MAXINE MAYFIELD

maxine mayfield was born in 1966 in san diego. her mother and father were decent loving parents. her mom was a teller at a bank. they raised max in a nice house and played in the park after school. but things weren't as perfect as they seemed. max was great, but her parent's relationship wasn't. they were on their way to divorce well before it happened. max was ten when her parents divorced. her father stayed in her life until her mom remarried and he was pushed out.

susan mayfield remarried to neil hargrove when max was 12. neil brought with him a son from his previous marriage. things weren't sour from the start. neil pretended to want to be a good step-father. but when he was angry, he was angry. billy reacted in much the same way towards max. the home became volatile. they stayed in san diego for a few more years after that, but neil was truly pushing to return to his home state of michigan.

in june before her second year of high school, max, her mom, step-father and step-brother movied to chippewa, michigan. niether max nor billy were interested in going from sunny california to middle of nowhere michigan. max never liked her step-father or step-brother, but it was easier to get away from them in san diego. she knew that when they moved to michigan, she wouldn't have that same freedom. billy was an abusive bully, and so was her step father.  she was right to think she'd feel claustrophobic. she did. she was alone in chippewa. at least she could still skateboard though. she spent a lot of time at the arcade and learning her way around the new town on her board. when she came home, she listened to music in her room and just tried to tune out the world.

when she started school, she was just trying to put space between herself and billy. she didn't put a lot of energy into making friends. she just wanted to be left alone. that wasn't how things worked out for her though. instead, she found people were interested in the new girl from california. the cheerleaders tried to be some sort of welcoming committee for her, which she brushed off to the best of her ability. 

over time, max made a few friends with some of the kids in the surrounding grades. sam weir, bill haverchuck and neal schweiber specifically. when she had to get a job at the sporting goods store, she made friends with sam's older sister lindsay too. while max didn't tell lindsay much of what it was like at home for her, lindsay knew billy wasn't a good guy and easily guessed it wasn't easy at home.