Janessa's View

For the first time in forever, Isla and I are hanging out after school at Max's house. His dad greeted us quickly, then grabbed ahold of his wife's hand and pulled her away, whispering urgently. Isla and I looked at Max, but he just shrugs and we move away from them, going back to his room.

"Wow, how long has it been since we were in here?" Isla asks, hopping onto his bed and grabbing his stuffed penguin.

"Hey!" Max grabs the penguin and carefully places him on a shelf, even patting his head before turning back to us.

Isla snorts. "You don't still sleep with Woof, do you?"

Max turns red. "No!"

"You totally do." I tease.

"No, I don't! Can we not talk about this?" Max pleads.

"It's okay, Max. I still sleep with Pickle-Lilac the purple minotaur." Isla says, not at all ashamed. Max and I both laugh, then all sit on Max's bed together.

"But seriously---when was the last time we were here?" I ask, looking around. "Because I distinctly remember your room being red, not... this." I gesture around to the ocean-colored walls, complete with a sandy bottom around the trim. The ocean-colors start deep blue, but fade to sky-teal-ish blue at the top.

Max smiles proudly. "I did that. A few weeks ago. I got super bored, and the red was kind of stressing me out, so I went and bought a bunch of paint."

"Yeah, I figured---but why?" Isla asks. "Why an ocean?"

Max looks around, shrugging. "It makes me happy."

"You mean, no particular reason behind an ocean in particular?" I prod.

Max's eyes won't meet ours, the key that he's hiding something. "Not really."

"Mm-hmm." Isla says, flopping onto her stomach and looking at Max with a skeptical expression. "Now what's the real reason?"

Max's face slowly flushes pink, then bright red. "Fine, nosy people. I went to Atlantica over the summer, but while my family was under the ocean in actual Atlantica, I spent my time on beaches doing this." He gets off his bed, squats down to the floor, and pries up a loose floorboard.

Isla gasps. "You're Harry Potter!"

Max rolls his eyes, producing a wrapped bundle of something. "I don't keep cake or homework under here, Isla."

Isla shrugs, holding her arms out. "Gimme gimme gimme."

Max hugs them protectively to his chest, glaring at the two of us. "Promise not to make fun."

Isla's jaw drops. "Wow. This is serious."

"Max, we're your friends." I tell him. "I can promise that if it means this much to you, we'll try not to make fun."

Max hesitates for a second longer, then holds the bundle out. Isla snatches them from him, unwrapping it like a kid on Christmas morning. Her face goes slack. "Oh. My. Peanut. Butter. Bananas."

"What?" I demand, moving beside her to look as well. "Oh, sweet green Jell-O."

"You guys have the weirdest curses." Max says, sitting down and crossing his arms.

"Max..." I whisper, gently touching one. Because within this bulky package, there are dozens of amazing paintings of all sorts of different schemes of the same beach. A night sky reflecting off of the cresting waves, a sunrise (or sunset, not sure) on a group of mermaid's black outlines splashing around, a storm with lightning striking right into the horizon of a turbulent sea, and a perfectly calm sea with a baby-blue sky and three figures on the beach---one with purple hair, one with blue fire coming out of her hands, and one in the middle with their arms around the other two.

"That's not all." Max says quietly, sounding excited now. He takes the paintings out, showing that underneath there are two notebooks---one labeled "Ideas" and one labeled "Writing".

"Can I read?" Isla asks in a hushed voice, reaching for the first one. Max nods, and she takes it like it's the One Ring from Lord of the Rings. Leafing through it, her jaw drops. "You wrote these?" She asks, looking up in awe.

Max nods. "They're just ideas. I don't start most of them, but the ones I do, I start here," He taps the second notebook. "until I can get back to my computer."

"Max, this is insane." I say breathlessly. "When did you start doing this?"

"Last year." Max shrugs, looking a little guilty. "After you guys found me after that game, I went home and practically had another breakdown. I fell asleep, and had this really crazy dream about a weird world with some sickness named after Rapunzel's kingdom---that one was crazy, I never wrote that one down---but after I woke up, I just... needed to do something. So I got on my computer, opened a new page, and started writing random nonsense that I was thinking about."

"Really? Like this one?" Isla points to the page. "Hallway. Doll. Mayor. Cheeseburger?"

Max laughs. "Yeah, that one's good. That's a murder mystery called 'The Marionette of Holloway County'. Anyway, I was writing random stuff, and I all of a sudden looked at my clock and realized it was four hours later, and I'd been writing a full-on short story."

"So... you write?" I ask. "And draw, apparently?"

"And act." Max says quietly. "When we were in Atlantica, I auditioned for something just to see if I'd get in. I didn't, but the people running it said I was just a little too young for that role, but that they had considered changing it for me."

"And the painting?"

"It's very relaxing." Max says. "I didn't actually start painting until Atlantica, because I was bored of going to stuff with my parents and was just sitting on the beach, then noticed how amazing everything was. So I watched a few online videos, botched about fifteen different paintings, and then came out with these." He pats the canvases.

"Okay, that is freaking awesome." Isla says. "I order you to come do something like this to my room in the future."

Max snorts. "I'll do it without the order, Your Highness. What about you, Jan?"

I shrug, thinking of the scribbles on my wall. "I think I'm good."

"Max?" Isla quietly says. "Have you talked to you-know-who yet?"

"What, so Brietta is Voldemort?" Max asks, laughing. He takes the paintings and notebooks, wraps them up again, and carefully stores them under his floor.

Isla's eyes narrow at him. "That is a very good attempt to change the subject, but I am too committed! No! I mean your parents, you stupid Muggle."

"You're a Muggle too!"

Isla raises her hands, green magic flowing off of them.

"That's not witch magic!" Max argues.

Isla glares at him and swats his knee. "Stop changing the subject, dork! You haven't talked to them, have you?"

Max's head ducks down, and he doesn't answer.

"Max." I say sadly. "The game is in a week. You need to say something. I mean, look at this!" I gesture around his room and then to the floorboard. "Have they seen this stuff?"

Max shakes his head silently. "I don't think they'd like this, Jan. They're all about... you know."

"But what if those actor-people do call you? What will you do then?" Isla asks.

"I don't know. I'd probably tell them then."

"Max, you need to say something. You can't hide stuff this awesome forever." I stand up, taking his hand. "Max. Max. Look up, Muggle."

He looks up, clearly resisting a smile. "What if we make a deal?" I ask.

"Deal?" Isla repeats excitedly. "What kind of deal?"

"I'll tell you guys something only two other people on this planet know about," I say confidently, while inside I'm screaming. "If---"

"If?" Isla and Max say together.

"If you both tell your parents the truth." I say firmly. Isla and Max looked horrified, but I just nod. "My secret's a... kind of personal one. You'll understand when I tell you. But after it, you have to swear you'll talk to your parents."

Isla starts biting on her lower lip. "Jan, I don't know. You shouldn't have to tell us something if you haven't already."

"Plus, I just told you about this," Max taps his floorboard, "So that kicks me out."

"No, you guys." I say. "I'm serious. We all need to do this. I'm... I want to tell you guys. And you guys need to tell your parents. So... are we doing this?"

Max and Isla look at one another. Then, Isla sighs. "Fine. Max?"

He nods shakily. "Fine. But just know, Jan, if at any point you don't want to tell us your secret anymore---"

"Ah-ah-ah!" I say, my voice a bit higher already. "No backing out."

"No backing out." Isla and Max chorus miserably.

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My computer is humming now... so I've officially spent too much time on this chapter XD

Hope you enjoyed!