Next day at the Crashdown Café, neither Liz nor Maria could concentrate on
work. Their minds were on those letters.
They wondered what could possibly be so wrong with reading a few old letters.
Why would Maria's mom keep secrets from her? They never kept secrets from one another.
Well, except that Maria hadn't told her mom that Micheal, Max, Isabel, and Tess were aliens, but
that was different.
Micheal's eyes followed Maria across the room.
"You guys notice it too, huh?" stated Tess looking at Maria and Liz.
The Pod Squad all nodded.

Ms. DeLuca entered the Crashdown.
She made a beeline for Mr. and Mrs. Parker behind the counter. The three adults bent towards each
other, obviously talking about something important.
Maria and Liz looked each other. Both headed to the back, where the
break-room was.
Isabel and Tess slid out of the booth and walked through the door just as Maria said, "Do you think
your parents know?"
"Know what?" asked Isabel. The two human turns towards their other- worldly friends.
"Oh uh… nothing" said Maria quickly.
Tess eyed both of them. Liz looked down at her sneakers and twisted her silver polyester
alien-head-shaped apron in her hands. She was clearly nervous.
Maria smiled and walked back to the outer restaurant with Liz following
behind her.
Isabel and Tess sat back down in the booth. Max and Micheal looked at them.
"I don't know... they're keeping some kind of secret from us." said Isabel.
"I'll dream-walk Liz tonight and find out what's going on."
"No." ordered Max, "If it's anything serious, they'll tell us."
Max really was worried, though. Liz normally shared everything with him. Still, he didn't want to pry
into her private thoughts.
The other three aliens looked at him, all agreeing with him to some
extent; all itching to know what Liz and Maria were keeping from them.