Chapter 6

October 2, 2001

Liz stands at her locker in an almost dream like state, she called Cole back after her brief conversation with her father. They talked for over three hours, she didn't get to sleep till 2 a.m. but she was hardly even tired.

"Lizzie where were you yesterday at lunch? I looked everywhere for you." Maria's hands fly up in anxiousness.

"Umm," Liz closes her locker and shrugs her backpack on, "I'm sorry, something happened in Spanish class and I had to get out there. But what did you want to talk about?" Forgetting about her promise to tell her about her vacation and Cole.

She raises her eyebrows at her friend. "Hello? Cole?" Maria whispers. "And you vacation." She speaks normally. "When I couldn't find you at school I called your house but that annoying phone lady said it was disconnected."

Crap, I did promise to tell her. Yesterday after arriving home to an empty house she unplugged all the phones and left her cell phone off not wanting to deal with the outside for a while. "I'll tell you today after school, I promise. But lets go over to your place since your mom's gone to sell some of her alien memorabilia today."

"Alright, but I'm holding you to it." She backs up toward her English class. "Don't flake on me this time."

Liz nods and turns walking to her class. Luckily she doesn't have Spanish today, she's not even sure she would go if she had it. It was all over school how the blackboard mysteriously went up in a massive wave of flames and just as suddenly as it appeared it was gone.

Yesterday had been scary for her, one moment she was angry and upset at the teacher, the next the chalkboard was on fire. And Liz knew she caused it, she felt the power surge through her.

Liz hears the warning bell ring and she takes off running down the hall just before the teacher closes the door so no stragglers can enter. Her teacher throws her a disappointed glance but waves her inside. Sighing she makes her way toward the back of the row next to Kyle who was staring at her. This class was basically a 'screw-off' class, it was where you critiqued various films from many decades.

Kyle passed Liz a note while the teacher prepares the projector. How was ur vaca? He pulls out some loose paper jotting down some brief notes on the opening.

All right, I saw a lot of haunted places. Deciding to start with something that he would find interesting. Liz waits for the teacher to turn her back to the students. See her chance she quickly passes the note.

Did u get what u needed? Cutting to the chase.

Yea, I thnk I did. I'm…more free then I was b4 I left. Liz also begins to take notes on a scene she wanted to point out in the one page critique due the next class.

U had sex didn't u? Kyle writes, just joking but the way Liz's eyes bugged out he was positive his joke was right on target. A card game Liz should never play would be Poker, she'd loose all her money…or clothes depending on what kind of Poker she was playing.

What makes u say that?

Oh, nothing, just the fact that ur glowing, u wrote u feel free, and u have a fading hickey on ur collar bone. He wasn't going to let her off the hook now.

Reading what he wrote she grabbed her purse and pulled out her compact with mirror attachment. Even in the darkened class room she could see her make-up was rubbing off onto her shirt. Quickly she touches it up concealing it from everyone's view once again. Just cuz I have a hickey doesn't mean I had sex.

Liz was about to pass the note back to Kyle when a hand from behind them grabbed the note from her. "Miss Parker, Mr. Valenti. I warned you about passing notes in my class before. Next time I'm going to read it out loud." Ms. Jones walks up to her desk tossing the note into the garbage, Liz is very thankful she didn't read it to the students.

Finally the class is over and her and Kyle make their way to the quad. Since school has started they hadn't eaten at the tables like the other students; instead they would either eat lunch on the bleachers or under the large tree in the field. None of them felt extremely comfortable in the crowed quad area, mostly because the people they hung out with were either dead or disappeared, and it made the other students stare and wonder.

Alex, of course was gone from this world all because of the blonde gerbil bitch Tess, Max and Isabel up and left, the official story among the students was that they ran away because Isabel was pregnant with Max's baby and left with Tess following them. The theory that the police put out was Max got Tess pregnant and they left Isabel going with them because he's her brother.

By the time Liz and Kyle got their lunch Michael and Maria were sitting out in the field under their tree. He and Maria decided to take it easy for awhile both realizing they only slept with each other because they assumed he was leaving. Of course he hadn't but at the time they didn't know that.

"Hey Parker, didn't see you yesterday. Everything alright?" After the only family he had known left the planet he didn't really know where he belonged anymore. Eventually he found a place for himself again, not as a second in command but as a friend and a pseudo brother to Liz.

The Parker's love having him around and in his own way taking care of Liz. Michael really felt like he was member of the family, instead of out of place like at Maxwell and Isabel's. He had a sense of belonging and it didn't matter if he trailer trash, the Parker's cared for him anyway.

"Yea, something just came up that I had to deal with yesterday." She sits down and leans against the large pine tree next to Michael, "It ended up taking all day so I didn't even finish till school was over." Giving the group of three enough information so they don't ask to many questions but was vague enough that she didn't reveal much of anything.

"Ok chica, enough about where you were yesterday, tell us about your vacation."

"It was wonderful, I got to stay in daddy's pent house, one of these days all of us should go there, the view's fantastic. I went to San Jose and saw Sarah Winchester's house, it was so cool doors would open to walls, or to the outside, one door even opened to drop into the kitchen. Stairs would go into the ceiling…"

"And she did all this crap why?" Michael interrupts.

"Because a psychic said the spirits of the people killed by the guns her husband made were coming after her, in order to stop them from finding her she had to build and keep building. She was so freaked by all this that every night she would sleep in a different room to throw the ghosts off." Liz was surprised by how much all this fascinated her, normally Maria was the one who was into the ghosts and haunted places.

"My mom should go there one day, she absolutely loves that crazy shit." Maria chuckles.

"Like mother, like daughter huh?" Kyle teases, poking his soon to be stepsister in the stomach.

"Hey watch it Valenti, she's going to become your stepmother in eight months. I'd be nice to me, we're going to be living under the same roof and you have to sleep sometime." She smirks enjoying seeing Kyle squirm.

"So Liz, what else happened on your travels?" Kyle quickly moves the subject elsewhere.

"I went to Alcatraz, another haunted place, it was creepy but it was cool. For me it felt like someone was watching me while I was there. Then that night I went out a vampire tour around San Francisco."

"Didn't anyone ever tell you Parker that a vacation is where you relax not pile your schedule chalk full of things to do and think about?" Michael tells her.

"Well, then you must be on vacation all the time then right?" She grins playfully up at him, without warning he grabs her in arms and tickles her stomach and behind her knees. Since becoming almost a permanent fixture in the Parker home he's gotten more comfortable with hugging Maria and Liz, and with loosening up.

"Hey, hey, hey! Ahh!" Liz laughs out kicking her legs against the ground trying to squirm out of tickling embrace.

Maria and Kyle laugh along with Michael and Liz, their laughter is cut short, however, when they hear a loud crack from above them. Ceasing their movements they look up the once sunny sky is gray, many of those big thunderclouds, are hovering above.

Suddenly a bright light shoots down and slices into the tree they're sitting under. Along the side a long split is formed, the edges singed, leaving a large branch hanging dangerously above their heads.

"I think we'd better move." Liz softly says. Quickly Michael helps Liz and Maria, with no words they gather their things fast and rush from beneath the tree.

"Ok what the hell happened there?" Maria holds her binder closer to her heaving chest, her heart racing underneath, leaning in she whispers to Michael. "Was that your doing?"

"No, I can't do that." He whispers back, staring in awe at the tree.

Michael didn't, but she did. She could have killed her friends, tears well up in her eyes, the last thing she ever wanted to do was hurt her friends. They mean the world to her, she has to figure out what's going on and fast before she hurts someone.

TBC