"Liz... Come here." I pulled Liz into my arms and gently hugged her. "You know it's going to be okay..." I murmured against her dark brown hair, secretly enjoying her smell of strawberries.

Liz pulled back, out of my embrace to face me, suddenly. "No it's not Max, because Kyle asked for a reason why I wanted to break up with him... and I don't even have a reason myself! I totally have no idea, but this morning... I woke up with this feeling that I couldn't be with Kyle anymore. He's a good guy, loyal, nice... but I just knew that he would never make my heart skip a beat when I see him, never make me feel safe, warm and protected and never be that one guy that was just..." Liz paused and sank down on a small stool in despair.

"... just perfect?" I quietly whispered as I knelt down next to Liz. Liz nodded as a tear dripped down her cheek. "Liz... Listen to me... There are many other people out there in the world; it's not necessary that you stay with one high school boyfriend forever... Besides..." I brushed the tear off of Liz's cheek before continuing, "If it doesn't feel right to you... then that's all enough reason to break off a relationship."

Liz smiled at me as I finished. "Thank you Max... You don't know how much I needed to hear that." Suddenly Liz grabbed my hand and squeezed it softly. "Max, I don't know why I feel this way, but I knew I could trust you with this... I feel like I could trust you with anything. I'm so glad we're friends."

I chuckled softly at Liz's words... It was almost like Liz knew, even in this time that there was something special between us... something unordinary... something... perfect. "I'm glad we're friends too Liz." I stood up and offered my hand to Liz. "Are you ready to face West Roswell High being the strong, independent, newly-single girl that you are?"

With a sigh, Liz stood up and gave me a brief hug before turning the doorknob handle. "Yeah, I think I'll manage as long as you're by my side, Max Evans." With a smile, Liz exited the Eraser Room. "Bye Max... I'll call you tonight so we can set up our plans for tomorrow!" Liz called out quietly.

Swallowing down the lump in my throat, I nodded and waved to her as she left. There are some things about Liz Parker that still astounded me, even today.

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

Meanwhile, on the other side of campus in the quad...

Alex Whitman was too busy looking around for his best friends, Maria and Liz, to notice that he was going to bump into someone.

"Hey!" Isabel cried out as Alex bumped into her. She didn't really see him coming until the last minute and he had knocked her books out of her hand.

"Oh! I'm so sorry." Alex said as he was turning around and then he noticed whom exactly he had bumped into. "Oh, oh... Let me pick that up for you... I'm sorry." He quickly apologized while mentally chastising himself for doing something SO stupid in front of the Elle MacPherson of the sophomore class - Isabel Evans.

Isabel was about to do her usual "Ice Princess" routine, since she practically WAS the Elle MacPherson of the sophomore class, when suddenly she remembered the conversation she had with Max yesterday... He said that opening up to others would be good for them and maybe, just maybe Isabel wanted to agree with him.

Isabel flipped her hair over her shoulders as Alex stooped over to pick up her books. "It's okay... Things like that happen all the time, Alex."

Alex looked up at Isabel surprised. "You... know who I am?"

"Yeah, I know who you are. You're Alex Whitman... I mean, we've had classes together since 5th grade. Plus, you're Liz Parker's friend..." Isabel quietly explained as Alex stood up and handed her the books that fell. "Thanks."

"No problem, Isabel." Alex said and started to turn away when Isabel stopped him.

"Alex?"

"Yeah?" Alex said as he could feel his palms get sweaty from being around Isabel too long.

"Um.. I was wondering... Since I can't find Max or Michael and that's who I eat lunch with everyday... I was wondering... maybe you'd like to eat lunch with me?" Isabel asked feeling surprised that she was actually nervous about Alex turning her down. In fact, the more she thought about it, it would actually... hurt... if he turned her down and she didn't know why.

Alex tried desperately not to look like a kid on Christmas morning as he nodded. "Sure... That's cool with me."

Isabel smiled, a real genuine smile that was only reserved for Max, Michael and her parents, and felt relief and... happiness. Weird, Isabel thought, as she walked to a shady spot underneath a tall oak tree in the quad. But Alex seems... seems like I've known him forever, she reasoned. Her doubts about humans and opening up to them slowly started to vanish as Alex began to talk to her.

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

Slipping out of the eraser room about five minutes after Liz left, I quickly headed to my English class... the only class of the day that I shared with Isabel. As I walked down the eerily quiet hallways of West Roswell High, I noticed Kyle Valenti standing against the wall near the guys bathroom - looking completely pissed off to say the least. His jaw was clenched and from where I was walking, I could almost see his hands balled up into fists. Apparently, Kyle's been having a rough day, I mean, I would too if Liz had broken up with me. In fact, I would be devastated. Kyle looked completely furious, but he wasn't the type of person to hurt someone for breaking up with him.

With one last glance over at Kyle, I shrugged and figured that he was just storing up some sort of "jock-rage" for football practice after-school or something. I was already 10 minutes late to my English class and I didn't need to get into some argument with Kyle at the moment. Besides, my English teacher, Mrs. Schaffer was the kind of teachers that deducted points off your total grade for every tardy to her class and I needed to still go to classes so no one would suspect anything.

Finally reaching Mrs. Schaffer's classroom, I reached out and grabbed the door handle... mentally preparing myself for the wrath that would ensue.

"Maxwell Evans." Mrs. Schaffer stopped in mid-lecture and pinned me with a stare that would turn ordinary students to dust. "Nice to see that you've decided to show up to English today. You know that I'm deducting points off your grade and here..." She leaned down and scribbled on a small paper. "is detention, as well." With a smile, Mrs. Schaffer handed me the paper and continued talking about the fascinating world of personal pronouns.

I hurriedly walked across the room and slid into my seat, easily ignoring the small giggles from Mrs. Schaffer's lecture to me. However, Isabel's wrath was something that wasn't to be ignored that easily. Isabel sat directly in front of me (you know, alphabetical order... I before M) in my English class, so I was in the line of fire, so to speak.

"Max!" Isabel hissed at me as I sat down. "What is going on with you?"

I turned to look at Isabel and shrugged at her, pretending that I had no idea what she was talking about. Knowing Isabel, she's probably pissed that she couldn't find me during lunch today. My sister isn't the type to suddenly change plans on and not tell her...

"Where were you at lunch today?" Isabel asked, lowering her voice a notch, so Mrs. Schaffer wouldn't throw her second fit of the class period.

"Ummm... I was in the library studying, Izzy. You couldn't find me? What did Michael have to say?"

Isabel rolled her eyes and flipped her long blond hair over her shoulder. "Michael... Michael didn't bother to come to school today and I looked in the library and I still couldn't find you." Isabel looked at me. "Is something wrong Max?"

I shook my head briefly and then realized something. If Michael wasn't at school and I was in the eraser room with Liz most of the lunch period, then who exactly did Isabel eat with? I didn't see her usual water bottle with her, meaning she finished it at lunch like she usually did... so, I figured that she had to eat with someone... but who? "Hey Iz..." I whispered as I leaned forward a little bit. "So, who did you eat lunch with?"

Isabel's slightly widened and I could see a faint blush creep over her cheeks. "No one." She whispered quickly and spun around in her seat.

Ah ha! I thought. Payback is a bitch, Isabel... I thought gleefully. "C'mon Izzy... Who did you eat with? I know you had to have eaten because your water bottle is gone." I whispered behind her.

Isabel mumbled something intelligible and pretended to look busy taking notes. I could see that she was trying to get me to leave her alone. However, no matter how sensitive everyone may think I am... there are things way too good to pass up and this was one of them.

With the tip of my blue pen, I poked Isabel in the ribs, knowing that she was very ticklish there. "Tell me Isabel."

"No." She whispered and slapped my pen away from her side as she turned to face me. "Do that again and I'll..." I raised an eyebrow at her defiantly, "I'll... melt the damned thing." She whispered.

"Tell me."

"All right!" Isabel looked exasperated. "I had lunch with Alex Whitman. There? Are you happy, Mr. Nosy?" With huff, my sister turned around in her chair and started taking notes again.

Alex Whitman. I could hardly keep the goofy grin from coming over my face as I thought about the situation. Isabel, my sister... the Ice-Princess, had lunch with Alex? Maybe, things were going to work out after all.

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

Detention sucks. Did you know that? Well it does, because I'm sitting wasting an hour of my precious time in a shoebox of a classroom staring at a wall. My legs ache from sitting in a desk that belonged to a fifth-grader, my head hurts from trying to concentrate on not sleeping in the middle of detention and in all honestly, I have to go to the bathroom pretty badly.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of hell, I was let go. Quickly, I stood up and headed out the hallway to the nearest men's bathroom when I heard a somewhat familiar voice start to yell in the next hallway.

"Do you think that you can ruin what's going on? Huh... HUH? TELL ME!" A male voice yelled from around the corner.

I stopped completely, listening to the conversation.

The person continued... "I can't believe you're doing this to me... So tell me... LIZ... what's going on?"

At the moment that I heard the name Liz, I was started to run towards the hallway with the voices. When I rounded the corner, I saw Kyle Valenti holding Liz by an arm and had her pinned against the wall while he continued to berate her.

"Kyle. Get off of me." Liz said with a certain amount of determination in her voice, but I could feel the fear coming off of her as I ran over.

Kyle was so absorbed in yelling at Liz, that he didn't even see me heading over to where they were standing. I'm sure that if he had, he would of seen the furious look on my face and how I couldn't help but ball my hands into tight fists. With a quick shove, I pushed Kyle's hand off of Liz's shoulder and then knocked him back on to the ground. "Get off of her." I ordered him as I stood above him. "You have no right to be touching her like that!" I shouted, Hopefully getting the message into his nit-wit brain.

With a smirk, Kyle rose to his feet. "Evans. Listen, I'm sure that Liz is swooning over your heroics, again... but I can talk to her however I want." Kyle sauntered closer to me and peered up at me slightly.

"Go away Kyle and regrow the brain that you've apparently lost." I told him with my voice tight with anger and restraining myself from knocking back against the wall with my powers.

"Whatever." Kyle reached out and put his hand on my shoulder and pushed. The contact was brief, but when he touched me I knew... completely, totally KNEW that this wasn't even Kyle Valenti I was dealing with anymore.

It was Nasedo. Nasedo/Kyle smirked at me again, understanding that I had realized what happened and walked away, down the hallway of West Roswell High.

I turned to Liz and hugged her briefly once Kyle was out of view. "Are you okay?" I asked her.

Liz nodded. "Thanks Max. That's the second time you've saved me." She smiled at me. "I wasn't too scared. I mean, it was only Kyle. I know him and I know how he is... He really wouldn't hurt me."