6th December

At breakfast Sophie explained to Maia and the rest of the family, that the pastor, Mr. Parks, invited them for lunch to welcome Maia in their village. Derick directly asked, if he could go and visit his friend, Milo, on the way back. From what Maia could get from the discussion, Milo was from Dericks soccer team as well, but had to stay home because he had his leg broken, even though he was on the way to recovery. Just playing was out of the question. "I have nothing against you visiting Milo, Derick." His mother replied to the question of the youngster. "But please take Maia with you. I will let the Hollers know, then she can get to know the last family of our village as well." Derick put his hand on the shoulder of Maia. "Naturally. I am sure Milo also wants to meet her." He replied and when Maia looked up to her cousin, he had this sly smile in his face again. On the one hand, Maia was curious about the Parks, and a bit about the Hollers as well, but she still was quite exhausted from the last days and meeting so many people was exhausting. She did not bring herself to voice this though.

The lunch with the Parks was a fun thing, much different than the dinner with the Stripes and Rileys. The family of the pastor was so different from what Maia expected, that she forgot totally to be shy. The 3 sons of the pastor could not lie about being from the same town as the other boys, they all three were handsome for bears, but their behavior was much different. Maia quickly found the whole family, from father Nick, mother Ida and the sons Simon, who was 21, Arthur, who was 15, and Fred, who was 8, fun to talk with and a great company. The pastor, with his 41 years the oldest in the village, told jokes after jokes and Maia had a hard time not to laugh. Despite their big and bulky bodies, all of them seemed to be very agile. When they were finished with lunch, they juggled with the dishes and the forks and knifes were tossed through the room and skillfully caught by Arthur, who had dish washing duty. Everything in the house seemed to be done together and no one complained about their duties, at least not in the presence of Maia. After lunch they played a fun board game. Maia did not completely understand the rules but it was played with groups of two people and Simon, the oldest son who got paired with her, seemed to be the best so in the end they won very close before Nick and Derick, who came in second. Even though they all had been very competitive during the game, no one really seemed to care so much about winning. They all laughed together and the sons ended the nice evening with a little concert. All three of them were very skilled with their instruments. Simon was playing the piano, Arthur the violin and Fred percussions. The songs they played seemed all to be divine songs for church, if the text was any indicator, but the music was fast and with a lot of rhythm. Maia learned the text very fast and soon all sang together until the sun started to get down.

"If you want to visit the Hollers you should go now." Sophie mentioned after looking out of the window and Derick jumped up from his seat. "I nearly forgot. Thank you for the evening Nick and Ida, and you too guys, but I promised Milo that I would introduce Maia to him. I am sure he is already waiting for us." Maia did not know what happened. The one moment she had been sitting in a fun round with the Parks, singing songs in a warm living room, and in the next moment she was next to Derick, walking through the wind that picked up over to a house fifty meters away from the Parks. She felt ashamed, that she wanted to stay with the Parks instead of going to Dericks friend. She did not mention it but she felt guilty for this thoughts.

The rest of the evening was not as fun for Maia, but she liked Milo. He was a handsome stallion of 12 years and even though he still humped a bit with a big cover around his leg, Maia could see that he was a great athlete. His muscles were strong but they looked good at him. Sure enough, Maia felt her blood rush into the head when seeing him, because he was for sure also very handsome, but he compared more to the Parks than the Rileys or Stripes in the character. He offered her a seat and was a gentleman, but when he talked to her he sounded like a normal kid. Well behaved was maybe the best term to describe Milo, but under all the manners she felt, that he had a lot of energy and was frustrated that he had to sit in the room and not run around outside.

"I heard you won." He said and looked very upset that he had not been able to take part of the game. "I would have come to watch if the hospital would not have insisted on changing this at the same time." He knocked against his cover. "How is your leg?" asked Derick, Maia felt a bit left out of this conversation but at this moment was not too sad about it. She felt happy that she had some time to calm down. "Better. But they said that I cannot start to train again until February." Derick snarled and seemed to be as upset about this as Milo. "That is bad news. We won because our opponent sucked, but end of January there is the tournament in the city and I hoped you would join us there." - "Sorry man." Replied Milo but Derick waved him off with his paw. "I know it is not your choice. If your parents would let you, you probably would even play with the cast on your leg, right?" Both laughed. "Did this happen during a game?" Maia was surprised herself that she spoke up. "Sorry for asking." She said meekly. Both boys looked at her. "No, I am sorry. We were talking about soccer and left you completely out of the conversation." Said Milo. "No, it is okay." She said and her voice started to faint. "Where I got this?" asked Milo and Maia was thankful that he moved her out of the focus with answering. "It did not happen at a match or training, but in school. I jumped out of the window in first floor." Maia looked at him with wide eyes. She had imagined noone would be stupid enough to jump out of a window from first floor, even less the strong and in her opinion until now quite smart stallion. Derick laughed. "You need to tell her why you jumped out of the window, else she will think we are dump countrymen." He called out to Milo and gave him a slap on his shoulder. "It was not some stupid idea or a test of bravery." He explained his cousin. "A girl leaned out of the window too far in the class room above us and fell down. He did not think but directly jumped after her. He broke his leg, but he saved the girl from breaking her neck." He said and Milo seemed a bit embarrassed about his moment of heroism. "Everyone would have done it." He said, but Derick laughed again. "Don't sell yourself cheap man." He told his friend. "That was awesome. I am not sure if I would have reacted in time. And she is your girlfriend now, isn't she?" he pushed his fist softly into the ribs of Milo. "Nothing like that. She just visited me a few times." Milo said and Maia could see that he felt embarrassed about that. "Nothing to be ashamed off." Said Derick. "She is a cute little deer, she is your age and she is not the worst match for you. A lot of people would be very jealous of you." - "Not as jealous as they are of you, when they see what a cute cousin you have." Milo shot back and now it was Maia that felt embarrassed. The joyful quarrel went on for a few minutes until they noticed that it made Maia feel uncomfortable. An awkward minute passed before Derick suggested to get some cookies and warm cocoa from the kitchen and left Milo and Maia alone.

An hour later, Maia had forgotten about this already. They had fun talking together and she told them about her school and how it was to live in a big city. Maia also was introduced to Todd Holler, Milo's father, who turned out to also work at the same sawmill as Patrick and Matthew. Milo's mother died a year ago and therefore it was just the two of them living in this house. Sophia came by to get Derick and Maia for dinner and after half an hour talk with Mr. Holler they finally were on their way back. Maia was happy about all the encounters and enjoyed the day but after dinner she felt her exhaustion catching up and she fell into the bed and slept deep this night.