Discliamer: I don't own Roswell, but I like to 'borrow' the characters.
Author's Notes: Well, I found some feathers which Phoenix left for me, so I was writing angst, which we all know, DOESN'T BELONG HERE! So I was writing other stuff, mostly Avatar. However, that was getting a bit to angsty, and I got a bit stuck on the next part; I can't really write Michael all that well, so I'm back with this for now.
r0swell_dreamer: Thanks for the feed back. It's always nice to see a new face.
Sternbetracher: I thought you'd like the reasons behind it. Yeah, about Alex and Michael bonding, I must admit I'm not sure how I'm going to pull that one off, but it's a hole that I dug myself. *Jadeling pulls out her challenge* See, it says right there, "Michael is the guy who 'attempts' to comfort Alex by Maria's command. In other words, he's taking Kyle's place and probably ends up making things worse than better." Yeah, I have my work cut out for me. Tess being a better choice, hmmmmmmmmmm, must think of the possibilities.
A*StargazingInTheDay*I: I take it a lot of people enjoyed my short portrayal of Maria Deluca. Hope I don't make her seem too out of character in later scenes.
neodragon39: Neo, you found me, huh? What, Alex's little freak out session at the Crashdown wasn't good enough? No, I guess it really wouldn't.
StargazerUK: That's so sweet of you, David. *Gives him a hug* So you're all caught up now? Glad you liked the little conversation, I'd like to think I did good with Maria. Like I told Ed earlier, you felt bad about Alex falling in the Crash, imagine how I felt trying to figure out what to put him through.
cardinalgirl: Glad you had fun. Well, talking to Michael is only frustrating if you're not on his wavelength, which Maria isn't on most of the time.
sam25_2003: Yes, Michael got lucky with the bumper issue. Although, having him giving advice to Alex, yes, be afraid, be very afraid.
Biged: Thanks for the fb, and I'll try!
SarahWhitman: Yes, it is ironic that Isabel is hiding from the attention, but I'll explain more about that later. As for torturing Alex, I'm not doing it. He's doing it to himself. 
It won't last long.
roswellluver: I thought people would enjoy that little scene with Maria and Michael. It's nice to know what I wasn't wrong.
hoLLyBEHRy: Holly, glad you thought the last part was funny. Heck, I'm just happy you're still reading.
roswellian504: I'm happy that I could entertain.
vegas312: Chocolate Buddy!! Well, that's what Michael gets for thinking he could just get Maria a bumper, don't you think? I must admit, the Tweedle Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest comment isn't original. I got it off of my old gym teacher; he was great!
For all my lurkers: Enjoy!
Blind Date: Take 2 Part 4
Michael couldn't believe that he got suckered into doing what he was about to do. When he finished with Alex, he was going to have to talk to Isabel, why the hell would she let Maria know about the bumper? Shaking his head, he heard the bell ring alerting him that Alex would be walking down the hall sometime soon. Seeing the tall lanky teen, Michael quickened his pace towards him.
"Hey, did you guys hear about Isabel Evans winning that radio contest?" A group of girls asked as they passed Michael.
"Who would have thought she was so desperate for a date?" A giggler stated.
"I don't know, last year, the guy they got for Liz was pretty cute, and he was a college student, wasn't he?"
"So, who knows, they might just get Isabel an even better guy," another girl in the group speculated, not noticing a very dejected Alex walking quickly past them.
Maria really wasn't kidding about him being bent out of shape over the whole situation. He made his way through the crowd, "Hey, Alex," he stated as he wrapped on arm around the shoulders of the other boy. "How ya doing?"
Alex appeared to be surprised by the sudden interest by Michael, "Um," he stuttered as he noticed Michael's arm around his neck. "Okay, I guess."
Michael gave him a hard stare, "Really?"
"Well..."
"Thought so, look it's not the end of the world. So Isabel won some stupid contest; it's not like she wanted to be in it in the first place."
"Yea, that's true," Alex acknowledged slowly as if coming out of a trance.
"Besides, she's not the only girl in the school."
"I, I guess," Alex stated uncertainly.
"Plus, she may end up not liking the other guy, right?"
"Um, sure."
"You're all right, right?"
"Umm-"
"Well, my job is done." Michael replied giving the confused boy a pat on the back and prepared to leave him at the corner of the hall, "This was fun, we should do it again soon." He told Alex half-heartedly rushing away.
Alex just stood there looking at Michael's retreating back.
What just happened?
Michael was feeling all right about himself, when a flounce of blonde curls rushed him and pulled him into the eraser room, "You call that advice?" Tess hissed at him.
"What?" Michael asked genuinely surprised by her confusion.
"That, that disgusting display of, of," Tess threw up her arms in exasperation, "I don't even know what to call it. Michael, that was pathetic, I could do a better job of cheering up Alex, than you did, and I don't even know him that well."
"I don't either."
She gave him a hard stare, "Better than I do. You know if I went to Maria and told her what you just did, she'd lay it into you, right?"
"Look she just told me to go talk to him; she never mentioned once about me having to buy him ice cream, like you girls do."
Tess rolled her eyes, "At least you told him you'd be willing to talk."
Michael sputtered, "What, when did I do that?"
"When you said 'we should do it again soon.' What else did you mean by that?" Tess inquired.
"I really didn't mean for it be taken that way."
Tess rolled her eyes again, "You're really clueless aren't you?" She asked as she opened the door to leave.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Isabel?"
"Hmmm?"
"I was wondering, when do you have to meet the DJ to describe your dream guy?" Liz asked her as they made their way to study hall.
"Oh, um today at 4:30 at the Crashdown. Why?"
"Did you just want to stay at my place after school, so you won't have to bother Max to get a ride?"
"Actually, that would be nice. Thanks, Liz."
"Hey, Izzy, heard you were looking for a guy. Why don't I show you what you've been missing?" Paul Wheaterston called out as they past.
"Get a grip, Paul!" Liz shouted back, much to Isabel's surprise. She didn't think Liz had it in her. "What?' Liz responded innocently, " he was being annoying and I didn't think you appreciated the attention." She concluded. "Do you mind if I asked you another question?" When Isabel shook her head, Liz continued, "Why are you trying to hid from the attention? I mean, remember last year when we did that personal history interview for class? I told you that you were the Elle McPherson of the grade; you're still one of the most popular girls in the school."
Isabel paused for a moment partially because they had reached their destination, and partially because she was pondering the question herself all day. So the contest was cheesy, the result still wouldn't hurt her reputation that much, in fact, depending on the guy the radio station chose, it could actually help elevate it. She just honestly didn't feel comfortable with so many people swarming her, and told Liz so. It was different when she was just the popular girl in school, because she was also unapproachable due to her "Ice Princess" attitude and reputation. However, with the contest, now she was a celebrity and the rules changed. Now she had random people who she didn't know coming up to her and asking her questions, and it just didn't make her feel comfortable, like they were invading her personal space just because they thought she wanted them to. It was a bit unnerving.
Liz nodded understanding a bit with what the other girl was saying when Janie, a girl working with Liz on their history project came up with a bunch of pictures. "Here, I thought you might wanted to take a look before we used them on our poster."
"Wow, these are great, Janie."
"Thanks, but I had a couple of others you might want to use. I've e-mailed them to you, just let me know which ones you prefer."
"You're still
JasonBehrsChick@fanatics.net right?"
"Yup."
"JasonBehrsChick? I take it you like the actor." Isabel stated.
Janie smiled and shrugged, "What can I say, he's cute."
"I guess."
"You guess? Isabel, the guy is hot, even Liz thinks so."
Isabel turned to Liz for confirmation; she squirmed a bit, "Well, he reminds me of Max."
"Umm, probably the reason why I don't think he's that good looking."
Janie gave her a sheepish chuckle, "Oh, right. Anyway, heard about the contest, congrats."
"Umm, thanks." Isabel stated giving the girl a small smile. Janie nodded and returned to her table to work on another assignment, "I think." Isabel muttered once she was out of earshot.
Liz gave her a small smile, "See, not everyone wants to mob you."
Isabel shrugged, "So, she's one of the sane few."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alex thought what Michael had said through out the rest of the school day, but truth be known he was still operating on autopilot for most of the time. He was still focusing on the fact that Isabel would be receiving a ton of attention from better-looking, cooler guys/men. A part of him just wanted to go up to Isabel, kiss her, and remind her that he loved her and wanted her back. However, a very large part of him was scared that she'd just rebuff him like she did pretty much the whole year. Even though he had returned from Sweden with a new attitude towards Isabel Evans, it still didn't change the fact that he cared about her, deeply. What was he going to do now?
He managed to get through band practice, with them also deciding which songs they wanted to use for the audition. Although Maria had tried to apologize to him, Alex kind of ignored her again. He knew that she was sincere and honestly didn't think that Isabel would win, but he wasn't ready to forgive her, just not yet. Then after practice he went home to try and not focus on the contest, but couldn't, his mind kept wandering back to Isabel, and her potential "dream guy." He groaned; how was he suppose to get over this? Then an idea popped into his head.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Michael opened the door he didn't expect an muttering Alex walking through his door. "Alex! What are you doing here?"
Alex looked up at the other boy somewhat surprised by the question. "You said that we should talk again later, well, now is later."
Michael only stared at him before mumbling under his breath, "Yeah, but I didn't think you'd actually take me seriously."
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
"Look, I know this is sudden, but I don't know anyone else I could talk to. I mean, I'm still kind of mad at Maria for entering Isabel in the first place, and Liz, well, I'm not sure why I'm not talking to Liz right now."
"Great, so why don't you just go to the Crashdown and talk to her; she has a shift right now."
"Well, like you said she has a shift, so I'll probably talk to her when she finishes. Unless she knew about the whole contest thing in the first place. You know she probably did. I bet they all did. They probably thought it would be a good joke to pull on me. A good, fun, sick joke, the bastards, how could they do that to me? I thought they were my friends." He lamented.
Michael watched Alex go from the rational to the completely paranoid in less than a minute and started to dial Maria's number before realizing that that would be a bad idea, so he dialed another number.
"Thank you for calling the Crashdown Café, how can I help you?" A familiar voice asked over the phone.
"Liz, you got to help me."
"Michael?"
"Look, Alex is over at my place and he's mumbling about you and Maria being in on some practical joke and other stuff."
Liz sighed over the phone, "Put him on."
"What?"
"Put him on the phone, Michael." Liz told him; her voice full with a quiet determined authority, which Michael never heard before and immediately obeyed.
"Alex-"
"I can't believe you'd do something like this-"
"ALEX," Liz stated loudly forcing Alex out of his ramblings, "the paranoid schizophrenia, it's coming back." She told him a little softer.
"Right, I'm just going to go and have a little talk with myself in private." Alex then handed the phone back to Michael.
"Thanks."
"Not a problem. Anything else I can do?"
"Um, actually do you know where Isabel is?"
"Oh, she's here-"
"Great, we'll be down in there in a couple of minutes."
"I'm not sure-"
"All we need is for them to talk and then Isabel can tell the radio station to forget it."
"Michael-"
"Bye, Liz."
Liz stared at the receiver stupidly before her mind fully registered what Michael was going to do. She glanced at the clock, 4:20 pm. Oh, this was not going to be fun.
Jadeling Note’s: Once again, I apologize for the shortness of this part.
