He sounded normal. Except that his voice was a little too bright, like he was straining for his usual tone and overshooting it.

"Always," Liz answered. She heard that same quality in her voice, that see-there's-really-nothing-wrong sound.

This was so ridiculous. She loved Max, and she knew he loved her. Yeah, they had agreed-well, Max had insisted, and Liz had agreed-that they would be just friends.

But did that mean they had to be so phony? Why couldn't he trust her with the truth-whatever it was? Why couldn't she just tell him to cut the bull and tell her what was going on?

Maybe it's because we're still being careful with each other, Liz thought as they made their way to the main building. We've managed to create this friend facade over the mess of our relationship. But it's not that strong. Maybe we both know it would be very easy to destroy it.

Liz led the way inside and over to the staircase. She and Max climbed in silence. She could hear his breathing pick up as they got near the top. Another fact to add to the pile. Max was in good shape. A few stairs shouldn't get him breathing hard.

Liz shortened her stride as they walked down the hall to give Max a chance to catch his breath. "I read over the experiment we're doing today. It sounds pretty interesting," she said as they entered the classroom and took their places in their usual lab station.

Max didn't answer.

Liz Ortecho, Queen of Idle Chitchat, she thought.

"We have another long one today," Ms. Hardy announced. "You can go ahead and get started. I'll work my way to all of you, but flag me down if you have questions."

"I'll set up the Bunsen burner," Max said.

"I'll weigh the samples," Liz volunteered.

At least this was something they didn't have to fake. They both took their lab work seriously. And they were a good team.

Liz pulled the scale out of the cupboard-pretty grimy. She stepped up to the sink, turned on the water, dampened a long piece of brown paper towel, and scrubbed the scale clean. Don't these amateur scientists know that a dirty scale can corrupt all your data? she thought.