"Let's go Comets!!" a rowdy student yelled, sprinting down the hall, waving a banner that read Crush the Coyotes!!! #15 Max to the Max #15!!

"So you're coming to the game, right?" Max asked quietly, seeming to ignore the sign with his name emblazoned on it. Tonight was the first game of West Roswell's journey to the state championship. They played the eternal powerhouse Hagerman High Coyotes in the bi-regional championship. It had been an unexpected triumphant season for the Comets, mostly due to the arrival of Max not more than a month ago. Though he was more than modest about it, the truth was he'd transformed the team.

"Yeah," Liz nodded her head. "We're all gonna go in Maria's car." And her voice lowered at the comment, her face seeming to droop. "We" meant Maria, Michael, Isabel and Alex. "Should be.." she paused, "interesting." "That's gonna be a little tight, isn't it?" Max just pictured the five of them squeezed into Maria's tiny Jetta. Liz just shrugged.

"We'll put Alex on Isabel's lap," she actually grinned and Max just laughed. Alex's obsession with Isabel was evident to everyone. As Maria described "like a puppy in heat". Neither said anything and there was a brief moment of silence between the two before Michael and Isabelle showed up at the other end of the hall. And an awkward silence prevailed there as well.

"Good luck if I don't see you before," Isabel spoke suddenly reaching over to give her brother a quick hug and, with the same suspicious look on his face,

Michael glared at Liz and gave Max a brief nod of the head. That was Michael's good luck. "So where's Alex?" Isabel asked, glancing around the hallway then noting the look of surprise on everyone's face at the comment added, "and Maria? Weren't they - weren't they supposed to come too?" Max had to hand it to his sister, as upset as she was over everything that had happened between he and Liz - the revelation of their secret - Isabel was being pleasant to everyone.

"Yeah she should be coming," Liz looked over at Isabel awkwardly. "She and Alex went to get the car at the end of ninth...they should be up front," she mumbled and so the three began walking towards the entrance. Max turned to head back to the gym and he gave Isabel a look that seemed to say "be good". Liz turned around quickly and bit her lip as she watched Max go. She let out a deep sigh, *this should be interesting.*

"So where exactly are we going?" Maria glanced over at the map that Alex had sprawled out on his lap in the passenger side.

"Hagerman High," Alex announced matter-of-factly, "now it says it's on Radford, but Radford goes right into Bartlett and I can't find.." he mumbled to himself, tracing the route with his finger. Maria craned her neck to look at the map and in the backseat, Michael, Isabel and Liz nearly had a heart attack as the car swerved to the left.

"Watch the road, watch the road!!" Michael barked as Maria nearly crashed into the standard on the side of the road and the three squished passengers in back all flew into each other. Liz was sitting in the middle between Isabel and Michael and when the car moved she crashed into Michael's shoulder. She quickly picked herself up off of him and sat upright in the backseat. Awkward was an understatement.

"I'm watching," Maria lifted her head back up, glancing behind the rearview mirror at the three of them.

"How hard can it be to find a stupid school," Michael grumbled, "just read the signs," he yelled at Maria.

"Well if you're so smart, why don't you get us there? Oh wait," Maria covered her mouth with her hands, "you don't have a car." Here they go again, Liz rolled her eyes and she knew so was Isabel.

"Wait, wait - I think this is it," Alex suddenly cried triumphantly from the front, interuppting Michael and Maria's bickering before it could go any further. He glanced at the road sign, then back to the map. "No wait, that's West Bartlett Road, we just need Bartlett," and his head returned to the book. Everyone in the car groaned and Maria glanced down at her watch.

"We're gonna miss the beginning of the game if we don't find it soon," she stated. "Just so everyone knows."

"Thanks - wow, that really helped us find the high school," Michael snapped.

"Michael," Isabel called warningly from the other side, "they're trying okay?"

"Yes, we're trying," Maria took her hands off the wheel for a moment and ran her hands through her hair, glancing over at Alex who still had his head buried in the map. He looked out the window for a brief moment.

"That's it Hagerman High!!" he suddenly yelled and everyone in the car began yelling happily.

"Alright!!" "Finally."

"About time," they all echoed as Maria turned on her blinker and turned down the side road.

"No wait.." Alex suddenly looked harder at the sign. "It's Hagerman South," he mumbled, followed by loud groans from the cramped three in the back. Maria swerved quickly back onto the highway, sending everyone jerking to the right. Now Liz ran up against Isabel and Michael was leaning on her. "See this is why I like living in a small town," Liz suddenly announced and Isabel looked at her quizzically. "We don't have to worry about five different schools, it's just -"

"Was there ever a Roswell East?" Alex suddenly interjected curiously.

"Burned down the year we were born," Maria announced, "they never built it back up...that's where my mother went to school."

"Thanks for sharing," Michael nodded his head as he boredly looked out the window and Maria just ignored him.

"I don't know, I like it in Roswell," Alex broke the silence honestly. "Small towns are fun. I went to visit my cousin in LA over the summer," he whistled, "there's too much going on there - I could never keep up."

"It's got it's upsides and downsides," Isabel admitted, looking over to Michael - knowing what he would say if he felt like talking. There's gotta be something better than Roswell, New Mexico. She and Max grew sick of the phrase. It worried them more than anything. Michael said it all the time and they both feared that one day they'd both wake up and Michael would be gone.

Alex continued to look back and forth at the street signs and the map.

"Screw the map," he mumbled, "let's stop and ask someone." Slowing the car down, Maria pulled up aside a gruff and greasey looking man in a creased Exxon hat.

"Great choice," Michael mumbled and Maria just glared at him out of the corner of his eye. Ignoring him, she rolled down Alex's window and leaned over.

"Excuse me - you wouldn't happen to know where Hagerman High is, would you?" she asked politely enough. The man looked at the five jammed in the car curiously, he looked as if he was about to tell them when he noted something on Maria's car.

"What?" Michael asked rudely from the back seat as the man squinted his eyes, looking hard at the corner of Maria's windshield and Alex knew what he was looking at. Maria's parking sticker.

"Yer all from Roswell ain't ya?" he asked with a deep southwestern twang. The five looked around at each other.

"Uh...yeah," Alex shrugged and the man began walking away from the car. Maria's mouth dropped open at the gesture.

"I don't believe him! that is so..." she mumbled to herself and began driving slowly down the side of the road after him. "Hey buddy - that is really rude! We're just trying to find the school -" she began to go on a tirade and Liz held her face to her hands.

"Oh my God, Maria - just go!!" she yelled and Isabel looked shocked at the slight blonde's outburst.

"What are you doing?" she mumbled in disbelief and Michael just held his head in his hands. This was turning out to be an adventure after all. He didn't want to admit the fact that he liked Maria's spunky personality, the fact that she'd stood up to that brusque man. He hid his tiny smile behind his hands. Every other person in the car was attempting to quiet Maria and steer the car back onto the road, but she just continued to yell at the man through the window that Alex was quickly rolling back up.

"Maria, what're you doing?" Liz yelled, "now we're really going to miss Max!" And everyone in the car turned to look at her. "I mean the game."

"Relax, not like he starts anyway," Michael mumbled quietly, and though it had the typical Michael courseness to it, Liz detected a small sense of assurance in the statement.

"Yeah, I don't get that," Alex suddenly said. "I mean Max is the best on the team, how come he doesn't start the game?"

"Because that's not Max's thing," Isabel answered quickly, "mugging all the attention, being the star..." it was a conversation she'd had often with her brother since he'd joined the team. "He likes coming off the bench." The five all began talking and rambling on, Maria having seemed to cool down finally and they all seemed to give up the search for the school when all their eyes rested on a huge banner strung over the main road. Welcome to Coyote Country it read. And there was a smaller sign on the street corner ~ This way to see Coyotes stamp out the Comets ~ followed by a picture of the signature West Roswell rocket being blown up and an arrow pointing down a tiny sidestreet.