Jeffery pulled the Camaro into a parking space and suddenly noticed a couple of familiar vehicles in the parking lot. What were Cordelia and Oz doing here? Well, Oz he could understand, but wasn't Cordelia supposed to be in school?
Then he saw Oz practically supporting Xander as they walked out of the diner. Faith and a girl Jeffery didn't know was with them, as well.
"Uh, oh," Jeffery said. "It looks like something went down here already. I wonder what..." Then he saw it. The silhouette in the passenger seat of Cordelia's car. It was a familiar shape. He knew that girl. It could almost be Buffy... but something about the set of the shoulders and the careless hair do told him it wasn't.
Jeffery swore under his breath. "Zeke!"
He threw the Camaro into park and jumped out of the car. He and Cordelia had broken up badly in the eighth grade, but when he got back to Sunnydale they had managed to become sort of friends... He would never want anything bad to happen to her. And half of the time... make that 9 times out of 10... Zeke was bad. Sure she could be exciting company, but badness always seemed to happen sooner or later.
Pocketing his keys, Jeffery leapt out of the car and hurried over to Cordelia's car. He didn't run, but he walked fairly quickly.
Cordelia let out a long sigh, turning her head so she was now looking out the driver's side window. She had really expected Zeke to attack her. She was really glad that she hadn't. "Might as well spill all my problems out to the psycho loony in my car, what have I got to lose?" she said to her self.
Zeke stretched out her legs, inhaling slowly and deeply. The car was comfortable. Way to comfortable, she figured she could fall asleep in the seat, despite the glass shards. It was after all the most civilized place she'd been since...well, since Lindsey's place.
"You don't have problems...other than me of course. I'm your biggest problem right now, but, for the meantime I promise to play nice." She didn't care enough to want to fight.
Still looking out the window she said to Zeke "Was Xander really checking out that ohter girl?"
A chuckle escaped her lips, and started to speak through closed eyes.
"Cordelia, what happened to you? I mean...where did all that bitchy confidance go? Do you really think Xander, lameass Xander would check out another girl? I'm pretty sure he's still in shock that Cordelia "Queen of Sunnydale" Chase wanted to go out with him, let alone make her way to New Mexico for him! This town sucks! He knows it, and he also knows you came here for him. I'm thinking that's gotta be worth something for fidelity."
"Well that's nice of you to say" Cordelia said, turning back to Zeke, who ironically, was turning out to be her new best friend, "I'm glad someone appreciates my coming here."
Yawning.
"There was something else about that chick...I'm not sure what. Maybe it was the amount of coffee I drank really fast, maybe it was food for the first time in days, but...I dunno. Forget it." Zeke said.
Jeffery didn't know what they were talking about, and he didn't really care that much. He avoided the broken glass and looked in at the bloody Zeke and Cordelia's tear-stained face.
"Zeke," he said quietly. "What a surprise to find you in Roswell. Just couldn't stay away from us, could you?" His eyes darted back to Cordelia. "You OK, Cordelia?"
"Hey Jeffrey" Cordelia said natuarally, as if the situation was in no way strange. "I'm OK, once the swelling goes down in my face I'll be fine. No problem." she said sarcastically.
A grimmace crossed her face when she realized that she was going to have to open her eyes. Open her eyes and talk more. Neither of which she was very interested in doing. Sighing, she knew she didn't have a choice.
"Jeffery my man! Can't say I missed you, so I won't. Gotta say though, for a guy who's concerned about Cordelia, woulda thought you knew better than to piss me off. Lucky for you Queen C and I are bonding, so hitting her again isn't really what I feel like doing. In fact I'm about ready to go now."
Opening the door in one quick movement, she hit jeffery in the stomache with the door frame, leaving him half in the window and half out.
Getting out of the car herself, she stood in the gravel parking lot looking at the spectacle of Cordelia's car.
**************
Amy watched her boyfriend drive off in her car and smiled. She hoped he had a good first day. She wondered how long it would take to get into the swing of things again. It had been a hard morning and she was slow in getting moving. She stood in the parking lot, lost in reverie, thinking about Dad and Mom and Jeffery and Doyle and second grade and...
It finally occurred to her that she was here for a reason. She had classes she was actually expected to attend. She headed campus-ward and soaked in the new environment. It was fairly different from Sunnydale High, but was still an American public high school. She found a clock in the hall which declared it half-way through first period. She ruffled through her bag until she found her schedule and then spent the remainder of the period trying to discover the numbering system they used. When the bell rang announcing the end of first period, Amy's slightly bad morning had been reduced to catastrophically abysmal. Here she couldn't even get to class and was feeling amazingly stupid. The halls were about to be filled with high schoolers, all of whom she was sure would take one look at her and know that she was amazingly stupid and laugh at her. And it would be ten times as hard to find a room while fighting through a crowd. What a horrible first day!
Michael realized belatedly that he was entering the hallway at exactly the worst time. Second period was getting ready to start and now the halls were filled to full with teachers and teenagers and skipping his next class would be a lot harder to get away with, especially since his 2nd period English teacher had just caught his eye and was sending a "you'd better be in class today, Mr. Guerin" glare his way. Groaning, Michael started to head over to his locker, glancing down at his schedule as he walked to see which locker number was his. As he turned the corner in the hall, still looking down at the paper clutched in his hand, Michael suddenly collided with someone, sending them both crashing to the floor.
Looking up, he saw that the person he'd managed to knock to the floor was a young girl that he didn't recognize. [Another new kid? This day keeps getting weirder and weirder.]
He began picking up the scattered books and papers from the floor, trying to separate his stuff from the girl's things. "Here," he said, extending a hand to help her to her feet, "Let me help you up."
Amy really didn't want to cry. It would be a horrible first impression, a horrible image to begin a new school year in a new town with. She was stronger than that. She had at least that much legacy from Catherine the Great. Right? Sitting tumbled on the floor, she did her best to convince herself of it.
His graciousness saved her dignity. One human reaching out to another stayed the tears. "Thanks," she managed, allowing him to help her up. "Look, I'm new here and totally lost. Will you help me? Please?" She realized she was pleading, but at this point was really okay with that. She shoved her offending schedule at him hoping he could decipher it.
"Uh... yeah," Michael muttered, taking her schedule from her and opening it. He smoothed the wrinkles out so that he could make out the printed words. "Let's see... second period you have History with Mr. Edwards. That's right near me. I'll take you there."
Michael didn't wait for a response. He turned and began leading the way toward their classes. As the walked, he said, "So, you have a name?"
Amy hurried to catch up with him, thoroughly relieved that he was helping her. "Yeah, I'm Amy. Amy Madison. Is there something people call you?" she said responding in kind to his gruff tone.
**************
Max was shocked by the sound of the bell. How could first period be over? It had just started, hadn't it? The last thing he remembered was affixing his name next to Liz's on the seating chart. Surely Mr. Brewer had to lecture on the first day, right? He looked at the clock and sure enough, sufficient time had passed. He had been lost in Lizland and only the bell had brought him back to the real world.
Liz. She was saying something to him. Oh! Next class, right. He retrieved his schedule once again and was disappointed to read Pre-Calculus in the second slot. Objectively he knew he liked the subject and that he'd actually been placed with one of the best teachers, but his mind wasn't really thinking objectively. It fixated on the fact that he would be separated from Liz again. Pull yourself together, man! he told himself firmly.
"Oh, I have Pre-cal," he told her, the disappointment evident in his tone. "Listen, Liz, can we eat lunch together or something? I'd really love to hear all about your summer and ...and ...and things."
Liz gave a hasty, nervous nod. "If you want. Um... I invited this new girl to eat with us. And I guess Maria will be there. Alex won't. He's staying at the university for a while. But you could... you could come... if you want."
Before she could babble any more, Liz turned and hurried away as quickly as her black platform sandals would take her through the crowded halls. She walked quickly toward World Geography as she mentally berated herself. What had happened to the strong, determined Liz? Where did that girl go the minute she saw Max Evans?
When she got to her next class, Liz sank into a chair near the front, both counting the minutes till and dreading the coming of lunch time.
Max was elated! She didn't say 'Go to hell,' or 'Max, you'd better not,' or 'Sorry, but my new boyfriend might object,' or any one of a hundred different things she could have said. No, she said yes...sort of...close enough. There was a light at the end of one of his many dank dark tunnels, and to him the most important. Yeah, there was still the secret identity he had to hide from the world or be tortured and killed; yeah, there were the aliens his "mom" said he had to defeat; and yeah, there were large numbers of disappearances in Roswell lately, but dang it, there was hope on the Liz front.
Max wandered through the halls too awestruck to pay much attention to where he was going. He stopped at last year's locker on automatic and turned the combination 5 times before he figured out this wasn't his locker any more and they had changed the code. He just shrugged and moved on through the halls.
**************
Jade stiffened and growled more to herself than anyone else. She felt Faith standing right behind her which was somewhat comforting. What did the whole town know each other? She sighed as two more joined the group in the parking lot.
"No the fact that there are bloodied, bruised growling teenagers isn't obvious at all..."
She flicked her tongue out along her teeth in a feral nature. Jade wasn't aware that she had done it until she caught Oz staring at her. She flushed slightly and shrugged.
"Habit. I'm out of here. Too many people."
Oz gave a nod of understanding and got in to the van. He wasn't really doing much talking. Then again he never really did. Setting himself up close enough near Xander to be protective and far enough away not to hover her waited.
Faith looked at Oz and blinked a few times. Okay she knew he was pretty laid back and all but he was being down right submissive and that was kind of strange. She always saw him as the deep down take charge kind of guy. But then there was that girl. Jade. She didn't look like the take charge type but here she was growling and wolfing out and stuff like a big badass.
And she wasn't even that big. Which kinda made Faith respect her. Just a little. The Slayer got in to the van and did hover near Xander. She wasn't all loyal much but he was Xander and that meant something to her. She didn't know where to place him in her head relationshipwise though.
He wasn't a bed buddy. Not a friend because she didn't have any of those. Not a packmate because she wasn't a fuzzy one. She just...didn't know. Him and Oz and sometimes Cordy were the closest thing to fallbacks she had. Though Faith never fellback on anyone.
"Heya Xander...think we can get the hell out of here now? 'Cause the sight of all this wasted blood is makin' me a little excited and I really don't think anyone wants to see *me* get rowdy here."
Because one wolfrage induced blood bath was bad enough. But a Slayer with a supposed soul going on a rage would just be...as a Tweed would put it...unacceptable. You could rationalize away Xander freaking, you couldn't do the same for Faith.
"Yeah I'm thinking the less people around now the better. Cops and all."
Faith turned her head toward Oz at the sound of his voice. She'd forgotten he knew how to speak. She smirked and nudged him.
"Startin' to think you're mute."
"Much talking is not the way of the Oz."
"Thanks Yoda."
At his nod Faith cracked a real grin for the first time since before Sunnydale. So that non fallback status seemed to be changing a little. Maybe. They'd soon find out she guessed.
Jade ringed around the group of people to her Jeep. Her eyes landed on Zeke. Funny name for a girl. Okay...'Jade' wasn't exactly a common name for a girl either. Eyes narrowed slightly so that she could see better.
Short. Small framed. Strong. She saw that part already. Still there was something about that girl that screamed at Jade. Familiar and not quite balanced. Almost broken. She sniffed the air delicately again and tipped her head to one side the scent of blood reaching her nose easily. Human blood. But wrong. No not wrong...different.
The blonde hair and the greenish eyes with darker flecks...they almost seemed to whirl. Jade tore her gaze away from Zeke and that Queen C girl and the other two that just seemed really...um blonde. Maybe far to over zealous and protective.
She got in to her Grand Cheerokee and slammed the door shut. Turning on the Jeep she pulled out of the parking lot carefully and sped down the street to the ratty motel where she waited in the parking lot there.
Zeke heard the roar of the first car engine and looked up and away from Cordelia. It took her a moment to deduce which one of the many people mulling in the parking lot had actually gotten it in gear and left.
The new girl. Not all together suprising, considering she had seemed the most uncomfortable out of the entire group the whole time. That would warrent looking into. Something strange about that kid, something worth figuring out.
"Jeffrey!" Jessica hurried over to where Jeffrey was hanging out of the car, not quite making in time to grab the other blond. She poked her head around to check on Cordelia, who looked intact if upset.
She didn't know Zeke except by reputation, but any thoughts of thinking well of her were rapidly vanishing. Besides, she was more inclined to side with Jeffrey at the moment, both because he was friendly and because he was hanging out of a door. "Don't you have an elsewhere to be?" she snapped irritably, shooting a glare at Zeke. "This isn't the way to win friends, you know."
Zeke smirked at her.
"Gotta say, not lookin' to make friends. Especially with you Betty. Why don't you help Archie up and piss off?"
As if on cue, Jessica walked off. Apparently looking for somebody.
Heading around the car, Zeke looked over at Cordelia for a minute, something resembling humanity briefly flashing in her eyes, as if to confirm everything she had said in the car before J & J had made their cameo.
Cordelia leaned over and waved to Zeke out the passenger side window. "Bye Zeke! We'll have to do this again sometime." Oddly enough, Cordelia was quite serious.
That said, Jessica moved to check on the others. Okay, fine. To check on Xander. She wasn't head-over-heels in love with him any more, but she liked to think that she was close to him and she did care about him. Which meant if Zeke had done anything, that little blond bimbo was going to wish her grandparents had never been born.
Jeffery grunted when the door hit him. He felt a shard of glass bury itself deeply in his stomach and start to bleed. But, because the quick blow to the stomach knocked the wind out of him, he couldn't say anything to Jessica before she moved on. His new shirt was immediately soaked in the deep red color. It didn't blend well with the bright Camaro red of the shirt.
Biting the inside of his cheek to control the pain he was feeling, Jeffery got his wind back and stood up. He wavered a minute. Then he reached down and untucked his shirt. When he lifted it above his waist, everyone could see the jagged hunk of glass in his midsection. Jeffery could tell that it hadn't lacerated his stomach or any vital organ. Turning so that no one inside the diner could see him, he leaned against Cordelia's car and pulled on the glass. It came out easily, ripping a little more skin along the way.
Jeffery swore and sagged against the car. His feet wouldn't hold him up anymore. He slid down until his head rested against the seat and he was sitting on the ground. He knew he shouldn't do this here, in public, but what choice did he have, really? He was losing blood by the millisecond. Stomach wounds bled a lot. He was afraid to wait until they could find somewhere more private. The open car door would have to be camouflage enough.
He put his hand over his wound and whispered a few words he had learned for just such an occasion.
Healing was hard work. Healing oneself was even harder. But Jeffery didn't have the luxury of asking another witch for help right now. He felt the skin beneath his hand grow warm, almost unbearably so, then the feeling, and the pain of torn skin, vanished and he felt fine again.
Aside from the blood on his shirt and his undershirt, Jeffery found himself to be all right. But the spell had taken a lot out of him. He felt weak. But he knew that feeling. In a few minutes, his magic reserves would build back up again and he would be fine.
Tipping his head up so he could see Cordelia, he tried a smile and said, "I'm sorry, Cor. I should have known you could handle Zeke without any help. I guess I just made things worse..."
"Yeah...Zeke and I are cool..." she trailed off as she considered what had just happened to Jeffery. "And...you're OK now, or should I say, how?"
Xander finally managed to get a firm grip on his emotions. He'd been so spaced after his "Wolverine bezerker rage" moment that he'd allowed Oz and Faith to lead him to the van and get him inside without a protest. But he was feeling more like himself now, more in control.
"Guys, I have to check on Cordy and make sure she's..."
Xander paused suddenly, sniffing delicately at the air.
"Someone's hurt. I can smell their blood."
Opening the van door without another word, Xander hopped out and looked around. He followed the scent of fresh blood... [God, how many people are going to get wounded today? At least this time I know I didn't do it!] ...to Cordelia's car, growing more worried with each step. Was Cordelia hurt?
He saw Jessica standing nearby and gave her a nod, his way of reassuring her that he was okay, before reaching the car. That was when he found Jeffery surrounded by a puddle of blood.
"Oh my god, Jeffery, what happened?" Xander cried, kneeling beside the blond guy.
Xander could smell the blood, the overwhelming scent of it was making him dizzy, but he held it together. He would *not* loose control and go all wolfy again!
He saw that Jeffery's hands clutched his stomach and Xander gently moved them away. "Let me see how bad this is..."
Xander was surprised to find that the skin of Jeffery's stomach was unhurt. Not even a scratch. Then Xander caught it, underneath the strong scent of fresh blood was another smell, much harder to detect. The scent of magic. Xander remembered it from his time with Willow in Sunnydale. Whenever she would cast a spell, there'd be the scent... unnatural... it was hard to describe it. But that was what Xander was smelling now. And he knew then what Jeffery had done. The sharp piece of glass that lay on the ground nearby, coated with blood, just confirmed Xander's theory. Jeffery had been wounded badly and he'd managed to heal himself with magic.
"Wow, looks like someone's been practicing with the good witch Willow over the summer," Xander said with a strained smile, helping Jeffery to his feet. Now that he wasn't totally focused on what had happened to Jeffery, the smell of the blood was getting to him again. Especially because he himself was covered in it... his own, Zeke's, and now Jeffery's as well.
"And with Amy," Jeffery acknowledged with a faint smile. "I figured knowing how to use my powers would actually be a good thing..." At least his sarcasm mechanism was still in tact.
"We need to get cleaned up," Xander bit out, taking a step back from Jeffery and the car. But it didn't do any good, the sickly-sweet smell of blood was all over him now, worse than before.
"Um... can you guys meet us at my place?"
Not waiting for an answer, not even remembering to check on Cordelia, Xander turned and started walking back to the van. He *had* to change his clothes. He *had* to get rid of the blood scent. It was driving him nuts.
"All right..." Cordelia said as she stared after Xander with a strange expression "And we are wigged out, why?"
"Wait, Xander," Jeffery called. His strength was already almost back. He could do another spell if he had to, and Xander seemed freaked out enough to appreciate the spell he had in mind.
Jeffery grabbed Xander's arm and urged him over to the van. "We need to be under cover," he grunted. Once they were out of sight, Jeffery began to whisper some words in archaic French. He concentrated really hard on blood. Well, make that blood outside the confines of the human body. If he concentrated solely on blood, that would have dire results. As he finished the words of the spell there was a subtle rippling through the parking lot. No one inside would have been able to see it, unless they had been standing in the door way. He had picked the subtle spell on purpose. Camouflage was important in his line of work. In the wake of the ripple, all the blood on the ground, and on their clothes vanished like it had never been there. Even Zeke was clean.
The male witch breathed a sigh, and grabbed on to the edge of the van for support for a second, but he could already feel his strength returning again.
Jessica let out a low whistle. "Wow." She wished she could do that. Hell, she wished that she could do anything at all...
No. Not thinking about that.
"See?" Jeffery said to Xander. "All clean." He fingered the hole the glass had made in his red shirt. "Didn't do anything for this, but a rip is much easier to hide. And now there's no evidence. Of course, I don't know what evidence is *inside* the diner, but if we get out of her quickly..."
"Right." Jessica moved to keep an eye on Jeffrey, even if he wasn't visibly injured. "The last thing we need is to be in the tabloids - Teenage Aliens or something dumb like that. C'mon."
Jeffery rolled his eyes. Aliens again. It was always aliens in this town. "Yeah." He looked back at Xander. "You OK, man? Ready to get gone?" He looked toward Cordelia's car. Now only the one widow was broken, but all the blood and gore was gone. "Maybe you should ride with her... make sure she's OK, too..."
*************
The magical blast had jostled her from the daze she was in, staring off at nothing. It was odd. A strange feeling overcame her, and everything was suddenly...the same. The same only different. It took her a minute to realize what it was.
All of the blood was gone. Not a speck of red in sight, and that, that was a good. The smell was getting bad and the realization that most of it was hers wasn't a happy one. Gone. Gone was good.
Taking a few steps back and away from the car she realized it was time to go. Time to get away from the scene and the people that remained.
Seeing a parked truck with no sign of an owner, she made her way towards it. Everybody else was to preoccupied to care, or simply didn't notice her leaving.
After a few minutes of messing with wires the engine roared to life and Zeke spun it out of the parking lot. A cloud of gravel rose in her wake and a few rocks shot out behind her.
Speeding down the road, Zeke saw a police car headed towards her coming from the opposite direction. They may have been trying to stop her or get to the diner, or a mixture of the two, but it wasn't that great either way. Stopping quickly, she pulled the truck into a vacant parking lot and hopped out.
She wasn't sure where she was, but it didn't matter. All she wanted to do was get out of the line of vision for the boys in blue. They didn't usually matter to her, but she had a chance to start over here and getting a record already wasn't something she wanted.
The car roared past, sirens blaring, never really stopping or taking notice of the truck or the girl standing beside it.
Zeke sighed and looked around for the first time.
****************
Aidan felt his whole body sag with relief when Tess Harding vanished as violently as she had come. He disentangled himself from Willow and dropped into the nearest chair.
"Sorry about that, Willow," Aidan said, looking up at her with a mixture of embarrassment and seriousness. "That girl is not what she seems."
He stood up and opened the door. He looked around and didn't see Tess hovering about anywhere, thank goodness, though the hall was full of milling students.
"I thought she was a vampire at first," he explained in a soft voice. He told Willow about her strength and her attitude. "But then I saw her in the sunlight... She must be some sort of demon. I had to cover quickly. I pretended like I was completely cowed by her. Hopefully, she won't think I'm a threat or investigate me closely or anything. If she did, and she noticed how many people have moved here from Sunnydale over the past few weeks, she would definitely know something was off. That was the main reason I went with the whole girlfriend cover. I know you wouldn't just walk in and start talking about demons and vampires and things, but there has to be an excuse for you being here. There are so many new people around, more new people is suspicious. But if you're my girlfriend here for a visit..."
He trailed off his long speech of explanation and glanced at her. "And it's not too much of a stretch of the truth, considering everything."
****************
Jeffery thought that Xander was going to agree to his suggestion. It was the kind of thing Xander would do -- help his girlfriend, anyway, not necessarily agree with Jeffery.
Pretty satisfied that Cordelia would be well taken care of, Jeffery turned to Jessica and handed her the keys to the Camaro. "You wanna drive? I can do it, but a little extra time to recoup would be a good thing."
It was then that Jeffery heard the faint sound of police sirens in the distance. He swore loudly, and then yelled, "We gotta go... and we should probably split up doing it."
Xander jogged over to Cordelia's car and hopped into the passenger seat, pulling the door shut behind him. There was a tinkling sound of falling glass as the slamming door dislodged a flurry of falling glass. "Everybody meet at the school, OK" Xander called out to Jeffery, confident that he'd spread the word to the folks in the van. Xander felt comfortable taking charge now that he was in control of himself again. It seemed natural to take control and get people moving again. And they did have to leave before the cops got there and things got really out of hand.
"Are you OK to drive, Cor?" Xander asked, focusing closely on his girlfriend's face.
"Yeah...I'm fine." Cordelia said genuinely. "But how about you? Not to offend your manliness in anyway of course but it looks like you might have gotten hurt in there..." she let her eyes linger on Xander for a few more seconds with a thoughtful expression on her face. Then suddenly she put her arm behind the headrest of Xander's seat, glanced out the rear window of the car and backed out of the parking space. Pulling through the parking lot and onto the street she added "I don't think I had a chance to thank you for hitting Zeke for me. She definitely needed that."
Maybe it was something about the idea of being caught by the police, but Jeffery suddenly felt completely energized.
Taking the keys back from Jessica, he explained, "Don't worry, I'm good to go. The adrenaline is pumping, now. But we've gotta get out of here. Cops we don't need!"
"Majorly in agreement with you there." Jessica hurried after Jeffrey, throwing one last worried look back to make sure that everyone else was okay for the moment.
He escorted her into the Camaro, and then took off quickly. He drove down the main highway for a little while, and took the first turn off he found. As he sped down the road in the red car, Jeffery felt his heartbeat slow to normal when the sound of sirens faded in the distance.
Glancing at Jessica, he gave her an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry. I hope I didn't freak you out back there. I just thought we'd better get out of there. After the trouble the Sunnydale cops gave us, I just don't think we need this Sheriff Valenti guy on our backs. I've seen him around. He doesn't miss much."
Jessica glanced over her shoulder, but there was no sign of red and blue flashing lights. "Wonderful. I was hoping for the dumb cop factor here. Great." She glanced at her watch. "We should probably get to the high school. I don't need Aidan giving me the Glare of Death."
The had to drive quite a ways before they found a road that would let them double back into town from a different direction. Jeffery took the first one they came across, and negotiated the bumpy asphalt back into town. A while later, they ended up back in Roswell, not too far from the school.
Jeffery parked the Camaro a couple of blocks away from the school. His car was memorable. If he tried to park in student parking, someone would know right away that the car didn't belong.
"Well," he said, glancing at his watch as he opened his car door, "we may have been forced into a significant detour, but at least we made it in time for the meeting..."
"Good enough." Jessica hopped out of the Camero and started toward the school at a fairly brisk pace. "Not bad, all things considered." She looked up at Jeffrey. "Do you mind if we stick around after the meeting? I'm gonna need a ride back to the college eventually, but I might as well question one of the Evanses while I'm here."
"Cool by me," Jeffery said. He clicked the button on his keychain that made the Camaro lock automatically. Handy thing, that, especially when you had to get into your car -- and away from something bad -- very quickly. He'd had to do that once when something nasty jumped him unawares. Of course, he'd then had to get the fender replaced -- when he'd only owned the car for two weeks -- because he'd run the thing down and killed it. It had been some kind of slimy demon.
Pushing those lovely memories away, Jeffery hurried up to walk next to Jessica and finish his earlier answer. "I, actually, only have one class today. I went light on the class load this semester. I figured I'd be patrolling or scouting and such a lot. So I'm only taking 12 hours. And that's a really long way to say my only class today is at 2:30."
"Wish I could have done that," Jessica said. "I bugged the admissions dean, but there wasn't any way around it. I mean, I kinda expected that with my majors, but I didn't think a minor in legal theory would take /that/ many classes."
She grinned. "Sorry. Rant mode kicking in there."
"Legal theory, huh?" He grinned at her to show he was just teasing when he said, "Beauty and brains!"
They walked a minute more, and then Jeffery asked, "So do you have a plan about how to get answers out of an Evans, or are you just going to play it by ear?"
"I was going to go with the ear option," Jessica said immediately. "One good lesson from Sunnydale's mentally vacant: you learn to sound really sincere and not say anything." She held open the door to the high school with an "After you", following it with a "Where's Aidan's office, anyway?"
***************
Aidan and Willow talked for a couple of hours. Willow understood about the whole girlfriend ruse, and, though she enjoyed ribbing him about it, she also realized that another visitor from Sunnydale should have a cover story, just in case. Aidan could tell that she wasn't going to let him live this down for a long time, though, so he settled himself in for the ride.
Sometime in the middle of second period, Xander came in to get Cordelia's schedule for her, and a couple of excuses for their tardiness. Aidan gave the excuses when Xander briefly explained the emergency, and made the other boy promise to fill them all in at the meeting. Since everything was all right and no one had been irreparibly hurt, they decided it could wait until then.
As lunchtime approached, Aidan straightened up the mess Tess had made of his office. It took a while to get the files back in order, but he got through it eventually. He thought about leaving Max's file out for the meeting, but he knew he couldn't do that. He might not intend to be a guidence counselor forever, but he just couldn't break the rules like that. Not unless they found some uncontested proof that Max Evans was an evil demon in human guise...
"Well," Aidan said to Willow, as he glanced around the office, "I guess we've got everything ready. I wish I had a few more chairs, but, I guess this will do..."
*****************
Michael led the curiously silent new girl all the way to her classroom, which was in the room next to his own second period English class. Stopping by her door, he looked over the rest of her schedule and, feeling unusually generous, said, "Look, your third period class is Chemistry, which is right down that hallway. You can't miss it, there's a big poster of the Periodic Table on the door." Skimming down the rest of her schedule, he added, "And your fourth period class is Calculus in room 106. That's two doors down from me. I'm in room 108 for Advanced Geometry. And after that we both have lunch. If you want, I can show you where the cafeteria is..."
Michael's English teacher motioned for him to hurry it up.
Michael handed the girl back her schedule, glancing at the top where her name was printed before handing it over. "Look, Amy, if you want directions to lunch, catch me after math."
Then he turned and ducked into English, taking a seat right by the door for an easy escape route.
Amy tried to say something, but he bustled her off too quickly. She entered her class and then wondered how she would escape him at lunch. As much as she appreciated his help, she was not eating anywhere traditional like the cafeteria. She'd worry about that later.
[Just great, Michael. Now look what you've done. You decided to go all Good Samaritan and now you actually have to be there for fourth period in case this Amy girl needs directions. Wonderful.]
Michael slumped down in his chair, fully prepared to sulk his way through the rest of English. And when the teacher passed out the reading list, which had The Scarlet Letter printed in bold across the top, Michael had to try really hard to keep from screaming.
****************
Faith looked over at Oz and shrugged. There was no way in hell she wanted to be at that school. Especially not while she was wound up. The Slayer put her feet up on the dash and closed her eyes.
"Wake me when this crap is over okay?"
Oz nodded and slid the door shut. He...really didn't want to be involved either. He never really was a Scooby and now he wasn't much to anyone else either. Except for that girl. You know and this odd comraderie with Faith but that was...
Well he didn't know what that was. She was Faith. She didn't really blend well with anyone. Oz pulled away from the parking lot and drove toward the school. He was pretty sure if he just followed everyone else he'd find it. And there wasn't a whole lot of town to get lost in anyway.
He parked the van and gave Faith a light poke to her shoulder. This was sort of a do it even if you hate it thing and if he had to go so did she.
"Faith..."
"What say we drive out of here Fuzzy?"
"Can't."
"This sucks."
"Yeah."
They both made their way in to the school keeping all four eyes open for other's from SunnyD. Meanwhile across town a bit Jade opened her Jeep door and leaned against the car.
She head the sound of tires on gravel and looked up to see...Zeke? The were blinked a few times and looked up at the Motel sign. Yeah this was the right place but...why was she there?
And for some odd reason she didn't mind. Okay she thought the girl despite her really really violent and strange behavior was kinda cute. And...Jade didn't really think she'd get hurt because she didn't know any of those other people anyway.
"Coincedence or were you actually following me?"
Jade smirked slighty and crossed her arms over her chest. She wasn't afraid. Nope. Not at all. Okay just a lil bit but like hell she was going to show it. Rather she just sat there and watched.
Amy hung out in her seat shuffling and reshuffling her things, hoping Michael would give up on her. She waited a while and then cautiously stuck her head around the corner. He wasn't there. Either he'd forgotten her or given up on her. Either way, she was now free to go to Aidan's office and not be noticed as totally wacko. Who eats lunch in the Guidance Counselor's office?
She knocked briefly on the door to Aidan's office, which she eventually found, and then opened it, not waiting for a response. "Hi," she said to anyone in the room, not much caring about a whole heck of a lot. It had been a bad day.
Aidan looked up and smiled when he saw Amy. It had been way too long since they'd had the chance to talk. Not since Ireland, and during that time she had been too preoccupied for chatting. Truth be told, so had he, with the promotion and everything.
"You're the first to arrive," Aidan told her. He gestured around the office. "You get our pick of the chairs. Sorry I don't have more."
Glancing at Willow, he added, "And we have a surprise guest..."
***************
Liz breathed a huge sigh of relief when the bell rang signaling lunch time. Her morning classes had been almost a blur. She was tense, and her new shoes had started to rub a blister on her heel. She really needed some time to relax and regroup.
[And to see Max] the tiny voice inside her head whispered. Liz squelched that voice as quickly as possible.
She started walking toward the cafeteria, scanning the lunch crowds for someone she knew. Maria would be nice... Liz hadn't seen her best friend all morning. Harmony was also a possibility. Liz was looking forward to getting to know a potential new friend. Liz did want to see Michael, but she wasn't sure he'd come sit with them any more. He might be in Maria-avoidance mode. Max... well... Liz was trying to keep her mind off of that scenario.
Actually, there was one person she really wanted to see. Someone she hadn't seen all day. Isabel. She thought the female, alien, supermodel should know about Alex... Even if she didn't care, Liz thought she ought to know.
Not seeing anyone yet, Liz walked over to the table the six of them had often frequented the previous year. She set her school books down to claim the spot, and then got in line for some food. A few minutes later she came back to the table with a rather limp salad, a cookie and a diet soda. Yum. But the green flecks in the meatloaf had just been too scary. Then she sat down in the corner seat, from which she could scan the rest of the caf, and she waited for one of the people on her mind to come in...
As she put her books into her locker, Isabel Evans wondered what she would do during lunch. She had thought that Max, Michael or even Tess would have bumped into her and organised something, but they were strangely absent. She had seen Max briefly, but he seemed to have other things on his mind.
Isabel could guess at what, and she didn't need more than one guess. When she thought about that particular romantic entanglement, Isabel immediately thought of Alex. Her sudden brush off of his affections had hurt him. She had no doubt of that, but she never meant that to happen. She thought it was the best thing to do, no matter how comfortable she felt when he held her. It wasn't a reason to pursue a relationship.
Thinking that maybe she would find some friends in the cafeteria, she walked off her mind still running thoughts over and over in her head.
**************
Harmony was surprised she hadn't ran into Xander Harris all day, but maybe he had actually dropped out and found his calling in life.
"Stop that," Harmony lectured herself. "You're trying to be nice, remember".
It was more difficult that Harmony first thought, this trying to be 'nice' thing. It was even more difficult when you were being serious about being 'nice', not just acting. So often a nasty barb would be the first thing that came into her mind, and it took a conscious effort to stop blurting out every one that she started in her head. Of course it was easier around new people. The people that didn't know who she was in Sunnydale. So while the mischievous part of her mind, was running possibilities over and over, about what some of Sunnydale's motley crew were doing in Roswell, the other half of her mind wished that they weren't.
As she neared the cafeteria she remembered Liz's invitation to join her for lunch. Searching around the tables she spotted Liz sitting by herself. She made a mental note and proceeded to the food line, which was thankfully short to grab something to eat.
***********
At the same time, from the other side of the cafeteria, Isabel had noticed Liz sitting by herself as well and after a moment of contemplation decided to say hello. She didn't want to feel attached to her human friends, but the pull she felt towards them was too strong. She needed the company. If the morning at school had taught her anything, it was how lonely she felt.
Steeling herself, not knowing exactly how the reception from Liz would be, she proceeded over to the table. Sitting down slightly hesitantly, before giving Liz a slight smile.
"Hi."
Liz looked up from her sorry excuse for a salad to see Isabel standing there.
"Hi," she replied in a soft voice. "I didn't think you'd be..." Liz paused, unsure of what to fill in the blank with -- sitting with me today, sitting with humans today, talking to humans today... She decided that all of them were rude, and rude wouldn't accomplish anything. Liz had always admired Isabel, and liked her sometimes -- when Isabel was being real, and not a snob.
"...It's nice to see you," Liz finally said, after a long pause. What made things harder were the thoughts of Alex -- and his hurt puppy tone on the phone that morning when he'd talked about needing more time away from Isabel -- thoughts that immediately jumped to mind when she saw Isabel.
"So... I... um... I need to tell you something. Something about Alex," Liz started, but they were suddenly interrupted.
Isabel was about to ask Liz what exactly she had to say about Alex, when a new girl sat down at the table. It was so what Isabel didn't want at that moment, and she made sure the new girl realised that, by giving her one of Isabel's trademark glares.
As Harmony paid for the food, she looked over to Liz and saw that someone had joined her.
'Someone that knows how to look good too,' Harmony thought.
She wondered if she should join them, but Liz had given her the invitation to meet some friends and this seemed like as good of time as any. She carefully avoided the quickly growing throng of students and navigated her way over to the table.
"Hi Liz," she said cheerfully, placing her tray on the table in front of her.
She immediately noticed that Liz's friend did not seem happy to see her.
"Umm...is it okay for me to stay?" she asked hoping that it would be. Sitting by herself eating her lunch was so last year. In fact it was. Literally.
Liz's face broke out into a genuine, welcoming smile when Harmony came up. Part of her was relieved that she didn't have to launch into the Alex thing just yet. And another part of her was just glad that the new girl had taken Liz up on her invitation. Liz decided then and there that she was not going to be antisocial this year like she had been last year. Of course, she would help her friends -- both alien and human -- when they needed her, too, but she couldn't let it take over her whole life. She used to be a normal girl and have fun sometimes, until the end of last year when it was all trauma and pain all the time. Max had made that bearable, but now... well, that was different now.
"Hi, Harmony," Liz said aloud. "Yes, please sit down. This is Isabel Evans. Isabel, this is Harmony. You might have seen her around. She moved her at the end of last year."
Liz darted a "look" toward Isabel, a look that promised she would finish their earlier conversation later, and then hoped that Isabel wouldn't pick now to do the anti-social-to-humans thing.
Harmony took a seat and noticed the looks the other girls were giving her.
Isabel caught the look that Liz gave her. While she thought about leaving, Isabel realised that Liz did want to talk to her and no matter what, Isabel still cared for Alex. Even if others didn't think that she did.
"And I'm Maria DeLuca," Maria added as she plopped her tray of today's questionable cafeteria food down on the table. She gave Liz and Harmony a friendly smile. Isabel got a wary one. She wasn't sure what mood the alien was in - or what she would have had to put up with if Harmony hadn't been there acting as an oblivious shield.
Now she wouldn't have to hear anything about destiny - or how said destiny pertained to Michael and Isabel. Suddenly Harmony looked like a really, really wonderful person. "What do you think of Roswell?" she asked, proving that she was not above falling back on generic questions.
Liz gave Maria a welcoming smile, glad to finally see her best friend. Then she stole a side-long glance at Isabel. Liz wondered if she should take the opportunity -- now that Maria was here to talk to Harmony -- to get a word alone with Isabel. Liz decided to wait and see what Isabel did, and take her cue from that.
**************
When the bell signaling the end of 4th period sounded, Michael jumped out of his seat in record time and was out the door before the bell was even finished ringing. He paused by the door, looking over at the classroom that Amy was supposed to be in and weighed his options. He could stand around here and wait on the off chance that Amy still wanted his help - she'd never actually confirmed anything earlier today - or he could try and beat the crowds to lunch. His stomach growled hungrily. But he *had* promised...
Michael groaned, leaning back against the wall beside the classrooms as people began streaming by him. He'd wait for a minute or two, but if she didn't show up soon then he was out of here.
He waited as people passed him by, looking for the girl. But he never saw her. After a minute or two, he gave up and slipped into the crowds heading for the cafeteria. He was too hungry to wait for her any longer. Besides, he was sure that she could just follow the crowds to the caf. It shouldn't be that hard for her to find.
Michael entered the cafeteria and slipped through the lines, cutting around to the counter and sneaking behind it. One of the cooks, Mabel Owens, had taken a liking to Michael and always had some extra food to give him. She never charged him, which was good since he could never afford to pay with what little money he made at the Crashdown already going to pay for his apartment. Mabel usually just gave him the stuff that no one else wanted to eat, like the strange meatloaf with green specks or tuna surprise that was full of surprises but lacking in actual tuna. And that sucked. But Michael wasn't up to asking Isabel for money today. He was still trying to deal with the fact that neither Max nor Isabel had even bothered to call him *once* over the summer. Michael had been abandoned by the people he trusted the most. Max, Isabel, Alex, Maria... but at least he could understand why Maria left. He'd told her that, although he loved her, they couldn't be together. If he had been in her position, he'd have left him, too. And he'd never been that close to Alex, so the gangly boy's leaving hadn't really hurt. But Max and Izzy. They were the closest thing Michael had to a family. And they'd left him here in Roswell to rot while they went off and had a summer of fun and sun. To say that Michael was pissed would be a definite understatement.
After grabbing his plate of odd meatloaf and thanking Mabel, Michael headed into the main part of the cafeteria and spotted Liz, Maria, Isabel and some new girl sitting at the gang's old table. He also spotted an empty table on the other side of the caf that looked mighty tempting. But Michael was *not* going to cave and take the easy way out. He was going to be strong.
Holding his head high, Michael made his way over to the table that Liz and the gang occupied and looked over the seating choices. It was a circular table and Liz was sitting in the corner by the window, with Isabel on her left and the new girl on her right. Maria was sitting beside the new girl and as far away from Isabel as was humanly possible. Which left Michael in a sticky spot. He either sat beside Maria or he sat beside Izzy. Now Michael might be dense to the little things sometimes, but even he knew that where he sat would say something. It would show a conscious choice between the two blondes on his part. It would be a big deal, a symbol, and, knowing the girls like he did, they'd not fail to take notice of it and totally over-analyze it later.
That thought firmly in mind, he took the seat beside Maria.
Harmony was about to answer Maria's question, when another student joined them at the table. One that Harmony actually knew. What immediately struck Harmony was the reactions that the other occupants had on the new arrival. Even she could tell there was some underlining problem between them all. And yet they were all sitting together.
'Maybe that is what real friends do,' she thought to herself.
"So, what are we talking about?" Michael asked, making a half hearted attempt at breaking the tension that his arrival had caused around the table. But he was careful to avoid meeting Isabel's gaze. He focused instead on Liz and Maria, trying to make with the small talk since the presence of the new girl prevented them from talking about anything related to little green men.
Isabel was happy to see Michael. But through that happiness she could see some underlining tension. Her and Max would definetly have to put in some quality time with Michael to rectify their desertion over the summer. She only hoped that he would be able to see her side of the situation.
Harmony for her part, began to feel a little like an outsider. It was obvious that the other four people had a history together. While she let out a little giggle at Michael's entrance the the tension remained and she wondered if mayeb she should leave them alone to talk about whatever they needed to. She turned to Liz for help. Since Liz had invited her, she thought she would wait and see what Liz said.
Liz watched emotions flicker over Michael's face. A few months before, she wouldn't have been able to read him. He was a pretty closed book. However, a summer filled with Michael bonding had made that a little easier.
She held her breath as he made his decision and sat next to Maria. Her eyes almost popped out of her head for a minute, but she could guess why he'd made that choice. He hadn't said much about Max and Isabel over the summer -- it was a sore subject for both of them -- but she knew they had hurt him very badly by their absence. From all that Liz knew, he had scarcely heard from them over the long three months, if at all. Of course, Liz hadn't heard from them either, but she'd been the one to sever her relationship with Max. Michael hadn't done that. Liz had tried to bring up the Michael subject with Max earlier, but he hadn't wanted to talk about it. She sighed.
When Michael asked his question, Liz put a bright smile on her face and said, "Michael, this is Harmony Kendall. She's new. Well, actually, she moved here at the end of last year. Maria was just asking if she likes our lovely little town..."
'Okay,' Harmony thought,' she still wants me to stay. That is good.'
"Roswell's okay. Quite a bit quieter than where I used to live, but that isn't a bad thing." Harmony replied, hoping Maria didn't think she was rude for not having done so earlier. With each knew person arriving it seemed to stop any conversation from starting.
Liz wanted to say more. To offer him some kind of support, but what could she really say in this group of mixed company? Not much. Whatever she might say would be misinterpreted by someone. And she still didn't know what Maria would think when she found out that Liz now counted Michael as a friend. She settled for darting Michael a sympathetic gaze as they all waited for Harmony to answer the long-delayed question.
Michael caught Liz's gaze and smiled at her, though it was a quick, fairly strained attempt. Looking at Harmony, he nodded, trying to get the conversation moving. This silence thing between Izzy and Maria was brutal and of course he was the cause of it.
"Oh, yeah, you're that chick I met in Mr. O'Shea's office," he said to Harmony, taking his fork and picking at his flimsy excuse for a meatloaf.
Looking at the others' (i.e. Liz and Maria, not Isabel since he was still avoiding actually looking at her) surprised expressions, he clarified, "She was getting her schedule changed at the same time as me. She fainted."
'HE would have to bring THAT up,' Harmony inwardly winced. She tried to hide her embaressment by turning her head away for a second. It wasn't all that successful.
Liz couldn't help a small giggle. "She *fainted*?" She gave Harmony a smile to show that she wasn't making fun of her, but just amused by Michael's phrasing. "I guess the new guidance counselor is as scary as the last one..." Liz bit the rest of the comment off there, not wanting to get into the whole Topolski thing in front of Harmony. "Either that or it was Michael's hat that scared you."
There was something about Liz that Harmony found welcoming. Here was a girl that knew nothing about Harmony Kendall, and yet she was, well bending over backwards to make her feel welcome. It wasn't an act, it was genuine. It was the sort of person that Harmony would like to call friend. It was the sort of person that Harmony would never have been friends with in Sunnydale. And Harmony liked that. It was a new town. The only problem was in had remnants of her old town. Namely Xander, Faith, Jessica and Aidan. She didn't know what she should say about that. If they were all in the same town together, then there was definetely something evil happenning. Btu she remembered how surprised they had been when she told them, back in Sunnydale, that she basically knew all about there little gang. It seemed to Harmony that they valued their secrecy and so she thought it would be best to try and keep it for them.
"I was just surprised," Harmony said, the redish glow almost gone from her cheeks. "I knew Mr. O'shea in Sunnydale. He was sort of the last person I expected to see in the Guidance Counsellor's office."
She turned to Michael, trying to use humour to cover her embaressment. "At least I was memorable." She added a wry grin for effect, but somehow she doubted he would see the funny side. "Although not as memorable as your hat."
Liz glanced back at Michael. "Hey, you got rid of the hat! Thank goodness!"
Against her better judgement, Maria looked directly at Michael and found herself speaking. She hadn't planned on speaking, but somehow it happened anyway. "Hey, you did get rid of the hat. Wow." Then, to her further amazement, she smiled. "You might want to try a comb, though." Her tone of voice took anything but light teasing out of the comment, although her brain was still trying to figure out why sensible, not-needing-Michael Maria wasn't doing the talking.
But it felt right talking to Michael like this, even with Isabel and all that assorted baggage present. She was really going to have to work on her self-resolutions.
Michael rolled his eyes. "Now that *everyone* has told me how much they hate my hat, can we move on please?"
Looking over at Maria, Michael was pleasantly surprised to note that she was actually talking to him like a normal human being (no pun intended) instead of blowing him off, like she had every right to do. And after having to deal with the fact that he wasn't important enough to Max and Izzy to even warrant a phone call, it was good to feel like someone cared enough to be nice to him.
Yes, talking to Liz over the summer had been great, but Michael had missed the feeling of having a family. A group of people to whom he actually mattered and who mattered to him as well. That was something that Michael valued above everything else, seeing that it was also something that he'd never been given from Hank and the other foster homes that he'd lived in.
Giving Maria a tentative smile - he didn't really feel comfortable with anything more at this point - Michael ran a hand through his unruly hair, making another small attempt to fix it. But it seemed pretty hopeless at this point.
**************
Max had been eagerly awaiting lunch time -- and the chance to hang out with Liz -- and would have been the first person out the door of fourth period had he been able. Unfortunately he was not. Mrs. Callaghan, his English Lit teacher, stopped him at the door to discuss something with him. He wasn't sure what all she was talking about. Some way he could help her or extra project or something, he wasn't really sure, his mind already in the cafeteria. He just agreed since it seemed the fastest way out of the room.
He set a pretty fast pace through the hall and stopped cold on entering the caf. Liz was there, but she was surrounded by people, some of whom he had to give an account of his actions to. Well, it would only go down easier with food -- if nothing else something to occupy his hands. He, Izzy and Michael usually managed to avoid eating here. He stood in line and paid for his unappetizing fair. He then approached the table cautiously.
"Uh, hi," he said in greeting and slid nonchalantly into the seat next to his sister. "How is everyone?" he asked, looking around the table and hoping someone would introduce him to the new girl or something...
Liz's heart began thumping rapidly when she spotted Max. This was it. They were all here. Except, of course, for Alex so far away at the university. But had anyone else even asked about his absence? She felt a little angry in defense of her absent friend, but squelched that feeling, realizing that was unfair of her. And maybe she was embracing that feeling so she could avoid other feelings...
Glancing at Harmony, Liz smiled a little. "Well, the gang's pretty much all here now. Everyone who's coming anyway. See, I promised you'd get to meet some people." With a strained laugh, Liz gestured to Max. "This is Max Evans, Isabel's sister. Max, this is Harmony. She moved her at the end of last year. I invited her to have lunch with us."
Harmony shouldn't have been surprised that another person joined the table. It was afterall becoming a expected occurunce. But what surprised her more was that as Max sat down the tension rose even more. She gave him a welcoming smile, but thought it best to make her exit. She wanted to get to know Liz more, and by definition that meant her friends. But now didn't seem to be the best time.
"Thanks for inviting me Liz, but I get the feeling that you guys have stuff to talk about," Harmony said, getting up, wondering if Liz would ask her to stay.
While on one hand Isabel was happy to see Harmony get up, it meant that they wouldn't have to avoid certian subjects, she was also a little worried for the same reason. With Harmony there, the buffer zone would be there. And just maybe a buffer zone is what the group needed for now.
Michael suddenly had the urge to keep Harmony from leaving so soon. He wasn't ready to confront Max and Isabel. Not yet. There was still too much stuff pent up.
Rising to his feet as well, he gave Harmony a small smile and said, "Don't leave! Er... unless you have somewhere else you need to be, I mean..."
Harmony was actually surprised that Michael spoke out. But not wanting to pass up a great opportunity, she sat herself down again.
"No, I don't have anywhere else to be." She paused and looked at the others. "I ..." She stopped. They didn't need to be reminded of whatever it was they had on thier minds. Not really knowing what else to say, she sat back and waited to see if anyone had any questions they wanted to ask.
Michael sat back down as well, suddenly finding himself in a tight spot. He'd wanted Harmony to stay, true, but what could he possibly think of to talk to her about? As far as he knew, they had next to nothing in common... except...
"Art," he said, suddenly breaking the tense silence around the table. Realizing that no one would follow his stream of consciousness logic without either x-ray vision into his brain or an explanation, Michael chose the latter as the better course of action and added, "Um... you added Art to your schedule earlier. I'm in Art. 5th period. So... we have that in common."
"Yes we do," Harmony added with a smile, noticing that Michael had been looking for a thread to grasp onto. "I've never thought much about it before, but an Aunt told me I should take it up after she saw some sketches I did over the summer, so I thought, what the heck! I'm hoping it will be fun."
"So, you like to draw?" Michael asked, actually becoming interested in the conversation inspite of his usual anti-social nature. "I do, too. It calms me down sometimes, when I'm feeling angry or upset." Michael suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if he'd just revealed too much too fast. Trying to get the conversation off of him and on to safer subjects, he asked suddenly, "Do you have any of your sketches with you?"
"Not with me today. I didn't know if i would be able to change subjects, so I didn't think about bringing any in. I will tommorow," Harmony replied, looking forward to comparing notes, so to speak.
Michael smiled, an actual real smile, which was rare for him. "Great, I'd love to see them. I could show you some of my stuff as well, if you're even interested. There's this painting I did last year of a geodesic dome that won some prizes..."
"That would be great., thanks," Harmony replied, genuinely pleased that she may have made a new friend. Someone that was a little different than the impression she got of him, when he didn't answer her in Aidan's office. First impressions really didn't count for much, Harmony realised.
Isabel had watched the bi-play between Michael and Harmony with increasing frustration. Michael didn't seem to want to even look at her, let alone acknowledge her presence. She had been away from him for so long, that for the first time in her life, she didn't feel as if she was close to him anymore.
"How have you been, Michael?" she asked, trying not to sound too desperate.
Harmony looked over at Michael, but he seemed to be engrossed in his food. She then turned to Liz to see if she had a suggestion of what to do. Harmony thought that the group needed to get,whatever it was, out of theri system. Problem was she was still there.
Michael felt his smile slip away to be replaced with his normal scowl. He was still trying to deal with his since of abandonment in regards to Max and Isabel. And he wasn't doing a very good job. "Like you even care," he muttered under his breath, staring down at his half-eaten food sullenly.
"Of course I care. How could you think that I didn't? Isabel retorted,her voice rising in volume as she spoke. She didn't care who heard. She could not take the silent treatment from Michael any longer.
Michael threw his fork down angrily. It made a loud clattering sound as it bounced off of his tray and onto the floor. "Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that you and Maxamillion abandoned me for three months without even a word?" Michael fixed Isabel with a hard glare, his eyes narrowed. "Someone who cares about me as much as you claim to would have at least taken the time to make a phone call or send a postcard. I don't think that's too much to ask of my fam..." Michael was so hurt and angry that he couldn't even get the word 'family' out when speaking about Max and Izzy, so he settled for "my friends."
Michael stood up, shoving his chair back so hard that it toppled over with a crash. Looking at Liz, Maria and Harmony, he said in a slightly softer voice, "I'm sorry, but I seem to have lost my appetite. I hope I didn't ruin your lunch."
Then he turned and walked away, heading for the cafeteria doors. He felt people staring at him after all the commotion he just made, but he didn't care. He just wanted to get out of there. Now.
"Michael!" Isabel yelled after the retreating boy. When he didn't turn around, Isabel got up quickly, knocking her seat back and took after him.
'Okay now I wish I had left,' Harmony thought as the silence enveloped the table after the exits of Isabel and Michael. She looked around at the people left at the table, almost wanting to protest her innocence by yelling out, "I didn't do it." However the looks on their faces showed her that now was not a time for a sarcastic comment.
***************
"I was going to go with the ear option," Jessica said immediately. "One good lesson from Sunnydale's mentally vacant: you learn to sound really sincere and not say anything." She held open the door to the high school with an "After you", following it with a "Where's Aidan's office, anyway?"
Jeffery shook his head. "I've never been there. I guess we'll just have to look around." Noting the direction of the cafeteria, he added, "but we shouldn't go that way. Too many people."
When they got to the front doors, he held one open for Jessica to pass through and then they continued down the hall.
"I'm with you there." Jessica threw a glance back in the direction of the cafeteria. "That's probably the best place to meet the others, but I know a couple of kids here and they all know I'm going to college. It would look kinda weird."
She shrugged and started looking for signs. Or a map. "I guess we could just start asking teacher-types. I don't think either of us have met any of them yet."
Jeffery gestured to the first hallway he saw. It branched off near the main office. "Let's try this one first. I would guess that the counselor's office is nearer to the main office, if it's near anything. And if it's not, then it's just placed randomly, and any hallway is as good as another."
He started walking, and, sure enough, only a few meters down the hall they found the sign that read "Guidance Counselor."
"Whaddya know," Jeffery remarked. "That wasn't so hard. Shall we?" He opened the door for Jessica to preceed him into the room.
*****************
After rushing out of the door to the cafeteria, Isabel saw Michael at the other end of the corridor. She couldn't understand his reaction. Well that wasn't exactly true. She was nervous about his reaction because of the lack of contact she had with him over the summer. But the level of his anger, and the fact that he stormed out, shocked her.
"Michael! Wait!!!" She yelled after him. She didn't know if he would stop and talk to her. After his reaction in the cafeteria, she couldn't be sure of anything.
****************
Liz could tell that Harmony felt uncomfortable. She touched the new girl on the shoulder and asked, "Um... would you like to go with me to the snack machine? I'm going to buy some candy. This salad just isn't enough." She gestured to her half-eaten, limp salad with a grimace.
Harmony let out a breath, glad that Liz had suggested something to take away the awkwardness of the situation. "Thanks. That would be nice."
Isabel had once accused Max of "passively watching" and at the time he had denied it vehemently. Here and now in the cafeteria as he did precisely that, he had to lend credence to his sister's posit. He knew he should have said something to make it all better, maybe actually be the "commander" others claimed he was. Somehow, none of that happened. Michael stormed off with Isabel hot on his tail and here he sat.
"We'll be back in a second, guys." Liz gave Max and Maria a faint smile, hoping they understood what she was doing, and wondering what the two of them would talk about left alone together. Then she walked off with Harmony toward the vending machines.
Liz went and Max started to wonder what he should be doing right now. He needed to do something. Breaking in on the conversation between Michael and Iz didn't necessarily sound like a grand plan. Then Maria spoke...
"No problem," Maria muttered and went back to poking at her mystery meal with a plastic fork. Silence had worked about as well as rambling had - ie, not well at all. Michael and Isabel were gone now, but, temporarily, so was the Harmony-buffer.
On the other hand, now she could find out if Max knew anything about weird happenings. Okay, yeah, she probably shouldn't be speaking to him after what he had put Liz through, but at least he had the wounded-puppy look down. And he hadn't run off.
"Before Harmony comes back," she said as the way of an opener. "Have you noticed anything weird here? Weirder than usual? Disappeary- weird?" she clarified.
"Actually, I don't know much of anything," he admitted. "Iz and I have been in Albuquerque and just got back, which is actually the source of the problem with Michael. I know we didn't do it and Nasedo has been working on closing down the FBI Special Unit. They are certainly far from here." He made sure to keep his voice extremely low. It would not do to be overheard on a subject like this.
"That's what's worrying me," Maria said as she gave her mystery meal another vicious jab. "There's a ton of people disappearing. No bodies or anything. I know you and Isabel and Michael aren't behind it - " she decided to leave off what she had heard about Tess's abnormal behavior for the moment - "and I kinda figured Nasedo wouldn't be around here, but that kinda leaves the question of what's going on."
She glanced around and lowered her voice before continuing. "There's a ton of new kids here. I think most of them are only a year or two older than us and I know that most of them came here around the same time as all these people started disappearing. That's starting to freak me out." Jab jab jab went the fork.
What was that about needing to actually be the commander? Max's heart sank at her words. He always knew he was never going to be just a normal human. He often got caught up in the fantasy that he could live a normal human life. Once again that fairy tale was shredded right before his eyes.
"They are just high school kids, right? Not gang members or something? It could all just be a coincidence." He hoped it was true. And given Maria's tendency for the dramatic he wanted to reassure her as best he could.
"I'm hoping it is," Maria admitted. "I mean, I met one of them - Jeffrey something-or-other - and he seemed pretty normal. Maybe it's just a crime wave or something." Even as she said that, she didn't believe it and she knew that it was clear in her tone of voice and her face. "Normal would be nice for once," she added, taking out her feelings on the poor cafeteria food.
She gave Max a quick smile. "I know you don't want to lead and I'm just dumping stuff on you, but I don't know how seriously Michael and Isabel would take this and Tess..." She trailed off before anything unkind could slip out. "Tess has been kinda weird lately," she finished.
"Yeah, well, what I want and what I have to do are two different things. Wait, Tess has been weird? Weird how? Weird for her or weird for everyone else?" Max's brow furrowed. The last thing he needed was to have to deal with erstwhile wife or whatever. He'd been doing his best to avoid her like the plague given her affect on the thing most precious to him: his relationship with Liz.
"Weird for her, I think." Maria nodded in Liz's direction. "You'll have to bug Liz and Michael about it, but it sounded like Tess said she was gonna snap a girl's neck. And I guess she had no pulse." She gave a slight shrug. "I don't really know her that well; maybe she doesn't have a pulse." What that meant was that she thought Tess was a complete bitch who should burn in hell for getting in the way, but now that Michael was not present, she seemed to have more control over what she said.
Max frowned again. "Self-serving, yeah; manipulative, sure; homicidal? Not exactly normal." Max looked back at Maria from the eternity he had been contemplating. "She doesn't have a pulse? How can you not have a pulse? I have pulse. See?" He shoved his wrist at her to prove his veracity.
Tess had made her way back to the school just in time for lunch, after leaving campus and skipping all of her morning classes. It wasn't like she hadn't earned it, dealing with that new guidance counsillor had been more than any vampire-alien should have to face in one day.
Wandering into the cafeteria she spotted Max and Maria (insert whoever else is in the scene here), they were as good as anybody to go and sit down with. All her friends and family on one side were currently sleeping, and Max was the only one around from the other side, so sitting with them was inevitable.
"I'll take your word for it," Maria said tactfully. "That's what Michael said, too; all of you have a pulse. I don't see how Tess could be any different." She gave him a quick grin. "Not that I'm calling you self-serving or manipulative."
"Thanks, I appreciate that," he said drolly. With an abrupt change of subject he said, "Look, I know you haven't seen Liz like all summer, but you are her best friend. Do you think there's any hope...I mean...for us..." he trailed off and studied the table so he would not have to meet her eyes.
"Self serving and manipulative...I take it we're discussing me and my glowing reputation." Tess said and gave Maria a false smile.
Looking away from the other girl and over at Max she gave it her best shot at being genuine.
"And how are you Max? It's certianly been awhile!"
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Harmony got up and started towards the snack machine. "So what's your snack of choice?
Liz pulled a couple of quarters out of her pocket and stared in to the clear window of the vending machine. "You know," she said slowly, "I think chocolate would go really well right about now." She plunked her quarters in and selected a Twix bar. As the machine whirred gently, releasing the treat, Liz said to Harmony, "I hope that didn't weird you out too much. Michael... well, he's an emotional guy. There are some issues between him and Isabel. Max, too. Actually, we've all got a few issues between us."
She leaned down to get her candy bar, wondering how much she could safely say. "Michael, Max and Isabel were all... abandoned as kids. It made a bond between them, even though Michael is on his own now and Max and Isabel were adopted. He's upset with them right now. They went off for the summer and didn't contact him... I know he's hurting about it. And, um, I don't know if you noticed the other tensions, but they were, sort of, romantic in origin. Max and I, we broke up last year, and Michael and Maria did, too. This was the first time we've all seen each other since then. I... Actually, I didn't think Isabel, Max and Michael would all eat with us today when I invited you." She straightened up with her Twix and looked to see what Harmony thought of the explanation.
Harmony was slightly taken aback by how much Liz had just opened up to her. It surprised her, but maybe that is what people did. She was used to a different life. Where people hid there hassles, less it be used against them. Yet Liz had told her everything, trusting her with the details.
"Liz,..." Harmony paused. This sort of honesty needed a breath. "You want to know what I saw? I saw a group of friends, who despite having major issues between them, still sitting together at lunch. All that showed me was that you all still care for each other."
Harmony leant against the wall to the right of the vending machine. "Where I came from..who I was..I never saw that." Harmony suddenly remembered someone who had shown her that sort of kindness, but continued anyway.
"But that was probably my fault as much as anyone's, and now that I've rabbited on, I can't believe I did."
She turned away, slightly embarrassed at what she said.
Liz reached out and touched Harmony's arm. "When I saw you last year, Harmony, I thought you were one of the elite. You have the look, and then you had the attitude, but today, well, I think maybe I misjudged you back then, so, for what it's worth, I'm sorry."
Blushing a little, Liz added, "And thanks for what you said about our group. I just keep hoping that you're right. I want us to be friends, despite any other issues." A small sigh escaped her lips. "But, I guess we'll just have to wait and see about that."
Her sad expression turned into a smile, and she added, "And don't mind about rambling on to me. Everyone always says I'm a good listener. And I don't keep score with personal information." Liz knew that Harmony probably knew that, or she wouldn't have confided in her, but Liz thought that the girl might need a little reassurance anyway. Sometimes it was like that when building a new friendship.
"Yeah, well, last year...let's just say I had a few issues of my own to get over. Like the fact of being sent to Roswell in the first place," Harmony replied. "Family breakup thing," she added just in case Liz was wondering what had happenned.
"So, what's the deal with you and Max? He didn't seem to take his eyes off you at the table?" Harmony asked, before quickly adding, "If I'm prying too much, just tell me."
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