Chapter 3 Location: (Roswell New Mexico)
"So, are you excited about the new family moving in?" Nicole asked happily.
"Yeah...it sounds great..." Claire said, smiling slightly.
"You don't seem as excited as I thought you'd be...I mean, new family, they probably have kids. Maybe one'll be around our age and we can show them around!" Nicole said.
"Yeah...look Nicole, can we talk about something else?" Claire asked. "Why?" Nicole asked.
"I just—I don't know, let's talk about school or something."
"Okay...hey do you think the new kid will be in any of our classes? Or maybe they're not going to be in our grade...or maybe they're older than—"
"Nicole okay!" Claire said quickly. "I mean...enough...about the new family, please..." she added.
Nicole nodded slightly, looking disappointed. "Is something wrong?" Nicole asked suddenly.
"Huh? No...everything's fine, why?" Claire asked.
"It's just...lately you've kind of been acting like you want to tell me something...but you haven't...you still want me as a friend right?"
"Nicole of course I do! It's not about you at all, it's just—"
"We're here!" Max said suddenly, as they neared the jeep, which was parked near the back of the parking lot.
It was black, though the color was fading since the jeep was so old and weathered. The seats, white but loosing color, were all in fairly good condition, the two in the front spaced apart slightly. The top was down, and the doors on either side of the car were missing making it easier to get in and out.
Michael was leaning comfortably against the back seat, his arms behind his head and his legs crossed, his feet elevated with the front passenger seat. Michael sent Max a look as he hopped into the drivers seat and started the car.
Max, who hadn't noticed Michael's obviously ticked off attitude, reached over and knocked Michael's feet down off the seat. Michael growled and crossed his arms, not wanting to say anything with Claire's friend present, but at the same almost to the point of not caring. Both guys turned and glanced at Claire, both of them wanting to leave despite being angry with one another. She nodded slightly and turned back to Nicole.
"Listen...I really want to talk to you, but I have to go..." she said.
"Claire, why do you always do this? Every time we go to talk or something you have to leave! What is going on?" Nicole asked.
"Nicole, it's nothing. Max and Michael just want to get home and—"
"Than why are you going with them?" Nicole asked.
Suddenly there was a loud honk from the jeeps direction. "Claire come on, let's go already!" Michael shouted impatiently.
Claire glanced at him. "Sorry Nicole, I'll call you later okay?" She said.
Nicole sighed and nodded slightly. "See ya..." she called after her, slightly upset. Claire waved as she jumped into the back seat next to Michael. Max backed up the jeep and drove past Nicole, who waved again before heading back to her mom's car.
"Why are you friends with her?" Michael asked, turning to look at Claire.
"Because I am." Claire said, angrily.
"Yeah, well you need to learn to choose better friends." Michael replied.
"Oh, well in that case maybe I should start with you..." Claire said.
Michael was just about to say something but Max cut him off.
"Gosh will two just stop arguing for two seconds? You're worse than anyone I've ever seen..." Max stated.
"Why did you have to make us leave right when she got here?" Claire asked.
"Because Michael decided he was going to act even more suspicious than that guy at the counter." Max said, glaring at him slightly.
Michael rolled his eyes. "Just concentrate on driving Maxwell." He said.
"So what are we going to do?" Claire asked suddenly.
"What are you talking about?" Michael asked, thinking she was referring to the man in the Crash Down.
"Michael give me a break, you're both worried about this new family that's moving in and so am I." Claire answered. "We don't need anymore people around here...keeping our secret is hard enough without more people to worry about..." she added.
"There's nothing we can do about it." Max said. "We'll just have to avoid them, and try not to draw attention to ourselves. Which may be harder for some of us rather than others..." he added, glancing at Michael and Claire.
"After all, they're probably just an ordinary family that's coming here for the alien attraction." Max said.
"Yeah, that works great for us Max. See, because we're the aliens!" Claire said. "Not Aliens per say...we just have powers..." Max corrected.
Claire rolled her eyes. "Look, as long as we don't let anyone see our powers we're fine. And we're not telling anyone about us either." Michael added, glancing at Claire.
"What?!" she snapped.
"You aren't telling Nicole about us, and if you meet some other friend you're not telling them either." Michael said.
"What, you think I don't know that?!" Claire said.
"Well, you're always begging us to let you tell Nicole." Michael muttered.
"Yeah, that's because she's my best friend. You know, because I actually have a friend besides you two. I mean, do you know how hard it is to keep this from her? To keep this from my parents?! I might loose her as a friend! She already thinks something weird is going on, and she's going to keep asking, and I'm not going to be able to tell her! Than she'll decide I'm lying to her and she'll hate me!" Claire yelled angrily.
"Claire we all know what it's like..." Max said.
"Yeah, well from the way you're both acting about it I'd say otherwise..." Claire muttered.
"What, just because we don't want some government agency capturing us and studying us we're suddenly the bad guys here?!" Michael snapped.
"Michael you know I didn't mean it like that." Claire said flatly.
"Okay enough!" Max yelled. "Here are the rules. We aren't to tell anyone about us. No using your powers in public, Michael—"
Michael opened his mouth to say something but Max kept talking.
"And no acting suspicious, especially with Sheriff Valenti being around lately. One false move and we could all be exposed..." he finished.
"Yeah, because we didn't already know that..." Claire muttered. Michael rolled his eyes and was about to turn back to face the front when suddenly something caught his eye. He turned around, to see a dark blue car following them down the road.
He narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched it, trying to see who the driver was. Claire stared over at him, slightly confused.
"What are you looking at?" she asked. Michael cocked his head forewords slightly and Claire turned to see the car.
"So? Someone's taking the same road we are Michael, it's not a big deal—"
"It is if that's the same guy we saw in the Crash Down..." Michael said.
Claire's eyes widened slightly and she turned again. Sure enough, in the drivers seat she recognized the man who had been sitting at the counter. His brief case was even sitting beside him in the passengers seat.
"What's going on?" Max asked, glancing at them momentarily before turning back to the road.
"That guy's following us." Michael replied.
"What guy?" Max asked.
"The sand man." He replied sarcastically. "Maxwell, it's the guy we saw in the Crash Down earlier! I told you he was watching us!" Michael snapped.
"Well stop looking at him or he'll know we're onto him!" Max hissed.
Michael and Claire turned around almost instantly, staring ahead at the road. "Are you sure it was the same guy?" Max whispered.
"Positive. I have this weird feeling about him Max..." Michael told him. "Something's not right."
"Okay everyone just calm down. He might just be on his way to a hotel or something..." Max said.
"Max I have to go with Michael on this one...I mean...he was acting weird in the Crash Down...and isn't it a pretty big coincidence that he left right after we did, that he's following us?" Claire said.
"Look, will you two just stop being paranoid?" Max said.
Michael was just about to say something when the blue car behind them slowed to a stop and turned onto another street, disappearing behind the trees. Michael stared after it for a moment, surprised.
"See? Nothing to be worried about, he's gone..." Max said, turning the jeep onto their street.
Michael rolled his eyes and rested his head on his fist, staring at the houses that they drove past. "Yeah, or so you think..." he muttered.
"So...did Nicole tell you when that new family is moving in?" Michael asked after a few minutes, getting bored of the silent ness.
"Not really...probably by tomorrow, or the next day..." Claire said, not paying to much attention as she was watching the houses zip by.
The sun was beating down on the neighborhood, though not as high in the sky as it had been a few hours before. The sky was bright blue and there wasn't a cloud to be seen through out it. It was around three in the afternoon, and despite the fact that it was always hot in Roswell, it had seemed to have cooled down slightly since noontime.
All of the houses in their neighborhood seemed to resemble one another...all of them had nice green lawns, walkways up to the house, big driveways, garages...the only differences seemed to be the colors, that and the fact that some of them were larger than others. A few had different designs, but for the most part the rest had the same.
Just as the jeep began to slow down something caught Claire's eye. It was a house to the left side of the road, the side of the jeep she was sitting on. It looked empty, even though she couldn't see inside she kind of guessed, since there were no cars, no lights on inside...
She saw a sign staked in the middle of the grass, and the bold blue letters across the middle stood out bright as day.
"I think I just figured out where they're moving..." she said slowly, not taking her eyes off the sign.
It took Michael and Max a minute to figure out who she as referring to, and after a quick glance at one another they confirmed each other's suspicions.
"What? Where?!" Michael asked, turning his full attention to her.
Claire reached out her arm and pointed to the house across the street, the one with a For Sale sign on the front lawn.
As she turned again she noticed that the jeep had come to a stop right in front of her house...
"Oh no...how does this happen?! Out of all of the houses here, they had to move into the one across from mine..." she muttered, trying to cover up the nervousness in her voice with the slight sarcastic comment.
"Claire relax. Michael and I are only a few houses down, which means they're moving close to all of us." Max said.
"Yeah, but when Nicole said they were moving into our neighborhood, I didn't think she meant right near us...I figured she meant...I don't know, some part of the neighborhood that's a long ways away from here..." Claire said.
"Well too bad, because the chances of that happening were slim." Michael said. Claire rolled her eyes and hopped out of the jeep, standing in her driveway.
"We'll see you tomorrow. I've got a ton of biology homework and a history paper due on Monday." Max said.
"Yeah, and I have find out what time the football game is on this weekend on ESPN." Michael said.
"Don't you have homework?" Claire asked.
"Yeah, and your point is?" Michael asked. Claire laughed slightly, rolling her eyes.
"Bye guys." She said, heading up to her house. Max waved before driving off, and Claire walked up to the front door.
"Another typical day in Roswell New Mexico..." she said to herself.