"Come on," Maria said. "Details, Alex."
"Okay, but try not to laugh." Alex looked embarrassed. "I was at the homecoming dance with Isabel-and we were the homecoming king and queen. We had on the crowns and everything."
"Oh, stop. I'm going to hurl." Maria made loud barfing sounds.
"What do you think? Is it a sign? Should I try and get up the guts to, like, talk to her or something?" Alex asked.
"No!" Liz blurted.
Alex looked hurt.
But Liz couldn't worry about his feelings. She'd suddenly remembered something about Isabel. The other day, at Max's house, Isabel had stared at Liz with pure hatred.
She's afraid I'm going to betray Max, Liz realized. And if people discovered Max was an alien, they'd know Isabel was one, too. Liz's stomach began to tingle. Isabel must be terrified. No wonder she hated Liz. Would she come after me? Liz wondered. Try to hurt my friends?
Liz didn't know. But she did know one thing-she didn't want Alex anywhere near Isabel.
"It's just that, like Maria said, she treats guys like dirt," Liz told Alex. "You deserve better."
"I guess you're right," Alex said. But Liz noticed he was staring at Isabel when he said it.
"I have this craving for a doughnut. Want to go to the doughnut place?" Max asked. He ate the last bite of his burger and shoved the tray across the cafeteria table.
"But that would mean… cutting school." Michael opened his gray eyes wide and stared at Max with mock horror.
Max sniffed the air. "Can you smell them? Can you smell the crullers sliding out of the oven?" He pulled a couple of packets of hot sauce out of his jacket pocket and waved them in front of his friend's face. He knew crullers with hot sauce were Michael's favorite.
"I have a history test, and I would not think of jeopardizing my education for a cruller," Michael said primly.
"Have you ever had one when they're still hot, because I think today is cruller baking day," Max said.
"Do you think I'm that easy?" Michael demanded. "Besides, it's not like you can hide from the girl for the rest of your life."
"Yeah, you're right." Max didn't bother to pretend that he didn't know who Michael was talking about.
The bell rang. "I kind of like giving you advice for a change," Michael said as they headed out.
"Don't get too used to it," Max answered. He started up the stairs to his advanced placement bio class. Would Liz even be there? He'd thought about bailing-why wouldn't she?
Max couldn't decide if he hoped she'd be there or not. He wanted to see her and make sure she was okay. But he couldn't take it if she looked at him the way she did on Saturday, all scared and weirded out and… and repulsed. Man, he would never forget the expression on her face.
He hesitated outside the door. Don't be a wuss, he told himself, and stepped inside. Liz was there. He should have known she wouldn't cut. She wasn't really the kind of person who backed away from things.
He knew she noticed him come in-her shoulders tensed a little, and the sickly yellow steaks that still marred her amber aura grew a little darker. But she didn't look up. She kept her eyes focused on the lab table as she set up their microscope.
Max took a detour to check on the lab mice. Admit it, he thought as he fed them a few pieces of celery. You're stalling. "Wish me luck," he whispered to Fred, his favorite mouse. Then he forced himself to walk over to the lab station he shared with Liz.
"We're doing a comparison between animal and plant cells today," Liz said in a rush when Max slid onto his lab stool. "I'm trying to decide which category a couch potato would fall into."
Her laugh sounded a little fake. But at least she was trying to joke around with him the way she usually did-even if she still hadn't managed to look at him.
If Liz was going to act as if nothing had happened, he would, too. We should both get Oscar nominations after this class, Max thought.
"Okay, let's get started," Ms. Hardy called. "Everyone on the left, use a vegetable scraping to make a slide. Everyone on the right, use a swab to get some cells from the inside of your cheek and do a slide. When you've answered the questions on your own slide-animal or plant-then trade with another team and answer the rest."
Max picked up one of the swabs. "I'll do it."
Liz grabbed the swab away. "Are you crazy?" she demanded. She lowered her voice. "Do you even know what your cells look like? What if they don't look… the same?"
She was right. Ms. Hardy often walked around and looked at their slides. And if there was something different about his cells, she would definitely notice.
Max was usually so careful, so cautious. He couldn't believe he'd almost done something that amazingly stupid. This thing with Liz had him totally messed up. All he could think about was her. He couldn't stop wondering what was going on in her head.
Liz wiped the inside of her mouth with the swab. Max pulled a chipped glass slide out of the little wooden box and handed it to her. She ran the swab over the glass, then Max dropped a thin plastic slide cover on top of the cell sample she'd deposited.
At least we can still do this, he thought. They had always been a perfect match as lab partners.
"I wanted to talk to you about what happened on Saturday," Liz said. She slipped the side under the microscope's metal clips, then peered into the eyepiece, checking the focus.
Yeah, Liz definitely doesn't back away from things, Max thought. Pretending nothing had happened might have been easier, but it just wasn't her.
"Telling me the truth must have been so hard, and then I totally flipped out on you," Liz continued. "I didn't even thank you for saving my life." She used the knob on the side of the microscope to make a few minor adjustments, then looked up at Max. Her gaze was direct and steady, but Max saw a tiny muscle in her eyelid jump.
It's taking everything she has to do this, he thought. She can't even look at me anymore without it being this huge effort.
"I don't know what to say. 'I'm sorry' sounds so lame. But I'm really sorry," she told him. "And thanks… thanks for saving my life."
"You're welcome." Max turned away and checked the lab book. "We're supposed to do a sketch and label the organelles." He pulled out a sheet of paper and pushed it toward Liz. "You'd better do the drawing. We both know I can't even draw stick figures."
Liz looked into the eyepiece again. She picked up a pencil and drew a big circle, still studying the slide.
"Start with the Golgi apparatus," Max suggested. "Do you see it? It's supposed to look like a stack of deflated balloons."
Liz shifted position, and a lock of her dark hair tumbled over her shoulder and fell across the drawing. Max started to brush it back-and she jerked away.
She bent down and fiddled with her shoe. "I… I tripped," she stammered. "The heel on this shoe always wobbles. I keep forgetting to take it to the shoe repair." The yellow streaks in her aura widened until they almost blotted out the amber.
Max knew she was lying. She didn't stumble. She jerked away from him because she couldn't stand for him to touch even a strand of her hair.
We can both try to act normal, Max thought. We can both say the right things. But it's never going to be the same between us again. Liz is afraid of me.
"So what kind of mood is el jefe in today?" Liz asked Stan, the cook on duty at the Crashdown Cafe.