Part Thirteen
There were 7 teens were sitting in Michael's apartment. It was their weekly seen-anything-suspicious slash lets-search-for-bugs meeting. They were waiting for Maria to show up. She was late.
Isabel and Max were having a slight sibling disagreement in one corner. Liz was doing her homework while Michael, Kyle and Alex played on an old playstation Michael had picked up and Alex helped him fix. Tess wasn't allowed to play, because she trashed them every time and so she watched and yelled instructions. At the moment Kyle was winning but that could be because Michael was otherwise distracted wondering where his almost/kinda/maybe ex-girlfriend was.
The door opened and Maria walked in, her face totally hidden by a huge stack of books she was carrying. Max immediately ran to help her. He was Max.
"You and Liz switch brains or something?" Kyle sounded amused.
"Hey!" It came from both Liz and Maria.
Maria took a deep breathe and let all the books fall to the couch in a jumbled disarray. Michael, Kyle, Alex and Tess made a quick dive to avoid being hit by a barrage of books. Michael picked up one of them, "Attack of the Bodysnatchers," he read aloud. "Anything you wanted to tell us, Maria?" he smirked. The others all laughed. Maria glared at him.
"For your information, I borrowed all the sci-fi books in the library."
Tess ran a hand through her hair, "I know this a stupid question but, why exactly would you do that?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
"No," 7 people replied in unison.
"Oh," Maria looked slightly downcast for a second, then she brightened up. "For ideas. You know. We all take a couple, read them and get ideas."
"Ideas?" Kyle was being particularly dense today.
"What a cool plan." Liz answered him this time, "We can make notes and everything." Liz was still the only one looking enthusiastic.
Maria ignored them all and began to hand two books to everyone there. She gave Michael the thickest ones. Kyle laughed when he saw this. And just to make sure everyone there got why he was laughing he explained it. This caused Tess to exchange a few see-what-I-have-to-put-up-with looks with the other girls and boys to exchange confused ones at the girls expressions. In return for the laugh, Maria handed him a thick book. That shut him up.
Michael didn't say anything. He didn't see anything wrong with Maria giving him the largest books. She was one of the few people that knew he liked to read. During their better times, they often had quiet moments with him reading or sketching and Maria doing homework or writing busily away in her notebook, always singing softly. He missed her voice.
He never asked to see what she wrote and she never asked to see what he drew although it was usually her face that filled his sketchbooks. They both knew that they didn't have secrets from each other and if either one wanted to see they could. This knowledge allowed them to be comfortable with the status quo they had shared at the time.
Everyone had received their books, amid protestations from a number of sources, all overruled. They weren't going to win and they all knew it. No one won anything against Maria.
The basic plan was illustrated by Maria, and expanded on by Liz. They were all to read the books and see if they could come up with any ideas to find any bad aliens, already codenamed Russians by Maria, not that she had anything against Russians as she explained but Czechoslovakians was already taken. This, of course, was in between various other detours Maria took during one of her plans. Everyone there had there Maria filters working at maximum capacity although Tess was a little new to the friendship and had a harder time following the plan. Liz talking behind Maria did help though.
When she was done Maria gave them all a time limit… that was mainly for Kyle and Alex's benefit. Max never argued with Maria and Isabel and Tess both thought it was a surprisingly good idea, and Michael would have done anything for a plan of action, something Max would do anything to try and avoid at the moment. Still for the first time that day, after having quite a few of these meetings they all had something to do.
There were 7 teens were sitting in Michael's apartment. It was their weekly seen-anything-suspicious slash lets-search-for-bugs meeting. They were waiting for Maria to show up. She was late.
Isabel and Max were having a slight sibling disagreement in one corner. Liz was doing her homework while Michael, Kyle and Alex played on an old playstation Michael had picked up and Alex helped him fix. Tess wasn't allowed to play, because she trashed them every time and so she watched and yelled instructions. At the moment Kyle was winning but that could be because Michael was otherwise distracted wondering where his almost/kinda/maybe ex-girlfriend was.
The door opened and Maria walked in, her face totally hidden by a huge stack of books she was carrying. Max immediately ran to help her. He was Max.
"You and Liz switch brains or something?" Kyle sounded amused.
"Hey!" It came from both Liz and Maria.
Maria took a deep breathe and let all the books fall to the couch in a jumbled disarray. Michael, Kyle, Alex and Tess made a quick dive to avoid being hit by a barrage of books. Michael picked up one of them, "Attack of the Bodysnatchers," he read aloud. "Anything you wanted to tell us, Maria?" he smirked. The others all laughed. Maria glared at him.
"For your information, I borrowed all the sci-fi books in the library."
Tess ran a hand through her hair, "I know this a stupid question but, why exactly would you do that?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
"No," 7 people replied in unison.
"Oh," Maria looked slightly downcast for a second, then she brightened up. "For ideas. You know. We all take a couple, read them and get ideas."
"Ideas?" Kyle was being particularly dense today.
"What a cool plan." Liz answered him this time, "We can make notes and everything." Liz was still the only one looking enthusiastic.
Maria ignored them all and began to hand two books to everyone there. She gave Michael the thickest ones. Kyle laughed when he saw this. And just to make sure everyone there got why he was laughing he explained it. This caused Tess to exchange a few see-what-I-have-to-put-up-with looks with the other girls and boys to exchange confused ones at the girls expressions. In return for the laugh, Maria handed him a thick book. That shut him up.
Michael didn't say anything. He didn't see anything wrong with Maria giving him the largest books. She was one of the few people that knew he liked to read. During their better times, they often had quiet moments with him reading or sketching and Maria doing homework or writing busily away in her notebook, always singing softly. He missed her voice.
He never asked to see what she wrote and she never asked to see what he drew although it was usually her face that filled his sketchbooks. They both knew that they didn't have secrets from each other and if either one wanted to see they could. This knowledge allowed them to be comfortable with the status quo they had shared at the time.
Everyone had received their books, amid protestations from a number of sources, all overruled. They weren't going to win and they all knew it. No one won anything against Maria.
The basic plan was illustrated by Maria, and expanded on by Liz. They were all to read the books and see if they could come up with any ideas to find any bad aliens, already codenamed Russians by Maria, not that she had anything against Russians as she explained but Czechoslovakians was already taken. This, of course, was in between various other detours Maria took during one of her plans. Everyone there had there Maria filters working at maximum capacity although Tess was a little new to the friendship and had a harder time following the plan. Liz talking behind Maria did help though.
When she was done Maria gave them all a time limit… that was mainly for Kyle and Alex's benefit. Max never argued with Maria and Isabel and Tess both thought it was a surprisingly good idea, and Michael would have done anything for a plan of action, something Max would do anything to try and avoid at the moment. Still for the first time that day, after having quite a few of these meetings they all had something to do.