The Introduction of the Cy-Rangers

Hey, Max! Wicked Lunch!

Max was passing the cabanas as he went to his locker to get his lunch. He wasn't really looking forward to the lame squashed cheese and crest sandwiches and mushed apples that his dad Goofy provided for him, but lifeguard duty was a very tiring and hungry job and he was grateful for someone making his lunch for him.

"Yoo-hoo, Max!"

Max turned to see Lisa inside her cabana. She was sitting on one of the two sun loungers, waving to him.

"Why don't you join me if you have time?"

He looked at the food she had spread on the table in-between her sun lounger and the empty one on the other side. It looked delicious. There was fruit, salads, sandwiches, cakes, pretzels and a bottle of lemonade with glasses. It would make a nice change from the food his dad provided for the last three years.

"Thanks, Lisa." Max approached the cabana and sat down on the empty sun lounger.

"It's the very least I can do for you after you saved my children."

"Where are they?"

"They were tired, so I put them to sleep." She pointed to them and Max saw they were asleep in a hammock at the back of the cabana.

"Hmm," Max said, as he ate one of Lisa's delicious cheese and onion sandwiches. "I know you made these excellent sandwiches, Lisa. You've still got it."

"Thanks, Max."

As the two friends ate the food, they caught up with what they've been doing with their lives since the last time they met which was about last Christmas. Max told Lisa all about his lifeguard job and all the heroic rescues he performed at this water park. Lisa enjoyed hearing about them and then she told Max how her fashion designing career was going. She was America's most successful fashion designer in the world. She could design anything from a baby's first clothes to clothes for the most famous and influential models in the world. The clothes that she designed were number one hits in clothes shops and they were on front covers for fashion magazines, even the most popular and influential ones.

While listening to her stories, Max started to remember when they were a couple in high school. It all started when they both were in the eleventh grade and during a camping trip before the Easter Break. Before this one, they both were already in relationships: Max with a girl called Roxanne and Lisa with a guy called Chad. How both of them broke up with their first love was tragic. For Max, Roxanne had to move to Florida with her dad Marcus and even the camping trip had hardly begun. She didn't want to break with Max any more than he did with her because they were very happy together, but they had no choice.

Lisa, on the other hand, chose to break up with Chad or rather she often said he chose to break up when he decided to cheat on her with the head cheerleader Mollie for nearly two years. When Lisa discovered and confronted Chad about it and what she did so wrong in their relationship, he told her that he needed more than one girl in his life. One girl would never be enough for him. So, she felt that she had to break up with that cheating loser, no matter how much it hurt her.

Lisa decided that she needed time to herself, so she went walking on her own away from the wooden camp cabins that her fellow schoolmates were staying in. Because she was so upset, she wasn't looking where she was going and she fell into a bog and started to sink very quickly. When she struggled to get out, she yelled for help. When the mud caught up to her neck, she gave up until Max arrived with some rope and helped her out. She was so grateful to Max for saving her life and it was from that moment that they became a couple.

And what a happy couple they were. They went on many wonderful dates together, they went to both junior and senior proms together and Lisa invited Max to join her family on their vacations, like going skiing in the Alps or scuba diving in the Caribbean. When the time came to choose colleges, they decided to go to different ones and they decided to break up in case they found someone else to be with at their colleges, but they still remained good friends with each other. They even viewed each other as some of their best friends. And when Lisa was asked how she became the successful fashion designer she was, apart from her passion for fashion, she always said Max encouraged her to follow it and study it at college. She never forgot that advice and always thanked him for it.

"And how are Bennie and Alicia doing at well?" Max asked.

Lisa sighed. "Well, to tell you the truth, Max, my kids aren't doing very well with their grades. Alicia is trying very hard and I think she is smart in her own way, but Bennie doesn't put in effort at all. And neither of them have any friends. They're not even friends with each other." Then she sighed again. "I don't know, Max. I loved them more than anything in the whole wide world and I try very hard to raise them the very best I can be, but I feel like I'm failing all the time. I don't know why David had to leave and while I was pregnant." Then she started to cry.

Max never forgot Lisa's latest boyfriend David. They met at college and he seemed like a nice and cool guy at first and a great boyfriend to Lisa but as time went on, he became a huge jerk and he left Lisa for a 'better' lady than she ever was. He left her even before she gave birth to their twin children. Lisa's pregnancy with her twin children lasted longer than her relationship with David.

David may have been the father, but Max was the closest thing the twins ever had to having a daddy and he viewed them as the closest thing he ever had to having children in his life. And he became their godfather because of two reasons. The first one was because he and Lisa were very good friends since high school and the second was because he was there to take her to hospital to bring her children into the world and comforted her during the day. And the twins liked him very much and they also liked his dad Goofy. And from the day they were born, both father and son sent Lisa and her kids cards when it was their birthdays, Christmas and Easter.

Max missed being in a romantic relationship with Lisa, but he felt that he couldn't go back to her, because of the deep mental scars Mona left on him.

"Listen to me, Lisa," Max said, as he went to sit next to her and wrapped her in his arms to comfort her as she continued to cry. "You are not just one of the best singles mothers I have ever met in my life, but one of the very best mothers, period. You're doing a fantastic job with them and you're leading them down the right path. Keep doing what you're doing and they'll turn out to be great children."

Lisa stopped crying, looked at Max and smiled. "Thanks, Max. That means so much hearing that from you." Then she kissed him on the cheek. "I'm glad you're my kids' godfather. And I'm glad you're still one of my best friends."

"And I'm glad you are one of mine as well." Then Max's watched beeped. "Sorry. I've got to get back to work now. Thanks so much for the delicious lunch." Then he gave her a kiss on her cheek in return.

"For you, Max, anytime," Lisa said, as she happily watched the godfather of her children get back to work. While still sad that she had to break up with him, she was still always glad he was still in his life and that awful David was out of her life for