I sighed as I looked at myself in the mirror. I was now dressed and ready even though I didn't want to be. Roman had come to wake me up this morning and despite my attempts to ignore him, he managed to bribe me with the promise of allowing me to sleep in a little tomorrow.

I grabbed my school bag and headed downstairs to the kitchen where Max was waiting for me. Kade was also in the kitchen and upon seeing me, his expression brightened and he grabbed something from the counter.

"I made you lunch. It's filled with all the nutrients and love you'll need for today" Kade gushed while handing me my lunch. I gave him a small smile before thanking him and taking the lunch from him.

Max scrunched up his nose in disgust at Kade's tone and looked over to me.

"Don't eat that shit. You might get food poisoning" he said and Kade pouted.

"I used to make your lunch for you all the time and you always told me how much you loved my cooking" he said.

At Kade's words, Max's face turned a bright red and I could of swore that I saw steam coming out of his ears.

"I was lying so your stupid feelings wouldn't get hurt! There's no way I'd actually like your food!" he exclaimed embarrassedly and I saw Kade smirk a little before feigning hurt.

Knowing that these two were going to take a while, I sighed before deciding to just make my way to the car where Roman was waiting for us.

Once Max had gotten into the car, with a lunch from Kade in hand, we were off to our school.

"Are you excited to start your new school, Ceres?" Roman asked as he drove us to school. I wanted more than anything to just crawl back into bed and sleep the day away. I could tell Max wanted the same as he was trying to catch up on sleep in his seat in the front.

"No" I said bluntly and Roman gave a small chuckle.

"It's okay to be nervous, everyone gets those first day jitters at some point in their life after all" Roman said.

I said nothing in response since I didn't really want to continue talking about school. There was a difference between being nervous and not wanting to be there at all. I was the latter.

After a few minutes, we finally arrived and I just stared at the school in distaste. There was a bunch of students going in since it was just a little before it was time for classes to start.

"Max, we're here" Roman said lightly shaking him and Max groaned but woke up.

"Alright then, I'll see you two when you get home. One of the others will come pick you up" Roman said before he turned to me.

"I hope you have a good first day" he said while smiling gently at me and I nodded before getting out of the car and following Max into the school.

Before we entered the school, Max stopped and held his hand out to me and I looked at it strangely before looking at Max.

"Take it. The halls are hard to navigate through at this time" he said curtly and I nodded before taking his hand.

True to his word, the halls were jam packed with students. I was afraid that one of them would bump into me too hard and I'd lose sight of Max, but with the way Max held firmly onto my hand or shoved past students was telling me that he had no intentions of letting me get lost which I was thankful for.

When we reached what seemed to be the main office, Max gruffly asked for my schedule and the man who was at the front desk just nodded before handing it over.

After looking over at my schedule, Max gave it to me.

"We have lunch together so I'll come and get you from your class. Don't go anywhere or do anything stupid, you hear me?" He said. I nodded at his words not really minding the last bit.

Once we reached the door of my first class, English, Max said goodbye to me before leaving off to his first class.

I sighed. Did I really have to do this? I felt very uncomfortable with the idea of being the new kid. I really hoped that my teacher wasn't the type who was big on introductions because I have no idea what I would say to the class.

I opened the door to the class just as the bell had rung and when I walked into the classroom, the annoying feeling of people staring at me had crept up. The students' gaze was either curious, surprised, or uninterested which for the last one I would prefer.

The teacher, I think his name was Mr. Gordon, greeted me with a smile.

"You're our new student right? What's your name?" He asked.

"Ceres Spencer..." I said quietly and he nodded before writing it down on his attendance sheet.

"Okay, Ceres. You can sit right over there at that empty seat" he said pointing at the empty seat between to girls.

I nodded before going over to my seat and taking out a notebook and pen.

Mr. Gordon had started going over whatever it was we were learning today and while I tried to stay attentive, it was kind of hard. I just couldn't get into the lesson.

"Woah, your handwriting is really nice" The girl who was sitting next to me was peering into my paper and I frowned at her, not liking the fact that she was reading my notes. I wasn't really fond of it when strangers invaded my personal space.

Seeing the look on my face, the girl apologized before going back to her own notes and for the remainder of the class, she stayed to herself.

Did I feel bad that I scared off the possible chance of a friend? No, not at all. In fact, I felt much more relaxed once seeing that she wasn't going to try and talk to me again.

It was better for her and for me.

My next class was Earth Science, I could firmly say that I found this class interesting and that it would definitely be my easiest class, with math being the hardest.

I wasn't good at math, at all. I hated it with a burning passion and just wished it never existed.

During the class, I noticed that almost no one was paying attention yet the teacher continued to speak as if she had everyone's undivided attention. People were either talking to their friends, on their phones, out of the classroom, or asleep at their desks. It was kind of crazy to me. I didn't get how our teacher could continue to teach, maybe it was because she was still getting paid regardless of whether we learned something or not.

It felt like forever before the class was over and while I was grateful once I heard the bell, my gratefulness faded once seeing that my next class was Math.

In Math, I was unlucky as I got a seat all the way in the back. I couldn't see a thing back here and the kid's head in front of me was basically blocking the entire board so it was officially decided that I was just going to take a nap in that class.

Though as if noticing that I was about to give up and go to sleep, the teacher's voice cut into the air.

"Alright you guys. I'm going to hand everyone a worksheet and after, I want you to split yourselves into groups of three or four to complete it. This will be due at the end of the period" Ms. Greene said and once she handed us our work, like lightning everyone was out of their seats and rushing to their friends while I just stayed seated.

I was going to just start on the worksheet until a girl had come up to me.

"Hey, we have room for one more person if you wanna join us" she said while pointing to her group with two other boys.

"No thank you" I said curtly and a frown formed on her face before she shrugged her shoulders and headed back to her table.

Once she left, I started to work on the worksheet in front of me. It took me a little while as some of the questions were longer than the others and required more work on my part which I disliked greatly. There were certain questions that I just could not do so I left them blank as it was the only thing I could do since I refused to ask for help from the teacher.

Ms. Greene seemed to have her hands full anyways as she was constantly getting called over by other students and waiting for help just wasn't something I wanted to do.

Once the bell rung, I gladly packed up all my things and handed Ms. Greene my somewhat complete worksheet before walking out into the hallway.

Seeing that Max wasn't in front of my classroom, I decided to wait for him near the lockers.

While waiting, I was suddenly approached by the girl from earlier and her two friends.

"Hey, I'm Irene. This is James and Kyle. We were just wondering if you wanted to get lunch with us" She said and feeling a little uneasy about the smile on her face, I shifted a little in my spot.

"No thank you" I said and I was expecting her to walk off like last time, but an irritated expression crossed her face.

"What's your problem? We're just trying to be nice to you since you're new" she said and one of the boys whose names I couldn't care to remember had put a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"It isn't that serious Irene" he said.

"No! I wanna know why she's being such a bitch when we've literally been nothing but nice to her. Do you think you're better than me or something?" I had no idea how to respond to her question.

I didn't even know why this was happening right now. I too had been nothing but polite yet she still seemed offended by my rejections. This is why I preferred to stick to myself but I guess even then people will still find someway to barge into your life.

"Say something" she exclaimed and just then, the sound of the locker banging above me startled all of us.

I looked up and saw Max glaring at the three in front of me, his fist resting in the small dent he had made in the locker.

"Fuck off you pint sized bitches" Max said glaring at the three people in front of me. Without missing a beat, they all ran away so fast that you could probably see the dust kicking up if this were a cartoon.

I looked to the locker that Max had punched and it had the smallest beginnings of a dent in it, making me realize just how angry Max was.

"You alright?" He asked while trying to breathe. I could see that he was still very upset and I didn't know how to calm him down.

"Yes. Thank you..." I said and Max nodded but then looked to me with a stern look.

"Why didn't you defend yourself? You should never let anyone talk to you like that, or else people will walk all over you for the rest of your life" he scolded and I frowned.

"I didn't want to talk to them...besides, I don't know why she was being so rude either" I said with a sigh. Max's anger didn't lessen but I could tell that he was controlling it for me and for that I was thankful.

"The next time anyone talks to you like that, you punch them dead in the face you hear me?" He said making a fist and I smiled wearily at his violent suggestion.

It was very unlikely that I would ever do that, but I appreciated the advice.

"Yes, I hear you" I said and Max nodded once.

"Good. Now let's go to lunch, I'm fucking starving" he said and I nodded before following him to the cafeteria.

When we walked in, I could already see some people giving us the side eye and when we sat at a table, the people who were there picked up their stuff and left immediately.

I thought nothing of it really but once I heard someone whisper something as they were passing by it was enough to make everything fall into place for me.

"No way...does that girl have a death wish?" One of the people said.

I guess Max had a reputation around here.

"Hey. Eat your food" Max said while pointing at my lunch that I still had yet to touch. Looking at the finger that was pointing at my lunch, I noticed that there was something red stained on not only his finger but the rest of his hand.

"Why is your hand red?" I asked curiously. Max looked at his own hand before answering.

"It's paint. I've been trying to wash it off but it just doesn't want to come off" he said while turning his hand at different angles.

"You paint?" I asked and Max nodded before putting on a confident grin.

"And I'm pretty damn good at it" he said proudly.

I kind of liked seeing this new side of Max. Up until now he's only shown his harsh and annoyed faces which isn't very easy to get along with. Now, he was grinning confidently and expressing his love for painting. I couldn't believe that Max was into painting. I would have never expected it from him so it was a nice surprise.

Myself on the other hand had no real special talents whatsoever. I couldn't draw, sing, dance, or whatever else it was that people considered a special talent.

I was just normal.

"That's really cool" I muttered and Max chuckled.

"Thanks. Uh..." While chewing my food, I watched as Max tried to say something and his face got redder by the minute. What on earth...

"W-Wanna see...my paintings? I don't mind...y'know showing ya" he said. My eyes widened at the offer. Max wanted to show me his paintings? Surely that must mean something since he was getting so flustered.

"I would love to" I said and Max seemed to calm down and nodded.

"Why did you turn so red?" I asked and Max groaned.

"It's hard showing people that kind of stuff. You never know what kind of reaction to your art that people will have so I get nervous" he admitted. I nodded in understanding.

"Have you ever shown anyone else your paintings?" I asked and he nodded.

"Well, I don't know if our brothers seeing them count as others" he said. Seeing how quiet I was, Max gave me a look.

"You know, you're kinda like a robot" he said with a small chuckle at the end but I didn't really find it funny.

"A robot..." I muttered sourly and Max laughed again but this time a little harder before ruffling my hair.

After lunch, we both went our separate ways again and thankfully my last two classes went by smoothly with no random people trying to approach me and no teachers forcing us to pair up with each other.

Max was waiting for me outside my class and together we headed out in front of the school where Ares was waiting for us outside in the car.

Once we were in the car, Max seemed to be confused as he looked at Ares.

"I didn't expect you to be the one picking us up" Max said and Ares shrugged.

"Everyone else had things to do" he said strapping himself in and it was just then that I remembered something from the other day.

"Wait...I thought your license was suspended?" I asked and Max froze in his seat. It seems he forgot that too.

Ares just gave me a grin.

"Keep your hands and feet in the vehicle at all times and no matter what, don't take off your seatbelt" he said before doing a thumbs up and revving the engine to life.

"We're gonna fucking die. That's just great" I heard Max grumble and I made sure to tighten my seatbelt extra tight because if Max's words were anything to go by, then we were about to be in for a bumpy ride.