Max went to his room as well and tried to concentrate on his homework but it seemed impossible. All he could think of was how he had felt when he wiped away Liz's tears. He had felt what seemed like a current of electricity running through his body, and now it was still humming.

He looked at the clock and was surprised to see that 15 minutes had passed. *God what's wrong with me?* He thought, *I've had girlfriends before, nothing serious but I mean I've never felt something like this before.* Sighing he goes and lays on his bed thinking some more, he had never felt so angry as he did when he saw what Kyle was doing to Liz today. *Yeah Kyle's my best friend and all that and he's fun to hang out with, but it's not the first time he's treated girls like a peice of meat. And he's dating my sister!*

Max gets up off the bed and knows what he should do but knows that once he does it's going to be bad.

Knocking on Isabel's door. "Izzie can I come in?"

"Yeah." She says from the other side.

He walks in and Isabel is laying on her bed writing. He sits on the edge of her bed and looks at her, finally she looks up at him. "What's up Max?"

He sighs, "Today at school I saw Kyle and he wa..."

"No stop!" Isabel says cutting him off.

"What?"

"I don't want to know!"

"But Isabel you sho..."

"No Max, look I'm not stupid I know that Kyle isn't exactely faithful, but he's mine. He's the one thing I can hold on to that makes me feel somewhat normal."

Max shakes his head, "Isabel you can do better then him, you don't need him."

Isabel looks down at her homework and Max can barely hear her, "yes I do."

Max stands up, "Look Izzie, you've always done what you want anyway, just promise me you'll be careful okay?"

Isabel nods and goes back to her homework.

*******************

Michael and Liz walked hand-in-hand back to her trailer after they got home from the field that night.

"Are you alright, Liz? You've been kind of quiet since we left the school."

She looked over at him and nodded, managing a weak smile. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Uh huh. Sure you are," he said in a way that let her know he didn't believe her one bit.

She looked at him and a real smile broke out on her face. "God, you'd think by now, I'd have learned that I can't lie to you. Look, I'm fine. Now. I just had a real crappy day, but I'm sure after a nice sleep, I'll wake up feeling much better."

They reached her trailer and she said, "Well, here's my stop."

He turned to face her and took her in his arms. His hand reached up and he began to stroke her hair as she nuzzled in his neck. "Liz," he murmured. "I'm sorry if I pry too much, but I'm just worried about you. Alex and I both are."

"I know, Michael," she sighed. "But you can't protect me all the time. There are some things we have no control over."

He nodded. "I know, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna stop trying. You just don't deserve any of this. You're too good of a person to have to deal with this shit. Don't think that Alex and I are ever gonna give up trying to protect you. We'll always be here for you."

She pulled back and smiled. "I know and I want you to know that I appreciate it." She stood on her tip toes to give him a kiss when the rusty screen door to her trailer opened.

"Liz, where the hell have you been?" Her mother asked as she stepped out wearing a thin robe. She broke into a coughing fit and then said "Damnit, I needed someone to go to the store and get me cigarettes three hours ago."

"Yeah, I'm sorry mom." Liz said embarassed.

Her mother glared at her and then looked at Michael and sized him up, licking her lips. "Hey there, sugar."

"Mrs. Parker," he nodded, trying to ignore the way that she was looking at him like a piece of meat.

She let the side of her robe slip off her shoulder and she grinned at him, cocking her hips to one side. "Haven't seen you around much, Mikey. You should stop by someday, and pay momma a visit."

"Mom!" Liz cried, absolutely mortified at her mother's behavior. She put her hand to her head and shook her head. "Leave him alone."

She glared at her daughter. "What Lizzie? I'm just being friendly. Hurry your ass up and get in here. I need you to cook dinner for the twins." Then, in an attempt at a seductive voice, she winked and said, "See ya around, Mikey."

Michael opened his mouth to ask what that had been about, when he saw Liz grimace Instantly, he was alert. "Liz! Are you okay? What's wrong?"

She looked into his eyes and shook her head. "I'm fine," she gasped. "I just got a little pain."

"Are you sure?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah," she nodded, the tension leaving her face. She pecked him quickly on the lips and then turned. "I'll see you in the morning, Michael."

Liz tossed and turned in her bed that night, listening to the loud shouts of a fight from someone elses trailer, the sound of laughing from another, a bottle rolling across the dirt road outside in the lot, and her mother's laughing as she entertained her latest 'friend'.

Liz turned over on her side, away from the closed door, and pulled her pillow over her head. She didn't want to hear her mother with her friend. She just wanted to be able to block it all out and sleep. She didn't want to be too tired tomorrow in school. She liked school. It was the only positive thing in her life. She studied hard and was on the honor roll so she could get a scholarship to the best college for Molecular Biology, and out of this town as soon as she finished high school.

Then the events of this afternoon came back to her. Kyle had really frightened her. He had said things to her before, but he had never been physically agressive before. He seemed to get more and more agressive each time he saw her. She tried to avoid him as much as possible, but it seemed as if he went out of his way to find her.

She had been so relieved when Max Evans had come to her rescue today. She hadn't expected that. She knew Max wasn't like Kyle, and wouldn't encourage him to harass the other girls, but she hadn't expected him to have gotten as angry as he had at his friend. Max had looked ready to kill Kyle.

And the way he had so gently wiped her tears. Liz sighed. She'd been in love with Max Evans since she was a little girl and had first seen him. But he had been out of her league from day one, and she had never let herself dream foolish dreams. However, she couldn't help the way her heart always skipped a beat, and her stomach would drop when she saw him in the halls at school, or somewhere after school, or in biology where he was her partner. And she always forgot to breath when once in a while, in biology their eyes would meet and he would smile at her. Max always had a sweet smile and really hypnotic eyes. And his eyes always showed so much emotion. She knew she had it bad, but she was also realistic enough not to hope for things that could never be.

He was really a nice guy for one of the popular crowd. Liz smiled into her pillow as she continued to think of Max Evans. He was never mean or cruel to anyone no matter how much his friends might tease or pick on others. He treated everyone the same when he talked to them. It didn't matter if they were in the popular group or not.

He even treated her friend Carla nice. That had really endeared him to Liz more. Once in 5th grade, some of popular girls and guys were teasing Carla because she was overweight, and then had pushed her to the ground and made her cry. Liz remembered how she had tried to stop them, but they just laughed harder and made fun of both her and Carla.

Then Max had come up and told the group to leave them alone, and then he had helped Carla up and told her to ignore them. He had given Carla something to wipe her eyes with that day too.

Liz snuggled into her pillow as she thought of Max. He was her dream man. She loved to watch him smile, talk and laugh. She just loved to watch Max do anything. And she loved his scent. She would try not to stare at him in Biology, but he was such a distraction to her. His presence was soothing and made her feel safe. And she loved when they had to work close on a lab assignment, and he would lean in closer and she could feel his warmth, and his own scent that was just him.

And today he had helped her. He had even remembered her name. And then he had touched her. Liz frowned as she remembered how it had felt like a volt of electricity had gone through her. And she had seen Max's look of surprise as well, before he had backed up from her. She knew he had felt it too.

She didn't know if she liked that. What did it mean? Why did he feel it too?

Stop thinking of him Liz! She told herself. He's not for you. He's a good, sweet, popular guy who will go places. He should be with one of his own. A beautiful, smart, sweet girl from his side of the tracks who could compliment him in looks and strength of character. But mostly she would be from the well to do side of the tracks. Liz sighed and buried her head deeper into the pillow to block out her thoughts. But as she drifted off to sleep, she invisioned Max's Evan's smile as he looked at her with those hypnotic eyes.

*****************

Later that night Isabel is asleep, Kyle watches her as she sleeps and then walks over to her. She's wearing a satin night shirt and one of the buttons have come undone and he can see the swell of her breast. He feels himself get even harder then he was as he drove over here.

He pulls the covers back and Isabel stirs in her sleep, not waking up. He feels his way up her silky legs and reaches his destination and smiles, she's not wearing any panties. He moves one of her legs so she's more open to him, he finds her little nub and starts rubbing it.

Isabel spreads her legs wider, she's awake but still has her eyes closed. This isn't the first time that Kyle has woken her up this way.

He looks at her as she writhes under his touch.

Isabel feels like she's in bliss, this is the first time that Kyle has ever made an effort to make sure she feels good to. Usually he's in such a hurry that she never enjoys it.

Just as she's thought this Kyle stops what he's doing. "Are you awake?" He asks.

Isabel opens her eyes and looks at him just nodding.

Kyle stands up and takes his shirt off and then removes the rest of his clothes. He nods his head to the floor telling her to get down there with him.

Isabel moves down to the floor and moves to kiss Kyle. He gives her a hurried kiss and then pushes her back on the floor.

He pushes her legs up to her chest. "Here hold your legs." He tells her. She does and Kyle positions himself at her opening and enters her. He groans at how good she feels.

He starts moving and after a minute he pulls out, "Turn over and get on your knees Isabel."

Isabel lets go of her legs and does so then she looks back at Kyle, "Your not going to put it in that other place are you? I didn't like that."

"Shush, your going to wake your parent's, and no I won't put it there."

She leans down on her arms to support herself as Kyle slowly eases into her. He reaches around her front and finds her clit and starts rubbing it again.

What Kyle is doing to her feels so good that she spreads her legs wider. Kyle keeps touching her as he pulls out and positons himself at her other opening.

Isabel tries to jerk away. "No Kyle, you said that you weren't going to. It hurts."

Kyle puts his hand over her mouth to quite her and then he thrusts into her. He can feel Isabel crying out against his hand but that spurs him on. She's so tight there that within seconds Kyle feels he's going to cum, as he does he pulls out and spurts on her back.

He takes his hand away from her mouth and stands up getting dressed. After he gets dressed he kisses her on the cheek, "Thanks that was great, I'll see you at school." And he heads out her window.

Isabel crumples to the floor and starts crying. Then she hurriedly wipes away her tears. *No you can't cry Isabel, you wanted normal and this is what it is.* She goes into the bathroom and cleans herself up. Then crawls into bed. She pulls the covers up tightly around her and stays awake the rest of the night.

***** Isabel threw her pom-poms down on the ground and cried out in frustration. "Damnit, Lisa! That's not the combination! It's left-kick to the side, left-kick to the front, toe-forward, high-V. Not a half-V, not a three-quarter-V. High-V! Then toe-touch and point your fucking toes! If I have to tell you again, you're off the squad!"

"Looks like someone is PMS-ing!" Lisa muttered quietly, but just loud enough that Isabel heard her.

"Oh, that's it, bitch!" Isabel swore, turning to stalk up to the girl, preparing to strangle her.

"Okay, time out!" Maria called, coming in between the two girls. "Take five, everyone! Come here, Izzy," she said, pulling the girl to the side. "What's wrong with you today?"

Isabel rolled her eyes and put her hands in her head. "I don't know. I'm just tired. I didn't get much sleep last night."

Maria raised her eyebrows, "Boy problems?"

Isabel looked at the girl and shrugged.

"Oh, I totally have the cure for that!" Maria smiled brightly. "Well, here's what I suggest. We cancel practice for the rest of the day, and you and I go to Shakey's for a couple of cappucinos and then shopping spree at Diane's. How does that sound?"

"But the state competition is only in two weeks. We need all the practice we can get."

"Izzy, do you really think that one more hour of practice is really going to make the squad so much better? I mean really. We'd need a miracle for that."

Isabel grinned and nodded. "You sooo have a point! Okay, let's do it." To the squad, she yelled, "Okay everyone. Go home, I'm sick of looking at you, but be here tomorrow at 2:30 sharp! If you're late, you're running laps!"

To Maria, she said, "Go bring the car around."

"Be right back!" Maria smiled, jingling her keys. She turned and walked out to the parking lot, in search of her car.

She saw someone lying on the hood of her car and she squinted to see who it was. She was surprised to see that it was Michael Guerin.

She got a little thrill at this but she suppressed it. She would rather die than tell anyone, but she was more attracted to Michael Guerin than anyone else in the school. Something about his lean, muscular body, his full lips, and that wild spiky hair, totally did it for her.

She really wanted him but she knew she would never pursue it. That would only mean the rapid decline of popularity and she didn't think she could handle that.

*****

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Michael heard a girl's voice cry. He opened his eyes and held his hand up, shielding them against the sun, to see a blond with a furious expression standing over him. He was sure she was one of the cheerleaders although he couldn't remember her name. Then he saw a megaphone key-chain in her hand that read 'Maria.'

"Waiting for my friends," he answered, in a bored voice. "What's it to you?"

"What's it to me?" she asked, outraged, putting her hands on her hips. "You're lying the hood of my brand new car, you greasy jerk. Get off right now before I have my boyfriend kick your ass!" She began to slap him and he held his arms up to defend himself as he stood up.

"What's your problem?" He screamed. "I wasn't hurting anything!"

"I don't know what you do in trailer town, but here, it isn't acceptable, nor proper, to make yourself comfortable on the hood of someone's thirty-five thousand dollar car!"

"Oh, what are you bitching about, princess? You know if there is even the littlest scratch that your daddy will buy you a new one, so keep your opinions about what is proper to yourself, and lay off."

Maria gritted her teeth. "Don't you dare call me princess! I'm not a princess, I'm just a normal human being. Only pieces of Roswell trash like you would think it was okay to lay on someone's car. Show some decency."

Michael sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "Decency?" Being obvious about it, his eyes wandered from her face to her huge breasts, which were practically hanging out of the black sport-bra she was wearing. He opened his mouth to make a remark, but then shook his head, grinning smugly. "Nah, too easy. See ya later, princess!" He said, blowing her a kiss and then walking away.

She stared after him as he walked away, silently fuming. Then she got into her car and peeled out of the parking lot. When she reached Isabel, she slammed on the breaks and the girl crawled in.

"What took so damn long?" she demanded.