The Dark One

"Max, uh, shouldn't you be in school?" Adam asked. He hesitated, then gave Max a hard slap on the back. Max started to pull the string again, but Adam pulled the toy away before he had the chance.

Max's eyes fluttered, then slowly focused on Adam. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

Adam shrugged casually, even though his heart was pounding from the weirdness of it all. "I don't know," he said. "Just killing time. What about you?"

A deep line appeared between Max's eyebrows as he looked around the toy aisle. He rubbed his hands over his face. "I… man, I don't even remember coming in here. We're in Target, right?"

"Yeah." Adam straightened up, then reached down and helped Max to his feet. "Are you going to, um, head back to school?"

"I guess I…" Max's voice trailed off. He picked up a large, fuzzy teddy bear and started to stroke its fur. He lifted one shoulder at Adam almost apologetically.

"It's a consciousness thing," he explained. "Some of the beings want to know how it feels. I think I'll stay here for a while." He started sounding sort of sleepy. Maybe even drugged.

"Are you sure?" Adam asked. Max's eyes had grown almost as glassy as the bear's.

"Missing a day of school isn't going to hurt me," Max answered.

As Max started to drift off again, his words replayed in Adam's mind. Before he could even blink, he had an amazing idea. A completely amazing, exciting idea.

Liz sucked in her breath as Max walked down the hall toward her. The intensity and focus she saw in his bright blue eyes was almost too much to bear. He was one hundred percent there. She could tell not even a fraction of a percent of his attention was on the consciousness or anything else.

It was exactly the way he used to look at her all the time. Liz had a wild impulse to run straight over to him and just hurl herself into his arms. But that wasn't a possibility. She and Max weren't together anymore.

Max smiled as he reached her, one of the smiles that made Liz feel like she was the most beautiful, wonderful, amazing girl ever born.

"Um, hi," she said, an attack of shyness coming over her.

"Liz," he whispered, leaning close, initiating a tiny tremor through her entire body. "It's me. Adam."

Liz's heart slammed in her rib cage, and she backed away a step, feeling a little dizzy. "What?"

"I knew Max wasn't going to be here, so I decided to, you know." Adam made squishing motions in front of his face. "I wanted to see… the school. Is it okay?"

"Uh, sure. I guess." She wanted to ask him where Max was and why he wasn't in school, but she had a feeling she didn't really want to know the answer.

"Why not? I'll show you around," Liz told him, struggling to sound like she hadn't just been body slammed. "Come on." She led the way to the cafeteria and pulled open one of the double doors. "This is the caf," she said. "Do you want to get food? We could go sit with-"

"No," Adam answered quickly. "I want to see the rest."

Liz let the door swing shut and led the way down the hall. "These are the lockers," she explained, letting her fingers trail across the green-painted metal, bumping each lock as she walked. "It's where we keep books and stuff." She paused. "This one's mine."

"Can I see inside?" Adam asked, all puppy-dog eager.

"There's not much to see," Liz answered. "But why not?" She began to dial the combination, messed it up, and had to start again. She wondered how long it would have taken her to figure out what was going on if Adam hadn't told her he wasn't Max. A few weeks ago she'd have known almost instantly. But lately she didn't feel like she knew Max down to the bone the way she used to. There were even times where he was a complete stranger to her.

Liz pulled open her locker, revealing a neat row of books, a binder, and a stuffed alien wearing sunglasses that Max had given her as a joke.

"Is this your sister?" Adam asked, lightly touching the photo taped just under the one of her and Max.

"Yeah. That's Rosa," Liz answered. She looked into his eyes. "I never got to-"

This was too strange. She couldn't have this conversation with Adam while he looked like Max.

"Come here for a second." She pulled him up the stairs and down the hall to the little room where all the biology equipment was stored.

"What's that smell?" Adam asked as she shut the door behind him.

"Formaldehyde," she answered, her brain flashing on her and Max making out in this room, joking about how the smell of formaldehyde was a turn-on. "Could you go back to your regular self for a minute?"

Adam began the transformation immediately, without asking why. His hair darkened from blond to light brown, growing finer and silkier. His eyes turned from intense bright blue to leaf green, while his body grew a few inches shorter and lost a little muscle.

"Okay?" he asked when he'd finished.

Liz nodded. "I never got to say thank you for convincing me to go and talk to my papa. You were right. We had this long, amazing talk about Rosa, and we hadn't talked about her since she died. I told him everything, everything I've been wanting to say for years. How he doesn't have to be afraid because I'm not Rosa and nothing bad is going to happen to me." The words came out a little choked, and Adam reached out and gently touched her face.

He's so sweet, she thought, realizing how much she'd come to count on Adam lately. How much it meant to her to have someone look at her the way Adam was looking at her right now-as if there was nothing more important in the whole world.

It felt good. It did.

But it didn't feel the way it had when Max used to look at Liz that way.

Used to. That was the key. The Max Liz was remembering-that Max didn't exist anymore.

SIX

Isabel spotted Alex hanging out in front of the gym with Steve Lydick, Doug Highsinger, Patrick Briscoe, and Josh Martinez.

They can't be responding to Alex's new gorgeousness, she thought as she headed toward them. But they had probably noticed that Alex had snagged the interest of pretty much every girl in school. Because of that, they'd probably decided he was worthy of their company. She rolled her eyes. Guys were such… guys.

"Miss Isabel," a breathy voice called from behind her. Isabel turned, and Stacey bopped up to her. "If you're thinking about going up to the guys, I thought you might want to borrow some of my blush. And maybe some concealer, too. I wish I had some foundation for you. But I don't need it."

"Thanks, Stacey, but-"

Isabel blanked. Usually it was so easy to come up with the appropriate response to one of Stacey's little digs, but today she was right. I do look like hell, Isabel thought. She'd spent fifteen minutes in a bathroom stall, using her powers on her face, and another ten in front of the mirror, touching up her makeup, and still she had akino face-grayish skin, dull eyes, lips that had started to crack a little.

"But what?" Stacey asked.

"But I'm fine," Isabel muttered.

"You don't have much time before you need to get ready for the game!" Stacey reminded her, bopping away without a care in the world.

Isabel didn't bother to answer. She continued toward Alex, relieved when Stacey didn't come along.

"Hey, guys," she said when she'd reached the little crowd. "Can I borrow Alex for a minute?" Without a second glance at anyone in the circle, she took Alex by the arm and led him away.

"Oh, man, Isabel, too?" she heard Patrick complain. Even when I look bad, I look good, she thought with satisfaction.

"What's up?" Alex asked when Isabel sat him down on one of the benches in front of the administration office. Isabel noticed him noticing Lucinda Baker as she strutted by.