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It was Parent/Guardian/Carer Career Day, where parents (and guardians and carers) were invited into the school to tell everyone what they do for a job, why they wanted to do it, and how one would go about finding a job in their field. There were the ones who predictably always showed – Steph’s dad, Grace’s parents, and surprisingly enough, Ruth’s mom – and the ones who never bothered – Max’s dad was always absent with some half-assed excuse, Pete only had his brother and Ted wasn’t a good example, and Richie never asked his uncle because he just worked in an office (with Ted), which was boring.
Except for this day, where Max was strangely absent from his usual haunts of various hallways, and was instead found at the event, which was even more unheard of. Maxwell Jägerman at PGCC Day was like the Legend of Micro-Peter getting erased from existence. Richie spotted him first, stopping the group in their tracks.
“What the fuck?” His blunt delivery and very confused expression didn’t even garner a whispered “Language!” from Grace. It just made them all turn to see the biggest jock in the whole school suddenly looking very small. Steph almost felt sorry for him.
“Max Jägerman!? At PGCC Day?” exclaimed Ruth, only glancing around once to see if anyone had noticed her shocked voice. “Now that is a dream come true…if the dream is a nightmare!”
“Who’s that next to him?”
As everyone looked to who Pete was pointing to, Max just so happened to lift his head and see them, his eyes going immediately wide. Almost like he was scared…but the ‘Jäger-meister’ was never scared of anything (except ghosts and skele’ens). There was a minute shake of his head as the man next to him – looking like a bigger, nastier version of Max – clapped an arm around his shoulders.
“Don’t know why I never came to these things before, Maxie! It’s a riot!” If standing around in a crowded, sweaty, bored-out-of-their-minds filled gymnasium of students could be called such a thing. “These nerds don’t know what’s coming with us here, huh? The Jägermen!”
Max’s timid demeanour fell away almost instantly, but anyone with a lick of sense would be able to spot it lingering in his eyes. His stance became the one he had so often terrorised nerds with. It was…surreal, to see their biggest bully returning. Sure, the jock side of him hadn’t been banished completely, it was part of who he was, but Max had become more tolerable of other people as of late and actually enjoyed hanging around with the group he’d come to know as more than nerds.
One might even dare to call them friends.
“S-Steph! Where’re you going?”
“Where d’you think?”
Steph didn’t like this. She’d seen Max’s reaction to who she’d assumed was his dad and felt a kinship with it. It reminded her of when her dad had threatened to smash her phone and the absolute disdain for her existence…
“Hey Max,” she began as she walked up, keeping consistent eye contact with the jock instead of the massive red flag next to him.
“Oh, hey Steph. You come to these things?”
“When I’m forced to by my dad, yeah.” She rolled her gaze in the direction of Mayor Lauter, currently standing on a box to speak to the students and teachers that had crowded around him. It was like a mini speech day for him. Max chuckled.
“Heh, yeah. So, you-”
“Hey hey! Stephanie Lauter! Good choice, Maxie, this one’s a great catch.”
Steph immediately recoiled at the sheer wave of ‘ew’ that came from every word and from the very presence of this man that had sidled up to Max. It was worse than Richie’s overactive sweat glands. She spotted the flinch from her fellow teen – barely visible, but there regardless – and narrowed her eyes at the man in front of her.
“I’m afraid I’m taken. Sorry.” Not.
There was a brief flicker of confused rage on the elder jock’s face, gone in the blink of an eye with a charismatic smile, “Yeah, taken with my son! You kids go hook up or something, really get down and dirty-” and before Steph could so much as protest, Max was shoved into her.
“Just go with it,” he whispered, holding her by the elbow to catch himself and steer her through the crowds with efficiency that came from being the school bully/football star and the mayor’s daughter. They passed Pete, Richie and Ruth, who’d managed to escape Grace’s attention at her parents’ booth, and Steph gave them a vaguely confused look before she was dragged out of the hall. When they were out, Steph yanked her arm from his grip.
“What. The fuck, Max?”
“Look-”
“You have to live with this guy?”
“Steph-”
“I mean, I figured there was something that made you a dick to everyone in school but that was like seeing an older version of y-”
“STEPH!”
She slammed her mouth shut. Sure, everyone in school had heard Max shout, but there was a desperation underneath this one. It sounded similar to Pete when Steph had nearly ripped into his sleazeball of a brother – a plea to “stop talking” because “it’s personal, ok?”
“Just…leave it alone,” sighed Max, deflating before her eyes, “He’s really not worth it.”
“He is,” Steph snorted back, crossing her arms defiantly, “I’ve had my share of a shitty parent, ok? Sure, yeah, fighting back against my dad could end up in some serious political problems, but there are arguments – and I mean that, there are arguments – where calling someone out on their bullshit is perfectly sound.”
Max gave her a strange look. “Did that come from your dad, or Spankoffski?”
Steph blushed faintly, “W-Whatever, that doesn’t matter. What does is that your dad is a complete asshole.”
“You don’t know him.”
“No, but I kinda know you, and I can tell that this guy massively influenced who you are.” Ok, maybe Pete had changed her vocabulary a little.
“It’s not a big deal, I can handle it!” He was gearing up into defence mode again.
“Really?”
“Yeah, really. Now, I’m gonna go back in there and stick it out with the losers to show everyone how awesome a Jägerman is!”
Steph didn’t believe him, watching Max storm back into the room and scare Reese and PJ, who just so happened to be crossing his path. She sighed, frustrated that nothing had got through, only to look and see Pete, Richie and Ruth watching her through the doors.
“What?”
“Don’t you ‘what’ us, Ste-pha-nie.”
“Yeah, we should be saying ‘what’ to you! Like, what the fuck did the Jägerman want with you?”
Steph blinked, her gaze flicking between Ruth and Richie curiously. They seemed…mad at her? “He…didn’t? We were just talking.”
“With him holding your arm like that?” Richie scoffed, clearly offended about something, “Right, sure, ‘talking.’” Steph was baffled. Pete shook his head.
“Guys, just because Max was holding onto Steph and dragged her out of the hall, it doesn’t mean she’s cheating on me with him.”
“What!?” Steph exclaimed incredulously.
“Y-You don’t know that!”
“Ruth, you just want someone to touch you, and there’s some deep-rooted problem there somewhere, but I’m not your therapist and we don’t have the time to delve into it right now.”
“Delve into what?” asked a bright and curious voice, familiar to the teens but completely unexpected. The whole group jumped.
“Grace! You scared the shit out of us!”
Grace levelled a righteous glare at Richie for the swear word, “Well, how else am I supposed to pop into a conversation and not scare the poop out of you?”
“Uhh, don’t?” Steph replied, “Anyway, I need you guys to watch Max, like properly watch him. No, Ruth-” she stopped the girl’s question, knowing what she’d say, “-I don’t mean watch him everywhere, I just mean in the hall. This is one PGCC day that we need to be fully here for.”
Despite the collective groans, her own included, and Grace’s attempt at getting everyone back to her parents’ booth to properly “soak in” the atmosphere, they all took up a spot on the other side of the hall to Max’s dad’s stand. With nerd culture and always wanting to be invisible to the bullies, Steph was the only one that struggled at not being obvious. Grace went around promoting her parents’ booth and their talk of the day while Ruth and Richie melted into the crowds effortlessly. Pete stayed by Steph to keep her company, and also to give her some moral support. Yeah, she was always going to be obvious since she was the mayor’s daughter, but at least for today she hadn’t brought any unwanted attention to herself.
~~~
“You can’t date Brenda, Kyle!” Max yelled at the retreating form of his friend, hoping in his heart that Kyle would realise he didn’t mean it. Ever since he was saved by the nerds from a falling beam and dodgy floorboards, he’d been more lenient in what people could and couldn’t do – Brenda and Kyle were actually really good together and he supported that. He’d even seen Jason pine after Grace once or twice and hadn’t even hinted at it.
“Ha ha! That’s my boy! Who’s Brenda, huh? One of your side-chicks?”
“Uh, heh, y-yeah…” Max took a breath, putting on the confident bravado he was known for when his dad’s judgemental eyes shifted to him and narrowed suspiciously. “Yeah! She’s one of ‘em. Had to stop Kyle from having her, so she’s mine now.”
His dad grinned slowly, “That’s a good boy, Maxie,” – Max repressed a shudder at the name – “keep it up!”
Brenda. Steph. All the other girls he’d paraded around his father. Every single one of them was a lie. Max had created the rumours that floated around about him to give off a sense of power. He wasn’t the chick-magnet everyone assumed he was – ok, yes, a LOT of girls fawned over him and he revelled in the attention, but he’d never been attracted to any of them. Conventionally pretty wasn’t pretty, in his opinion. That didn’t matter to his dad though.
It also didn’t matter to his dad if he didn’t like girls, because a girl is who he would obviously end up with. Obviously. As soon as his dad turned around to talk to the wannabe jocks that had rocked up about how great and awesome Josh Jägerman was, Max let loose a breath he hadn’t realised he was holding. He watched the schooling body that knew him give his dad wary looks, and he noticed Steph and Pete watching him from the other side of the hall. He turned away, shame burning the back of his neck as he saw the wannabe jocks eat up every poisoned word his father spoke. It made him feel sick that he used to look up to his dad with those same expressions.
Then Max grew older and Josh grew bolder, knowing that Max wouldn’t tell anyone what he said or did to him in the confines of their home. Max was forced to grow up and he didn’t know how because the one parental influence in his life never had.
PGCC Day continued in much the same manner until Max eventually excused himself to the bathroom. His dad didn’t even bat an eye at it and just waved him off. Max clenched his fists tightly and powered through the crowd with a thunderous expression, the eyes following him going unnoticed as he saw everyone else’s flit away.
Steph was the first (again) to walk up to him.
“You really showed them, didn’t you?”
“Shut up, Steph,” Max growled, throwing a death glare in her direction.
To her credit, she did, raising her hands in surrender, but she didn’t back down entirely. Especially when she had the expression of someone who knew exactly what cards to play.
“Alright, I’ll shut up, but only if you start talking, Jägerman.”
She was serious, he could tell. He tried silently pleading with her anyway, asking her to drop it, but the steely determination in her gaze made it impossible to refuse. He sighed.
“What d’ya want me to say?”
He must have sounded pretty pathetic because Steph let up her hard look just a little and gestured for him to move further down the corridor with her.
“Max…your dad’s an asshole.”
He nodded slowly, “Yeah, you said. So?”
“So, stand up to him!”
“You try doing that and see where it gets you,” he spat back, anger working its way through him now. Who the hell did she think she was!? Being the mayor’s daughter didn’t give her the right to tell him how to handle his life! This was his problem and he’d be damned if he let a girl fix it!
“It does nothing, Steph,” he hissed, voice low as he crowded into her space. She stood her ground though, calm and collected in the face of his brewing rage. That just pissed him off even more.
“We’re done with this,” Max muttered, a threat lingering in his voice. He moved away from her after a brief glaring contest, neither one willing to give up first, but the sound of familiar voices in the hall spurred Max on and he marched down the corridor without a second glance. This whole thing was ridiculous, he and his dad were fine. Sure, they had their arguments and maybe sometimes his dad was more than just verbally aggressive, but it was fine.
~~~
Watching Max walk off, Steph slowly released the breath she’d been holding to stop herself from punching him in the face.
“You ok?”
She turned to Pete, smiling grimly. “Yeah,” she sighed, “I’m ok. Kinda pissed, but alright. Don’t think Max is though.”
As they regrouped with Richie, Ruth and Grace, they heard whispers about Max – mostly the ones they’d heard before, like how he’d seduced Zoey Chambers and how he’d banged most of the cheerleading team, but there were others in there too.
“D’you hear his dad? Sounds like Max didn’t fall far from the tree.”
“Steph must’ve hit him.”
“What, Stephanie Lauter? Nah, can’t have. Even she’s not that stupid.”
Alright, bit rude. But the question on their minds now was: what were they going to do to help Max? He clearly didn’t want their help, but that didn’t mean he didn’t need it. Even just to talk to them.
“Right. Grace, I’m adding you to our groupchat.” Steph whipped out her phone to do it, not seeing Grace’s confused expression.
“I’m…already in the groupchat though?”
“It’s a different one,” Ruth told her, “we used it to plan your study session.”
“You mean…” Pete and Richie nodded, Ruth just grinning. “So that was…” More nods. Grace gasped, scandalised. “How dare you! That was very…” Grace trailed off at the smiles still aimed at her, knowing that this group was only looking out for her best interests. They were really good friends.
“…clever.”
N3RDZ!
You added Grace – 2:34pm
Grace: Thanks Steph.
Steph: nws
Steph: so
Steph: what do we do bout max
Richie: I don’t think there’s anything we CAN do
Ruth: yeah it’s pointless
Ruth: better off letting him deal with it himself
Pete <3: Looks like he might be struggling with that.
Richie: it’s not our scene Pete
Grace: Movie night?
Pete <3: I think Max is probably into different films than us.
Grace: Yes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find common grounds.
Ruth: he’s not coming to mine, go to Richie’s
Richie: RUTH! STAHP!
Ruth: NEVER >:)
Richie: ╥﹏╥
Steph: movie night cud work grace mayb take max to see a football movie or smth
Grace: …Smith?
Grace: What??
Pete <3: Something.
Pete <3: You’ll get used to it, don’t worry.
Grace: I don’t think I will.
Richie: GUYS!!! ( ๑>ᴗ<๑ )
Richie: U KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS!!!
Ruth: oh no
Pete <3: Richie, don’t.
Steph: ???
Richie: WE GET TO WATCH BLUE LOCK!!! ( ᗒᗨᗕ )
Steph: tf is blue lock
Grace: Ditto what Steph said, without the swearing.
Ruth: fuuuuck, can’t we watch smth else? there’s gotta be other things
Pete <3: Blue Lock is basically just Soccer: The Anime.
Steph: ew
Richie: nonono it’s really good, I promise
Ruth: I’ve seen it
Ruth: it’s not
Richie: u saw TWO EPISODES Ruth
Richie: u don’t understand
Richie: it gets like really good later on
Richie: it sucks you in
Pete <3: For the first exposure, maybe not? If we need a second run then you can show him Blue Lock. But ONLY if I’m not there.
Ruth: ye me neither
Richie: ( ◢д◣ )
Ruth: u 2 can be alone for that one ;p
Richie: RUTH SHUT UP
Ruth: ;)))
Richie: o(TヘTo)
Richie: im leaving, this is bullying
Ruth: no u won’t
Pete <3: Ruth, I know you want them to get together, but can we not do that in here? Take it to a PM or something. We’re dealing with a different situation.
Ruth: :(
Ruth: k fine
Ruth: soz Richie, luv u rly
Richie: d( ´ ▽ ` d )
Richie: I know
Richie: ty Pete (人´∀`)
Steph: can we get back to max pls
Grace: I leave for two minutes…
Pete <3: Welcome to the club, Grace.
~~~
They eventually decided on going to the next football game (Richie would be there anyway, they could say they were there to see him) and cheering Max on. It might not do much since everyone there would be cheering for him, but they hoped that having Max see them there would boost his mood.
Unfortunately, there was another factor to this game that would do the exact opposite. Josh Jägerman had come to watch as well, and he wasn’t just going to stay quiet.
“YEAH! TAKE ‘EM DOWN MAX!”
Steph could hear the elder Jägerman roaring over the excited crowd. Richie had told the group that Max was often a powerhouse in the game, but he seemed to be playing even more aggressively now that his dad was here.
N3RDZ!
4:05pm
Richie: he’s gonna break someone
Richie: this isn’t normal
Richie: something’s def wrong
Steph: probly his dad
Ruth: DEF his dad
Richie: I really don’t like this guys…
Richie: oh- g2g be a mascot
Grace: Half time is coming up soon, you can talk to him then.
Steph: WE talk 2 him
Steph: all of us
Steph: k?
Pete <3: Do we really ALL have to?
Steph: yes
Half time came and the teams went to their respective benches for a pep-talk and refreshments. Most of the crowds thinned to get their own drinks and a snack, so the nerds could work their way down to find Max.
“Richie!” Steph waved the Nighthawk mascot over, recoiling at the wave of sweat stench when he pulled the head off. “Did you see where Max went?”
“No, sorry, had to welcome back the whole team to the bench. When I turned around he’d gone.”
“Shit.”
Steph looked over at Grace and Pete, the two at the other side of the team to ask Jason if he’d seen Max. Pete shot a glance to Steph – no dice. She sighed, pulling her phone out and tapping Max’s contact, her foot tapping impatiently as the line rang. And rang.
And rang out.
“For fuck’s sake, Jägerman,” she grumbled, pocketing her phone and running off to the changing rooms with the hope that he was there.
Max was in the changing rooms, but unfortunately for Steph, so was Josh. She quickly messaged the group and stepped inside.
“That was a shit game, Maxie.”
Maybe coming inside wasn’t the best idea Steph had had. His dad sounded pissed.
“No! It’s a great match, we’re halfway and already two goals up!”
“It should be more.”
Steph could hear Max wince as she crept closer.
“I-I can get more goals in the second half- ngk!”
Able to now peek around the corner, Steph’s eyes widened at the sight of Josh holding his son by the throat. He might’ve been a little shorter than Max, but he was clearly strong enough to do serious damage.
“You’d better, Maxie,” Josh growled quietly, “if you don’t fucking murder those Chemists, don’t think about coming home.”
Max managed a meek nod and his dad let him go, not caring about the teen spluttering on the bench as he left. Steph waited until Max had his breath back before she walked in the side entrance.
“See why I think your dad’s shit?”
Max jolted. “FUCK! Holy shit- Steph, don’t fucking do that!” Steph shrugged. “You fucking follow me?”
“I rang you and got no answer, so yeah, kinda.” Max coughed once and Steph sat next to him. “That’s physical abuse, y’know?”
“Yeah…” he sighed, “not a lot I can do about it though.”
Steph was dumbfounded. “Dude, there have been assemblies about this? And ads? And there’s phone numbers on posters, like, ALL around the school?”
“There are?” Max looked back at her, equally dumbfounded. Steph nodded. “Huh…guess I never noticed.”
“You’ve been in the assemblies, right?”
“Well, yeah, but I didn’t pay attention.”
“Oh my god, you’re so stupid.”
Steph shook her head with a grin, looking back at Max to see that he was smiling too.
“Not that stupid. I saw the posters sometimes, but I never thought about them. Just didn’t think they were the right thing for me, y’know? There are people who’ve got it worse.” He shrugged it off, seemingly willing to let things continue as they were. Steph couldn’t do that.
“I can…tell my dad? No- forget that, that’s dumb. He wouldn’t bother to help if it didn’t help him get elected again. The principal maybe?” They shared a look. “Yeah, that’s even more dumb. God, why are adults so useless?”
“So that we don’t get more power than they do?” Max offered.
Steph nodded, “Sounds about right.”
Outside, the bell for the match to start rang, startling the two. As Max scrambled to get there in time, Steph called out to him.
“Good luck!”
He sent her a thumbs up and Steph smiled.
N3RDZ!
4:42pm
Steph: guys we need to get to max at the end of the game
Ruth: k, what happened?
Ruth: you were gone the whole break
Steph: talking to max
Steph: his dads a massive dick
Steph: like chokeholding his own kid massive dick
Pete <3: Holy shit. That’s fucked up.
Steph: ye he was threatnin him n everythn
Grace: Well, he’s definitely not getting into Heaven with that kind of behaviour.
Pete <3: …Sure.
Pete <3: Anyway, why do we need to find Max at the end?
Steph: so his dad dosent get to him first
Grace: *Doesn’t
Steph: not rn grace
Grace: But spelling is important!
Steph: we all in?
Ruth: yeppers
Pete <3: Yeah, I’m in.
Grace: I’ll see you all at the end.
Steph: richie?
4:45pm
Richie: sorry ye I’m in too (✿◠‿◠)
In the end, the score was 3-1 to the Nighthawks, and everyone was happy about it apart from the Chemists and Josh, of course. However, the man couldn’t get to his son because of the crowd around him, so instead he decided to wait it out to berate his waste of space son on the abysmal performance. When Max did finally come out of the crowd, it was to go back to the changing rooms with Richie and the team to get showered and changed, and a group followed behind them to wait outside.
All four of them noticed Josh lingering and whispered a quick plan about what they were going to do to avoid him when Max returned. At first, it worked nicely enough, but then the elder Jägerman appeared from around a corner and the group stopped in their tracks.
“We won.” Max spoke before anyone else could, staring his dad down. Josh stared back.
“Barely.”
“Actually, it was 3-1, so I’d say two goals up is more than barely.” Grace interjected, getting looks from the nerds to shut up. Josh just laughed.
“You get a girl to talk for you? C’mon, Maxie, I raised you better than that.”
“She’s right though. We won and we won good.” His dad didn’t seem to like this answer, moving forward at a pace that told Steph he was going to start throwing punches. She moved in front of Max the same time Pete did, blocking the man from getting close. He stopped, clearly confused.
“Get the fuck outta the way. This is between me and my son.”
“H-He’s our friend,” Pete stammered, “that makes this between y-you and all of us.”
Steph was so proud. She would’ve smiled had it not been for the bully in front of them, who grinned at the tremble in Pete’s voice.
“Scared, little nerd boy?” The tone made Steph really want to punch this guy. “Why don’t you run to your mommy?”
“HEY!” Steph and Pete jumped when Max shouted. “Shut up!” And now Max was in front of them.
“Max, don’t…” Richie warned, knowing that the stance Max had was the one he often used before punching someone, but Max seemed not to hear this. Instead, he stood between the nerds and his dad like a shield.
“‘Max, don’t!’ Whiny bitch,” the man taunted, apparently pleased with himself until Max punched him in the face. He was clearly furious about this, glaring up at Max with possible intent to kill.
“The fuck!? Are you…protecting these nerds? Heh, that’s pretty useless of you, Maxie-”
Anything else he might have said was interrupted by Max laying into his dad and the nerds rushing to hold him back. The five together just about managed it, both Jägermans shouting at each other over the approaching murmur of students and Max shrugged the hands off him. He didn’t go back to punching Josh since the man hadn’t bothered to get up and they were both bloodied anyway.
“These nerds are my friends, dad,” said Max to the incredulous spluttering of his father, “and I don’t want you insulting them like that.”
“What? Even the metal head braces kid?”
“Especially Ruth.” Max shot back, causing Ruth to blush behind him. She’d never had anyone that adamant about it before. “That’s her name, by the way. They’ve got names, dad. Ruth and Richie and Pete and Steph and Grace. Leave them alone.” The student crowd was growing now, getting curious at the fact that the renowned school bully was being nice to the nerds. He knows their names! Steph watched them for a moment, spotting Reece and PJ at the edge looking back with astounded expressions, then she stepped up next to Max.
“And by the way, I’m not taken with Max. He’s my friend, not my boyfriend. Learn the difference.” When Pete appeared next to her, she held his hand and sent him a soft smile that he easily returned. Richie and Ruth then stood on the other side of Max, clearly still a little wary of the man on the ground but standing there anyway.
“Not Brenda either.” Max stated, glancing to the two in the crowd. “She’s with Kyle and that’s cool.”
“Maxie-”
“Another thing,” Steph interrupted when Max’s expression darkened, “maybe don’t use the wrong name for your own kid next time?” It had been during the punch-up that they’d heard Max telling his dad to stop calling him ‘Maxie’ like he was a little kid.
“Kinda like dead-naming,” Richie said, with Ruth nodding next to him.
“Yeah, super not cool,” she added. Obviously, this just angered Josh further as he struggled to get up. Max just kicked him down again despite the protest of his friends. The murmuring from the students grew louder as the principal of the school came through, dispersing the crowd with threats of double homework as he made his way to the group in the middle, but the student body had seen now that Max wasn’t the same as before. He’d made friends – nerd friends – and shielded them from his own father. That earned him respect from the rest of the students.
Things were explained to the principal, Detective Shapiro was contacted, and Max had to stay at the school for a while to answer questions about his dad. When he was done, Josh Jägerman had been arrested for the night to undergo extra questioning and a social worker had been contacted to drop by the following day, and going outside felt like stepping into a different timeline. He sat on a bench for a few minutes to try and process what had happened. He could finally be free of his dad. The next few years didn’t look quite so bleak anymore. Steph made herself known again, offering him a gentle smile.
“How’d it go?”
“Kinda shit.”
“Yeah, figured.”
Silence stretched between them.
“Want me to drive you home?”
Max shook his head. “Nah, not really feeling like going there, y’know? ‘S’just a house I live in.”
“Well…wanna come to mine? Dad’s at Miss Tessburger’s for some ‘extra detail work, Stephanie’ so y’know. House is gonna be empty anyway.”
He looked at her, a little surprised, but only saw a genuine offer.
“You’re not going to Pete’s?”
Steph snorted, “It’s not like I’m there all the time. Nah, his brother’s home so it’d be super weird, and I don’t really like the guy anyway.”
“…Alright then, sure.” Max smiled back at her and she walked him to her car. “You totally drew the short straw, didn’t you?”
“What?” Her tone of voice told Max that he’d caught her out and he grinned wider. “Ugh, fine. Yeah, sorta, but it’s not like that’s a bad thing. Ruth’s parents are clearing out the house for the holidays so it looks like a bombsite apparently. Pete lives with his brother in an apartment so, like I said, weird, and Richie is staying at his uncle’s place tonight so also weird. Oh, and Grace said she couldn’t because her parents don’t want her bringing any boys home, then she said something Bible related and I just zoned out to be honest. Plus, this way, it’ll be like when we were kids, you remember?”
He did, now that he was actually thinking about it. Max used to go over to Steph’s a lot when they were still sort of friends. Now they were actual friends and he couldn’t be happier about it.
N3RDZ!
6:37pm
Steph: plan successful
Ruth: HELL YEAH!!
Ruth: WE ROCK
Richie: ♪☆＼(^０^＼) ♪(／^-^)／☆♪
Pete <3: He’s at yours?
Steph: in car now
Pete <3: WHY ARE YOU TEXTING AND DRIVING!?
Pete <3: OMG STEPH NO
Steph: relax we just sat outside in car
Pete <3: Thank fuck. Don’t scare me like that.
Steph: lol
Grace: Well done everyone!
HAISKOOL IS KILLING US
6:40pm
Max: thx 4 2day guyz
Max: preciate it
Steph: anytime max
Grace: Of course!
Grace: If you need any typing or spelling lessons, let me know.
Max: ???
Max: whut?
Steph: dw bout it
Steph: grace dosent txt speech
Max: oh k
Richie: ofc Max anytime (〃^∇^)ﾉ
Pete <3: I wouldn’t say “any” time. If I was asleep then no, but sure. Glad you’re out of there, Max.
Ruth: nah Pete, I’d totally come break down ur door to get u out here
Pete <3: I can always rely on you to be violent to my front door, Ruth.
Ruth: :p
Max: XD
Max: thx yall :)