Chapter 2-Max
Wow, serious thanks for everyone who followed me and my story last chapter! Super cool! please give me a review :) thanks for reading!
-Ricoh
I walked home slowly, my sister and a few of her friends trailing behind me, probably throwing insults about me, but I couldn't hear them over my music. I tightened the straps of my backpack tighter as my house came into view. My house wasn't small, but it wasn't huge either. Red-brick with green shutters and a few plants and flowers that had long since died since the air started getting colder and colder. I walked up the porch steps and pushed through the door, my mom walking around the corner, wiping her hands on her apron just like a stereotypical mom.
"Hi mom." I said, pulling out my earbuds as Maya blew through the door behind me.
"Hi, Max, Maya." My mom said with a smile, which Maya returned eagerly, and elbowed me hard in the ribs when mom turned when I untied my shoes. My mom was pretty, with long, dark hair and smiling eyes. She owned a veterinary clinic downtown, so she worked short hours at the office and had a good amout of time at home.
I dashed up the stairs to my room, trailed by Maya, who swung her red pumps with one hand. I turned into my room and slammed the door, my warm room welcoming.
My mom had let me redo my room over the summer, so everything was still fresh, The dark brown walls, lavender bedding with tons of pillows and blankets, cream and purple bean bag chairs, and my huge hardwood desk that took up almost half of one wall, and my own bathroom. I had actually fought Maya for this room, but in the end sneakers beat out her stupid heels and skirts in getting in the final shove down the stairs. She shared a bathroom with my mom, who never took up much time to get ready in the morning.
I tossed my jacket onto my bed and pushed back my hat and my hat, tossing it into a basket that barely held all my hats. I had as many hats in as many colors as Maya had in shoes. I ran my hand down the back of my braid as the afternoon sun shone in slants through my huge windows, that took up my entire right wall. I peeled off my loose jeans and pulled on baggy sweatpants, and pulled out my laptop from under my bed.
I didn't even bother checking my Facebook anymore, all the posts and mean comments on the very few pictures I was tagged in drove me away from the wonders of facebook last year, not saying I missed Farmville or anything. I flipped around on tumblr for a while before my mom called up the stairs.
"Max! Maya! Dinner!" I sprang up from my bed and was out the door, almost colliding with Maya in the hallway. She screeched as I sprinted down the stairs and took my place at the table, my mom setting a plate of barbecued chicken, pasta and peas in front of me, still steaming. I bounced as Maya made her way, tortuously slow to the table.
"Hurry up." I grumbled under my breath, and she slid into her spot across from me. My mom slid her plate in front of her, a small wrinkle appearing in Mayas forehead as she scanned the food. My mom didn't notice and sat down at the head of the table next to me. I grabbed a hot biscuit from the bowl in the center of the table and spread butter over it, and took a huge bite out of my chicken, my mom chuckling at me as I got sauce all over my left cheek.
When the butter melted on my biscuit, I swallowed my Chicken and pushed the top half of the biscuit into my mouth, sighing with satisfaction at the glorious taste. By the time I had plowed through my chicken, Maya had finished cutting every single bit of food on her plate into mouse-sized pieces.
"How was school?" My mom asked, smiling nervously at me, She knew I never brought any friends home since we moved here and probably stopped expecting I had made some.
"I made a friend today." I blurted out, and quickly stuffed a spoonful of peas into my mouth. My moms knife fell to the table and she froze. There was a reason why I didn't say friends, plural.
"You what?" She asked a little faintly. Maya snorted from her place across from me but My mom didn't even glance at her.
"I made a friend." I said again, trying to act like it was no big deal, but inside I was celebrating my friendship-victory. My mom slowly picked up her knife and cut up her chicken.
"Are they human?" My mom asked, almost carefully. And I nodded. My mom suddenly looked delighted and took a bit of chicken.
"I do believe that this is grounds for a celebration!" She said in a mock posh accent, and got up from the table and ran into the kitchen. I followed her like a lost puppy chewing my last bites of chicken, because whenever I get a celebration, it ends in cookies. I danced impatiently as my mom got down all the ingredients from the cabinets, before shooing my back out into the dining room where Maya was sitting like a carved angel, slowly eating her food, claiming I gave her bad joo-joo in the kitchen. It was true, I was a cooking nightmare, my culinary skills ending at toast, pop tarts, and frozen pizzas.
I sat back down next to Maya, who sent me a fake smile from across the table.
"New friends huh?" She asked, sounding almost nice, and I nodded warily, all my excitement being smothered, just by talking to her, because very rarely did something good come out of our conversations.
"Is that who did your hair?" She asked, chewing on a piece of chicken and balancing her chin on the back of her hand. I nodded and ate another biscuit plain, glaring at her straight in the face, She ate her last piece of chicken and said cooly,
"You should stick to those hats." She picked up her plate and went past me into the kitchen, leaving me dumbfounded by myself in the dining room, looking down at my empty plate. Maya was always the best at getting to me, because she didn't need to say hardly anything to hurt me, but it still hurt nonetheless. I picked up my plate, downed the rest of my water and carried everything into the kitchen and put it in the sink, my mom mixing up cookies. I rinsed my plate and put it into the dishwasher, and my mom smiled at me,
"I'll call you down when the cookies are ready, okay?" She said with a smile, and I nodded and made my way back up into my room. I went in and flopped down on my stomach on my bed, turning my laptop back on. The screen flickered to life and I went back to tumblr, continuing to scroll.
I slapped my laptop lid shut, and got up off my bed, pulling my sweatshirt over my head, avoiding looking down at my left wrist. I was left in my dragon shirt, with one elder dragon wrapped around a blood dragon, I smiled down at it, and my mom called me from downstairs. I snatched my hoodie and yanked it back on, running back down the stairs, The heavenly smell of my moms cookies luring me to the kitchen. I heard Maya coming down the stairs and someone knocking at the door. I folded myself tight against the door frame as Maya answered the door.
"Max, I'll be in my study if you need anything." She said, breezing past me and into the study. Maya opened the door as my mom left, and no other than Nick and Lissa stepped into my house. My eyes bugged out of my head and I quickly ducked into the cabinet under the sink, my plate of cookies balanced on my knees. I heard them greet each other, and their footsteps came closer and closer to the kitchen, I breathed slowly and carefully, trying to be as quiet as I could. They herded into the kitchen, and the fridge opened. Somebody jumped on the counter right above me, and started swinging their legs, banging their heels against the doors to the cabinet, making me jump a little.
"Where's Max?" Nick asked Maya, who snorted. Lissa sighed, I froze under the sink. Did they come here just to torture me? My one safe place from school?
"Why do you care? She'd probably just do her awkward toe drag and stare at the ground with nothing to say." Lissa said snidely, and Maya grumbled under her breath.
"Loser." Nick said nothing, which surprised me. I expected him to start spewing hot garbage about me.
"She said she made friends today." Lissa actually laughed wholeheartedly.
"Oh, as if. How could someone like her make friends, if her face doesn't scare them off, her personality definitely would. I mean, i've never even seen her hair." My sister laughed, but Nick remained silent, but through the crack between the cabinets, I saw his black socks on the floor, right across from my sisters bare feet and perfectly pedicured toes.
"Yeah, her and that James guy were talking in Chemistry. He must have a thing for lost puppies." Lissa said, snickering to herself. Nicks feet turned to the fridge and the sound of a can popping and he cleared his throat.
"Maybe its about time she got some friends." He said calmly, but both girls fell totally silent. The tension was so thick I swear I could have cut it with a knife, that is if I had the use of my arms at the moment.
"What?" Lissa asked, her voice high and squeaky. Maya pushed off from the counter.
"Whatever, lets go upstairs." Her feet disappeared from sight, and Nicks and Lisa's feet followed her. I waited until I heard Mayas door slam before pushing opening the doors and falling out of the cabinet on my side, my cookies rattling on the linoleum floor. I took a deep breath, and stretched and straightened, having been cramped under the sink. Still sitting on the floor, I took a thoughtful bite into a cookie.
Had Nick just stood up for me?