12. Back home from school, in the living room, Maximus walks up to Astrid who ponders in the chair saying, “today was rough, my powers just bursted out on me, I can barely write in these gloves either, it freaking sucks.”

“Oh, well, everything is fine for me at school.” 

Suddenly Melodie and Celsius come up to him saying, “why did you leave us outside in this dangerous place.” 

“I'm sorry, I was caught up in my thoughts about something." Maximus scratches his head, apologizing again.

Celsius just rolls his eyes and walks upstairs, then Valencia comes over saying, “did she tell you?” 

“Tell you what? I want to know.” Melodie replies in an excited tone. 

“Astrid accidentally used her powers at school.” 

“Oooooh, she shape shifted?” 

“No, it was the telekinesis, and if any of you tell mom and dad, you won’t live tomorrow to see the next day!” She suddenly yells with an undertone of embarrassment. 

“Uh…Okay.” Melodie replies, paying no mind to Astrid's words.

Suddenly Astrid’s phone starts ringing, and she hurriedly puts the phone away and says, “I have to do my homework now…” Running right up the stairs after saying so.

Eventually later, Arrow comes upstairs seeing maid Shelly standing by Astrid’s closed and locked door, “Shelly? What are you doing?”

Shelly almost drops her duster saying, “oh, just checking if her room needed cleaning or anything like that.” 

“That is not how you check a room Shelly, you’ve been here for years, you should know that, I'm not stupid.” 

“Sorry, my mistake.”

Shelly watches Arrow leave, then goes back to Astrid’s door to listen to a conversation she’s having.

“I can’t tell them about you...” Are the main words that roam Shelly’s mind as she listens carefully to what Astrid is saying.

Then a day later, Maximus walks up to Claree on a bright sunny day, no wind nor clouds. Claree sits there on a park bench with her hair covering her face as she looks down while writing in her book, then as Maximus walks over, she looks up with one of the most beautiful smiles while saying in a happy tone, “hello there.” 

“Star Wars reference I see..." Maximus notices by the way she said it.

"One of my series,” she replies.

He smiles, "me too."

Maximus sits down beside her, with them writing together, then Claree starts saying while still writing, “I like your outfits, like a sophisticated young man," she looks up at him, "which I pray you will become.” 

“My siblings always used to tell me that when I noticed them.” 

“What do you mean?” “Well, like I said yesterday, I just ignore them by reading, there is a reason for it though, but…”

She cuts him off saying, “what could be a reason to ignore your siblings?” 

“You don’t understand, they are not easy to ignore, but ones you wish you can.” 

“Hm…Like my parents...” 

“What do you mean this time?”

“They are always so busy doing things, they have the same job, and they can be really harsh at times, so usually I just go to the park, and hope to find peace here as much as possible, because my home is crazy at times, so if you want to meet up then here is the perfect place for me.” 

“Huh…That’s strange.”

“Right now they have guests over, so that’s why I’m here, here with you, I need some company.” “I hear, is that why you’re doing your homework here?” 

She looks back over to him, simply replying with, “yup.”

He turns back to himself, watching Claree do her work as the breezy wind brushes her hair back and forth, causing her to smile and move her hair out of her face.

Maximus takes this opportunity to say what he really wants to say, finding a way to see if she truly is the girl he saw in Jinn’s backyard.

Maximus starts to say to her, “so, have you heard of Jinn Marshon?” 

Almost hesitating as if she had to think about it, she blurts out, “yes, he’s like you guys, pretty well known for his wealth.” 

“Do you know him personally?” 

Claree looks at Maximus face to face and says, “no, I don’t, my parents did a few years back in 2005, but they haven’t talked since.” 

“I see, I’ve met him, but not wanting.” Claree smiles again, but this time, her smile felt more sad. 

Then she randomly says, "he's handsome though, isn't he?"

Maximus looks at her, "yeah...I guess." 

Then he thinks to himself, “I see you are a strange one Claree, because I know that was you at Jinn’s house, but you don’t say a word about the truth, just your lies of pretending not to know.”

Then he started to wonder what else she could be lying about so far...

Later on this night, Maximus manages to gather everybody together, then he says before everyone, “oh good, you guys came down to listen to me.” 

Victor replies with, “yeah, you look a little stressed so I thought I’d listen to what you have to say.” 

“Thank you, but is mother and father around?” Maximus looks around as if they are going to pop out any second now.

“No, they are upstairs.” Valencia adds in. 

“Okay, I’ll make this as quick as possible.”

Taking a deep breath, Maximus starts saying, “I met a girl at school yesterday, and today I went to the park with her, and I lied about going to the library with Dack.” 

They look at him in shock with Celsius clapping saying, “you never disobeyed the rules before, I’m impressed with you.” 

“Please, you guys have to hear me out, I believe she might be a figure of something…” 

Arrow walks up to him saying, “go on…” With intrigue in his voice again.

“I asked her about Jinn and she said that she never met him, and that her parents haven’t talked to him since 2005.” 

“Woah,” Valencia adds. 

“Exactly, why would she be roaming around in his backyard if she doesn't personally know him?” 

Melodie starts saying, “let’s be in the real here, you made a friend brother, you’re still disobeying the rules. What are you going to do now? Lie about her? That’s going to be very rough for someone like you who can’t lie to save his life.”

“Well…I’m not planning to lie, Melodie.”

“Then what else are you going to do?”

Victor cuts them both off, saying, “hold on, are you trying to study her?” 

“Yes, I’m very curious now, and I want to know who she really is." 

“Oh, here we go.” Celsius sighs after saying this.

“I’m going to be her friend, until-” 

“I think that is a mistake, Max.” Victor adds in. 

“Well, I’ll have to see, because it is time for mom and dad to tell us what is really going on with us and this house, the point is to find out more about Claree, I would just leave her alone, if she just didn’t seem so close to us…” 

“Alright then,” Arrow says, then he begins to say after, “I usually would never encourage you to do something dangerous on your own, but…Keep me in on this so that I can help you.”

“Okay, Arrow, thank you, I’ll try to be smart about this as much as I can.”

After saying this, Arrow leaves and so does everyone else as the conversation ends.

That night, Astrid sits up in her room, in tears, causing Arrow to come talk to Shelly saying, “what happened earlier?” 

“What do you mean Arrow?” 

“Well, Astrid started crying when she was in her room, and you were there by her door, do you know why?” 

“No, but…I believe she must have met someone, probably at school.” 

“Met a friend, like Maximus did?” 

“Yes, I must go now, Cora wants me to help her with…Her drawings.” 

Arrow watches her as she smiles at him and leaves.

About two months later, on a clear sunny day, with no winds or clouds, Maximus meets up with Claree again at the park, practically the same scenario, but Max shows up saying, “are you doing your homework?” 

“No, this is my open diary, not my homework, I want to record some things we do from now on.” 

“Really? That’s nice." 

“I’ll just keep it in my bag for now, I’ll know what to write when I finally can go back home.” 

“So, what did you want to do?” 

She walks up to him saying, “I want to chat a bit.” 

“Chat…Oh well about what?” 

“Anything, like…" she looks around, "the plants, trees, seasons,” She turns back to him saying, “or us.” 

“How about books? My favorite thing to do is read.” 

“I did bring a book with me, let me get it,” she walks over with the book saying, “see, I love fantasy books.” 

“I just finished that one last week,” she puts her hand to his mouth saying, “don’t spoil anything!” 

“I won’t, calm down, I want to ask you something, would you like to come over to my house one day? So, we won’t always have to be outside.” 

“One day, sure.” 

“Cool, I can’t today, we’re taking Cora and Melodie to see Tangled in theaters.” 

“Oh, can I come with!” 

“Uh…” 

“Right, too much too soon.” 

“Yeah,” Claree sits down and starts saying, “I love clear days, you can just imagine the happiness in the heavens from here.” Maximus sits down saying, “what a big happy thought.” 

“I always like to think ahead, always…” 

Claree accidentally drops her book on the ground, “oh no, I got it," he says.

Maximus goes to pick it up, but he accidentally picks it up with his powers, flinging it to the other side. Maximus sits down in a bit of embarrassment, while Claree just sits for a moment, then she says, “they said there wasn’t wind today.” 

“Strange...” Maximus replies. Claree gets up and stands in front of him saying,  "would you take my hand, please.”

Maximus holds her hand and they walk out together, she then lifts up her right hand grabbing her book from afar, then saying, “I have Arkemia too.” With a serious look on her face. 

“I don’t know what to say now, but you…Are like my estranged siblings and I or like some of the kids here, how weird isn't this world.” They laugh it off, then Claree says to him personally, “I know, I didn’t want to tell you because of my parents.” 

“Don’t worry, I get afraid too.”