"MAX!"

I groaned, shutting my laptop. "What?"

Instead of receiving a response, I heard footsteps on the stairs. Ella appeared at my bedroom door, hands on hips, long brown hair clasped in a high ponytail that was still swinging from her trek up the stairs. I frowned, putting a hand up to my own hair, also brown but not anything like Ella's. Oh, yeah, sorry that I don't want to spend 2 hours every day running a heated…um, stick over every last strand of hair on my head. Let's just say that I misplaced my brush a few days ago and was too lazy to find a replacement. I have stuff to do. Soccer practice. Stuff. Forgive me for having my priorities straight.

"It's time to go." Ella said, giving me a look. It was a strange mixture of sympathy and some other emotion that I will probably never identify. I'm definitely not empathic.

"Yeah, okay. Tell Mom to hang on a sec." She rolled her eyes.

"You said that 15 minutes ago."

I grinned. "But this time I really mean it."

She stuck out her tongue and left, but not before snagging a chocolate chip cookie from the plate on my dresser. I glared at her retreating back, but didn't say anything. That may have something to do with how I had been stealing from her "secret" chocolate stash, but who knows? Anyway, fair's fair.

That didn't mean I was gonna quit the chocolate thing, though.

…

10 minutes later found me giving my empty room one last glance before grabbing my laptop and the empty plate from my dresser. I stepped across the threshold that led into my room, the room that had been mine for 9 years. I didn't look back.