serendipity

12: "i can barely draw a stick figure"

(seraphina's pov)

it's a couple of weeks since the picnic and halloween is next week along with max's birthday.

the five of us have created a routine. they walk with me to drop and pick up max at his classroom and on friday nights we have dinner together with valentina.

tonight is the first time they will be over at our apartment and i'm a little nervous.

i have mostly finished decorating with our normal stuff and then i also have some autumn and halloween stuff up.

i created a memory wall in our living room. it has pictures of max and i before we moved, the pictures from the picnic, and some more that we have taken over the time of us being here

once max and i get home from school, i make sure everything is cleaned up and then i start on dinner.

i wanted to do something fun so i made pizza dough and then we can all make our own pizzas. i have a bunch of different toppings and cheeses and sauces.

just for the fall season, i made pumpkin pie that is to die for.

max is sitting with nix in the living room watching 'Halloween Town', when a knock is heard.

i open the door and invite everyone in.

valenitna, leo, and keaton greet me with hugs and then i lead them into the living room where max is and once he sees everyone he jumps up from his spot to greet everyone.

ezra comes to stand next to me and he says, "i see my picture was more than fridge worthy," with a smirk.

i laugh and nod.

he pulls me into a hug and i mumble against his chest with a smile, "hey".

"hi, ser," he smiles back.

we pull away and i lead everyone into the kitchen. "i thought it would be fun to make our own pizzas so i have dough already made and sauces and toppings."

they smile and nod and then we get to work.

max and i both like pepperoni and olive, which now that i think of it, it's weird he likes olives but oh well, so we share one and make it together.

i look over at keaton's pizza and see he has everything on it and i start laughing. he looks at me with an offended look and says, "it's really good".

i shake my head and say, "i bet."

he narrows his eyes at me and i laugh.

we put our pizzas into the oven and head to the living room while we wait.

while we're talking, nix jumps onto keaton's lap and he stops mid-sentence and tenses.

we all laugh at him and he glares at us. "why is this furball sitting on me?"

"he likes you," i say with a teasing smirk.

after a while, keaton loosens up and starts petting nix.

"i love how you decorated, sera," valentina says with a soft smile.

my eyes light up and i say, "thank you! it took a while but it feels like home with the pictures up."

we all start looking around and leo says, "who drew the one with all of us?"

i smile a proud one. "max".

everyone but ezra has a shocked expression and keaton says, "i can barely draw a stick figure, how did he do that? at four?"

i just shrug and laugh.