I had another character idea. This is Max, Mia's best friend. His name is short for Maximilian, his favorite color is red, he's 18, and he's grown up next door to Mia. He's always been her best friend. He's very smart and is going into college to study to be an inventor after his senior year in high school. He wants to work with technology. He loves things that challenge his mind. He hates broccoli and when he was little he pretended he was allergic to it so no one would make him eat it. He's fascinated with airplanes. He and Mia made up an extensive secret code when they were little to aid them in mischief-making, and they use their code to this day. The one thing that can be annoying about him is that he's not at all humble about his genius abilities, so he can seem full of himself at times. This is because his parents never taught him to be humble. He is smarter than his two younger brothers and one older brother, and his parents are very proud of him. (Growing up, he got a lot of praise and could do no wrong in his parents' eyes). This also made his brothers jealous, so he doesn't have a great relationship with them. (Except his youngest brother Cabe. Max often helps 12-year-old Cabe with his homework.) His other brothers--Ben is 24 and already in the Mecha Army. He and Max have a polite but distant relationship. And there's Robbie, who is 16. Robbie and Max are often competitive and openly hostile to each other.

Max cares very much about his friends, especially Mia. He can be a little condescending at times but is always kind and sweet when his friends need him, and wants more than anything to help people out. He also thinks it would be nice to be famous as the person who invented the machine that allowed the country to beat the unknown threat. He really wants Mia to work with him on this project in college, and he understands why she might not want to go, but it still frustrates him a little.