"Sorry." Came a voice. Her heart slowed down a bit.

"M.....Michael?" She asked.

"Yeah." He stepped away from her. She stood up straigt.

"Why........Why did you-"

"I needed to talk to you." He said.

"About.....?" She asked. Michael looked at her. He walked over and cupped her face in his hands. Maria smiled slightly and let her eyes drift shut.

She waited to feel his lips on hers. But they didn't come. She opened her eyes and saw him examining her neck. "What are you doing?" She pushed his hands away.

"Nothing." He said. He pushed his hands in his back pockets.

"Nothing? Michael, you pull me in here, almost giving me a heartattack, for nothing? I was scared shitless! I thought you were some crazed rapist or something." She yelled at him.

"Will you quit overeacting?" He said.

"I am not overeacting! You scared the hell out of me! And for what? Weekly glands check?"

"It's nothing, OK?" He pushed past her and left.

Michael walked away from the eraser room. He could hear Maria mumbling some words in spanish, he could only guess it was cuss words. He felt like an absolute fool for acting like that to her, but if he told her why he had pulled her into the eraser room, she'd crack up laughing, and even if he likes seeing how her cute little nose crinkles up and she gets a dimple on her left cheek whenever she laughs, he didn't feel like getting laughed at.

Max sat in his room studying. He heard light tapping on his window. He turned to see Michael. He walked over and opened the window. "Y'know, normal people use the front door." He said.

"Yeah, well who ever said I'm normal?"

"Good point." Max stepped aside to let Michael in. Michael stepped in and shut the window.