Of all the kids who were at that game, why is he asking us? Max thought. He told himself not to get paranoid. DuPris was obviously a buffoon. This was nothing to get in a sweat about.

"That was the Guffman mascot, not ours," Maria told him. "You should go over there."

"I shall, I shall. But do y'all have any impressions for me since I'm here and all?" DuPris asked. He rolled his walking stick between his palms, twirling it back and forth.

"I didn't notice. I was too busy checking out our new football player," Liz answered, looking right at Max.

And Liz Ortecho delivers a crashing punch to Max Evans's stomach, a little sports commentator voice in Max's head said. He staggers, but he doesn't go down.

"It was a pretty good flip. All of us cheerleaders were saying we should start taking gymnastics lessons to keep up," Isabel added. She smiled at DuPris, her blue eyes open wide.

That's Iz, Max thought. Thinks a pretty smile is all it takes to get her way. And usually it was. Except with him, of course. Brothers are invulnerable to that kind of tactic from their sisters.

"Oh, don't be modest," DuPris cooed. "You're a fine athlete from what I hear. Everyone's talking about your performance at the miniature golf course."

Isabel stiffened a little. "Oh, pfft, that was just luck," she said.

Yeah, right, Max thought. It was totally obvious his sister was lying-at least it was totally obvious to him. Maybe not to DuPris. As soon as DuPris left, Max would have to ask Isabel exactly what her performance involved. Obviously something had gone on that he should know about.

"I don't believe in luck," DuPris said. "Some people believe that we all have an angel on our shoulders and that's where luck comes from. But I have a different theory."

Max tried to keep his face completely blank. Maybe the guy would take a hint that no one wanted to hear his theory and take off.

"My theory is that our luck comes from alien intervention. I believe there are aliens among us and that sometimes they give us a little help," DuPris continued.

Michael raised his eyebrows. "They came billions of miles to help us with miniature golf?" he asked.

"Well, among other things," DuPris agreed.

The bell rang, and Max sprang to his feet. "Got to get to class."

"Ah. Well, I thank you for your time." DuPris tipped his hat and wandered off.

"Why do I suddenly feel the urge for some southern cuisine every time I see that guy?" Alex asked. He shoved the last bite of his hamburger into his mouth and grabbed his backpack. "See y'all later," he added. He headed toward the gym.

"Wait up," Michael called. He trotted after Alex.

Maria turned to Isabel. "Are you ready for another round of Julius Caesar?"

"No, but let's go, anyway." They wandered toward the east wing.

"Alone at last," Max said to Liz. He meant for it to come out sort of cool and jokey. But instead it sounded lame.

Liz stood up and stared after Maria and Isabel. "That's something I never thought I'd see. A few weeks ago Maria was convinced Isabel wanted to kill her, and Isabel…" She shook her head.

Whoa. Max knew that "alone at last" thing was dorky. But he didn't think it called for a complete subject change.

Max's throat got all tight. It felt like there was no way he could squeeze out another word-if he could somehow even think of another word to say. He swallowed hard and followed Liz across the quad and through the doors of the main building.

The tightness in his throat worked its way down into his chest as they climbed the stairs and silently headed into the bio lab. He could hardly breathe.

This totally sucked. A month ago, before she knew the truth about him, Max and Liz were friends. True, they weren't the kind of friends who ate lunch together or hung out much at all. But they could always talk. About pretty much anything; well, except for the alien stuff. Max could talk to Liz about the things that made Michael's and Isabel's eyes turn as blank as marbles. Like theories about how the universe was created or if artificial intelligence programs would ever be able to give computers the ability to feel true emotions.

Max dumped his books on the lab table. He couldn't stop thinking about how much things had changed between him and Liz in the past month. First, when she got shot and he used his powers to heal her, the only consequence he'd expected was that he'd have to admit to her he was an alien. But the second he pressed his hands over the gunshot wound, he knew with absolute certainty and clarity that he loved Liz. And his world changed forever.

He didn't think there was a chance that Liz could ever love him back. Yeah, maybe on a TV show a totally beautiful, totally smart, totally everything girl like Liz could fall in love with the Amazing Alien Boy or whatever. But that didn't happen in real life.

Except that it did. Not all at once. At first Liz was seriously freaked out about Max being an alien. But then she realized that he was the same person he had always been. And somehow… somehow, magically, Liz fell in love with him.

Max glanced over at her. She was all busy flipping through her notebook. But she was turning the pages so fast, he doubted she could read a single word. She just wanted an excuse not to have to come up with something to say to him.

Ms. Hardy hurried into the room. Good. Now we can get started on our lab work, Max thought. Something we can still manage to do together without it being completely awkward and uncomfortable.

"Okay, today's experiment is going to take almost all the time we have, so listen up," Ms. Hardy said. "Each team has an unknown substance. Your job is to determine what the substance is, using the information we've covered so far this semester. Go on and get started."

Liz ripped open the envelope containing their unknown. It was a small strip of metal. She flipped it over in her fingers. "It's pretty light," she commented. "What do you want to try first?"

"Hardness scale?" Max suggested. He pulled open the top drawer of their lab station and pulled out some metal samples. He handed a piece of iron to Liz and she scraped the unknown with it.

"It scratched. So it's softer than iron," she said. She tried the rest of the samples. They all scratched the unknown metal.

"What do you think? Magnesium?" Max asked.

"Probably," Liz agreed. "Let's try burning it. That will tell us a lot."

Max pulled out the Bunsen burner and connected the rubber tube to the gas spigot. He put on a pair of goggles and handed another pair to Liz. She used the striker to light the flame, and Max adjusted the oxygen flow until the flame was the right height.

Liz picked up the metal sample with a pair of tongs and held it over the flame. When she pulled it out, the metal burned with a brilliant white light, much brighter than the orange flame of the Bunsen burner.

It's like when I touched Liz the day she got shot at the Crashdown Cafe, Max thought. I touched her, and it's like I lit up with this amazing white light. And I knew I was in love with her.

"I think we were right," Max told Liz. "You want to try it under some water just to be sure?" He flipped on the cold water faucet, and Liz held the blazing piece of metal under the stream. It made a fizzling sound, but it didn't go out. Max turned off the water, and the white flame was as bright as ever.

Nothing is going to put out the light in me, either, Max thought. I'm never going to wake up and find myself out of love with Liz.

Maybe he should tell Liz he was wrong when he said they had to be just friends. Wasn't it insane to give up on a fire so blinding, so impossible to quench? How many times was he ever going to feel this way in his life?

Answer: one. One time. Because there wasn't another girl like Liz anywhere on this planet or any other.