"Sometimes me think 'What is friend?' and then me say 'Friend is someone to share the last cookie with."

- Cookie Monster

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Max gently knocked on the main door of Ivan's house. He was admiring the neatly arranged plant pots placed at the sides of the doorstep with a small smile on his face.

The door opened to reveal Ivan's mom, Chloe who stood smiling and wiping her hands with a small towel.

"Hey, Mrs. C, where's Ivan?" Max asked with a smile.

"I'll get him," Chloe answered after a chuckle and left after ruffling Max's spiky light brown hair, matting some to his large forehead.

He grinned and adjusted them back with his hands. Perks of styling your hair for so long that you don't even need a mirror to check.

He walked three small steps to reach the twins' doorstep. Here, there were saplings which he inspected for some minutes. Upon assumption, he thought of them as flowering ones.

He bent down on his knees and whispered 'have a good day' to the saplings with a grin. He decided to enter Ivan's house, but the delicious aroma of cookie batter stopped him.

He grinned wider and sniffed the air contentedly. He hoped to have a cookie or two at least. By the aroma, he could guess that the cookies would taste wonderful.

He knocked on the door of the Russo household gently. Upon three knocks, Elena opened the door. She was found wearing an apron, her brown hair was tied in a loose bun, some wisps of it touching the sides of her face.

"Welcome to the Russo House. How may I help you, sir?" Elena asked as she grinned briefly at Max.

"Hi, I need a vanilla ice cream, topped with a cup of chocolate syrup," Max played along, his green eyes sparkling with mirth.

"Anything else?" Elena smiled while taking down the order in an imaginary paper.

"Oh yeah, and drizzle it with two drops of caramel," Max added.

"Just two drops?"

"Yeah, we have two eyes," Max answered, and grinned upon seeing Elena's confused face.

"It's Kate, I need Kate Russo," Max commented with a shake of his head, his face crinkled with delight.

That's when realization dawned upon Elena that Max's ice cream was a comparison to Kate. She let out a laugh and invited Max indoors.

"Ten minutes sir, one Kate Russo coming up," she informed as she grinned slightly to reveal her bunny teeth.

"Please wait," she cupped her mouth and whispered, "she's sleeping."

"Waiting drives a customer away," Max said.

"Ah, well help yourself to these till then."

Elena chuckled while handing him a plate of freshly baked chocolate cookies, which lit up Max's green eyes.

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Ivan got out of his house with his mom following behind.

"Where is he?" Ivan asked.

"He told me he'd wait here," Mrs. Moore replied with a shrug. Upon seeing Ivan walking away, she held his wrist and placed a hand sanitizer on his palm.

"Huh?"

"Apply it, and I'll let you go," she replied to his incredulous face.

"I'm not going to perform some surgery or something," he commented with a frown.

"Do as you're told, Ivan," she ordered gruffly. She squeezed some liquid out of the small bottle, satisfied that Ivan had rubbed it over his palms.

"Be back in an hour," she ordered while closing the door, earning a faint groan from her son.

Ivan thought of walking towards Max's place which was three houses away. But he stopped in his tracks when the air on his right smelled like cookies.

He had a good mind to knock and enter the Russo's house but didn't. He noticed the window above. Smirking, he started climbing upwards with the pipe's support, an activity which was too easy for him.

The window was open as it usually was, and Ivan jumped into the twins' room lightly. With nimble steps, he reached downstairs.

Max noticed him with raised eyebrows, and was about to say something, but stopped when Ivan shook his head. He sat on the sofa next to Max, heaving a sigh of relief as he thought that no one had seen him sneaking in.

"I know what you did, Van."

Elena's belly laugh proved it otherwise. Ivan looked up to see her crouched, her brown clothes and hair almost camouflaging with the wooden staircase. She got up and walked towards him with a smirk.

Kate was found sitting on a chair directly opposite to Max, hugging an Astronomy textbook close to her chest.

"What happened?" Kate asked Max, and yawned, struggling to open her drowsy eyes. Her curly hair was loosely tied in a ponytail, half of it pooled in her neck and the other matted to her forehead.

"What's polar cap?" Max asked.

"Icy region of a planet," Kate answered, and glanced at Ivan mischievously. "Especially the North and South pole," she added, glancing back at Max with half closed eyes.

"Prism?"

"That's you," Kate replied with a lopsided smile.

"Me?"

"You break light into seven colors," Kate said with a loud yawn, "like a rainbow." She scratched her head, and added, "Always cheerful."

She smiled and shut her eyes after another yawn escaped from her pale mouth.

Max grinned and looked at Ivan who glared at the three smiling faces. Talk about dark chocolate poured upon a concoction of sweetened chocolate.

"You were supposed to wait for me outside," Ivan hissed at Max.

"Well... why don't you have a cookie?" Max asked, tossing him the plate with just one cookie left on it.

"Wait a minute," Kate screeched, startling the three of them who whipped their heads towards her sleepy form, the textbook now covering half of her face.

"You know Astronomy very well," she informed, pointed an accusing finger towards Max who looked sheepish now.

"So, you were here just for the cookies!" Elena and Kate spoke in unison.

"Monster, monster," Kate said with a shake of her head, "you've killed my cookies." She pouted like a kid.

"Cookie monster, cookie Maxonster..." she was cut off when she yawned one more time.

Ivan tried his best to keep his icy glare, to hold back a smile after hearing Kate's sleepy speech.

Max smiled, then covered his mouth, at a loss for words. He grinned to reveal his teeth, his canines that extended a bit more, giving him a "vampirish" look, and closed his mouth again.

He scratched his neck and grinned at the twins, one whose face now fully covered with the textbook, and the other who was eyeing Ivan with a smile.

"Let's go," Ivan spoke with a straight face while getting up. His eyes were glued upon one chocolate cookie that rested in the middle of the plate.

The cookie was beckoning him with outstretched hands, and Ivan stretched his hand towards the plate, his fingers almost touching the goodness...

He was broken out of his trance as he found the cookie shoved in his mouth by Elena who stood in front of him trying hard not to laugh. She watched his face reveal delight at the cookie's awesomeness.

Meanwhile, Max got up and removed the textbook laid upon Kate's face, finding her fast asleep. Her neck dangled backward from the chair's top, and her knees were hugged to her chest.

"Are you going to leave her like that?" Max asked Elena.

"Yeah, she's an elephant," Elena answered with a chuckle.

"Are you kidding me? She looks so skinny."

"Then lift her yourself," Elena muttered, and brought some more cookies. Ivan noticed that she hadn't eaten even one of them. It was delicious, but he wanted to keep that to himself.

Max carried Kate in bridal style, almost dropping her to the floor. He held her tightly and glanced at Elena.

"Pay me in cookies," he commented as he started making his way upstairs towards the twins' room.

"If you say so," Elena replied, "and no funny business," she warned while shaking her finger at his climbing form.

"That guy is too obsessed with food to have a girlfriend," Ivan muttered under his breath.

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Max placed Kate gingerly on her bed and cracked his knuckles. Elena was right, she is heavy.

Max sighed as he held the quilt. He dropped it to notice Kate's sleepy form. He went closer and noticed her drool.

He covered his mouth and switched on his mobile's camera to click her picture. Kate with her wild hair covering almost all of her pillow, her drool, her alien themed pajamas, and her innocent white face with a few drops of perspiration, made Max chuckle softly.

He drew the quilt over her and removed it the next second when he noticed her sweating forehead and her long-sleeved T-shirt. It's hot today. Why the long sleeves? Weird.

He dismissed the thought and skipped downstairs to notice Elena and Ivan almost lunging at each other like wild animals. He intervened to drag Ivan away who pushed his arm and strode forward towards Elena with an angry huff.

"Max is my friend, not yours," he stressed as if someone overwrites the same thing for 100 times.

"And you're a five-year-old," Elena replied, making him boil with rage. She looked at Max who smiled with his mouth filled with cookies, showing her a thumbs up.

"Don't think he'll accept your friendship if you offer him cookies," Ivan declared with a glared, boring his jealous, blue eyes into her dark, unflinching ones.

"Ignore the cookies, he already did," Elena replied coolly. She stepped towards him till their noses were almost touching. "And you'll too, Van."

"In your dreams, Russo."

Ivan scoffed and stepped back, his black sneakers starting to make their way towards the door.

"Is that a challenge, Van?" she asked, her loud voice mixed with determination. He turned his scowling face to nod at her and dragged Max out of the Russo house.

"Alright. Just remember that Elena never backs away from a challenge," she replied firmly.

"Elena never loses too," she stressed. Just before Ivan could close the door, she blew him an airy kiss, smiling mischievously. But her smile soon faltered as she sighed once the door was banged shut.

She wondered what had happened to Ivan. How could a person change in five years? Five years! How had he changed into an entirely different person?

What had gone wrong?

Why?

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Hey, guys! How are you all doing? I had started writing this episode 3 days back, and I've finally got to complete it. Yay! 😎

I had a lot of fun writing it. Did you enjoy reading it? What do you think of Max's "excuse" to eat cookies? He sure is a cookie monster, haha, cookie Maxonster 🙄.

What are your views about this chapter? What ideas have you got from this? Please tell me about it. I'd love to hear from you.

Sneak-Peek of Episode 11:

Any ideas what's going to happen? Please share your thoughts with me.

Keep smiling! 💕
Lots of love ❤💙
Sakina

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