As Liz walked through the front doors of the familiar school, a feeling of dread came over her. After all, so much was different now.

Alex was dead, and his murderer was long gone. It was so.unfair. Alex had never hurt anyone, yet was killed in cold blood by someone he considered a 'friend'. Someone that they all did.

But that wasn't exactly true, was it? Liz had never liked her from day one.

"Well, someone's acting broody," she heard a voice behind her say. "Let me guess, Evans is contagious, right?"

Liz smiled.

"Hi Kyle,"

Kyle Valenti, her ex-boyfriend, walked up and hugged her.

"How was the summer?" he asked, after finally letting go.

"Nothing special, really," she replied. "You?"

"Nada," he sighed. "Although, I am going to try out for the team this year."

"Hey, that's great," she said, congratulating him. "But what about your whole.uh."

"Quest for inner peace?" he asked. "All part of the plan. Actually, it's a good way to release rage. Only by having the heart empty of anger."

"That's.that's nice Kyle," she cut him off.

"You know, you should listen to me about this," he suggested. "You look as if you could use some peace of mind yourself."

"It's nothing," she assured him. "I'm just a little conflicted about."

"Max Evans," he said abruptly.

Liz's looked confused as to how he knew that. Kyle answered her unspoken question by pointing behind her.

Liz turned around, and she saw him walking towards them.

Max.

She took a deep breath as their eyes made contact.

"Good luck," Kyle whispered, and then walked off.

Max looked at her and smiled.

"He sure left in a hurry," Max commented. "Is there something wrong?"

"No.no." she answered. "He's just anxious. He's joining the basketball them again."

"Good for him," Max said with a smile. "Can I walk you to class?"

Liz nodded her head, and they started walking.

"Thank you, by the way," she told him. "For doing what I asked and giving me some space over the summer. It's just that.after everything that happened with Tess and Alex, I just needed some time away from all of this."

"Yes, I understand that," he replied. "But I won't lie to you, Liz. Being without you for an entire three months was more than I could bear".

She smiled at him again, staring deeply into his eyes.

Max noticed this, and touched the side of her head.

"Liz, I'm so sorry for everything," he said.

"You don't have to apologize," she informed him. "She fooled all of us."

"Except you," he mentioned. "I should listen to you more often. It keeps me out of trouble."

Max smirked, and then raised his other hand towards her.

He was holding a single white tulip, which he handed to Liz. Smiling with surprise, she started to blush.

"Well, there goes my plan for being ambiguous for awhile," she quipped, while grinning ear to ear. "Where were you hiding this?"

"In the palm of my hand," he answered. "I had it shrunk to the size of a q-tip, just in case you were still mad at me."

"You can shrink things now?" she asked. "Well, obviously you could, considering you have control of molecular structures, but why didn't you ever use your powers that way before?"

"I never considered it," he answered. "There are a couple dozen things I can do with my powers that I've never attempted. During the summer, Michael and I sort of experimented with them a little. Ask Maria about it."

Max chuckled at the unnamed memory.

Liz made a mental note to ask Maria.

"So, could I interest you in a movie tonight, Miss Parker?" he suggested. "Unless you have other plans?"

"Me? Have plans? Surely you jest," she said jokingly. "A movie, it's.not your style."

"I figure the thing I want most right now is for things to go back to normal," he informed her. "And bringing the most beautiful girl in town to the movies is the normalest thing I can think of."

Liz smiled.

"Max, 'normal' and 'Roswell' can not coexist," she responded. "But you talked me into it."

Max kissed her on the cheek, and then they both walked into class.

*****

A few miles outside of Roswell, under ground.

A metal pickaxe pierces the rock of a hollow cave. Then, five men enter inside, staring at their surroundings.

"Sir," one of them says. "Look at these markings."

They were in what remained of the pod chamber. The technology that wasn't part of the granolith was destroyed in the energy contrail when it blasted off. Everything was pretty much useless. However, many of the designs still remained intact.

"It looks like some sort of hieroglyphics," another said. "Maybe this place is Egyptian."

"Not likely," their leader spoke up as he entered the chamber. "I think it's alien."

His men look at him, surprised.

"Just look at that charred metal," he pointed out. "Possibly some sort of computer systems. And your 'hieroglyphics' look similar to what we saw in Pierce's journal. We found them. Now, let's clear this place out."

One of the men walked up to the leader.

"Sir, what if Pierce was right?" he asked. "What will we do when we find those kids?"

The leader gave him a cold stare, then smiled evilly.

"Sir, they're just kids," he reminded him. "You're not suggesting we."

"Yes, I am," he replied. "Welcome to the special unit, Morris."

Then they went back to work.

*****

"Evolution," the teacher began. "It's one of the fundamental beliefs of science that some people have a hard time believing. That human beings were once similar to common apes."

Liz, Max, Michael, and Maria were in class. Liz was watching the lesson intently. Max was watching her. Kyle and Maria looked bored. And Michael was asleep.

"Mankind is a, shall we say, proud species," the teacher continued. "We like to believe ourselves to be superior, and can't imagine ourselves every being any less than we are. Because of that."

At that moment, they all hear a loud snore come from the back of the class.

"MISTER Gurin!" the teacher yelled.

"WOAH!" Michael said, surprised.

He then fell out of his desk, which received laughs from the entire class.

Well, everyone except Maria, who put her head in her hands embarrassingly.

"I assume you find my lecture an excuse to 'catch some z's', correct Michael?" the teacher asked him.

"Yeah, well, you know what happens when you 'assume', right?" Michael groaned.

The teacher was not amused.

"Just sit down and try to stay awake," he said, and went back to the board.

"Sorry," he whispered over to Maria, who still had her head in her hands.

In under a few moments, the bell rang. Class was over.

Even so, Maria stayed at her desk until everyone was gone. Then, she walked over to Liz

*****

Watching from the doorway were Max and Michael.

"Nice 'wipeout' in class, by the way," Max reminded his friend.

"Ha ha, shut up Maxwell," he answered. "So, how by you two? Still on the 'oh, woe is me, we're from different worlds, want to be together but can't be, Lois and Clark kick' crap?"

Max gave Michael a cold stare.

"I'm just saying."

"I know what you're saying, Michael" Max reassured him. "We're taking it slow."

"Look, just follow my example," he responded. "I know.I went for the tortured routine for a long time. But eventually it gets stupid. Just forget you're an alien for once and act like a teenager."

"Just forget I'm an alien?" Max repeated. "After what happened to Alex Whitman, I don't think I'll ever be able to forget."

"Ok, you know what? You're impossible," Michael said, giving up.

"No, that haircut is impossible," he retorted with a grin. "I'm starting to think might Isabel's jealous of it."

Michael rolled his eyes.

"You sound like Maria," Michael complained.

"Smart girl" he responded.

*****

"Welcome back," Maria DeLuca greeted her friend.

"Hey, could I ask you something?" Liz asked her. "Max said something about him and Michael 'experimenting' with their powers over the summer. He said to ask you."

Maria sighed in frustration.

"Ugh, don't remind me," she complained.

"Come on, what happened?" Liz giggled.

"Something to do with 'air molecules', they said," she told her. "All I know is Michael made some sort of fireball appear out of mid-air."

"Ah, I get it," Liz informed her. "He must of used some sort of kinetic energy on airborne oxygen. You see, fire is made with a combination of friction and oxygen. So, all he'd have to do is."

"Yeah, yeah, all I know is there was this fireball hanging in the air, in my room by the way, and I freaked out," she continued. "So Michael tries to get rid of it by throwing it out the window, only he has a lousy throw. He misses the window, it bounced off my wall, and sets my bed on fire."

Liz broke into laughter.

"It's not funny," Maria argued. "I mean.mean."

Maria started to get drowsy. Then she lost her balance.

"Maria?" Liz asked. "MARIA!"

Liz ran up to her, just in time to catch Maria in her arms. She was unconscious.

Waiting at the doorway were Max and Michael. Michael looked across the room and noticed what happened. A look of horror appeared in his eyes, as he ran towards the two of them, followed by Max.

"Is she ok?" he asked. "Maria, wake up."

"What happened?" Max asked.

"I don't know," Liz responded. "She just passed out, I don't know what."

Then Liz looked upwards.

Close to the ceiling, four books were hanging there. Floating in mid air, and rotating in a circle.

"Please tell me one of you are doing this?" she whispered.

Max and Michael looked up as well, in complete shock.

The looks on their faces told Liz 'no'.

TO BE CONTINUED...