Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from 'Roswell'
Couples: Kyle/Tess Liz/Max Jim/Amy Michael/Maria. (Some references to Isabel/Alex.)
Category: Valentine fic!
Rating: TEEN.
Summary: On a blue February day, Kyle and Liz make a pact to take chances on love.
A dreary winter storm had come to the deserts of New Mexico, and Kyle looked out of the doors of the High school for just a moment, depressed by the steady flow of waters from the heavens above. Someone opened up the inner doors leading from the hallway into the stairwell and anteroom, and Kyle looked around to see who had accidentally interrupted his brooding. The person who he saw was Liz, once an ex-girlfriend who he'd had a bad breakup with, but now a fairly good friend. She was dressed casually for school, but still Kyle couldn't help but admire the slender beauty of her figure, and her pretty face with big dark brown eyes, and wonder what might have been. But it wasn't good to dwell on those kinds of feelings for a friend, especially one who... "Hey, Liz, what's up?"
"Oh, nothing really," she replied in a fairly flat tone of voice. "Got the February blues I guess... and you?"
"Oh yeah, me too," Kyle volunteered. "Which I suppose is why I'm standing here and peeking out occasionally at the unusually wet weather." Kyle waved at the outer doors without touching them.
Liz laughed very slightly. "Sounds fun. I think I'll try it." And so she stepped up next to Kyle and pushed one of the doors open just far enough to take a look. Kyle shuffled even closer to Liz, just so that he'd see most of what she saw, though he wasn't sure what difference that would make. One narrow section of the rained-on front schoolyard was pretty much like any other.
Liz sighed with heavy ennui as she saw the rain coming down - and then gasped with another reaction entirely. Hurrying towards the doorway in the rain was a teenaged boy, taller than Kyle himself was and with a darker head of hair, about as deep a shade as Liz's long straight cocoa locks. He didn't have a jacket to protect him from the wet weather, and as a result his light grey t-shirt was clinging to his chest a bit more tightly than Kyle wanted to see it, though somehow he found it hard to look away for a second. And then he wrenched his attention to focus on Liz's reaction, and it was hard to say whether or not she wished that shirt was even tighter.
Of course, that hadn't been just any random cute guy. Even as drenched as he was, Kyle could recognize Max Evans, and he knew that Liz had as well. Rain was staring to spatter into the anteroom, but she didn't let the door close.
Max jogged quite close, and then he suddenly seemed to notice who was staring out at him from the shelter of the school. Without a word, Max hurried by, probably hunting for a doorway that didn't have the two of them standing in it.
Once he had rushed out of her field of view, (and Liz had leaned slightly to delay that loss of contact for a fraction of a second,) Liz finally allowed the door to slam shut, and let out a long sigh. "Oh, you *SO* want him back," Kyle blurted out before he had a chance to think of if it was a good thing to say or not. Liz turned to him and didn't reply for a long moment.
"I... I *can't*. You of all people should know why, Kyle."
"The I guess that not one of all the people in the world understand why," Kyle replied eloquently, "because I've tried and tried to figure it and keep coming up with the notion that something doesn't add up. Okay, so last November you came to me and asked for my help playing a trick on Evans..."
"Kyle, pleease!!" Liz hissed in sudden anguished fury. "Anybody could be listening!" She pointed meaningfully up the stairwell.
Kyle really didn't think that anybody was crouching up there to eavesdrop on them - the only reason anybody came into a stairwell was to go up or down stairs - there wasn't any further up to go from the second floor, and they'd hear anybody coming down. Plus, Kyle thought he'd have heard the door opening on the second floor landing.
But he couldn't really be sure about that, so he immediately cast his mind in search of a more private place to talk. Stepping outside would be very wet for the obvious reasons, so... He reached out and gently grabbed Liz, leading her back into the hallway. It was early, more than forty minutes until the first bell would start their day of classes, but school was already scattered with teenagers. Kyle carefully checked to make sure that nobody was paying any attention to them, and especially that Max Evans hadn't appeared again, before pullinG Liz into the janitor's closet. She chuckled dryly as he closed the door.
"Just needed a place to say this where no-one could overhear us," he reminded her. "So, we tricked Max into thinking that you and I did the nasty. Why you wanted him to think that, and how you were sure he'd come by your balcony window just in time to catch us before your parents came home and got the same false impression, I don't know and don't care. To me, it's in the past."
Liz quirked an eyebrow at that. "And what's more, I don't think that Max cares either," Kyle pressed on. "The way I heard it, he refused to believe what you arranged for him to see for weeks, and then finally relented just so that the strain wouldn't hurt your friendship. He's not about to turn around and start something up with Tess without a LOT more pushing than you've mustered up so far, if ever, and if you want him back, you could probably get him with a snap of your fingers." Kyle reconsidered his own words a moment. "Make that if you *admitted* you wanted him back, I guess, because it's pretty freakin' obvious to the rest of us who know you well."
"Come on, Kyle," Liz sighed, tossing a stray lock of hair back across her shoulder. "Things aren't quite that simple..."
"Why not? Would Max burst into flame if he looks at some other girl than Tess? I really don't think so." His tone became softly inviting. "You're just aching to whip up some unbearably cute and girly Valentine's day surprise for Max, admit it. I could see it in your face earlier. And you know that he'd just eat it up with a spoon, too, because that's the kind of sensitive and soulful dreamboat that he is."
Liz whined softly, unable to hide the temptation, and when she did manage to raise a kind of objection, it was a single, distasteful word. "Tessss..."
Now Kyle grinned. "No dice, Parker. You just let ME take care of Tess. I'm pretty sure that I can occupy her effectively enough that she won't interfere..."
"That, um, that really wasn't what I meant about Tess, Kyle," Liz grumbled, but something in her eyes had caught fire. "You... you like Tess yourself, huh?"
"Umm... okay, yeah," Kyle confessed reluctantly. "I wasn't sure of whether to try making a play for her, with Valentine's day around the corner, because she's kind of a lot to take on all at once. But if you're in this with me, yeah, I won't deny that I'll enjoy it if things go alright. And if you manage to take Max while Tess is distracted, then maybe she'll stop stalking him..."
"I'm sorry, that's the man I love," Liz joked. "Stop talking about him like he's some prize to be passed around from girl to girl."
"Well, it's not like Tess has Max now," Kyle clarified, but didn't pursue the subject further. "So, umm, do we have a deal?"
Liz sighed. "I... I dunno. I'm tempted, I'll admit that much." She sighed. "I don't think I have the best of luck with big Valentine's day plans."
That made Kyle laugh softly... and gave him the idea for a new line of persuasion. "You know, last year on the Blind Date contest, when I was hanging out with Max, there was a bunch of stuff that I didn't really understand until I found out his secret."
"Well yeah, I kinduv figured that, actually," Liz admitted. "Things he said that didn't make much sense, things that he did that you couldn't quite figure out how... and the fact that he actually got that wildly drunk on just a few drops of alcohol."
"Yeah, all of that stuff," Kyle said, nodding. "But the weirdest thing of all might be his mental state. He was completely focused on you, Liz - and determined to win you back, but completely non-exclusive about it. Because I cared about you too, and was wallowing a bit about our breakup that night, he was, umm, was quite willing to share." Liz's eyes went round. "Not that you should probably pay that much attention to that part - it's not something that I think he'd even consider, sober. But... but no matter what mental state Max Evans is in, you're his whole world, Liz. Don't - don't you owe him, or yourself, this one chance? Yeah, Valentine's day can suck sometimes. I... I do remember freshman year when Derek Jenster was following you around all day and you actually had to call him names to get him to quit crowding you." He sighed. "But... but I do believe that it's also a moment when, just occasionally, love gets a miracle."
"Oh, my god," Liz breathed. "So you believe in Valentine's day miracles??"
"I... okay, possibly I shouldn't have said it quite that way," Kyle muttered, blushing. But he couldn't quite bring himself to take his words back in any more overt way. "Are you open to miracles, Liz??"
"Oh, man." She groaned. "I - I don't know about miracles, honestly. But... but I think I do believe in extra chances... so, yes, you've got yourself a deal." She hopped on the spot, probably from nervousness or sudden excitement. "So, what have you got up your sleeve to distract Tess with?"
"Umm... that's a surprise," Kyle managed to blurt out. Actually, he didn't really have any scrap or fragment of a plan, but it didn't seem like the best moment in which to admit that.
"Alright." Somewhat to his surprise, Liz didn't seem to be suspicious of his cageyness or disappointed by it. "Well, I - I'm going to go try and find Maria. Plan out my own Valentine's day gig - with Max!! Hmm, and maybe Isabel would have some ideas too... okay, see you soon Kyle!" Liz leaned in to very lightly peck Kyle on the cheek with her lips before hurrying out of the closet. Kyle smiled until the door closed again, then stepped against the wall, meaning to lean against it and maybe gently bump his head against the hard surface.
It didn't work out like that. Kyle's foot happened to come down so that it was putting pressure on the head of a hoe or some other garden implement, and the long wooden handle pivoted towards him and bashed him quite hard on the temple. "OWW! Man, come on, that's just too much."
----------
"I... I dunno man. Good luck and all, really, but I think you might be better off asking someone else," Michael muttered to Kyle as he shucked off an old and patched raincoat. "I - well, I'm having enough trouble trying to figure out what to do about my own Valentine's day, and Maria. And I don't really have a good track record with this sort of thing. My advice is probably worse than nothing."
"Come on, man, I just need an idea," Kyle pushed. "To start with. It doesn't have to be a great idea, but..." At that point, his determination and his charity pitch more or less dried up. "So, you and Maria, huh? I didn't realize that you were on again."
"Well, umm, it's a little hard to tell," Michael admitted. "We've been hanging out a few times lately, kiss sometimes, and she hasn't really been getting on my back about 'relationship' stuff. But we exchanged special gifts back at Christmas, and that worked out okay. Mostly because of the backup gift that Isabel left for me. So, umm, I've basically been figuring that we're not really dating, but I have to do something for Valentine's day anyway or I'll mess up a relatively good thing."
"Okay, yeah, that actually doesn't sound too bad," Kyle admitted. "Makes sense. You're not as stupid about this stuff as it seems."
"Actually, most of that realization is kinduv to Max's credit, so, umm... so there." Michael winked, and Kyle sighed. Max was the one person who he couldn't - well, just maybe he could ask for Max's help with the Tess thing and keep quiet about Liz's suprise for Max, but that could get awkward and the secret might come out anyway.
"By the way, what did Maria end up getting YOU for Christmas? I never heard about that part... just the bit about those pearl earrings? And how much of those have you paid back to Isabel, too?"
Michael laughed. "Umm, Maria got me a two-pack of sports disks to watch... the NHL's greatest fights and a special edition of the 1988 Stanley Cup Game 5 - possibly the Gretsky Oilers greatest moment." Michael smiled. "And I think I've paid off a bit over half of my installments to Isabel."
Kyle smiled. "Okay, well, good luck and everything - if you need my help, don't be shy about asking. Us guys have to band together around this time of the year."
"Yeah, and not make each other's jobs too difficult by setting an unreachably high standard," Michael said pointedly.
"Hey, I'll try," Kyle said. "But Tess is a tough cookie, and it might take a lot to melt her heart..."
"You're making a move on Tess?" someone said from behind Kyle, and he recognized the voice as he spun around. Sure enough, Maria was heading towards Michael's locker - he should probably have expected that. "Wow, I wonder what your Dad will say when he finds out."
That particular issue, about his father, and the fact that Tess was living under their roof, was something that Kyle had been trying not to think about while he had other bridges to cross. "Ehh. Yes, I am, but - well, have you seen Liz yet this morning, Maria?"
"Liz?" Maria repeated. "Um... no, actually, I haven't - just rushed inside, and - well, kinduv made a beeline for here." She smiled shyly at Michael, who managed to return the look, though Kyle didn't tend to think of Guerin as being very good at 'shy' ordinarily. (Then again, he was good with the broody loner card, which was most of the time just shy with attitude.) "Why, was, umm, was Liz looking for me? Did she say so?"
"Umm, yeah, she mentioned something about that when I left her company a little while ago," I said. "Probably nothing too urgent, though."
"Well, thanks," Michael said, "and, umm... see you later?" Kyle nearly frowned before he caught the hint. So he said his goodbyes and hurried away to let the two of them have whatever private time they wanted.
*Do I want to go and ask anybody else for their advice?* Kyle wondered to himself as he walked down the hall next to the cafeteria. Talking to anybody on the football team about this - well, their input seemed to be not quite what he needed at the moment, Kyle had to admit, but he wasn't sure who in the 'alien club' he could go to either. Tess was right out as well - or at least, going to Tess would not be a function of advice, but diving into the project straight away - well, either diving straight in or trying to forget about it and just hang around her as if Valentine's day didn't exist. Max might be good at the sweet and sensitive stuff, but things would probably get a little uncomfortable when Max realized that Kyle was attempting to put the moves on Tess - or at least, Kyle was worried about that. Max wasn't terribly emotionally attached to Tess, and part of him resented her for the way that she had disrupted his romance with Liz, all of that was true enough. However, on the other hand, Tess was very hot, and having somebody that cute always hanging around and being super-nice to him - Kyle really doubted that there could be any seventeen year old guy, no matter what his DNA was like, who wouldn't like that treatment a bit, deep down inside. And Kyle certainly didn't want to give away the fact of Liz's end of the bargain to Max, and ruin the element of surprise for her.
Alex Whitman was charming in a slightly goofy way, too, but apparently he'd been acting a little cool towards Max's sister Isabel ever since he got back from Sweden last week, and that, in itself, was strange itself that Max wasn't sure if he would feel comfortable around him, though Alex was usually good company in a slightly geeky way. And that left... Isabel herself, who would probably never let Kyle live it down if he asked her for her advice, especially if Kyle did manage to attract Tess' interest by Valentine's, regardless of whether or not anything Isabel had offered was actually useful. So...
It was at about that point that Kyle bumped into Pam Troy outside the girls' washroom - Pam was dressed up in some ridiculous pink and red outfit, including a very odd looking hat, a huge heart plastered over the front of her T-shirt, and more little pink hearts (possibly candies) tied to the ends of her normally curly dark tresses. Startled by this evidence that he hadn't been paying any attention, Kyle mumbled an apology, and hurried over to see if Tess was at her locker. He wouldn't do anything yet, but he could watch her reaction to the valentine's decorations and such that were already up around the school, (and mention Pam,) and maybe hit upon something that would help plan his strtegy. She'd probably be a bit surprised if he *didn't* either wait at his own locker or try to find her before first period, after all. That was something that they went through most days. (Sometimes they were both waiting for the other, or both gone to try the other's, and so they missed up, but nobody had quite wanted to cross the line into arranging a schedule, yet.)
She was there when he turned the corner, looking into that little dime-store mirror with the sticky glue back that he had given her about a week and a half after she'd been moved into the Valenti house. Apparently Tess, too, had just rushed inside from the parking lot, because her golden hair was obviously wet enough that almost all of her curliness had been temporarily drenched away. She shook a light windbreaker jacket out, sending little drops of water falling on the tile floor, and then started wrapping it up to hang on the locker's tiny hook. *No time like the present I guess.* He headed over, purposefully coming up right behind Tess so that if she caught a glimpse of the mirror again she would spot him.
"Hey, Kyle." Tess turned around and smiled at him, and Kyle nearly stumbled with the momentary sensation of his knees turning into jelly. The rain seemed to have the effect of heightening Tess Harding's natural beauty as it washed away her carefully applied makeup facade... and maybe, just possibly, the knowledge of Kyle's deal with Liz, to actually pursue Tess, made him even more vulnerable to her allure, even if Tess herself didn't guess any of that yet. "Careful there, bud." She reached out a hand to steady him, and there seemed to be a faint tingle that came with the skin to skin contact. "So, how early did you head out this morning? I didn't even think to look for you until I was done in the bathroom."
"Umm. uhh..." *Think, dammit brain! You've got to be able to at least form a relatively innocuous sentence.* "Around Seven thirty I think. Got to the guy's locker room before I found out that the offensive backfield practice had been called off, on account of the rain. Coach normally seems to LIKE having us try to complete passes when it's pouring down, but today he took mercy it seems."
"Oh, okay." Tess turned back towards her locker, grabbed a three-ring binder with solid purple covers out of it, and hung the jacket up. "It's a bit blue to get this much rain here in Roswell, isn't it? Reminds me a bit of Rhode Island - but then again, what can you do about the weather, huh?"
Kyle smiled at Tess turned back to him and leaned in close. "What, don't your powers work on clouds??"
That made her blink. "Umm... have to admit, I'm not quite sure. Ed always told me to never try anything that would have wide area effects unless I was sure what I was doing... and weather manipulation would seem to apply there." Finally put together, Tess closed her locker door and started to lead the way towards their first class. "So, what did you do, stuck in here without any practice?"
"Umm, wel, first a few of us guys played a bit of roundball inside the gym," Kyle admitted. "And then I went off to the anteroom and stared out at the r... WHOA!" Kyle probably overreacted to the gigantic mockup of a deluxe chocolate box that was standing in the middle of the hallway, but he was hoping to evoke some telling response out of the girl next to him.
"Oh, man, all of this valentine's stuff is just so lame," she declared, shaking her head. "Like, I don't think there's a single thing about this holiday that isn't unutterably tacky... just a second." She pointed to the eraser room door. "I'm gonna pop in there a moment to blow-dry myself. The wet hair is really getting on my nerves."
Kyle's eyes went a little wide. "You've got a hair dryer in there?" he asked, pointing to Tess' small purse. Even a miniature hot air wand would probably take up most of the space inside. Too late he realized his mistake, and what a spectacularly dumb question it had been.
"Oh please," Tess reminded him. "Like I need electrical coils just to heate up air." She grinned for a moment before heading over to the eraser room door. But before she'd even gotten it open much, she slammed it closed again and rushed back over to Kyle. "Okay, I guess I should have been expecting that."
"What, it was in use for other things?" Kyle said. "Yeah, it's pretty popular around this time of year... not everybody thinks that Valentine's doesn't have some sort of redeeming value." Sigh. "Anyone I'd know?"
"Well, I didn't get a great look," she reminded him, "but it kinduv looked like Tommy Franter and Evalinne, the Italian exchange student girl."
Hmm. "Not bad, Tommy." He was one of Kyle's old football team buds, (though he didn't hang around with him too much lately,) and the new girl from the student exchange program had caught many eyes among the young men of Roswell - exotically beautiful, with deep aquamarine eyes and rich, curly brown hair with lighter brown highlights.
"Yeah, I would've thought she could do better," Tess remarked absently. "Mind if we take a detour to the girls' room now?"
"Umm, sure." Kyle suddenly realized that Tess had already turned around and headed for the bathrooms, and Kyle had followed her without even noticing. "I've always wanted to see it - and thank you for offering."
"Not like that, you goof," Tess said, swatting him energetically but not terribly hard. "I'll go into the bathroom and try to find some way to dry off. You wait outside."
"Yes, dear," Kyle said, wondering if Tess would pick up on that little joke. "Can't blame a guy for trying, huh?" Tess shot him a doubtful look. "Umm, speaking of tacky Valentine's day stuff, you should see what Pam's wearing today. I nearly bumped into her just outside the girl's room."
"Hmm." Tess considered that. "What was it like?"
"Nah, I'm not going to spoil the impact," Kyle decided. "Unless she's gone back into boring street clothes before you get a chance to see her today."
Tess shot a sidelong look at Kyle, and he wondered if she was going to try a more persuasive tack of getting the information, but maybe she thought better of it and stayed silent the rest of the way to the washrooms.
-----------
Meanwhile, up on the second floor north wing of the school building, Liz ws trying her own persuasive routine on Alex.
"Come on, I really need a guy's help with this - a sweet guy's help, and you and Max are probably the sweetest guys in the whole school." Alex rolled his eyes... he was pretty tired of hearing how sweet and nice he was by now. "You know what I mean. If I tried to ask Kyle or Michael, they might say something about showing up buck naked between Max's sheets..."
"Well, don't knock that until you've tried it," Alex remarked, but Liz shook her head.
"Seriously. If you were going to name your ideal Valentine's day fantasy, what would she do to blow your heart away??"
"She?" Alex joked. "She who??"
"She whoever," Liz insisted. "I don't really care if Isabel, Leanna, or Willow from 'Buffy' is the girl of your dreams at present, I'm just interested in the setting."
"Hmm, well, I'll have to think about this for a while," Alex mentioned. "And... and I don't really think that my own preferences will carry over to Max *that* much. We're very different people..."
"I know, but maybe it'll give me a place to start," Liz pleaded. "I... I really do want to go through with this, but I have to admit that I'm really pretty scared."
"Aww," Alex said softly. "Okay, well... for me, and if it was someone that I wasn't with, who I had a bit of baggage with but still really liked--" Liz nodded to confirm that qualification. "I'd want something understated and a bit mysterious. A note showing up when I'd least expect it from 'a secret admirer.' A small, but cool present showing up in my locker. Enigmatic clue leading me to a particular movie theater, (with my ticket paid for in advance,) and that kind of thing."
"Hmm..." Liz considered that. "I... I can work with that. Thanks a LOT!!" She threw her arms around Alex's body briefly. "So, umm... now that I've brought up the subject, anything on the horizon with you for Valentine's day? I know that Willow Rosenberg is somewhat off the table... Isabel? Leanna??"
"Well, Leanna said that she'd call me as soon as she gets home from school, which is about 8 am our time."
"Aww... I didn't realize that their time was so far away from ours," Liz said. "Do they have Valentine's day in Sweden?"
"Yeah, it's not much different from ours - a bit less commercial, but catching up fast."
"Oh." Liz thought about that for a few seconds, then put it aside. "And... and what about Isabel? Or am I not supposed to talk about her because of Leanna."
Alex sighed softly. "No, of course you can ask about Isabel, or tell me things about her too." Liz giggled. "I still care about Isabel very much, yes. Leanna knows about her, and I know that I'm not the only guy she's fond of either. We're trying to be realistic about this long distance thing, but at the same time, I'm not going to go chasing after Isabel Evans this Valentine's day, or let her catch me without making it quite a challenging chase." He sighed. "Aside from that, whatever will be will be."
"Hmm," Liz considered. "So, you'd let Isabel steal you away from Leanna, just maybe... if she's very patient, and very good. That's what I'm hearing," she told him with a big, slightly teasing grin.
"Hey, you say 'steal' as if there isn't enough of me to go around," Alex kidded back. "Leanna and I aren't committed and exclusive - no reason I couldn't have two Valentine's, huh?"
"Umm, I guess not," Liz agreed. "Though trying to juggle Isabel and a girl who's in a timezone nine hours away might be a balancing act you're not up to." Liz charaded a see-saw lever with one weight very close up and the other very far away. The long arm of the see-saw quickly turned into a catapult that would presumably have tossed Leanna into the vicinity of India or something like that.
"Hmm, yeah, good point," Alex admitted. "Oh, hi Maria, what's the word?"
"That's what I was about to ask you - or, actually, ask Liz I suppose. Kyle said that you had big Valentine's news or something."
Liz was laughing softly again by this point. "Wait a second," Alex put in. "How come Kyle knows already?"
"Well, there's part of it that I didn't tell you yet," Liz said. "You see..."
"Wait a second," Maria put in. "I think I know some about the Kyle part. Tell me about the you part first, Liz..."
Liz sighed a drawn-out sigh, looking back and forth between her two oldest friends. "Patience, my dear ones. All will be revealed in time, and not too much of it. So, I bumped into Kyle at the foot of a stairwell this morning..."
And that was when the five-minute warning bell for classes sounded, of course.
----------
"Hey there!" Kyle jumped slightly at the unexpected voice. He had just been heading out of his last class for the morning, world history, (blahhh,) and hadn't been expecting Tess to be waiting for him outside as soon as he got out. Especially since she'd had class of her own - well, but Mister Wilton had kept them for nearly two minutes after the bell, talking about homework assignments and some sort of dress-up festival that a historical society would be throwing. He was a defiite stickler for his own authority, and had even said straight out "The bell does not dismiss you - *I* dismiss you," earlier that term. (And sent Tommy Whalen to detention for four days because he walked out of the door right after he said that - which the principal and someone from the school board had upheld after Tommy's parents appealed.)
So Tess could have gotten from Sociology, which was just down the hall, in the time that she'd have had. But still, Kyle hadn't been expecting it. "Umm, what's up?"
"Nothing much. Cafeteria's probably going to be jam and packed, since the rain's still bucketing down, so I was thinking that maybe we could eat lunch together in the senior bio room. They don't have any clubs or anything in there today."
Kyle smiled. That was a class that they'd be sharing after the lunch period - they were lab partners, although there hadn't been that many 'lab' assignments, and it was true that a bunch of students often spent some of the lunch period in there, working on minor assignments or playing portable video games that sort of thing. On the other hand... "Umm, I've actually got one thing that I've gotta do, and then I'll meet you there, okay??"
"What is it? I'd rather tag along."
"Sorry, umm... guy business," Kyle blurted out, not sure what Tess would think of that, but pretty certain that she wouldn't insist on watching. In fact... ooh, what if she thought he meant he had to... uggh. Well, it couldn't be helped now, and if she asked about it later, he could deny that sort of thing with absolute honesty. During his morning study hall in second class, Kyle had managed to exchange a few notes with Liz about valentine's strategy without being spotted by the teacher-monitor, and one particular idea, of being somewhat mysterious and sending gifts without any indication of his own identity to go along with them, had struck home. So he headed off, after stopping by his locker to switch a few books and pick up his sack lunch, to the public payphones near the Administration office, and made a call to a delivery business. Given the lousy weather, he'd expected to face some sort of wisecrack from the girl answering the phone, or even an unusually high service charge, but apparently they were more professional than he'd even hoped.
The scene in room 208 was also somewhat on the calm side - about five other students had gotten the idea of eating lunch in the room, but Kyle and Tess were the only mixed-gender group - Arianne Lewis and Tania Murphy were up near the front, quietly chatting about Kyle-knew-not-what, and three sophomores who Kyle tended to think of as potheads were over on the other side of the room, making more noise than the food they managed to eat. And yes, there were a few other people who drifted in as Kyle munched on his sandwich and Tess picked at her tomato slice pizza, mostly doing some of the reading for class, as far as Kyle could tell.
The surprise didn't show up until about five or six minutes before class was supposed to start. A guy in a denim-blue uniform poked his head in, and then stepped through the front doorway to the room. "Umm, is there a Tess Harding here?"
"Umm, yeah, 'tis I," Tess said, blinking just twice like she did when she was a bit uncertain of what was happening.
"Here you go." The guy picked up his load from outside the room, and planted it on the lab table, a little ways away from what was left of her lunch - an arrangement of very wet pink lilies. Kyle hadn't thought about that aspect, but he didn't really mind - the flowers didn't seem to have suffered from the wetting down. He was mostly just trying not to give anything away on his face as Tess reached out for the tiny little card and opened it up.
For a second, her pretty face looked snarled and angry, as if she thought the present had been a mean joke. And then, she cocked her head and possibly started thinking about the message another way.
Kyle couldn't really read the letters marked out in pen, but he could see enough to be reassured that most of the script, at least, was what he had dictated over the phone. Just three words. "NOT Max Evans."
It was something that he'd felt should be established up front.
----------
Max Evans still didn't know what was going to hit him.
He and Isabel were eating lunch in a little diner a few blocks away from the school, and she was still complaining about having had to go out in the rain. "I'm trying not to be a princess about the hair, but this isn't good. For one thing, my hair is naturally very dry and delicate, so wetting it in these kind of circumstances isn't good in the first place, and then they say that we're starting to get acid content in the rain here in Roswell, because of the sulfur fumes out of the refining plant, and since I have a high level of sodium traces in my hair, there's a chance that there could be a color reaction." She looked up at Max. "Do you have any idea how much attention it would attract at schoo if my hair turned green in the middle of Calculus today?"
Max sighed. "Sorry, Isabel. I... I just couldn't face all that noise and all those pairs of eyes in the cafeteria, and I had a craving for a roast beef dip sandwhich with tabasco on it." He nodded at her. "If you really wanted to stay back at the school, you could have told me so."
"Ehh." Isabel shrugged. "Well, maybe I'm protesting too much." She took a bite of a grilled chicken sandwhich with a lot of greenery piled inside it, and then scooped up a forkful of garlic noodles. "So, any plans for Valentine's day? I know that you and Liz are still in a holding pattern, but... well, there's Shari Turner. Very pretty, and I think she's sweet on you."
"Yeah, too sweet to inflict the alien abyss on her," Max said somberly. "I dunno. Call this crazy, but I was actually wondering about spending some time with Tess around the holiday. Not - not as a romantic thing, just because she's probably feeling about as blue about it as I am. Anything I can do to get a friendship between us on a better footing, you know..."
"Ehh, I'd suggest that any time but Valentine's day would be better for that, actually," Isabel countered. "Tess is still... she'd probably misunderstand any particular attention you pay her now, and get the wrong idea. Could do more harm than good."
"Oh, yeah, I guess you're right." Max put that aside. "And what about you? I know that Alex has been playing it cool, and he keeps mentioning his Swedish nymph... what about, umm, Grant??"
"Oh, please, don't even," Isabel replied. "I want nothing more to do with Grant Sorenson, and I think it's pretty mutual. At least, in Valentine's-type respects." She lowered her voice slightly, even though the diner was almost empty. "I'm pretty sure he's figured out that I was the one who fingered him to Valenti over Laurie Dupree's kidnapping. And I'm not sorry that I did - even if we haven't been able to prove anything yet, I'm still sure that he was wrapped up in that somehow."
"Right," Max agreed. "By the way, Laurie's going to be transferred from police custody in the hopsital to real protective confinement in a few days. We *still* need to figure out what her connection is to any real alien secrets - if it's really aliens who buried her out there in the woods, and why her Grandfather looked exactly like Michael."
"Yeah, I know," Isabel agreed. "Aside from keeping watch from a distance, though, I'm not sure what else we can do without incriminating ourselves... Jim Valenti can't protect us at all any more, remember. He's spent all the credibility he has."
"I know," Max agreed morosely.
Isabel considered a lock of her hair for a moment more. "You know, I don't think I should be with anyone this Valentine's day. I need to concentrate on myself, on making sure that I'm ready for real love when I next get a fair chance at it."
"Huh?" Max looked up from his plate. "Which means what?
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When Kyle got home from school that day, he found his father in the middle of reorganizing some old toolboxes, their contents spread out across a strip of the living room carpet. "Oh, hey there," Jim Valenti said, looking up from the task and focusing his complete attention on his son. "How's it going?"
All of sudden, Kyle decided to put a relatively significant decision into the hands of the fates. He was wearing a cheap little digital watch, and had no idea what the time was beyond 'afternoonish.' If, when he looked at the face, the seconds digit was odd, he'd give Dad an fairly uninformative answer, put on his best impression of good humour, and head off to make plans alone. Otherwise...
It was 3:47 and twenty-six seconds.
"Well, umm, it's going alright I guess, except that I made an agreement with a friend to do something that I'm not sure I'm up for, and I can't decide the best way of going about it."
With an intrigued smile on his face, Mister Valenti stood up and headed over to the couch. "Anything that I can help out with?"
Kyle smiled much more faintly as he took the other end of the sofa. "Well, just maybe. Let's see. The deal, basically, is that Liz will take Max back if I... if I tell Tess how I really feel about her. For Valentine's day."
"Oh!" That seemed to leave the older Valenti speechless for a long moment. "I take it that the kind of feelings we're talking about... are at least minimally appropriate to the Valentine's day occasion."
The way he phrased that finally made Kyle laugh and really smile. "Yeah, Dad. I... I guess I can't be sure that it's true love or anything, especially before I know if she feels the same way, but - well, I really like her a lot. Not just a passing case of the, umm - the lust-bunnies or anything. Definitely goes deeper than that."
"Hmm." Jim considered longer. "Well, leaving aside the matter of fatherly advice on sweeping a girl off her feet... you realize that the current situation would pose a few issues, right."
"Actually, yeah, I did wonder how you'd react to that side of it," Kyle admitted. "Would... would you make Tess move out, if we became a serious couple?"
"I... no, I don't think I'd turf her out on the street or anything," he said reassuringly, "and I'm not going to stand in the way of what you want to do. There'd be some new ground rules I guess... and I just might see if I could find Tess another home that she'd be satisfied with, so that the two of you aren't under the same roof, just because I'm not sure it'd be in either of your best interests when you're seventeen and in love."
"Another home?" Kyle asked. "Like where?"
"Well, this shouldn't be repeated to others or taken as anything more than an off the cuff thought, but Amy and Tess seemed to hit things off really well over the holidays. I realize that there's a long way between that and her inviting Tess to move in - especially since there's Maria's reaction to think about, but..."
"Yeah," Kyle agreed, though he couldn't help thinking that nobody seemed to have thought about his reaction when Tess had first come to their home. 'What are you doing here?' "I live here now.' Not that he was complaining any more, of course. In fact, it had been Tess threatening to leave the house last week that got Kyle to thinking about how fond he was of his 'favorite Martian.'
"Say, where is Tess anyway? I didn't think she'd have anything to keep her at school late today, and it's lousy weather for window shopping. I'd have expected you to show up together... did you blow her off for worrying about Valentine's day plans?"
"No, actually, she said she was going over to Michael's place," Kyle said. "Hmm, that's another option maybe, though like the other one it should stay between us for now. Tess could move into Michael's apartment, or into another place with him. Do you think she'd have to get emancipated, like he did?"
"Umm... not sure really. Let's not jump the gun on any of this." Kyle nodded, seeing the wisdom of that suggestion. "So, have you, umm...
"I had some secret-admirer flowers sent to Tess at school today, actually," Kyle volunteered. "Pink lilies."
"Hmm... well, that's not a bad way to start," Jim allowed, "but I'm not convinced that it's great. Anybody can send off enigmatic blooms - asumin they've got the money, and that isn't exactly either of our strong points. You need to save money for other stages of the game, too."
"Okay, so now what?"
"Hmm... well, you're close to her already, you guys spend a lot of time together anyway, so you could take the inside track. Just suggest certain things to do together, make them gradually more datelike, and see if she comments at any point. And stay on watch for any opening to give her a surprise kiss - but not TOO surprising, of course..."
"Hmm," Kyle said, smiling. "Yeah, that just might work. She'll probably be home from Michael's in time to grab dinner, since he never has much in the way of food. I could suggest going to a movie after."
"Only if you've both done your homework," Jim replied. Kyle groaned, but not too hard really. "And... do you think you can handle scrounging something up for supper for the two of you?"
"Dad!" Kyle exclaimed, shaking his head. "Are you just clearing out to make it more intimate for us, because I don't really think that's necessary..."
"No, actually..." Jim reached out for a black cowboy hat, tried it on, and considered his reflection in the hallway mirror carefully. "It's just occured to me, actually, that you're not the only one with access to the inside track. Think I'll pay a visit to the DeLuca's and see if Amy's got room for one more at dinner."
Kyle smiled. "And if Maria should just happen to not be around?"
His father returned the grin. "So much the better."
TO BE CONTINUED...
