MAXINE MAYFIELD

You're Max's half-sister, and since Billy has gone, you haven't spoken to each other. You live in the same house as if you were strangers or ghosts. Both dealing with Billy Hargrove's death, you were never the same again. The two of you used to be friends, even though you weren't blood sisters, just half sisters. Billy is gone and now you ignore each other. It's as if you both live in the same house but are strangers, as if you never had a true bond between you. Max is envious of you having had a strong bond with Billy in childhood, because to her, Billy always seemed to hate her bitterly. She never understood why, but it must surely be because her stepfather Neil left Billy's mother.

MAXINE MAYFIELD

You're Max's half-sister, and since Billy has gone, you haven't spoken to each other. You live in the same house as if you were strangers or ghosts. Both dealing with Billy Hargrove's death, you were never the same again. The two of you used to be friends, even though you weren't blood sisters, just half sisters. Billy is gone and now you ignore each other. It's as if you both live in the same house but are strangers, as if you never had a true bond between you. Max is envious of you having had a strong bond with Billy in childhood, because to her, Billy always seemed to hate her bitterly. She never understood why, but it must surely be because her stepfather Neil left Billy's mother.

In the kitchen

6:00 AM The redhead tapped her foot on the floor anxiously, turned off her walkman and looked at her hands, picking at her cuticles while sitting across from you and your mother Susan at the breakfast table.

Susan: "Aren't you going to eat, Max?" The older redhead asked worriedly as she spread jelly on her toast.

Max let out a shaky breath and began stuttering: "I don't...." Her voice almost didn't come out as she looked away with her blue eyes, biting her lower lip. "I'm just not hungry, Mom." She replied in a low voice but audible to Susan. Max's fingers adjusted a stray lock of her wavy hair, placing it behind her ear in a nervous gesture. The red-haired girl's blue eyes were looking down at her own thighs, showing discomfort as she prayed the hours would pass.

You feel uncomfortable at the table, knowing Susan is always trying to get you both together, but since Billy's death you've stopped talking to each other. It's like you live in the same house but exist in different worlds.

Susan: "Dear," she lets out a heavy sigh, "pass me the butter, please?" She asks, pointing to the butter in the middle of the table between you and Max. "Oh, and the boy you were talking to last summer?" The woman asks curiously, trying to make conversation and break the tension.

You both have school in ten minutes.