Liz Parker’s breath caught in her throat as they neared the school. In front of her, Isabel and Max Evans were calm and collected. How the hell do they do that? She thought. Is that an alien thing or something? Max parked the jeep and everyone got out. Even if she looked different-she would still worry about them being caught by Sheriff Valenti as they spied on him. They reached the entrance, and after a moment’s pause, Max opened the door. They walked to the guidance office, where Liz had seen Sheriff Valenti and Ms. Topolsky talking. As they peered into the room, they were all disappointed to find that both Topolsky and Valenti were gone.

“Damn.” Max cursed under his breath.

Isabel sighed. “I guess these went to waste.” She said, pointing at her new image.

Liz sank down onto the ground. “Well, at least we tried…”

“Yeah-you tried.” Said a female voice behind them. Max, Liz and Isabel whirled around and gaped at the speaker.

:Flash to Maria’s home:

Michael Guerin paced back and forth in Maria’s room, practically wearing a ditch with pacing so much.

“Michael-stop! You’re wearing a hole in my carpet!” Maria cried.

Michael barely looked at her. “How the hell am I gonna stop pacing if I don’t even know where everyone else went? I know they found something-I could feel it-and they didn’t bother to tell me. Wow, that really makes me feel wanted.” He shot back.

Maria was silent for a moment. “I’m sure it was an emergency and they didn’t have time to stop by and tell you about it…” she tried to rationalize.

Michael stopped pacing and stared at her. “Are you crazy? Even in an emergency they’d tell me about it!”

Maria snapped back defensively. “Hey! I was only trying to help ok? I’m trying to keep you calm so you can stop wearing a hole in my bedroom carpet!”

Michael glared at her. “Look-I don’t need your help-and I wouldn’t want it-even if you were the last human on earth.”

Maria shot back, “Ditto to that!”

Michael sighed. “Why the hell do we always end up saying that?”

Maria looked confused. “Saying what?”

Michael replied, “You know the ‘whole human on earth’ and ‘ditto’ thing?”

Maria shrugged and took a vial of a liquidy substance out of her pocket. Opening it, the smell of roses flooded the room. Michael looked at her with a look somewhere between “what the hell?” and “ok….” Maria shrugged again. “It calms me down-do you have a problem with that?”

Michael shook his head. “No.” as the intoxicating smell of roses started to affect his judgement, he started to lean forward to kiss Maria….

:Flash to the school:

“Miss Topolsky!” Liz yelped.

“Do I know you?” Miss Topolsky asked.

“No, we’re checking out the school-we may transfer here.” Max said as calmly as he could, although his stomach was churning violently.

“What are your names? I’ll look into your transfer process.” Miss Topolsky asked politely, but inside she felt something was wrong. These “students” were familiar.

“I’m Craig Guliani, that’s Jessica, she’s my sister, and that’s Nick Spearson, my best friend.” Max explained, pointing to Liz, then Isabel in turn. He wished he could send Isabel a telepathic message, she was shaking, Max hoped that Topolsky didn’t notice. Unfortunately, his wishes weren’t answered.

“What’s wrong? Is this school scary?” Miss Topolsky asked sarcastically, talking to Isabel as if she was a two-year-old.

“No! I’m just freaking cold!” Isabel yelled at Miss Topolsky.

Miss Topolsky stepped back. “Yes, I’m sorry.” She apologized and scurried off.

“Iz…um, Nick!” Max reprimanded her.

“Well, that got her away right?” Isabel replied more calmly.

“What’s weird is that she never asked what school we went to. Do you think she suspected?” Liz asked.

:Flash back to Maria’s Home:]

Maria’s breath caught in her throat. She tried not to squeal in excitement as Michael moved in to kiss her. Closing her eyes, she anticipated his sweet kiss. She knew exactly what his kisses were like, they had kissed in the eraser room plenty of times. But after that-he had just shrugged her off so she had no idea what to expect this time. Michael’s lips touched hers, and she felt an electrifying jolt. Kissing each other as if the other was a glass of water that had magically appeared in front of a person lost in the desert for days, Maria locked her arms around Michael’s neck and his hand slid up her shirt, caressing her back. Michael started kissing down her neck, kissing her right above her collarbone. Maria gave a small sigh of bliss. Michael’s lips returned to her lips and they kisses feverishly. Suddenly the door burst open. Jumping apart, they simultaneously looked at the door. Liz’s tiny figure stood in the open doorway, and she glanced at Maria’s disheveled hair and Michael’s wild, erratic look in his eyes, and she guessed the situation.

“Liz!” Maria cried out, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

Liz arched an eyebrow at her and nodded to Michael. “Michael, Max is waiting outside-we may have a bigger problem than we thought.”

Michael suddenly clenched his fists. “Where the hell did you guys go?”

“Max will explain.” Liz said quietly.

Michael suddenly sprung into action. Pushing past Liz, Maria and Liz could hear his hurried footsteps then the slam of the front door.

“So, what’s the deal?” Maria asked, filling the void of silence.

“Valenti, he found an object…” Liz let out a shaky breath. “That he believes is not of this earth.”