The Wild One by Melinda Metz Read Free Book Online

rang, and Max sprang to his feet. “Got to get to class.”
    â€œAh. Well, I thank you for your time.” DuPris tipped his hat and wandered off.
    â€œWhy do I suddenly feel the urge for some southern cuisine every time I see that guy?” Alex asked. He shoved the last bite of his hamburger into his mouth and grabbed his backpack. “See y’all later,” he added. He headed toward the gym.
    â€œWait up,” Michael called. He trotted after Alex.
    Maria turned to Isabel. “Are you ready for another round of
Julius Caesar?
”
    â€œNo, but let’s go, anyway.” They wandered toward the east wing.
    â€œAlone at last,” Max said to Liz. He meant for it to come out sort of cool and jokey. But instead it sounded lame.
    Liz stood up and stared after Maria and Isabel. “That’s something I never thought I’d see. A few weeks ago Maria was convinced Isabel wanted to kill her, and Isabel …” She shook her head.
    Whoa. Max knew that “alone at last” thing was dorky But he didn’t think it called for a complete subject change.
    Max’s throat got all tight. It felt like there was no way he could squeeze out another word—if he could somehow even
think
of another word to say. He swallowed hard and followed Liz across the quad and through the doors of the main building.
    The tightness in his throat worked its way down into his chest as they climbed the stairs and silently headed into the bio lab. He could hardly breathe.
    This totally sucked. A month ago, before she knew the truth about him, Max and Liz were friends. True, they weren’t the kind of friends who ate lunch together or hung out much at all. But they could always talk. About pretty much anything; well, except for the alien stuff. Max could talk to Liz about the things that made Michael’s and Isabel’s eyes turn as blank as marbles. Like theories about how the universe was created or if artificial intelligence programs would ever be able to give computers the ability to feel true emotions.
    Max dumped his books on the lab table. He couldn’t stop thinking about how much things had changed between him and Liz in the past month. First, when she got shot and he used his powers to heal her, the only consequence he’d expected was that he’d have to admit to her he was an alien. But the second he pressed his hands over the gunshot wound, he knew with absolute certainty and clarity that he loved Liz. And his world changed forever.
    He didn’t think there was a chance that Liz could ever love him back. Yeah, maybe on a TV show a totally beautiful, totally smart, totally everything girllike Liz could fall in love with the Amazing Alien Boy or whatever. But that didn’t happen in real life.
    Except that it did. Not all at once. At first Liz was seriously freaked out about Max being an alien. But then she realized that he was the same person he had always been. And somehow … somehow, magically, Liz fell in love with him.
    Max glanced over at her. She was all busy flipping through her notebook. But she was turning the pages so fast, he doubted she could read a single word. She just wanted an excuse not to have to come up with something to say to him.
    Ms. Hardy hurried into the room. Good. Now we can get started on our lab work, Max thought. Something we can still manage to do together without it being completely awkward and uncomfortable.
    â€œOkay, today’s experiment is going to take almost all the time we have, so listen up,” Ms. Hardy said. “Each team has an unknown substance. Your job is to determine what the substance is, using the information we’ve covered so far this semester. Go on and get started.”
    Liz ripped open the envelope containing their unknown. It was a small strip of metal. She flipped it over in her fingers. “It’s pretty light,” she commented. “What do you want to try