The Intruder

"Uh, Adam." Max waited for Adam to open his eyes, then continued. "This is Liz. I told you about her, remember?"

"Hi," Adam said nervously. Liz sat next to Max. Adam looked at her and squeezed his eyes shut again.

Liz shot Max a worried look, then she pulled open her bag, rooted around, and pulled out the sunglasses she wore with her Men in Black-style uniform when she was waitressing. She reached across the table and gently slid the glasses on him. He jerked back, startled. "Try opening your eyes now. Everything will look a little less… intense."

Adam glanced around. Max felt himself relax a bit. Maybe Liz had found a way for Adam to be out in public without risking a meltdown.

"Hey, Adam. I've been thinking about you all day," Isabel said as she hurried up to the booth. She slid in next to him. "How did it go? What did you and Max do?"

Max noticed that with Adam, his sister dropped all her I-am-Princess-Isabel-and-all-must-worship-me garbage. She treated him so tenderly, it was almost bizarre to watch.

"We made toast," Adam answered. "And Max taught me how to play poker."

"Great, Max. Toast and poker. I'm glad you covered the essentials. I knew I should have been the one to stay home with him," Isabel said. "You talked to Adam about not using power, right?"

"Yeah." Max's stomach tightened as he remembered that little conversation. "Adam, um, Adam didn't realize that he comes from another place. He didn't realize that most people here can't do the things he can do."

"What does he know?" Isabel asked.

Max explained what he'd covered with Adam-that he and Isabel and Michael and Adam all came from the same planet and that they were probably the only people on earth who did come from there. And he'd told Adam that he shouldn't tell anyone this or use his powers. And then there were all the little things-like toast and poker-that Adam had never seen.

But Max hadn't told Adam what would happen if he did tell people the truth. He didn't tell him that most people would be afraid of him. Or that some would hate him. Or that some would want to kill him. Max knew he'd have to explain this to Adam sometime soon. But not now. He had enough to deal with.

"Here come Maria and Alex," Liz said. She scooted closer to Max to make room, and he looped his arm around her shoulders, just like a normal guy. Max never thought he'd be able to have this, to have a girl-a human girl-know the truth about him and still love him.

I should tell Adam about me and Liz, he thought. He should know that just because he's different doesn't mean he doesn't get any of the good stuff.

Maria went to sit by Liz, but Alex hooked her by the arm. "Sit here," he said, nodding toward the spot next to Isabel. An awkward silence lingered as Maria looked at Alex, confused. Post-breakup weirdness, Max thought. They sat down.

"Adam, this is Alex. And that's Maria," Max told him. "If you need anything, you can come to any of us. You can talk to any of us about anything. You can ask us any questions. You can-"

"You can trust us," Alex interrupted.

"Yeah, that basically covers it. You can trust us," Max agreed.

Adam didn't say anything. He had to be on complete overload. "We need to decide what to do with Adam," Max went on. "Who we're going to say he is, where he's going to live, what he's going to do for-"

Max stopped himself. He was talking like Adam wasn't even there. He had to keep reminding himself that even though Adam acted sort of like a little kid, he wasn't. "Sorry, Adam," he said. "I didn't mean to make it sound like we were just going to decide everything for you. It's just that you're pretty much walking into a whole new world."

"Yeah. It's a place we've lived in all our lives. So we know the basic stuff that you need to get by," Maria added. "Do you think we could say he was an exchange student? If we did, maybe he could just live with us." She turned toward Adam. "An exchange student is someone from another country who comes to live and go to school in a different place for a while."

"Like on TV," Adam said.

"They didn't have TV in the compound, so I was teaching him how to cha

"What a mentor," Isabel said, smiling.

"I don't know if the exchange student thing would really work. I mean, where would we say he was from?" Max said.

"Delaware?" Alex joked. Isabel flashed him an a

"We could always take him to the cave," Max offered.

"I don't want him so far away. Not all alone," Isabel answered, her voice rough with emotion.

"We have this little shed out in the backyard that he could stay in until we figure out something better," Liz told them. "It has electricity and everything because once for two seconds my dad thought he wanted to do carpentry and he bought all these electric tools."

"What do you think, Adam? Would you mind living there?" Max asked. "You'd have to stay out of sight when Liz's parents are around."

Adam looked over at Liz. "I would be close to you?"

"Totally close. I could be out to the shed in three seconds if you needed me," she promised him.

"That sounds good," he answered, a slow smile spreading across his face.

Max had felt that same kind of goofy smile on his own face when he looked at Liz. He tried to imagine what it would be like to go sixteen years without ever seeing a girl your own age and then to suddenly be surrounded by them. It might be kind of scary, but fun scary. At least Adam had Liz, Maria, and Izzy to be his training-wheel girls.

"I'm starving. Does anyone actually work here, or are we supposed to take our own order and then make ourselves a pizza?" Alex asked.

"Lucinda Baker is working today. One of you guys take off your shirt. That will get her back here fast enough," Isabel said.

Adam started to tug off his sweatshirt. "No, no. I was just kidding, Adam," Isabel said, stopping him midstrip. The entire table broke into laughter. "Lucinda! If you want anything approaching a tip, get back here," she yelled. Lucinda appeared almost immediately.

"So what do we want?" Alex asked. "Adam, what's your favorite?"

"I don't know," Adam answered, tensing up a little.

"They never let him choose his food," Max told Alex. The second the words were out of his mouth, he realized it was a stupid thing to say.

"He just got out of one of those really strict boarding schools," Liz jumped in.

"Oooh, you must have been a bad boy," Lucinda teased. "I like bad boys."

Uh-oh. Now, Lucinda, she definitely wasn't a training-wheels girl. She had a whole home page on the web describing the kissing technique of the guys at school that made it very clear she had some pretty high standards. She'd eat little Adam alive.

Before Max had a chance to decide what he should be doing about this Lucinda-Adam situation, Lucinda reached out and ran her fingers down Adam's cheek, her screaming red nails looking even brighter against his pale skin. By the enthralled look on Adam's face, Max knew he had co

Adam gave a little jerk. "I like that underwear you have," he told Lucinda. "The brown ones with the white squiggly lines. It reminds me of a cupcake."

Max covered his face with his hands. Isabel laughed out loud.

"Hey, how did you know about my underwear?" Lucinda demanded.

Okay, think fast, Max ordered himself. You don't want Adam ending up in the circus. Or with his own nine hundred number.

"Oh, Lucinda, come on," Isabel answered, before Max could formulate some kind of excuse. "You have shown way too many guys your underwear to ask that question. You know how guys like to brag."

"You know what? Could we get that pizza to go?" Max asked.