After a few days of wallowing in her self-pity, Nora decided enough was enough. There was more to life than Disney and Jack, than her own inward drama that was unfolding, and she was going to put herself out there so she didn't become some Young Adult novel female protagonist that only had one friend and did nothing but followed her own heart.

Because her heart was being seriously stupid and she was pretty tired of it. Which left her on an unfamiliar doorstep, hovering, trying to decide if this decision was any better considering how scary it was.

The moment Nora felt like there was no longer any escape was the moment her finger pressed the doorbell. It was a similar feeling to pressing a button on Mission Space too early. Sure, she wasn't causing a rocket ship to crash land on Mars, but impending doom still flooded her with anxiety she couldn't shake.

And as soon as the doorbell rang, Maddie had the door open, a Cheshire Cat smile stretched from ear to ear. "You made it."

Nora offered a twitch of a smile before stepping through the doorway, the buzzards on Splash Mountain echoing in her head, There's no turning back now. If only you could...

"I've been inviting and inviting and inviting and finally, here you are. Early, even." 

Maddie had been hounding her to come to her small group ever since the day they'd met. After ghosting her for weeks after their meet up, Nora didn't think she could keep making excuses not to go anymore. Not when it was clear Maddie would continually call her and keep asking until she outright said no.

Which Nora wouldn't do. Hence why her sister walked all over her.

Yet again, she thought of Jack, at how happy she'd be if he was this happy to see her. She stuffed that thought down, only to have it replaced with the embarrassment of her being way too clingy to Levi, not to mention sad and so unlike herself. Levi hadn't asked about why she wasn't feeling good, which was somehow both of relief and annoying. She hadn't wanted to talk about it, but still, by him not asking it made it seem like he didn't care.

He'd seemed kind of down too, though. Quieter. And she hadn't asked about that. Or scheduled another meeting with him.

Hopefully time with other people would put at least some of her life into a new perspective.

Maddie marched through the hallway, leading to a large family room and spacious kitchen. "If you have to go to the bathroom, there's one down the hall, first door on the left. You can take off your shoes if you want. If you need water or something, I can get you some. Make yourself at home."

Nora obliged, taking in the space. There were a lot of family pictures, all featuring a lot of faces she didn't recognize. Not that she knew much about Maddie. "Big family?"

"You have no idea." She plopped herself down on the couch. "So, recently we've been going over qualities and themes and all that, not specific books of the Bible. Plus we've had some other new girls join, so I think this might be a little more of a meet and greet."

The phrase brought Jack to mind as Nora sat on a chair, glad that there were some single person ones so she didn't have to cozy up to a complete stranger. 

"There's no reason to be nervous, but it's okay if you are," Maddie said, reading her mind. "It's a lot of new people, but I do promise they're all really nice and want to be your friends."

"Thanks."

Soon, the others started arriving. They were all college age, all girls, all of which Maddie hugged. Some she'd seemed to know her whole life, others she'd just met on campus in the past year. 

"This is Abby, by the way. My coleader. My assistant to the regional manager." Maddie stood up and slung her arm over a dirty blonde haired girl who'd driven a few girls from campus to Maddie's house.

She patted Maddie's arm in grim endearment. "One of these days we'll get through a meeting without you quoting The Office."

"I highly doubt that."

"I sense a Michael and Toby relationship," Nora said, her shoulders tensing as she waited for a response.

Maddie grinned. "Yes. Abby is my evil snail."

"Charmed," Abby said dryly. "It's nice to meet you, Nora. Maddie talks about you all the time."

Nora's cheeks flushed. "Thanks. Nice to meet you too."

Abby ended up sitting by her, exchanging polite small talk, introducing her to some other girls as they came in. Her mind scrambled to remember names, to make sure everything she said made sense and wasn't too weird. No one gave her looks, at least. 

There were seven other girls besides Maddie, Abby, and Nora, all of which were really different from each other personality wise. Not that it was easy to match Maddie's energy anyway.

When the last girl came in, she took the last chair besides Nora. 

Nora decided it was her turn to introduce herself first. "Hi. I'm Nora."

It felt like a super lame introduction, but the other girl beamed. "Naomi. Nice to meet you. Maddie said you'd be coming tonight."

"If you haven't noticed, Maddie gets really excited about new friends and likes to tell everyone," Abby commented. "From what Maddie's told me about you, I think you'd really get along well with Naomi."

"At your service." Naomi gave a little salute. "We should exchange numbers and hang out sometime."

Nora blanched. Despite having recently done that with Levi, this felt different. Naomi wasn't a Disney person and she wasn't in the Disney bubble. Besides, she only ever hung out with Levi at Disney, which was totally different from the real world where you talk about real things and had to be, well, real.

"Sure," Nora ended up saying, because what else could she say? And maybe she'd forget by the end.

Or not. Naomi grabbed her phone and instantly asked for her number and her availability. "Where would you want to hang out?" 

Disney. The instant answer. The only answer. Her sister's sneer came to mind, her words always fresh, Disney is for kids. Everyone's going to make fun of you.

Nora knew that was stupid. She saw plenty of people her age at Disney every single time she went. They loved it. Everyone of all ages loved it. But at the same time, it's not like her high school experience had proven Nora right.

"Anywhere you want," Nora decided.

"Maybe on campus in between classes? That way you don't have to drive anywhere else. We could have lunch together."

"That sounds nice." And it actually did. It was a miserable affair, eating alone, especially on a college campus. Even if she was used to it.

Naomi beamed and Nora couldn't help but smile.

"Okay!" Maddie clapped her hands together, calling everyone's attention. "Since we have some new faces, I thought we'd start out with a little introduction about ourselves. Your name, major, a fun fact about you, and kind of your walk with God, or lack thereof. That's not a judgmental question, people, it's just us acknowledging we all are at different places and that's perfectly fine.

"I'll start. My name is Maddie and I'm majoring in awesomeness." She gave a little bow. "As for a fun fact about me, I've got feet. And people tease me about it all the time. As for my walk with God, I've been part of the church my whole life, so this is kind of like breathing for me. Not that I'm very good at either thing considering sometimes I choke on air."

She said it so confidently. Nora shrank into her chair, hoping she wasn't picked to go at all.

"I'll go next," Abby volunteered, clearing her throat in a very teacher-like way. "My name is Abby. Maddie does have feet, but the reason she said that is because when she was a kid she used to exclaim she had feet all the time, so now we make fun of her for it. Maddie's major is actually undecided, not that she thinks that's such a bad thing. And it isn't. My major is English because I love writing, just like my mom."

"I can hear her mom squealing 'bae' from here," Naomi murmured to Nora.

Abby continued, "And I've also known God since I was little, grew up in church. So I kind of get jealous of people who don't know God until later honestly, because when they do meet God for the first time, they get to go through the honeymoon phase. I would very much like a honeymoon."

Naomi grinned. "With Kayden?" 

Abby swatted at her. 

"They're dating," Naomi filled her in. "Kayden is Maddie's brother."

"Does Maddie not like it?" Nora asked at the look of Maddie's eye roll.

"Maddie just pretends romance is gross because she's a child," Naomi said, loud enough for Maddie to hear.

"Maddie huffed. "Romance isn't gross, but my brother is."

"He's actually very clean and nice," Abby defended.

"I'm obligated to say that because I'm his sister. Moving on. Nora, your turn."

Nora reeled back, not expecting to get called out so casually. "Um, hi. I'm Nora, which Maddie just said." Geesh, the room was hot. "I'm technically an architect major, but I'm not sure if I'm sticking to that." She didn't want to give details to her life, but at least she hadn't mentioned how upset her dad would be if she changed. "And random fact about me..." 

Disney. Disney. Disney. Disney. Disney.

"I have a sister and a dog," she deadpanned.

"Cool. Older or younger?"

"Younger." A pause. "We don't get along well."

They didn't allow for silence. Naomi put a hand on hers. "We'll be here to get along with, if that helps."

Nora's eyes prickled. "Thanks." But she'd left out an answer. "Uh, and for the last question, I actually am not sure where I'm at. I do believe in God and all, but I didn't really grow up in church or anything. And so all of this stuff is pretty new to me."

"Me too," another girl, one she thought was named Clara, said. "I'm glad I'm not alone."

The girls laughed and gave encouragement. Nora breathed easier as they moved on to Clara and around the circle, mostly observing as it moved onto the discussion time. When she gave answers, no one said she sounded stupid and everyone looked genuinely interested in what she had to say. And if anyone disagreed, they said it in a nice way, like Yeah, I've thought that before, but now I think it's more like... 

It was actually pretty nice to talk about things that mattered and not just Disney for once. And it's not like they only talked about Jesus. They talked about Maddie's feet plenty too.

After about an hour, in which Nora had relaxed far more than she thought she would and eaten delicious brownies Maddie had made, the group ended. People chatted for a few minutes before going home and Nora was surprised to find herself one of the last out, along with Naomi, who she really had warmed up to.

"So, Tuesday lunch?" Naomi asked.

"I can't wait," Nora said. And she meant it.

Maddie was busy trying to put stuff away as a boy with black hair emerged from the hallway, headphones slung around his neck.

"Kayden?" Nora asked.

He raised an eyebrow at her, taking in her obviously noob stature. "I haven't seen you around before."

Naomi scoffed. "That's actually Samuel. He's my brother. He was hanging out here with Kayden during group."

Now that Nora thought about it, Samuel did look a lot like Naomi. Samuel went straight up to Maddie, sneaking his hand into the brownie pan and grabbing one.

"Thief!"

He was already munching on it. "'If anyone wants to take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.'"

"That doesn't apply to brownies."

"I'm pretty sure if Jesus knew what brownies were, he would have applied it to them." Samuel tutted. "And they let you be a leader."

Maddie scowled.

By this point, Nora was inching towards the exit, but before she could, another boy came out of what she assumed was Kayden's room. 

"Kayden?" Nora asked.

He gave her a questioning frown before realization dawned. "Oh. No, I'm Joshua. I guess you're part of their small group?"

"Yeah. I'm Nora."

The arguing in the kitchen stopped as Maddie looked over, her gaze serious. "Joshua."

It was the first time she'd ever heard Maddie be curt.

"Maddie." He matched her tone, though by his expression he didn't seem to want to.

Nora decided to say nothing, but she kind of wanted to shield Joshua from whatever was about to go down. He didn't seem the type to deserve it.

Samuel rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "Naomi, let's go. Grab Joshua while you're at it before she bites him again."

"That was one time! And I was four!"

Naomi had already grabbed his arm, tugging at him as if he was a toddler as they went to gather their bags and put on their shoes.

He muttered, "I still have the scar."

"Let it go, Joshua!"

"Maddie," a stern voice said.

Nora blinked. A man had emerged from the hallway, sporting the same brown hair as Maddie. He was staring with a sort of defeated tiredness at her, while Maddie stared back with rigorous stubbornness.

She decided not to guess who he was considering she'd been wrong the other two times.

"What are they fighting about this time, Miles?" Another man asked, coming from the same hallway. 

"The biting story."

"How many people are in this house?" Nora asked incredulously.

The second man's eyes slid easily to her, as if he wasn't at all surprised to find a stranger in this house and was glad she was there. He smiled. "You'd think I'd know, being the owner and all."

So he was Maddie's dad. Leaving the other man to be his...brother?

"The biting story, huh? That's kinky."

"DAD!"

Samuel, who hadn't left the kitchen yet, snickered. 

Joshua's face changed like an octopus, somehow going from beet red to pale before rushing back the way he came. Maddie scowled. "I have a guest."

"I can see that." He came forward, extending a hand. "I haven't met you before. I'm Daniel, Maddie's dad."

Nora shook it stiffly, mostly frozen from secondhand embarrassment.

"Yeah, my dad, the pastor," Maddie emphasized. "Saying words he shouldn't even know."

"I just said what Miles didn't have the guts to say. Isn't that right, Miles?"

The other man grunted. "I'm embarrassed for them."

"See?!"

Daniel clapped Miles on the back. "You'd think you were the dad and I was the fun uncle."

Miles grabbed his car keys from his pocket. "I'm going to take all my kids home before they all decide to go live underground."

"See you tomorrow, kiddo," Daniel called after him.

Nora scooted a bit closer to the door as they all passed. Her out.

Daniel ruffled Maddie's hair. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Mads. Just be nice to Joshua, okay?"

"I'll do my best."

"I mean it. No more eternal nemesis stuff."

Maddie groaned. "I have to say goodbye to Nora now, before she decides to never ever come back."

"I hope she does come back. She can come to our little island of crazy anytime. We have brownies."

"My brownies."

"Sharing is caring, love."

"Yeah, yeah." Maddie nudged Nora towards the door.

"You're welcome here anytime, Nora!" Daniel called after her.

"Thank you!" she called back.

She'd left her shoes at the door, so as she was putting them on, she asked, "So you and Joshua are...cousins?"

"No. We're not actually related. We just grew up close like that. My dad and his dad might as well be brothers. My dad basically acts like his dad even though he's barely older. It's all weird stuff."

"Huh."

"Yeah, I know it's crazy. But it's also nice to have so many people who love me. Even if it's always hectic."

Nora stood up, good to go. "Well, thanks for having me."

Maddie leaned up against the door frame. "I hope you know that feeling uncomfortable and excluded is kind of a first step to joining a huge group. It takes some time to get to know people and be comfortable around them, right? And we want you to be comfortable and loved here. I do promise that."

"I know. Thanks, Maddie. Everyone was really nice."

"Hug?"

Nora allowed it before giving a wave and walking to her car. She got in and sat, glancing at the front door to make sure Maddie was already inside and not watching before leaning her head back.

Why was it so hard for her to be around people? It's not like she wanted to be a loner. And she got along with Levi so well. She didn't feel like a pariah around him, even though they'd just met. Was it because he was so clearly a loner too that he was trustworthy to her? That he understood her in a way these people, with their big families and hug fests, couldn't? 

Maddie was right. It did take people awhile to actually become friends. She didn't want to give up on trying, but at the same time Disney was so much easier. Just another face in the crowd, a few interactions here and there, Levi and Jack. 

She decided to go back next week, hoping that each time she did go, it'd get a little easier. But she doubted she'd be able to open up like they did, that she could be herself like they wanted her to be. She didn't even know who that was.

Ahoy!

Anyone else ever have a hard time making friends? Me too, me too. I think the worst part for me was continuing to try until it became a habit to hang out with people. Like it's a discipline to make friends, which is crazy to think about. And sometimes we have to do the legwork, which is especially hard for shy, introverted people, especially those of us who have been let down by friends before. So I pray you all find people you can rely on who help you grow and that you can help grow in return.

Question of the Chapter: What's the craziest thing you've done with a family member? Hopefully this isn't anything illegal.

-Flips