Girl Next Door

New Year's Eve 2010

New Years Eve 2010

Max was glad school was out for the holidays. It wasn't that he didn't like university, but rather that the first few months of it had been a tag overwhelming and what he needed more than anything was a nice normal Christmas.

Though it wasn't quite normal what with Andrew and Emily moving back home. Max had suspected it had something to do with Mitch's heart attack, but only a few days after they'd settled in the couple had announced to the family that they were expecting their first child in spring which was the actual reason why they'd moved back home. Mitch was doing well, especially with Maggie's round the clock care, and the family didn't seem too worried.

Being best friends with Zoey looked a little different in university than it had in high school, though the fundamental aspects were still the same. The biggest difference now was how spread out their classes were. High School had been a solid day of attending classes, while university's let you choose which class times you wanted based on what was on offer. Sometimes though the choices were limited and you ended up with a day that had class at 8am, 1pm and 5pm. Those were not Max's favourite days. Despite it being the same actual amount of class time as his 8am, 11am, 1pm days it felt so much longer. It wasn't so bad when Zoey hung out with him but when her classes didn't match up she'd go home and he'd end up choosing between spending half the down time on a bus and half at home or all of it at school. Suffice to say, Max was spending a lot on the school library computers streaming let's plays.

The other odd things about universities was that they didn't have lockers. This meant that though Max still lived across the street from Zoey, he didn't have a locker beside her anymore. It was strange not seeing her every time he collected his books. Instead of in a locker, his books were in a bag, and on the bus with him everyday. Sometimes he missed real lockers. Though he supposed he could just use the locker-like things near the student union, but they were so far from his classes it hardly seemed worth it.

That was the other thing about universities: they were really big. The campus was more like a small city than a school and Max had to imagine that if he lived in the dorms he'd never leave the school grounds.

But that was all over for now. Max had been looking forward to the school break for months now and he was gonna enjoy it. They holidays for Max always involved the Clarke family and Christmas was no exception to that rule. Of course, he saw his family too but it wouldn't have been a normal Christmas season if they all didn't get together once or twice over the holidays.

And this year that meant a New Years eve party at theClarke's. Max and his parents had been invited next door for appetizers, drinks and good company all the way to midnight.

"It's been going well," Maggie was saying as they all stood around the food table talking. "The doctor's given us a list of foods to avoid and ones to aim for and I've been doing my best to keep him on the right track."

"It's not as easy as it sounds," Max's father was contributing to the conversation. "I remember when my cousin was struggling with keeping to a diet."

"I remember," Maggie replied. "She was diagnosed pre-diabetic right?"

"Yep," Max's father agreed. "Managed to stay that way thanks to changing her eating habits, but man oh man was it a hard ride."

While only half listening to their conversation Max had noticed something they seemed to have missed. The subject of their discussion was nowhere to be seen. Deciding to investigate, Max took his little paper plate of appetizers and went into the kitchen. There he found exactly what he had suspected: a piece missing from the cake that had been concealed by the clever placement of the napkin holder.