Michael, who was seated beside him, grabbed the slice, pulled a bottle of tabasco out of his pocket, and dumped the entire contents onto it. "There. Problem solved."

"Contrary to what you might think Michael, tabasco is not the solution to every culinary disaster." Maria commented, her nose wrinkled in disgust.

Isabel couldn't help but giggle at the look on Alex's face. He was staring at the pizza that Michael had deposited back in front of him, horror apparent. "Um, you can keep it."

"Thanks." Michael made a big show of taking a bite. "Mmmmm....delicious."

Isabel and Maria exchanged looks, both laughed. Alex was scowling at them all.

For one precious moment, everything was normal. It hadn't been like this for so long - not since before Tess came into their lives, Isabel realized. She knew that Michael was actually putting on a bit of a show for Maria's benefit, but it was still nice.

It was too bad that Liz wasn't there yet...

Or Max.

She sobered instantly. "Where are the others?" She asked Maria aburptly.

Maria looked at her quickly. Isabel was pleased to note that her friend actually looked a bit better today. She had colour in her cheeks and the circles under her eyes were not quite as large. "Liz left me a message in the office saying she was going to be a bit late. I have no idea where Tess and Kyle are."

Isabel scanned the courtyard impatiently. She had thought about her latest vision all night and was no closer to deciphering it than she had been when she had dropped Alex off at home. She needed everyone else to start thinking about it too.

She groaned when she suddenly caught sight of possibly the most annoying person on campus headed in their direction.

"Don't look now, but the black widow is on her way over." Isabel muttered to the others.

Maria turned around, scowled. "What is that girl's problem?" She asked, her nose wrinkling again at the sight of Pam Troy, Max's erstwhile ex-girlfriend.

"I think the proper question would be, what ISN'T that girl's problem." Alex replied in a lecturing tone.

Pam was being followed by two or three of her minions. Isabel put on her best ice-queen expression. They had to get rid of them before Liz showed up. Her friend did not need to deal with her arch-enemy on top of everything else.

"Well, if it isn't four of the seven dweebs." Pam said in a tone dripping with venom as she finally came to a stop next to them. Her lackeys giggled. Isabel turned burning eyes on them. They immediately stopped laughing. One of them actually looked frightened.

Isabel was pleased.

"What do you want Troy?" Alex asked in a tone of long-suffering.

"I want to know where little Lizzie Parker is." Pam replied, sneering at him.

"Why?" Maria demanded, sounding suspicious - rightfully so in Isabel's point of view.

"Oh, you'll know soon enough." Pam replied in what she probably thought sounded like a mysterious tone, but rather it sounded like an irritating whine.

"Beat it Troy." Isabel's eyes shifted to Kyle, who had come up behind Pam. The expression on his face was annoyed, but Isabel could see real signs of fury underneath the surface.

Pam scowled at him but obeyed. She knew that of the whole group of Liz's friends, only Kyle was the one she had to be concerned with socially. At one time Isabel would have been able to ruin her socially too, but since Max's disapearance she had not bothered to continue the farce of popularity.

It hadn't seemed important anymore.

"Have any of you seen Liz?" Kyle asked when Pam was out of ear-shot. His tone was instantly panicked.

"She wasn't in school this morning." Maria replied. "Why? What's wrong?"

"Everything." Kyle replied, turning to scan the crowd of students for Liz.

Isabel caught sight of her friend before the rest of them did. Liz was hurrying in their direction, her head lowered, her long dark hair shielding her face. She had a large book in her arms.

It was then that Isabel began to hear the whispering. As the student body caught sight of Liz, they all began to turn and stare at her. Someone even pointed. "What the heck?" Isabel heard Alex mutter.

Isabel became even more concerned when two jocks suddenly stepped in front of Liz. "Hey Parker! Didn't know you had it in you." Isabel could hear one of them say.

Liz looked up, blinked at him. A slightly perplexed smile appeared on her pretty face. "What do you mean Tom?"

Kyle shook his head. "Damn!" He hurried in Liz's direction, grabbed her by the arm and escorted her to the table, shoving Tom and his crony as he passed them. "You're dead at practice today." He told them. Isabel knew that Kyle could make their lives hell. He was the captain of the team and he ran the football practices with the coach.

Liz came and sat beside Isabel, plunking her book on the table in front of her. Isabel could not see the title as it was upside down. "What's going on guys?'"

The rest of them all looked to Kyle for an explanation. He looked upset that he was obviously going to have to be the one to tell her.

"Ummmm..." To Isabel it appeared that Kyle was actually wringing his hands.

"Spill it Valenti!" This was from Michael, who looked like he was about to blow a gasket.

"Well, someone plastered posters all over school with a web-site address on them." Kyle began explaining slowly. "So I went to check it out."

"And?" Maria waved her hand in front of her encouraging Kyle to continue.

"Well, the site was about Max." Kyle swallowed. "It was basically full of a whole bunch of pictures of Max and Liz together...ummm...doing stuff."

Isabel felt her breath catch in her throat. "What kind of stuff?" She asked, although she already knew.

Kyle turned to stare at her. "I think you know Isabel."

Isabel turned to Liz. Her friend's face had gone white. Liz's hands were clutching the side of the table, the knuckles turning white as Isabel watched in fascination.