The
Toy House…..
“What is your problem?”
“Maria?” Liz turned to Maria in confusion.
“Liz, you are killing the coffee machine.” Maria took
the coffee from Liz. “You going to tell me or not? Where is the girl who was
polishing the mixer other day with stars in her eyes?”
“Max says we can’t be together.”
Maria closed her eyes. “Sorry, Liz. I know this is tough,
but…”
“You agree?”
“I didn’t say that. I just think…”
Liz went on without listening to Maria. “It was the whole
thing with Michael. It scared me. I just couldn’t handle it if something
happened to Max, and seeing Michael so sick, I was afraid.”
Maria patted Liz in comfort. “I’m sorry, Liz. Really I
am.”
“You don’t think it’s a good idea, do you?”
“What?”
“Us with them?”
Maria frowned. “I know-it’s hard. I do. I know you feel
things.” Maria wondered if she was that involved would she would feel
differently? “How can you know, Liz? I mean, really? Michael’s illness
brought home just how different they are. They are not human. This isn’t
just a ‘oh geez, my boyfriend is an alien’ situation! Maybe Max forgot for
a moment. I know you did.”
“I…You don’t understand, Maria. You can’t.”
“I know.” Maria looked down at the counter she had just
cleaned. “I do know that I care for them. I know that I care for Michael,
and him being different, not human, doesn’t change that. But I also love you
too, Liz. I wonder how much knowing them is costing you. Costing us. How much
are you willing to pay?”
“I don’t know, Maria. I just know that it makes me feel
special. It makes me feel alive and not so ordinary.”
Maria hugged her quick. “As if Liz Parker could be
ordinary.”
Liz smiled and looked at her friend critically. She too had
changed. Maria had toned down the drama queen in her style. She was still
given to moments of panic and exaggeration, but lately something was
different. She was quieter. More thoughtful.
“How about you? Did Michael say anything to you? Like
thanking you for helping to save him?”
Maria shrugged. “Why should he? That’s hardly Michael.
He wouldn’t see it that way. He hates being beholden to anyone, even Max and
Isabel.”
Liz rocked on her feet. “He looked directly at you when
he said no more running.” Maria just shrugged. “You two seem pretty tight
sometimes.”
Maria laughed. Seemed. Operative word. “We have the fifth
wheel syndrome. Iz hangs with Alex, you with Max, so that leaves us both
there. It happens. We end up doing a lot of investigating together.”
“You go to the movies. Date.”
Maria made a face. “Not really. Max seems preoccupied at
times, so Michael seeks me out at times. That’s all. He really doesn’t
believe in fraternizing with humans, you know.” Maria shrugged. “He’s a
good movie partner. He opens the security door, and I bring the microwave
popcorn. Simple. Of course the first time I brought it unmicrowaved, and it
made a horrible noise when he popped it. We almost got caught.”
“He spends time with you.” Liz didn’t mention that
she had noticed the larger alien seeking Maria out, sitting in her section, or
showing up at the end of her shift. Liz frowned, not willing to consider why
it bothered her. No one wanted to admit they were losing their best friend to
another.
Maria laughed. “Well, at times, I don’t think he thinks
of me as human. Most the time, he doesn’t think of me at all.”
“You okay with that?”
Maria shrugged. “What’s not to be okay with? We’re
fine.”
~~~
Michael and Max walked through the halls at school as Max
told Michael about putting out a fire in his house. Michael frowned, his jaw
tensing.
“You used your powers in front of your mother?” He
shook his head. “That is not
fine.”
“Michael, I'm handling it, all right?”
“Well, I hope so,” Michael looked over at Maria and
Liz, groaning, “because dealing with Frick and Frack over there is one
thing, but we can't bring adults into this and expect them to handle it.” He
did not want to hear about the big breakup, and knowing Maria, it was
unavoidable. “Adults are the enemy, Max. Remember that.”
“Michael, you say everyone is the enemy.”
“They are.” Michael scowled when Liz joined them
followed closely by Maria.
“Hey.” Liz said subdued, her eyes only on Max.
“Hey.” Max answered.
Michael watched them, rolling his eyes. He made eye contact
with Maria, hoping to share his sarcasm with her. “Hey,” he said,
mimicking the vocal eloquence of Max and Liz.
“Yeah, whatever.” Maria looked at the two and shook her
head. There wasn’t enough time in the morning to take this slow of a
conversation. She walked off after shriveling her nose at Michael for his
cruel pun. Michael snorted under his breath as he walked off in the other
direction hoping to find a good place to nap through his first hour. There was
no sense in talking to Max while he was in the
~~~
At the basketball game, in a nice display of school spirit,
Liz and Maria cheered the team on. Actually Liz cheered the team on ; Maria
cheered on the boys.
“Go, Comets! Whoo!” Liz said standing clapping her hand
enthusiastically.
“Boys... boys...” Maria mumbled to herself, checking
out a nice sweaty body on the opposing team as it made a basket.
“Whooohhh!” Maria cheered, looking around at the stares
around her. Okay, so he was on the opposite team, obviously her reasons for
being there weren’t the same as others. “I'm sorry. I retract...that last
whooh.”
“Humans.” Michael said to Max while staring at Maria in
wonder. Now she was cheering for sweaty bodies? Thought she said all high
school boys were sweaty dogs. Now she likes them?
“What?” Max asked, distracted by Liz watching Kyle
dribbling the ball down the court.
“How excited they get over someone throwing a ball
through a hoop. It's ridiculous.”
Maria, sitting next to him, huffed under her breath and
retorted, “Who cares about a stupid ball and a hoop?” Michael lifted a
brow.
Isabel arrived with two friends, all of them looking way
too well-put-together for a simple high school basketball game. She smiled at
Alex. “Is there room for us?”
Alex literally fell all over himself to clear room for
Isabel and her friends, but specifically for Isabel. “Um...yeah. Excuse me.
I'm sorry. Sorry. Excuse me. Excuse me, can you just scoot, like, uh...yeah
just all... So, welcome to the bleachers. Glad you decided to be a bleacher
bum.”
Michael made a face. Looking at Maria who was sitting next
to him, he tried to share his reaction over Alex’s attraction. “How you
doin'?”
“Fine.” She followed his glance. “I know. It’s like
puppy feet, and floppy ears.”
“Glad we’re above that.”
Maria agreed. “You bet!” The boy she was checking out
early went by. “Oh, god! I’ve got to get a better seat!” Maria spied a
person she knew. “Hey, Elliot! Can we switch seats?” The boy agreed, but
before she could get closer to the floor, and at a better strategic viewing
spot, Michael stopped her.
“You’re leaving me here alone, to watch this game? What
no rude comments? No interesting bipartisan remarks?” Damn her! He was going
to have to put up with Max’s silent brooding over Liz, and some dip named
Elliot.
“Buck it up! Get into the team spirit.”
Michael snorted, moving down to the next bleacher with
Maria. “Five bucks if this is team spirit for you.”
“Your point being?” Maria smiled charmingly. “Okay,
you can sit with me, and I’ll give you my opinion on team spirit. It can’t
be as entertaining as living in fear of your life, dragging your sweaty body
all over the place, and going the extra mile, but what the heck? I’ll
entertain you. I know you have a short attention span.”
Michael made a face at her, but something she said made his
face close. He cleared his throat, redirecting the conversation. “I thought
you didn’t like high school boys.”
Maria punched his arm. “No, I said I don’t date
them. They’re sweaty, grabby, and talk about sports and cars. I never said I
don’t check them out!”
Michael lifted a brow. Exactly what did she expect? There
was little else to talk about. Before he could comment on her obvious double
standard, he noticed Max and Isabel having an animated discussion at the edge
of the floor leading outside. Making a gesture to Maria, he left her to join
the other two. When he got there, he caught the tail end of Isabel’s
comment.
“It was like she was looking for something. We have to
deal with this, Max.”
“Deal with it how?”
Isabel bit her lip nervously. “Look, I know that we
agreed never to tell her, but…”
Michael interjected himself into the conversation. No way.
No frickin’ way was this happening. He had spent a lifetime butting heads
against Max and Isabel, them being a united front, but he didn’t care. Not
this time. “But what? If your mom finds out about us, our lives are a
ticking bomb. It'd only be a matter of time before she told the wrong
person.”
Max recognized the tone. “Michael, relax. No one's
telling anyone anything.”
~~~
Michael watched her from the doorway, shaking his head at
her obvious irritation. Checking the area for anyone he didn’t want to see,
namely the instructor, he made his way over to her station.
“Damn!”
“You're doing it wrong.” Michael offered. “You're
gripping the wood too tight.”
“Look, I know how to grip, ok?” Maria glanced over at
him, blowing the hair out of her face.
“Apparently you don't.”
“Look, I have to finish this, all right?” Maria
searched his face. What the heck was Spaceboy doing here? “Look, I’m
sorry, Maria can’t come out to play. This is my final project, and it's a
disaster, so...”
“It doesn't look that bad.” Michael said looking at the
strange, poorly cut pieces of wood.
“Oh, yeah. I'm a regular Bob Vila,” Maria snorted,
tossing the wood aside and going for another tree. Her mother was going to put
her on the environmental list for tree killing. She could see it now. All
those environmentalist outside her window protesting.
“No, I'm serious. I mean, it's actually pretty good.”
Michael held the two pieces together frowning at it. “Once you put it
together, the shoes can go right...”
“Shoes? What do shoes have to do with this?”
“You're making a shoe tree, right?” He lifted a brow.
Maria shook her head no. Michael wavered on his feet pushing his hands deeper
in his pockets. “It really doesn’t look that bad. Um…what is it?”
“I'm making a napkin holder.” Maria took the pieces
back from him. Maria moved the pieces around. “I think.” Ripping another
board, it broke. Swearing, she tossed the pieces. “Great!”
“You’re holding the board too tightly. Just let it
flow…” Michael saw her reaction to his advice putting his hands up in
surrender. “It looks like…” Michael moved the wood around some more,
trying to see a napkin holder. “You’re right. It’s crap.”
Maria turned a hot and irritated face his way. Michael.
Standing in front of her in the woodshop. Now what? “It looks like my grade
dissolving to a D, thank you. Comment card can be found at the exit. Feel free
not to fill one out.”
“I think I already gave my assessment.”
Maria removed her shop glasses. “Did you want
something?”
“No.” She turned away and Michael rolled his eyes.
“Yes.” She looked at him impatiently. “Maybe.”
Maria just shook her head and went back to work.
“Let me fix it for you!” Michael took the pieces of
wood and started to pass his hand over it for her. Maria snatched them back.
“What are you doing?”
“Fixing it.”
Maria stomped her foot in irritation. “Just like that?”
“Sure. What’s the problem?”
“Obviously, you!” Maria looked around. Taking his hand
she dragged him from the woodshop. “Not that I’m not appreciative, but no
thanks. Some things, Michael, they have to be done the hard way, with your
hands. Sure I suck at it. Sure, I’ll get a D. That’s okay. I earned that
D, believe me. I can deal.”
“Why? I can make it so you get an A.”
Maria shook her head. “It’s just a marking on a paper,
Michael. It wouldn’t mean anything. I’d always know, here,” she gestured
to her heart and head, “that I never deserved it. Things are tough. Hard.
Life is pain. Work. You get used to it. You work through it, and you survive.
That is what it is. No fairytale. No happily ever after. It is what it is.”
“I just wanted to help.”
Maria laughed slightly and looked at him. “Thanks. Not
necessary.” Looking him over critically, she checked him for changes.
“You? Are you good?”
“Hundred percent.” Michael leaned back against the
wall. “I…I had wanted to pay you back.” Maria frowned a question and
Michael swore. Damn. “For helping me, when I was sick.”
“What? I was to step over your grossed out sweaty
body?”
Michael ran a hand through his already spiked hair.
“There is this thing.” She waited. “I feel…” Michael looked at her
directly. “I feel I owe you somehow.”
“You don’t.”
Maria punched him on the arm and started to go back into
the shop. He stopped her. “I think I do.” Michael could feel the sweat on
his hands. “I don’t like feeling this way. Like I owe someone, and I feel
that towards you. It makes me feel…I don’t know, unsettled.”
“Unsettled? How?”
“I can't get indebted to anyone, and I can't get
entangled. I got to be a stone wall. And when I'm around you sometimes, I
don't feel like a stone wall anymore.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“For me, it is.” Michael struggled for a moment. “I
can’t afford ties and emotions to this place. I can’t afford to feel…”
“Human?”
Michael thought about it for a moment. “Yeah. I don’t
want to feel that way.”
Maria patted him softly on the stomach. “Then stop. You
have my permission.”
“If I get sick again, don’t help me.”
Maria looked at him. “You know what? I’m going to
ignore that order, if you don’t mind.”
He shrugged. “I do.”
“I know, but you know what? I don’t care. I didn’t
help you for any rewards, or to have you feel beholden to me. Heck, I didn’t
help you because we were together…and I mean like boyfriend and
girlfriend.”
“Why did you help?”
“Because... I don’t know. Somewhere between you scaring
the crap out of me with your big mean alien self, the trip to
She
smiled slightly when he moved on his feet, finally nodding his agreement. She
turned to go finish failing her class. “Michael,” He looked up at her from
where he rested against the wall. “You’re welcome.”
Michael smiled slightly as she went inside. Rubbing the
back of his neck, he watched the empty door where she once stood. He had
kissed her. In the Balance, he had kissed that Maria girl. Now how strange and
bizarre was his world?
Michael started to leave, but he stopped. He could fix it
easily. A wave of his hand, and it would be done. Staring at his hands, he
looked back at the door. Sighing, he turned and walked back into the shop.
Maria looked up at him again. “What?”
“I’m pretty good with my hands. I know you don’t want
help, but how about someone just lending you suggestions.” Michael held out
his hands. “Two hands are better than one? And I promise, no secret power
stuff.”
Maria bit her lip. “Is this the payback thing?”
Michael scratched his brow, shifting uncomfortably on his
feet. “Let’s call it the friend thing and leave it at that.”
Maria smiled a little, nodding. She was flunking anyway, so
he couldn’t make it any worse. They both bent over her instructions and
templates. Maria looked over at him. “So you heard that Max and Liz broke
up?” Michael groaned. He knew it. It was a matter of time before she found a
way to gossip.
~~~
The three aliens stood at the Quarry staring across, all of
them standing apart. Michael was angrily tossing stones into the water as hard
and as far as he could.
“You healed a pigeon. Great. Now you're Dr. Dolittle.”
“Michael, I was six. I didn't even know I had powers yet.
It just happened.”
“So what's the plan?” Michael felt sick. Exposed again.
How could they go ten years undetected and in less than few months, be so
close to discovery time and again?
“That's what we're here for,” Max said looking at his
sister, “...to discuss it.”
“Well, the first thing is obvious. We get that videotape
and we destroy it.” Michael said firmly, throwing another rock. “All
right, after that, it's her word against ours.”
“Her word against ours?” Isabel said, upset with his
attitude. “Michael, she's our mother.”
“She's not your
mother.” Michael stressed. “She's not related to you in any way. Know
that.”
Isabel turned pleadingly to Max, “But if there's any
adult that we can trust, it's her.”
“What, are you suggesting, we tell her?” Michael looked
at her as if she were insane.
Max put a firm hand on Michael’s arm to calm him down.
“No, she isn't.”
“Max, would you let me speak for myself, please?”
Isabel said looking at her two brothers, both of them unyielding. Not liking
the circumstances, being pitted against them, she tried reason.
“Look, Isabel...”
Isabel interrupted Max, needing to interject her opinion
and maybe hope. “No, look. Maybe it'll help us out one day to have an adult
on our side.”
Michael swore, putting his hands on his hips looking out
over the Quarry. “Here's the problem,” he said in rebuttal, “...when you
tell her, she's not gonna be on your side. Maybe she loves you now, but
there's no such thing as unconditional love.”
“Michael, maybe you really don't understand, but she does
love us. It is unconditional.”
“Are you sure about that?” Michael asked. He shook his
head. How could she be? Not until she tested it, and then it would be too
late.
“Isabel, we are not telling her, all right? Stop it.”
Isabel’s face fused with color, as her temper flared.
“Stop speaking to me like that!” Michael looked away, moving away from
them. They talked down to him like that all the time, guess it felt different
from the receiving end.
“Like what?” Max asked. Michael almost said, ‘like
you’re talking to Michael’ but he refrained.
“Like you're the final word on everything.”
“I didn't say I was!”
“Listen to yourself!” Isabel told Max, her voice hurt
at his desertion and unwillingness to consider her feelings.
“Michael's right.” Michael lifted a brow at that, but
he remained quiet. “She's not our mother. We are alone here. We always will
be. Stop pretending it's different.”
“Max, don't you see what's happening? We're losing her.
We're losing our mother. I can't lose her. I need her.”
“We're not telling her, Isabel. That is final.” Max
watched her stomp away taking off in her car. Michael stood by, strangely
quiet as Max wound up and tossed a rock into the water in frustration.
~~~
Michael waited for Maria to come out of class.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” Maria peered at him.
“So you get your final assignment evaluated?”
“Yeah.”
“How'd you do?”
“I got a B.”
“What?” Michael stopped. No way. They did good work. It
was impossible.
Maria looked at him. “B.”
“Well, that's ridiculous. We worked our asses off on that
thing. It was beautifully crafted. It was spring activated to secure the
napkins. It redefined the term ‘napkin holder.’
“Yeah, I know it did.
“Well, how could he have given you a B? I mean...Wh--
“I’m not sure,” said Maria, “but I think he
didn’t like the color scheme.”
Michael stopped opening his mouth, then shutting it and
pointing a finger at her. “I told you! Fire engine red, neon green, and
purple sucks!”
“Actually he liked those colors. It was the chick yellow
trim he hated.”
Michael had picked that color. “That color
accentuated.”
Maria laughed. “God, do you even hear yourself?” Maria
laughed as they walked down the hall with Michael scowling and stomping past
the crowd of students.
