“Mom, can you get the door?!” Liz shrieked, while still trying to locate her shoe. Prom night was already turning out to be a disaster, and she hadn’t even been out the door yet!

“Aha! There you are,“ she exclaimed under her breath, finally spying the shoe laying in the middle of a pile of clothes, along with her purse. She hurriedly snatched up both items and composed herself for her grand entrance. She peeked in the mirror one last time, checking to see that her makeup and hair were perfect. Taking a deep breath, she stepped outside of her bedroom, and headed toward the stairs.

As soon as Max entered the Parker home, he could hear Liz rummaging around upstairs, apparently searching for something. He smiled to himself when he heard his Liz muttering to herself. His Liz. It felt so right, saying that. He pictured Liz running around in her room, wearing an annoyed look, searching for her slip, or purse. Max grinned to himself in both amusement and love. Yep, his adorable Liz.

Liz paused momentarily at the top of the stairs, studying her incredibly handsome boyfriend, waiting at the foot of the stairs. He had a small smile on his face, the kind you get when daydreaming about something. Just looking at him brought a smile to her own face as she took the first step down the stairs.

Max was snapped out of his reverie when he heard a slight rustle above him. Realizing there was only one person it could be, he prepared to be knocked off his feet as he slowly slid his eyes to the head of the stairs. Make that, tried to prepare himself, he corrected when he caught the first glimpse of Liz.

All thought slammed to a halt when Max saw Liz glide down the stairs toward him, slowly and gracefully. She was an angel. His angel. A perfect vision in green. Her dress was a floor-length evening gown, with a figure-hugging strapless top, covered in sequins. It flared out slightly at the hips, just enough so that it made a swishing sound whenever she moved.

Liz’s long, luxurious hair had been swept on top of her head in pile of curls, softly cascading down to just above her neck.

Max slowly followed her with his eyes. When she reached him, he extended his arm out to her, moving on automatic, since all ability to think had flown out the window five minutes ago.

“Wow, Liz, you look. . . absolutely beautiful,” Max whispered in awe, regaining his voice.

Liz took his arm, smiling adoringly at him. God, he looked even more handsome than usual, with his tuxedo and carefully slicked down hair. He produced a corsage from the breast pocket of his tuxedo and Liz bent down as he carefully pinned it in her hair.

“Ready to go?” Max asked softly.

Liz nodded, and they started to walk out the front door.

“Wait! Wait! Not so fast, young lady!” Nancy Parker exclaimed, rushing to the door, with her husband at her heels.

“Yeah, don’t think you can escape without us taking some pictures!” Jeff snapped the camera a few times at different angles, while Liz and Max posed.

When he finally got done, Liz asked impatiently, “Mom, Dad, may we go now?” Both Liz and Max were anxious to get out the door, and have some privacy.

“No, not yet! I have a few words to say first. My baby girl, all grown up and going to the prom!!!” Nancy burst into tears. “Now you take care of her, Max, alright?” she said in between sniffles.

“Mom,” Liz began.

“No, you go have fun. Don’t waste any more time around here,” Jeff interrupted. Nancy fled from the room, sobbing. Her husband waved good-bye to his precious daughter and the man who had taken her away from him.

Once they were out the door, Max let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. “Whew, I thought we’d never get out of there,” he cried out in relief.

Liz smiled at him. “That’s how my parents are, always fussing over me. God, my mom told me that she cried all day when I started my first day of high school. I’d hate to see what she does when I go off to college, and she won’t see me for months. She’d probably call me about three times a day!”

“Hey, at least you’ll be with me,” he assured her as they got into the waiting limo, "and she knows I’d die before I’d let anything happen to you.”

Liz smiled to herself at his comment. “I still can’t believe we both managed to get into Harvard, along with Alex and Isabel. But Michael and Maria are going to be all the way across the country, at UCLA.”

“Hey, it’ll be okay. I’ll do my best to make sure that you don’t think about them too much.”

“I’ll bet you will,” she answered, grinning mischievously at him.

Max leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?”

Liz pretended to think for a minute. “Yes, I believe you have, Mr. Evans, but I sure wouldn’t mind if I hear it again.”

“Okay then, Ms. Parker, you look unbelievably gorgeous and I think I’ve fallen even more in love with you.”

Liz giggled. “Really?”

“Really.”

“Oh, look, we’re here!” Liz announced excitedly.

Max helped Liz out of the limo. “Shall we?” Max asked, once again offering his dreamgirl his arm.

Liz looped her arm through his. “We shall.”

As they entered the room filled with pounding music and students moving to the beat, Liz immediately started searching for the others. She spotted Maria DeLuca and Michael Guerin sitting very closely together at a table halfway across the room. Liz and Max began to make their way toward their friends, taking care not to bump into anybody.

When they finally reached them, Liz tried to hold back a sigh of amusement. Michael Guerin’s hair was as wild and spiky as ever. She’d thought that he would at least try to slick it down with some gel or something, for Maria’s sake. Judging by the look on Max’s face and Maria’s darting glances towards her boyfriend’s unruly hair, they felt the same way.

Maria, being Maria, finally voiced her opinion out loud. “Couldn’t you have at least tried to do something with that god-awful hair of yours? Like maybe some gel? Or,” she lowered her voice, “put your powers to some useful cause? So I don’t have to walk around with a date that looks like a porcupine?”

“Hey, look, cheesehead, I like my hair the way it is, and if you can’t deal with that, well. . . “

Liz sighed. Some things never change. She’ll bet that if they ever got married and had kids, they’d still be calling each other names in front of their kids. Heck, whoever dies first will probably get it engraved on their tombstone!

“Liz, dance?” Max asked her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

“Of course,” Liz allowed herself to be led out onto the dance floor.

As they moved to the throbbing beat of the music, Liz saw someone that she had absolutely no desire to see. “Tess Harding six o’clock, “ she muttered quietly to Max.

Max groaned inwardly. The six of them hadn’t heard much from Tess since he and Liz had decided to screw destiny. She had mostly hung out with her snobby friends and ignored them, as well. Hearing she was back, Max prepared himself for the worst.

“Hi, Max, Liz,” Tess chirped in that annoying sugar sweet voice of hers.

Liz held back the urge to sock her in the mouth. How dare she come and ruin her prom night? Just when everything had been perfect! “What do you want?” Liz whirled on Tess ready to attack if she so much as took another step closer to her Max.

“Geez, Lizzie, calm down! I was only going to ask you guys how you’ve been, since I haven’t talked to you for awhile. Nothing to get excited about,” Tess purred.

“You know what, Tess, Liz and I have been just fine, until you showed up. So why don’t you just turn around and leave us alone?” Max said quietly, trying to conceal his anger at her interrupting their dancing.

“What, you don’t want to dance with your wife?”

“That’s it, you little b*tch! I’ve had it with you and all your crap! But I won’t let you ruin my prom night with my boyfriend!” Liz screamed at the little blond, not caring who heard.

Max placed a restraining hand on Liz’s shoulder. “Liz, don’t. She’s not worth it.”

Liz calmed down a little, but her temper flared again when she saw Tess’s smug little face, realizing that the gerbil had wanted her to lose her temper all along. That only made her madder.

“Tess, no one here likes you, so why don’t you get lost and make everybody happy,” Max told her in an effort to make Tess go away and make Liz calm down. Then, he dragged Liz off the extremely crowded dance floor to their table. Isabel and Alex had arrived by this time.

“Oh sorry, Tess, but I don’t think they allow hamsters in here,” Alex said snidely to Tess, who had followed them, much to Liz’s annoyance.

Seeing Liz was about to lose it, Max quickly lowered his mouth to hers in a passionate kiss. As he pulled back, he whispered, “Don’t let her get to you. That’s just what she wants.”

Liz nodded in agreement and attempted to keep her temper under control. The six of them went out into the hall, with Tess in tow, so that no one could hear them.

“Tess, you stay the f*ck away from us, especially Max and Liz! Now you bother us one more time, and I will personally make sure that you are dead by morning!” Maria screamed in rage, almost to the point were she would have happily shot Tess and laughed about it.

“Oooh, I’m scared, little Maria DeLuca. Poor little defenseless Maria DeLuca and her two vulnerable little friends,” Tess provoked.

“Why you. . . you stuck-up little. . .”

“Tess!! They may not have any special powers, but me, Michael, and Isabel do! And we won’t hesitate to use them if we hear one more insulting comment from you!” Max thundered, almost to his breaking point as well.

“You. . . you three wouldn’t really hurt me would you? You wouldn’t dare kill your own kind, right?”

“You can be d*mn sure we’d hurt you! Just because we come from the same planet doesn’t mean we have to like you! I mean, do they,” indicating to the three humans “like everyone on Earth because they’re the same species?” Isabel spoke up for the first time.

“But I’m part of all three of your destinies!” Tess whined.

“That’s it! I am sick to death of hearing that cursed word! Destiny! Destiny! Is that all you think about? Well you know what? For your information, there’s something stronger than destiny! Love! Though, of course you wouldn’t know because you’ve never felt love. All you felt towards me was possession! You don’t love me! You think that I belong to you! Well I don’t! And I could never, ever love you the way I love Liz! Hell I hate you as much as I love Liz, with my heart, body and soul! Now get away from us or we will hurt you!”

Tess cowered during Max’s outburst of anger and hatred. Towards her. For the first time, she despaired. He was right. They all were. Max could never love her, not even as much as he loved Maria and Alex. And just now she had probably blown her chances with Isabel, too. Only one person had remained quiet throughout this whole exchange. Her last hope. Michael. He was always the one who wanted to find out about who he was, or rather what he was, so badly. Surely he wouldn’t just simply reject her and lose another shred of his past.

“Michael,” Tess appealed, “you can’t just let them bash me, right? I could still tell you so much about our pasts. Things that they didn’t give me a chance to share.”

“Tess, just beat it,” Michael murmured as he quietly turned away from her, obviously devastated at saying this, but he knew it was the right thing to do.