#max hss

“I hope you’re as athletic as you look.” He commented as they walked in silence. Liv could practically feel Nishan’s fear, and to be honest, she was a bit scared too. Why was Max Warren flirting with her?

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Liv retorted, crossing her arms.

“It means that you’ve got a fit physique. Some might take that as a compliment.” Max said flatly. “Of course, that is to be expected of anyone I am involved with.” He smirked again.

“Don’t make me vomit.” Liv grimaced. “I’m only being your partner because you’re a jock. In no way are we involved beyond that. Got it?” She gave him a hard look. Max laughed.

“Sweetheart, you wish I wanted to be involved with you.” He laughed. Liv rolled her eyes and kept walking. “But you’re the queen of Parks and I’m the king of Hearst, it only makes sense.”

“For us to date?” Liv snorted. “No. It really doesn’t.”

“For us to be partners.” He grabbed her arm, holding her back, and looked at Nishan. “Scram.” Nishan didn’t need to be told twice, and said goodbye to Liv before scampering off. Max looked back at her. “Listen, you and me together, we’ve got the biggest shot at winning. The only other person worth wasting time on at Parks is Julian, and we all know he’s not that good at football anyway, so who’s to say he’ll do well in assorted sports games?”

Liv jerked her arm away, scowling. “Julian is good at football. He’s my friend and if you’re going to spend today bagging on my friends then just keep walking because I’m not tolerating it.”

“But Livvy, aren’t these teams of tolerance?” Max smirked. “You have to tolerate me. That’s the whole point.”

“Fine.” Liv huffed. “I’ll tolerate you, but please just… Don’t be rude.” She sighed, walking towards the field once again. Max rolled his eyes and began walking with her.

“What’s first?” Liv asked, looking over Max’s shoulder at their schedule of events. He turned around in his chair, looking up at her.

“If you’re trying to smell my cologne all you have to do is ask.” He smirked. Liv groaned and stood up. “The three-legged race is first.” He said.

“Great. We’ll literally be joined at the hip.” Liv deadpanned, sitting down next to him. “What are my friends going to say when they see that I’m partners with you?”

“That you’re lucky.” He said. Liv smacked him on the arm. “Nice try, Livvy-kins. Guns of steel.” He flexed his arms, kissing them.

“It’s amazing you have enough room for me to sit next to you. You know, since you’re always carrying your inflated ego around.” Liv said.

“Very funny.” Max said sarcastically, putting his arms back down at his sides. He accidentally put his hand too close to her, his knuckle grazing against the side of her thigh. She wondered if he knew it was there. Max was well aware, however, and too proud to pull it away and apologize.

“What will your friends say?” Liv asked, looking over at him. He shrugged and looked out at the field before them where some boys from Hearst were warming up, playing football.

“They’re not going to say anything.” He said. “I could be partners with Nishan and they’d still tell me it was a good idea and they wish they’d thought of it.” Liv smacked him on the arm again. The very arm that was still touching her thigh. He recoiled, holding his arm in his other hand. “Jesus, what now?”

“I said not to talk about my friends.” Liv said in an annoyed tone. Max resisted rolling his eyes. You just have to get along with her for one day, he told himself.

“Sorry. I forgot.” He said shortly, and Liv raised her eyebrows in surprise. “What?” He asked defensively. She shook her head, looking away. “What?” He asked again, a bit more forcefully.

“You’ve said much worse and never apologized, that’s all.” She said quietly. Max exhaled and looked away also. Way to make me feel like shit, he thought.

“Let’s just go to the race.” He said, standing up and starting to walk towards the group of teams who were tying their legs together. Liv stood up and began to walk also, but not beside him. Behind him, more on a diagonal. “You walk so slowly. We better not lose because of you.”

“You think slowly. If we lose anything it’ll be because of you and that genius brain of yours.” Liv retorted. Max exhaled slowly, trying to keep his cool. She just knew how to push his buttons, didn’t she?

“Just keep up.” He spat, walking faster. Liv walked at the exact same speed as before, in fact, a bit slower. “Speed up! Come on!” Max groaned.

“No, you keep going, champ. I walk ’so slowly.’” She put air quotes around the words ‘so slowly’ and Max’s eye twitched in annoyance.

“Don’t be immature, Alivianna. Just walk faster.” He said as calmly as he could and marched straight to the activity, picking up a rope. Liv met him there soon, arms crossed and bitch-face fully on. “Don’t look so excited.” Max narrowed his eyes at her.

She smiled a sugary-sweet fake smile. “Let’s just tie this stupid knot.” She said in a fake sugary-sweet voice. Max sat down, putting one leg out to tie it.

“Are you going to sit down?” Max looked up at her expectantly. She just looked down and raised an eyebrow. “Fine. I’ll tie it with you standing.” He scowled, wrapping the rope around both of their ankles repeatedly as he tied the knot.

“Be careful!” Liv said. “You’re pulling on my leg.” She could feel herself losing her balance as it was, standing on one leg.

“I’m being care-” He spoke too soon, because Liv lost her balance right then. Max instinctively grabbed her waist, holding her up so she wouldn’t fall, standing himself despite their legs being connected. He held her for a moment too long, and Liv cleared her throat. Max dropped her hands, looking away and wishing he could step away. “Sorry.”

“Thanks.” Liv said at the same time that he said sorry. “It’s fine.”

“No problem.” They said in unison again. Liv laughed and looked over towards the race. Max felt something fluttering in his stomach at the sound of her laugh and immediately frowned. No. No way. Not her, he thought. “Let’s go to the starting line.” Liv said, pulling him out of his thoughts. They carefully walked towards the line together, getting the hang of the movements.

Once or twice Liv would stumble and nearly fall, grabbing onto Max’s bicep for support. “If you wanted an excuse to feel my muscles,” he said, flexing again, “all you had to do was ask.”

She squeezed the impressive muscles of his upper arm. “Hmm. Funny. There are none.” She said casually. Max glared at her, but saw she was trying to hold in a smile. He looked away, trying to hide one himself.

They reached the starting line, standing alongside other pairs of three-legged runners. Max bit the inside of his cheek before holding his hand up. “What?” Liv asked. “I don’t have gum.”

“No, uh, I was- I, um… It was…” He couldn’t manage to form a complete sentence for some reason and believe me, he was chewing himself out in his mind. Brutally. “To hold my hand.” He said shortly.

Liv’s eyes widened as a grin spread across her face. “Aw, Maxie, you want to hold my hand?” She teased, watching his face turn red. In that exact moment, she could feel herself growing attracted to Max. For some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to care.

He put his hand down in embarrassment and looked away. That is, until a second or two later when he felt a hand wrap around his wrist and bring his arm back up, before they laced their fingers with his. He looked over at Liv, who was looking in front of them at the activity director, once again holding back a smile. He looked down at their hands, then back up at the activity director.

The director shot their gun in the air, and all of the pairs started moving. Liv and Max moved smoothly, practically skipping through the freshly cut grass to the yellow line on the other side. Liv felt herself losing balance for a moment, and squeezed Max’s hand for support. He squeezed hers back.

They somehow managed to make it to the finish line first. Liv breathed deeply, being out of breath after the activity. Max, however, cheered loudly and held up their hands (which were still interlocked). “Winners!” He shouted. He let go of her hand finally, and it dropped to her side. Liv squatted down and started to untie the rope while Max continued to cheer. The runner-ups crossed the finish line as Liv and Max’s rope dropped to the ground. “We make a good team.” He said. “Just like I thought.”

“That we do.” Liv nodded, high fiving him. “What’s next?” She asked. Max pulled the schedule out of his pocket and looked down at it, his eyebrows furrowing. “What?” Liv asked cautiously.

“Water volleyball.” Max said slowly. “What the hell is water volleyball?” He scoffed, shoving the schedule back in his pocket. Liv shrugged and turned towards Hearst High, which had the pool they’d be using in it.

“Come on, this will be fun.” Liv grinned before walking towards the building. Max grumbled something about volleyball being a 'ground sport’ before following behind.

Max stood in the pool with his friends from the football team waiting for the girls to get changed playing volleyball amongst themselves. “Yo, Max, you said Liv was your partner?” His friend Drew asked.

“Yeah, why?” Max asked, a bit distracted as he set the volleyball over the net to his other friend Kevin.

Drew just nodded his head towards the door to the girls changing room and smirked. Max gave him a weird look before also turning around.

Liv stood by the door, chatting with a girl named Sasha from Parks’ glee club, in a bikini. Max spent a moment ogling at her. “Shit.” He cursed under his breath as he felt his swimming trunks grow tighter. There was no way in hell he’d be getting out of this pool any time soon.

Liv noticed Max and waved, turned and said something to Sasha, then started walking towards the pool. Would she notice? Hopefully not. Probably not. Right? Could anyone notice? Max swallowed hard before saying “Get your ass in the pool already, we’ve been playing without you for 20 minutes.”

Liv glared at him and sat at the edge of the pool, lowering herself in. “You’re an asshole.” She sneered, grabbing the ball from him. Max turned around quickly. Just in case. “Zero serving zero!” She called, serving the ball. It soared over the net and hit the water as the other team missed it. Max looked back at her in surprise.

“You’re actually good at this?” He asked, astonished. Liv shrugged and caught the ball as they tossed it to her over the net.

“One serving zero!” She called again.

The game went on as the rules for teams stated. Each team who missed the ball when it came to them, messed up their serve, or hit it out of bounds or into the net was out. It was down to Liv and Max, and Drew and Sasha. Liv served and everyone watched as the ball soared through the air-

-Drew jumped to hit it-

-and landed in the water, the ball splashing behind him.

Liv jumped, screaming “Yes!” Volleyball had always been her thing, and this was one of the things she was highly competitive in. Max turned around and high fived her with both hands, and for the first time she truly saw his sculpted abs. “Whoa.” She said quietly to herself.

“What?” Max asked, unable to hear her over the people talking and the water splashing around them. Liv looked back up, blushing lightly.

“Nothing.” She shook her head. Max gave her a look but decided to let it go. Thankfully, that had gone away so he was able to climb out of the pool. But just as he was about to-

“Warren! Liv!” Drew called from the other side of the pool. “You guys want to play chicken really quick?” He asked, his torso glistening with water droplets.

“Dude, that game is for middle schoolers.” Max snorted. Liv splashed him.

“Shut up!” She said. Max wiped water from his eyes, glaring at Liv. “Let’s play.” She smiled, and so did Sasha. Drew bent down to put Sasha over his shoulders, but she stopped him.

“Wait.” She said, looking at Liv and giving her a knowing grin. “Boys versus girls.” Liv gave her the same kind of grin.

“Why would you ever want that?” Max chuckled. “We’ll crush you in thirty seconds flat.” He swam over to Drew, giving him a high five. Sasha swam to Liv, smirking.

“If you’re so sure,” Liv jumped onto Sasha’s shoulders, “then bring it.” Max rolled his eyes, jumping onto Drew’s shoulders.

“One… Two… Three!” Sasha chanted, and Liv leaned as far as she could without falling and shoved Max’s shoulders. Max did the same back to her. They pushed at each other until they had both grabbed each others arms, each one struggling against the other. Then, Liv let go of him, and before he could push her, she started to tickle him. He immediately fell back, grabbing his side. Liv laughed as Drew went under with him. She got off of Sasha’s shoulders and smirked, waiting for Max to come back up.

He came back up, gasping for air. “How… Did you know…” He asked angrily.

“One time when he were planning to prank Hearst I asked Mia what your weaknesses were and she said you were super ticklish.” Liv giggled. “So, naturally, my entire school will always be using that against you.”

“I’m gonna kill her.” He muttered, then looked up and pointed angrily at Liv. “So you’re the one who put all those feathers in my shirt?” He asked. She only shrugged and giggled a bit more, climbing out of the pool. Sasha followed behind.

“Get ready. We have the obstacle course.” Liv said before turning around and entering the locker room again. Max was annoyed, but damn, it was hard to stay mad at someone who looked that good.

“Holy shit.” Liv gasped as they approached the obstacle course. “This is… Yikes.” She looked around. There were tires laid out that you have to run through, hurdles to jump over, a rock wall to climb up, and a zip line to glide down before the finish line. “Is this even legal?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure.” Max shrugged. “This is awesome! Let’s go!” He yelled, clapping his hands and running over to the obstacle course. Liv walked after him, nerves blooming in her stomach at the tall rock wall. It was at least 13 feet tall. At least. Most likely more.

“Max and Liv?” Liv turned around to see Julian and Kara standing together. She widened her eyes in surprise. “You guys are partners?” Julian asked.

“Hey!” She smiled, hugging Julian. “Oh, uh, yeah. I tested the ticklish theory, by the way.” She nudged Max, who scowled and crossed his arms. “You’re partners with Kara?”

“Yeah, why? Is that a problem?” Kara narrowed her eyes at Liv. Liv gave her a weird look.

“Jesus. So much hostility.” Liv said cautiously. “No, I just thought you’d be partners with Nishan. Guess I was wrong.”

“You usually are.” Kara snapped.

“Cool it, Kar.” Max said. They glared at each other for a moment, tension thick in the air. Liv turned back to Julian.

“Want to go against each other?” She asked, grinning. “I might even let you win.” She winked.

“Sure.” Julian smiled. “And please do. Kara and I haven’t gotten in first place one. She says she doesn’t want to sweat.” He sighed.

“I think I’m willing to break a sweat now.” She said icily, still glaring at Max. Liv shifted her weight awkwardly. No one knew what to say.

“So, um, I’ll be at the starting line.” She finally said, breaking the silence. “Julian, wanna come?” Julian nodded immediately, retreating to the starting line. The gunshot went off, and Liv went running. She brought her knees up and down, up and down, through the tires. Then she ran at the hurdles. She jumped over them, nearly knocking one over, but it just wobbled and remained up. She took off running again for the rock wall, maybe a second or two before Julian.

In the distance she faintly heard Kara screaming “Can you stop staring at her for thirty seconds and listen to me when I’m speaking?!” She bit her lip to keep from smiling, but it didn’t work. She scurried her way up the rock wall, nearly slipping at one point. She and Julian reached the top at the same time, and Julian was about to go down the zip line. Liv knew that since he weighed more he’d go down faster. So she did what she had to do to win.

“Julian!” She screamed. He looked at her, afraid she was about to fall. She pointed past him. “Autumn in a bikini!” Julian couldn’t help it. He had to look. And in the split second he spent looking and turning back to yell at Liv, she was gliding down the zip line.

Liv reached the bottom two seconds before Julian did, cheering the whole way down. “I win! You lose! I win! You lose!” She chanted, dancing.

“I think I just might cry.” Julian sniffled. Liv laughed and held her arms open. “Bring it in big guy, there’s no shame here.” Julian fake cried on her shoulder. She patted his back.

Max reached the top of the rock wall before Kara. He froze for a second when he saw Julian and Liv in some kind of embrace, but he knew he had to win. He glided down the zip line, jumping off a bit early at the end and walking past the finish line. Liv and Julian stopping hugging and Liv walked over to him.

“Nice job,” she grinned, “we both won.” Max didn’t smile back.

“Great.” He said flatly. Liv blinked. Why was he being so… Max? However, little did she know of the conversation that Max and Kara had just had.

“You’re into her, aren’t you?” Kara asked, her green eyes piercing into Max’s soul. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“I- what? No.” He scoffed. “Of course I don’t.” His palms began to sweat.

“Really?” Kara crossed her arms. “Because I’ve been watching you guys this whole day. I was in the gym next door to the pool room and I was on the field while you did that race.”

“First of all, stop stalking me. Second of all, that doesn’t mean anything.” He said.

“Max, you barely ever even let me hold your hand.” Kara replied.

“That’s because you have sweaty hands.” Max said defensively.

“Fine. Whatever. Why do you stare at her lips when she talks?” Kara asked. Max was a bit taken aback by that. Did he do that? He didn’t know.

“I don’t.” He crossed his arms also, looking towards her as she climbed up the rock wall.

“Can you stop staring at her for thirty seconds and listen to me when I’m speaking?!” Kara cried. Max reluctantly looked back at Kara. “It’s a waste of your time, big guy. I heard that she’s got it bad for Julian.”

“She can have it 'bad’ for him. I don’t care.” He said unconvincingly, looking back towards the rock wall. He looked just in time to see Liv trick Julian into looking away so she’d have more time to go. He smiled involuntarily.

“Oh Max,” Kara sighed, placing her hand on his shoulder, “it pains me to see you like this.”

“Like what?” He shrugged her hand off of him.

“A pathetic little lover-boy, hopelessly pining after some basic, average girl with a crush on another boy.” Max opened his mouth to respond, but she kept talking. “Come on, Max. You’re hot, rich, popular, athletic, and what is Liv? Crafty?” Kara snorted.

He wanted to defend her. To tell Kara that he just had a little crush on her and that she’s being dramatic. To tell Kara that Liv is smart, kind, athletic, and entertaining. But instead, he said “It doesn’t matter what she is. I don’t give a-” The gunshot rang out, and Max went off running immediately.

“The awards ceremony starts soon.” Liv said, checking the time on her phone. “We should probably go over there.” Max scowled when he saw her lockscreen. It was Payton, Wes, Julian, and Liv. Julian had his arm around her waist. She locked her phone again, pocketing it and looking up at Max. “You good?”

“I’m great.” He said sarcastically. “I’ve just been around Parks people for too long.” Liv frowned.

“What? Afraid that nice people will turn you nice?” She asked. Max rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. “I think you’ll be enlightened to hear you are beyond repair.”

“Like I care.” Max scoffed. Liv turned away, composing herself so that she wouldn’t go apeshit on this boy just to have him ask 'is it that time of the month?’

“Okay.” Liv said calmly. “Let’s just go.” She started to walk out of the gym back to the field where the awards ceremony was. She and Max walked together in silence. That is, until her phone started to ring.

“Is that Julian?” The question flew out of Max’s mouth before he could stop himself.

Liv wasn’t phased by it though. “No, it’s Payton.” She answered before taking the call. “Hey.” Pause. “Yeah, I-” Pause. “Wait, what?” Pause. “She told you that?” Pause. “You know we can’t trust her.” Pause. “No! No way.” Pause. “Payton. No. Now I have to go.” She sighed and hung up the phone.

“What was that about?” Max asked out of curiosity. Liv put her phone in her pocket again and kept walking.

“Nothing.” She said distractedly, deep in thought. Payton had called and asked Liv if she and Max liked each other and that Kara told her they were “all over each other” and “holding hands” and such. How would her friends react to those not-so-much rumors?

They walked to the awards ceremony in silence, both standing with their arms crossed amongst the crowd, waiting. “Third place,” Hearst High’s principal said into the microphone. Everyone silenced, waiting to hear the names. “Drew Newton and Sasha Gomez!” Liv and Max both clapped and Liv cheered for their friends. Sasha and Drew hugged and took their bronze medal, smiling. “Second place,” Liv bit her lip. “Justin Richter and Gregory Smith!” Two boys, one Liv recognized from Parks, went up and bro-hugged, patting each other on the back.

Max waited eagerly for her to announce first place. “First place,” He resisted the urge to grab Liv’s hand, “Alivianna Verrocchio and Max Warren!” Both schools went wild, cheering loudly as Max and Alivianna went up on the top of the podium. Liv smiled at the crowd, then turned to Max.

Then, in front of everyone, they hugged. Well, Max hugged Liv. He wrapped his arms around her waist, hoisting her into the air, taking her by surprise. But what took her a bit more by surprise is that she hugged him back. Then, almost immediately realizing that both of their entire schools were watching them, Liv let out a shocked “oh!” Max let her down immediately, scratching the back of his neck.

“I- um. I didn’t… Er, I-” He struggled to find words as his face turned red. What was he doing? He is Max Warren; starting quarterback of the varsity football team, most popular boy in Hearst High, and above all, he was a player. So why did he have a strange feeling in his stomach every time Liv smiled subconsciously and why did his heart skip a beat every time they touched?

She held up her hand, rescuing them from their awkward ordeal, and he gratefully gave her a high five. Liv couldn’t help but smile at the cocky smile on his face, it was contagious. He still had the faintest remains of a red face from blushing before and in this moment, despite all that has happened between them, Liv couldn’t help but feel the urge to just kiss that smirk off of his face.

But she turned back to the cheer crowd and Max held the medal in the air, cheering also. He leaned down and bro-fisted all of his friends and as Liv looked at Nishan in the crowd talking to Sakura, she swore she could see Kara staring at them. She looked towards Julian and Wes, who cheered for her and whistled. She laughed.

It came to an end soon enough, but Liv wasn’t sure why she felt a little disappointed that it was over so soon. She looked back and saw Max chatting up two girls from Hearst. She couldn’t say she was jealous, but she was definitely disappointed. “I can’t believe I thought…” She turned around and muttered to herself. She shook her head instead of finishing, beginning to walk back to Parks alone.

“Liv!” She heard someone call. She turned around as Max jogged towards her, the medal in his hand. She stood and waiting for him to catch up with her as everyone else went into the schools. “Here.” He held the medal out when he reached her.

She raised an eyebrow. “I thought that you deserved the medal because you’re the one that 'brought us to victory.’” She said.

“Yeah, I did.” He smirked. “But I thought you might want it.” Liv looked at the medal. She did want it, actually. It would look really good to put in the display case at Parks…

“Thanks.” She smiled, taking the medal from him. “I had fun today, believe it or not.”

“That’s because I’m always fun, baby.” He smirked. “You’ll see next week.”

“Next week?” She raised an eyebrow. Max nodded. “What’s next week?”

“Drew’s throwing a party.” Max said. “And I’m in charge of invites.” He winked at her. “So I’ll see you there.”

“Can I bring any of my friends?” She asked. Max frowned immediately. By 'friends’ do you mean Julian? he thought bitterly.

“Why? Don’t think you’ll have fun?” He asked. “Your school and my school don’t exactly mix well.”

“That’s my point.” She said. “I kinda don’t want to be the only Parks person in a party of all Hearst people…” He pulled his lips into a straight line, the corners of his mouth twitching. She looked nervous, like she was scared of the people from Hearst. And she had every right to be. Suddenly Max felt guilty.

“Yeah. You can bring a few friends.” He sniffed, shrugging as if it were nothing. Liv sighed in relief.

“Well, I’ll see you then.” Liv said, stepping backwards before turning away. “That is, unless you pop up at Parks and try to fuck everything up for everyone like always.”

He only felt guiltier. “I won’t.” He promised, but Liv just giggled and walked off, not knowing he was being completely serious.