"Long Distance"
Part 3 - by Bandbabe


Author's Note: This is extremely AU. Nothing that has occurred on the show has happened in this fic. The characters are pretty much the same but the history that has happened on the show is completely different.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot.



Part 3


Tess opened her eyes. Sunlight was pouring through from the windows. She smiled. Today wasn't just any day. Today they we're going to Roswell. She sat up in her bed. For a split second she felt something was missing.

"Max," she whispered. She couldn't fully remember it but he was in her dreams again last night. Always in the desert, always holding her hand. She wondered what it meant.

She shook her head. It didn't mean anything. She forced herself to forget like she did every day.

She and Max are from the same planet. That much they knew. So did that make them family? She didn't know. Physically, the two of them looked nothing alike. She had blue eyes. He had brown. Her hair, which she wore to the middle of her back, was blond and curly while his hair was dark brown and very straight. Her skin was pale and his skin was more tanned. They didn't look like brother and sister but again, they didn't know. That was something Tess hoped they would learn in Roswell.


* * *

Tess stood by the bus. She hadn't seen Max yet. Her mom told her he called earlier that morning and said he couldn't pick her up. She hoped everything was okay. She hoped he wasn't still holding a grudge about yesterday.

"Hey," she heard from behind. It was Alex.

"Hey Alex," she greeted him.

"This is great isn't it? Three days without parental supervision," he said.

"Well, with Mr. Doherty on guard it won't be much of an improvement."

They laughed.

"Probably not," he agreed. "So where's Fuller?"

"I'm not sure where Max is," she told him. "Why?"

"Because he's always around you," he said.

"He's not always around me but he is my best friend," Tess said.

"Oh," Alex said lightly.

"What does that ‘oh' mean?" she inquired.

"It's just that I thought you guys were dating or something," he told her.

Tess laughed. Not so much that she thought the idea of her and Max was funny but because she thought maybe she should laugh.

"But I'm glad that you aren't," he said with a smile. She smiled back.

"Dude, they're boarding the bus," one of Alex's friends told them.

"Guess we have to go. See you in Roswell," Alex said and walked away.

As Max ran toward the loading area he narrowed his eyes. He had been held up by last minute chores at home. ‘What is Tess doing with Alex?' he thought. The thought of Tess with anyone else made him mad.


* * *

"Do you want a fruit roll up?" Tess offered Max.

"No thanks."

"Do you want some Tabasco sauce?" she asked him.

"No thanks."

"Do you want to see me to hold my breath for 5 minutes and turn blue?"

"No thanks," he said. "Wait a minute…" he said as he realized the weirdness of the question.

Tess laughed at him.

"What's with you today? You've been so quiet."

I saw you flirting with that stupid jock,' he thought bitterly. "Nothing."

"Are you sure?" she asked him.

"Yeah. Positive," he lied.


* * *

When they stepped off the bus the first thing they saw was a 200 feet tall billboard of a green alien. Max wrinkled his face in disgust.

"There are thirty students on this trip and three champerones. That means 10 students to each champerone. Before we got on the bus we split everyone up into to three groups," Mr. Doherty lectured. "I want to group A to form a line behind Mrs. Gallow, group B form a line behind Mr. Graham, and the lucky students in Group C to form a line behind yours truly."

Tess let out a sigh of relief that she wasn't in Mr. Doherty's group. Mr. Graham was the Physics teacher and he was okay. The other people in her group were Max, Alex, Olivia Mendoza, Randy Shimmel, Caroline Phillips, Darren Willis, Angela Carter, Jennifer Berman, Greg Regal, and Patrick Lucas. She got along with all of them well.

Jennifer Berman raised her hand.

"Yes Miss Berman," Doherty said.

"Can we go somewhere to eat?" she asked.

Doherty frowned. "After we check in at the hotel. Patience is a virtue, Miss Berman."

Jennifer rolled her eyes.

Max cracked a smile. He was so glad he wasn't in Doherty's group. He felt bad for his friends Jerry Blair and Jody Cohen who were stuck with him. Mr. Graham was an okay teacher. He and Tess should have no trouble getting away from him. The rest of his group wasn’t too bad either, with the exception of Alex.



Back To Roswell Stories