Liz was sitting in her room staring off into space. Her math homework was spread out around her, but she couldn't seem to concentrate. Her focus kept wandering back her middle school years. She hadn't thought about what had happened in so long that she really had no idea why she had been remembering all these memories all the sudden. She was a senior, so why was she stuck inside eighth grade?

One thought reverberated throughout her mind. There was one set of events that changed her entire perspective. It started out like any other day. The same morning routine that she always followed was observed. Calling out to her parents, she ran out the door and on to school.

When she reached the front door, she immediately scanned the crowd for her quirky, blonde, best friend. Finding her involved in a conversation with Alex, she found a secluded spot to sit and think. She sat looking at the faces of all the people in her school, watch them as they talked and laughed with friends. Her roaming eyes found her current crush, Patrick James. He was cute with his dirty blonde hair that cam down to his ears, those wonderful blue eyes you could get lost in, and his casual, but nonetheless cool clothes. He was very popular, everybody liked him and his easygoing, laid back attitude. It was no wonder that almost every girl in the grade liked him. Tearing her gaze away, she saw one of the quieter students like herself. His name was Max Evans and he wasn't too bad on the eyes himself. He was tall and had dark brown hair that matched his dark brown eyes. Most people just passed by him, ignoring the silent boy. Liz had only just realized he was in the class when they had been paired up as lab partners earlier this year. He was extremely smart; he just didn't like to speak up much. Apparently she had been staring at him for longer than intended because he turned and looked at her. Quickly ducking her head, she could feel a blush creeping up her cheeks. She allowed herself to look back in his direction, only to see him watching her intently. Luckily, the bell rang signaling the time to become lost in the world of studies once more.

Liz walked the halls until she reached her locker, pausing there only to deposit books. Slamming it shut, she turned and almost ran in to Patrick. She was quite flustered and was muttering apologies, but he just laughed. "It's okay!" he replied smiling his gorgeous smile. Liz felt her knees weaken. After muttering another "sorry", she turned and walked away. She didn't get more than two steps when he called after her. "Hey, Liz!" She whirled around quickly to face him; caught by surprise he even knew her name. "Do you want to go out with me on Friday?" If she thought her knees had gone weak before, then they turned to mush at this.

"Um, sure. Why not?" she replied, sounding much more confidant than she felt.

"Great! I'll talk to you later. Bye," he said, then turned his back to her and walked away, down towards his first period class.

Liz slumped against the lockers, unable to hold herself upright anymore. Gaining her composure took at least two minutes and by the time she was finally able to stand upright again, the second bell had rung. Oh crap! I'm gonna to be late to science! With that, she sprinted down the hall juggling her books all the way. Cursing the planners of the school for making everything so spread out, she grasped the handle of the door and yanked it open. All eyes in the room turned towards the door. Suddenly Liz felt very self-conscious. She dropped her gaze to the floor as she made her way to her seat beside Max. He looked at her for a minute, almost understanding, and then turned back to the lab the class had started. The teacher opened his mouth to say something to her, but then reconsidered. Liz seemed to calm down enough to seem normal to those who didn't know her well, but she still couldn't seem to keep a broad smile off her face.

The bell ringing once more brought Liz out of her revere. It was finally time for lunch! Now she could tell Maria, Ann, and Alex the amazing news about Patrick. She made her way back through the hall to her locker, spun the combination lock to the correct numbers, and then forcefully yanked it open. She hurriedly dropped her books in, grabbed her lunch, and slammed it shut once more. Closing the door she came face to face with Ann. "Oh my god! You are not going to believe this Ann!" she practically yelled while grabbing her friend's hand and dragged her towards the patio for lunch.

"Umm, well, it must be something big, because if I didn't know you better, I'd say you were giddy," replied Ann with an equally large smile on her face at seeing her friend so happy.

"Shut up!" Liz cried indignantly. She playfully slapped her friend, and then promptly shrieked when Ann responded by tickling her side.

"So," Ann asked getting back on topic, "Are you planning on filling me in on what's making you so incredibly happy?"

"I will, patience is a virtue ya know. I just don't wanna have to explain this more than once because I don't really understand it myself…" she trailed off as they exited the building. There was none other than Patrick and Rebecca. They were flirting shamelessly in front of the entire school. Liz gasped. It took a minute for the initial shock to wear off, but once it did, Liz was almost in hysterics. Ann could not figure out what was going on. Fortunately Maria chose that exact same moment to walk to the door. When she saw Liz, who by this time was a wreck, she immediately ran over.

"Oh my god! What happened? What's wrong, chica?"

"He- asked- and then- flirting- Rebecca…" Maria couldn't understand most of what her best friend was saying, but she caught enough to know that Liz was majorly pissed off at Rebecca for something.

"Come on, let's go sit down and then you can explain why you went ballistic on us, okay?" Ann said, attempting to calm down her panicked friend.

"O-okay," Liz stammered, still gaining control. She should have known it was too good to be true, that he would never want to go out with a girl like her. She allowed her two closest friends to lead her to a table. She then noticed that a fair amount of people were staring at her. Oh great, just what I need. The whole school thinking I'm some kind of freak.

"It's okay folks! Nothing to see here, just normal girls stuff!" Maria told the prying eyes. Once she was satisfied that people weren't centered on them, Maria turned back to Liz. "Okay, spill."

"Can you find Alex please? I don't want to have to explain it more than once. To tell the truth, I'm not sure if I understand it enough for an explanation to make any sense." Actually, Liz didn't even want to talk about it at all. She just wanted to go home, take a hot shower, crawl under the covers, and sleep until everyone forgot about what had happened.

"Sure," Ann replied for herself and Maria. "We'll find him and be back in no time."

"Maybe I should stay here with Liz while you go find Alex," Maria said, worried what Liz might do if left alone.

"No, you can go too Maria, I'll be fine," Liz replied, not wanting to be watched over. Maria opened her mouth to protest but Liz beat her to it. "Yes, I'm sure. Go. Now."

"Okay, fine! I give up! We'll be back in five minutes," Maria relented.

Once they were gone, she slumped down and closed her eyes. Placing her head in her arms on top of the table, she proceeded to go off into her own little world. A quiet voice brought her back to reality.

"Liz? Are you alright?"

She jerked up to see who it was that was addressing her. "Max! Hi! Umm, yea, I'm fine. What makes you think something is wrong?" she replied, maybe a little too fast.

"Well, I just saw you come out the doors and then…" he trailed off, not wanting to embarrass her.

"Oh, that," Liz said with a sigh.

"I'll bet it has something to do with why you were late to science and were still smiling the whole time. Am I right?" Max asked with a knowing smile.

"Yea," Liz responded less than enthusiastically.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Um, not really." She was hesitant about discussing her dilemma at all.

"Alright then. I'll talk to you later." This being said, he got up and walked away.

"Max!" Liz cried. He stopped. "I lied. I do want to talk about it."

"Are you sure?"

"Yea. But not here, let's so somewhere secluded. I don't want the whole school to know about my personal life," Liz said with a slight smile.

"Alright then, let's go talk." With that, he took her arm and they headed off to talk.