"I miss her already," Hilary sighed, dropping to the couch of her aunt's apartment just a few days later. Sniffling, she shifted to allow Stella to sit with her.

"I know, love," the older red head hugged her niece to her side. "But you'll talk to her all the time, I promise. And who knows, maybe you'll join some clubs at school and stay busy."

"I'm not much of an organized group person, Aunt Stel," Hilary said. "Not much for idle activities, other than violin."

"There's soccer," she said, watching Hilary perk up. "You could try-out and get out of class for games."

"Woo!" Hilary cheered. "Missing class."

"How nervous are you?" Stella asked, checking in with her. "I mean, is it just starting a new school or is it school in general?"

Hilary blushed, smiling a little. "School in general, I guess. I've never gone to a real school, like, ever."

"You'll do great," she assured her niece as her cell phone began to ring. It was Max. "I'll be right back."
*_*_*_*
Max sat, tapping his foot, waiting for Stella to answer her phone. He knew CiCi was slated to leave that day, he just hoped the Nash women weren't too emotional so he could actually talk to Stella.

As the phone rang, Max pulled it away from his ear, smiling at the photo he used as her i.d. It was from the summer of 2009, celebrating the Stanley Cup with him and the rest of the team. Taken at a party thrown by Mario on the South Side, Stella smiled brightly into the camera, Max close to her side. It was a good memory.

"Hey, Superstar," Stella's voice came to his ear, happier than he had expected. "What's up?"

"Hey, yourself," he caught himself smiling. "And I just wanted to check in with you. I knew CiCi was leaving today."

That was a lie. Max was actually calling to ask Stella a question, but he didn't want to seem too eager. Max was known as a ladies man and he happily lived up to that name. But there was just one girl-no, woman- that managed to make him fumble like a silly teenager and she had flaming hair.

There was a party at Claude's the next night and each member of the team was welcome to bring friends or family. As far as Max was concerned, Hilary was practically family and he wanted Stella to be, well, more than friends.

"Yeah, she did. We just got back from the airport, actually," Stella explained. In the background, Max heard a subtle 'Hi, Maxime!', in Hilary's distinct voice. "I'm sure you heard that."

Max laughed. "I did. Tell her I said 'Salut'."

Stella passed on the message before coming back to the conversation. "My dad really liked seeing you the other day. He said it was good to have you around again."

"I liked seeing him," Max hesitated before continuing. "Is everything okay though? I mean, you and CiCi seemed a little... different when you came back from seeing the doctor."

Stella sighed and Max wondered if Hilary was still in the room. "We'll talk aboout that later, face to face."

"Any plans for today?" would he be able to see her twice in two days. That is, if she agreed to tomorrow.

"I was going to take Hilary shopping for some things for her room and maybe some fun things to dress her uniform up with," Stella said and Hilary let out an audible groan, obviously not happy with the need for a uniform.

"Well pick something up to wear to a summer picnic tomorrow night," Max turned on his charm. "You two are invited to an end of summer-start of camp picnic at G's house."

She took a sharp breath. "Max? Are you sure we're invited?"

"They said we're free to bring anyone we want," he shrugged. "I'll pick you guys up at 4, no questions, Stel."

Even though he might enfuriate her sometimes, Max knew she would never say no. "Okay, yeah. We'll see you then."

"Good," Max smiled to himself. He had succeeded. "See you then, ma belle."

Notes

So I changed this so that it's inspired by songs by all sorts of artists. It was too hard to find songs just by Sara Bareilles to fit each chapter. This one is inspired by First Love by the lovely Adele.