference, FYI.)

Disclaimer: I do not own.

Max POV

I closed my eyes for concentration. You are Super Max. You can do anything. Whatever you want, you can do it.

Except, apparently, block out the squealing chatter of the girls around me.

I sighed and accepted the reality of it; I was not going to be able to block out those high voices. I opened my eyes and tightened my ponytail, like I always did when I was pissed off and ready to handle overly giggly girls. I leaned forward and wrapped my hands around the heels of my feet and slowly began counting to fifteen.

"Guess what I haaaave," Lissa practically sang. She stretched into a middle split and leaned sideways, wrapping one hand around her left foot.

"What?" at least four girls demanded.

"A new boyfriend." She smiled, and it was feral.

I couldn't resist snorting. When the rest of the circle of cheerleaders turned to look at me, I put an innocent look on my face and switched from stretching my legs to stretching my arms behind my head.

"What's your problem?" Gianna asked menacingly. It was hard to take her seriously with the way she was wagging her head back and forth, making her overly long ponytail sway like it was learning the macarena or something. It was obvious she'd clipped in extensions or something last night, because her ponytail had grown like, five inches since last practice.

"Nothing." I kept an amused smile on my face and switched arms. "I was just thinking about how when her and Fang broke up, she was with Dylan like right away. And now, a month later, she's got a boyfriend." I heard a sharp intake of breath from the people who practically worshipped Lissa. "But carry on."

"Anyway," Lissa continued, narrowing her green eyes but not commenting on my observation. I think she's learned by now not to tangle with me as much. "He's totally cute." She fluffed up her ponytail, which was so high it was practically growing off her forehead.

"What's his name?" demanded a fairly nice girl named Ria. She was nice, but she was friends with Lissa, which was a totally interesting mix.

"Sam," she said adoringly. "He's new. Just started on Monday."

I choked on my own breath and retreated to the bleachers to grab my water bottle and take a sip. Of course, Lissa would close in on the clueless new guy as her new boyfriend. As long as he didn't know how mean she constantly was, he was good in her book.

I clenched my teeth and joined the rest of the cheerleaders as we started practicing basket tosses. My group, which was composed of Carolyn, Tess, and Ria, was waiting for me, milling around aimlessly on the mat while the other flyers spun through the air and landed back within the protection of their spotters.

"Alright, scorpion first?" Ria suggested. I nodded, and she positioned herself behind me. Carolyn and Tess took their positions next to me.

I felt that familiar rush of confidence and excitement as I was lifted high up in the air. I could see every pipe running through the ceiling, just by tilting my head slightly. I could see everything so clearly. It was ten times better outside, because I could really see a lot of buildings and stuff. I would've been happy to just hover there, in midair, but I had a job to do. I lifted my foot slightly and caught my ankle with my hand, and tugged my leg up behind me, until my foot was behind my head, and I could reach it with both hands. I gripped my ankle with both hands, and forced my leg to straighten before dropping the position and allowing myself to swirl through the air and be caught.

Lissa chattered on endlessly about how her and Sam had texted for a full two hours yesterday (yay for the textlationship). Sometimes I thought about signing myself up for yoga to forget about her, but then I realized how full my plate already was and decided against it. (A/N: Just blanked on the spelling of decided. Nbd...)

The rest of cheerleading was agonizing, considering we had to learn a new cheer, which meant running it over and over and over so it would be drilled into our brains. It was no small wonder that I practically spazzed out with happiness when I saw two texts from Fang sitting in my inbox afterwards.

Hi.
NO WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING DID YOU DIE?

I couldn't help but laugh when I saw that one, earning me some curious glances from fellow cheerleaders in the locker room.

"What's so damn funny, Max?" Lissa asked, looking down her surgically enhanced nose at me.

I looked blandly at her. "And why do you suddenly care?"

Lissa rolled her eyes. "I care more about my dog's poop than I care about you."

"Good, so shut your trap and go shrivel up in the corner." I tuned her out, texting Fang back with one hand and pulling my ankle to my butt with the other. It was an annoying habit; if I didn't periodically stretch after gymnastics and cheer and stuff, then my body got all sore and seriously annoying. It was like I had to wind my body down, convince it that it was time to rest.

Lissa did not take too kindly for that. "You think you're the best, Max, don't you? Practically begged to be on the cheer team because you're such a good flyer and an oh-so-amazing tumbler," she said with a thick edge of sarcasm.

I yanked my t-shirt on over my tank top and didn't even spare her a glance. "You sound preeeetty jealous right now."

She scoffed at that. "That's exactly what I'm talking about! You think you're so much better than everyone else, and I'm here to tell you that you're not!"

"Can you please notice that everything you're saying is going in one ear and out the other?"

"Can you please notice that you're not as great as you think you are?"

"Hey, can you guys please shut up?" Carolyn snapped. "Lissa, can it. Your head is a bunch bigger than Max's, so you should be working on that instead of pointing your finger at other people."

Half of the team audibly snickered, while the other half burst into loud, over-exaggerated guffaws at the very idea.

"Very likely, Carolyn!" Penelope shouted.

Carolyn stood on the bench. "Shut up, Penelope," she said sweetly, "or I swear, I will tell Ryan about your little meeting with Riley in the janitor's closet during halftime during the football game."

Outraged gasping.

I slammed my locker, hoping to cut off the conversation. There was a tiny silence, and then a bunch of side conversations started up again. I pulled on my jacket and started to walk out of the locker room. Lissa's Ugg shot out in front of my foot at the last second, but I merely skipped over it, too quick for her.

"Try again next time, Lissa dearest," I cooed, throwing open the doors. The air outside smelled really fresh, reminding me just how sweat-scented that locker room got after cheer practice. Ick much?

I walked down the halls, beyond relieved that it was Friday already. I actually indulged in throwing my arms up over my head and twirling around a few times, but I felt so incredibly stupid that I quickly lowered them and picked up the pace again. Thankfully the principal hadn't invested in security cameras yet, so I was good.

Bhuuuuzzzz.

I jumped about fifteen feet in the air, but calmed once I realized that the noise was just my phone in my pocket and not the invisible Toby from Paranormal Activity 3 about to pop out from the lockers with a chainsaw. Thank God.

I flipped it open and, not surprisingly, found a text from Fang.

I have a surprise for you :)

Fang must've been pretty freaking excited about this surprise, because he'd added a smiley face, which he rarely does. I texted back as quickly as I could, extremely curious about my surprise.

What, did you mail your mom's brownies to my house?

I was just shutting my phone and opening the door at the same time when I heard a familiar laugh. I whipped my head around in a million directions, shocked. Did I really miss walking out of those doors with him so much that I was hallucinating and imagining his laugh?

No. I must've just unconciously dredged it up in my mind.

I had just reached the curb and was about to step into the road when suddenly someone's hand snared around my wrist and slammed my back into a rock-hard chest. I huffed in surprise, just as a huge silver SUV rushed past the spot I'd been about to walk into.

Stunned, I turned my head backwards, struggling to identify my savior.

"You look really funny with your head like that," Fang said. I could just barely see the top of his black hair.

"OH MY GOD FANG!" I screamed, whirling around and hugging him as tightly as I could. Even though I'd just seen him barely a week ago, I was uncontainably excited.

He chuckled and wound his arms around me. "Didja miss me very much?" he teased.

"Yes," I muttered, my brain not functioning enough for me to come up with any other response. Oh my God, Fang was here! Okay, this surprise was better than brownies.

"What are you doing here?" I finally managed after a full minute of him half-rocking, half-hugging me.

His smile was huge and proud and it was so rare that I automatically broke into a grin of my own. "We had to leave early today, because the electricity went out and no one could see anything in their lockers or in class, and kept bringing the wrong books to class because we couldn't see. They should've just sent us home the second the electricity went out, but it took them until lunchtime to let us go. I convinced my mom to bring me over here, and now, here I am!"

"How'd you know I'd still be at school?" I demanded suspiciously.

"Nudge's been texting Ella nonstop. Ella's given her every single little detail about cheerleading practices and games and cheers and stuff. Nudge is somewhere in the school, no doubt looking for Ella in the locker room."

"How did I not bump into her on my way here?" I wondered aloud.

He shrugged. "Dunno."

I couldn't help the huge smile; it just kept fighting its way back onto my face. "So, is your mom taking you back home now, or are you staying for a little while?"

"Staying for a little while," he confirmed. He trapped my face in between his hands and kissed me sweetly. I totally and utterly and completely melted, because this was probably the first time I'd kissed him since he'd left for whatever town he was in now. My arms hung limply, helplessly at my sides. His hands slid down to take mine, his thumbs rubbing familiar circles on the back of my hands. I just couldn't get over how sweet this kid was.

I pulled back, gasping for air, extremely light-headed. I caught a glimpse of Fang's fleeting, crooked smile.

"My kissing expertise has you completely astonished," he announced victoriously.

"Now, now, don't get modest," I teased.

Of course the doors chose that moment to slam open, so Fang and I jumped apart in surprise as Lissa walked out, an unholy smile on her face.

"Well, well, well, look who's decided to visit." She shot me a venemous glance before looking appreciatively at Fang. "Hey, Fang, welcome back. Are you here permanently?"

"Nope, just here to see Max," he said cheerfully. I almost laughed; he was a natural at bringing out the worst in Lissa by constantly reminding her that we were kinda officially going out, and he'd disposed of her.

"Oh, cool," she responded evenly. "How's your new school, wherever you are?"

"Well, it beats being here in this school with you."

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Oh, please, grow up, Fang."

He mimicked her overly dramatic eye-roll. "Oh, please, stop acting like you're disgusted with me in public even though you send me a billion e-mails when you get home."

I looked first at Fang and then Lissa in amusement. The color of her cheeks now remarkably resembled the shade of her hair.

"I knew there was a reason I didn't like you very much," she hissed, stomping off towards the SUV parked in the gravel lot. An older, nicer-looking version of Lissa was tapping her nails against the wheel, waiting expectantly.

"Lissa, I know that you think I have all the time in the world, but that's really not the case," Older Lissa yelled. "Mom wants her car back by eight, and I promised I'd meet Allie at six." She watched her younger sister in irritation.

"Sorry," Lissa said loudly. She dramatically slammed the door behind her, and the SUV zoomed out of the lot.

Fang and I side-glanced at each other and burst out laughing.

"I'm so sore," I grumped, flopping sideways onto the couch and plunking my feet down in Fang's lap. "Not that that's a surprise or anything." Ella, Nudge, Fang and I were all gathered in the living room, wolfing down Chinese and pockets of fries our parents had picked up from Burger King.

"Your fault," Fang muttered through a mouthful of fried rice. I shoved his knee with my foot and reached for a container of sweet and sour chicken. I tossed the sauce back into the bag; I'd never been a fan. Only of the chicken.

We all ate in silence for a moment while Ella tried to navigate the new DVD player we'd gotten last week. Ironically enough, she'd ordered Paranormal Activity from Netflix, which, of course, made me crack up, considering my freak-out earlier when I'd heard my phone vibrate. Everyone just kind stared at me awkwardly until I calmed down.

"Are we gonna watch the alternate ending or no?" Ella asked, finally making it to the main menu. We all stared at the simple white letters on the black background.

"I hated the alternate ending," Nudge commented, struggling with her chopsticks. It was totally useless to try to use them when there was a perfectly good fork right next to her.

"Me too," Fang and I agreed at the same time. "I, personally, enjoyed the creepiness of her just randomly walking up to the camera and smiling all freaky in the original ending," I continued.

Ella indignantly turned to face me. "I've never seen it!" she cried. "Don't ruin it!"

I rolled my eyes. "You're not missing much. The first one sucks. You should've gotten 2 or 3. They're better."

"The goal is to not have nightmares, correct?" Nudge pointed out.

"No," I grumbled. "The goal is to have fun and get scared, not worry about what's gonna freak you out later."

"Whatever," Ella insisted. "Just play the movie."

Fang and I sighed heavily, annoyed with their choice of movie. I'd already seen it like a bajillion times, and it wasn't all that scary anymore. Door moves my itself, blah blah blah, all that. So instead Fang and I basically played footsie for about the first fifteen minutes of the movie, until I accidentally kicked Fang in the stomach and we started yelling at each other and Nudge and Ella hissed at us to cut it out.

I eventually fell asleep, but only realized that when Fang shook me awake a while later. I blinked, disoriented, and focused on the screen. Oh. They were almost done; they were on night 20, the night where. . .well, I don't want to ruin it for you, but just know that those effects are pretty awesome.

Once the movie was over, Ella was ramrod straight, eyes wide, staring at the screen in horror. Nudge was only slightly less horrified, and Fang and I were stretching, aching and bored from spending a useless couple of hours in front of the TV.

"Well, who wants to watch 2?" I asked cheerily.

"No way!" Ella croaked hoarsely. "That one was scary enough." She shuddered and shrank away from the screen.

"You're such a wuss!" I complained. "I liked 3 the best. How about you?" I nudged Fang with my foot.

"Same," he said automatically, typing into his phone. I leaned forward as far as I could and tried, unsuccessfully, to snatch it from him. He just pulled it back further everytime I reached for it, apparently having seen that coming.

"Why can't I see?" I demanded, pouting in frustration. I hated when Fang deliberately kept stuff from me. It made me feel so. . .in the dark.

"Because it's nunya business, daaaahhhhling," he teased, eyes glued to the phone.

I folded my arms across my chest. "You are my business," I pointed out.

He shrugged. "Probably."

I lunged for it again. "Then lemme see."

"Nope." He ruffled my hair and poked my stomach. I frowned and rolled off the couch, hitting the floor and getting up to go get some food. I was starving.

As I searched the cabinets, I couldn't help but wonder what the heck Fang was hiding from me. It made me feel so weird, not knowing what was going on with him. I couldn't come up with a reason why he'd have something to hide from me. Unless it was like, Lissa or something, and he just wanted to resolve it peacefully without getting me involved or pissed off or something like that. That should be considered thoughtful or something, but mostly I just thought it was annoying. I grabbed a container of homemade sugar cookies with red and green sprinkles for the upcoming holiday and returned to the living room.

Both my friends and my sister pounced on me the second I walked back into the room. I turned my back to him, shouldering him out of the way, and just to make a point, generously opened up the container to Nudge and Ella, who both took cookies and backed away. I plopped onto the armchair with the container, wrapping my arms around it.

"Why don't I get cookies?" he demanded.

Something occured to me and I wanted to laugh at what a comedian I was. "It's nunya business, daaaaahhhhhling," I responded, mimicking what he'd said earlier.

He rolled my eyes. "That was a text message. These are cookies. I want cookies."

"And I want to know who you were texting and why it was so secretive, but we all have things we want but will probably never get." I smirked up at him around a mouthful of cookies.

He sighed. "I can't tell you . . . here." He glanced around, all paranoid, like he thought my living room might be bugged. I noticed his gaze linger on Ella for a second, before he looked away. I tapped my chin and got up, cookies and all, and went into the kitchen.

"Can you tell me here?" I demanded, tapping one foot in irritation. I turned and set the container of cookies on the counter.

Fang let out a big breath and nodded. "Yeah. You just have to . . . swear not to tell your sister."

"I swear."

"No, like, swear on something really important."

"Fang!" I nearly yelled. "Come on!" I realized I sounded like a whiny five-year-old and tried to tone it down a little. "You know that if you tell me not to tell Ella, I won't tell her. Just spill it!"

"Okay," he finally said. "Iggy is, like, practically in love with Ella."

I took a calculated step backwards. "Come again?" I asked hoarsely. It kinda made sense though. The Iggiberish text message about Ella. The strange way Iggy was so silent the second he heard Ella speak up at lunch (that is, when she sat with us, as opposed to her cheerleader friends).

"Iggy likes Ella. He thinks Ella likes him too. That's what got him started on that."

"That is the weirdest thing I've ever heard," I said with a vigorous head-shake.

"Not really," Fang contradicted lightly. "Iggy deserves to have a regular girlfriend, even if he is blind, y'know?"

I rolled my eyes and took a cookie. "I know that." I stepped closer and stood on my tiptoes. He got the message, and lightly kissed me for a split second. I happily skipped into the living room again, satisfied with finally knowing what was up.

It took every ounce of self-control that I possessed not to spill to Ella. Luckily, though, Nudge and Ella were still gushing over how freaked out they were by the movie, so it wasn't like I had to sit there in utter silence, keeping a lid on my secret. Now I just had to find a way to non-obviously get Iggy and Ella together. That would be. . .adorable.

NO! Oh my God, do you hear me? I'm fawning over how cute Iggy and Ella would be together, when clearly that's the worst, girliest thing I can possibly do.

Fang came back into the living room with the cookies, giving me a pointed look. I calmly looked at him, as if to say 'I got this, don't worry about it.'

Well, at least I hoped so.

I squidged my eyes shut and tightened my arms.

"Max," Fang insisted.

I closed my eyes tighter and tightened my arms even more.

"Getting painful."

I loosened my hold slightly. I hated to hear my own voice, whispering, "nooooo."

Fang wiggled his arms out of my grasp and wrapped them around me. I was instantly more comfortable, more at home. He was just so familiar to me; I was so used to his hugs that it felt like I'd been hugging him all my life.

"Why do you have to leave?" I grumped, pushing my bottom lip out.

I felt Fang's hand absently stroke my hair. "Because I don't live here," he murmured.

"But you can!" I insisted. "I swear, we'll change the attic into your room. Or the office. Like, it's just the computer and a bunch of books. It's totally big enough to be a bedroom."

"Max, I've seen that room. It is absolutely not big enough to be a bedroom."

I thought about it. "Okay, maybe not," I agreed.

"I wish, though," Fang sighed.

"Me too," I muttered. I was suddenly concious of how my cheek was smushed against his shoulder. I felt funny.

His mom honked the horn from the road.

Fang gently loosened my arms and quietly stepped away. "Well, bye, I guess," he said reluctantly.

I nodded. "Bye," I said robotically, wiggling my fingers in a goodbye wave.

He kissed my forehead, his lips lingering there for a second longer than they needed to. "Don't tell Ella, don't tell Iggy you know, and whatever you do, do not let Lissa have her way. At anything. At all. Ya hear?" He pulled back to make sure I understood.

I giggled and nodded. "Got it. Now go." I lightly shoved his shoulder, but my heart wasn't in it. He smiled one more time and turned for the door.

When he got into his mom's car, he turned to look at me, standing inside by the screen door. He waved one more time and I smiled back weakly, my heart not really in it.

Once Fang was gone, I felt all awkward and limp and pathetic. God, I totally had to stop this. I just wasn't quite sure what to do yet. I'd be over it by Monday. It was just an immediate after affect of Fang coming and leaving so quickly. I'd get over it. I'd get over it.

And I was right. By Monday I was back to my regular self. Unfortunately, that still meant all of my clubs and activities and homework had to be done in a timely manner.

At the lunch table, the biggest topic of conversation was the play that was starting up in January.

Ella started it when she eagerly set her tray down with a loud clatter. Her soda can tipped and fell but she ignored it. "Guess what? The play is gonna be Hairspray this year. Can you believe that?" She was so excited, she was on the verge of clapping her hands together.

I paused, my apple an inch from my mouth, before setting it back down again. "Ells, you like to sing? How come I didn't know that?"

Ella shrugged indifferently. "No, not really. But they're holding two auditions; auditions for people that want background parts during musical numbers, and people that want main parts." She paused, and I knew what was coming.

"No," I said immediately.

"But you'd be so amazing."

"No," I repeated, with more emphasis this time.

"Pleeeease," she begged. "There's no way you wouldn't snag the leading role. You have to do it, Max."

I picked my apple back up again. "I'm not doing that ridiculous play. That's final, too. I'm never, ever going to be in a school production. Or any other production, really. I am not a play person. I despise plays." I bit viciously into the apple.

"I think you'd be pretty good," Tess said with a cheerful smile. "For one, you'd be coordinated, unlike the people they always cast as the leads to do these big dancy numbers."

"I don't enjoy dance that much either," I pointed out.

Carolyn sat up straighter. "Lieeees," she cried. "You go to Yvonne's School of Dance."

"For acro," I insisted.

"You do know that there's a recital and costumes and such at the end of the year, right?" Ella twirled her pasta around her plastic fork, the smallest hint of an amused smile on her face while she watched me process that. When I did, my mouth flopped open.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I assumed it'd be obvious. Y'know, dance studio equals recital. Otherwise we're learning this stuff for no reason."

"I just won't do it," I said defiantly.

Gazzy lead Iggy over to the table. He carefully pulled out his seat and sat down. "What won't you do?"

"The dance recital at the end of the year," I stated flatly.

"What?" Iggy demanded. "Since when do you dance? This is coming as news to me."

"Max is really good at acrobatics, which is technically a type of dance, although a lot of people argue that it's gymnastics," Carolyn said. She saw the confusion on Iggy's face and elaborated. "Max has been doing gymnastics for a long time, so she's flexible enough that her body can easily adapt to new tricks. Gymnastics is for stuff like balance beams, bars, things like that. Not necessarily the stuff that they teach you in an acro class."

"My head hurts," Iggy commented.

"Alright, then let's get back to the play," Ella said eagerly. "I'm going out for one of the background parts. Like, one of the kids on the morning show thing. Whataya think?"

I may despise plays, but I am a very supportive sister, I'll have you know. "I think you'll be great," I said sincerely.

"Ditto to that," Tess said.

Ella's face lit up. "Yay!" she giggled. I saw Iggy's face flush, and my secret bubbled up inside me. I bit my lip, hard enough to draw blood. I wasn't sure how long I'd last. From the looks of things, I wouldn't last til the end of the week. I'd just have to wait for Iggy to tell me on his own. I settled for deliberately stepping on his foot. Iggy's expression changed the slightest bit, but went right back to normal.

Later, I had art, and you can probably imagine my surprise when I spotted Sam coming through the door when I was on my way to my seat with a new box of oil pastels. I paused in confusion, fumbling with the box. How does he just randomly show up in this class after a couple days of being here?

Sam seemed to have gotten the hang of dealing with teachers, because he strode right up to our teacher. "Hi, Miss Kenkel?"

She turned around. "Oh, are you Sam?" She smiled cheerfully.

He nodded. "That would be me."

"Well, welcome to art class, Sam," Miss Kenkel said brightly. "What's your favorite color?"

Don't say black, don't say black, don't say black. . .

"Green."

I turned to see Miss Kenkel frown. "Oh. I'm sorry, all our green stools are taken. Do you have another favorite color?"

"Yeah, gray," Sam said.

I clenched my fists in agitation, accidentally making crescent-moon nail imprints on the blue oil pastel in my hand. The last kid that had claimed is favorite color was gray ended up sitting in a black stool instead.

"Um, is black okay?" Miss Kenkel was starting to sound nervous. She'd never had to go beyond the second choice before.

Sam smiled easily, and I wondered again how he'd transformed from being bumbling and awkward to being this unbelievably. . .smooth guy.

"Sure, black's fine."

"Then you can take the stool right next to Miss Maximum Ride over there. That's okay, right, Max?" Miss Kenkel smiled cluelessly.

I mustered every shred of control I could and forced a smile. I casually dropped the oil pastel to the table and dusted off my blue-stained hands. "Yep."

"Great." Miss Kenkel smiled enthusiastically, then flitted over to her desk. Probably to find some poster paper and the project sheet for Sam. She tened to be the tiniest bit disorganized, though, so it would probably take a while, leaving Sam and I with too much infilled silence.

He sat down nearly soundlessly next to me. That reminded me of Fang, and made my heart hurt a little. "That's really amazing."

I barely glanced over my shoulder, but made a concious effort to brush my ponytail away from my face. "Thanks," I said evenly.

"I mean, I'd never be able to draw a bird's nest that realistically, with all the pieces of straw and branches and leaves that they randomly come up with. That's one of the best drawings I've ever seen, even if it's not done," he continued. Some people just don't take hints. I just shrugged, and pressed the pastel harder against the paper to get the perfect fading-in-and-out effect that I really wanted.

Thankfully, Miss Kenkel seemed to be on her game today, and soon enough had a project sheet and a piece of paper for Sam to draw on. She explained about how we were focusing on shadows; he was supposed to choose a scene that prominently displayed the ability to draw in shadows.

Sam was supposed to be sketching for the rest of the period, but he remained chatty until my temper flared up.

"Look." I almost ran my hand over my hair in frustration, before realizing that it looked like a rainbow had barfed on my hand. "This is actually a pretty important project. It would be good for both of us to just keep working and not talk, alright?"

Sam was still unfazed. "Sure, Max. By the way, you got some of that pastel stuff on your face."

I sighed in irritation. My hands were a rainbow mess.

"Here." He reached up and wiped something off my cheek with his thumb. I automatically recoiled from the too-close contact. He smiled briefly and went back to concentrating on his sketching.

What would it take to shake this kid, even a little?

Don't know what my plans are for Sam yet. Expect the unexpected, though.

Wanna hear a story? So, I sit next to one of my best friends in science class. Our table is next to two guys. We had to do cow eye dissections (GAG) in groups of two today. Neither me nor my friend wanted to, and both the guys wanted to. So we had to do a switcheroo, and both dissect with them. Only one person in a group of two is allowed to dissect; the other one watches. So, we're sitting there gagging while they're poking around in the eye laughing and going "dude, look what I found!" Couldn't eat lunch after that.
One kid poked into the eye with the probe thing and got squirted with cow-eye juice. I have no sympathy.

Hey, today I'm gonna stay Up All Night.

If you don't get it, don't worry about it.

DANCE TEAM TRYOUTS ARE ON APRIL 20TH LIKE ASDFGHJKL HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO MAKE MY FOUETTES ABSOLUTELY PERFECT BY THAT TIME AND GET A QUADRUPLE PIROUETTE AND NIALL THE FLYING DISC? Idk, you tell me.

Once again I apologize for this totally not being long enough and being way overdue. Major apologies.

-dancerxforlifex3