|JACI|

As he said we were, we pulled into the small parking lot of a cute little restaurant by the name of ‘Rosy’s Dinner’ which was in a eroded and worn red plastic and hung above the little roof over the double doored entryway.

“Here we are,” Max said looking back over his arm as he backed into his parking space.

Getting out of his truck we meet around the front and walked up to the doors. There were little trimmed rose bushes in the front beneath the windows, some of the rose vines climbing up the side of the building not minding anybody.

A light rain started to fall causing us to jog the rest of the way up to the door.

Max reached out in front of me opening the door politely for me and we were greeted with a little jingled of a old bell attached to the door.

“Is that who I think it is? Maximilian why are you not in school!?” A woman's voice hissed.

Out from the doorway behind the bar counter came a dull red haired women who had a waist apron tied around her and wore a red collared and sleeved dress beneath. her black plastic name tag read ‘Rosiline’.

“Hey Auntie...” Max said uncomfortably scratching at the back of his head.

“Oh you’re lucky I don’t call your Grandfather on you.” She rasped.

As humourous as this was the question dawned on me, His Grandfather? What about his parents?

“I er-” He fumbled.

“Shut your trap boy and introduce me to this beautiful young lady,” The women said hinting towards me.

“This is Jacinda. Jacinda this is my Aunt Ros-”

“You me you're the alpha’s daughter!” She rushed. “It’s such an honor here, take a seat and we’ll cook whatever you want right up for you here.”

Blush consumed my cheeks and I said shyly, “Oh no it’s fine. It’s nice to meet you and this is quite a cute little place you have here.”

“Well thank you. Seems like you got a good one here Maxy. I’ll be right back, find yourselves a seat.” Rosy said giving Max a pointed look before hurrying off to grab the menus.

Even though I was embarrassed with her comment about Max getting a good one I decided to ignore that and pick on him.

“So Maxy, where do you suggest we sit?”

Max groan and rolled his head around like his neck was sore. “Over here.”

“Alright...Maxy,” I teased skipping over to the little two person booth he had pointed to.

This time he rolled his eyes. “So, enough about me what is your deal with your brother and his beta?”

I attempted to hide my shock at him being able to detect the problem without really knowing me.

“None of your business.” I snapped.

He rolled his eyes, “Real convincing Jaci, but because I’m a good friend I’ll let it slide,” He said. Then he added, “for now.”

I rolled my eyes as Rosy showed up at our table with menu’s.

“So today our meal of the day is the Turkey and Potato as well as our famous pancakes and hash browns if you are having a breakfast tooth,” Rosy said indicating to where the meals were on the menu.

With a thanks and our drink orders the older women walked off to get them.

“So your aunt?” I asked indicatively.

He nodded his head. “Yep, my Aunt Rose and her husband-and mate-Uncle Jack have been running this place since I was about three.”

“Thanks cool,” I said truly interested. “Did you work here or do you?” I questioned.

Smiling his eyes had a light sparkle in them. “No, I’ll help here and there but not for pay.”

I nodded. “I’ve never needed a job, but I thought it would be cool to try it out.”

“Alpha funds keeping you from living the life of an employee?” Max joked.

I sighed. “Saying it like that makes me sound like a brat...I’m sorry.”

His joking tone dropped and concern flooded his face. “Sorry? You didn’t do anything, I was just kidding Jaci. I’m not going to act like I know what you’re going through as a child of an alpha.”

I gave him a half smile and Rosy came back asking what we wanted to eat.

After finishing eating the amazing food, I groaned as I felt the pain of eating too much.

“I’m going to explode. Literally! I’m going to die from the inside out and it’s all your doing!” I cried to Max.

He laughed at me. “Come on Fatty, we need to get back to school. We already missed fourth period.”

I snapped out of my whining and yelped out, “What?!”

He laughed at my utter shock.

“Come on Jaci, lets get you back to your kingdom of brilliance.”

Pushing ourselves up from the table I groan in annoyance.

“Shut up you idiot! My brothers going to flip his lid!”

Max made a noise of ‘oh’ and said, “Crap I forgot about that...Shite!”

“Shite?” I questioned as we headed towards the door to pay at the front desk.

He smiled shyly and shrugged. “I’m in the schools drama class so she wants our language to be as clean as possible.”

I let out a laugh as I whipped out my wallet to pay.

“Wow, what are you doing there?” He asked eyeing my wallet warily.

“I’m paying.” I said thoroughly perplexed.

He shook his head before saying, “No, no, no. I invited you and therefore I will pay.”

Max withdrew his wallet and pushed mine away as another worker came up to ring us up.

“That’ll be 23.59.” She said.

“Alright her-” Before Max could finish I stepped hard on his foot and quickly pulled out two twenties and gave it to the lady.

She started at me like I was insane but took the money from my hand then returned my change.

Taking the remaining money I put it in the tip jar. By now Max recovered from my attack and looked at me angrily.

“Come on little Maxy,”

☽✯☾

Once back at school we went our separate ways, mine to art and Max to drama.

In the art room Mrs. Fray who was by far my favorite teacher, was in the middle of a lecture. She stopped once I shyly walked in.

“Do you have a note Jaci?” She asked.

Embarrassment consumed me as everyone's eyes were locked on me. “Err...no?” I said sounding like a question.

She tried to keep a straight face but I could see the smile made its way on.

“Have a seat I will talk to you in a moment.”

I did as she said as she continued to talk about the next project. Finally she dismissed them to do their work and came back to me.

“Finally living a little?” She asked.

Mrs. Fray was younger, maybe her high twenties low thirties. She had brown hair that was often left in waves or a loose ponytail. She had green eyes and soft features.

I shrugged. “Kind of...”

“With who?” Her eyebrow was raised.

“His names Max, he has brown hair, doesn’t curse, in drama.” I made a list to describe him.

She smiled and nodded. “The drama teacher, Mrs. Lully, speaks very highly of him. Says he’s a brilliant prodigy in getting into character, which brings me to my next question. Mrs. Lully is in desperate need of a painter, and I said I know just the person for it. You are one of the best,” she said leaning in. “To be honest probably the best one here. So will you do it?”

“When all does this need to be done? And what needs to be done?” I asked, this peaking at my interest.

“Well, she said if you can start by this Wednesday this will go until the play is performed so thats in three weeks, on the Friday. She needs mainly the main background painted which is a sky and city street. They will move set pieces in front of the city part so you will still be able to see the sky. You can do it after school or during lunch whenever. She just asks that you have it done the Wednesday before the play.”

I nodded, “Alright. That should be good. I’ll check with my parents but it should be alright because my brother has practice so I’ll go home with him. Can I start today?” I asked.

She smiled brightly. “Yes, that would be good.”

“Ok, I should be ok for today but I’ll call my parents after school.”

She nodded and brushed out her patterned skirt. “I’ll tell Mrs. Lully to be expecting you.”

With a smile I said, “Alright.”

 ☽✯☾

So what do you think?!! Love Maxy right now, cause I do! How do you like Rosy and Mrs. Fray or new characters?

Question of the update: What happened to Max's parents?

A) Nothing, he's just not close with them.

B) They are dead. Probably something to do with war Jay was talking about.

C) They don't like him and sent him to live with his grandparents.

D) Your Choice...

Picture of Mrs. Fray>>>