Senior Trip (AU CC Mature) (Complete)

[greywolf]

Winner Round 11







Author: Greywolf
Banner by erinkatie

Disclaimer: I in no way own the rights to Roswell or anything related to it. All rights belong to Jason Katims, 20th Century Fox, Regency Entertainment, etc…

Category: A/U with aliens A/I M/L M/M...but mostly Isabel

Rating: MATURE

Summary: A minor change one night dreamwalking in junior high school, and everything changes. It's the butterfly effect (My first attempt at a Gazer story)


Roswell International Air Center, Roswell NM

Roswell airport was an old military base, formerly known as Walker Air Force Base. It had once housed and trained the 509th Composite Unit…the B-29 group that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan. Later, huge B-36s had stood nuclear alert and lumbered aloft from its long runways. But by 1967 that mission had moved to other aircraft positioned on other bases…bases nearer their targets than a base located deep in the heartland of America. The base had been closed then.

Although it was still considered an “international airport,” because customs service was available….on 24 hours notice…, normally the only ‘large’ aircraft to use it was the little commuter aircraft to Albuquerque. And the locals joked that the last ‘international flight’ was a drug runner from Mexico who had engine trouble one dark moonless night…landed, and walked away into the desert leaving a broken Cessna and 1500 pounds of pot behind on the tarmac.

http://www.dresden-spotter.de/trips/cyyz05/cyyz318.jpg

But that wasn’t the case today. The Mexicana airlines charter A-319 was landing and the security people had been busy all morning, clearing four exceedingly brave chaperones and the 118 members of the West Roswell High School senior class for their Spring Break trip to Cabo San Lucas.

The trip had actually started over three years previously, as a semi wild notion by one candidate for student council. Even though that candidate didn’t even get elected, the idea had taken on a life of its own, and now…seven candy drives, four magazine subscription drives, six raffles, seven pancake breakfasts, nine spaghetti dinners, and more car washes than anyone wanted to remember…it was about to happen. And all of the seniors were going on the trip….some more happy about it than others, of course.

“Omigawd Liz, Alex…there’s the plane….do you believe this…?” squealed Maria DeLuca. “Five days in Mexico….sun….fun…beach…not just sand…sand we’ve got…but …a beach!”

Alex looked at his two friends..contrasting Maria’s excitement with Liz’s more pensive look. “What’s the matter, Liz?”

“I’m not sure, Alex. Here we are almost graduated…I’m already accepted into UNM…high school is almost over for me. Somehow I thought it’d be different…somehow I feel like high school was destined to be more than this for me and that somehow…I’ve missed it.”

Alex nodded. Liz got like this sometimes. She’d once been more outgoing but after that incident back in sophomore year…the two guys wrestling with the gun…the bullet that had shattered the coffeepot right next to her…since then she hadn’t been quite the same. But that was OK, she’d cheer up soon enough when they were in Cabos for the fun…the sun…he might even try his hand at some Mariachi music.

“We’re going to love UNM, Liz. I was going to go to NMSU…their computer program is a little stronger, but when I got the music scholarship…hey, who could refuse.”

“Oh, I know, Alex. I’m looking forward to college it’s just…you know, I really wanted to get a little more out of high school,…it just didn’t happen.”

[greywolf]

Maria’s eyes went over to the far side of the terminal, watching the brother and sister getting their last minute instructions from their parents. She knew what Liz had really wanted to get out of high school…Max Evans. Of course, it hadn’t happened, and certainly wasn’t going to. Oh, sure, they were lab partners…Liz had even sent him the right sorts of signals that she’d be willing to consider being closer than that…back in sophomore year. But Max had never really shown an interest. Sometimes Maria would catch him looking…usually with a quick worried look at his sister, but nothing ever came of it.

She looked back at Alex, his eyes taking quick glances at …her. Her…in this case, was Isabel Evans, the reigning queen of the Ice Princess Posse. Maria looked at Liz…watching Alex…watching Isabel, then Liz turned to her and rolled her eyes skyward, shaking her head.

Alex had never said a word about ‘her’ to either of them, and they’d been best friends for practically forever, but she and Liz both knew…talked about it on sleepovers. Why Alex would want anything to do with the cruel heartless bitch, neither of them had any idea. Maria felt sorry enough for Liz, at least Max was friendly in a shy lab partner sort of way, but Isabel?

It was rumored that the Ice Princess Posse actually had a secret grading scale of boys and awarded points by how many of the Pretty People …the male equivalent of the Princess Posse you could have running after you at any given time. Alex wasn’t in that league..and never would be. Not that he’d have wanted to be, since even the Pretty People the Princess Posse treated pretty much like dirt. But it was certainly clear that he had the longest ongoing unrequited puppy love in the history of the planet, without ever having said more than three words in a row to the girl. Even that had been when he’d been an usher for the drama class performance of The Great Gatsby. He’d said, “Your ticket, please,” …and even then he’d stuttered.

Six years previously

She watched helplessly as he grabbed crudely at her naked breasts…breasts that were huge…disproportionate to her body…ugly. She could feel his hand grip strongly…caring only for his own satisfaction…hurting her. “Larry, I said no…”

“Yeah but I know what you want,” he said, squeezing her breast painfully with one hand as he ran his other hand down her belly…under her belt…as she screamed…”

“Izzy, are you OK?” Diane asked. She comforted her crying daughter…these dreams had happened a lot recently. If it kept up she was going to take the girl in for counseling.

Isabel looked down at her chest….normal again, with her breast buds sticking up slightly. “Just a dream, Mom….nothing but a bad dream.”

“Izzy, is something bothering you? You have an awful lot of these…dreams.”

“Mom…when you were my age…did the boys tease you…about how you looked?”

“Well, you are just a little more developed than I was when I was in the sixth grade but Isabel, girls develop quicker than boys..and more visibly. And eleven and twelve year old boys…it’s a difficult time for them…their bodies are going through a lot of changes that don’t show..but that doesn’t mean their hormones aren’t raging. Did one of them say or do something that upset you? You can always tell your mother…you don’t need to have any secrets from me, Izzy.”

But Isabel knew that she did …and always had. “I’m OK now, Mom. You go back to bed.”

“You want to come sleep with me and daddy? Like when you and Max were small…although I’m not sure Max ever really liked to cuddle like you did.”

“No, that’s OK, Mom. I’ll be OK…really.”

Diane kissed her daughter on the head. “Goodnight, honey. See you in the morning.”

When her mother had left, Isabel reached down to the floor beside the bed and picked up the Poco Mesa Middle School yearbook. She reached to the side table and picked up the pencil and drew a line through the name under the picture of Larry Waters, suppressing a shudder as she did so.

It was so lonesome…not being able to have any friends other than your brother and Michael…not being able to be…normal. The tears fell from her eyes as she looked at picture after picture of boys with lines drawn through their names…boys she’d dreamwalked and walked in to a firestorm of raging hormones…mostly directed at her. She wished the social services people had guessed her birthday a year or two later…then maybe there’d be some other girls who got all the looks…the groping…the wolf whistles....

She wasn’t up to this…not tonight…not anymore. Maybe never. It was bad enough to be different because she was an alien….worse to have people who she wanted to be her friend think of her only as something to be used like that. But as she went to put the book away, she saw there was only one boy left…Whitman….Alex Whitman, that gangly boy that always hung around that Liz that Max wanted so badly…and her friend Maria. He treated them alright…maybe he wasn’t so bad. At least, maybe he’d dream of something other than Isabel Evans.

As she entered the dream orb, she saw him approach her….approach Isabel Evans. But not some ultrasexy trashy looking Isabel…a smiling…kind..sophisticated looking Isabel, dressed in a simple red gown with a modest neckline. He was in a tuxedo. “May I have this dance, Miss Evans,” he asked? The room was a simple ballroom…not some twelve year old boy’s bedroom, and the music was…lovely. The dream Isabel smiled demurely, and said “Certainly, Mr. Whitman.” As they started to dance together Isabel let her consciousness fade into that of the dream Isabel, and when she blinked her eyes and opened them…she was in his arms.

[greywolf]

He smiled up at her..she was a few inches taller than he was, but that didn’t seem to bother him. He appeared gangly..well, they both sort of did, it was an awkward time her mother had told her…being eleven. But in their minds at least…they danced beautifully together. She’d seen him playing the guitar at the sixth grade talent day…maybe that’s why he had such a sense of rhythm…and his eyes…they sparkled when they looked at her…not filled with lust but rather with…joy.

The hours passed like minutes there in his arms, just dancing with him…just being…normal. Finally the music started to fade…Isabel could feel the start of consciousness approaching…either for her or for him, she wasn’t really quite sure. Apparently he could feel it too, as he gently took her hand and raised it to his lips, kissing it lightly on the back. “It was a lovely dance, Isabel. Perhaps we could have another sometime.”

“Yes,” she said, as the dream orb started to dissolve around them. “I’d like that, Alex…I’d like that very much.” The last thing she saw as he faded was the sparkle in his eyes. She faded too, faded with the dream image he’d had of her. If she’d been watching from the outside of the dream orb…watching herself, she’d have seen the same sparkle in her eyes….

She woke up, her hand going to her mouth..looking in to the mirror to see an eleven year old girl smiling back at her…an Isabel looking happier than she’d ever seen her look before. She got out of bed and went to the wall beside her little desk, listening for anyone moving in the house before touching the wall….causing it to glow…reaching through the molecules that she’d loosened to grasp the book behind the wall and pulling it quickly through. She sat at the little desk, opened the book, and picked up her pen. ‘Dear Diary,’ she started….’I had the most lovely dreamwalk….’

[greywolf]

Michael looked across the terminal building at the blonde-haired girl…Maria DeLuca, remembering junior year…when they’d both been in that home economics/life experiences class together.

It had seemed like such an easy class…uncomplicated…until the teacher had done that stupid role-playing game. They’d had to take care of that stupid egg for almost a week…baby-sitting it….arguing constantly over whose turn it was. He’d had to buy a dozen eggs and keep replacing them as he’d managed to break them…not to mention old Hank Guerin. The old bastard had poached the first egg and eaten it the very first day for breakfast…then given him no end of shit over carrying the replacement egg around like it was a baby.

But still, when he looked back on his years in school…somehow that one week was his best memory. He looked cautiously at Isabel, making sure she wasn’t watching him, as he sneaked another look at Maria and smiled.

Seven years previously

They had brought Michael home for the second time and the three of them had crowded into the little backyard playhouse that their father had built for them.

Michael was bright enough…but he was going to fail…going to get held back in the fifth grade if he didn’t do better academically. It wasn’t really his fault…he’d been passed from one foster home to another…no one really caring about him. It wasn’t like Mom and Dad..who had tutored them until they entered the third grade. Michael hadn’t entered school until the fifth grade…and even now was barely literate.

They’d been at it two hours, and he was already getting noticeably better as they drilled him on the meaning and spelling of the words in the newspapers and magazines they had pulled from the neighbor’s trash.

But the lessons had come to a dead stop when they’d gotten to the second page of the tabloid…seen the article about the Roswell saucer…saw the pictures of the autopsy…the large eyes open while the doctors poked through the intestines.

Isabel’s eyes had grown huge…almost as big as the eyes of the alien on the table. The tears were slowly trickling down her cheeks…they were trickling down all of their cheeks. So this was how humans treated aliens...

“You’ve got to make a sacred vow,” she said. “Nobody talks about it…nobody tells anyone…not even Mom and Dad. We can’t trust them…we can’t trust anyone…not ever. Promise me…both of you.”

They raised their hands…touched them together…saw the golden glow bridge the distance between their fingers. Max and Michael looked at each other…not sure what the ritual was all about…why it was so important....but Isabel seemed to know best…at least she always told them that she did....

[greywolf]

Max stole a quick glance across the crowded terminal building, his eyes lingering on Liz for loving seconds before looking sheepishly at Isabel. ‘Good,’ he thought. ‘She’s busy arguing with Mom. She didn’t notice.’ He looked back toward Liz again..savoring the few seconds he had to look at her…to dream…knowing that the dream was all of her that he would ever have. He quickly looked back at her...watching her talking to Maria and Alex.....

Nine years previously

He had gotten back on the bus…but quickly gone to the window to look back at her. He’d been afraid …frightened to death of being out with all the strangers at that new place…school. But when he had gotten off the bus…when he had seen…her.., he knew it would be alright…better than alright…it would be …wonderful. He had seen his sister’s disapproving looks when he’d gotten close to her…when the girl…when Liz… had smiled at him. And he watched her disapproving looks now as she sat down next to him…grabbed his hand…as they talked through the connection, just like they had back when they walked down the road together…back by the cave…before Mom and Dad had found them. He heard her thoughts…as clearly as if she’d spoken the words….

*Max! You can’t get close to her…you can’t get close to anyone. They’ll find out.*

*But she’s nice, Izzy..she smiled at be…she said she’d be my friend*

*We can’t have friends, Max. We can’t ever have friends. They’d find out…then they’d be afraid…or they’d hurt us. You and I can’t ever have friends…*

[greywolf]

“Isabel, the reservations for the residence halls open up in three days,” said Diane Evans. “You need to find an internet café or something…somewhere you and Max can log on to The University of New Mexico website. This envelope has your student numbers and your passcodes, but you need to do it as soon as the reservations open…before the residence halls all fill up.”

“Mom…I told you…I don’t want to go into a residence hall. You saw the letter from Karla…I’m guaranteed a spot in Alpha Chi Omega.”

Diane Evans knew that…and it wasn’t at all what she wanted to hear. She’d met Karla Huntziger twice…at least two times too many, as far as she was concerned. She had been one of the most arrogant obnoxious queen bee type of teenagers that she had ever met…unfortunately, she feared her daughter was turning out to be the same.

Karla had taken Isabel under her queen bee wings Isabel's junior year, as Isabel seemed heir apparent to the Ice Princess crown. That had been bad enough. The last thing in the world she wanted her daughter to do was to be in a sorority with fifty Karla Huntzigers.

Isabel looked at her mother. The last thing in the world she wanted was to live in the dorms…assigned some roommate that might be…nice....someone she actually might feel like she could be close to…because she couldn’t…, she’d accepted that long ago.

She wanted some haughty condescending bitch like Karla….better yet, a whole sorority full of them. Because then she wouldn’t even be tempted to get close to any of them. She could just keep up her Ice Princess persona…and keep the world of humans at bay.

“Please Isabel…I don’t want you in that sorority…at least not your first year. I’d like you to go into the dorms your first year. If you don’t like them…you can always pledge later.”

“Mom…I really don’t want to live in a dorm. Dad, can’t you make her understand?”

As a lawyer, Philip Evans was used to getting involved in arguments in the courtroom, but the very last thing he wanted to do was to get into the midst of an argument between his wife and his daughter… the term, ‘lose-lose’ coming quickly to mind.

“Uh…I think they are starting to load the plane. You have your phone card, Isabel,… uh… why don’t you call us tomorrow morning and work it out with your mother then?”

Phillip hoped for the best, but was doomed to disappointment. He looked up at the two women in his life…and saw almost identical ‘you-got-to-be-kidding-me’ looks coming from each of them. He quickly busied himself with patting his son on the shoulder, “Have fun you two…but be careful. No alcohol for either of you…I don’t care what the legal age is in Mexico. Mind the chaperones…both of you.”

Isabel looked from her parents to her brother….and caught him looking at…her…again. When her eyes caught his, she glared at him, and he quickly turned to Michael…punching him on the shoulder playfully…pretending he’d been doing nothing wrong.

Thirty months ago…

She’d gone in the Crashdown with them…partly to make sure that he wouldn’t get involved with Liz, although mostly, she admitted to herself, because sometimes Alex would be there with them…kidding with them…talking with them ….acting …normal …the way she could never act. But he wasn’t here today.

She wished that Max and Michael would just finish eating so they could go…but Max kept taking surreptitious little looks at ….her.

“ I guess it would be O.K. to show you guys this....,” Liz said to the tourists.

“ Refill?” asked Maria to a beefy looking guy.

“ No, get outta here. “

“ My grandmother took this picture at the crash site right before the government cleaned it up,” said Liz to the tourist couple.

“Do people know about this photograph?”

“ Well, I know about it, and now you know about it.”

“ Woah!”

“ Wow!!”

“ I'm gonna be right back, don't show that to anyone.”

“No.... “

“You are sooo bad girl,” Maria said with an indulgent smile. “Oh, and Max Evans is staring at you again”

“ No way……Maria, that is so in your imagination. Max Evans? This? No, un uh..it's not...”

“ And with those cheeks! Preciosita tan linda!”

“ Maria!! …..And, and even if it weren't I'm going out with Kyle. I mean, he's steady and loyal, and he appreciates me. “

“ Sounds like you're describing a poodle.”

Isabel looked at Max and Michael…continuing to take peeks at the waitresses, oblivious to the drama she saw going on right next to them. The two guys seemed to be about to fight…

“.....you ask me to give you another day!!?? You're running outta time. “

As he knocked the dishes off the table, Isabel came instantly alert, her palm held out toward them protectively.

“ Liz!! “ yelled Maria

“ I want the money today. NOT tomorrow!! “

“Well you won’t need it, if you’re dead.”

Isabel stared in horror as they wrestled with the gun, waving it as they struggled…pointing it at everyone in the café. Her palm glowed…just the tiniest bit as she forced the gun away from the people..toward the corner of the kitchen area. The gun discharged loudly…shattering the coffee pot next to Liz.

Looking up…frightened…both men ran quickly from the cafeteria…leaving a stunned group of customers behind.

“My God, Liz….that could have killed you…just a couple feet to the left…and it would have hit you.”

Liz sat down…her mind numb at first. Then as she realized the enormity of what could have happened she looked at the three giving their
statements to Sheriff Valenti.

‘I could have died…’ she thought.

She’d thought that she was young...that she’d have all the time in the world for him to notice her…but she’d been wrong. Life was really such a tenuous thing…and she’d almost lost hers.

‘You can’t waste time,Liz…’ she told herself.

He’d been her lab partner for two years…but he’d never picked up on the signals she’d given him. She would try just one more time…and then give up.
Liz walked over to him…after the Sheriff had gotten done getting his statement.

“Max,” she asked. “Would you like to go with me to a movie on Friday….we could go Dutch?”

Max’s eyes grew wide as he started to respond…started to say yes…but he felt the connection form as Isabel’s hand went to his forearm…

*Don’t even THINK of it, Max. We can’t get close…you know that*

“Uh…I’m sorry Liz,…I’ve uh…given up movies for Lent.”

Five minutes later Maria found her in the locker room…crying.

“Come on, Liz. He’s just religious…that’s not bad.”

“Maria,..when was the last time Lent came in September?”

“Uh…my Mom’s kind of New Age, Liz. …I’m not really sure. Has it been quite a while?”

“Try never…”

[greywolf]

One week earlier Anegada Passage off the US Virgin Islands

The storm had driven them south...they'd intended to stay north...far enough north to be nowhere near US territorial waters. They would have put in to the little base they had at West Caicos...to refuel...then past the Bahamas for the dangerous part...slipping in to the Keys.

Of course, Manuel Velez would not go on that part of the trip...he was too valuable...too important to the syndicate to risk going there. For in a sense, Manuel and his brother Roberto were the syndicate. They had grown up in the streets of Columbia...risen to the top by being faster...smarter...but mainly, by being more ruthless than their competitors in the cocaine trade.

But the weather did not care about plans, the thunderstorm had come out of the northeast and given them little choice. The motor yacht was not very big...better to avoid being seen by radar than a larger craft, but the very size that was an advantage in smuggling was a huge disadvantage as the storm blew down from the northeast Atlantic. Worse yet, the boat was heavily laden...over four tons of cocaine packed below the deck. That made it impossible to outrun the storm, their only hope to go south..hoping for shelter in the lee of Puerto Rico and Cuba. But that course too had its perils, as it took them through the fringes of US territory...the outer edges of the Virgin Islands.

Lieutenant Lucy Ainsworth was on the bridge of the Coast Guard Cutter Tamaroa. A graduate of the Coast Guard Academy at New London, she was the Executive officer. They had been shadowing the small motor yacht...watching it on the radar. It had deviated south from its usual course...a course that they'd seen many times. Of course, they'd had no authority to inspect it...even though they were pretty sure what they would find. Not until today that is...

"She's in our territory, Skipper," she said. "The GPS and radar both confirm it."
"Well I think a safety inspection is in order, Lieutenant. Let's get a Zodiac over the side...sail alongside her...order them to heave to."

And it looked like it was going to work out fine to the Lieutenant...until she saw the man step out of the wheelhouse on the motor yacht...heard the pop of the rocket propelled grenade launcher even over the storm...the whistle as the grenade came at their bridge. She felt the Skipper push her down to the deck in the last instant...just before the explosion. She awoke to find blood dripping down over her face...from the body of the Skipper.

Lucy stumbled to her feet...saw the motorboat running for it...automatic weapons fire slicing in to the little Zodiac. She turned the wheel and pushed up the throttles, then grabbed the intercom.

"Gunner's Mate Peterson, she said, "Man the forward twenty millimeter. Give the vessel a burst across the bow...if they return fire...sink the bastard. Medic to the bridge...the Skipper is down."

[greywolf]

Beverly Sandstrom was twenty-six years old and was married to the WRH basketball coach and PE teacher, Roger Sandstrom. Hubby Roger had talked to her about two years ago…asked her if she wanted a second honeymoon… in Cabo San Lucas…with free airfare and hotel accommodation…all they had to do was volunteer to be chaperones.

It had sounded like a good idea at the time. But the current reality was that each of the four chaperones was going to have to look after almost thirty teenagers each…and never had that task seemed quite so daunting as it had after this mornings events. But clipboard in hand, she was making the rounds…doing her best. And those rounds eventually took her to the three waiting in the corner of the terminal.

“OK, DeLuca, Parker, and Whitman. You have seat assignments 13C, and 14A and B.”

“Mrs. Sandstrom…is there any chance we could sit together?” asked Liz.
Beverly started to tell then no…that she didn’t have time for switching seating assignments..but in the grand scheme of things…she figured it wouldn’t make THAT much difference.

“OK, then…you get 14A, B, and C. I’ll find someone else for the other seats.. Make sure you have your passports with you and make sure that when we hand out the entry visa paperwork before we land, that you hold on to it. It’ll be real hard to get back on the plane to depart without it.”

Mrs. Sandstrom moved on,..putting three more checkmarks on her clipboard…only another 35 or so to go. ‘Second honeymoon,’ she thought. ‘I wonder if it’s too late to get separate beds…’

Across the terminal Roger Sandstrom…PE teacher and basketball coach was looking nervously at his wife. They’d only been married four years but…he knew that body language. Someone was in the dog house big-time, and he rather imagined the fellow’s initials were ‘RS’.

That couldn’t be helped right now, though. He grabbed his clipboard and the boarding passes and approached the five people…trying not to listen to the girl arguing with her mother about something. He’d already decided that he and Beverly were NEVER going to have teenagers.

“Alright, three of you…three boarding passes. “Evans, I….14D, Evans, M…14E, and Guering, M….14F. Hang on to the stuff we give you just before we land, you can’t get back on the plane to come home without it.”

After the coach left, Diane continued to extol to Isabel the virtues of dorm life compared to sorority life…but Isabel tuned her out. The very things she was describing…the ability to meet and become friends with a lot of people…those were all the things that Isabel was most afraid of….the things that she knew she could never have. The whole talk just depressed her.

But as her mother rattled on, Isabel looked at the window…pretending she was looking outside. But what she was really looking at was the reflection in the glass…watching Liz and Maria…envious of both of them. They talked with him constantly…the three were almost inseparable. Granted, she owned his nights…but they actually were with him…spoke to him in person…and even though they were just friends…well, they could be more than that..if they wanted to. ‘Funny,’ she thought. ‘I’m the Ice Princess…the girl every boy wants and none can have…I’d give that up so quickly if I could be normal…if I could be like them…talk to him…really be his friend…even just for an hour.'

Five years previously

It had happened gradually…over the course of that first year. Of course, that was a time of change…change for both of them. He’d grown…caught her…passed her. Her breast buds had….well, flowered sort of. But while she noticed that the image of her in his dream-orb had changed…matured, as she had ceased to be a girl and become a young woman, his relationship with her had become more…uncomfortable.

They still danced…danced every night…wonderful dances…waltzes and Tangos and Foxtrots and jazz and swing and all types of modern dance…she could tell that he’d somehow become more ..distant. So one night, in the dream-orb, she asked him why?

“Alex,..you seem…I don’t know..uncomfortable. Don’t you want to dance with me anymore?”

“Isabel..I love dancing with you…I love every minute of it…but at times when I’m near you I feel…Oh, ...Isabel..you are so beautiful..”

The twelve year old girl blushed demurely. Her Dad was the only man who had ever called her beautiful… She’d never had a boyfriend..and knew she never would...not really.

But here…here in the dream-orb…here she could almost bring herself to believe that she was normal…and not some freak.

She knew what he was experiencing…she’d felt him try to fight the feelings that she evoked in him… so similar to the feelings he evoked in her. She should have been uncomfortable with those feelings…but she wasn’t.

It was different with Alex…not like the others. He was her friend....she felt safe with him…it was OK, somehow, that he would find her physically attractive.

No, not OK…better than that…she wanted it too. Even if it could never be, she wanted him to want her…as a woman, ..she needed that . She was resigned to the fact that she could never have that in real life...but she cherished every second of those feelings in the dream-orb.

“Dance with me, Alex….please?” she implored him.

Isabel took charge of the dream…driving it with her mind…, and suddenly she was a twelve year old Princess in a low-cut ballroom gown…giving a twelve year old tuxedo wearing Prince Alex a more stunning view of cleavage than he’d ever had in his young life.

It was a slow waltz, and she buried her head in his shoulder…breathing in his scent…enjoying his presence...enjoying the warmth of him against her body.

She felt his hand around her waist…wishing it could be real…wishing it could be more. They danced on a ballroom floor set under the stars of the night sky..danced for hours, before she stopped…held him tightly…and looked up into his eyes.

“I love you, Alex,” said the young girl, “..I always will…whatever happens… wherever you are. I’ll never stop loving you…”

He put his palm against her cheek and looked in to her eyes…eyes that sparkled back at him. He kissed her then…their first ever kiss...feeling her heart beat against his chest…his heart beating in time…as if they longed to be one.

“I love you, Isabel….I love you too…”

As the dream orb faded, a flushed girl lay in her bed...her heart racing...a deep sigh escaping from her smiling lips. She'd write about this in her diary later...right now she was just reveling in the memory of that kiss...

[greywolf]

“Max, honey..” said Diane, “I know you aren’t really too enthused about going on this trip, but you need to give it a chance. You are almost done with high school, and while I’m glad you and Michael are friends...you need to be more outgoing. Try to get to know some of these people a little better…not just as classmates, but as friends. Twenty years from now, when you come back to your high school reunion, it’d be nice if you knew someone other than your sister and Michael..”

Max didn’t even have to look at Isabel’s eyes to know they were looking at him…to know what she was thinking. He understood…he couldn’t get close to anyone, she’d drilled it into his head for eleven years. But Mom needed some reassurance, too, so he looked into her eyes…and lied.

“I’ll try, Mom. I’ll try to get to know a few people a little better. Maybe Kyle Valenti…he really doesn’t seem all that bad. He’ll probably bring a football…we can toss it around on the beach or something.”


Diane looked at her son. Poor little Max…it had taken him years just to accept that the Evans home was his home..but he had never really accepted high school. Oh he did the academics well enough, but high school was supposed to be more than that..supposed to be about socializing…meeting people…growing up.
Max had not so much grown up as he had…grown apart…almost like he didn’t really feel he even belonged in this world. He’d never gone to a dance…never dated….kept distant from everyone…everyone but his family and Michael.

“Max…really make an effort this time. Go where the other kids go…do what they do. Just get to know a few of them…OK?”

“OK, Mom,” he said, with a sidewise glance at his sister…

Two weeks previously

Lieutenant Robert Anderson shuddered as he looked at the five sided building in the distance. He hadn’t wanted this assignment…in fact, would have preferred to take a moderately severe beating rather than be assigned to the Pentagon, least of all as an aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

When his assignments officer had told him he was on the short list for this job, he’d pulled out all the stops…promising to take anything else…a year in the Antarctic….alone…naked…nothing had helped. Sure, he knew it was a career builder…people who had it could write their own tickets practically, for command jobe…for promotions. Most of the former Chiefs of Naval Operations had filled this billet, back when they were company grade officers. But none of that mattered to him.
Bob had left the best job in the Navy…as a SEAL team commander ...and he'd been pulled off that....to be assigned to the ‘Puzzle Palace on the Potomac’ as a glorified personal secretary, and he was big time bitter.

He took the shuttle bus in from the distant parking lot and presented himself and a copy of his orders to security. He was met promptly by a Marine Gunnery Sergeant.

“Glad to meet you, sir, ..and you’re just in time. The Chairman has a cancellation with the Assistant SECDEF, …that frees up an hour of his time, which was what he wanted to brief you personally. We can do that first, then I’ll get you squared around with your badges and security clearances afterward."

The words caught Lt. Anderson by surprise. He knew that a lot of time full Admirals only got twenty minute appointments. ‘He’s briefing me himself? Personally? A lowly Lieutenant?' Apparently, Bob decided, it was a real slow day at the Pentagon.

The current Chairman of the JCS was Admiral William S. Brady, a man whose reputation was legend in most of the US Navy. He was bright, articulate, and was known to be a straight-talker and an officer who tolerated no less from any of his subordinates. When the secretary indicated that he could enter, the Lieutenant marched to the front of the admiral’s desk, came to full attention, and saluted.

“Lieutenant Robert Anderson, reporting for duty, sir.!”

“At ease, Lieutenant. Welcome to the Pentagon, I’m glad you are here.”

“I’m pleased to be here too, sir.”

A frown crossed the admiral’s face, almost immediately. “Son…if you are going to work in Washington DC, you need to learn to lie at least a LITTLE better than that….otherwise you are going to be at a hell of a disadvantage, it’s what people in this town do best.”

Bob immediately was taken off his stride. “Begging the Admiral’s pardon…how do you know I didn’t want to come here?”

“Hell, son. I hand selected you personally. I wouldn’t HAVE an aide who really wanted to come here,… I hate the place myself. But come you did, and come you’ll stay, because the needs of the United States take priority over what you want to do, just as they take priority over what I want to do. At least you are going to get out of here after this tour…go back to the real world. All I'm going to get is a gold watch, a pension, and the knowledge that some other poor sunovabitch has to do this job. You'll probably get your turn in the barrel too, if you keep your eyes open and learn things for the next three years.
Now have a seat, and I’ll start to fill you in. We don’t waste time around here….too damn many fires to put out.”

[greywolf]

Diane gave each of her children a hug as Vice principal Gonzales, …the male member of the other couple who were to chaperone the trip, announced it was time to start boarding.

“I love you two…and you also, Michael. Have fun, but don’t do anything foolish. And Max…Izzy, think about what I’ve been telling you. And Izzy…the issue is NOT decided about that sorority…let me think about it, but give me a call the day before the deadline for the dorms, and we’ll talk about it some more.”

Philip hugged both of his children, and shook hands with Michael, giving them each a $20 bill.

“Here, go out to dinner tonight on us….and mind the chaperones now. We’ll see you in six days.”

As the Evans’ walked toward the door, Diane saw Roger Sandstrom scurrying around with his clipboard.

“Mr. Sandstrom,” she said, “..is it true that the children will be staying three to a room in Cabo San Lucas?”

"Yes…yes it is. We might have gotten just double rooms, but we’d have had to have about twenty more car washes…we weren’t sure there was that much more water here in the desert. We’re just going to assign the hotel rooms by groups of three…as the kids get off the aircraft. Does that bother you?”

“No,” said Diane, “…that’s fine.”
But it was better than fine, in Diane’s opinion. Isabel would have to spend at least five nights in a room with two other girls…girls chosen at random…not her phony Princess Posse associates.

Maybe, just maybe, Isabel could make one good friend on the trip, and even Max and Michael, although they’d likely be together…even they would have one other boy in with them. Hopefully in five days, Max could actually develop his first real friend besides Michael.

Eight and a half years previously

She smiled up at him from the sandbox. “My name is Liz…do you want to help me build a castle?”

He looked around carefully…looking for any sign of his sister. “I’m….uh…Max. Yeah, I’d like that..”

Max had never had so much fun…building the castle with her. By wetting down the sand, they could mold turrets, and parapets, and they made a portcullis out of old popsicle sticks. They made colored pennants out of construction paper, and put them around the castle’s edge. Max even helped her dig a moat, and found part of an old shingle to be the drawbridge. It was the neatest castle ever…better even than Cinderella’s castle at Disneyland. But it was too big, and as it dried the entire east wall and one tower collapsed. She looked heartbroken when she saw it…and the expression on her face threatened to break young Max’s heart.

“I’ll fix it,” he said. He held his hand out…the yellow light shone..and the castle built itself back up…bigger, better, more colorful than ever before. Her eyes went wide with wonder and delight.

“That’s so wonderful, Max…”

The Powerblast hit then and the castle …and the young girl suddenly became just a crater in the sandbox. At the edge of the playground was his sister…

Max screamed in horror and pain…he screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed…

“Max. Wake up,” said Diane. “It’s only a dream, darling…just a horrible rotten dream. It’s OK, everything is OK.”

She held him tightly to her, feeling his little heart beating wildly.. like the heart of a captive bird. She’d never seen him so upset.

“Do you want to come spend the rest of the night with me and Daddy? We’ll cuddle you?”

“Uh-uh,” he said…just getting the sobs under control. “I want to sleep in my own bed…”

“OK, dear,” she said. “But I’ll leave the nightlight on in the hall, and our door will be open. If you become afraid again, just come in and crawl under the covers with us, alright?”

He nodded his head and lay back on the pillow, but he didn’t go to sleep. He waited with his eyes open, looking at the ceiling. It was twenty minutes before he was sure she was asleep...before he was sure she wouldn’t come back. Then he slipped out from the covers and walked slowly down the hall…away from the master bedroom..toward her room.

“I hate you, Izzy. Don’t ever ever come into my dreams again…”

There were tears in her eyes…tears in both of their eyes. It was the first fight they had ever had…and the last. She started to cry..and so did he. In thirty seconds they were hugging one another…both unable to talk through their sobs. But they could still use the connection to talk back then…still communicate in their thoughts, if not in their words.

*I’m sorry Max…you know I wouldn’t really hurt her…I wouldn’t hurt anyone. But you can’t be with her…she can’t ever know. And you can never ever let her see your powers..*

*I know,* he thought back, the sobbing continuing uninterrupted, *but I just want her to be my friend…I want that so bad, Izzy*

*I know Max…I know. I wish I could have a friend too...but we can't..you know that. But we have each other…we’ll always have each other…and that will be enough.*

And she tried to put conviction into that thought…tried with all her might. But they both knew it was a lie. Yes, they’d always have each other…they loved one another…but they wanted more…they both did....but they also both knew they’d never have it.