Some of his actions and choices in the past may have been stupid. But they had all turned out for the best. And if he did not keep pushing his limits, he would have never made it to Marathon or found out about Nacedo. He wanted to keep searching for answers; he needed some sort of resolution. Deep down he knew that he needed all of his friends. They had been there for him all along. It was his stupid pride, which had gotten in the way. Although he was not very close with Liz or Alex, they still both supported him and he would do the same. His past actions had helped him learn that he did need Liz, Alex, and Maria. And that he owed them his life.

There was, however, ulterior motives as to why Michael had shown up for school today. He had not really talked to Maria about how she had helped him through this whole ordeal. She let him get away with so much; she had not asked any questions. Well, now he wanted to confide in her and to thank her. Of course he would do this in a Michael sort of fashion. There was no way he could actually say ‘thank you’, but he could at least relay the message in some form. He had never been the type to communicate well. He was trying to work on it and Maria had always challenged him to do that. Still, he had no idea how he would ever be able to utter the words, ‘thank you’, out of his mouth. It was impossible.

He walked on, not sure what he would say to her if he saw her. Where is she? He thought. He then saw Liz walking down the hall. If anybody would know where Maria was, it would be Liz.

“ Hey, Liz! Wait up, “ Michael yelled as she sped by him.

“ Oh…Hey Michael. Do you mind if I talk to you later? I am in a big hurry!” Liz said as she kept on walking.

“ Sure, but do you know where….” He trailed off because she had not even heard him respond. She was already walking around the corner and into one of her classes. Well, I might as well go to Geometry, he thought. There was no reason not to; he was already at school he was already at school in the first place.

************

So Michael sat in class and counted the seconds until lunch. School was pretty pointless to him. He felt that he had no use for it. It was one of those huge burdens that must be dealt with everyday. Finally the bell rang, and Michael sprung out of his chair and left the classroom. He wondered which class Maria had just had. They had never really talked about school much. He didn’t even know all the classes she was in. For that matter, he did not know all the classes that he was in.

He walked down the annoyingly crowded halls again and continued until he got outside and saw max and Isabel sitting at a picnic table eating lunch.

“ Hey,” he said to them as he approached the table.

“ Hi,” they both said in unison.

“ So, Liz is acting like normal again…” he started

“ What do you mean, Michael?” Max asked looking up from his turkey sandwich.

“ Well, I wanted to ask her something and she just rushed by me…hardly even acknowledging me. I don’t know what’s wrong with that girl.”

Max gave Michael a look of warning. He did not need to hear what Michael thought of Liz…especially if it wasn’t good. So he decided to change the subject.

“ What did you want to ask her anyways?”

“ Uh...it’s not important,” he answered.

“ I bet I know what he wanted to ask her, “ Isabel finally chimed in. “ He wanted to ask about MARIA!”

“ No I didn’t. I just had question about…” he trailed off. “ OK, so I wanted to ask her where Maria was. What’s the big deal, Isabel?”

“ It’s not a big deal, Michael. You’re the one who turns it into one,” she responded, smiling slightly.

“ Whatever. I’m outta here.” And with that Michael left his two friends while they just shook their heads and thought, Michael’s back to his usual self again.

**************

Maria sat at the bleachers trying to finish her bio homework. She hadn’t been sleeping very much lately and she had decided to go to bed early last night without doing her homework. It didn’t work though; she still could not manage to get and hour in. And it showed, too. Her whole aura seemed tired and her eyes had a wary look to them. She just shrugged it off and proceeded to finish her homework.

Maria saw Liz as she approached the bleachers. She gave her a little wave and Liz walked up the stairs to join her friend.

“ You’re not eating with Max today?” Maria asked with astonishment.

“ Nope. I thought I’d keep you company!”

“ Well, normally that would be cool and all, but I really have to finish my bio homework.”

“ How come you didn’t do it last night, Maria?”

“ To be honest, I was really tired and decided to try to get some sleep. I just haven’t been sleeping very well. And as it turned out, last night was no different. Oh well, what can I do?”

“ Talk to Michael,” Liz simply stated

“ What? What does that have to do with anything?” That had caught her off-guard.

“ C’mon, Maria. You know that that is what this is about. You guys haven’t talked since he became a legal adult. You never know, he might want to talk to you about it too. He wanted to ask me something today, but I was kinda rude because I was in a really big hurry to get to English.”

“ I don’t think he wants to talk to me”

“ Of course he does! Anyway, I think you should. Maybe it would help you sleep better?”

“ Maybe,” Maria answered.

“ Maybe we should all do something this weekend. You know, something fun for a change. Maybe Alex will have an idea.”

“ Ok. Well keep me posted. I really do have to finish my homework now!”

“ Alright, alright! I guess I’ll go eat lunch with Max,” Liz replied over he shoulder as she proceeded to walk down the stairs of the bleachers. Saying Max’s name put a smile on her face. Then it reminded her that they definitely needed to talk about the night when he got drunk with Kyle. She headed off in the direction of the lunch area.

*************** Liz spotted her three friends sitting at a picnic table. Max seemed lost in thought while Isabel and Alex were carrying on a conversation. She approached them and sat down.

“Hey, where have you been?” Max asked as if he had expected her to come eat lunch with them. Not that it was a bad assumption. She had been eating lunch with max for weeks now and it seemed like a normal ritual of theirs. In fact, they all usually ate together. Michael was the only exception because he used to rarely ever come to school. He seemed to be turning over a new leaf and Liz wondered where he was today.

“ Hey, where’s Michael anyways? I saw him at school today.”

“ Isabel teased him about Maria and he stormed off. That’s nothing new, though,” Max replied.

“ Yeah,” Liz said and sighed.

“ Where is Maria?” Alex asked his friend.

“ Um, she’s at the bleachers doing her bio homework. I guess she hasn’t been sleeping very well. She was too tired to it last night,” Liz responded.

Alex nodded like he understood. Only, the thing was that he did not exactly understand because he had no idea why Maria was not getting a good enough sleep. Liz was no sure how to approach this. At first she thought that she should let Maria deal with it herself, but now she was tending towards the direction of interference.

“ So do you guys wanna get together as a group this Friday, or something?” Liz asked cautiously, not wanted to make it sound like there were ANY ulterior motives behind her idea. They all nodded.

“ Why not? I mean it could be fun,” Isabel said as she smiled and looked at Alex.

“ Any suggestions to what we should do?” Alex asked.

“ We could do bowling…movies…anything,” said Liz.

“ Hey, we could just kick it at our house, “ Isabel said. “ Our parents are going out of town for the weekend so we won’t have to worry about being noisy.”

“ Good idea,” Max contributed. “ Why don’t we meet there at seven, then we can make a run for videos and pizza.”

“ Sounds good! I’ll tell Maria, too, “ said Liz

***************

After Michael stormed away from Max and Isabel, he decided to keep looking for Maria. He was right when he guess that she might be sitting at the bleachers near the track. Why he thought she would be there, he was not certain. But she ended up being there, so that was all that mattered. He walked right up to her and sat down next to her.

“ Hey,” he said.

“ Hi.”

She was surprised that he had come up to her. What did he want? Maria thought. Maybe Liz was right. Maybe he wants to talk to me. Probably not. Michael just sat there for a few seconds not sure what to say next. He wasn’t about to say ‘thank you’, but he didn’t want to say anything lame either.

“ So how have you been?” he asked for lack of another choice.

“ Fine…” She was so baffled by what he was saying. Michael Guerin was taking the time out of his day to ask her how she was doing. She must have been in the Twilight Zone. Maybe Liz really was right, she decided. “ How about you? Are you better.”

“ A lot.” He sighed. “ I…uh…I wanted to say thanks, Maria.” Wow! I said it! He thought.

“ Your welcome. Really…I may not show it, but I do care.”

“ I know. What are you doing?” he asked, changing the subject. He couldn’t take this intense stuff for too long.

“ Bio homework. It’s so much fun. At least it is Friday.”

“ Yeah, well…I guess I’ll let you get back to it. It just wanted to say hi.”

“ Thanks.” She smiled. “ I’ll see you later, right?”

“ Yeah. Maybe I’ll stop by the Crashdown with Max tonight. He can never pass up that opportunity.”