10 Ditch Day

Ditch Day was coming up. Reasonably, he could skip because unlike Maxie previously, he would not fail if he missed another day.

Did that mean he was going to skip? Absolutely not.

He had gotten up before anyone else (which everyone was starting to treat normally) and was eating a bowl of cereal while occasionally sipping on a cup of coffee. Yes, the switch in taste and texture was downright horrible, but he got food in his body while simultaneously getting extra energy into his body.

His mother is making dinner while he watches from the table, having nothing else to do, other than tempt fate by leaning his chair back while putting things in his body.

"Your waffles are ready, honey." Barb says, then she sneezes.

"You know what? I'll have a banana." Hank replies, gripping onto one and moving to the table.

"Come on, it's still good." Barb tries to save.

"Mom, you sneezed on it. No, it's not." Max said, then took another bite of his cereal.

He felt horrible today. Along with the fact that it was ditch day, and him along with Phoebe were stuck together, he had learned that the tricks he had learned he couldn't do anymore because he was out of practice using them.

Note to self, try to practice more.

She sneezes again, also on the waffles again.

"I'm so sorry. I think I'm coming down with a cold." She says, then proceeding to blow her nose.

That is when Phoebe walks into the kitchen, the necklace on the outside of the shirt, visible to everyone.

"Morning, guys!" She greeted, bounding up to the bar. "Morning, mom! Morning, dad!" She glances at him. "Morning, Max!" She also greets, grabbing an apple.

"Morning, Phoebe." Barb greets, then sneezes again. "Where did you get that necklace?"

"I had them custom made for me and Max." His twin responds seamlessly.

No, he did not change her notification sound to a fart. That was too childish, and he had better things to do.

Hank moves to look closer. "Aw, Thundertwins? That's adorable, Phoebe!"

"Thanks. Max cheered me up. Figured I could get him something for trying." She shrugs.

Max nods, while Maxie says, "'Still can't believe she gave you a gift.'"

Max mentally responds, "'I can. I treat her like a human being, you f**king a**hole.'"

He then talks out loud after Barb sneezes again. "Mom, let's get you up to bed." He sets the bowl down, then quickly opens the fridge and the cabinet before bringing a cup along with the whole jug of orange juice to him, then stepping up the stairs.

He doesn't notice anybody looking at him like he grew a second head on the way up.

~~~~~~~~~~

"No, Tara, I'm not ditching today."

He hears the whine over the phone. Not that she would ever admit to that.

*"But Maaaaax! I want you againnnnn!"* She complains.

"And I told you, if I miss another day, I will have to take summer school. That's a month straight you will have to occupy yourself without me." He takes a breath. And yes, he is fully aware that it is such a lie thanks to his lifestyle changes "Think about it this way, would you rather miss today, or miss a whole month?"

He can practically hear the realization click. *"The day."* She answers, and he nods.

"Good choice." He glances at the school. "Gotta go. Wish me luck, I'm stuck with nothing but Phoebe and whatever strange teacher we get stuck with, because nobody in Hiddenville is normal."

Tara laughs over the call. *"Yeah. Good luck with Phoebe, and speaking of how nobody is normal here, I can't wait to figure out what your secret is."*

He huffs a bit. "You have fun with that." Then he hangs up, stepping into the school then walking to class.

Here's hoping that Phoebe isn't too annoying.

~~~~~~~~~~

Stepping into the room, he moves next to Phoebe then sits down, instantly pulling a sketching notebook out.

"Max? What are you doing here? I thought you were ditching?" She asked, turning to him while removing her headphones.

"I would have, but realized that with everyone gone, it will be far less annoying here." He responds, pulling a small pack of colored pencils, a single pencil, and a pack of markers out. "Plus, I can actually get some personal projects done."

His twin nods with a hum, then speaks again, "Same here. I mean, have you seen how empty this place is? I thought there would at least be teachers here. It's kind of creepy."

The teacher walks in, Miss Williams if he remembers correctly, humming the same song she sang on the show.

"Sittin' on a chicken all day long... Strummin' a banjo, hummin' a song..." She sings, and he blows a breath out while starting to sketch out a new invention with the tech he has in his room/the house in general.

"There's one." Max casually remarks,

The teacher jumps and puts a hand to her chest. "Cheese and crackers!"

"'What is that supposed to mean?'" Asked Maxie.

"'No idea.'"

Miss Williams continued, "You scared me! What are you two doing here?"

"I'm here because I want perfect attendance." Phoebe answered, then looked at Max.

"I want to spend as much time away from my house as possible while simultaneously get as much personal work done as possible." Max answered, not looking up. He could feel Phoebe's confused face but didn't outwardly show a reaction to it.

Miss Williams just grinned. "Well, this is a treat! I was gonna spend the day lookin' at pictures of ma birds, but since you're here, we can all look at pictures of ma birds!" She was heavily southern, obviously. He knows southern. He lived with one for years before they divorced.

"I'm going to ignore you." Max states, still curving a line down the page. He could feel Phoebe roll her eyes in a mock annoyed manner before looking at the teacher, while Max keeps sketching.

He then just tuned the teacher out while he sketched.

~~~~~~~~~~

Turns out, nothing productive got done. Instead, he ended up drawing a portrait of Tara. Granted, it was a good portrait he would definitely be giving her for her birthday (accidental gifts were always the best gifts) but other than that, absolutely nothing relating to his future Anti-Hero endeavors got designed.

Max had gotten halfway done when he realized what it was, then committed to it, proceeding to add color and more detail into it.

No, he wasn't an artist. He could draw because he had to. Both before and after the transition to this life.

Maxie was actually able to draw pretty well naturally, Max just refined it so that more detail could be added.

No, he did not shade his drawings either. At least not every other picture. For Tara's, he did.

Because that would just be lazy.

"I can't take this anymore..." He heard Phoebe mutter, then the sound of wind blowing and a body freezing.

When he glanced up, he saw Miss Williams frozen. His eyes darted to Phoebe, then a slight smirk graced his lips. "Did you freeze the teacher?"

"....no."

"Are you lying?"

She tried to resist, but eventually a strangled, "Yes..." escaped her lips.

He huffed a laugh before looking back down to his paper, brushing some stray shavings off. "Wondered when you'd break." He remarks, remaking the line he erased better, refining it to look more accurate to the woman he was picturing in his head.

Honestly, a photographic memory was great for drawing portraits.

"What do you mean?"

"Phoebe, she has been talking about her birds for three hours. My estimate was that you would snap an hour and a half in." He remarks, swapping to a different pencil to make the lines look better, then he took a glance at his colored pencils. He would have to mix colors to get thr right shade of red for her hair.

"Oh." A few minutes of silence, then she closes her book. She had finished her magazine awhile ago, though it took longer than it should have. "We should do something." She speaks up, and that causes his pencil to cease its movements.

"Excuse me?"

Phoebe licks her lips, seemingly nervous as he turns his head to her. "It's just that- I thought-" She cuts herself off before taking a deeper breath. "We don't actually hang out much anymore-"

"We never did to begin with."

"-and I figured we could use this opportunity to, you know, hang out without any witnesses, your style." She finished, placing her head against her hand while looking at him.

"Phoebe, my style is being alone and committing small crimes. My style goes against your entire moral code." Max remarks dryly.

"'Funny way of putting it. The only crime I have seen you commit is minor theft.'" Maxie noted.

"'We'll get into the really illegal stuff later.'"

"'Like what?'"

"'Breaking and entering. Kidnapping, possibly. Murder, definitely.'"

"'WHAT!?'"

"'You won't get caught.'"

"'...fair.'"

"Still." Phoebe continues, unknowing if his internal conversation. "We could have some fun."

Max raises his eyebrows. "Oh? Like what? Enlighten me." He questions curiously.

"Um..." She thinks, biting her lip. "Twenty questions?"

He gives her a look.

"Maybe not twenty questions..." she mutters.

He raises a hand. "How about an altered version? Ten questions, and if the question involves something physical and the other party wants to see it, a necklace for example, the other shows it. If we don't want to answer the question, we choose another one." He offers, willing but not happy.

She had a point. It would be best to get on her good side for future events.

She bites her lip to think, then she nods. "Yeah. That sounds good enough for me."

He blows a breath out. This was going to take only a little less time than standard twenty questions.

This was going to be a very unpleasant few hours.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Question number five-"

"If it's something basic like what my favorite color is or what my favorite invention is, I'm freezing you." Max cuts her off, giving her a blank look.

The rest dies on her tongue, and she starts thinking of new questions.

Finally, a question she has been dying to ask comes out; "What do you draw in that sketchbook of yours? I always see you scribbling in it while in class instead of focusing on the lesson, and I'm curious." 

He breathes out a sigh of relief. Five questions in and they were all basic question so all he did was copy the questions. Now they had their first interesting question of the day.

They had been here for an hour and a half, mostly because she had gave detailed explanations as to why she had her answers. It was very tedious.

Max answers, "I draw pictures. Portraits, designs, schematics." He listed, then picked the sketchbook up, then turned it to her. "Started earlier." He remarks, showing the picture of Tara.

Her eyes widen as she looks at the sketch. "The detail..." She mutters, then looks at his eyes. "That's Tara?" She questions, and he nods.

"Yup."

She bites her lip, looking back at the image, then back to him.

That's when she says something he wasn't expecting, at all. "Tara is to you what Cherry is to me, isn't she?"

He gives her a look. "That's question seven. And what do you mean?"

"I mean..." She looks at her desk, trying to find a way to format it. "She's your best friend. Your first human best friend. Someone you can talk to on even ground. Someone you can relate to. Someone who can actually do their own things, someone who can go out to places with you. You actually have a best friend you enjoy being around, a favorite person. Tara is to you what Cherry is to me. Your favorite person: a best friend to call your own and nobody else's."

It stops to make him think. Phoebe had a point. He never thought about it that way, and now that she pointed it out...

...holy sh*t, he had a best friend. A favorite person in this world.

"Huh." He huffs out.

"'She *is* our best friend! I never thought of that! I have a best friend that isn't a bunny!'" Maxie exclaimed.

"'Technically, I do, but I'll let it slide because I'm in a similar state.'"

"Didn't think of that?" Phoebe asked.

"No. No, I didn't."

"Alright. Your turn, Max."

"Duh."

~~~~~~~~~~

"Are you and Tara in a relationship?"

That question threw him for a loop. Mostly because he didn't know. They never got around to that talk after the Math Bowl because her parents whisked her away to another country for two weeks. She had gotten back a week ago, and they have not had that talk yet. Was that what the talk was about?

"I don't know."

"What do you mean, 'I don't know?'"

"I mean, Phoebe, I have no idea."

She licked her lips because they ran dry, then a minute or two later, she questioned awkwardly, "But you two have been... intimate... and that usually means you're in a relationship."

Max took a second before responding, "Phoebe, two people can have sex and not be dating. That's exactly what a one-night-stand is." He pauses at her face before pushing on, "But it's more than that. It wasn't just once," far from it. "but we aren't just f**k buddies either..." Phoebe looked uncomfortable. "Sorry, I'm done with this question. My turn."

~~~~~~~~~~

They were both in his Lair, actually chilling. The day ended the same way, all except the fact that they had to break into the high school to erase some footage. Purely because they just played ten questions.

Then their siblings slid down the stairs and landed on his bed, Billy first with Nora in top of him, causing an oomph.

"Why are you and Phoebe hanging out?" Nora asked Max, feeling closer to him than the other at this point.

"And not fighting?" Billy questioned.

Max just looked up at him, pausing the video of the pranks during dinner that he was currently showing Phoebe, and that they were both grinning at. She wanted to know what he did exactly and how people saw it from an outside view, so he decided to show her.

"You're seeing it, too? I thought I was nuts!" Colosso exclaimed, curtain covering his cage pulled up so he could see.

Max decided to torture him a bit today.

"Phoebe was the one who wanted it. And believe it or not, when nobody is expecting anything from her, she's fun to be around." Max replies, flicking her arm with his fingers.

She gave a glare without any heat behind it, then turned the screen around. "We were just watching a video he made. Pretty funny, actually."

Both Nora and Billy looked closer at the video. "Is that the dinner with the Campbells?" Nora questioned.

"Yeah. I recorded it and posted it online because I thought it would be funny." False, but it would pass for now.

"That's the only reason?"

"Yes, bow-brain, that's the only reason."

"Hmm. I don't believe you."

"Believe what you want."

"Max, where did you get this moisturizer?" Billy cuts in.

Max turns to look at him, then sighs, Maxie doing the same thing internally.

"That's Colosso's scab ointment. It's about to burn. It will hurt."

Billy stops rubbing his hands together. "Oh." Then he starts again. "Good to know!"

Max sighs again, then looks at Nora. "What did you need anyways?"

"Oh, dad wanted to know if you two would come watch Space Kitties with us."

Max glanced at Phoebe, who shrugged. Then Max looked back at Nora. "Sure."

~~~~~~~~~~

Awhile later, they were watching Space Kitties while Max was sketching in his sketchbook, only half paying attention to the movie. "Max, what are you sketching?" Hank asked.

"Sketches." He answered cryptically. It was still Tara, and here soon he would have to go grab his markers along with his colored pencils.

"What sketch specifically?" Nora asked, trying to look over Phoebe's lap, due to Max being on the other end of the couch from Hank, with Phoebe separating him from Nora.

"Ask Phoebe." Max replied. which got a gasp from Maxie.

"'You're really allowing her to answer *for* you?'" Maxie asked.

"'She can give any answer she wants, I can still control the narrative. Because unlike her, I can lie and use words to get the answer I want. Whatever answer she gives. I can turn it around.'" Max responds blankly.

"'Huh. Interesting.'"

"He's, uh, sketching a cat. He'sdefinitelynotsketchingTarawhywouldyouthinkthat?" Phoebe rushes out, and Max rolls his eyes.

"He's sketching Tara?" Billy asks,

"'You knew she wouldn't be able to lie. That's why you let her answer. You only had to worry about one answer to control.'" Maxie noted.

"'Yup. It's impossible for Phoebe to lie at all. It's why I let her answer. Only one answer would have come out.'"

"Yup. Wanna see?" Max asked, and at his nod, held the sketch out to Nora to pass it, who made an impressed face before handing it to Billy.

"I don't like you two hanging out together." Hank said simply, which got a look from Max.

"I didn't ask for your opinion. You can't stop it, so suck it up." He glances at Phoebe, then leans forward to look Hank in the eyes. "Tell me; would you force Phoebe to stay away from Cherry for doing one of the few things they're able to do together? Would you force them apart for getting along purely because they act the same, talk the same, get excited about the exact same things?" Max questions.

Hank makes a face, while Billy and Nora both scan over the detail of the sketch. Phoebe just looks back and forth with wide eyes. Eventually, Hank responds with a, "No..."

Max nods. "Exactly what I thought you would say. So, why would you do that with me and Tara?" At Hank's confused face, Max continues, "Me and Tara get along because we talk the same. Act the same. Get excited about the same things. Tara is to me, what Cherry is to Phoebe. Would you strip Phoebe's best friend away from her, the only friend she has here, just because you don't like her friend?" Max questioned once more, and Hank slowly shook his head. "Then why would you try to strip me of my friend, the only one I have here, just because you don't like her?"

"Max-"

"I'm not done. She's not a bad influence. I would have done everything I have done so far anyways, but with her, it's safer and less likely to get me into trouble because I'm not doing it alone." He takes a breath. "You're fine to not like what we do in our free time. You're free to not like her as a person. But you can't take her away for the reasons I gave, especially since you wouldn't force Phoebe to give Cherry away. Is that understandable?"

Hank takes a second but nods. "Yeah. I don't like it, but I understand it. Thank you for telling me how you see it. I'll keep it in mind and lay off of you and her." Max nods.

"Thanks."

Hank takes another second. "Could I see the sketch?"

"Of course. Billy?" Max looks to him, and he hands it over to Hank.

Hank nods, looking at it. "This is... beautiful. This could be a sketch by an actual artist." The father says.

Max uses his telekinesis to pull the page over to him, scoffing. "Please. It's just a sketch, and you haven't seen many. It looks good by default." Max says, then starts sketching once again.

~~~~~~~~~~

"No, Captain Whiskers, it's too dangerous." Lieutenant Furball said from the TV.

"Then it's a good thing I've got nine lives." Captain Whiskers responded to the Lieutenant, getting an eye roll from Max who hated that cheesy line.

"That would never happen!" Hank complains, and he nods.

"Definitely. Purely because cats don't have thumbs, which means they can't steer." Max remarked without even looking up.

"Exactly!" Hank agreed, throwing his arm out while still looking at the screen.

Phoebe leaned over, her weight pressing against his side as she looked at the sketch.

"It's looking really good." She whispers, looking at it.

Max glanced at her, feeling the breath on his jaw. "I know. Sketching is done, need to grab my colors." He muttered back.

"I'll help." She replied and he nodded, standing up and setting the sketch on the table before moving to step down into the basement, Phoebe on his heels.

~~~~~~~~~~

As they got down the stairs completely, Phoebe spoke up by saying, "Hey, Max-"

 "Is this an important conversation?" Max asked, cutting her off. When she nodded, he used his telekinesis to close Colosso's curtain. "Alright, go ahead."

"Can't he... hear us?" Phoebe asked.

"I soundproofed the inside so that I don't keep him up when I work on projects at two or three in the morning. Plus, other things that would involve noise that he either wouldn't want to hear, or I don't want him to hear. Basically, I upgraded his cage." Max replied.

"Oh." Phoebe said, then continued as Max grabbed his small box of markers. "I wanted to talk to you about... about Tara... kinda. And maybe... a little about Cherry?"

Max glanced at her. "What about them?" He questioned, grabbing his colored pencils. He was organized, he knew where they were.

The Dark Mayhem poster was still up though... he *really* needed to get around to getting it down.

"Well... I want to talk to Tara-" Phoebe started, which got Max's attention, so much so that he cut her off while snapping his head around to her.

"You what?" Max questioned.

"I want to talk to Tara. One-on-one, just to get to know her. If she's going to be around and all, I at least want to know her a bit." She bites her lip then continues. "And maybe you could do the same with Cherry? Talk to her a bit, get to know her?" Phoebe suggests, nervous.

Max thinks for a second, which apparently has Maxie concerned. "'You can't be seriously considering this!'" Maxie exclaimed internally.

"'She makes good points, dumb**s. If our house is open to guests, it only figures eventually we would be around when one of our friends are over, and it would be good to be on friendly terms. It would benefit all involved.'" Max replied, thinking with neutrality.

"'I can't believe you!'"

"'Believe it, b***h.'"

"Yeah. Sounds smart. I'll start talking to Tara about it." Max replies, standing up.

~~~~~~~~~~

The second they get upstairs, they hear the line of, "Lieutenant, you risked your life to save me. But, why?" Asked Captain Whiskers from the screen.

Lieutenant Furball simply responded by saying, "Captain Whiskers, this may come as a shock, but I am your father." He said, and Max resisted a groan.

The Star Wars influence was not lost on him.

"I did not see that coming..." Hank said, shocked, along with Billy and Nora, while the twins paused to look at them with disinterest.

""We did."" The twins said at the same time, before they both sat back down, Max noticing the sketch slightly out of place from where he set it down.

"Took another look?" He questioned, giving them all a disappointed look, all except Phoebe.

"...yes...?" Nora answered.

He just shrugs. "Could have just asked. Gotta color it in now, you can ask to see when it's done. It'll be a birthday gift." He looks up at all of them. "Not one word to Tara, even if I bring her over." he turns to Phoebe. "That goes for you, too." He gives a small glare, and she nods.

"Got it."

Max then turns back to them. "And mom is to not know at all. She would pester me to make one of her and I don't need that."

"Understandable."

"Agreed."

"Definitely."

He nods. "Cool. Back to the movie."

~~~~~~~~~

By the end of the movie, Hank and Billy were crying. An emotional moment had one character dying and telling the other to call him 'dad.' It had Hank and Billy in tears while the other three rolled their eyes.

"It's just a movie." Phoebe sighed.

"We're getting a cat."

Max simply responded with, "We're allergic."

"I don't care."

"Mom does." Max replies, turning to look at him blankly.

He takes a minute before sighing. "Fine..."

"SPEAKING of mom, shouldn't you check on her?" Phoebe questioned, and Hank nodded.

"Come on, kids, time for bed." Hank said, motioning for Billy and Nora to come with. Theu both whined, but followed anyways.

Phoebe looked at her twin. "This was a fun night in. I mean, imagine what else we could have been doing tonight." Phoebe says.

Max remarks, "Yeah. We could have been breaking into the school to wipe security cameras after school cameras caught us using our powers."

"What?"

"Nothing, nevermind. Goodnight?"

Phoebe smiled. "Goodnight, Max." She leaned over to kiss his cheek before she stood up and walked to her room.

He simply walked downstairs, deciding to turn in after another hour of coloring the sketch in.

{End note: I know it's not as long as it usually is, but with this version of Max, he wouldn't take an unnecessary risk, he's smarter than that. And because of that, half of this episode is cut out, so I just merged their side of this story with Billy, Nora, and Hank's. And like I said when I first introduced the voting system, a certain number of choices that are neglected gets punished. In this case, the tricks he learned, he has to relearn. I hope this will teach you. And no sex this chapter, there was nowhere I could find it, and someone requested slice of life. Friendly conversations, a breakthrough, and movie night. I hope it's satisfactory.}

Vote (what to do): 

Book Reading (Get rid of Maxie): 

Practice with Powers: 

Slack Off:

Other (tell me):