Number on me

7. Aldebaran

Maxine wanted nothing more than to drop on her bed and be done with the done with today, but that wasn't an option. It was still quite early in the day, around 2 in the afternoon, which meant that she had about four hours to kill before getting ready to go to Beth and Viv's.

She felt a bit hungry, having only had a small breakfast in the canteen. However, she knew she was going to a dinner party, where she would possibly eat a lot, and decided against lunch.

Maxine wasn't a picky eater, but, in the last couple of years, she was focused on her diet a lot more. She wasn't a fourteen year old trying to look like cover models, but she was an athlete, and she needed to be in shape. Even more so, she needed to feel in shape. Maxine always wanted to feel in control, with a mind that made it often impossible to do so. She wanted to focus, her mind would just not let her. She wanted to sleep, her mind said no.

This caused Maxine to take control wherever she was able to do so. She could control when she worked out, and when she trained, when she got better, so she did it a lot more than would be recommended. Watching your diet was important as an athlete, and her diet was something Max could control, so she did control it, strictly.

Trying to take her mind of the nagging feeling in het stomach, Maxine made a mental list of the things she needed to get done. Texting her family was a must. Her parents had texted her multiple times, and not responding was becoming rude. She also desperately needed to do some meal prepping. Max knew that she needed to eat, and eat healthy, but was terrible at actually taking the time to make dinner. So, she tried to prepare a lot of them every once a while.
Her black book was still on her table, reminding her that there was a second half to that game she was analysing. And lastly, she needed to do some university work, for the double course she was taking, philosophy and astronomy.

Maxine loved philosophy and astronomy. As a child, she would always annoy her parents and sister with questions about everything. 'Why' was her favourite word, and no answer was ever good enough.

Her parents, that weren't stupid, but a little more simple minded than the youngest twin, would often get extremely annoyed with the young girl. Because of the sneers she could get, Maxine learned that it was best to wonder in silence. She didn't give up on philosophy, and when she could elect to study it in high school, she excelled in it.

Stars were another one of Maxine interests. When she was younger, she couldn't explain to her parents why she would get out of bed in the middle of the night to go outside and watch the stars. When she got older, she decided that it was because of the perspective the stars gave her.

When she didn't feel in control, it felt calming to realize how much else was out there. Gazing at the millions of stars she felt small, making her realize that it didn't always matter what happened in her one, tiny life. Underneath the stars was the only place that ever truly made her feel at peace.

So, studying both philosophy and astronomy made sense to Max. Her parents didn't understand her love for football, but they definitely didn't understand her will to study, alongside being a professional athlete.

Max wasn't just the only person in her entire family who played football, she was also the only person in her entire family who went to the highest level of high school possible, and the only person in her family to go to university.

Feeling a bit stressed at the thought of the tasks on her to-do list, Maxine decided on playing guitar, making a mental note with everything that she still needed to do, praying that her brain wouldn't lose it.

She loved music, she listened to it every change she could, and loved playing on her guitar and piano. In her new apartment, the upright piano and the dark brown guitar that belonged to her grandfather were her two most prized possessions. She would even sing with it when she felt like it.