CHAPTER 2

Maria walked down the hallway on the way from French class to her locker to grab the lunch she'd packed that morning. She'd actually had a good class for once; she'd been working extra hard to make up for her pre-audition grade funk and had been able to garner some unaccustomed praise from Mme. Fraser when called on to translate a short passage from the textbook. Her eyes sparkled as she remembered the teacher's words. She bounced as she moved down the hall, feeling almost giddy.

Her happiness was suddenly checked by a sudden familiar tingle deep within her and then the sight of a spiky brown head moving at the other end of the hall. For one split second green eyes met brown; then Michael abruptly turned and walked in the other direction.

Maria's good mood faltered. This fleeting glance was the most direct contact she'd had with Michael in weeks. He usually managed to completely avoid meeting her in the hallway. Even in the two classes they shared, English and World History, he avoided her, entering the room at the last minute, never so much as glancing in her direction during the class, and bolting for the door the moment the bell rang. He spent both periods staring down at his desk, silent except when called upon. Only then would he look up and respond in short growled phrases. His seeming ability to ignore her without a problem annoyed Maria to no end. She, the one who could fake anything with anybody, wasn't able to feign anything remotely like his unconcern.

For a moment, she almost wished for the early days of their off-again, on-again, off-again relationship. Even his constant running away wasn't as bad as this. When she thought he hated her, it hurt, but knowing he loved her and still refused to acknowledge her hurt even worse.

Her good mood received a second blow a moment later; the scorching glare from a group of girls who were gathered by the football team's trophy case stopped her in her tracks. Maria mentally cringed for a moment before summoning up her pride, determined not to let them--or anything, for that matter--bother her. Lifting her chin, she continued down the hallway to her locker.

Grabbing her lunch and slamming her locker shut, she moved back down the hall, staring at the spitefully chattering girls in defiance, then headed out to the quad to join Liz and Alex for lunch.

The brown-haired computer geek lifted a hand and waved casually as she approached the table. "Hey, 'Ria," he said.

"What is up with everyone today?" she responded crossly. "I feel like I ran over the team mascot or something. If looks could kill, Melanie Royer and Pamela Harris would be in jail and I would be on the way to the Roswell morgue."

"Dunno," Alex replied, taking a swig of his root beer. "Maybe it's a full moon."

"Uh, we're in Roswell, Alex. We deal in aliens, not werewolves," the blonde girl shot back. "Where's Liz?"

"Hark! Our Lady of the Sciences doth approach. And with Queen Isabel and Lord Max, no less," Alex replied dramatically, looking across the quad.

"Spending too much time at the Renaissance Festival, Alex?" Isabel asked as she sat down across from Maria. "Hey, Maria."

"Isabel. Max. Liz. What's up?"

"We have a problem," Max said soberly.

"See, Liz, I told you things weren't normal! What is it now? FBI? Nasedo? Attack of the Killer Czechoslovakians? What?" Maria demanded heatedly.

"None of the above. It's Michael," replied Max

"Oh, god. What's Spaceboy done this time?"

"It's not what he's done, Maria," Isabel cut in. "It's what he's not done. He's not acting at all like himself. You know Michael, Mr. 'React Without Thinking'. Well, right now he's not reacting to anything. Max and I can barely get him to talk to us, and when he does, he's so calm and collected...It's really creepy."

Alex suggested, "Maybe he's just accepted what's going on. With Tess and your destiny and all."

"Alex, he's almost polite."

The humans were silent for a full three minutes while they digested this news.

"What do you want us to do?" Liz asked finally, her brow wrinkling in worry.

"We need to get him to talk, to tell us what's going on. He won't talk to either of us, so we thought maybe if we'd all gang up on him, we could make him open up to us," the tall blonde explained.

"You mean, like an intervention?" snorted Alex. "Besides, since when has anyone ever been able to make Michael do anything he didn't want to do?"

"I just don't know what else to try. I'm really worried about him. This isn't just Michael being moody. Something is wrong."

Maria slowly suggested, "What about dreamwalking him, Isabel?"

"We've always promised not to do that to each other. It's hard to get in anyway, and Michael and Max always know when I'm there and can kick me out."

"But maybe it's worth a try."

"Maybe..."

Maria stared at her hands uncomfortably. "I think you should try, Isabel. If something really is wrong, and he's too contrary to admit it..." Her voice trailed off.

Max spoke up decisively. "Okay, here's the plan. If he's too stubborn to talk to us, we'll have to go to him. We'll wait for him at his apartment after school, and see if the five of us can make some sense of this. If not, Isabel will try to dreamwalk him."

"What about Tess, Max?" asked Liz quietly.

"We're not bringing her into things at this stage of the game. I don't trust her and her little mind games. So we'll see everyone at Michael's at 3:30?"

Four heads nodded as the group broke up to head back to class.

Maria tossed her uneaten lunch in a nearby garbage can on her way towards the building, suddenly not at all hungry.

*****

Mrs. Lyons, the History teacher, was droning on about Magellan. Maria looked up from the doodle she'd drawn in place of the notes she should have been taking, and snuck a glance across the room at Michael. Once again, he'd waltzed into class at the last minute, and sat looking down at his desk. She stared at him, her eyes burning an imaginary hole into his spiky head, willing him to look up at her. Of course, since she was not possessed of superpowers, it didn't work. She sighed, and then started as the bell rang. Gathering up her things, she quickly headed for the door, intent on getting to her locker and meeting Liz.

She practically ran down the hall and barely missed knocking into Kyle Valenti, who put out an arm to steady her. "Hey, slow down there, DeLuca."

She shook his hand off her arm and blurted out, "Can't talk now, Kyle. In a hurry." She started towards her locker again.

"I know," he responded. "Ms. Bedinger's putting the Little Shop cast list up."

"What? I don't have time for that. Things to do."

She barely got two steps further before Kyle stopped her again. "Maria, I think you'll want to see this."

Okay. Fine. "What?"

Kyle took her by the arm and pulled her down the hall, just as Alex had several weeks earlier. As they neared the bulletin board, Melanie Royer glared at her and then stalked off in the opposite direction. Maria looked at where Kyle was pointing, and stood, speechless.

"Maria, I've been looking for you. We need to get over to--" Liz's voice cut off abruptly as she saw Maria staring, transfixed, at the board. Her eyes joined the blonde girl's. "Oh my god, Maria!" she whispered, and then turned and hugged her silent friend. "You got the lead, Maria! You're playing Audrey! Maria! Maria?"

"Congratulations, Maria," said Kyle.

"What? Oh, yeah," responded Maria, smiling weakly. "Thanks, Kyle."

"This is just great, Maria. Just what you wanted," Liz enthused.

"Yeah. Yeah, it is," replied Maria. "Umm, Liz? We need to head over to...We need to meet Alex now, don't we?"

"Yep. See you, Kyle!"

After stopping by Maria's locker to drop off her history text, the girls headed out to the front sidewalk where they'd agreed to meet Alex. He stood by the bicycle rack, waiting patiently. Looking at Liz's broad smile, he said, "Someone's in a good mood!"

Since Maria was still being uncharacteristically silent, Liz quickly told him about their friend's coup. Putting an arm around Maria's shoulders, Alex congratulated her. "Fantastic, Maria. I told you you could do it!"

"Actually," Liz cut in, "I believe you were the one with doubts. Remember? Cart? Horse? Something about not putting one before the other?"

Alex opened his mouth to respond but was silenced when Maria quietly said, "Guys, we need to get to Michael's."

As the three of them headed down the sidewalk towards the parking lot, Liz thought she heard Maria mutter, "Fantastic. Now Spaceboy can get in the way of this, too."

*****

As Liz raised her hand to knock on Michael's door, it opened suddenly. Pulling back quickly, Max barely avoided Liz hitting him in the face. "Oops. Sorry, Max." She blushed slightly.

He smiled down at her and said, "Come on in. Michael's not here yet."

Maria sat quietly on one end of the couch, trying not to look around. This was the first time she'd been in his apartment since...well, since the whole destiny mess. Trying not to think too much about it, she looked up as she heard her name.

"Maria! Congratulations!" Isabel gave her a quick hug, and she smiled tightly back at the taller girl.

"Thanks, Isabel."

"You had a great audition. You really deserved it! Who else is in the cast?" Isabel asked, sitting next to her.

"I don't actually know. I didn't get that far down the cast list," Maria admitted.

"She was a little in shock at the time, " Liz said, smiling. "You should have seen her! She actually couldn't speak--" She stopped abruptly as Maria stiffened.

"He's here," she said tersely.

Alex looked at her curiously. "How do you...?"

"I just know," she replied, as the lock clicked and the door swung open.

Michael stepped into the apartment and paused at the sight of the group lying in wait. One eyebrow rose slowly.

Max was the first to speak. "Hey, Michael."

"Hey."

An uncomfortable silence filled the small room.

Finally Isabel stood and smiled, her patented big fat fake smile, the one she saved for snowing the teachers. "Michael! It's been a while since we've gotten to say hi, so we stopped by to say hi. So hi!" she laughed loudly. Michael just looked at her.

Liz smiled, and Alex spoke up. "How's it going, man?"

Michael shrugged.

"Look Michael, we need to talk."

"I don't think so, Max. Got lots to do. Sorry." But he didn't seem particularly repentant.

Maria looked around at the others, who were all beginning to look worried now. She turned back to study the spiky-haired alien she cared so much about. As usual, he wouldn't meet her eyes.

Isabel tried again. "Michael--"

"I'm really kinda busy right now, Isabel. I'd appreciate it if you'd go."

Maria finally spoke up. "Umm, guys? I need to talk to Michael for a minute, okay?" She caught Liz's eye, and nodding, Liz moved to the door, Alex in her wake.

Max took Isabel by the arm, saying, "We'll wait for you outside, Maria." His sister allowed herself to be pulled from the room, her eyes locking with Maria's and silently pleading--no, insisting--that she fix things.

The door shut behind them. Maria looked closely at Michael, who hadn't moved and still wouldn't meet her glance. She took in the circles under his eyes and the furrow of his brow. He looked very, very tired and much older. Only his hair still stood to attention in its usual haphazard manner.

"Michael," she began. "I don't pretend to know what's going on with you, but I lo--We all care about you. A lot. And we're worried about you. So what is going on?"

His shrug and continued avoidance of her eyes began to annoy her. "Look, Michael, you can run from me if you want to. God knows you're good at that. If you want to ignore our relationship, that's fine; I should be used to it by now. But if you think you can get away with ignoring Max and Isabel, you've got another think coming. You need each other, now more than ever. You should be planning, preparing for your big destiny that you all seem so enamored of."

She moved to stand directly in front of him, but he continued to stare at the wall. Her voice rose. "So get with the program, pally, because this too important to screw around with!" Reaching up, she took his face in her hands and turned it towards hers.

He spoke one cold, unemotional word. "Go." His eyes finally met hers. She looked into his eyes for one quick moment before her hands flew away from his face and she ran from the room, pulling the door shut behind her.

Leaning against the door, she slid to the ground and began to shake. She looked up at Max, whispering, "Something is really wrong. That's not Michael."