Isabel Evans looked at her brother and gave him a big smile. "No, just curious. Wonder how many beefcakes there are at West Roswell High," she joked.

Max eyed her. "Besides a certain Alex Whitman?"

Isabel shrugged. "Alex's great. Total great guy, but…"

Max pulled into the high school parking lot and scanned for a parking spot. "But…" he prompted.

Isabel sighed. "He's not really…"

"Your type? Cause he seems to really like you."

Isabel smiled. "I know, but he's so different from the guys I usually date."

Max finally found a spot and parked. "Isabel," he said while turning off the engine, "no offense, but the guys you used to date: brainless jocks. Maybe it's time you tried a nice and decent guy." He then climbed out of the car, leaving Isabel with her thoughts.

***

Liz took one more look into her locker and picked up her Spanish book. She put it in the back and then arranged all of her books in order of height. Maybe I could do color too, she thought.

"I believe your AP math book is slightly shorter then your English," Maria said, walking up behind her.

"Really?" Liz asked, trying to look like she actually cared about it.

"Yeah," she agreed. "Guess you'll have to do it all over again." she checked her watch. "Which should give you time to catch Max on his way to homeroom," Maria added with a smirk.

Liz looked back into her locker, picking up the books and rearranging them again. "I wasn't waiting for Max," she lied.

"Sure you weren't. You just happen to still be at your locker when the tardy bell is about to ring, pretty much making your self late, which you never do, on his first day of school."

Liz shut her locker. "It's just a coincidence that I decided to clean out my locker on Max and Isabel's first day," Liz replied.

Maria scoffed. "Liz…your locker is the cleanest in the school, the whole county even."

Liz started down the hallway. "It's just a coincidence, Maria."

"A big coincidence," she muttered. "Anyway," she added, "Max and Isabel aren't here yet."

"They're not?"

"Nope. They gotta meet with Shaffer first."

***

"Sorry you had to wait," Dale Shaffer said from behind his desk.

Max eyed his new principal. He seemed ok. "It's ok," he said automatically.

"Well, we had a lot going on this morning. Our own Kyle Valenti broke our track record."

Max though about that name. Oh, the guy from the Crashdown, he thought. He seemed ok, maybe a bit of a jock though.

"So, here are you schedules, hopefully we could fit you into everything you wanted," Mr. Shaffer said.

Isabel took hers and scanned it. "Um, which lunch shift do we have?"

"Our school only has one. Right after 4th. We figured we have such a small group of kids that we only needed the one. It's 45 minutes long."

"Wow…our last one was only like 25," Isabel said, she glanced over at Max's schedule.

"Well, this is much better then. I always hoped our smaller town schools were better then the big ones."

Max nodded and Isabel smiled again. "Um, Mr. Shaffer, I was wondering something."

"Yes?"

"Would it be a problem is if I got a locker next to my brother's?"

Max wondered what she was up to. He glanced down at his locker number: 713

Mr. Shaffer thought a second. "Me and brother are really close and I'm used to being near him," Isabel added, letting her smile get a sad look to it.

"I'll see what I can do, Ms. Evans," Mr. Shaffer said finally. "Until then, I guess you could share with him."

Isabel popped up out of her seat. "Great!" she looked at Max. "Well, we better get going."

"Let me give you a slip. Second period started a few minutes ago. Don't forget tomorrow you go to homeroom first," he added.

Isabel nodded earnestly as Max took the slips. "Thank you," he added as Isabel ushed him out the door. "What was that about?" Max asked as soon as they were in the empty hallway.

"What was 'what' about?" she asked innocently.

"The whole locker thing."

"Oh, your locker's by the girls bathroom," she said causally.

"Isabel, there is probably more than one bathroom-"

"But it's the nice one. The mirrors are bigger." Isabel reached the locker and opened it up. She looked inside then slammed it. "Totally too small for two people," she commented.

"I guess that's why they only put one person to one locker," Max said.

Isabel shrugged off the comment and said, "I wanna check my make-up, wait up ok?"

Max sighed and nodded while Isabel headed into the bathroom. After what seemed like an eternity, she emerged, having reapplied her make-up.

"Ready?" she asked. Max noted how her voice was shaky.

"As I'll ever be," he said finally. "Where's your first?"

Isabel scanned the list and groaned. "Gym, great. Now I get to start the day all sweaty and sticky," she mumbled.

Max smiled and they started down the hallway. They finally reached their history class. Both of them stopped and just looked at the door.

"Well?" Isabel asked.

"Well what?" Max asked.

"Aren't you gonna go in?"

Max glanced at the door and felt his stomach do flip-flops. "Ladies first."

"Oh! You are such a chicken," Isabel said, but made no attempt to walk in the classroom. After another second of silence, Isabel said, "You go first."

Max took a deep breath and finally tapped lightly on the door and opened it. As soon as he did, Isabel muttered something and walked in. Max quickly followed and closed the door behind them.

"Hi, I'm Max-"

"Oh, you're the new students," the teacher said. "Well, welcome," he added, shaking both of their hands. "I'm Mr. Golf." He looked back out over the students. "Class, this is Max and…" he glanced at Isabel. Isabel smiled and replied, "Isabel. Isabel Evans."

"Right, sorry about that. Max and Isabel Evans. Well, welcome to my class." He made his arms wide.

Max glanced out of the students and spotted Michael near the back. He was grinning up at them. Max then took in that Maria and that Kyle guy were in the class also. He then noticed Liz was sitting behind Maria, a small smile on her face.

"Well, take a seat and just listen today," Mr. Golf said. Isabel smiled and headed down on of the aisles, and Max followed. Isabel chose a seat beside Michael, and Max sat down next to her. He noted how all the guys were eyeing her.

Max took in where everyone was. Liz was one up and over. Maria was in front of her, and Kyle was across from Liz, in front of Isabel. Ok, Max, thought, history class is gonna be good.

***

Liz could feel eyes on her and gave a little smile at the thought of Max sitting behind her.

Up front, Mr. Golf stopped his lecture and gave the class the last few minutes to socialize. Maria spun around. "Ok, this class just got interesting," she said softly with a look at Max. "And Mr. Hot and heavy is looking at you."

Liz shifted in her seat. "Maria!" she hissed. "Kyle is right there," she added in a whisper.

Maria gave her a wicked smile. "Isn't it sexy when you have the possibility of getting caught?"

Liz smiled. "I'm not gonna get caught-"

Maria eyed her. "You go girl!"

"'Cause I'm not doing anything," Liz finished. "And neither is Max."

Maria thought a second. "You're right. Max isn't doing anything." Liz was about to agree when Maria went on. "He's the shy type. I bet if you got all dressed up he'd go nuclear and have to ask you out."

Liz groaned and glanced over her shoulder. Max was talking to Michael, and Isabel was sitting in-between them looking bored. She noticed Liz and gave a smile and little wave. Then pointed at Michael and Max, making little talking hand signs. Liz and Maria both smiled.

Just then Max looked at his sister, then at Liz and Maria. Liz's heart skipped a beat as Max stopped talking completely and gazed at her. He finally gave a little smile and wave.

Maria waved back and said into Liz's ear, "The guy is long gone."

Liz finally waved and then looked toward the side and saw Kyle looking at her. Just then the bell rung.

Liz and Maria gathered up their things. Liz cast one more glance at Max before starting toward the door.

"Wait up, Liz!" Kyle called as he walked up to them right outside of the doorway.

Liz froze. Did her see her and Max?!

"Great, Mr. Ego himself," Maria muttered backing up a few spaces. Liz sighed and braced herself for Kyle's comments, but none came.

"Hey," he said, meeting her and putting his arm around her shoulder. Liz heard Maria making a noise but ignored her.

"Yeah?"

"You coming to practice today?" Kyle asked.

Liz stumbled. "Um…I mean," she glanced over his shoulder and saw Max standing in the doorway, looking at her and Kyle, a look of sadness on his face. Michael came out the door and walked right past them. He stopped a few strides down the hall and waited for the others.

Max meet Liz's gaze for a second then walked past them. Liz saw how Maria sent Max a warm look and smile.

"Hey guys," Isabel said as she walked past. Liz mumbled a soft hey.

"Hey," Maria added, clearly wanting to go with them.

Liz caught Maria shooting her look. "Sure, I'll be there," she told Kyle finally.

Kyle smiled and gave her sweet peck on the cheek. "Ok, see ya later." Then he went down the hall.

Maria came back over. "I don't get you," Maria said sternly. "Max is totally in love with you."

"He might have a crush on me-"

"Might? Might?! Liz…I know how contrite this is gonna sound but…Max is the one!"

Liz laughed. "The one? Maria, you said the little boy from grade school was the one," she pointed out.

Maria thought. "Well, he had this way of looking at you. And so does Max!"

Liz sighed. She had to admit, even if it was only to herself, that she did like Max. There was something about him. But she wasn't gonna just drop Kyle on a whim. Even though there were problems.