Friction

Chapter 2

Alexis Rose Mayfield had been Max's neighbor since he was old enough to tie his own shoelaces. They were one year apart. He was eight. She was seven.

Lexi was a chubby, cherub-faced girl with dark brown eyes and dark blonde hair that her mom liked to braid into pigtails.

She had never set foot in a classroom. Her parents believed secular education led to many of the unhealthy behaviors that plagued society. They chose to homeschool Lexi instead. She went to church with them several times a week. They grew vegetables and fruit trees in front of their house, raised chickens out back, and handmade almost every piece of clothing and furniture as though they lived in a commune instead of suburbia.

From early on, Lexi suspected her life was a little different from other seven-year-olds in Temecula, but she never realized just how different everything was until she met Max. She grew curious about the place he disappeared to every Monday through Friday, and her questions about public school seemed never-ending at times.

Max didn't mind her never-ending questions, though. He was simply relieved to find someone who wanted to play with him.

One Friday afternoon, they were digging for snails on Max's front lawn when Lexi tugged on his shirt. "Oh! I almost forgot. I wanted to tell you something!"

Max turned to her. "What?"

"I saw something on TV yesterday. These reporters went to visit a school, and it was in a really bad neighborhood, and they started talking to some parents, and this mom had five kids who got in trouble, like, all the time!"

Max eyed her warily. "Uh-huh."

School rules and what happened when they were broken were touchy subjects for him.

Lexi lowered her voice as though she was going to get in trouble, too, when she whispered, "Did you know that students can get suspended or even expelled if they break the rules?"

He coughed. "Uh... pretty sure you'd have to do something really dumb to get suspended or expelled, but, I mean, teachers hand out detention slips all the time."

Her eyes grew wide. "What's it like to get detention?"

Max tried not to fidget. "Dunno. Never gotten one before."

This wasn't a lie. Technically, he had gotten dozens.

Lexi kept prodding, "Have your friends ever gotten detention?"

He hesitated. "Yeah... I think so?"

"Who?"

"Um... Jackson. And Mikey."

She leaned in anxiously. "What happened to them?"

"They sat in a room and did homework for thirty minutes after school. It's super boring—I mean, I hear it can be boring—since Mr. Martinez doesn't let anyone move around or make noise."

Lexi gasped. "Is that legal? Sounds kinda like child abuse or something."

Max answered in all seriousness, "It's totally legal."

She frowned. "My mom says I can't even sit still for a minute. Thank goodness you're a good student, Max. Detention sounds awful."

Max hesitated again. "Yeah, I try to stay out of trouble."

This was also true. Whether or not he succeeded in trying, however, was a different story. Max knew he wasn't being honest with Lexi, but she was the only person who ever looked at him like he was cool and funny. Sometimes, he even told her when he was feeling sad about his dad. She would give him a hug and share a snack with him. Max suspected Lexi wouldn't be so nice if she saw how he acted at school. He hated keeping her in the dark, but he didn't know how to come clean without losing her friendship.