Alexis Rose Mayfield had been Max's neighbor since he was old enough to tie his own shoelaces. They were one year apart. He was eight. She was seven.

Lexi was a chubby, cherub-faced girl with dark brown eyes and dark blonde hair that her mom liked to braid into pigtails.

She had never set foot in a classroom. Her parents believed secular education led to many of the unhealthy behaviors that plagued society. They chose to homeschool Lexi instead. She went to church with them several times a week. They grew vegetables and fruit trees in front of their house, raised chickens out back, and handmade almost every piece of clothing and furniture as though they lived in a commune instead of suburbia.

From early on, Lexi suspected her life was a little different from other seven-year-olds in Temecula, but she never realized just how different everything was until she met Max. She grew curious about the place he disappeared to every Monday through Friday, and her questions about public school seemed never-ending at times.

Max didn't mind her never-ending questions, though. He was simply relieved to find someone who wanted to play with him.

One Friday afternoon, they were digging for snails on Max's front lawn when Lexi tugged on his shirt. "Oh! I almost forgot. I wanted to tell you something!"

Max turned to her. "What?"

"I saw something on TV yesterday. These reporters went to visit a school, and it was in a really bad neighborhood, and they started talking to some parents, and this mom had five kids who got in trouble, like, all the time!"

Max eyed her warily. "Uh-huh."

School rules and what happened when they were broken were touchy subjects for him.

Lexi lowered her voice as though she was going to get in trouble, too, when she whispered, "Did you know that students can get suspended or even expelled if they break the rules?"

He coughed. "Uh... pretty sure you'd have to do something really dumb to get suspended or expelled, but, I mean, teachers hand out detention slips all the time."

Her eyes grew wide. "What's it like to get detention?"

Max tried not to fidget. "Dunno. Never gotten one before."

This wasn't a lie. Technically, he had gotten dozens.

Lexi kept prodding, "Have your friends ever gotten detention?"

He hesitated. "Yeah... I think so?"

"Who?"

"Um... Jackson. And Mikey."

She leaned in anxiously. "What happened to them?"

"They sat in a room and did homework for thirty minutes after school. It's super boring—I mean, I hear it can be boring—since Mr. Martinez doesn't let anyone move around or make noise."

Lexi gasped. "Is that legal? Sounds kinda like child abuse or something."

Max answered in all seriousness, "It's totally legal."

She frowned. "My mom says I can't even sit still for a minute. Thank goodness you're a good student, Max. Detention sounds awful."

Max hesitated again. "Yeah, I try to stay out of trouble."

This was also true. Whether or not he succeeded in trying, however, was a different story. Max knew he wasn't being honest with Lexi, but she was the only person who ever looked at him like he was cool and funny. Sometimes, he even told her when he was feeling sad about his dad. She would give him a hug and share a snack with him. Max suspected Lexi wouldn't be so nice if she saw how he acted at school. He hated keeping her in the dark, but he didn't know how to come clean without losing her friendship.

Two days later, a kid at school said he wasn't allowed to have a white-sounding name with brown-looking skin. Max got into his first fight and came out with a black eye.

Lexi had been playing in her yard when she spotted him skateboarding down the street. "Holy mother of cows! What happened to your eye, Max?"

For a split second, Max thought about making a run for his house to avoid her questions, but escape seemed pointless since Lexi had already seen him and his stupid black eye.

Reluctantly, he stayed. "Hey, Lex."

"Hold on, lemme ask my mom for some ice!"

She disappeared inside her house before he could respond. When Lexi came back, Max thanked her for the ice and held it against his swollen eye. They sat on her porch for a few minutes before she broke the silence. "So... are you going to tell me what happened?"

Max gulped. His palms felt sweaty. He never even got this nervous in front of the principal.

Lexi looked at him expectantly. "Well?"

"I... got into a fight today. Some stupid kid made fun of my name, so I hit him. Then, he punched me back."

Panic rose as the words slipped from his mouth. He hadn't planned to tell her about the fight. It tumbled out on accident.

Lexi growled, "What a little fudge-face!"

He tried to shrug it off. "It's not a big deal."

"What are you talking about, Max? It's totally a big deal! Did you tell the teacher?"

"No, it's fine. I'll be fine."

Lexi sniffled. "But I-I don't want anyone to hurt you. I can't believe kids are so mean, like, don't even pay attention to ape-heads like that! You have lots of other friends to play with."

Max stole a glance in her direction. Lexi's eyes looked misty and moist. She was fighting back tears. For him. His heart sank. The distress on her face made Max feel like a giant stinking turd. His stomach started churning. All the made-up stories he had been feeding her suddenly bubbled up inside, threatening to spill over like a pot of word vomit that had been boiling for too long.

Maybe it was time to confess the truth?

Max closed his eyes and took a deep breath before admitting, "Actually... I don't have any friends to play with."

She blinked in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"No one likes me at school. Everyone thinks I'm weird and annoying. Even the teachers."

Lexi shook her head in disbelief. "That's ridiculous! We talk about your friends all the time, and you told me Jackson taught you how to skateboard, and you play basketball with Mikey every day, and—"

Max snapped, "Well, guess what? Sometimes people lie, and you shouldn't believe everything you hear!"

Lexi's lower lip trembled at his outburst. Tears trailed down her cheeks. Max regretted lashing out the moment she started crying.

He quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, Lex! I'm so sorry! I promise I'll never lie to you again! You're, like, my best friend."

Lexi's wails subsided into whimpers. "Really?"

Max nodded earnestly. "Yeah."

She hiccuped. "What do you mean— nobody likes you?"

Slowly but surely, Max proceeded to unravel his lies piece by piece. Max told Lexi how he usually played by himself and ate alone during lunch. He told her how he had been the one serving detention. Not Jackson. Not Mikey. He told her about Mr. Jay and how the security guard was probably the only adult at school who cared about him.

When Max finished, Lexi looked speechless. He couldn't tell if she was shocked or disgusted. Or both. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, but she couldn't seem to find the words.

Finally, she said, "I had no idea school was so awful. I'm glad my mom decided not to send me there."

Max's body tensed up as he waited for her to continue.

"But I still think you're cool, Max."

He wasn't expecting her to say that. "What?"

She smiled. "You're my best friend, too."

Max's eyes rounded out in awe. "You still wanna be friends with me?"

Lexi giggled. "Heck, yeah! Now you can actually give me the real dirt about what goes on at your school!"

Max didn't realize he had been holding his breath the whole time but seeing Lexi's smile after everything he just confessed meant the world to him. Her acceptance felt as though he had been handed a sword after running from dragons all year, and, suddenly, whatever the idiots at school thought of him no longer seemed to matter as much.

Because Lexi liked him for him, and her friendship alone was more than enough.