"Oh, just that she was disappointed with me for not paying attention and if it happened again she'll give me a detention." She shrugged, but inside she cringed. She had never gotten in trouble with a teacher, let alone had a detention before. She was always the perfect student, much better at being unobtrusive than Max or Michael. Max was quiet, yes, but brilliant in school, getting straight A's. And Michael was a problem child, making trouble and getting all kinds of attention. Isabel, on the other hand, never displayed her full intellect at school, settling for A's and B's, and never drawing attention to herself from teachers. And besides all that, she liked being perfect. She did not like getting in trouble with a teacher.

Not that she blamed Ms. Hardy. Isabel had been day dreaming all through chemistry. She hoped Max never found out. She had really ragged him for getting in trouble in astronomy because of Liz. He would have a field day with this, jumping to all sorts of conclusions about what she had been daydreaming about. Worst of all, he would be right.

She walked with Terri to lunch, and Terri chattered about her boyfriend and the big basketball game that Saturday. She suddenly realized what she was going to have to do now, and her stomach started doing flip-flops. She was really not looking forward to telling everyone. Not that she and Alex were going to tell them exactly what happened last night…but there would be a lot of assuming going on, and worst of all, it was going to be right. Steeling herself for the insinuations ahead, she stepped into the cafeteria and looked around for her friends. She found them in the corner, all looking at her. Self-consciously, she walked toward them alone, Terri making her way to her own table, the table that had been Isabel's until recently, full of the popular girls she had once considered her friends. They don't hold a candle to Alex, she thought, and thoughts of him warmed her. He will be right there with me.

She sat down in the empty seat between Alex and Tess, and looked around surprised. Max and Liz were sitting much closer than they had for months, since that whole mysterious episode that Max wouldn't talk about. Michael and Maria were holding hands, although that was not so unusual, it still surprised her, as everything about them as a couple did. Isabel had thought no one could ever turn Michael into a boyfriend, but Maria had done it. It was odd to her that they had been the one couple that had managed to stay together the longest. None of this was in the least strange, however, when compared with the other couple, if they could be called that, at the table. Kyle was sitting there, surprising enough in itself, as he always sat with his football buddies, but shockingly, he had his arm around Tess. Isabel closed her mouth, which she realized had fallen open in surprise, and looked at Alex. He shrugged helplessly, and they both turned to look at their friends.

Max turned to Tess and Kyle, and motioned with his hands. "You two first. What the heck is up with this?"

Kyle fidgeted uncomfortably. "It's not like I try to keep doing this, Max," he said, making absolutely no sense to Isabel. It did, apparently, mean something to Max, however, because he frowned and put his arm around Liz. Well, that was a new development. She looked at Michael and Maria and saw that they were unsurprised. Why am I always the last to know?

"Look, Max... you have never felt any responsibility to this whole destiny thing, and, well, Kyle and I have been together for some time, we just thought it better to keep it a secret for a while." She settled into her seat, as if everything were explained. Isabel wanted to shout at her, demand to know what she was doing with Kyle and what the heck was going on with everyone.

"Well, that will have to be good enough, I guess." Max did not look thrilled, but he did look relieved. Isabel was unsurprised, considering that he had obviously gotten back together with Liz. "OK, your turn Isabel and Alex. Why was Alex at our house this morning lacking clothing, and why did I find his boxers in the hallway?" His question sent murmurs through the group. Liz looked shocked at first, and then began to laugh softly, her hand over her mouth. Michael and Maria joined her after a moment, but Max remained stone-faced, until Liz hit him on the arm and whispered something in his ear.

"Look, my boxers were only on the floor in the hallway because they must have fallen out of my bag when Isabel was throwing my clothes in it this morning when your Mom was knocking on the door..." he trailed off, realizing he was only digging himself in deeper, and turned to stare helplessly at Isabel.

"Alex stayed over last night," trying to simply state it as fact and not be embarrassed, and failing miserably. "He just needed a place to stay. Why don't you tell them what happened Alex?" "Well... last night, my father and I got into a fight, and he hit me, and then I hit him back, and he kicked me out." He tried to say it all in a rush, so the last part was barely intelligible, but she could see by their faces that they had understood. "Michael, what I was trying to ask you last period was if I could stay at your place, at least until I can find one of my own, and I would of course pay rent and stuff, but I can't go back there." All of the confidence of this morning was gone, and she prayed that Maria had done enough, that Michael would not crush Alex now and destroy all the good she had done.

"Of course you can stay! What do you think, I'd turn out a friend? Even one who punched me?" he added jokingly. "You can stay for as long as you want, and you don't need to pay rent. I don't have a room for you, but a couch is better than nothing." Isabel felt ashamed for doubting him. If there was anything Michael would understand, it was someone with no place to go.

The conversation centered on Alex for a while, and Isabel began to feel that it would be ok, but then Maria asked innocently, "Did you have to sleep on the floor, Alex?"

"Well, um... actually, no, Isabel and I shared the bed." Isabel groaned inwardly. Here it comes....

"So it was a totally platonic sharing of the bed, though, right?" Liz asked.

"Well, um, yes, of course...."

"Oh, yeah that kiss this morning looked real platonic," Max said, smiling at Isabel. She looked daggers at him.

"Kiss? So, are you guys like, an item now?" Maria asked.

Isabel looked at Alex. "Yes, we are," she said. "But it is not our turn anymore. What's with you guys?" Usually she would never have embarrassed Max and Liz with a question like that, especially if she was unsure about the answer, but he had annoyed her when he mentioned the kiss. There was no need for that.

They both looked uncomfortable, and Liz shot Max an unreadable look, and suddenly it all became clear to Isabel. Her mother's comment about everyone being odd this morning, and Max saying something about everyone losing clothes today, and his amusement at her situation, and their sudden closeness, and their discomfort now. Her brother spent the night at Liz's!

Isabel let out an amazed guffaw, and covered her mouth. Max shot her a dirty look, realizing that she had figured it out. Michael and Maria continued to look smug. So they already knew, she surmised. They look much too comfortable. Well, they'll just have to wait for a while, but they'll get what's coming to them too. Just not now.

Finally she managed to stop laughing, and smiled sweetly at Max. "You know what they stay about people who live in glass houses," she chuckled.

"Wait, I am totally lost," Alex said, looking to Isabel for help. Tess and Kyle looked equally confused, but somehow much less interested in finding out what was going on and much more interested in each other. Somehow their very random announcement that they were seeing each other seemed somehow forced, and Isabel had thought maybe it was another of Tess's plans to get Max. But the way they were looking at each other made her think that maybe it wasn't faked. And if Tess was uninterested in what was going on with Max and Liz, Isabel was convinced.

"I'll tell you what they say. People who live in glass houses should not throw stones," Isabel said to Alex, as Max and Liz squirmed uncomfortably. Michael and Maria were laughing out right, and Maria chiming in with a "Right on, Isabel," punching her fist in the air as she held her stomach and laughed. Alex still looked clueless, so Isabel added, "The stone he has been throwing is the remarks about you spending the night...."

"Oh, you mean... I mean... Oh my god, you don't mean... Oh." Alex covered his hand with his mouth, trying not to laugh, and Tess and Kyle both had looks of comprehension on their faces. Alex leaned in toward Isabel, and whispered, "I guess I didn't need to be worried about Max walking in on us last night, huh?" He chuckled.

"Well, I think a subject change is REALLY in order right about now," Liz said, speaking for the first time.

The table was silent for a moment, as everyone paused to shift gears. The prospect of talking about anything having to do with aliens was abhorrent to Isabel at that moment, when everything seemed so perfect. She was finally happy. Before this she had not been unhappy, but she had never really been happy either. She had been content, and not even known that there was something more. Now she felt the urge to hold it close to her heart, hold Alex close to her and never let him go. Now that she knew it was out there she never wanted to lose this true happiness she had found. The talk turned to teachers and classes and other safe, normal topics, Liz dreading a math test and attempting to cram with Max, Maria cajoling Michael to come to class instead of ditching, and Isabel let the conversation roll right over her. Alex pulled her in close and she sighed contentedly against his shoulder.

The rest of the day passed quickly, and so did the rest of the week, as everyone helped Alex move in with Michael, and her nights were as busy as her days. The stones lay unheeded under her bed, in her mother box with her mother's ghost, and it was not until much later that she remembered how hot the two had been, not until later that she thought to take them out and examine them more closely. But by then her mother stones could give her no warning, and if in looking back she believed that they had, hindsight is always 20/20.

And it was not until even later, when she was looking back on her life, at its successes and failures, at its joys and sorrows, that she saw that moment for what it was. One of the happiest times in her life, yes, and one of the most important, when for no apparent reason they had all discovered their strength in each other, learned to trust one another again, and found the love that would sustain them in the years to come. But it was also more. It was an end, and yet...