* * First Day Continues * *


Max was already seated at their usual table in the lunch courtyard when Maria and Isabel walked up. “Hey Colvin, I see you’re trying the mystery meant today.”

He looked up from his dissection of the so-called meatloaf. “Actually, I’m using this to prove a hypothesis I have for biology.”

Maria rolled her eyes at him. “Sweetie, we took biology last year. Remember, you aced that class as usual?”

“Minor details.” He pushed the tray aside and looked at her eagerly. “So?”

Maria sighed. “You’re so predictable.” She turned to Isabel. “If it wasn’t for me this boy would never eat a decent lunch. She opened up her lunch bag and pulled out the extra ham and cheese sandwich that she made for him.

“You’re a life saver hun. I can’t help it that my mom is not the Susie Homemaker type.” He turned to Isabel. “So how was your day so far? Ready to join the popular crowd yet?”

“What’s with your hardon against popular people? They’re not all bad.” Isabel asked.

Max looked over to where Michael Guerin and a group of jocks were terrorizing the president of the chess club. He arched an eyebrow at Isabel, proving his point.

“You’re right Isabel, they aren’t all bad and Max knows this first hand. After all, he is the guy that over half the girls in this school would love to sex.” Maria teased.

Max groaned. “Oh man Ri, please don’t bring that up.”

“Oh you have got to tell me.” Isabel perked up. “What happened?”

Maria grinned. “Well last year the yearbook staff was making up the ballots for the senior superlatives, you know most likely to succeed and other crap like that. Well anyway there’s this cheerleader who has major crush on Max, she was on the yearbook staff. She and some of her other friends added an extra poll on the ballot; Guy most likely to get raped by all the girls in the school. The choices were two seniors and a sexy little sophomore at the time, Max Colvin.”

Max buried his face into his folded arms. He was groaning at the memory. Maria continued. “According to the results the other guys were no competition at all. Max won hands down.”

Isabel started laughing. Maria joined in. She tried to stop so that she could finish the story. “but wait that’s not all let me finish. They went so far as to put his picture in the yearbook.”

Isabel smiled. “Hey that was no biggie. You should have been proud Max.” She patted Max head. “No need to be ashamed about that?”

Maria giggled. “Yeah he wouldn’t have been ashamed if it wasn’t for the fact that he was semi nude in the picture.”

Isabel shrieked with an unladylike snort. “What? How did they get a semi nude picture of him?”

Max glared at his best friend evilly. Maria held her head down in shame. “Yeah, Maria, how did they get a semi nude picture of me?”

“Well…umm… It’s like this, I had this picture of Max in a pair of Speedos that we took when we went to the beach. I left the picture where the yearbook staff could find it.”

Isabel burst out laughing. “Why would you do that?”

“Well he really pissed me off that day and that’s the only way I could think of to get back at him.”

Isabel shook her head, tears of mirth falling down her cheeks. “Remind me to never get on your bad side.”

“Hello Max. Who’s your new friend?” Max looked up into the eyes of Elizabeth Parker and the urge to throw up immediately came over him. He fought that urge and instead gave her one of his standoffish smiles. “Liz, babe, you already know Maria. Remember? She’s in two of your classes.”

Liz sneered at him and then turned to Isabel. “Hi, I’m Elizabeth Parker. You’re in my Drama class, right?”

“Yeah I am. My name is Isabel Evans.”

“Kewl, Izzy… Do you mind if I call you Izzy?” Before Isabel could say that she did mind Liz continued on. “Anyway, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to meet me and a few of my friends at the park later. We could show you all the popular hangouts.”

“Umm sure that sounds like fun.” Isabel answered. “Where is this park?”

“Max could show you where it is. We’ll be there right after school.”

“Kewl, so Maria and I will be there then.”

At the mention of Maria’s name Liz’s gave flickered briefly in her direction before resting back on Isabel. “Yeah sure whatever. See ya then.”

She walked off towards the table of jocks, her trail of Liz clones following close behind.

“Well,” Max turned to face Maria, “that was interesting. Liz inviting you to the park.”

“Technically, she didn’t invite me. She invited Isabel.” Maria pointed out as she finished off the last bite of her sandwich.

“Yeah,” Isabel started, “but she didn’t say no you couldn’t come.”

Maria shrugged. “That’s only because she has a reputation of being a little princess that she’s trying to maintain. Believe me she really doesn’t want me there.”

Isabel started to speak out but Maria cut her off. “Don’t worry about Isabel. I really don’t want to go anyway and I don’t want you to feel obligated to dislike the people that dislike me.”

“I think you should go Maria.” Max spoke up. At Isabel’s nod of agreement he continued. “You dwell too much on what that crowd thinks of you. You’re just as good as they are, maybe even better.”

“That’s easy for you to say Max. They like you. They’ve given me nothing but hardship since day one and I am not about to take their abuse all afternoon.”

“Maria, I don’t give a fuck whether or not they like me and neither should you.” Max said angrily. He was getting tired of her hiding herself from Liz Parker and her clones.

The bell rung signaling the end of lunch. Maria stood up and gathered up her trash. “I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later Max.” She walked away quickly.

He called after her. “Maria.” But she ignored him and kept going.

He let out a frustrated sigh and turned to Isabel. “I think I pushed her too hard.”

Isabel shook her head and ran off after Maria. She turned back to Max and said. “Give her time she’ll come around and see that you’re right.”

With a jaunty wave she turned and immediately ran into what felt like a solid wall. “Woah. Easy sis.”

“Lexie! When did you get here?” Isabel asked her brother. “I thought you were staying home today?”

“It took me all of an hour to realize that I was going to go stir crazy with mom sprinting from here to there trying to get the house settled and all. So I decided to brave the first day of school.”

Alex was way taller than his sister at 6’5. He had the sexiest green eyes ever and thick dark brown hair that made you want to run your hands through the strands and never let them go. He had the lean build of a basketball player and the voice of an angel.

He looked nothing like his sibling or his parents. The reason being is because he was adopted. He didn’t know who his real parents were which really didn’t faze him at all because he was adopted at the age of twenty-four months.

“I see you’ve made some friends already. Who’s that guy?” He asked, ever suspicious of any guy that grew an interest in his little six (younger by 4 months).

“Just a guy that’s in a few of my classes, Max Colvin.” They walked into the school and head towards their fourth period class. “I met this really interest girl. Her name is Maria Deluca. She’s a total dear.”

“The makings of a best friend.” He asked with an indulgent smile.

She nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah so much different from Pam Troy.”

At that name Alex shuddered. “Izboo, you don’t know how glad I am that you decided to change your outward personality and get a whole new set of friends. Queen Bitch Isabel was totally about to get a spanking from big brother.”

She laughed. "By the way Lexie my attitude may have changed but that still doesn't mean you can call me Izboo in public."

She turned and walked into her class.