“Ogre’s in trouble, ogre’s in trouble,” Ethan chanted under his breath as I stared at my father. I glared down at him for only a moment before turning toward my father and waiting for him to say something else to me. I didn’t want to deal with Ethan’s taunts right then.

“You should get downstairs,” was all my dad said to me, moving out of the way and nodding toward the stairs. “It’d be best not to keep them waiting.”

I gulped, nodding at my father before quickly making my way out of my room and down the stairs, toward the front door. I knew what they were here for, and I was sure everyone else knew what they were here for as well. I just didn’t know how I was supposed to deal with all of this.

“Officer Lopez, Officer Black,” I greeted once I got downstairs. “What a surprise it is to see the two of you here again.”

They had told me that they were going to come back for me, but I didn’t expect it to be so soon. I was still twitching from my meltdown from Johnny, and I didn’t think I’d be able to think straight for a while.

“Sorry, Maxynn, but we need to take you down to the station for some questioning,” Officer Lopez informed me, and I tried to let no emotions cross my face, as hard as that really was.

“I told you,” I couldn’t help but snap, not wanting to have another emotional breakdown. “I didn’t kill my mother. Just because my father’s here now doesn’t mean that you can--”

“Don’t you get it? You’re not a minor anymore, so we don’t need your father at all,” Officer Black informed me, grabbing onto my arm and yanking me forward. “The only person we need to take down to the station with us is you.”

This made me feel sick to my stomach. I was a legal adult now, so my father wasn’t needed any longer. It meant that I was all on my own and there was nothing I could do about it.

I left with them without a fight, knowing that there was nothing I could do to stop them from taking me. I’d rather go without a fight than fight with them and then actually go to jail…

When we got to the police station, I was almost immediately locked up into a tiny room with both Officer Lopez and Officer Black. I didn’t think I had ever been this uncomfortable in my life, and I had been living with Zachary Deveraux for months.

“Well, Maxynn,” Officer Black started, and he pronounced my name like Maxine instead of how it was supposed to be. “We know why you’re here. Do you know why you’re here?”

“You think I killed my mother,” I spat, unable to keep the nasty tone from my voice.

“Right,” he nodded, and his tone made me want to kick him or something. “You set that fire and killed your mother.”

“I didn’t kill my mother,” I snapped, not knowing what else I was supposed to say to get it through their thick skulls. “Just because I was the only other person in the house doesn’t mean that I’m the one that had to do it.”

Officer Black crossed his arms over his chest, obviously not believing me. Did I really look like I was some kind of crazy killer? I was barely even eighteen years old! I could barely kill a bug without feeling bad about it!

“There was no trace of anyone else in the house but you,” Officer Black continued now, and I only sat there and pretended that what he was saying didn’t bother me at all. “You were the only one there, Maxynn. You were the only one that could have done it.”

I glared up at him. “My name is not Maxine; it’s Maxynn. So start pronouncing it the right way or I’ll stop talking to you completely.”

Officer Black gave me a sickly sweet smile. “Whatever you say, Maxynn.”

At least he got my freaking name right.

“What were you doing when the fire broke out?” Officer Black asked me, and I really wished that Officer Lopez would have butted in and asked the questions himself, but he didn’t look like he was going to talk anytime soon. This didn’t make me feel any better.

I licked my lips before saying, “I was sleeping.”

“Sleeping,” Officer Blake scoffed, and it only made me hate him even more. “Sure, you were just sleeping. Do you really expect me to believe something like that?”

“It’s the truth!” I shouted, unable to control my anger any longer. “Don’t treat me like I’m some kind of criminal! I loved my mother, and I still do! I wouldn’t do anything to ever hurt her! You can’t just pin this on me because I was apparently the only other person there! I didn’t do anything to hurt my mother; I never would have. I’ve been trying to deny the fact that she was actually murdered by someone, but now I have to accept the fact that someone set that fire for some reason. But that person was not me. You have to believe me.”

The two officers looked at each other for only a few seconds before turning back toward me. I didn’t know what they thought of my little speech, but I really hoped that it made them think differently of me.

Officer Black leaned in close to me and whispered menacingly, “You’re not getting out of this that easily.”

And I wasn’t, because for the rest of the day, I was held in that little room with both officers. After a few hours, I lost track of time because I thought I was going to pass out. I never thought I could be questioned like this for this long.

When I thought that I was never going to be let out of there, they were suddenly done asking questions and they let me out of the tiny room. I thought they were just messing with me, but they even said I could go home after that. They were letting me go, and I had absolutely no idea why.

When I finally got home, it was already dark outside and pretty late for a school night. I felt sick to my stomach, and all I wanted was to go to bed and never get up.

I walked through the front door to see everyone I lived with in the house was downstairs in the living room, watching something that didn’t park my interest on the TV. They all turned toward me when they saw me walk through the door, but the last thing I wanted to do was talk to any of them.

“I’m going to bed,” I grumbled, not even looking at anyone as I headed toward the stairs. I knew they all had questions of me, but I just couldn’t find it in me to talk to anyone right then after talking to the cops for hours without end.

“Aw,” Ethan called out from behind me. “What about my burrito?”

I ignored him, slowly making my way up the stairs and slamming my door behind me after I had finally gotten into my room. I had school the next day, and had to deal with Johnny as well. That whole entire day had been so hectic and all I could hope was that sleep would help me.

It seemed like there was a knock on my door the second I had shut it. I wanted to shout at the person to go away, but found myself opening the door for them instead.

I wasn’t surprised to see Zach standing there in front of me. Instead of telling him to go away like I wanted to, I moved out of the way so he could come inside. I then shut the door behind us so no one would listen in to what we were saying.

“Hey,” he greeted once an awkward silence had fallen around us. I didn’t even look his way; I only continued staring at the floor of my room. “Are you okay? You were gone all day.”

“I’m fine,” I said too quickly, and I was sure he could tell that I was lying.

“Maxynn, I get if you’re upset,” he told me, stepping closer to me now, but that only made me take a step back away from him. If this was any normal time, Zach would have just stepped closer to me if I had stepped away from him. But right then wasn’t a normal time.

I stayed quiet, still not looking at him. Why was he acting so caring toward me lately? It was so different than he normally was. He comforted me when Johnny had walked in on us, and now he was being kind to me after I had just spent the entire day in a police station being questioned.

“Maxynn…” he whispered now. “I’m so sorry.”

I finally looked up at him, shocked by what he had just said to me. He had nothing to be sorry for, for once. It might have been somewhat Zach’s fault that Johnny had walked in on us earlier, but it was even more my fault. But he had absolutely nothing to do with my mother’s death or the police thinking that I had been the one to kill her.

“You have nothing to be sorry about,” I sniffed dumbly, now looking back at the floor. “Sure, what happened with Johnny was bad, but you had nothing to do with the fire or the police. You have nothing to say sorry for.

I couldn’t help but think about my poor mother. She didn’t deserve any of this; she didn’t deserve anything that had happened to her. If she was alive right then, everything would have been better and I wouldn’t have had any problems.

“You don’t have to hide your tears from me,” Zach informed me now. “I know you want to cry, Maxynn. There’s nothing stopping you from crying but yourself.”

I didn’t want Zach being nice to me, at least not then. Because all I could think about now was how in love with him I was. This was the Zach that I had fallen in love with, not the one that would force himself on me or make fun of me. When he was nice to me, I just fell even more in love with him.

When I started crying, it felt good. I had wanted to cry all day, but I couldn’t let the police see how weak I really was. They’d probably think I was just acting anyway, so there wasn’t any point in wasting those tears.

“Shh,” Zach whispered when I started sobbing, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and bringing me closer to him. “Everything’s going to be alright, okay? With Johnny, and the cops. Only an idiot would think that you killed your mother. I know that you’re not capable of doing something like that.”

I wanted to tell him how I felt, but I didn’t know for sure if he felt the same way toward me. He could have just felt bad for me… Just because he was being nice to me didn’t mean he necessarily in love with me. And I didn’t want to make a fool of myself and let him know that I had lost the game. The last thing I wanted to do was tell everyone that I loved Zach…

“Hey, before I forget…” I sniffed once I had stopped sobbing, pushing away from him so I could look up at him. “Thank you, for believing in me and all. You can be a pain in the ass, but at least I know that you’re there for me.”

Zach chuckled. “No problem,” he grinned, his fingers running through my hair now. “I might be a pain in the ass, but I’m your pain in the ass. I’ll always be here for you when you need me.”

And I was glad to hear that, because I knew I was going to need him in the future.

“You should go to bed, Maxynn,” he suggested now, and I couldn’t help but nod in agreement. “You need sleep, I can tell. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I nodded. “Okay, I’ll go to bed.”

He leaned forward now, and I thought that he was going to kiss me like he always did. But much to my surprise, instead of kissing me on the lips, he kissed my forehead instead.

And this just made me fall in love with him even more.

He left my room then, and I turned toward my closet to change into pajamas. Now that I thought about it, I realized that I was really tired. Spending so much time around cops really drained all the energy out of me.

I fell asleep almost immediately after I plopped down onto my bed, and it felt like I was only able to sleep for barely five seconds before it was morning and time for me to get ready for another day at school.

Today was not going to be a good day. I could already tell.

I walked to school instead of driving with Zach or by myself. I needed the fresh air, but once I started walking I knew that it wasn’t about to help me. I didn’t think that anything was going to make me feel better for a long time.

I was hoping that I wouldn’t see Johnny at all, but my hopes were soon crushed because the second I stepped on campus, Johnny was right in front of me. All I could do was stare at him, the wind blowing around us so hard that my hair almost blinded me. But I could see that he wasn’t going anywhere, and I knew he wasn’t going to let me leave either.

“Johnny,” I greeted, not knowing what I was supposed to say to him.

“Maxynn,” he greeted back, and I didn’t think that the atmosphere could get anymore awkward.

“Oh, look who it is!”

I was wrong.

When an arm snaked around my shoulders, all I did was step away. This only made Zach smirk at me, and he looked different from the boy from the night before. I knew that Zach wouldn’t let anyone else see him like that, and it made me sad to think about that.

“So, Johnny, you’re in love with her,” Zach grinned mockingly, and all I could do was look between the two of them, unsure of what I was supposed to be doing. “How sad. Too bad you didn’t know that we were hooking up before the two of you even started dating.”

Johnny’s eyes widened, and I let out a shout when he threw a punch at Zach. He easily dodged it, merely stepping back and smirking like he always did at his best friend.

“You just always have to steal the girl I’m interested in, huh? Ever since we were kids!” Johnny snapped, and I said nothing as I continued to watch the two of them. “You just have to have every girl you come into contact with, don’t you?”

“Come on, Johnny. Learn to share.”

“They’re human beings, Zach, not toys!” Johnny shouted at him now. “You know what? One day I’ll find a girl that you can’t steal from me.”

Zach’s smirk only grew. “I’d like to see you try. At least we know that girl isn’t Maxynn, since she obviously doesn’t love you back.”

Johnny threw another punch, this time coming into contact with Zach’s shoulder. Before I could even blink, Zach punched at Johnny as well and the two of them were in a middle of a fight, in front of hundreds of kids.

“Zach!” I shouted, not knowing what I was supposed to do. “Johnny! Stop it, right now! Get off of each other! Guys!”

“Maxynn!” a new voice now shouted, and I looked over to see Logan run over to me, Kate waddling after him. “What’s going on? Why are the two of them fighting?”

“Because they’re idiots!” I shouted, feelings tears prick at the back of my eyes as I turned back toward the fighting boys, the crowd around us moving in. “I told you two to stop fighting! It’s not worth it! I’m not worth it!”

This caused Zach to stop fighting for a second, which gave Johnny the advantage. He punched Zach in the stomach, and he doubled over in pain the blow had given him. I was still unable to do anything as the two of them continued to fight right afterwards.

“These idiots,” Logan sighed, shaking his head as he now lunged in between the two of them to stop them from fighting any longer.

This was all a complete nightmare. I had no idea what I was supposed to do to stop them, since I didn’t know if Logan was going to be able to stop them or not.

“We have to stop them, Maxynn!” Kate shouted now, starting toward the three boys until I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. She looked back at me as if I was crazy. “What are you doing? Why are you stopping me?”

This time I looked at her as if she was the one that was insane. “You’re pregnant! You can’t stop a fight!”

She chuckled nervously, now taking a step back behind me. I rolled my eyes at her, turning back toward the fight that was still going on. I was about to get in the middle of it myself before I heard a teacher shout, “What’s going on here?”

Now all three of them were probably going to get into trouble, which made me feel really bad for Logan since he was just trying to stop it. And knowing my luck, I’d get in trouble as well because I was the reason the fight had even started…

I was right when I had said today was not going to be a good day. Everything was just crashing down on me even more.

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This is a day late. Damn it. And I still have homework to do. >.<

School is really killing me, guys. I've bitten off a lot more than I can chew, and it's just a matter of time before I choke.

I'm not going to stop writing, though. I can't. I'm just going to have to do everything really fast and hope it turns out well. >_<

This is for the 2012 Watty Awards! Please COMMENT, VOTE, and SHARE! And vote for Ethan in the Funniest Character category when the time comes! I think it's in about a week! x)