Chemistry

21

MIDTOWN HIGH

Students were taking down a homecoming banner. Below it, Ned, Alessa and Peter walked down the corridor.

"It looked so insane," Ned said. "That whole... Like, it was just crazy. He, he was just like, "Zzzz," and you two were like, "Ah!""

"Shh," Peter and Alessa told him.

"And then I just hit him with the "pew." It was so, oh, my god."

"You saved me and Lessa," Peter told him. "It was awesome." He spotted Liz at the end of the corridor. Her mom was walking beside her with a box full of her belongings. Betty ran to Liz and hugged her.

Peter ran towards them as he said, "Hey, Liz!"

"I'm gonna miss you," Betty told her.

"Bye," Liz replied.

"Liz," Peter called and Liz waited for him, wiping tears off her face. "Liz, look. I'm so sorry."

"You say that a lot. What are you sorry for this time?" Peter failed to answer. "The dance? That was a pretty crappy thing to do."

"Well, yeah, but I... I mean, your dad... I can't imagine what you're going through. If there's anything I can do to help..."

Liz fought tears. "I guess we're moving to Oregon. Mom says it's nice there, so that's cool. Anyways, Dad doesn't want us here during the trial, so..."

"Liz, I... I..."

"Bye, Peter. Whatever's going on with you, I hope you figure it out." She left the school with her mother. Peter watched her go.

---

In the library, Mr. Harrington brought the Decathlon trophy to a table of students and said, "Congratulations, Decathlon national champions."

The Decathlon team clapped and cried, "Yeah!"

"I'm gonna have to put this back in the trophy case soon, but just for motivation right now at this practice. I'm a little ahead of the game, but we will need a new team captain next year. So I'm appointing Michelle."

The students turned to MJ and clapped.

"Yeah!"

"Uh, thank you," MJ said. "My friends call me MJ."

"I thought you didn't have any friends," Ned stated.

"I had one." She smiled at Alessa who waved.

Peter's cell phone vibrated. He picked the broken phone up and read a message from an unknown number: "Go to the bathroom. Bring your friend; I know it'll be weird."

"I... I gotta go," Peter said. "Lessa, come on."

"Hey, where you going?" MJ asked. "Where are you taking Alessa?"

Peter froze as he thought of an excuse. MJ stared at him, then at Alessa, eyes filled with suspicion.

"What are you hiding, Peter? What are you hiding, Alessa?"

Peter's lips opened, but no sound came out.

Suddenly, a grin broke out on MJ's face. "I'm just kidding. I don't care. Bye." She said to to Decathlon team, "All right, so we should run some drills."

"Yeah," Ned agreed.

MJ watched with curious eyes as Peter and Alessa stood to leave.

---

Peter and Alessa rounded the corner and found Happy waiting for them in the bathroom.

"Hey, Happy," Peter greeted, pulling Alessa in. "What, uh... What are you doing here? Lessa shouldn't be in here."