Max The Lizard(Archisha Srivastava) Once upon a time, there was a lizard named Max. He was an average lizard, except that he had a dream. He dreamt of being appreciated by people. Everywhere he crawled to, people would give him dirty looks and children would cry.
He felt sad seeing that people got scared just by watching him. He never meant to do any harm, of course. He lived in a small, cozy house of the Robinson family. He stayed out of their way, but secretly watched Lily Robinson from his hiding spots around the house. He felt fond of that little girl.
But whenever he showed up in front of her, she would start crying and run to her mother.
One night, Max went into the room of Lily. He made himself comfortable on the wardrobe of Lily. He watched her as she fell asleep.
“Oh, how should I make her my friend? Is there anything that she hates more than me?” Max thought. Just then, he saw a fly buzzing in Lily’s ear. Lily, tried to fan it away, but the fly didn’t go away. At last, Lily opened her eyes.
She then sat up and chased the fly out of her room. “Ugh. I hate flies more than anything! Even more than that skinny lizard which lives in our house.” Lily complained to herself. She was talking about Max. Max’s eyes lit up. “So there is something she hates more than me! The great news is that it is a fly! I can easily eat it and make Lily happy!” Max fell asleep while thinking about his plan.
The next morning, Max woke up first. Just as he did, Lily’s pink alarm clock started beeping. She woke up and stretched. She read her clock. It read 7:45. Lily went to the kitchen. Max followed her, stealthily. He kept hiding behind doors and under the tube lights, making sure he was out of sight.
Lily hugged her mother. “Good morning Mom!” She told her mother. Her mother smiled and said, “Good morning Lily! Sit down at the dining table; I will bring your cereal there in a minute.” Lily nodded and obeyed her mother’s instructions
She sat down on her chair at the dining table. Max peered at her from behind the curtains, which faced her. He slowly crawled to the ground. He saw that Lily was humming “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, tapping her spoon to the rhythm.
Max made his way onto the opposite end of the dining table. The table cloth was brown, so it was easy for him to get camouflaged. He spotted the fly once again flying around Lily. It sat down on the spoon which Lily was tapping. She became irritated with the fly when it started buzzing around the spoon.
That’s when Max made his move. He jumped, and caught the fly in his mouth, mid air. He fell back down in front of Lily. He looked at her. She gasped. She seemed shocked and surprised, but she didn’t start crying or running away.
Instead, she smiled at him and said, “Thank you lizard!” Max replied, “No problem! It was my pleasure.” Lily gasped at that. “You can talk? Wait…don’t tell me… are you a magical lizard?” she asked him.
Max let out a chuckle and said, “Yes, I can talk. No, I’m not magical. It’s just that humans never paid that much attention to us to notice that we can talk. To them, we are just ugly, horrifying creatures.”
Lily replied, “Well, not to me. At least, not now. Hey, do you want to be my pet?” Max was really happy to hear that. “Yes!” He said. “My name is Max. No need to tell me yours, I know its Lily. I’ve heard your mother and father calling you that.” Max continued. “Great! You’re like a spy! Come in my hand. I will put you in my doll house. I bet you’ll like it there.
It may be a little small for you, so you can stay in the lowest floor. I will bring food for you. What do you eat?” Lily asked, putting Max on her hand. “I’d very much like to stay in your doll house, Lily! I eat flies, usually, but I can drink milk and eat cereals! I’m a little special, in that way.”Max replied.
Lily set Max down in her doll house. “Cool! I will bring you some cereal flakes and milk after my breakfast. I’ll leave a little for you. Just wait a little, ok? Meanwhile, you can explore my doll house!” Lily said and went back to the dining room. Her cereal was already there, so she started eating it, keeping in mind that she had to leave some for her new pet.
Meanwhile, Max explored his new house. He went up the little stairs. Somehow, the stairs didn’t hurt his chest when he crawled up them. He went into the bathroom. He slithered up to the sink, putting his front paws inside the sink to maintain balance. He looked at himself in the fake mirror.
“I look good, as usual!” He stared at his blurry reflection. He got down from the sink and into the tub. He relaxed in it. That’s when he heard Lily calling to him. He immediately got out of the tub and went down to the lowest floor and looked up at Lily. “Here is your food, Max!” Lily said, and poured some milk from her bowl into a tiny bowl, with a tiny spoon.
In another bowl, she put a few drops of milk and 3 cereal flakes. “Here you go, Max!” Lily said. Max thanked her and started eating. Lily smiled at Max. They lived happily ever after.

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