Establishing shot of the sign at the entrance.

Cut to:

Diane and Isabel are walking down a hallway. There are some patients sitting in wheelchairs in the hallway, talking incoherently to themselves. Isabel looks at them with unease. As they pass the visitors' room, Isabel glances in and sees Sheriff Valenti and Amy DeLuca visiting Jim Valenti Sr. Isabel gives a little start upon seeing the sheriff and then quickens her pace past the visitors' room. A female patient in a wheelchair blocks Isabel's path and Isabel, still looking in the direction of the visitors' room, walks right into the wheelchair.

A nurse comes over and calms down the agitated patient. Isabel and Diane continue down the hallway to a door marked Storeroom. Diane unlocks and opens the door and they both enter. The camera follows them in. Diane starts collecting things from the shelves and placing them on a cart in the storeroom.

Isabel starts helping Diane load the cart.

Concerned, Diane reaches out and touches Isabel's arm in support.

Isabel grabs the handle of the cart and steers it out of the storeroom, as she steers the conversation in another direction.

As they wheel the cart down the hallway to the patients' rooms, we sense that someone may be watching them.

Cut to:

Alex is at his computer, typing on the keyboard. We do not see the monitor. His brow is furrowed in frustration.

He stops typing, picks up his phone, and presses a speed dial number. We hear the phone on the other end ringing, then a click.

Alex disconnects the call and punches in another number. Again we hear the phone on the other end ringing, then a click.

Once again Alex disconnects the call, but this time he hesitates before punching in another number. He seems to be debating with himself, then he finally relents and makes the call. The phone on the other end rings, then clicks.

Cut to:

Valenti and Amy are standing by her front door, saying goodnight.

Amy leans closer too him, her head tilted up, her lips smiling, inviting.

He kisses her, hungrily; she responds in kind. They break for air, breathing heavily, their foreheads touching.

She kisses him again and he forgets that he was worried.

Cut to:

Alex and Michael are standing outside the main office of the school. The hallway and office lights are on, but dimmed. Alex is looking around, nervously. Michael is unlocking the door.

Michael opens the office door and enters.

Alex enters the office and closes the door behind him, then heads for the computer on the principal's secretary's desk.

Alex turns on the computer and monitor, then checks the file drawers by the desk while the computer warms up. Michael heads for the principal's office, unlocks the door, and enters. The camera follows Michael into the principal's office as he goes to one of the file cabinets, unlocks it, and opens a drawer. He flips through the folders, as if looking for something in particular, then moves on to the next drawer when he doesn't find it.

Cut to:

Cut to:

Sheriff Valenti is driving down a Roswell street. He passes by a School Zone sign. He's on the cruiser's two-way radio. We join him in mid-conversation.

Cut to:

Alex removes a disk from the A drive of the computer, then starts shutting everything down. Michael is still in the principal's office. When Alex finishes he walks over to see what is keeping him. Michael is engrossed in a file he is holding.

Smiling, Michael waves his hand over the documents in the file. Just then a sound is heard outside the main office door. Alex quickly steps into the principal's office and shuts the door behind him.

We hear the sound of the front door opening, the jingling of keys, and something on wheels being pushed.

Cut to:

The janitor is emptying trash cans under the desks into the larger one on wheels. He heads for the principal's office, takes out his keys, unlocks and opens the door.

Cut to:

The office is empty. The trash can is conspicuously positioned on the opposite side of the desk from where the principal would sit. The janitor looks at it askance for a beat, then picks it up, empties it into the larger one, puts it back where he found it, rolls the large trash can out of the office and closes the door behind him. The camera changes angles to show us Alex and Michael crammed together under the desk. They both let out the breath they were holding.

Cut to:

There is a car parked near the Evans's home. Someone in the car appears to be watching the house.

Cut to:

Tess is in the car, watching the Evans's home through night vision binoculars. She hears a car approach and ducks out of sight. When the car has safely passed she resumes her surveillance.

Cut to:

Tess is sitting at a table alone. Liz and Maria approach her.

Tess puts her hand out to shake and Liz puts flyers about school activities into it.

Maria and Liz sit at Tess's table before Tess can respond.

Tess looks at Liz askance and thinks for a beat.

Maria and Liz's jaws drop, taken by surprise by Tess's reaction.

It's Maria's turn to get the askance look.

Cut to:

Michael is walking down a hallway. Vicky is at the end talking to another female student. She sees Michael approach and says something to the other girl that we can't hear. The other girl looks towards Michael and they both start giggling. Michael senses they are speaking about him. A combination of fury and embarrassment crosses his face. He turns and walks in the other direction.

Cut to:

Alex and Max are at Max's locker. He opens it and finds a Ziploc bag with chocolate chip cookies inside. He smiles when he sees "Sweets for my sweet. Love, Liz" written in sliver metallic on the bag inside a heart. He pulls out the bag, opens it, and offers it to Alex.

They each take a cookie and take a bite. Max looks like he's just taken a bite out of heaven. Alex is fanning his mouth like he just ate a chili pepper whole.

Max quickly pulls out a bottle of water from his backpack and hands it to Alex. Alex gulps it down.

Max nods.

Max senses something, then sees Tess approaching. He quickly looks around for a place to hide and notices the boys' room down the hall. He gestures to Alex to see who's coming and then to follow him. They practically run to the boys' room and enter. Michael, approaching from another hallway sees them rush inside, but does not see Tess.

Cut to:

They both tense when they see the door swing open, then breathe a sigh of relief when they see that it is Michael.

Beat as Michael quickly checks the stalls to see that they are alone.

Max and Alex look at each other nonplussed.

Cut to:

Tess is walking down the hallway. She sees Isabel up ahead and picks up speed. Isabel glances in Tess's general direction and quickly turns a corner down another hallway. Tess gets to the corner and looks in the direction Isabel took; Isabel isn't in sight. Tess sighs in frustration and walks down that hallway, glancing in the classrooms as she passes. She slows down as she nears the entrance to the empty art room. She steps into the room as if drawn in by some unseen presence. She slowly circles the room examining the artwork. She slows her pace even more when she gets to a table with shoe boxes stacked on it. She looks at the boxes curiously, then zones in on one in the middle of a stack. She moves the top two boxes and reaches the third box which has "Parker" written on it. She opens it. The box is filled with a granular mixture of borax and cornmeal. Tess waves her hand over the mixture revealing the orchid corsage. She picks up the corsage and immediately gets a flash of Max's hands placing the corsage on Liz's wrist. The flash ends and Tess stares at the corsage, perplexed. She puts it back in the box, waves her hand to recover it, and returns all the boxes to their original positions. She starts to leave, but then stops and looks around as if there is something else still calling to her. She moves on, looking at the paintings hung on the wall. She stands in front of a landscape of horses in a field. Through the window we see Kyle walking by. He glances in and sees Tess. He smiles and enters the room.

Kyle smiles. Tess notices Michael's drawing of James Atherton's dome home. Taking this opportunity for some closer contact, she puts one hand on Kyle's arm as she points with the other towards Michael's drawing.

Kyle pretends to study the picture, but he's more conscious of Tess's hand on his arm, which he obviously enjoys. Tess's expression is a strange mixture of pleasure, disappointment, and confusion.

Cut to:

The gang is meeting in an empty classroom; some are seated, some are standing, near the teacher's desk, as usual. We join them in mid-conversation.

They all look towards Isabel expectantly, to see which way she is leaning. Isabel looks back and forth between Michael and Max, trying to make up her mind, then finally speaks.

Michael starts to protest, but Liz interrupts.

They all think for a moment.

At Liz's, Maria's, and Alex's confused looks.

Cut to commercial:

Return to Act I

Click here to continue