Chapter Two: Change

Annie walked through the parking lot away from Steve's car and towards the middle school. As soon as she had left his car Nancy walked up. She had waved at Annie, who waved back, before taking the seat Annie had just been in.

Then, as she walked away, a loud screeching noise rang through the parking lot. Annie turned quickly and made sure she wasn't in the line of fire when she saw a blue sports car coming into the parking lot.

It came to a sudden halt in a spot before the doors opened up and the people came out. From the passenger side, a girl around Annie's age with long red hair. From the driver side, a guy about Steve's age with a blonde permed mullet.

Rather than staring, like almost every teenage girl in the vicinity, Annie turned and kept walking to school. She could ask Steve about all of it later.

Inside the middle school halls, there wasn't much chatter about the new people. Instead, lots of people planning their Halloweens and thinking up who might have the best costume. When she arrived at Holly's locker, her and Meghan were doing the same thing.

"Ooh! Annie! We were thinking up when we should meet at your place. Do you know when Steve is leaving?" Holly asked the second Annie got up to them.

She thought for a second. "I'm not entirely sure, he still hasn't mentioned if he's doing anything. But you know he won't care if you guys come over and we all get ready," Annie said.

Holly closed her locker and the girls got into their formation as they walked down the hall to the next locker: Meghan's. "We know, but there's still the question of what time are we going to meet," Meghan mentioned as she turned the lock.

Annie nodded. "Well, we could all just go over to mine after your soccer practice? We can just hang out and stuff before we get ready," Annie suggested as she shrugged.

As Meghan opened the door and grabbed her stuff, Annie heard a couple girls walking past talking about a new kid at the school. "Did you guys here about the new kid?" Annie asked, turning back to the others.

Meghan closed her locker door and they started walking to Annie's. "Yeah," Holly answered. "Apparently they came in this really cool car and there's two of them."

"I only know that much, too," Meghan added. "Hope they're cool. I mean, they're going to be the center of attention anyways so might as well look good doing it."

Annie's gears were turning. "Maybe we should be friends with them. Whoever they are, they moved to a small town and might not know anyone. And, they might be cool," she brought up.

Holly looked thrilled. "Ooh, yes! I love meeting new people," she said.

Annie had to appreciate Holly's ray-of-sunshine attitude. It was nice and refreshing no matter what was going on in Annie's life. Her parents' issues were bad enough to deal with so it was good to have Holly there being positive. Meghan and Annie talked one day when Holly was out of town about how they really needed her positivity to function.

"You literally just... adopt people and create happy little families," Meghan added with a small laugh. "I mean, I love it, but I hope this new person understands what they might be getting into."

Annie laughed and stopped in front of her locker with the two behind her. "I'm pretty sure that's how I met you, Meg- through Holly." She looked back and Holly nodded her confirmation.

They talked a bit more while Annie grabbed her books when the bell rang. "We better get going," Meghan mentioned. To save time, Holly and Meghan started walking to their class and waved a short goodbye to Annie.

Annie closed her locker and was getting ready to head to her class when a the vice principal came up to her. "Ms. Harrington, may I speak with you in the office?" he asked. She rarely ever saw the man, so she didn't know what his name was. She'd have to look and see if it's somewhere.

She didn't have a reason she'd be in trouble, so she just nodded her head. "Yeah of course. Is anything wrong?" She thought about if maybe Steve or her parents had anything they might need to tell her, but that didn't make sense either.

The vice principal shook his head. "No, just need you for a moment." The lack of explanation ticked Annie off a bit, but she didn't comment and followed him down to the office. On the outside were the names of the principal and vice principal: David Wilson and Richard Collins. So it was Mr. Collins leading her at this moment. Cool.

Inside, there was the girl with long red hair from before. Mr. Wilson was there, and smiled at Annie as she came in. "Hello Ms. Harrington. I bet you're wondering why you're in here?" he asked.

Annie nodded and glanced at the other girl, who she observed was wearing jeans and a red zip-up jacket. There was a skateboard under one arm and a backpack slung over the other shoulder.

"You'll be showing our new student, Maxine, around the school. You have the same schedules so we thought it made the most sense." Annie nodded and after a couple more formalities, she, Maxine, and the principal were off.

First, they had to stop by her new locker so she could drop her skateboard off. It was kindly suggested she not have it in the halls. Then, they were off to their science class with Mr. Clarke.

"So, Maxine, where did you live before here?" Annie asked. She was desperate for a little conversation with this cool, new girl. Maybe it would be her turn to adopt someone into her friend group.

She didn't answer right away, and Annie was ready to just walk in silence. "Max." Annie's head snapped up and looked over at the other girl. "I prefer Max. And California."

Moving her head facing front again, Annie smiled. "Nice to meet you, Max."

They made it to Mr. Clarke's and Mr. Wilson let them both go inside. Annie led while Max followed right behind. As they came around the corner, Annie noticed everyone staring at them. Her cheeks became pink and she looked back at Max.

"Ah, this must be our new student," Mr. Clarke said as they came in. Annie and Max moved to walk away quickly and sit down, but Mr. Clarke had other plans. "All right, hold up. You don't get away that easy."

Max stopped and Annie hesitated for a moment herself. "You can go ahead and sit, thank you Annie," Mr. Clarke said. She looked at Max with a sympathetic smile before going to her seat in the back. Luckily, at least there was a seat next to her she was hoping Max would take.

Annie had to pause for a second, wondering why she was so hopeful... but then shook it off and zoned back in. She was excited for a new friend, probably.

"Dustin, drum roll." Dustin started to smack his textbook to get the desired effect Mr. Clarke wanted for his introduction. "Class, please welcome, all the way from sunny California, the latest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage, Maxine!"

Dustin topped it off with one final smack and then Max came in to correct him. "It's Max. Nobody calls me Maxine," she said. Annie felt bad for her, it was super awkward to be in front of everyone having like this. They all had to do it on their first day of class and she hated it.

She heard some whispers and saw Lucas, Dustin, Will, and Mike sharing looks and whispers. It was hard to hear what they were saying exactly, but she figured it may have been about Max- not too many people moved here.

Max walked back and sat in the empty seat next to Annie. She smiled and the redhead gave a tight smile back, then looked forward. Annie did too, and they both saw the previously mentioned group of four staring at Max.

It was creepy, and they finally looked away. Annie glanced at Max to see her looking away, and she figured the other girl had given the boys some look to get them to stop.

The class kept going, talking about the human brain and all that. Per usual, Annie doodled during the class. Alongside her galaxy and garden, she decided to be somewhat on-theme with the class and draw a brain. It looked a bit funny, but she liked it well enough.

When class was over, Annie shoved everything in her bag and got up as Max did. "So, next class?" she asked the other girl. There was an air of coolness to Max's presence that freaked Annie out just a little bit.

Max nodded, and they avoided the stares of the boys as they walked out of the room. "A couple of my other friends are in that class. I can't wait for you to meet them," Annie said, looking to see what Max thought of it.

She nodded, again. "Cool."

Annie had no idea how to read Max, so she decided to give an introduction to each friend. "Well, there's Holly who is super sweet and super positive all the time. It can be a lot sometimes, but she means well and is great to be around. Then there's Meghan, who's on the soccer team here- Oh! And her mom makes some of the best foods. She's Latina- well, her mom is- Meghan is half but anyways, her mom sends Holly and I food to try. I'm sure she'd get some to you, too."

Then, she stopped talking. Max looked over at her, confused. "What's wrong?"

A blush rose to Annie's cheeks and she shook her head. "Sorry, I just... I ramble sometimes when I'm nervous or when it's quiet because I hate the quiet." She wasn't going to tell Max this, but the quiet made her think of the nights her room would be silent and she could hear her parents arguing downstairs, sometimes with Steve. She didn't like quiet.

"Oh, no, you're okay. I like hearing about this stuff considering I'm new and don't really know what's going on..." Max trailed off. They were quiet for a moment, then Max spoke again. "I can't wait to meet Holly and Meghan. They sound cool."

And Max wasn't lying. At first, she was hesitant about Annie. She came off as one of the super cheerful girls who always ended up being a cheerleader in high school. But then they walked to class and Max realized she was kinda cool and not at all overwhelming. Maybe her friend Holly would be, but she wasn't worried. New school in a small town was awful- she was glad to have a friend.

"We're friends, right?" Max asked all of a sudden.

Annie sputtered for a second then smiled. "Yeah, yeah we are. We'll just have to wait to get to know each other more at lunch since we're here," she answered, and then gestured to the door in front of her.

The two girls walked in and saw that Holly and Meghan were already there. Annie had totally forgot that the seat beside her was empty, so she told Max about it. "You can sit there if you want since no one sits there anymore."

Max appreciated it and sat down, followed by Annie sitting. The two girls then turned to the other two, who looked excited. "Holly, Meghan, this is Max. She's new here and we've got the same schedule, so we've been hanging out today."

Holly quickly held her hand out for a handshake. "I'm Holly, it's great to meet you!" Max met the handshake.

Meghan just gave a small wave. "I'm Meghan." Max nodded back at her.

She didn't mind Annie's friends at all. They were kind and not as overbearing as she thought they might be- she was pleasantly surprised, like she was with Annie. It occurred to her that it might not be that bad here.

A few minutes after the bell rang, the teacher came in and got started with class, only briefly acknowledging Max by saying she had good timing with her arrival, as the class was starting a new assignment.

Like the last class, Annie sat and doodled. She decided since the last time she was in this class she drew and ocean scene, she went with a mountain scene this class. It looked like this would be the final doodle to fill the page and she's have to start a new one the next day.

Max could kind of see around Annie's arm and saw the drawings that filled her page. She noticed them in the last class, too. She thought they were pretty cool.

The bell rang and they got ready for the next class, Algebra. Max sat on the other side of Annie and watched as she drew more- this time it was a garden on the opposite side of the page from a preexisting one.

By lunch, Max was smiling some. "Do you want to hang out with us?" Holly offered. "We usually grab lunch and then sit with Meghan- she brings her own food."

Max thought about it, kind of wanting to go outside and hang out instead. "Do we get time to go outside?" she asked.

Annie nodded quickly. "Oh yeah, some time after lunch. But that's when Meghan usually goes to soccer practice and sometimes Holly and I join her." Max nodded along. "But you can do whatever you want, it's cool."

They got their food and sat down with Meghan. "You got any snacks today?" Annie asked. She knew there wouldn't be a miraculous third one for Max, so she planned to split whatever it was with her.

Meghan nodded and pulled two Tupperware out of her lunch box. "There's some jicama with lime and some seasoning on it. A bit on the healthier side," she explained as she handed Annie and Holly their snacks.

Max looked confused. "What jicama?" she asked.

"Uhh I think it's a vegetable but it sort of tastes like an apple?" Meghan tried to explain. Once Annie had the container open, she gave three of the jicama sticks to Max, putting them on her tray.

Holly and Annie started to dive in, making some conversation as well with Meghan about their classes. Max looked at the snack first. She tried a small bite and was surprised by how much she enjoyed it.

To her side, Annie discreetly watched as Max ate more and more, and smiled to herself. She was glad Max was fitting in okay.

For most of lunch, Max just listened to what the others talked about. She didn't know how to keep up conversation with them yet- sometimes it was like their mouths were going a mile a minute and Max could barely keep her thoughts up.

Holly and Meghan got into a small argument about something, so Annie took the chance to look at Max and see how she was doing. "You okay over there?" Annie asked, quietly as to not draw the others' attention.

Snapped out of her thoughts, Max looked over to Annie and saw her concern. "Yeah, no, I'm all good. Just... listening," she said with a nod.

She was still a bit concerned, but Annie knew it was probably just her processing everything going on. So, she nodded. But rather than going back to her previous conversation, she wanted to involved Max more. "What do you think of class so far?" Annie asked.

Part of her was worried Max wasn't going to be up for conversation, and she was worried that she wouldn't want to be social at all. Of course, Annie should respect that, but there was something in her that didn't want to just "abandon' Max in this new place.

"They're all kinda boring, honestly," Max answered, surprising Annie just a little bit. She wasn't anticipating an actual conversation, but she was thrilled to have one. "I noticed you drawing in each class, so I guess you think the same thing?"

Annie blushed and looked away for a second. It wasn't that she was embarrassed to be caught drawing, it was just never something she conversed about. "Yeah," she answered while awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck. "Somehow I still manage to pass the classes, so that's good I guess." Annie started to smile as she looked back at Max.

"Yeah, otherwise I feel like your parents might not appreciate it," Max said back with a small laugh. But Annie's face fell at the comment, because she didn't think her parents even knew what classes she was in, let alone what grades she had in them. "Oh shit, I'm sorry," Max immediately apologized.

Annie shook her head and tried to put another smile on her face. "No, it's okay." But then she doesn't say any more.

Now she felt like shit. Of course she screws up the only friend she has going for her so far. It's either Annie or the stalker boys from that science class- the choice was kinda obvious to her.

In a salvation attempt, Max decided to go back to the drawings. She liked how happy Annie got when she first brought them up and wants desperately to get back there and out of the weirdly personal and depressing bubble she created.

"So, do you draw a lot other than in class? Cause it's really good- you totally should," Max said, stumbling over some words trying to fix this.

This did cause Annie to smile again, and Max felt relieved. "I mean, I don't do like, paintings and big stuff like that. I do have an old sketchbook I like to draw in sometimes but I don't think I'd ever call it that good," Annie admitted.

The only compliments Annie ever got on her drawings were a few off-hand 'that's cute's from Holly and Meghan, and then a few from Steve. But that was it. Max saw the obvious disbelief in the goodness of Annie's work.

"Oh come on, those were awesome!" Max said, a little loud and regaining the other girls' attention. Annie blushed deeper, and if Max kept up her compliments her face would be the shade of her new friend's hair.

Meghan joined in the conversation. "What's up?" she asked.

At first, Max wanted to drop the conversation now that all the attention was on her. However, she stopped that kind of thinking and said, "Annie doesn't believe me when I say her drawings are more than just okay- they're great!"

There Annie goes, her cheeks flushing even darker now that Holly and Meghan were starting their tirade of compliments.

"Are you kidding me, Annie? They're amazing!"

"No way you're selling yourself short- girl they're so cute I love them!"

After a couple more seconds of similar phrases being thrown at her, the bell rang and signaled the end of lunch. Annie sighed to herself, thankful this was cut short. "Thanks guys, seriously, but it's time for Meg to go to practice! And no, you're not skipping."

Max smiled, but then was curious what she should do. There was a large part of her wanting to go outside with her skateboard and have some fun, but she also didn't want to abandon new friends.

It seemed that Annie decided. "You guys go, I'm gonna hang out with Max," she said. There was no questioning or glances, which made Max very happy. The other two just waved and walked away.

"I figured you might want to go out where the other students do when you asked earlier but didn't want to leave you to fend for yourself, so yeah..." Annie quickly explained. She felt like she was overstepping just a bit. "Let me know if you just want some you time and I'll head with the others and find you before our next class."

Max quickly shook her head. "No no, it's cool. It's just... do you mind if I grab my skateboard and skate around?" she asked, not wanting to ignore the other girl.

Annie nodded while smiling. "Yeah, sounds great, let's do it!"

They were outside, Annie sitting on a ramp watching Max do some really cool stuff on her skateboard. Her arms rested on the railing on front of her. "How long did it take you to learn how to skateboard?" Annie suddenly asked when Max was nearby.

The redhead shrugged and thought about it. "I don't really know. I kinda feel like I've been doing it forever and just learn along the way how to get better," she replied while doing some other random things. Annie didn't know the names of the things she was doing.

As she watched Max, she didn't realize there were others watching, chattering to themselves trying to figure it out.

Max suddenly went over to Annie and said, "Let's go." There was no time to explain, as Max started write something super quick. Annie slipped under the rail and then Max grabbed her arm and pulled Annie after her.

Annie ignored the goosebumps that rose up.

"What's going on?" she finally asked as they walked up some stairs. She watched Max drop the paper she wrote on in the trash before they both went inside. "What was that about?" Annie tried again.

"Those boys from the science class were stalking us. I left them a note to leave us alone," she said with a smile.

Annie laughed, and knowing who the stalkers were made it even better.

A/n: hello again! Thank you for coming back for chapter two! I'll see you tomorrow for chapter 3 :)