"Oh, I think I'm going to cry" Kade said as he continued to fix Max's hair.

"Ugh, I don't even understand why you have to do this. It's just a photo" Max grumbled.

"It's your graduation photo Maxi, it's gonna be all over the house. Do you really want an ugly photo of you framed on the wall?" Ares asked and Max just continued to sulk as Kade finished his hair.

I looked at him in awe when he stood out of his seat. Max was wearing a black tuxedo that Lance had pretty much forced him to wear and his hair was neatly styled so that it would stayed out of his face. I could see Max reach up to touch his hair but Kade smacked it away with the comb in his hand.

"Don't touch it, I just spent an hour on it!" Kade whined.

"You don't have to remind me" Max said as he clutched his hand to his chest.

"My baby is really graduating. I don't think I can deal" Kade said as he wiped at the tears forming in his eyes.

"Can you save the tears for the actual graduation?" Ares said with a short laugh.

"I'm sorry, it's just that I keep thinking that once Max's graduation is over then next comes Ceres' and I don't think I'm ready for that" Kade said as he sat down and started fanning himself.

"Oh yeah, he's going to have a ball when you're time to shine comes around" Ares said looking to me.

Well, Kade has three years to prepare himself. He should be ready by then, right?

"Your prom is coming up too, shit...we're gonna need a defibrillator" Ares muttered.

"Listen, can we go? If we sit around here waiting for Kade to pull himself together, I'm going to miss my time slot" Max said and that's when we had all headed off to school.

"Ross....what is all this?" I asked picking up the rubber duck that he had placed on my desk.

Since it was nearing the last weeks of school, the teachers had started asking us to clear out our lockers so that they can be cleaned for next year. I didn't have much in my own locker other than my textbooks that have to be eventually returned to the teachers.

Ross however seemed to have all different kinds of things in his locker.

"Well, sometimes I get tired of carrying things in my bag so I just put them in my locker to make my bag lighter...I guess I forgot how much stuff was actually in there" Ross said.

"And you put it on my desk because...?" I asked trailing off as I looked at all the junk that was on the desk.

There was a rubber ducky, a half eaten sandwich, a butter knife (I don't even want to know), and a bunch of papers that went ungraded because Ross failed to hand them in. And this was just the stuff that could fit on my desk.

"Why is there a half eaten sandwich in your locker?" Hayden asked with a disgusted expression.

"Oh that? It isn't mine. I used to keep a puppy in my locker but then one day I came back and he wasn't there anymore" Ross said and we all gaped at him.

"Why did you keep a puppy in your locker?!" Diana exclaimed.

"It looked like it was abandoned so I tried to take care of it..." he said.

Hayden gave a sigh.

"Did it have a collar on it?" He asked.

"I don't know, I can't really remember" Ross said as he pulled a thinking expression.

"That puppy probably had an owner..." I said with a shake of my head.

"Well, wherever it is now, it still should've thrown the sandwich out or at least finish eating it before up and leaving like that" Ross said and I just wanted to smack my forehead at Ross' stupidity.

"I can't believe we're almost finished with our first year" Diana said as she looked at all her things on her desk.

"Mm...yeah. So much has happened this year" I said but I was mainly speaking about my situation.

Meeting the family I didn't know I had really changed me. I never expected that I would become as attached to them as I am now and I'm truly grateful to have met them. They were all so kind and even though they argued a lot, it was clear to me to me that it was just proof of how much they loved one another.

And now it seems that I've also come to love each and every one of them very much.

"It makes you think what next year will bring, right?" Diana said and I gave a small smile with a nod.

"Yes, I am looking forward to it" I said.

"Ross, that's disgusting!" We turned our heads to see Ross holding something out to Hayden who just backed away with a look of pure disgust on his face.

"Oh come on, it isn't that bad. It's just a little left overs" Ross said and I could swear that Hayden's face turned green.

"Your brother's lunch being left in your locker for half a year is a bad thing!" Hayden said and Ross grinned before beginning to chase Hayden around with the spoiled lunch.

"They're going to get in trouble" I said with a sigh.

"Let's just finish cleaning our things" Diana said and I followed her smart lead.

~ That Weekend, Third P.O.V~

It was hot.

Way too hot.

Ares was lying on one couch and on the other couch that was across from him, laid Max who was currently melting into a puddle of sweat despite the fact that he was right in front of the AC.

He was also preventing Ares from feeling any of the cool air.

"Max...move out the way" Ares said as he weakly glared at Max. As a response, Max slowly put his arms up in the air and made them in to an 'X' shape which made Ares frown.

He grabbed the closest thing next to him, which was a pillow, and threw it but because of Ares' lack of strength due to the heat, the pillow didn't make it very far.

"Come on, Max" Ares groaned but this doesn't faze Max as he moves his body even closer to the AC, officially blocking the only air coming to Ares.

'Fucking little jerk...' Ares thought.

Max felt his phone ring in his pocket and without thinking much, he picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Can you move from in front of the AC?"

Max frowned and turned his head to see Ares just staring at him with his phone held to his ear.

"Why are you calling me?" Max asked.

Ares found himself trying his best to not get annoyed at Max in this heat but Max was making it pretty hard for him.

"Because you're in the way and it's hot" Ares said as he threw another pillow at Max but this time with a little more force. Ares grinned when seeing the pillow hit Max in the face and he watched as Max fell off of the couch.

Much better.

Ares sighed in relief when feeling the cool air that was previously being hogged, come his way.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Max said with a frown.

Ares just shook his head before closing his eyes, he wanted to let the cool feeling of the air take over him while he took a quick nap but his eyes snapped open when he felt that feeling disappear.

Ares turned his head only to see that Max had retreated right back into his earlier position and just let out a groan.

This was not a fight that he was winning today apparently.

•

•

•

"They look dead"

"Well, they're breathing so they can't be dead"

"Are you sure?"

"They're fine. The heat got to them that's all"

A poke on Ares' cheek made him open his eyes and when he did, he saw that Ceres and Lucas were standing over him and he figured that Ceres was the one that had poked his face.

Ares sat up but then frowned when he found himself covered in sweat.

"This one's alive" Lucas said as he looked over to Kade, Lance, and Roman.

"I don't think I can say the same for Max....he's a popsicle" Roman said as he put a hand against Max's skin and it was indeed frozen to the touch.

Ares' sudden laughter grabbed everyone's attention.

"That's what he gets for being a little jerk and hogging all the air" He said and stood up. For some reason, he was suddenly feeling energized.

"S-Shut u-up" Max said. His teeth were chattering and he tried to regain some warmth by rubbing his arms up and down. Ares just scoffed.

Serves him right.

"Have you guys been sitting like this all day?" Lance asked with a disapproving frown and Ares gave a slow nod, sensing that a lecture was soon coming.

A sneeze from Max was enough to break Lance's focus as he turned to Max.

"Damn it..." Max mumbled before sneezing again and again.

"Ah...here we go again" Roman said with a sigh and Ceres looked at him confusedly.

"What do you mean?" Ceres asked as Max sneezed once again.

"This happens at least once or twice every summer. When Max gets really hot, he lies in front of the AC and then gets sick and stays sick for the next couple of days" Kade explained.

"You don't have to tell my whole life story" Max grumbled as he hugged the blanket Kade had given to him tighter.

"Shouldn't you guys do something more productive?" Lance asked with a sigh. Max and Ares looked at each other.

"Productive?" They said in unison.

"Like exercising or reading a book" Lance said and the two grimaced.

"I would pass out after one second on the treadmill" Max said.

"My eyes will burn out of it's sockets after looking at a book for more than 3 seconds" Ares said right after.

"You two are hopeless" Lucas said.

"Max, have you even finished up all your assignments?" Lance asked and Max pursed his lips as he trailed his eyes away from his oldest brother.

"They'll get finished...eventually" Max said and had made sure to mutter the last part to hisself.

"Well, please find something better to do than lying around and making yourselves sick" Lance said before heading out of the living room.

"Hm...what does one do in the summer to be "productive" anyways? Summer time is meant for fun things and just relaxing" Ares said.

"I'm pretty sure Lance only said that because he doesn't want you guys lazing in front of the AC..." Roman said.

"Well, being productive is a tomorrow problem. For now, I'm going to take a shower" Ares said before heading up the stairs.

When Ceres thought about things to do in the summer, only one thing could pop into her mind.

The beach.

She really wanted to go and decided that maybe once school was finish, she'd suggest it.

[A/N: sorry for short chapter...I've been having writer's block recently ahhh. I will do my best to make the next chapter better and hopefully have it out to you faster! As always, thank you for reading, voting, and commenting. I'll see you guys in the next chapter!]