Maya woke up early the morning ready to get her life back together.
Before Christmas she wants to be settled into Philadelphia and want to know that she has made a difference.
She has at least two months to do that.
Maya was braiding her hair when she heard a knock against the door wondering who else could be up at this time.
"Come in," Maya said.
"Morning. You're up early," Josh said and Maya smiled.
"Thanks. But I couldn't sleep late even if I tried. How are the plans today gonna go?" Maya asked.
"We are meeting each other at seven at a place down the road. You ready to go?" Josh asked as Maya grabbed her backpack.
"Let's go," Maya said.
~
"Hey guys," Josh said as he and Maya entered a little bakery/café.
"Brought your girlfriend along, I see," Andrew said and Josh looked at him.
"Maya, you remember Andrew and Jasmine," Josh said and Maya smiled.
"Hey, guys," Maya said.
"Glad to see you are here. The boys outnumber us usually," Jasmine said.
"And these are Charles and Charlotte. Charles is my own age and Charlotte is yours. This is Maya Hart. She's a family friend who moved in with us during the summer," Josh said.
"I've seen you at school before. We share a music class," Charlotte said.
"Yeah, we do," Maya said.
"So how do you..."
"Family friend, Babe. Like Josh said. Please to meet you and welcome to our group," Charles said.
"Pleased to me in the group. Josh had told me a lot about you guys," Maya said.
"Let's eat," Charles said and Josh exhaled as he pulled out a chair for Maya to sit on.
"Thanks."
~
"So you're telling me the last time you ever hung out with a huge crowd was during Christmas last year?" Jasmine asked and Maya smiled.
"My family isn't big on that. My father... My father was never a huge part in my life neither was my mother. My histroy teacher basically raised me. His brother actually. I was so far off in the wrong crowd and then he send me here. I got a glimpse of a normal functioning family and now I'm happy. Josh has helped me a whole lot," Maya said.
"It must be nice having a guy who cares about you so much around you," Jasmine said.
"Yeah. Yeah, it is," Maya said as she looked over at the boys.
Josh and his friends were playing soccer while Maya got to know the girls a bit better.
Of course it was late the afternoon and after a whole lot of stuff Maya and Josh finally decided to give in and allow the day to go its own way.
It was way past four and the six of them were just relaxing while the last of the September sun went its own way.
"What's going on between you and Josh? You guys look very..."
"Charlie!" Jasmine said and Maya smiled at the two girls.
"It's okay, Jasmine. I don't know. I really don't know what is going on between us. But you're right. We're close. Very close. He helped me during a time when I didn't have much hope for what was going to happen. I could just say whatever and he was there. I'm almost too scared that eventually he'll want nothing to do with me. He's so good to me. While I don't know how I was going to survive the first two weeks of high school. Now I feel like I can conquer anything," Maya said.
"You girls done catching up or do you still want to chat?" Josh asked as Maya smiled.
"Let's go get dinner. I'm starving," Jasmine said as they were off.
"Come," Josh said as he helped Maya up.