Computer tech was the only class they all had together. Thankfully, due to Dana's younger age, Max didn't have to endure her in any class but this one. Chelsea was in almost all of her classes, and Terry was in a little less than half of them. In the ones where the three of them were together, they were inseparable (besides when the teachers separated them). Terry tended to be the one always getting blamed for the group's rowdiness, even though it was Chelsea who was usually causing all of the trouble. Maxine could have found life endurable just from the fun they had during classes together.

Oh, the pranks they pulled! Terry admired Max's daring and skill for a prank, sometimes even joking that she might make a good batgirl. Without Chelsea's ingenuity, they would have had no pranks to carry out. But they didn't just pull pranks on the school and teachers. Chelsea and Max still laughed about the time, two years ago, when they had created a secret admirer for Terry. Dana had been so pissed off about it that they had never even admitted to her that it was them. Terry had been surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly) very interested to find out who it was. He was even a little mad when they revealed that they had been pulling his leg. Though if it was because he wanted out of his relationship with Dana, they never knew. All Max knew was that she had never been more honest with Terry that she had been when helping Chelsea write those "fake" love notes. And she never felt less able to be honest than during this hour of the day.

Terry was sitting dutifully by Dana, ignoring her under the guise of "doing work." She was blaring pop music and busily IMing Max, who sat across the room, next to Chelsea. Chelsea was listening to ear buds and designing some schway graphic. When the first ten minutes of class was passed by trying to send hints to Dana that she didn't want to talk, and Dana wasn't catching on, Max finally went the way of Terry.

"Yeah, lol, girl. Hey, I can't talk right now. I should probably finish up this dumb test," she typed, trying to ignore the blur of Terry that she could see over the top of her computer.

"OMG what test!? You KNOW you're supposed to tell me!!" The reply was very quick.

"Lesson 13."

"Oh! Girl, why R U so ahead in this class? You don't have to be on that lssn yet."

Max paused and was grateful that Dana's scrutinizing, sharp eyes couldn't see the blush under her dark cheeks. "Oh, I just want to get it over with. Talk to you after class. g2g."

A boy in the room raised his hand and waited until the pacing, slightly stinky teacher noticed and called on him. "Uhh, I don't mean to be lame, but, it's, uh, really hard to concentrate with that music…"

"Oh. Of course, I hadn't realized….Miss Tan, would you kindly regulate your music to headphones only?"

When she had turned off the music and the teacher turned away, Dana leaned and whispered into Terry's headphone-cloaked ears, "Oh my gosh, can you believe that guy?"

"Well, it was pretty loud, Dana," Terry mumbled.

Max was trying not to eavesdrop, or watch them. She hated seeing them interact in any way, ever. She felt nauseous. But Chelsea was looking at her and grinning, and she had to smile back, as if she found it funny, too.

"Oh my gosh," was all she said, and she turned away, sulking.

What happened next was pretty much what always happened. Dana pouted, Terry ignored her. Dana began to jab at Terry with statements like "Do you even care about me anymore?" Until he finally began to respond that, of course he did, and that she just shouldn't be so sensitive. During this rather bewildering "argument," Dana would suddenly become very hopeful and sweet, and put words in Terry's mouth.

"So you DO love me, then? You really do? You weren't just saying that? Oh babe, I know you're under so much pressure, it's just that you've got to start to show it more. Oh Terry, I love you," and she would start giggling, and kissing him, and to watch him respond almost against his will like a dead thing was more painful to Max than if she had never known him. Seeing him lie, and be weak, and be run over, and misunderstood, all to avoid a little confrontation…

Max set her jaw, looking away in disgust as Dana's hair fell from behind her ear, hiding both her and her boyfriend's face. The key word was "almost." It was almost against Terry's will to be with Dana. But not totally. It was almost against his will to kiss her (you could see it in his reluctance) but still, he did it. He had kissed her, too many times to count, right there in front of Max, and Max was just starting to feel like one day she would turn so rotten inside from it that she wouldn't even be able to enjoy Terry's friendship when Dana wasn't around. Was that her plan? Was she trying to sicken Max out of being a threat?

Dana wasn't a bad kid, she was just a terrible nuisance. And as unfair as Max knew it was, she hated her. She hated seeing her with the man she loved. She hated hearing her talk about her as if Terry belonged to her. It hadn't started out this way. In the beginning, Max hadn't particularly liked Dana, but she certainly hadn't hated her. But now, she wondered if she was starting to see through her friendliness through to the real Dana…

But no. Terry was more at fault than anyone here. He could make decisions with his own life, and Max would die before she would reveal her feelings to a man who wouldn't make up his own mind, who couldn't defend himself, who wouldn't pursue her. And how was that even his fault? For all Max knew, maybe he was in love with Dana. She certainly didn't talk to Terry much about it. Maybe all relationships did look like this…Max had certainly never had a successful one. And with her parents…what did she know? Who was she to judge? How could Max know who Dana really was, when she viewed her with such a prejudice?

It was the next day and Dana was standing outside of school with Blade, watching Terry and Max drive off together.

"I don't know, girl," Blade was saying. "I think that's shady. I wouldn't let my boyfriend give some girl rides without me!"

"Well I've tried to get him to give me rides, but he always makes up some excuse!"

"What excuse?" Blade paused, trying to hold her hair from getting blown about by the gusty wind.

"Oh, what does it matter! He's always making excuses! Excuses why he and Max need to go off together, alone. For all I know he doesn't even have a job. Maybe that's an excuse, too! I've certainly never seen a penny of it," Dana moaned, near tears.

"Girl, he is so cheating on you."

"I hate Maxine Gibson more than I ever thought I could hate anyone," she whispered, her voice a low, predatory growl.

Blade jumped. "But you can't let her know that!"

"I'm going to kill her!"

"Oh, whatev. She's not worth it. Let her and your skeezy boyfriend go."

"Don't call Terry that!" Dana shouted. Blade was surprised to see her friend like this.

"Well…um…what's so special about him?"

"Oh, I don't know – I just love him. He's my first boyfriend. And he can be so sweet…and he's so good-looking. Plus his job; I want a stable guy…"

"Okay….so what do you want to do?"

"Keep him, and get rid of her."

"Dana, uh, don't mean to, like, point out the obvious – but you can't keep him! He's a cheater! And 'Gotham Girl' mag says that you can't change a cheater, a guy that has cheated before will—"

"Blade, I don't think you know what I'm capable of when I want something."

When Terry pulled into the parking lot of Max's job, they were both laughing so hard their sides were hurting.

"Ugh, I hate this job," Max said, glaring at the huge sliding doors of the supermarket.

"Yeah, well, too bad everyone can't be a hero like me," Terry joked, his eyes looking dark as midnight on the shadowy, overcast day.

Max tried not to stare at his face too long, fearing what would happen if she did. "Yeah, whatever. I'm saving the world, one customer at a time. Not to mention, it keeps me off the streets."

"The streets would only improve with a girl like you on them." His voice deepened to match his eyes, the joking being sucked out by the meaning he wasn't able to hide.

Max reached for the door handle, feeling a little angry. "K, see ya' tomorrow, Ter."

Terry grinning, relaxing when she hadn't noticed. "I'll make sure you get home safe, as usual."

While Max walked up to the doors, pinning on her name tag to a very unattractive polo shirt, she couldn't have felt less worthy of Terry. She hid it behind anger.

"He thinks I can't take care of myself. He thinks it's cute…me working at the supermarket. He thinks it's all I'll ever do. He thinks no one in his life is his equal, and that's why he settles for Dana. I can't believe he doesn't think I'm better than her…"

Terry knew he needed to get over to Bruce's, but he lingered in the parking lot a little too long. School had been so draining…couldn't a kid get any rest? For a moment, he let himself have some extremely unrealistic daydreams about Max. No more fighting. Just a powerful, independent woman who didn't sap all his strength out of him by babying him to death. He let himself think for a moment about kissing her, knowing he shouldn't. The guilt and excitement made him flush and roughly throw the minivan into gear and peel off towards Bruce's. Dana was a great girl, definitely the kind he could build a normal future with. And she really loved him. He couldn't break her heart. She put up with his lifestyle; who else would? Definitely not Max, anyway. They were fine as friends, but romance with Max was extremely unrealistic. He doubted anyone could impress her.

…At least at the job, he could do something right.