When there was a knock on my door, I didn’t hear it. My music was blaring so loud in my ears that it blocked all other sounds, which was just the way I liked it.

I didn’t even hear my door open when it did. My eyes were closed as I continued to lay on my bed, my head bopping ever so slightly to the music that was playing.

Suddenly someone swatted at my foot, causing me to sit up in my bed and tear my earphones right out of my ears. My eyes narrowed at Zach as he smirked down at me, and I wanted nothing more than to kick him right out of my room.

“Does your music really have to be that loud?” he asked, his eyebrows furrowing at me now. “I can hear it through the earphones and through your closed door.”

“Why don’t you just close your door, then?” I questioned, rubbing at my foot that he had hit. “It would have been better than coming in here and interrupting my concentration. It’s not my fault the bed’s right by the door.”

“My room gets too hot when the door’s closed,” he shrugged, but then winked at me. “But not in the good way.”

I scowled at him. “Just leave me alone, will you?”

“What are you listening to, anyway?” he asked instead of responding to my demand. “You’re going to go deaf if you keep listening to it as loud as you were.”

I stared down at my iPod, not wanting to tell him that I was actually listening to a Disney song. It was embarrassing enough to tell him that I actually sang Disney songs, but what would he think if I told him that I actually listened to them just for fun?

Zach’s head cocked to the side while I bit the inside of my lip, unsure of what to tell him. Listening to songs that were pretty much made for little kids made me feel better when I was upset or stressed out, and I would have been feeling better by then if Zach hadn’t come into my room and interrupted me.

“Nothing important,” I shrugged, deciding I was going to save myself from his teasing.

“Just keep it down a little,” Zach now sighed, turning away from me and back toward my door. “Unless you want everyone to start thinking you’re like Blake Solo.”

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Who?”

“You know, the junior that listens to super loud music all the time? The one that’s obviously after Sean’s girl?” he asked now, and it still didn’t ring a bell. He then waved it away. “Never mind. Not important.”

He then turned and walked right out of my room, closing the door behind him and leaving me in piece. I pushed my earphones back into my ears, turning down the volume just a little so Zach wouldn’t come back inside and harass me. But before I could push play, a heard a voice.

"I need to take your father to the doctor, Zach," I heard Brianna tell her eldest son from the room across the hall. "Could you take Ethan to hockey practice for me?"

"Can't Elizabeth do it?" Zach complained back, and I rolled my eyes at his behavior. Couldn't he just do something nice for his mom? At least he had a mom. "I'm tired. I stayed up late last night working on a project."

"It's Saturday, Zach."

"I know. I'm taking a break."

I didn't know if he was telling the truth or not, since I didn't have a project, but Zach and I didn't have every class together, so I guess it was possible that he had a project that I didn't have. But then again, this was Zach we were talking about, so he could have just been making excuses not to do something just because he was too selfish or lazy.

"Well, Elizabeth is at school right now," Brianna informed her son with a sigh. "She has classes today, so she can't do it either."

"But, Mom..." Zach groaned. He then stopped himself from whining and asked, "What about Maxynn?"

I wanted to strangle him. Did he really expect me to drive his little brother to hockey practice when Ethan obviously didn't even like me?

"You really can't expect Maxynn to do that, can you?" Brianna now asked, and I was silently rooting for her in my head. "Ethan is your brother, Zach. He isn't Maxynn's."

"Come on, I need to go to hockey practice," Ethan told his mother, grabbing onto her shirt and tugging on it a little. "How am I supposed to go if everyone else has something to do? I'm going to be late, Mom."

When there was a sudden knock on my door, I wanted to jump out the window to save myself. Were they seriously going to ask me if I could drive him to hockey practice? Ethan hadn't even spoken two words to me since I had moved in!

"Come in," I called out anyway, not wanting to be rude about it.

"Maxynn, you can drive, can't you?" Brianna asked me, her eyes wide with hope as she opened the door and stepped inside. "Ethan needs to go to hockey practice, but no one can take him because we're all busy and Zach is lazy."

"Hey!"

"Yeah, I can drive and all, but..." I looked down at the younger boy who was glaring up at me. "Don't I need to be eighteen to drive anyone else around?"

"Not family members," Brianna smiled at me, and I had to stop myself from making a face. "Since you live in the house with us, you're technically a part of the family now. I don't think that you'll be pulled over though, so I'm sure everything will be fine."

That wasn't what I was worried about. What I was worried about was the fact that Ethan obviously hated me, even though he had no good reason to. I just didn't understand... What did I ever do that would make him hate me?

"Okay, I guess," I shrugged, and Ethan definitely looked less than thrilled.

"Thank you, Maxynn!" Brianna now smiled, clasping her hands together under her chin. "You're a life saver!"

I smiled back at her, glad that I was able to do something that made her happy. After pretty much freeloading in her house for weeks, at least I could do something that helped out the family...

Ethan got into the backseat of my dad's car while I got in the front. He might have been off who knows where for business, but at least he left his car with me to do what I pleased whenever I wanted.

I was glad that I knew which ice rink to go to, since I knew Ethan wouldn't have told me where to go if I asked him. He stayed completely silent in the backseat as I drove, and it took all my willpower not to start a conversation with him because I knew that he wasn’t going to talk back to me.

“You can leave,” Ethan informed me once I walked him into the ice rink. “I don’t need my brother’s girlfriend to babysit me at practice.”

“I… I’m not your brother’s girlfriend!” I nearly shouted, gaining many stares from people passing by. I stared down at the ground, and Ethan laughed at me before turning toward the ice and leaving me behind. I glared at the back of his head, and I couldn’t help but think that he looked like a little version of Zach as he walked away.

I huffed, turning toward the bleachers and making my way up to the very top. I wasn’t going to just leave him here, so I might have as well just waited for him to be finished.

I let out a sigh as I watched the little boys make their way onto the ice, not believing they were actually playing this sport for fun. It looked like a horrifying sport; it just seemed so violent for little boys.

“Maxynn?” I heard a voice suddenly ask from my right.

“Johnny?” I gasped, my eyes widening at the appearance of the blonde that was now next to me. “What are you doing here?”

“My brother Riley has hockey practice,” he told me with a smile. “What about you? I thought you were an only child.”

For some reason, this comment of his made my cheeks burn. I had told him the year before when we were working on our English project that I was only child. Did he really remember that from so long ago?

“Uh, I had to take Ethan to practice because no one in Zach’s family could,” I nearly sputtered, knowing he would know who Ethan was since his older brother was his best friend. “I thought that the smartest thing to do would be to just wait until his practice was finished instead of just leaving.”

“Johnny! Johnny!” a voice said before either of us could say anymore. I looked over to see a blonde little girl starting up the bleachers toward us excitedly. When she saw me, she stopped and stared right at me.

“Um, hi,” I greeted, not knowing what else I was supposed to say.

“Johnny, who’s this pretty girl?” she asked instead of greeting me, turning toward the blonde male sitting beside me. “Is she your girlfriend?”

“No, Sadie, she isn’t,” Johnny laughed when my cheeks turned red. “She’s a friend of mine from school.”

“Oh,” Sadie now blinked. “Is she Zachy’s girlfriend?”

I nearly choked on my own saliva at her question. Why would she think that I was Zach’s girlfriend? I hadn’t even met her before right then!

Johnny laughed even harder, reaching over and ruffling this girl’s hair. Why was he laughing about something so embarrassing?

“She isn’t Zach’s girlfriend either,” Johnny chuckled now. “I know that every one of my friends that are girls have been Zach’s girlfriend before, but she isn’t.”

It was obvious to me that Johnny was only calling those girls Zach’s girlfriends because Sadie was so young. Zach hadn’t ever had a girlfriend before.

I wanted to tell this girl that they hadn’t been his girlfriends, but I knew I couldn’t since she was just a little kid. She didn’t look any older than five or six, so there was definitely no way she knew Zach’s true intentions with all those girls.

“Good,” Sadie now pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. “Zachy’s my boyfriend!”

My eyes widened at the little girl pouting before me, not believing what she had just uttered. Why the hell was she calling Zach her boyfriend? She was… like… five, six at the most!

“Before I say anything about that,” Johnny started before I could say anything. “Maxynn, this is my little sister Sadie. Sadie, this is my friend Maxynn.”

“You have a boys’ name,” Sadie informed me, and I would have hit her if she wasn’t a child.

“Sadie,” Johnny snapped.

“What?” the little girl asked innocently. “There’s a boy named Maxxon in my class! He’s actually really mean to me!”

Johnny sighed and shook his head at his sister. “That doesn’t mean you can be mean to a person who has the same name as him. Besides, Maxynn’s name is spelled differently than the boy from your class, I’m sure.”

“No, no, it’s fine, really,” I assured, even though it really wasn’t. For some reason it always really annoyed me when someone made fun of my name, even when it was a little kid like Sadie. “I hear it all the time… Zach actually said that in front of everyone on my very first day at Corvus last year.”

I was still fixated on the fact that she called Zach her boyfriend, and that she was calling him Zachy. I didn’t even call him that, and I was the one playing the game with him!

“And how many times do I have to tell you, Sadie, that Zach isn’t your boyfriend?” Johnny now asked her, and the little girl glared up at her brother. “He’s thirteen years older than you. Zach’s eighteen and you’re only five.”

“So?” Sadie huffed pigheadedly, and I gulped. “Zachy and I are going to get married and have lots and lots of kids and you can’t stop us!”

Johnny looked disgusted at that thought, and I was sure that I did, too. Did this girl even know what went into having children? I sure hoped that she didn’t! Learning about it at that age definitely would have ruined my childhood…

“When my mom told me that she was pregnant five years ago, I was actually excited to have another younger sibling, even though I knew I was going to be so much older than her,” Johnny sighed as Sadie turned and ran off toward the ice rink to watch her other brother practice. “I never thought that she’d have a huge crush on my best friend from the moment she saw him.”

“It must be weird,” I blinked, having nothing else to say.

“I’m not exactly looking forward to having Zach Deveraux as a brother-in-law,” Johnny informed me grimly, and I’d agree if I had any siblings. “He may be my best friend, but my sister’s so young that it wouldn’t ever work. She doesn’t even know what she’s talking about anyway.”

“You don’t have anything to worry about,” I assured with a shrug, watching as Sadie pressed her face against the glass. “Well, maybe in ten years or so, but…”

Johnny gave me a look, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I stuck my tongue out at him, and he smiled at me, obviously realizing now that I was only teasing him.

“Maybe you’ll be the one to marry Zach,” Johnny smirked, and I nearly almost fell right off the bleachers.

“What?” I squawked.

Johnny laughed now, and my face was so red that I probably looked like a tomato. Just the thought of marrying Zach embarrassed me to no end! Not only would something like marriage be far off in the future, but I didn’t even see Zach like that!

“I’m just kidding,” Johnny chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye as he continued to grin at me. “Hopefully you’ll marry someone other than Zach.”

The way he said this sounded so… suggestive, but not in a bad way. Before I could really think about what he really meant, a loud groan cut me off.

“Ugh, why are you still here?” Ethan asked, his face twisted in a scowl. “I told you to go home. I would have called when I needed to get picked up.”

“I wasn’t going to just leave you here,” I snapped.

“Is this the girl you said is living in your house?” the blonde boy next to Ethan now asked, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion at me. “She said she was ugly, but she’s really pretty.”

“Shut up, Riley,” Ethan spat at his friend. “She’s not pretty.”

Why, that little brat! How could he say something mean like that so easily like it was no big deal at all? I had feelings just like everybody else! It didn’t, but it could have easily hurt my feelings and he wouldn’t have even cared!

“Actually, Ethan,” Johnny smirked, cocking his head and looking back over at me now. “I think she’s very beautiful.”

“Aha, look at Maxynn’s face!” Sadie suddenly called out, yanking on Riley’s shirt. “It’s all red like a tomato!”

I knew it…

“Let’s go,” Ethan finally snapped, and for once I finally agreed with him. We all made our way down the bleachers and out of the ice rink, the five of us saying goodbye before heading off to our own cars.

Ethan went back to not talking to me as he got into the backseat and I got into the driver’s seat. I stabbed the key into the ignition, the car stalling immediately when I tried to start it. I tried again, but nothing changed.

“Come on,” I groaned, punching the steering wheel, which caused the horn to go off loudly. “Start!”

“Are you too stupid to start a car?” Ethan asked from behind me, and I turned around in my seat to glare at him quickly before turning back and trying to start the car again. “Just put the key in and twist it!”

“I’ve tried, if that isn’t already obvious!” I couldn’t help but snap, not in the mood to be bitched at by a ten-year-old.

When there was a knock on my window, I nearly jumped into the passenger’s seat. I turned to see Johnny staring at me in concern, so I gulped and opened the door, since I couldn’t open the window since the car wouldn’t start.

“Hi,” I greeted lamely, having nothing else to say to him.

He smirked. “Having trouble?”

I bit the inside of my lip before saying, “Kind of.”

“No, not kind of,” Ethan called out from the backseat. “She screwed something up and now she can’t start the car.”

“Ethan, I advise you be quiet or I’m going to use your head as an antenna topper!” I threatened back at him, seriously not in the mood for his attitude anymore. This didn’t seem to scare him like I was hoping though; all he did was glare right back at me.

“Come on, I’ll drive you two back home,” Johnny sighed, opening the door more for me so I could get out. I just sat there for a moment before unbuckling my seatbelt and turning to jump out of the car.

Much to my surprise, my foot caught on something and I fell forward. I let out a shout, expecting to feel the hard pavement, but instead I felt arms wrapping around my waist and a chest against the side of my head. It took me a moment to realize that Johnny had saved me from falling.

“Smooth,” Ethan commented from behind me, and I only glanced back to glare at him. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“I… I did not!”

Ethan only rolled his eyes at me, making his way over to Johnny’s car and slipping into the back along with Sadie and Riley. I glared down at my lap as I sat in the passenger’s seat, not believing I actually got into this type of fight with a ten-year-old.

We drove in silence for a few minutes, and I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief. Did this mean that Ethan was finally going to stop torturing me? I sure hoped so.

“You know, Johnny, Maxynn snores,” Ethan suddenly said as he leaned forward so he was now in between the two of us. “It’s so loud that I can hear her all the way down the hall in my room every single night.”

“You little brat!” I cried out, and I really wished that he wasn’t a child so I could have hit him. “I do not snore!”

“You wouldn’t know; you’re asleep!”

I bit the inside of my lip, not having anything to shout back at him. He was right; I wouldn’t have known if I snored or not because I was asleep. But still, I just knew that he had to be lying just to embarrass me in front of Johnny.

“She eats a lot, too,” Ethan continued now, and I nearly turned around to strangle him. “I’m surprised she’s not fat! Who knows what she’s hiding underneath her clothes!”

My argument died in my throat. I was hiding something under my clothes, but no one could know about that. No one could know about the burns that covered my right bicep. I myself didn’t even know what they looked like, and I wanted it to stay that way. Even if they were permanent, I was never going to look at these burns.

“See? She’s not denying it,” Ethan now pointed out, and I wanted nothing more than to toss him right out of my open window. What he was saying was false; I didn’t eat a lot at all. I was just hiding something under my clothes.

“She doesn’t look fat at all,” Sadie innocently put in from beside him, looking like she was trying her best to look at my stomach from where she was sitting. “I think Maxynn’s actually really pretty.”

Ethan snorted. “You’re all crazy.”

This boy was going to be the death of me, if his brother didn't do it first.

“Thanks for driving us home,” I smiled to Johnny as we rolled to a stop in front of Zach’s house. “I can’t be grateful enough to you.”

“Can I go see Zachy?” Sadie asked before Johnny could say anything back to me, nearly jumping up and down in her car seat. This made the whole car jump, which almost made me feel seasick. “Can I, Johnny? Can I please go see him?”

Ethan rolled his eyes at the little girl, grabbing onto her hand and nearly yanking her out of the car. “Come on. Just shut up and I’ll take you to him.”

Sadie squealed, and the two of them both got out of the car with Riley following them. My window was still open as I watched Sadie nearly dragging the two boys all the way into the house.

“You definitely know a girl’s too young for Zach when she still needs a car seat,” I sighed, shaking my head as the front door closed. “It’s cute that she’s got a crush on him and everything, but… There’s like a ten year age difference.”

“She’ll get over it sooner or later,” he shrugged, and it seemed like he was trying to convince himself more than he was trying to convince me. “She doesn’t know anything about relationships anyway. She doesn’t know what kind of guy Zach really is.”

I let out a breath. “I don’t even know what kind of guy Zach is and I live with him.”

This caused Johnny to laugh. “I don’t even know what kind of guy he is and we’ve been best friends for years.”

“You don’t?” I couldn’t help but ask, confused by what he had just said.

I knew nearly everything about Kate, and we had only been best friends for a year. I might have not known everything about Todd, but I knew a lot about him since he was a good friend of mine. I was sure that Johnny knew a lot about Zach, so why wouldn’t he know what kind of guy he was?

“He’s really… unpredictable sometimes, to put it simply,” he finally nodded after a long thought. “Always with a different girl, always doing different things. It’s really hard to understand him sometimes.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, looking back over to the house with a frown. “I guess you’re right.”

“Hey, Maxynn,” he nearly whispered, so quiet that I barely heard him.

“Hmm?” I started as I turned back toward him, but was cut off when his lips found mine. I didn’t react at first; all I did was stare at his closed eyes with my wide ones. But finally, I closed my eyes and leaned into him, kissing him back like I had always wanted to.

“Wow,” I gulped, out of breath when we pulled away. “That was…”

“Maxynn and Johnny sitting in a tree!” I heard a voice call out, and I quickly spun around to see all three children and Zach standing on the porch. It had been Sadie that had called that out. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

“They’re sitting in a car,” Ethan just had to point out, having to be technical about everything.

“There isn’t a letter that rhymes with car, dude,” Zach sighed, musing up his little brother’s hair as he smirked.

“R does, idiot,” Ethan scowled at his older brother before singing unenthusiastically, “Johnny and Maxynn kissing in a car. B-L-U-N-D-E-R.”

“Are you really ten-years-old?” I couldn’t help but shout out the window, frustrated by how evilly mature he was. I mean, what kind of normal ten-year-old even knew what blunder meant? I barely knew what it meant!

But I knew for sure it wasn’t a blunder for Johnny to kiss me. It wasn’t a mistake! And I would definitely prove that to everybody, no matter what it took.

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This chapter would have been out earlier if Aladdin hadn't been on earlier. I just can't concentrate on anything else when that movie's on...

And I hate myself right now. Why? Because, well, I'm pretty sure there's going to be a sequel-like thing to this story once it's finished. But it won't be a complete sequel, because it won't be about Maxynn. I just got an idea while writing this chapter and fell in love with it...

I have to stop myself for now. This story isn't even close to being finished yet, and I have to work on that because of the Watty Awards! So please vote and share this story! It would mean a lot to me!

I'm gonna stop putting the COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN thing on the bottom of my Watty Award entries... I just think it looks weird to ask you guys to vote and share and then ask you to comment, vote and fan... ;P