Stick Together (A Max Goof Love Story)

Chapter 3

A few hours later into the day, Bobby and PJ had left and went home. Nicole decided to stay over at Max's house and help him straighten out a few things that had to do with the plan. Since the assembly started at 8:00, and since they needed to get everything ready on time, they both agreed that all four of them should show up and meet by the lockers at 7:00 and try to have all of the equipment ready in an hour.

They also decided to start the dancing lessons early. They spent at least two hours watching as many Powerline concert videos they could find, and paid very close attention to all of the moves. In between each video they watched, Nicole would always repeat what the video showed a few times and would ask Max to do the same. He still had a lot of work to do in order to get the dancing just right though. Thank goodness they still had a few weeks before the last day of school.

Nicole also had to spend a few minutes getting Max's measurements for his Powerline costume. But to her it felt like an eternity since she kept trying to keep her face from warming up at how close they were, and apparently, so did Max (hey, he's a hormonal teenage boy, cut him some slack). After she had all of the measurements that she needed, they both decided to sit down and play a few video games.

Once the clock struck 11:00, Nicole texted her parents, telling them that she was going to spend the night at his house since it was getting late. Yes, her house is next door, but who was she to pass up on spending some more time with her best friend? She would've gone home, but she suffers from a terrible disease called laziness- a disease she's pretty sure she got from being around Max for so long.

Whenever she spent the night, she always slept in the spare bedroom that was down the hall, across from the bathroom. And she didn't have to worry about pajamas. Max would always give her one of his shirts to sleep in, because she claims his clothes are way more comfortable than what her mom gets her. Especially his blue and white tank top with a number 1 on it, that one was her favorite.

It was a few minutes passed two in the morning. They were both ready for bed but wanted to stay up and watch TV for a few more hours before calling it a night. Nothing interesting was on at the moment though, so they were lying on Max's bed, both of them about to pass out, while blankly staring at the TV screen, which showed some sort of drama that they didn't care enough about to pay attention to.

"You know what?" Max said, after giving out a yawn. "Maybe this isn't such a good idea."

"What, staying up so late, or leaving the TV on a Soap Opera channel?" Nicole asked tiredly, her eyes almost closed.

"No. The whole Powerline concert idea." He said with a doubtful frown on his face.

"Oh, wow, the Max Goof is doubting one of his oh so great ideas!" Nicole said with a teasing tone in her voice and slightly glanced in his direction, a lazy smirk on her face. Max playfully shoved her with a soft chuckle.

"Shut up Nicky, I'm serious." The little smile that was on his face quickly went away though, being replaced with a panicked look on his face. "I mean, so many things can go wrong. What-what if I completely miss the assembly? You know how stupid my clock can be! What if I make it on stage but I forget what I'm supposed to do? I can't dance to save my life! What if I trip over my own feet? In front of the whole school too!" The more things he listed, the more frantic he started to look. He was sitting up with both hands in his head, making his hair even messier than it usually was.

"Hey, you're not that bad at dancing."

"Oh yeah? How was my progress tonight?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Um..."

"See?! SO many things could go wrong!"

"Woah, dude, calm down alright?" Nicole said, placing her hands on his shoulders and looking him dead in the eyes. "Come on man, you've got a whole month before this plan goes down. Besides, if you keep thinking negatively, then you'll end up doing bad. But," She gave him a soft, tired smile. "If you think positively, you'll end up doing great."

Max looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Did you get that from a fortune cookie?" Nicole shrugged.

"Maybe. Might've even come from a cereal box, but I'm too tired to remember." She laid back down, her eyes becoming even more droopy. Max looked off to the side.

"Well, let's say you're right, and I do end up doing great. What if that's not good enough to impress Roxanne?"

"Well...... fail or no fail, I think Roxanne would be really smittened to know that you went through all that trouble just to impress her." Nicole let another yawn. "I know I would."

If she weren't half asleep, she wouldn't have said that.

Max's head snapped in her direction not even a second after she said that. Before he could ask what she meant, she was already in a deep sleep. Passing it off as nothing, he shook his head. Instead of going through the trouble of waking her, he picked her up- she was surprisingly really light- and carried her to the guest room. This isn't the first time this has happened, and with how easy it is for her to go to sleep, this definitely won't be the last time either. Once he reached the room, he pulled back the covers, set her down, and pulled the covers back up to her chest. When he was sure she was comfortable, he headed out the door, but then turned back to look at her before going back to his room.

"Let's just hope you're right, Nicky."