“I don’t think there is anything we can do about it, but let’s talk about it after school at the Crashdown. Not here in the hall.” Isabel reminded them, looking around nervously.

They all agreed and started heading to their classes as the first bell rang.

“See you in Biology.” Max whispered and kissed Liz quickly before he let her go and headed down the hall to his own class.

Liz smiled and sighed. Then she turned and saw Isabel frowning as she started to open her locker a few down from Liz.

“Isabel?” Liz asked.

Isabel looked at Liz with concern. “I don’t know Liz. I’m worried about this thing with Maria’s mom and the sheriff. Do you think he’s using her to get closer to us? I mean he’s been trying to get Maria to talk to him for months. I know she won’t, but maybe he’s trying a new approach to spy on us?”

Liz frowned herself, and then shook her head. “I don’t know Isabel, but let’s just wait and see. Maybe he really just likes her, and it won’t be something we have to worry about. Either way, we’ll talk about it later.” Liz smiled again and squeezed Isabel’s arm lightly in reassurance. An assurance she wasn’t quite convinced she felt herself.

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

Liz was trying to concentrate on what her teacher was saying in her Chemistry class second hour, when she suddenly felt light headed and the room started to spin.

She sucked in her breath, closed her eyes and took deep breaths. She was probably just overtired. She waited a minute, and then opened them and she felt a little better. She was still feeling light headed, but at least the room had stopped spinning.

“…and Liz Parker and Cassandra Owens.” Liz heard her name and caught the end of whatever her teacher was saying.

“I will be handing out the project outline, and then it will be up to you students to find the time needed outside of class. We will devote half of every period to letting you work with your partner on this project, but you will need more than that, so I suggest you start planning on when to get with your respective partners outside of class to work on this. It will be due in 3 weeks, and will be counted as one third of your grade.”

Liz heard the chorus of groans and smiled. She knew she was in the minority when it came to Chemistry. She actually loved it, and looked forward to the projects that Ms. Wells assigned to them. They were always a challenge, and Liz loved a challenge.

“You can spend the rest of this period getting with your partner and deciding how you are going to get started.” She heard Ms. Wells say, and looked around to find her own partner.

Cassandra Owens was in the back of the room, as usual, and trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

Liz grabbed her books and headed over to the empty desk next to her partner.

“Hey Cassandra. Guess it’s you and me.” Liz smiled in greeting. She had Cassandra in several of her science courses, but didn’t know her that well, for Cassandra was a very quiet student. But Liz knew she was very smart, and that Cassie shared the same love of science that she did. Liz was looking forward to partnering with her.

Cassandra smiled, and Liz was surprised at how it changed the girl’s face. The girl had a pale complexion with only a dusting of freckles, light green eyes, and her hair was a dark red. When you looked at the girl, everything was just there. There was nothing remarkable about Cassandra. However, when she smiled it brightened her whole face and her eyes warmed up and looked greener, and her cheeks took on some color.

Liz smiled at the change and then got down to the topic of their project.

Cassandra was writing a schedule of times outside of class they could meet, when Liz suddenly felt dizzy again. She closed her eyes and swore to herself. She would have to make sure she got something to eat after this class. Maybe that would help until she could get some sleep tonight.

“Liz? You okay?” Cassandra asked.

Liz opened her eyes and was relieved to see that the dizziness had again passed, leaving her still light headed but not as much. Liz smiled when she saw the frown of concern on the other girls face.

“Yeah, I just have a headache. You know. Didn’t sleep too well last night.” She explained.

Cassandra nodded, “I can imagine with what you’ve been through. Thank God you didn’t end up like…the other girls did.” She added in a low voice.

Everyone knew about what had happened with Paulie and her and Maria at the Motel in Albuquerque four days ago. Her parents had told her last night that the whole town was just glad that their stalker had been found and they were all safe again.

Liz frowned for a second as a fleeting thought came back to her of what Max had said about there still having been two other pods besides Paulie’s that were unrecovered. But she shrugged it off as Max had. Even Jordan felt sure that those pods had been found at the crash site back in 1947 by the government, and taken care of the same ways as the other aliens had.

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

Kyle was pulling some books out of his locker when Max approached him.

Max owed Kyle a lot for helping Liz and Maria, and he wanted to make sure Kyle knew that.

“Max. How are thing? The parents give you hell?” he grinned teasingly.

Max grinned back and shrugged. “More or less.” He answered and then cleared his throat.

“Ah, Kyle, I didn’t get to thank you for being there for Liz and Maria in Albuquerque. That took a lot of guts to go in there knowing Paulie had a gun and all.” Max said.

Kyle shrugged and looked awkward “It’s okay Max, it was the least I could do. I mean I should have known something was wrong with Paulie. If I had paid more attention, I might have prevented what happened to the other girls, and Vicki.”

Max frowned. “You can’t blame yourself Kyle, no one noticed it. And at least Vicki is okay. You got there in time to prevent her death.”

Kyle cringed and rubbed his neck. “Yeah, and got you accused as the stalker.” He reminded Max.

Max gave a small forgiving smile “Wasn’t your fault. I would have thought the same thing had I seen come up and found you sneaking around her house. Oh, and Liz told me Vicki woke up. How is she?” Max asked

Kyle nodded and gave Max a relieved look. “Yeah. Yeah she did. And she seems okay considering she was in a coma for over a week. The doctors say she’ll be fine and they are amazed at her recovery.”

Max just nodded and smiled, pleased that Vicki was all right. He had brought her out of the coma, but hadn’t stayed around to see how well he had been able to heal her. He hadn’t wanted to have her wake up while he was still there, so he had taken off before she had completely woken up.

“I’m glad. Well, I better get to my next class.” Max said and started away.

Kyle chuckled. “Yeah, you wouldn’t want to be late for Biology with Liz.” He teased.

Max grinned and nodded as he headed for class. And Liz.

*************************** Maria was the first one of the gang to show up at the Crashdown that afternoon. Liz had told her to go on ahead since she had to meet with one of her lab partners for a few minutes after school.

Maria was glad that the afternoon rush of kids hadn’t shown up and the cafe yet. She wanted a few minutes to think. And she was also glad that Liz’s dad had given them a few days off of work to rest after their experience with the stalker.