"Hi." He said kissing her. "Long time no see."

"We just saw each other in Bio." She said, returning his kiss.

"I know, but I was gone all weekend and didn't get to spend any time with you. It feels like we never have time for each other anymore." He said as he helped her into the jeep.

Max climbed up into the drivers seat and pulled out of the school parking lot. He reached over and grabbed Liz's hand. "Let's talk about us." He said.

Liz didn't understand what he wanted to talk about. What did he mean? Was he going to break up with her? "What do you mean, Max?"

He smiled. It came out of his mouth all-wrong. "Nothing," he said. "I just wanted to talk about us. What we're up to and where we're going. That sort of thing." Liz smiled. Whew! That was a close one. Liz didn't know what would happen if she ever lost Max. "I was a little worried there."

He squeezed her hand. "You have nothing to be worried about. Nothing's going to ever change. I promise that." He turned and headed towards the Crashdown. "I have a question for you." He said, looking towards her.

"I may have an answer." She responded.

He laughed. She always had the cutest comebacks. "I was thinking the other day that Prom was coming up. I know we all decided that we wouldn't go to any of the Prom's and stuff, but since this is our senior year, I was kinda hoping that maybe you'd want to go. You know, as a couple. It would give us some alone time and who knows where things may lead." Max blushed as he finished his sentence.

Liz smiled. She'd never known Max to be straight forward, but he seemed like he really wanted to go to Prom. It was only a few weeks away, which meant hardly any time to get a dress. But there was that one little sentence that struck her interest 'who knows where things may lead.'. What did Max mean by that? Was he hoping things would go further? She didn't know, but she sure wasn't going to pass up the chance to find out. "I would love to go." She said. "I think it'd be great for us. We need some alone time. It seems like all we ever do anymore is try to find each other. We' ve been through so much the last few months. I think it's time we got a vacation from everything else and spent some time together alone."

Max was ecstatic. He had wanted to go to Prom since the beginning of school. He was afraid Liz wouldn't want to go though. It had taken all the courage he could muster for him to ask her. He felt that using the "alone" card was the perfect way to get her to agree to go.

"What do you suppose Tess wants to talk to you guys about?" Liz asked, as he pulled into the Crashdown parking lot and found a spot.

Max jumped out of the jeep, followed by Liz and headed into the Crashdown. "I'm not sure. I know she probably has a lot of questions, maybe it's some of those. I also think maybe she may know some stuff, since she is one of us. I mean, she never did say where she's been all this time."

"I hope it's nothing too bad." Liz said, taking his hand. "Do you think the real Tess is any different than the old one?" She asked.

"We're going to have to stop referring to her as the real Tess. I'm afraid it's going to give her a complex." He smiled. "I think we'll have to take it slow with Tess. She doesn't really trust us, and I can't honestly say I trust her, but we're working on it. I don't think she's got a bad heart like Aliyah had."

"Maybe you're right." Liz said, pushing the door to the Crashdown open. "I 'm sure it's only a matter of time before she proves herself to us."

Max looked at Liz and pulled her lips to his. He kissed her softly and then released her. He turned and noticed Michael, Maria, Isabel, Tess, and Alex sitting at their usual table. "So what's this all about?" he asked, looking at Tess.