Once the school bell rang at the end of the day, Maya left her final class to go meet up with Jackie. 

She found her cousin walking with three other students, a boy and two girls. They were walking out of the school when Maya caught up to them. 

"Jacks!" Maya shouted as she ran up to her cousin. 

"Oh hey Maya!" Jackie said, a smile appearing on her sullen face. 

"Wait." The girl with the wavy brown hair and big grin said. "Are you Jackie's sister?" She stopped in her tracks. 

"Cousin." Both Maya and Jackie corrected the girl. 

"Mai, this is Grace-" Jackie pointed to the brunette girl. "And this is Skylar."  She motioned to the tall dark boy, who waved. "And that's Kiley. Guys, this is my cousin Maya. She's a year older than me." 

"Hey Maya," Skylar and Kiley said, while Grace just looked excited. 

"So, Maya, how's your life with the Walter boys so far?" Grace asked as they continued to walk out the doors. The bright sun shined off of Maya's dark hair, temporarily blinding her for a few seconds. 

"It's okay." Maya replied with a shrug. "Nothing out of the ordinary."

Grace's jaw dropped open. "Nothing out of the ordinary?! Maya, it's not ordinary to live with some of the hottest guys in school!" 

Maya scoffed. "Hot? Nah." 

"Of course they're hot!" Grace exclaimed. "You two have landed in boy heaven!" 

"Grace," Skylar sighed. "You've already made this speech once today." 

"Yeah, but Maya wasn't there to hear it," Grace told him, then turned back around to look at Maya as they walked around the school's perimeter. "Ok, so there's Danny, with the whole actory-brooding thing going on. There's uh Isaac, the cool dude. Alex, the bookish shy guy. Nathan the musician, Lee, the edgy skater. And then, of course, there's Cole." 

"Why's he so special?" Maya asked, rolling her eyes. 

"Maya, look, I've already gone over this with your cousin. You can't define it okay? It's just the Cole Effect."

"That's so stupid," Maya said. "Honestly, all of them are kinda meh." 

"Even Isaac?" Jackie smirked from behind. "You two had some interesting banter going on." 

"That's because he's an asshole!" Maya replied. "And I don't think you can be talking, I saw how you and Alex were looking at each other." 

Kiley looked at Maya curiously, before turning to Jackie.

"What?" Grace gasped. 

"Grace, don't tell anyone," Skylar warned her. "It's not true, but if you spread the word people will believe it." 

"Yeah, okay." 

"Shit!" Maya stopped in her tracks all of a sudden. "Jackie, it's 3:30!" 

Jackie's eyes widened and the two of them ran to the front of the school, only to see Cole's car speeding out of the parking lot. 

"Crap," Maya said loudly. 

"It's okay, I can give you guys a ride home." Grace offered. "Kiley, you coming?" 

"No, sorry, I have to get to work." Kiley said with a sad smile. 

"You have a job?" Jackie asked. 

"She has all the jobs." Grace replied, with a grin as they walked in opposite directions. 

The four of them turned the corner to get to the parking lot where Grace parked. As soon as they rounded the corner, Skylar said, "Oh no."

"Just keep going," Grace whispered to Maya and Jackie. Maya looked ahead to see two girls, one with brownish blonde hair and one with black hair. Maya recognized the first girl as the one who was kind of dating Cole. 

"Hey!" The girl called out, clearly talking to them. "Jackie right?" She asked as they came to a stop in front of her. 

"Yeah." Jackie replied flatly. "Hi. Erin?" 

"Mm hm." Erin said, a fake smile playing on her lips. "Look, I don't know who you think you are or whatever, but just so you know, Cole's only being nice to you 'cause his mom told him to." 

"Yeah. Sounds like classic Cole," Skylar told Erin. 

"Trust me, Cole likes his girls a lot less vanilla than Miss J. Crew over here." Erin snarkily replied. 

"It's actually Ralph Lauren," Maya interrupted with a coy smile. "And Erin, that explains why he hasn't been too keen on you lately." 

Erin narrowed her eyes at Maya. "And who might you be?" 

"Maya Santos." Maya said, stepping in front of Jackie. "Jackie's cousin." 

Before Maya could say anything else, Jackie said, "I don't see what the problem is. I'm not interested in Cole, and he's not interested in me either. Like you said, he was just being nice." 

"Just watch it." Erin said forcefully. "I'm not buying this little Orphan Annie Act." 

Maya could feel her blood rising, and she was about to counter with rude remark, but Jackie simply said, "Clearly."

As Erin turned around, she slung her bag over her shoulder. Jackie looked from it to Maya with her eyes widened, then pointed to it. Maya quickly understood what Jackie meant. 

"Erin?" Maya said sweetly. "I love your bag. Y'know, it could almost pass for authentic." 

Erin looked away quickly and then said somewhat uncertainly, "It is authentic." 

"No, I don't think so. My mom designed a range for that brand. The leather's way too thin." Jackie said. 

"And the logo should be stitched on the inside, not printed." Maya added. "Shall we check?" 

Erin's friend, who Maya later learned was named Olivia, tried peeking into the bag, to which Erin swatted her hand away, then rolled her eyes and walked off. 

——————————-

After the encounter with Erin and Olivia, Grace and Skylar had treated the cousins to some ice cream from a quaint shop called Monty's. After this, Grace drove them back to the Walter's house. 

"Don't forget the ice cream," Skylar told Maya as she stepped out of the backseat. 

"Yeah," Maya grabbed the ice cream bag, standing out of the car in the blazing heat. 

"Okay! Have a good night," Grace told them as the two girls stood outside the car. 

"You too," Maya smiled. 

"Thanks for the ride," Jackie said as she shut the door and spoke through the front window. 

"Yeah. Which room is Cole's?" Grace suddenly asked. 

"Grace. Cut it out." Skylar said warningly as Maya chuckled. 

Maya and Jackie walked into the big yellow house, clutching the Monty's bag on their way in. Maya could hear excited shouts coming from the living room. She peeked in with Jackie to see Cole, Danny, and Isaac sitting in the living room, watching a sports game on tv. 

"That was pretty shitty of you guys to leave us at school like that," Maya said loudly, over the tv. The three boys turned their attention to Maya, who was leaning in the doorway staring daggers at them with Jackie standing awkwardly beside her. 

"We told you we leave at 3:30." Cole shrugged. 

"We were two minutes late." Maya deadpanned.

Suddenly Lee came up behind them on his skateboard, and joined the boys in the living room, who were no longer paying attention to the game. 

"Well we like to be on time, Santos." Isaac said with a smirk. "I would've thought you would understand that." 

"What, you were just going to let us walk back home?" Maya asked angrily. 

"Clearly you had a ride home." Isaac replied, locking eyes with her. Maya's tough facade slipped for only a second before she recovered. She stared fiercely back at him. 

"Only because Grace was kind enough to drive us back. What if we couldn't find a ride back?" 

"Well that's not-" Isaac started to say, but got interrupted by Danny. 

"Respectfully, Isaac, shut up." Danny said to his cousin. "Sorry, Maya and Jackie. It was really shitty what those guys pulled back there. If it makes things any better, I was all for waiting for you guys." 

"Thanks, Danny." Maya said, genuinely pleased. "It's nice to know at least one guy in this house has basic manners." 

With that, she turned heel and walked off, Jackie right behind her. 

———————————————-

Dinner at the Walter household was certainly chaotic. After going upstairs and relaxing for a bit to cool her anger down while Jackie talked to Katherine, she removed her crochet long sleeve off of her cropped shirt and put her hair up in a messy bun. 

When she heard George loudly call out, "FOOD!", her and Jackie walked downstairs and into the dining room where they found all the kids there. 

Jackie took a seat at the end of the table that was open, while Maya took a seat at the middle of the table, in between Alex and Parker. 

"You're Maya, right?" Parker asked as Maya sat down. 

"Yep," Maya said with a smile. "I don't think I got to introduce myself yesterday," 

"It's nice to not be the only girl in the house anymore." Parker told her. "And I heard you getting mad at my brothers earlier today." She grinned. "It was pretty cool." 

Maya chuckled. "Yeah, that happened. I promise, I'm a lot nicer than that." 

"Do you-" Parker started to say, but got cut off by a blood curdling scream coming from the end of the table. 

Maya quickly turned her head around to see Jackie jump up, dropping what looked like a huge snake back on the ground. Her plate of spaghetti got flipped up and splattered all over her Ralph Lauren shirt. 

"Whoa!" Her heard someone exclaim, alongside some stifled laughter. 

"Rumple!" Jordan said, getting out of his chair and running over to where Jackie sat on the opposite end. He bent down and picked up the large snake. 

Jackie started walking fast out of her spot.

"Oh my God!" Katherine gasped. "Can I help you with your sweater?!" 

"No, it's fine. It's fine! I'm fine!" Jackie said in a hurried voice, which meant she was about to freak out. Then she ran out of the kitchen. 

Maya was shocked, trying to comprehend what happened when she heard the boys laughing, not even trying to hide it. She opened her turned back around to see Isaac laughing. 

"Oh my gosh," Maya said loudly. "Can you stop laughing? None of this is funny!" 

"You guys! You guys, stop." Katherine said, rubbing her temples and looking upset. "STOP IT!" 

"I'm going to go help Jackie," Maya said, getting up from her seat and her untouched spaghetti. 

"Yeah, you should probably go help her," Isaac said with a smirk. 

"¡Cierra la puta boca, Isaac!" Maya snapped in Spanish as she left the room. 

"Oooo," She could hear Lee say to Isaac. 

"What did she say?" Cole asked. 

"She told Isaac to shut the f.." Lee must have realized Katherine was still there. "..frog up." 

When Maya arrived in their room, Jackie was standing in front of their mirror, looking at the damage. 

"Jacks, are you okay?" 

"I'm fine." Jackie replied, even though she was clearly the opposite. "I've never been better!" She laughed panicky. "Mai! What do I do?" 

"Take a deep breath, Jackie," Maya instructed her younger cousin. Maya sat on her bed, surveying the mess on one of Jackie's favourite tops. "Okay, first take off your sweater. I have some special stain remover that should get spaghetti sauce off." 

"Okay," Jackie said, taking a deep breath and then removing her sweater and handing it to Maya. 

"Good," Maya said slowly, trying to prevent a panic attack from coming over her cousin.  "Okay, now I suggest you go take a nice long shower to calm down. It'll also get some sauce out of your hair. When you're done, I'll get some food for you." 

Jackie nodded, taking another deep breath. "Okay." Jackie gathered her shower stuff and headed to the bathroom, while Maya laid the tomato-covered sweater on the floor and rummaged through her toiletries drawer until she found the special stain remover gifted to her by a designer friend of Aunt Angelica's. It truly was magical; it somehow got stains out of clothes simply by putting a few drops on each stain, then rubbing it together until it disappeared.

It took Maya fifteen minutes to remove all the stains, seeing as there were plenty from the red spaghetti sauce, but when she was done it was as though they had never been there at all. 

She was hanging up the sweater on the clothing hanger to dry from the serum when she heard a knock on the door. 

"Come in," Maya called out, expecting to see Jackie. 

Instead she saw Cole walk in, a plate with a sandwich in hand. 

"Let me guess, you're here for Jackie?" Maya asked with a smirk. 

"Yeah," Cole nodded. "Where is she?"