Maria had fallen asleep on the couch that night, Kyle not far from her. She was dreaming softly until the door swung open and she had heard her name called.

"Maria!" Max yelled into the room.

Maria fell off the couch and landed on the floor. She looked up where Kyle was still sleeping. "Oh shit," she muttered trying to cover his head with a blanket as Max and Liz came in.

"Hey are you all right you weren't at school today," Liz questioned.

"I'm fine, how are you two?" Maria asked. "What's up with your couch?" Max asked.

Kyle sat up. "What time is it?" he asked. "Kyle!" Liz cried.

"What first Liz now Maria, who's next Isabel?" Max demanded, furious.

"Chill out, Max, like Liz nothing happened, except this time I fell asleep," Kyle began, but Maria smashed his hand over her mouth. "Oops," he mumbled through her hand.

"Nothing happened?" Max demanded annoyed with Liz. "What the hell is going on?"

Maria blinked and looked up. For a moment she saw her father standing next to her mother yelling at each other.

"Shh!" Amy yelled. "Do you want to scare Maria?"

"Right, okay, let's do this later," he said. Maria blinked again and found her self-awakened and next to Liz and Max with her hand still flopped over Kyle's mouth. "Maria are you listening?" Max and Liz demanded.

"Whoa, wait a minute," Jim said looking at Maria and clicking his pen so no ink would drip out, he cleared his throat, "what does this have to do with the actual problem?" "This is what started the chaos, I'm not telling you anything that won't come up later in the story," Maria promised. She looked up at Kyle while Jim glanced at the TV.

"So nothing happened between you two?" he asked glaring her in the eye.

"Nope, I could never do that to Tess," Maria said.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Jim demanded.

"Anyway, back to the story..." Maria said grinning.

Maria was darting around the Crashdown avoiding Max and Liz's angry glares. Max was mad at her for not ever saying anything and Liz was mad at her for saying something now, so it was very annoying. However, from throwing herself into her work she was getting more tips than ever.

"Welcome to the Crashdown, how may I help you?" she asked a tall blond haired man.

"Uh, Maria!" he cried looking at her nametag. "Can I have some food?"

"Sure, what kind?" Maria asked rolling her eyes. She looked back; Max was waving his cup from the counter. "On second thought you don't want to make any rush decisions, so perhaps you should look over the menu again." "Actually, I know what I want," the man said. "Please, look over the menu again," Maria, begged glancing back. Liz was trying really hard to pretend she couldn't see Max.

"Okay," the man said running his eyes down the menu again.

Maria looked back and Liz grabbed Max's cup. She let a whoosh of air come out of her mouth.

"Can I tell you want I want now?" he asked. "Oh sure," Maria said smiling.

"Fries," the man said rolling his eyes at her.

"Okay, fries, right anything else?"

"Come to think of it, some vanilla ice cream?"

"Right," Maria said nodding and stuck the order in the hook after walking away. "I'm on break!" she yelled and walked into the back. Max followed her into the back.

"I'm not here," Maria warned.

"Why, do you know how miserable that was to think all that stuff about Liz and Kyle, two people to I considered to be my closest friends?" he demanded.

"I couldn't, and I still can't, besides, Kyle is in the dog house, he skipped school, today, shame on him!"

"So did you!" Max reminded her.

Maria rolled her eyes.

Max slipped his hands in his pockets and began fiddling with something in his pocket. "Look, Maria, all I want is in the truth, okay I have to know," he begged.

"Max, first of all look at me when you want something, second of all no, third of all, what the hell is in your pocket?" Maria demanded really annoyed.

"Oh, I found it up at the caves," he muttered pulling a small rock out. "It's just a rock, want it?"

Maria cocked her eyebrow and snatched the rock from his hand. As soon as her hand made connection with the rock she felt sick. She felt like something was crawling around inside of her, something that had to get out. "Maria?" Max questioned.