It took quite a while before Michael answered. "You know why," he simply said. And Max knew why. He'd seen the look on Michael's face when Maria's duet partner had entered the stage. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Michael had been jealous out of his mind. "Do you really think there's something going on between them?" Max said. Michael sighed. "Well, they sure didn't look like two people who loathed each other."

Max didn't know what more to say, so he decided to stay quiet for a while. But after listening to Michael tossing and turning for another ten minutes, he got out of his bed and turned on the light. Michael sat up, surprised, squinting at the sudden bright light. "What the hell are you doing?!" he hissed. Max glared at him, annoyed. "I want to sleep," he hissed back. "And I can't possibly sleep when you insist on twisting and turning in your bed. So, please, for me, just go talk to her."

Michael sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Talk to her?" he said. "Yes, talk to her," Max said. "I'll keep guard if you want, just get your ass over there and sort things out. 'Cause I'm disgustingly tired and won't be fun in the morning if I don't get some sleep."

Michael just stared blankly at him for a few moments before getting up and walking over to the door. But before he left he turned to Max, who had placed himself comfortably in an armchair. "Thanks," he said. Max just waved at him to leave.

*****

Maria and Liz were sitting on Maria's bed, talking quietly.

"So he just left?" Liz asked. Maria looked down at the bed, nodding. "At first he was all sweet," she said. "In his own way, you know. And then, at the concert, I looked out at the crowd and he just left. I thought he wanted to see me sing, I thought he wanted to. you know."

Suddenly they heard a click as the door was unlocked. They both froze. "Oh my God, Maria," Liz whispered. "Someone's breaking in!" They crept off the bed, Maria grabbing a big book as they sneaked up towards the door. The door slid open and Maria raised the book, ready to strike, but when she saw who it was she lowered it again, breathing a sigh of relief.

"God, Michael," she whispered, her heartbeat returning to it's normal speed. Michael looked at her, and then at the thick book she had in her hands. "I don't think hitting people is the purpose of that," he said. She looked at the book. The Bible. "Oh," she said, a bit embarrassed. There was a somewhat awkward silence as the two of them just stared at each other. Liz was first to speak. "Uh, so if you're gonna talk," she said, "Maybe I should be going. Somewhere." She quickly sneaked out the door, leaving them in uncomfortable silence. But when it began to feel silly, Michael decided to speak. "We really should," he said. "You know, talk."

Maria nodded and gestured for him to come in. He entered the room and wandered around, checking it out. "Nice," he stated. Maria raised an eyebrow. "Did you come to talk about the architecture or did you have something else to say?". Michael turned to face her. "No, there's something else," he confirmed. She nodded, waiting for him to begin. When he didn't, she looked at him, annoyed. "Okay, as much as I love your attempts at telepathy here, I really can't read your mind, so I'd appreciate it if you spoke actual verbal words." Michael smirked at her before beginning.

"Okay," he said. "First of all, I'd like to know who that Fred guy is." "Fran," she corrected him. "Fran, Fred, whatever," he said, shaking his head. "The point is, I'd like to know what you were doing on that stage today." Maria couldn't believe her ears. "We were performing!" she exclaimed, as loud as she dared. "Yeah, the act of love, maybe," Michael snorted. Maria shook her head at his words. "I can not believe you!" she said. "We were singing a song together, and maybe we looked at each other a bit."

"Try drooled over each other."

"Stop it. We were just giving a show."

"Yeah, well you never look at me that way when we sing together."

"Michael, we've never sung together."

"No, but maybe we should! I mean, if you're going to go around making googly eyes at your duet partners."

Maria suddenly realized. A smile crept over her face. "Michael, are you jealous?"

Michael's head snapped up. "Jealous?!"

"Yeah, you know, that green emotion, are you feeling it?"

Michael was dumbfounded for a few seconds before answering. "I. I just, you know, don't want you getting any ideas," he stuttered. "I mean, you're with me." His words made Maria all warm inside. She was with him. She slowly walked towards him. She could see that he was rather embarrassed now, he just couldn't look her in the eye. When she reached him she cupped his chin in her hand and slowly turned his head around. Seeing that he was still rather uncomfortable with having said all this, she reached a hand up behind his head, pulled him down closer to her and kissed him softly. He kissed her back, somewhat shyly. She pulled away, smiling.

"Michael, you don't have to worry," she said. "I won't be getting any ideas. Not when I have you." He looked relieved. A cheeky smile spread over her face. "So, you really want to sing with me?" she asked. He smiled and pulled her in for a tight hug. "Oh, I'd do it any day," he said as he held her close. "The only catch is, I don't want to give you a hearing disorder." Maria laughed, looking up at him. "I'll just wear earmuffs or something," she said. He kissed her forehead. "I think you'd be rather cute in earmuffs, actually," he said.

She laughed again, resting her head on his shoulder. We're okay, she thought to herself.

*****

Maria just couldn't stop smiling. She smiled as she poured coffee into her cup. She smiled as she opened the small package of sugar and emptied it's contents into the cup. She smiled as she put butter on her piece of bread and she smiled when she covered it in marmalade.

Liz, who was sitting across the table, raised an eyebrow at her friend. Maria had been this perky all morning. She hadn't yet told her what had happened between her and Michael during the night, but it must've been something important. And, judging by the look on her friend's face, something rather pleasant.

Liz was distracted from her friend when she caught sight of Max at the other end of the room. He smiled at her and raised his sandwich in a toast. She smiled heartily. For a while they just sat like that, looking at each other. But they were interrupted when a teacher's sharp voice pierced the air, announcing that breakfast was over. Liz quickly stuffed the remains of her sandwich in her mouth, as she rose from her seat. Maria finished her coffee before she got up.

"So," Liz said. "What enticing activities await us today?".

"Well, I've heard a rumor we've got some arts and crafts coming up," Maria said as she started making her way out of the cafeteria.

"Ooh, as in painting each other's portraits in soft watercolors?"

"I'm guessing more like carving each other's shapes out in gooey clay," Maria said, grimacing at the thought. They left the cafeteria, following the wave of students heading for the football field. When they arrived there, Maria saw that her guess had been correct. Several tables were lined up on the field, and on each of them there was a big gray clot of clay. Everyone was directed to their table and the creating began.

The assignment was to make a sculpture of someone in the same group as yourself. To get the ultimate bonding factor, everyone was ordered to portray someone they had never talked to before. This left Maria trying to make the lump of clay she was handed look like the chubby, slightly repulsive Roy Henderson in her math class whom she had somewhat dreaded ever since she started high school. Liz was lucky and got paired with Angela Clarke, a really nice and humorous violin player.

"So," Roy said as he started working on the clay with his chubby hands. "You work at that Crashdown place, right?"

Maria swallowed hard, but decided to try and be civil. "Right," she said. "Liz's parents own it."

"My pop saw an alien once," Roy said, grinning stupidly.

"Really?" Maria stifled a yawn.

"It was two feet tall and had antennas. It tried to make my pop eat somethin' gooey. Real gross, he said. Like slime, ya know?"

Maria just nodded politely. A wave of sickness washed over her as she watched Roy's fingers playing with the lump of clay that was soon to be a model of herself. She looked down at her own piece of clay. "Uh, I think I need some more clay," she stammered. "I'll just go get some."

"Sure, just don't be too long, we're supposed to be talking," Roy called after her. That only made Maria walk faster, making little gagging noises as she did so.

*****

Michael was so focused on the figure taking shape in his hands that he didn't notice when Max came up and stood next to him. His alien companion stared at the almost finished sculpture.

"Michael, I'm pretty sure Pete Reckfort doesn't have breasts."

Michael jumped at the sudden comment. He looked up. "Oh, hey Max," he said, rather distractedly. Max narrowed his eyes.

"You rebel, are you ignoring the assignment?" he asked, grinning.

"I'm not ignoring anything," Michael answered. He tore himself away from his sculpture long enough to show Max another sculpture, a perfect, miniature replica of the star quarterback Pete. As Max stared at the exquisite piece of work in awe, Michael went back to his sculpturing. "This," he said, indicating his new piece of work, "is for private use." Max looked at the female figure. "I don't think I'll have to guess too wildly to find out who the model is for that," he said.

Michael just shrugged. "It could be any girl," he said.

"Any girl identical with Maria," Max corrected him.

Michael stopped in his work for a moment. "I just thought she might like it," he said before continuing.

"And I'm thinking you thought right. I mean, a present like this, Michael, is sort of a sign of commitment. And isn't that what she wants?"

Michael stared at him blankly. "Maybe it's not only what *she* wants," he stated.

Max was a bit taken aback. "Did I hear correctly? Has the Frostman melted?"

"I'll ignore that rather insulting comment. All I'm saying is that I've screwed up a lot and I don't want to lose her for whatever stupid reason. In fact, right now I don't want to lose her at all."

Michael walked off, leaving an astonished Max behind, looking at the beautiful, finished sculpture.

*****

Maria impatiently tapped her fingers against the table as she waited for Roy to finish his sculpture. Hers hadn't taken more than ten minutes to make. Once she'd found more clay the only thing she'd had to do was form it into something round and stick little legs and arms to it, then fastening a head on the top. She had hurried, thinking that maybe she would get some free time when she was finished, but instead some teacher had propped her on a chair and ordered her to model for Roy. And all the while Roy had been blabbering on about his father's and mother's and sister's and aunt's and cousin's and great grandmother's alien encounters, probably trying to impress her. It was fair to say that it hadn't worked.

Maria sighed. She glanced over at Liz and Angela, who were chatting on, seemingly having a good time. She sighed again. Then a chill ran up her spine as Roy, who had made a pause in his story-telling, began talking again.

"So, Maria," he said. "Are you, like, seeing someone?"

Maria froze. What a nerve! "Uh, well. Yes, yes I am."

"Really? Too bad. 'Cause, you know, I was thinking. Maybe you would've liked to come visit me and I could've showed you my pop's encounter journal and we could've, you know. like, had dinner and stuff."

Maria shuddered at the thought, especially of the "and stuff". "Well, gee, that *is* too bad, Roy," she said, trying to not sound too sarcastic as she said it.

"Yeah. See, I saw you sing last night, and it was like. I sort of felt it like you sang to me, you know? And it was like this explosion in my head."

"Great," Maria interrupted him. She'd heard enough. "I'm glad you liked it, but see I have a boyfriend, and I really, really like him, so."

"So, who's your boyfriend?"

Maria hesitated. Should she tell him? But then she told herself that she was being way too paranoid. "Michael. Michael Guerin," she said, as firmly as she could. For a moment she could've sworn that Roy looked shocked, but his face quickly turned back to normal.

"Right," he said, wiping his hands on a towel. "Too bad. Anyway, I'm done."

He handed her the finished sculpture. Maria stared at it in disgust. Since when was she a cow-legged, flagpole sized hunchback with fisheyes? She quickly gave it back to him, repulsed. "Great, thanks," she said. "But I'd like you to have it."