The next day at school

"What does this mean?"

"Maria, it doesn't mean anything. It's just a weird coincidence."

"Ok, Liz. It is a coincidence that a guy who is totally in love with you calls..."

"Maria! That is your imagination."

"Anyway! That a guy who is... might be... in love with you, calls you to see if you are OK and his best friend calls me on the same night, but tries to say he had the wrong number. Liz, something weird is going on."

"Maria, I am sure that you are making a big deal out of nothing. I'll ask Max about it in biology."

"Ok, give me a full report. Oh, and the guy who is supposedly not in love with you is staring at you again."

Liz turned around to find Max staring at her. They locked eyes for about 3 seconds when Kyle came up.

"Hey! How's my girl?"

* * * * *

Max turned the corner and saw Liz talking to Maria. He was determined to let her catch him staring at her this time. Before the shooting he would always look away. Never making eye contact. Suddenly she turned around and they made eye contact. He started to give her a little smile when Kyle came up and hugged her. Max kept on walking, a little hurt, but he had to keep reminding himself that things are back to the way they were before the shooting to her.

* * * * *

"Hey Kyle! I'm fine."

All Liz could think about was what just happened. Was Max Evans really staring at her? She watched him go down the hall wondering why he called her last night and wondering why he looked at her the way he just did. Could he really be interested in me? No, not possible. Besides, I am with Kyle and there is no way Max would even look at me in that way. I was just imagining it.

"Liz? Liz?" Kyle said.

"Oh, I'm sorry Kyle. I was just... thinking."

"About what you want to do tonight?"

"Um... yeah. What do you want to do?"

"Well, I was thinking that we could catch a movie."

"Ok, that's fine with me. We got to get to class. See you later."

When Kyle was out of earshot, Maria asked Liz. "Now, what was that about?"

"What?"

"Your and Max's little staring contest."

"I don't know what you are talking about, Maria. He probably just had something to tell me. I mean, he did call me last night. He was probably just going to explain."

"Well, see you after class. One more tardy and it's Saturday detention for me!" Maria said heading to class.

Yeah, that's what it was. He was probably just looking for me to tell me why he called, Liz was telling herself.

Liz walked into biology and took her seat next to Max. She looked over at him and he was looking at her again. Yeah, he just has something to tell me, Liz thought.

"So...um...what was with that call last night?"

Max froze; he had been thinking so much about how to ask her out that he forgot to make up a cover story for calling her.

"Um...I just...I wanted to... it was a dare." He said quickly.

"A dare?"

"Yeah, me and Michael were daring each other to do stuff and he wanted me to make a complete fool of myself and ... he had me call you and say all that stuff and I had him call Maria.. yeah... we were just being stupid." Max was going to have to remember to tell Michael his cover story before he talked to Maria.

"Ok." Liz said trying hard not to laugh. "Well, that explains that then."

"Yeah, I 'm sorry for waking you up. We didn't realize how late it was."

"That's Ok. As long as everything is Ok." Liz said.

Max figured it was now or never, because he knew it would be harder to get up the nerve to ask her out the longer he waited.

"Um... Liz... I was just wondering..."

"What?"

"Uh... would you want to go...nevermind." He couldn't do this. There was no way he could do this.

"Want to go where?"

"Nevermind."

"No, what were you going to say?" Liz couldn't believe it. It sounded like Max Evans was going to ask her out. Max Evans. She had to know what he was going to say. "Max?"

Max knew there was no way out of it now. "Uh, I was just wondering if you wanted to go out with me sometime? " Then he added really quickly." Nevermind. I can completely understand if you said no because you are dating Kyle and.."

Liz interrupted him." Max, slow down."

Max looked down, "Sorry."

"No, it's OK." Liz could not believe it. Max Evans had just asked her out. Oh, My God. She wanted to go out with him so badly. She has liked him since elementary school, but thought he wasn't the least bit interested in her and now he was asking her out. And she was with Kyle. They were just a casual thing, but she knew Kyle wouldn't like it if she went out with other guys. But how could she turn down Max Evans? She was going to have to talk to Kyle.

Max could see that Liz was thinking something. Oh, great, he thought, she was trying to think of a way to let him down easily. I knew this wasn't a good idea. "Liz, just nevermind, Ok?"

"No Max... uh, can I tell you my answer later?"

"Liz, it's Ok. I completely understand that you can't..."

"Max, please? I just have to do something first. Can I tell you tomorrow?"

Tomorrow, Max thought. Tomorrow would be too late. Well, it's official, we are definitely not meant to be. "Ok, sure. Tomorrow." he said not looking at her.

"Ok, I'll tell you tomorrow."