Never in a million years would she have ever imagined that this is what she would be doing on a Friday night.
But, that’s what happens when you live in Beverly Hills. Everything is crazy; the houses, the weather, the cars, and most of all: the people.
Especially her family.
A noise came out of the darkness behind her, echoing as she smacked up against the concrete wall of the arena. She held her gun to her chest and titled her head up, closing her eyes, as she shook her head, wishing she could be anywhere else in the world.
She looked up to see the bright white moon, and navy blue sky filled with blinking stars as she walked over to the edge of the arena, trying to stand on her tip-toes to see her house.
A large concrete barrier held them enclosed in a small arena. It gradually got smaller as she went along, eventually short enough for her to see over it, and her eyes rested on the sight that was now in front of her. It was a huge house, all dark and menacing, made with the finest granite in all of California, with a million windows built into every possible place. However, she could barely see any of the gigantic mansion, due to the equally gigantic wall in front of it.
That stupid wall. That huge wall that her family had decided to build had caused all of this craziness and stupidity.
Her eyes shifted from the wall to the white washed sidewalk that ran between her and her neighbor’s houses; she closed her eyes, trying to remember the last time she had walked along its path.
“Come on Karaline” her dad had said, turning back to look at her, dressed in his usual off white shorts and green collared dress shirt that he neatly tucked into his shorts.
She was lingering behind her family as usual, enjoying the sun’s rays dancing across every surrounding in sight. It was too nice of a day to waste her time with this stupid competition.
“Yes, come on Karaline” her mom said, her overly bright green sweater tied around her neck.
Karaline rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her chest, picking up her pace.
“Miss Karaline” said a familiar voice. She glanced to her right and saw a man dressed in a long black suit “Please hydrate in this weather.” In his outstretched hand he held a dripping bottle of water.
“Thank you Paul.” she smiled at him and took the water.
The butler nodded and returned both of his hands to the navy blue stroller he was pushing. Karaline took a sip of the water and looked up, feeling the hot and humid air smack her in the face.
From across the sidewalk she could clearly see five figures approaching her family, with one of them pushing a stroller. The people approaching held their heads high, and strutted down the street like they owned the whole neighborhood.
It was like looking into a mirror.
Karaline resisted the urge to roll her eyes again, as her father turned to face his family, addressing them as though they were a football team getting ready to play in the championship game.
“Here comes the neighbors, kids” he whispered, adjusting his collar.
She squeezed the cold water bottle in between her sweaty palms and took a deep breath.
“Here comes the neighbors, kids” her mom said, and quietly squealed while she rubbed her hands together, way too excited.
   Karaline ignored her mother’s high pitched noises, as she adjusted her new white shirt that was tucked into a short black skirt that her sister had made her wear.
Both families approached each other and stood face to face on the sun covered sidewalk, just like they did in every Western movie. Karaline titled her head and squinted her eyes, slowly running her eyes through the line of people standing in front of her.
There was a young boy who had bright blonde hair and an even brighter scowl, whose nose wrinkled no matter what expression he wore. Next to him were his parents, who looked nothing like the young boy; instead, they almost perfectly resembled Karaline’s parents, down to the tan pencil skirt and russet colored dress shoes. A tall African-American butler stood next to the parents with both of his hands on the handles of a bright orange stroller holding a smiling baby dressed all in bubblegum pink.
Next to the butler there was a young man she did not recognize. His hair was a dark shade of blonde, with near to golden skin and a tall and muscular shape. He was dressed in a light blue collared shirt, white shorts, and a pair of brown dress shoes. Although, unlike his family, he did not wear a menacing demeanor and condescending grin; instead, his expression seemed like he was almost amused by what was going on.
“Hello, Marcus” her dad said, holding out the S way too long.
“Hello, Kevin” Marcus said trying to sound incredibly disgusted; he nodded towards her house “Last chance to take that wall down”
“Oh, I don’t think so, Marcus” her dad forced a fake laugh and rubbed his stomach.
“Yes, I don’t think so” her mom screeched, shaking her head with pursed lips.
“Well, it is in our property” Marcus said, returning the awkward laugh her dad had spit out.
She couldn’t help but stare at the amused expression on the guy with the blue shirt’s face as he watched his parents argue with hers, not even trying to have a serious look on his face.
All of a sudden, she felt someone run into her shoulder and then a high pitched squeal invaded her eardrums.
She opened her eyes wide, startled, as she clutched her water bottle even tighter.
“Oh my gosh- Karaline!” Her sister talked so fast that it was usually impossible to fully comprehend and usually equally as impossible to get her to shut up.
“What, Kayla?” she whispered.
“Do you know who that is?” Kayla giggled, pointing at the boy standing near the tall butler.
“Should I?” Karaline said.
“Uh, you are so pathetic” Kayla fluffed her brown curly hair and took some lip gloss out of her pocket.
She gripped her water bottle even more tightly to keep from screaming.
Kayla finished applying her lip gloss, and then looked back at her. “That” she pointed at the boy again “is Max Cutler” she glanced at him and nodded “apparently his I.Q. is like 300 and he got into this super smart boarding school in Connecticut. He is so cute isn’t he? Oh my gosh! He is so hot. Don’t you think so?”
“Kayla, you’re fourteen. You shouldn’t be calling guys hot” She said, digging her fingers into her water bottle.
Kayla looked up at her with raised eyebrows, and rolled her eyes. “You are such a buzzkill.”
Kayla whirled back around, leaving her alone, anxiously twisting her water bottle. She slowly looked up, trying to steal a glance of the famous Max Cutler before they were forced to disperse. 
She looked at him intently, wondering every possible detail about him; What school did he go to? What was he like? Why did he seem so familiar?
When she looked back up at his face, he was staring right at her.  
She froze and squeezed her water bottle so hard the cap popped off.
Water spilled everywhere, raindrop beads forming on her tan skin as she shook her head and blushed, looking down at her wet clothes, soaked and icy cold. 
“Miss Karaline” Paul said, leaning over to her and handing her a small handkerchief he always kept in his pocket “when I said to hydrate I meant to drink the water”
“I’ll keep that in mind for next time” she said, giving her butler a grateful smile, as she took the handkerchief, her eyes focusing in again on her dad arguing with the neighbors. 
“Alright. Fine. We gave you your last chance, and so we are going to start” Marcus tried to look intimidating by moving his head back and forth and side to side “We get to pick the first challenge. Lester, go set up the karaoke machine- STAT.”
The tall butler standing next to Max nodded and briskly walked off, glad to be rid of the incredibly ridiculous scene that was going on in front of him.
“Wait a minute” said her father, as the other family ran towards the direction of their house, “why do you get to pick the first challenge?!”
Both of the families started to furiously speed walk off in the direction of Lester, leaving her standing alone on the sidewalk.
She turned on her heel and walked off towards the direction of her house, feeling the freshly built granite wall that was lined right next to a willow tree, its droopy branches swaying lazily in the breeze. She ran her fingers over its rough bark and inhaled a deep breath, tasting the fresh cut grass and sticky humidity that lingered in the air. She sunk down onto her knees and threw her head back, finally being able to think straight once again.
Without hesitating, She moved her hand back in to the dirt surrounding the tree and felt a single smooth spot in all of the coarseness; the spot was shaped as a rectangle and once she brushed all the dirt from its surface, it was revealed as a box. The wooden box was pulled out of the Earth as crumbs of dirt caved into its hiding place, leaving her to run her fingers over the golden hinges and carefully cobbled legs that the box stood upon.
She unlocked the two hinges holding the box shut and pushed it open, the familiar scent of must and dust filled her nose. She reached her hands down carefully and took out the book that was inside of the box, running her fingers down the spine and corners, smoothing out the cover and making it as neat and pristine as possible. She held the book to her chest and closed her eyes, her head resting on the eight foot wide trunk of her tree, as she closed her eyes.
“Hello” 
She jerked upright and opened her eyes.
“May I sit with you?”
She nodded her head, a little dumbfounded and watched as the person slunk down beside her.
“I’m Max.” He stuck out his hand and smiled, waiting for her to shake it.
“Oh” she stuck out her hand and awkwardly thrust his hand up and down, feeling his cool and soft palms grip hers tightly.
That was the second handshake that she had ever been a part of in her entire life.
“You’re Karaline…right?” Max took his hand back and looked her straight in the face as she looked in every other way, avoiding eye contact “We used to play in that sandbox over there as kids” he pointed at a small park across the street from her house with a dirt filled sandbox and silver monkey bars that the neighborhood “bad boys” would vandalize and smoke on every night.
“I’m surprised you remember” she said, gripping her book.
“You’d be surprised what a guy who is locked away in a classroom for twelve hours a day can retain.” He smiled again and leaned back against her tree, the rough bark catching at his hair “Just like I remember that you would rather read a book than do anything else in the world.” He snatched her book from her lap and held it up.
She grasped at the air in front of her wanting to grab her book back, then sat on her hands in an attempt to control herself.
“Even if it means that you’ll be missing the farce that is currently going on in my garage” he grinned and looked at her again, scanning the book he was holding, flipping it around and around in his hands.
“Yeah, well, that is pretty much my everyday life around here.” She jerked her head in the direction her family had run off.
“Hmm” Max stopped examining her book and started to look at her more intently.
“What?” She turned towards him, still avoiding his eyes.
“I just figured it out.” he said and held up her book gently “I know why you read so much.”  He handed her back the book and she held it her chest.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She leaned back on her tree and looked away from Max, but already knew that he could see right through her.
”Before I went off to school I always wanted to get out of here too” He talked behind her just willing her to listen “Always wanted to go on an adventure.” Max paused and shifted his weight, leaning more and more towards her “Have you ever read The Shadow of the Darkness?”
She turned towards him, shaking her head “Isn’t that book just about paintball?”
“Not just about Paintball” the boy rubbed the back of his neck “But yeah, it does have a lot to do with that.”
“Oh…right” she said, raising her eyebrows “I’m not really into that kind of stuff”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. I guess I just like to read books with an actual plot.” She held her book tighter to her chest.
Max laughed and then replied “Well how do you know if you won’t like it?”
He put his hand on her shoulder and turned her around so their heads were almost touching. He smiled that famous smile.
“You haven’t even tried it”
She opened her mouth to reply and let it sit there for a second, processing what he had just said to her. 
“Karaline! Karaline!” screams came from across the street as her dad ran towards her huffing and puffing as he doubled over trying to catch his breath.
Both families followed, running after him shouting at the two of them, and wiping dripping sweat from their foreheads. Karaline and Max quickly glanced at each other then got up, walking towards their winded families trying to decipher what they were saying.
“It…tie… you and him” her dad pointed to her and Max as he tried to explain what was going on “You two are the tie breaker”
“Yeah” Max’s dad said, finally catching his breath, “and we get to pick the event.”
Karaline’s dad flashed him a dirty look probably indicating that he had just lost a game of rock-paper-scissors a few moments before.
Max quickly turned to her, putting a hand up on the side of her face and whispering into her ear. “Well” Max backed away from her and nodded “What do you say?”
She wanted to hate that twinkle in his eye so much, she wanted to loathe his hair and detest his clothes and hate everything about him. But she couldn’t.
She took a deep breath and put on her best game face. “Sounds great.”
“Alright.” Max said, walking towards the street, both families following behind him, holding onto every last word.
“Paintball it is.”

And that was how they got into the arena.
“Karaline” she whipped around, her gun held tightly to her chest, making sure her hand was on the trigger, ready to fire “Karaline” Max walked forward, his gun pointed right at her “Put your gun down”
“You first” she said, her breathes coming in short and shallow spurts.
“Touché” Max slowly lowered his gun and stood up straight, taking a deep breath, walking towards her again, this time faster and with more purpose.
She rolled her eyes and kept her gun pointed right at him, her breaths returning to a normal pace as she hastily fumbled her sweaty fingers on the paintball gun.
“Come on” Max said “why are we even doing this? I mean you even said yourself that we have to stop letting them control us-“
“I never said that! That is what you said about me. ” Karaline took a step forward, angry at him for telling her what she was and angry at herself for being so transparent.
“Well you might as well have said it.” Max put his hands up and raised his eyebrows, shocked that she was angry at his comment “I mean it’s why you are so miserable, right? And why you read all of those books-“
“Stop!” she ran up even closer to him, so close that the tip of her gun was an inch away from his chest “Why do you think you know everything?” she poked his chest with the end of her gun “Or are you really just that conceited”
Max started to smile, his speech still as calm and collected as ever “Fine. If you really say that you’re okay with them controlling your life that’s your choice.” He leaned in towards her “But you have to prove it.”
“What?”
He squared his shoulders at the tip of her gun and looked right into her eyes.
“Shoot me”
Karaline looked up from the tip of her gun and into Max’s face for the first time since she had seen him that morning.
His eyes.
They looked like they held every word of every book known to mankind, full of so many facts and so much knowledge, all knowing, as if they held all of the thoughts and secrets and lies any human had ever told.
“Your eyes are so blue” the words just slipped out of her mouth before she could stop them “I…I just realized that,” she added.
Max’s smile widened and he laughed, his blue eyes bouncing up and down, “thanks” he said as she still stared into them, mesmerized.
“I’m… sorry” she said looking back down, her cheeks flushed. “I don’t want to shoot you… I don’t want shoot anyone.”
She lowered her gun and backed away from Max, putting her hand up in attempt to hide her face.
“Too bad” Max said “You’re going to have to.”
He crossed over to where he had throw his gun earlier and grabbed it off of the ground, strategically placing the tip of it right in the middle of his chest.
“What are you doing?”
Max nodded at her said “Come on. On the count of three.”
“What? No!” Karaline held her gun behind her “This isn’t how it is supposed to work.”
Max lowered his gun and spread his arms out “How is it supposed to work, then?” He shook his head “You shoot me then your family wins. I shoot you then my family wins. It’s all about winning. We are just pawns in their scheme’s to feel better about themselves, Karaline.” He walked towards her and grabbed her by her shoulder, his face lingering just inches away from hers “What do you say that we win for once?”
She took a deep breath and slowly nodded. “On the count of three.”
He smiled once again, giving her a reassuring nod as he backed away and raised his gun, aimed right at her chest.
“One.” Her hands shook as she put the gun to her chest, running her finger over and over the deceitful trigger.
“Two.” Max said.
She looked up into his eyes one last time.
“Three.”