Max was asleep, his left cheek lying flat on the lunchroom table. Suddenly the large sound of books smacking the table ran out in his ear. Max jumped hardly and into sitting position.
"Checkin to see if the table is clean enough Maxwell?" Michael asked sitting his tray down and sitting down beside his friend.
"No." Max answered quietly staring at the books in the middle of the table then over at Michael.
"Then what are you doing?" Michael asked stuffing a fry in his mouth.
"I am so tired." He mumbled lying his head back down on the table.
"Ok, me too but you don't see me using a eating table as a pillow huh?" Michael replied opening his juice.
"Hey guys, gosh I am so sick of this one guy in Geometry, I swear I am so close to ripping his nose off and-" Isabel stopped herself, glancing at Max's behavior.
"Hey, you ok little brother?" Isabel asked frowning.
"I am so exhausted." Max mumbled a response.
"Didn't you go to sleep like I told you too?" She asked.
"Yea I did and it continued again, it was harder to wake up from. Look! Look at this." Max replied sitting up and arching his neck back.
He gently glided his index finger over various parts of his neck, showing them the bruises on it.
"What did you do? Have a contest with Liz to see which one could tear the skin off your neck first with just their mouth?" Michael asked.
"No. I didn't even see Liz last night Michael." Max groaned.
"Then what are you telling us?" Isabel asked touching his shoulder.
"In my dream, Kivar attacked us, literally. And he grabbed my throat. Guys, I think my dreams are getting dangerous, I think they're getting physical." Max replied in fear slightly.
"So your saying these bruises formed from a dream you had?" Michael asked not believing a word he said.
"Yes, I think someone is giving me these dreams to remember our world but I think Kivar is using these dreams to try and kill me." Max replied.
"A dream Max? Couldn't he be a little more creative?" Isabel asked.
"Come on guys, why would I be lying about something like this?" Max asked in all seriousness.
Isabel looked at him and sighed.
"Maybe Max might be right Michael, just look at these bruises. What or who coulda done this besides an alien?" Isabel asked.
"I saw no one but my family that evening." Max added.
"I mean, maybe Kivar is trying to come to earth or hurt Max in his dreams." Isabel replied running her soft hand gently over his neck.
"NO! You are all CRAZY! There is NO alien assassin trying to kill Max OK!? They sent us to earth cause they knew we would be safe here, they knew that Kivar or any of his alien scum would never think to search here!" Michael replied slightly loud.
"Keep your voice down." Max commanded.
"NO! This is not happening, and we are NOT having this discussion!" Michael growled.
"Things change Michael. Maybe he found us." Max replied.
"NO! He didn't!" Michael replied pointing at him.
"Michael, will you stop lying to yourself and JUST consider this possibility for one second!? Of all people you should know that everything and anything is possible." Max spoke softly.
Michael shook his head no and got his tray and got up, leaving the siblings at the table alone. Max sighed as he rubbed his temples.
"He's scared Max." Isabel answered his sigh.
"I know Iz, doesn't he understand that we're in the same boat as him? I am scared too, but we can't rule this possibility out cause I mean if I'm wrong then who cares, I get worked up over nothing, big deal IT'S MY PROBLEM." Max replied shifting towards his sister.
Isabel finally looked over at him.
"But Iz..............what if I'm right? And if we ignore this possibility, we could be the cause of a worldwide panic and global dominance in Kivar's favor. By ignoring this 'stupid dream' we could lead Kivar right to us and our fate will be death. You know we're not as strong as he is, especially since we're not on our planet. Kivar is strong Isabel, we're weak and so is earth. This weak planet will be easily taken over by our enemies and there is no telling what kind of damage that he can do with this planet to this solar system or our very own planet, IZ, PLEASE!!!!! I am just ASKING for us to look into this, just in case." Max whispered to her.
Isabel's bottom lip quivered as she looked into Max's eyes.
"Max, I didn't want to believe you at first either, but what else coulda did that to you?" She asked eyeing his neck.
"Howdy kids." A voice replied.
Max and Isabel looked up to see Deputy Fisher.
"Hello Deputy." Max answered.
"Deputy, what are you doing here? Bit old for school aren't you?" Isabel asked smiling sweetly.
Pearce smiled as well.
"Just keeping my eye on these hoodlums like you Miss. Evans. You two kids having a good day at school?" He asked smiling.
"Yes sir." Max answered.
Isabel nodded smiling.
"Great, we'll I'll be about, you two kids have a nice day and if you ever need me for some reason, come find me." Pearce said smiling evilly then left.
Max rolled his eyes over to Isabel.
"And this deputy guy poking around us, IS NOT helping." Isabel answered.
Max nodded.
"Why does it seem that everything in our life is getting harder and harder?" Isabel asked running her hands through her hair.
"Cause it is." Max mumbled.
The 5-minute bell rang grabbing both of their attention as they grabbed their trash and stood up.
"Yes Iz, everything seems to get harder, and ironically it has too for us, we just have more to loose." Max mumbled as they walked over to the trashcan and threw their trash away.
Both turned to walk but suddenly a short kid bumped into Isabel as she was walking.
Isabel groaned in annoyance and stopped, looking at the kid. Max stopped once he saw Isabel stop.
"Hey watch where you're going next time, huh little man?" Isabel shouted at the kid.
Max rolled his eyes and watched, purely embarrassed.
The kid turned around, smiling evilly at both of them.
Max's eyes widened as Isabel felt her heart jump clear up in her throat as she stumbled backwards, lifting her hand to Max's chest for support.
"Sorry about that my lady and your majesty, I'll be sure to run completely into both of you next time." Nicholas replied smiling as he shoved his hands in his jeans pockets.
"Nicholas." Max mumbled, Isabel's mouth open but couldn't speak.
"You would think that you all would move so you would be harder to locate but no, your just poor excuses for life forms, not even doing the obvious choice of action." Nicholas replied.
Max and Isabel began backing up until they backed up into someone. Both spun around in fear as it was not someone they knew but they took it that it was a skin.
"This is my friend, actually one of my many friends that will be waiting for you the minute you step off this campus. Then..........we'll talk. And someone in particular wants to talk to you Max. So it's a date, have a good rest of the day in class." Nicholas replied winking as he returned to walking.
Max's sharp eyes watched the man behind them also walk away.
"Oh my God Max." Isabel said in fear embracing him tightly, burying her head into his chest.
Max also wrapped his arms around her trying to comfort her as best he could, placing the bottom half of his face on her head, smelling the aroma of herbal essence in her hair.
Max's spiked black hair stayed in it's place as he then glanced over to the side, seeing Liz half hidden behind the stairs. She gave him and uh oh' face as she saw Isabel crying, Max knew that Liz knew something was up, and it probably wasn't good.
Max glanced around, seeing some remaining students scurry across the lunch area to get to their lockers or classes. Liz carefully and slowly walked down the stairs, approaching Max.
Isabel was crying hardly into her brother, her legs even gave out slowly as she slid down, Max followed cause he didn't want to drop her. So both of them were sitting on their knees in the grass.
"Max I don't wanna get with them, he scares me he makes me remember things I don't wanna remembers, and I know he's going to kill you as soon as he gets, I know it, I KNOW IT." Isabel said in between sobs.
"What's going on Max?" Liz asked, her voice shaking.
"We leave this campus, we get capture by Nicholas and his people. They're waiting for us to get out of the view of public and away from authorities like the principal." Max mumbled softly, not wanting to look up at her.
"Oh....wow Max." She murmured as she took slowly sank to her knees.
"Nick...Nicholas is here? Right now?" She asked.
Max nodded.
A long silence fell between them except for the occasional sniffling and sobbing from Isabel. Max then looked up at Liz.
"We have to get the others." He informed.
