Maddie Dempsey and Justin Foley were what people thought were the cliche highschool romance, and maybe at first glance they were, but when you look deeper into the story, the way Hannah Baker did, you'll see so much more.
{From: 5.18.18 Until: 6.30...
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Eleven years old.
Maddie had been living with the Dempsey's for around a year now and they were a perfect family, Zach and Maddie were as close as anyone could really be and they were all very happy together. Zach had made a few friends that weren't just the kids he played basketball on the streets with, and Maddie had one friend that had bumped into her on her first day.
It was Valentine's Day and everyone was happy and in a good mood, it could be just the fact that all the kids were excited to get candy and little cards with stickers, and most were hoping for cards from their crushes as well.
Maddie and Zach walk into the school and go separate ways as Maddie got put into a different class which meant they wouldn't see each other until lunch and recess and then after that they wouldn't see each other again until it was time to go.
Maddie had brought in a small zip-lock bag with little cards that her and Zach had filled and each one had a lollipop and a certain name on it, she had made one for each student in her class like the paper her teacher sent home had told her to do. Once they got to lunch they all ran out and ate at their tables, Maddie sat next to Zach and two boys sat in front of them, a small boy with dirty clothes and hair sat in front of Maddie and another boy with a clean and crisp outfit and washed hair sat in front of Zach.
They talked and laughed and exchanged smiles with each other but Maddie never seemed to catch their names though she figured she would get them later on. "Alright kids back inside to class!" The man watching the kids play outside said making Maddie and the boys part ways.
When Maddie makes it back to her class they finish the second side to their math worksheet then her teacher says that it is time to put everyone's Valentines into their bags. Each student grabs what they had and got into a line and put their candy or card into the bag which had that persons name on the front.
The rest of day they watched a movie and then the bell rang meaning they needed to leave. Zach was at Maddie's class door waiting for her and she walked to him then jumped slightly. "I forgot my bag be right back." Maddie says smiling and turning around as Zach nodded. Maddie gets to where the bags were lined up and grabs the last one but hesitates in bringing it down when she feels nothing in it. She brings it down and opens it, her smile leaving her face when she notices that nothing was put in.
She walks out to Zach and they walk out of the doors as she held the empty bag by the top making it look like something was in it but a girl from her class comes up and grabs it crumbling it up and showing everyone around that there was nothing in it making Maddie quickly walk away and Zach follow her confused.
When Zach catches up to her and they were on the sidewalk close to their house he runs to her side. "Maddie what happened, why wasn't there anything in your bag?" He asks setting his bag down on the steps that led up to their house and Maddie lets out a small sigh looking down. "They don't like me much, I guess either they didn't want to give me any or that girl convinced them, doesn't bother me though." Maddie says shrugging.
"Why doesn't it bother you? If I didn't get anything I would be upset." Zach says.
"I've been through worse." She says and they walk inside, and even though she acted like it didn't bother her Zach could see it did though he didn't know how to fix it so he left it alone.
Karen looks at the two as they walk in. "Hey my lovelies how was your day?" She asks but to her surprise Maddie just walks past her, her large backpack hitting her legs behind her and they hear her door shut. "What's wrong with Maddie?" His mother asks as she hands him a small plate that had apple slices.
"Something happened and Maddie didn't get anything in her Valentines day bag and everyone laughed at her." Zach says sadly as he bites into one of the apple slices. "I wish I could have done something." He says shaking his head and as his mother opens her mouth to say something a knock at the door makes her stop.
"Zach will you get it?" Karen asks as she cuts into another apple for Maddie. When Zach opens the door he sees Bryce and Justin, the two boys he had befriended, standing in his door way and in Bryce's hand was a basketball. "Do you wanna come play?" Bryce asks and Zach nods turning to his mom to see her nodding with a smile making him walk out and shut the door as the three of them began to just shoot in his driveway using the hoop that was attached to his garage.
As they shot they talked about random things. "Who was the girl that sat with us today at lunch?" Justin asks as he hands the ball to Bryce for his turn. "She's my sister." Zach says making Bryce and Justin turn to him giving him a weird look. "Adopted sister, but still sister." Zach says and the boys nod. "Does she not like basketball?" Justin asks as he catches the ball Bryce threw and checked it over to Zach for him to take his turn.
"No girl ever does." Bryce says as he had never seen a girl play basketball. "No she does, she's really good too, she just had a bad day." Zach explains shooting the basketball and missing it as it hits off the rim and bounces to Justin. "Oh what happened?" Justin asks as he shoots and Zach explains it again making Bryce and Justin both wonder how someone could be so cruel. "I got to go. I'll be back in a bit." Justin says walking off.
Maddie was in her room trying to remember a dance that she had learned last week, she needed to keep her mind off the fact that everyone had laughed at her. As she had done her second spin there was a small knock at the door making her stop, turn off her music, and zip up her blue jacket.
She opens her door to see the boy from lunch standing in her doorway and she opens the door up the rest of the way confused. "Can..can I come in?" He asks with a small plastic bag wrapped around his wrist and Maddie nods moving away from the door more for him to come in and he does. He goes to her bed and she follows sitting beside him.
"I'm Maddie." She says smiling at him. "I'm Justin." He says smiling at her and her eyes travel down to the bag. "I heard what happened today at school, nobody deserves that." Justin says making her look down to her feet.
"It's fine really but can we not talk about it?" Maddie asks sadly only for him to unwrap the bag from his wrist. "This is to make up for those jerks." He says sitting the bag down and walking out of the room though he stood out of the door-frame but close enough to hear her. He could hear the bag moving and he peeks in to watch her bring the item out of the bag. It was a small thing of pixie sticks and a even smaller note with Justin's messy hand writing placed on it. 'They're as sweet as you.' Though he had used the wrong 'they're' and he had taken the quote off one of the pictures his mom had with one of her old boyfriends.
She looked to the doorway to see him watching her both of their cheeks light up to a soft pink and Justin smiles when he knew he had made up for it the best he could, Maddie looked down smiling with her bottom lip between her teeth. Zach had watched the exchanged and smiled, happy someone could fix what he couldn't.
From that point on it was like a bit of their heart swelled for each other though they didn't think much of it, yet.
