I was sitting in my seventh-bell history class, waiting for the bell to ring. After quickly jotting down my history assignment in my planbook, I scribbled a note to my friend, Alicia. “Is Daniel Mosswood dating anyone?”

The response: “No, I don’t think so.”

Exhilarated, I barely heard the bell. When I went to my locker, Daniel happened to pass by. He didn’t see me. His green eyes saw nothing but the air we breathed, as if he were engrossed by something. The hair, a light auburn, caught the light in a way that made me sigh.

He walked away and I went on with my business. Instead of walking home, I went from Sycamore Junior High School to Downtown Blue Ash. There, I took the metro to the Bank One Building in Kenwood.

The lobbies in the office building weren’t unlike some place I had seen on Valeska, my home planet. The ceiling was three stories high, with balconies revealing the contents of the building. Mirrored columns wider than two people rose from a shiny marble floor as three businessmen discussed stock issues.

I walked past this into a small alcove with four elevators. Pressing the “up” button, I waited to see which one of them would open. From there I went to the second floor. Winding my way through some sort of cruel maze, it was noticed that everything in the building looked identical. It was either that, or I had passed the same restrooms and drinking fountains more than a million times.

But eventually, I found the glass door marked “Telecommunications International”. As I entered, I saw Shanna, the secretary, at the front desk. She was in her mid-thirties but was one of those women that could easily pass for twenty. Her curly red hair barely touched her shoulders. The doll-like face moved slightly from whatever files she was organizing and said, in a distracted manner, “Yeah, Nate’s in.”

I thanked her and came to the part of the office where the cubicles were. Lining a small part of where two walls met was a glass window. The sky that day was blue and one could hear birds chirping from a nearby neighborhood. It was quite a sight, but nobody saw it. Nobody had the time or reason to. I stopped gazing and found the cubicle with the most daylight in it -- Nathan’s cubicle.

My older brother was talking hurriedly on the phone about some technical screw-up. He was ten years older than me at the age of twenty-four. Behind a new pair of glasses, he glared at the computer. His golden blonde hair was unruly, and his eyes, blue like mine, burned like a raging fire.

“Why didn’t that request come through?” he complained, “Wallace Hardware Supplies ordered two new phone lines last month. What’s going on?... Oh, don’t give me that again!... yes, yes... Well, okay- but you’d better!”

I saw the Chinese take-out containers in the trash can under his desk. It must have been a busy day for Nate if he couldn’t have gone out for lunch with his co-workers. I wished that he wasn’t so overworked, but I knew it was necessary. Besides, he secretly loved it anyway. One could see it in the effort he poured into this job. Before he had worked here, he had fought his way through the galaxy. Back then, life was a daily struggle for survival. After all, Valeska can be a horrible place for two lonely orphans.

After ten minutes of phone conversation, he noticed me. Grinning slightly, he said, “Cassie, you been here long?”

I said that I hadn’t, and smiled back. I twirled my light brown hair around my finger, looking into his eyes. It was amazing, really, where we were now. We had lived on Earth for five years. Still, I would wake up each morning expecting to find myself lying in some grungy spaceship port a million miles away. I’d see Nathan sleeping, protectively curled around me lest anyone tries to harm us. Then, in an instant, I’d realize where I was: lying in a good bed with Nathan already awake and taking a shower.

“Uh,” I continued, “are any of the computers free? I need to use the Internet and you know the modem at home broke last week.”

“Sure,” he answered. “Hey, Stacey, is Nick out with clients now? He is?... all right, then! Cassie, use the one over there.”

I went to the computer he indicated and logged onto his company’s network (Nick liked me and had given me his password months ago.) Then, when I was on the Internet, I did a search on the subject of my school report. It was a minor thing and in twenty minutes I had all the information I needed. Since Nathan wasn’t leaving until five o’clock anyway, I did some other stuff after that. I decided to e-mail a friend in South America.

“To Sara,” I typed. “How are you doing? Are you still going out with Brian(I hope you are- he seems like a nice guy)? Maybe you can give me some advice then. See, there’s this one guy that I want to take to the dance with me, but he doesn’t notice me. How should I get his attention? Oh! Belle isn’t helping me with this one. But she is a sweet thing, even if she is the most lazy cat in the world. Well, I’ve nothing more to say. Give Julio my regards. From Cassie.”

Then I wrote to a few other friends in the same fashion. Finally, I just browsed some other web sites.

Nathan packed something in his briefcase and we left. We took the elevator down to the top level of the parking garage. A short distance from the elevators was his car, a Mustang GT. It was small but loaded with a high-horsepower engine and the type of sound system that most guys would kill for. This was typical of Nathan. He saved away for my college and his retirement but ended up spending most of his money on luxuries like these. I guess that to him, materialism equaled security. And after six years of poverty, he wanted all the security he could get.

I closed the passenger-side door and put my backpack on my lap. Today it was full, with homework from all of my classes. I briefly regretted not using my time at the office to finish it. Oh well, too bad.

Nathan reached my side of the dashboard and grabbed one of a dozen CDs. It was a classical recording; something by Mozart. I found myself humming to it instantly. At the same time, Nathan drummed his hands on the steering wheel, but stopped when he realized he was doing it. I faintly giggled at him.

“So,” Nate said, “How’s school?”

One should note now that when he was my age, he didn’t go to a school. He learned a lot, yes, but not from any organized institution. However, when we landed on Earth, that changed. At the age of nineteen, he decided to go to college. He finished it in two years.

“Fine,” I responded.

“Any crushes or anything?”

“Well... there is this one guy, Daniel. Oh, he is so fine! But no, he doesn’t see me. I’m a thin waif who almost looks like a guy, so why should he? Oh Nate, I’m an ugly little freak.

Nathan considered this for a moment. “You’re not Valeskan anymore, Zayza. You’re human now and you know it. So of course you’re an ugly little freak. Both of us are!”

I relaxed in my seat. Leave it to him to find humor where there is none.

We were going down Montgomery Road. It was a long street, winding from downtown Cincinnati to its northern suburbs. We saw only part of it, from Kenwood to Montgomery. We passed synagogues, churches, shopping centers, and some other fairly forgettable things.

As Nathan and I neared our apartment complex, he gave a silent gasp of awe. To our right was a hospital followed by a nursing home. This may seem like nothing to the average Earth person, but such a thing back on Valeska is unheard-of. On Earth, they care for their sick, their elderly, their disabled, and their poor. On Valeska, however, those people are either killed off or used as slaves. Imperfection is literally a crime there. It’s like when Hitler murdered twelve million people, except on my home planet its been going on for hundreds of years and nobody thinks its wrong.

Being orphans reduced to living on a poverty level, we were at risk. I vaguely remember when we had received the news that our parents had been killed in a ship accident. Nate(or, to use the name our parents gave him, Tavi) had felt the same grief I did. But his thirteen year-old face reflected not only that, but worry as well. What would become of us? He decided that we should run away so that the Authorities wouldn’t find us. For the next six years, we were on the run(in fact, technically, we still are.).

Nathan drove into Old Montgomery Apartments and went down to the end of the 3/4 mile- long drive. Our building was the last of the sixteen. We entered the parking lot and turned to the building on our left, parking in front of it.

The entrance to our building had little floor space but its ceiling rose to the top level, the third floor. There were stairs going down to the basement apartments and a staircase going to each floor, two apartment entrances on each one. We walked up the first flight of stairs and went to the door on our right. Home at last, Nathan went straight ahead to our living room and took a right turn into his office.

In our condominium, there were two bedrooms in the hall that lead right from our door. My room came first, across from the bathroom. The next bedroom was larger, Nate’s. This was across from the kitchen. Beyond the kitchen was a large room divided into two. Usually, it would be a living room and a dining room, separated by a sofa. With Nate, however, the dining room was replaced by an office.

Nathan sat at his wooden desk, a shiny Victorian antique. Quickly, he took out some paper forms from his briefcase and put them on an already cluttered surface. While he finished writing orders begun earlier that day, I went to my bedroom. There, I found Belle waiting for me on my bed. The daylight from the window above the headboard gave her a sort of divine glow. She meowed in a whiny sort of way, her plump body refusing to move. I stroked her head and back. Belle purred approvingly. I sat in the twin-sized bed and she got upon my lap. I didn’t move, since the squeaker of the house wouldn’t approve. Her cute baby eyes, golden as if she were a goddess(thinking she already was one) pleaded for another stroke. I petted her and then gently removed this fat, cute, and nearly inanimate object from my lap, and stood up. Now I was facing a plastic bookcase. On it, among things, was a yellow banana phone that I had gotten from a yard sale, and a large stereo that Nathan had bought me for my birthday two years ago. I played a Janet Jackson CD while I did my homework.

An hour later, the phone rang. I answered it. It was Alicia. I imagined her as she talked. She was my age but could pass for seventeen. I envied her: she had both parents and had never known what it was like to be poor.

“So,” she asked, “how’s Nathan? Working hard again?”

“Shut up!” I responded. I had known Alicia since elementary school and I practically read her mind. She had gone out with a million and one guys, but had always had a crush on Nathan. All my friends did and it annoyed the hell out of me. So I changed the subject. “What have you heard about Daniel? I need to know.”

“Hmm...” Alicia said with a hint of a Southern accent. “He was going out with this one girl, but I think that ended a couple of months ago. He’s not crushing on anyone in particular, although a lot of people will start going after him when the dance comes around. Don’t try some secret admirer thing, either. Daniel would find you out in a millisecond and he finds that sort of thing annoying. Try just being friendly to him. Wait- I’ve got an idea!”

“What?” I said, the excitement filling my body.

“Well, I overheard him talking to one of his friends yesterday. Apparently, he’s not doing very well in Mr.Edward’s science class. And since you’re in the same class and since aced the science mid-term exam...”

I could see where this was going, but I let her talk. Inwardly, I laughed when she mentioned my grade. This year, we were studying astronomy. To most students, such a thing didn’t matter. If a star a hundred light years away exploded or something, who cared? So my classmates struggled through this course while I effortlessly got an A+. Perhaps if you had ever had a sun explode right in front of you, you’d understand.

Of course, nobody knew this about Nathan and me. We had concocted a complex but believable story about where we came from if anyone asked: we had both been born in Boston(our fake birth certificates confirmed this). Five years after I was born, our family had moved to a small town in New Hampshire. One year after that, we moved to Albany, New York. Two or three years later, Nate had attended the University of Cincinnati. And five years ago, our parents had allowed me to move in with him. So here we were!

Nervous, I asked her, “But how would I come up to him?”

“Just be yourself, Cassie. Say ‘Hi! Need some help with that?’ and I know he’s smart enough to say yes. Maybe you could arrange a few, um, ‘study dates’, while you’re at it.”

I smiled and thanked her. I wondered if it actually would work, but tried to think optimistically. We gabbed on and on about anything and everything until seven o’clock, when she had to go to dinner. I decided that it would probably be a good time for Nate and me to eat, too. Before we were human, we only needed one meal a day. Now, we’d eat two or three meals a day, perhaps with snacks. Even if I had become used to it by now, Nathan still thought it unnatural.

Walking down the hallway and turning left at Nathan’s door, I was in the kitchen. I examined the refrigerator and pantry. There were snacks galore, but nothing that would amount to a legitimate meal. I sighed and made a mental note to go grocery shopping sometime. But now I was just too lazy and decided to call a local pizza place instead. “Nate?” I said, getting his attention, “What toppings do you want?”

“What place is it this time?”

“Donotoes,” I answered.

“Could you make it one half plain, then?”

I ordered a cheese pizza and cleared the coffee table in the living room. I rearranged the pillows on the couch. There I settled myself and watched some television. Eventually, Nathan joined me. He wasn’t wearing glasses and had changed from his business attire to jeans and a designer tee shirt. He stretched out next to me and watched what I was watching. Nathan preferred to think he was still a Valeskan(even though they had screwed us royally), but he was getting more human all the time.

We were watching my favorite sitcom, 3rd Rock From The Sun. I found the show fascinating. It sounds stupid, I know, an alien watching a show about aliens, but I loved it. I thought that Joseph Gordon Levitt was cute, anyway. So who cared? Not me.

By the time the show ended, the pizza arrived. I laid it in front of us on coffee table and chose a slice for myself. Nathan gingerly took a piece and ate it nimbly. He probably felt like he shouldn’t have been eating it since he had already had lunch. Physically, he could have wanted it just as much as I did, but it just didn’t show.

I, on the other hand, ate it up hungrily, since I had not eaten since lunch. Between bites, I asked, “So how was your day?”

“Fine,” he said. “I think that this one client will sign a contract to stay with the phone service another three years, although there are doubts. But my boss is an absolute....”

Nathan vented for half an hour about his co-workers, his boss, his boss’s boss, and whoever else he happened to see on a daily basis. I simply nodded and let him speak. Then I did the exact same thing to him, babbling about my classmates, teachers, and my school’s principal.

I looked at him and sighed. “You need to make yourself look ugly, brother.”

“I did that five years ago, remember?” Nate said.

“I meant that you should do something with your hair, or replace your Calvin Kline glasses with something cheap plastic. Anything. Please.”

“Why?” he responded, puzzled.

“Because all my friends have this big crush on you and it makes me want to scream,” I said.

“How come? I’m only beautiful by human standards- and you know how much that is!”

I gave him my evil eye, but was laughing within ten seconds.

Around ten o’clock, I went to bed. I climbed in beneath the soft covers and wrapped my arms around Belle. She, of course, fell asleep instantly. For me, it took an hour or so. I remember that my last thoughts that night consisted of some insane fantasy involving flying unicorns and three tiny fairies. The dream I had was even weirder:

I was running on my school’s running track as if I were I gym, only my clothing wasn’t the class uniform. It was a black bodysuit and a rough coat, like what I wore back on Valeska. But I was still human. I was being chased, but I couldn’t get off the track. I just kept running in circles, like a dog chasing its own tail. The Authorities were what was chasing me. My friends were nowhere to be seen and I think Nathan was already caught. Now they were after me.

Do you want to know what’s even weirder? That was a recurring dream. Imagine!

The next day I awoke feeling anxious about something. It was a Friday, so I couldn’t figure out what it was. Oh yes, now I remember- Daniel! Inside, I really did want to talk with him. But the mere thought of it scared me like nothing else could.

I crept out of bed after the alarm had rang for the thousandth time. The sky at six in the morning was still dark, and somehow that seemed to give me peace of mind. The day had not yet begun. When it did, I’d deal with it then, I guess. But I couldn’t. My mind would not free me from that type of torture, the kind that my soul seems to thrive on. I sat on the bed facing my dresser, looking at the mirror waiting for Nathan to finish showering. When I usually took a look at the mirror, I just saw myself: a somewhat normal human being, more or less. Now, I tried to imagine what Daniel would see: a gawky girl with no romantic experience whatsoever. As you can imagine, it didn’t improve the situation.

Belle waddled into my room through the slightly-opened door. She ignored me and lounged on my pillow like one of those ancient gods that demand human sacrifice. I gave her none. Instead, I fed her some catfood in the kitchen. She didn’t bend down to reach the food bowl like most felines, though. Belle spread herself out on the floor and kept her face where the food was. I looked at her enviously. She didn’t have my problems to deal with. No, all she had to do was sit and look cute while everyone else had an awful time.

“Cassie,” Nathan called, wrapped in a towel, “shower’s free!”

I walked past him into the bathroom. The tub, of course, was spotless(unlike me, Nate’s a kind of clean freak). I undressed and took a long shower, making myself as clean as possible. As the steam surrounded me, I started singing “Show Me Love” by Robyn. It was an upbeat tune that I did often, but now it seemed to have more meaning that morning. I wanted Daniel and I wanted his love, although I doubted that I could get them. A half hour later, I finished and went back to my room.

By then, the sky was starting to show something of sunrise. I spent way too much time fussing over what to wear. Everything I tried seemed to make me look too skinny, too fat, too young, too old, etc. I looked in the mirror despairingly when Nathan appeared behind me.

“Try this,” he said, holding up a pair of blue velvet pants and white button shirt with embroidery on it. It looked like something that was from Saks Fifth Avenue(and knowing Nate, it probably was).

“Oh, I couldn’t...” I protested. But he did things like this for me all the time. Besides, I really could have used a new outfit.

“It’s that new crush, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I want to make some first contact with him and I don’t want to wait because if I do I might never get around to doing it.”

Nathan sighed. “Isn’t that coming on a wee bit too strong?”

“Oh no!” I explained, “I plan to help him with his studies-- he’s failing in science. Then, as we get to know each other, I can charm him. By the next school dance, I’ll actually have a date.”

“In that case, don’t wear this,” he said.

“Why not?”

“It looks too formal, like you’re trying too hard. Those jeans you threw over there may not be the finest thing in the world, but they do give a non-threatening impression. Pair it with that sweater. Then put on those penny loafers,” Nathan suggested.

“But it would make me look like a nun!” I exclaimed.

“Good,” he responded, “because if you look like a nun, it’s better than looking flirty. I mean, if you don’t want your motives to show, don’t wear ’em.”

This made an extraordinary amount of sense, so I did it. When I did my hair, I put it in a conservative yet elegant bun and wore a minimum of jewelry. Perfect!

I quickly ate a granola bar for breakfast and rushed out of the building to catch the bus. I sat there on my seat with a friend of mine. We didn’t have a conversation since she was talking with everyone else on the bus and I was too lost in thought to give a care. The surreal spring morning greeted me from a the windows. I looked at it and wondered if it knew my thoughts and feelings or just wanted to comfort me. But the sky did nothing for me this time.

My first bell was study hall. Besides science, this was the only other class with Daniel. He chose his usual seat, three ahead of me. I started to gaze at him until I caught myself doing it. I took out a new issue of Vogue to read from my folder. My eyes wavered between a Versace menswear ad and another example of a male beauty sitting right near me.

“Cassie Smith? What’s going on?” said a voice behind me.

I turned my head to see who it was-- Brittany. We weren’t enemies or anything, but something about her made me wary. What was it? For one thing, she was the biggest gossip in the school. Any secret you told her would be making headlines the next day. To make things worse, she’s also exaggerate them. On Valeska, at least, lying is unknown-- even if worse things are. “Nothing much. You?”

“You want Daniel Mosswood, don’t you? Admit it!” Brittany said in a hushed tone. She looked cheap and had been dying her long hair black ever since I first saw her. Her clothing was the trendiest in the room and her makeup was visible from a six-mile radius. In a weird way, I felt sorry for the girl.

But not now. “How could I want him? For one thing, I’m already dating a much cuter guy from Lakota High School! He’s on the football team, you know.”

“No, I don’t know,” Brittany responded. “Show me his picture, girl.”

It was more of a dare than a command. I sweat for a second before I came upon a good way to shut her up. From my wallet, I gave her a snapshot of Nathan and me.

I heard her gasping with absolute envy. “Oh my gosh, what’s his name?”

“Arnold Johnson. We’ve been going out for half a year now, thank you,” I lied. Having an attractive brother has its advantages, I guess.

I took the photo from her hand and smiled sweetly. Let word of that get around! Besides, the thought of me being taken by a cute guy might make me seem more alluring to Daniel. As if on cue, he asked to see the photograph. I showed him it with the same explanation that I gave Brittany. He said, “Really?”

I looked at him. His emerald eyes were so trusting that I decided to clear myself to him. “Actually, he’s my brother. I was just bull-crapping Brittany so I could get her off my back.”

“Figures,” he said. “She is annoying, isn’t she? I hate her. She thinks she’s Ms.Popular but you know she’s not. I heard that she actually went out with ultradork Bobbie Fishnet...”

Before long, we were engaged in this mean-spirited long conversation. It seemed that all my fuss over him had been wasted time, since how I looked or what I wore didn’t seem to matter to him. I didn’t even know what had happened, but I swear, it felt good!

My next bell, gym, was spent in a daze. I felt like I was pure energy as I did twice the push-ups I usually did, just for the heck of it. When the other girl on my volleyball team asked me what was up, I simply laughed.

Three periods later, at lunch, I met up with Alicia and our mutual friend, Marie. As I came to our usual table, Alicia smiled at me. “So, how’s Daniel? Are you gonna try him next bell? Or will you wait until Monday?”

“I already talked with him first bell, thank you very much!” I said to a shocked Alicia and Marie.

“Naw, you must be kidding! Tell me you’re joking, please,” Marie exclaimed.

I giggled and continued, “It was really Brittany that did it, you know.”

“Brittany Hanson? That little brat? How can you stand her?!”

I looked at Marie. She was the only one of us who still could wear kids’ clothing. Alicia, who’s height was average- taller than Marie and shorter than me- was the only one who actually wore an underwire bra. And I was the only one who could hide behind a bean pole. Still, the little girl and the girl that almost looked like her mother agreed that I was nuts.

Between bites, I bragged about how I had shut Brittany up and then had used it to my advantage with Daniel. When I turned the story into my own, it was the stuff that legends were made of. I know it was pompous, but I loved it.

Then Alicia asked me what I thought of this new movie that had come out starring her favorite celebrity. She obsessed about him until Marie and I almost puked. “Luke Kingston was so fine in The Paradise Affair, wasn’t he? Owww! I hate that actress who played his love interest-- that should have been me! Ahh...”

The only reason that she can get away with this is that she already has a love life, even if none of those guys are as “dashing and handsome” as that Kingston dude. Actually, I think he’s probably an egotistical jerk in real life, as I’ve often reminded Alicia. But does she listen?

“Marie,” I said, “Did I tell you about the time I met Luke a few months ago?”

She barely looked up from her salad, but knew what I was up to. Alicia, of course, perked instantly. I laughed and continued, “Yes, when I went to the Masonett, remember? He happened to be sitting at the table behind me. So when I figured out that it was Kingston, I came up to him and we talked for a while. Real nice guy, actually. Then, as he left, he kissed my hand ever so slightly...”

Alicia looked at me, her brown eyes green with envy. She said, “I hate you so much-- not only are thin, you also met Luke ‘Mr.Big’ Kingston. Ugh!”

“...And then he turned into... a big fire-breathing dragon! Oh no!” I finished. We all laughed, even Alicia(she has a fairly good sense of humor). Then Gordon came up behind her.

“Hi, Gordie!” Alicia said to one of her guy friends. She smiled sweetly and he put his arms around her. I didn’t envy that, but I wished for all the world that Gordon was Daniel and Alicia was me, if Alicia and Gordon were dating. But I thought about how I should hold back until the time was right if I truly wanted him: haste makes waste, and all good things come in time... right?

Then fifth bell, science, began. I saw that there was an empty seat near Daniel. Without looking obvious, I suggested to Marie that we sit near him. She rolled her eyes but agreed to do it. After Mr.Edwards gave a lecture on how a planet’s size affects its gravitational pull(in full detail, of course), he gave us an assignment and told us to work on it for the remaining half of class. Then he said that students could work on it together. As usual, Marie and I teamed up on it, joined by Gina, the only girl taller than I was. I got the best grades in the class, although Marie was right behind me. Gina was more typical of the class, though, as she generally only put the minimum into her work(come to think of it, I did the same thing!).

Gina arranged the questions in front of us and started to look at Marie’s paper when I stood up and gathered my papers. Seeing Daniel struggle alone with his work, I broke off from my group and came up to him.

“Hi, Danny,” I said, “Do you need help with that? I’m pretty good with that sort of thing.”

“Sure,” he responded. “What I can’t get is this...” he cited some problems he had with the assignment. I patiently explained the theories and logic of astronomy while he took notes(I objected to him just copying off my work).

“Wow, Cassie,” Daniel commented. “You sure know a lot about this stuff, don’t you? Is your dad a scientist or something?”

“Something of the like,” I said.

When class ended, he gave me a slip of paper with his phone number on it and said, in a hushed tone that made my spine tingle, “Call me.”

My next bell was English, the only class I had with Alicia. I met her and she asked how things went. I just showed her the slip of paper. First, she was as excited as I was. Then she said, “Wait! Couldn’t you have just gotten his number from the school directory?”

“So?” I responded. “This means that he wants me to call him. Don’t you see? Duh!”

She looked a little sad at that moment. Had this never happened to her? Was the only man she wanted the one that took a place on the big screen, perhaps to make up for the less-than-perfect guys that she ended up going out with? I stopped and looked at the floor.

The late bell rang and we both sat down. Unlike Mr.Edward’s class, where you sat wherever you wanted, Ms.Deon alphabetically arranged our seating. Therefore, I sat across the room from Alicia Brinkley and right next to Rick Stenson. I hated that. In the beginning of the year, I had had a crush on “Perfume-boy”. I had asked Alicia to ask him out for me. She did, but came back with somewhat distressing news. Up until that time, he had been indifferent towards me, not knowing that I existed. But when asked, he said no. Why? Because, according to him, I’m “ugly”(and a few other choice words). This baffled me until I realized that what my friends had said was true: Rick had a big head, both figuratively and physically. He played on the football team, but was the one of the worst players there. What was I thinking?

They say that love messes up your head, but my mind was clear now and I knew what I was doing.

“Cassie?” Ms.Deon called to me.

“Whu?” I asked, awoken from a daze.

“It’s your turn to give us your book report, Miss Smith.”

“Oh, yes, sure,” I stuttered as I got up and stood in front of the class. I presented my project to the class and sat down, knowing that I probably had gotten a good grade on that-- I always did, didn’t I?

It was a cold night on Sathwandi, a small planet as far from Valeska as you could get. Unlike most places, which pledged allegiance to the Valeskan government, this planet was independent(they could get away with this since most people didn’t even know this place existed). Tavi and I stood on the dirt ground, feeling twice as light due to the planet’s gravitational pull being less than what we were used to.

I, an eight year-old at the time, looked at Tavi. Of course, he wasn’t in the human form yet. He was Valeskan like I was. To those of you who don’t know, a Valeskan is a sentient being(meaning that it has a somewhat human-like form). But we still look very different, mind you. A human’s skin can be any color from “vanilla to chocolate”, but Valeskans don’t have distinct racial types. We’re all the same shade of lavender. Second, humans have lots of hair. Valeskans have none(do eyelashes count?). There are silver ridges lining the head in place of hair, and similar ridges taking the place of eyebrows, but that’s it. The eyes bare an interesting resemblance to cat eyes, often in a gold or green color. Then there’s a certain build to the Valeskan body: the male and female look very similar and have much more muscular body than that of the average human.

Some ships flew overhead, but they were Sathwandi, so it was safe. I saw Tavi(soon-to-be Nathan) and sighed. In Ardio(the language spoken on Valeska), I asked, “Are you sure this isn’t a trap?”

Tavi crossed his arms and said, “For the millionth time, yes. I heard about this though the Underground, remember?”

“What is that, anyway?”

“It’s this organization that helps those that the Authorities are after. It’s pretty safe for information, you know,” Tavi responded, annoyed.

It had taken us months to get to Sathwandi. Generally, Tavi and I would hitchhike across the galaxy. Most of time, though, we’d be staying at some station waiting for someone to come along. Sometimes, Tavi and I could take on odd jobs to pay for a ride, but most places wouldn’t hire us. Tavi had heard somewhere that a sort of anti-Valeskan thing was going on here. Excited, he found out more about this. It seemed that someone on Sathwandi had discovered a new planet in a remote area that everyone had though was lifeless. This place could be used as refuge for the “non-people”(us). This discovery was kept secret(which made me suspicious of how Tavi could have learned of it-- but I’m not asking).

I breathed in the frigid thin air of the planet. It smelled awful, like a large trash can. The ship that Tavi and I had caught a ride on left two hours ago. Was this whole thing a hoax? If it was, then I would have made a mental note to tell Tavi exactly how I felt when we got out of this. Sitting down on the frozen dirt, I said, “If we leave now we might be able to sneak into the local station and get hold of some supplies. Please!”

“No! They must be here, Zayza,” Tavi said it as if he didn’t really believe it, but still hoped that it was true. “They must be.”

Another hour passed and Tavi picked up what little belongings we had. This consisted of some ragged clothing, something to bathe with, some meager food rations, weapons that have only been used for self-defense, and various relics from the past(such as an old toy of mine, a keepsake of Tavi’s, etc.). It was all stored in a simple purple sack. We started to walk away then. The bleak flat landscape spread before us infinitely.

We had been walking a few seconds until I heard a small sound behind us. I turned around and gasped. From the ground where we had been standing, somebody rose on an elevating platform common to underground-structures. It was a large Valeskan male, about seven feet in height. He looked slightly older than Tavi. Dressed in something that looked expensive, the man called to us. “Uh-lo-nim-wa!.. Right here, ya’ll!”

We walked(actually, we ran)towards him as he said that. I could see a light beneath this man, as if he were on a display case. It was an unusual experience, to say the least.

Tavi stood on his toes so he could be at eye level with this man. “Are you Laylo-cai, our contact on Sathwandi?” I was amazed when Tavi used the word “cai”. When added on to a person’s name, it made that person a “non-person”. And yet this cai seemed to be faring quite well!

“That I am,” the man responded. “I represent the Agency. Are you Tavi and Zayza?” I noticed that he left the cai out of our names and I liked it.

“Yes. I understand you have an offer for those willing to work in this project of yours. Am I right?”

“The specific project and work are not known even to me, actually,” Laylo said. “I’m only an agent. I’ve no idea how it works, believe me.”

“What do you do then?”

“I handle people like you. Dozens of people like you have come to me. I’ve seen groups from large families of three of four generations to a single old woman or a stray kid. I’ll lead you to the rooms where you can meet with the Agency. After that, I don’t know what happens.”

“Why do you represent something you hardly understand, Laylo?” I asked.

“They pay me well and the work is little. Why else?” Laylo said.

Years later, Nathan explained that this man was a “safe-dummy”. He handled the publicity of whatever illegal organization he was fronting but, knew nothing about it. This way, he would be useless to the Authorities if he was captured(and, being a cai, he had nothing to lose). So the organization was protected and everyone was happy.

Tavi looked at me for approval and I gave him some. “Lead me to the Agency, then.”

The three of us stood on the platform as it lowered itself into the ground. The opening above us shut and I knew that the ground above looked now different than the wastelands around it. The rounded wall looked as if it had been dug though some sort of rock, its dirt chipping off onto my shoulder. This was lower than even my expectations.

Tavi shrugged it off and asked Laylo more questions about the Agency, most of which couldn’t be answered. I got bored and tired, but kept myself awake. If this guy could afford a nice set of clothing, maybe he could provide our next ride. Maybe.

The platform decreased in speed and we were lowered from a vertical tunnel to large cave that was probably over a hundred feet high. It was bare, except for a few other “safe-dummies”. We walked off the platform and onto the uneven cave ground. It was wet from a red waterfall somewhere in the distance. There were none of the usual cave-dwelling animals here and a darkness covered the place. I was suddenly scared.

Laylo led us to a door that he often opened, but never went through...

The radio was playing loudly in the background as I stretched out on my bed. It was five in the afternoon and there were chores to do(not that I’d actually remember to do them or anything!). Belle crawled onto my stomach, sat there, and purred. If I wasn’t so lazy, I would have shoved her off.

Alicia sat on the chair at my desk. She held the yellow banana phone in her hands and looked at me. “Call him.”

I rolled over, away from her, displacing Belle. This was not good. Really, I did want to call Daniel-- honest! I knew it would be all right when I just did it, but I couldn’t. What would I say? What would he say? But this was unnecessary, I knew. He wanted me to call him, right? But if I called him now, wouldn’t that make me look desperate. Then again, if I waited, might that be constructed as rejection? How could I know?

“Just do it and get it over with,” Alicia said. “People like you annoy me, Cass. Ya’ll procrastinate too much. When you actually do get around to doing it, it’ll be too late. The dance is coming sooner than you think, and I know he’ll have a date there-- whether it’s you or not!”

I sat up and looked her in the eye. “He’s not like that.”

Alicia grinned, expecting more.

I gave it to her. “He loves me.”

The phone veered closer to me. It was tempting, I’ll admit. Alicia made a gesture towards it and urged, “Call him if the feeling’s mutual.”

I took the phone and lifted the receiver. It seemed to stand out from the rest of the room, like a candle in the dark. My index finger gingerly touched the old and stiff buttons. Seven, seven, one, pause, zero, nine, nine-- six? In one hand was a scrap of notebook paper with his number on it, and it the other was nothing but uncertainty. It was now, more than ever, that I wanted to hang up. But I knew Alicia wouldn’t let me. So I pressed the last digit and heard his phone ringing.

After five rings, I heard his answering machine. After thanking the powers that be, I said, “Daniel? This is me, Cassie. Call me.” I then found a disappointed Alicia in front of me. “Sorry.”

She laughed. “Good thing you called, though. He’ll probably get your message.”

I bit my lip and sat down on my bed. I wanted to ask her something, but didn’t want to know the answer. It was about Alicia’s boyfriend of six months, Eric. See, she used to talk about him a lot, but hadn’t said a word about him since two weeks had passed. Instead, she had developed a sudden obsession to Luke what’s-his-name. I suspected relationship problems, but wasn’t sure. If this was Marie, she would have told me. But this was Alicia, and Alicia would contain that sort of thing inside her. She preferred to keep a fine appearance while dying on the inside.

Alicia looked at me inquisitively. “What is it?”

“Most likely nothing,” I responded. “I was just wondering, how’s Eric?”

She got up and went to my stereo, smiling. “I don’t like this song. Mind if I change the station?”

“How’s Eric?” I persisted.

“Fine. Why?” The words were forced and she knew it.

I sighed and continued. “I suspect that Eric dumped you.”

Alicia stopped playing with the knobs on the radio. “How’d you know?”

“I guessed. You’re good at hiding it, but I know you. I can see it in your face.”

“But it was so awful!” she broke down as I comforted her. “We were on a date and he said he had to go to the bathroom. A long time passed and I got to wondering what was up. Then I happened to see him out in the parking lot-- with another woman! Well, I came up to him and said, in a friendly way, ‘Who is this, love?’ and he dumped me on the spot! Turns out that Eric’s been cheating on me for the last month! What happened, man?! We were steady, we were a an item. I loved him and I thought he loved me. We can screw that, I guess! I hate that lying son of a-” (this is where Alicia spewed out a string of cussing that I’ve kind of forgotten since then).

“Who was he with, anyway?” I asked.

“Brittany Hanson.”

I giggled. “Huh-huh! First Bobbie, now Eric. That girl may be an awful example of the human species-of any species, but I still feel sorry for her.”

A few minutes later, Nathan came home. He passed by my open door in his suit and tie, holding a briefcase in his left hand. Alicia gasped in awe he walked. This girl would have done anything for him. She loved him like a saint. I knew how she dreamed of him, even though she never told me. Alas, such a thing would never happen: he was an adult and, more to the point, he was my brother. The day my best friend goes out with my brother is the day that pigs fly.

“I want him so bad,” Alicia commented.

“Whatever.” Pigs may fly in downtown Cincinnati, but that doesn’t count.

She sighed. “I know!”

“Come on! Between dreamboy-whether he be Luke or Nathan- and Eric, there is a guy for you. Someday, you’ll meet him. I promise.” I flipped though my address book as Alicia went to the bathroom. I studied the numbers that went by me: old friends, new friends, girl friends, guy friends, and Nate’s cell phone. Finally, I found a listing that looked good: Darren Kelly, an old acquaintance of mine. He didn’t have a girlfriend but wanted one. Handsome and kind, I knew that Alicia would like him. Well, this was good...

An hour later, we were at the mall. Kenwood Towne Centre was the finest in Ohio. Per the square foot, it was one of the highest-selling malls in the country. Daylight from a ceiling window lit the food court, the center of the building. We sat at a table near what used to be a cafe, right under the setting sun.

“Think you’ll find a message from Danny on the machine?” Alicia said.

“I hope so.” Where was Darren? It’s been twenty minutes already!

Abandoning my plan, I suggested that we go to the Gap and look though their clearance rack. Before we could do it, though, a voice came up behind us.

“Sorry for my lateness. Ladies?”

I turned to see him behind me. Like me, Darren was skinny and lanky. He was also very tall, at least six feet. His limp black hair was cut short and his eyes sparked with something that I couldn’t explain. He smiled boyishly as he studied Alicia.

I introduced them to each other and let Darren have my seat. The two seemed to like each other, a success. This was going to last a long time, I knew it.

Alicia was elated and quickly got into a conversation with Darren. They didn’t notice me as they talked. I felt my wallet in my pocket and had the urge to leave them. This was okay, actually. I mean, we could all find a way to get a ride home, right?

So I left the couple and went shopping. When I saw them together an hour later, I decided to go home. Seeing that there wasn’t another metro bus leaving anytime soon, I called Nate for a ride. He arrived a short time later.

“Where’s your friend?” he asked.

“With another friend. I’m the third wheel here, so I’m leaving,” I said.

“Does she mind?” Nathan responded.

“Does she even notice?” I looked at him.

“Where are they? No wait, I see ‘em. Nice, ain’t it?” he wistfully remarked. “The human relationship-- what a beautiful thing!”

On Valeska, marriages are always arranged. At the age of thirty-five, a man and woman are joined on the basis of genetics. Any romantic experience before that is considered dangerous and, in some places, illegal. Even cais abide by these rules. It’s simple, safe, and easy. Nathan never had to go through what I was doing at the time. As one can imagine, Nathan doesn’t get many dates for this reason. He may be human, but, good Valeskan that he is, he won’t become involved with someone until he’s thirty-five.

I looked at Nathan as we walked in the parking lot. Any memories I had of my life before Earth were bad, the wretched experience of being a cai. But Nathan had thirteen years of good times on Valeska. He had friends, family, and a home.

“Cassie, do you ever want to go home?” he asked for the hundredth time.

“No,” I answered. “That’s you. You’re the one who sees the past through rose-colored glasses. Not me, you.”

Nathan opened the car door and sighed. “You’ll never understand, will you?”

I did want to, though. Nate knew what it was like, Valeskan life. But I had been a fugitive since I could remember, so how would I know? When we were in private, Nathan would tell me stories about this good life. A week ago, he had told me about when our family had settled on Valeska before I was born. Then he’d remind me of things that I was apt to do as a toddler. Sometimes, I had dreams about these stories. He told me one now.

“I once did something illegal,” he said guiltily.

“You killed someone?”

“Worse! When I was young, I fell in love. I don’t know how it happened, but it did. Her name was Akasha, beautiful thing. It was never meant to be, of course. But I’ve never felt that way for a person since.”

This shocked me. I had never known him to have a love interest! The idea of Nate having a girlfriend was more unbelievable than anything I could think of. Yet, believe it or not, Nathan had once had a love. Wow...

“Shameful, isn’t it?”

I almost laughed. Stupid, isn’t it? A year ago, I had friends who were boy-crazy. I still do. But then, that was me. I was human. Nathan? Only physically, most likely. Sometimes I wondered what went on in his mind, a confused alien on Earth. Maybe I should ask him.

When he discovered that, yes, I like boys, Nathan was distressed. Then he learned that such a thing was socially acceptable and had a heart attack. Of course, this means that he too is allowed to date people. No offense, Nate, but I think you should take advantage of that.

Turning the key in the ignition, Nathan asked, “Do you have any homework?”

“Does it matter? It’s Friday. Why?”

“I have some tickets to the Cincinnati Pops at the Music Hall. It’s at eight, so we don’t have a lot of time.”

A symphony concert tonight? Great! An hour or two of that music could lull me to sleep, but I enjoyed dressing up. I’d wear my Sunday best and make myself up like a queen. The finery of it all was fun. “Okay, let’s go.”

When we got home, I headed straight for my room. I took off my regular clothes, jeans and a tight lavender shirt. Then I went to my closet and chose an appropriate emerald gown that I had originally bought for a wedding. It had a form-fitting cut and the lines to pull it off. The upper part of the dress was made of an expensive Italian lace while the skirts consisted of a soft satin. It was like something that Scarlet O’Hara would wear. I looked nothing like her, but when I wore this dress, that could just be my little secret.

I paired it with some good jewelry. To be specific, I wore a matching emerald earring and necklace set. Then I did my thick brunette hair in an elaborate bun, with some ringlets here and there. I put on makeup like a pro, grabbed my purse, and went into the living room to wait for Nathan. It took all of ten minutes.

Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the Music Hall. It was a monster of a building, constructed back in the Victorian Era(I forget the year). On the outside, it seemed like an old castle, ancient but beautiful. The inside, however, was a different story. A man dressed in a day-old designer suit typed on a laptop in the corner while the child in front of me played with one of those annoying Tamagotchi eggs. An employee talked on a cell phone next beneath a ceiling older than she was. It made for an interesting picture.

It was announced that the concert was about to begin and Nathan led me to the usual box seats. The lights went dark within a few minutes and the music started. First, it had me humming along to it. Soon, however, I lost interest. Nathan leaned forward, apparently fascinated with whatever they were playing. I couldn’t see what was so interesting, frankly. Nate said that this was the best music this world had to offer. Sure, whatever.

The last thing I saw was the opera singer get on stage before Nate woke me up.

Beyond the small door there was no light. No sounds emitted from the new room, either. It seemed to be a void opening straight into space. Laylo said, as he had many times before, “Good luck. May you find your way safely.”

I had the sudden urge to flee, to get away from all of this. Being eight years old and not knowing what was happening around me wasn’t the best of combinations. Tavi seemed to sense my emotion and held my right wrist as his way of telling me that we were going through with this. If he himself had any doubts, I don’t remember. He must have, though.

He said, so quietly that only I would hear it, “Stop this, Zayza!”

(Now that I think of it, he must have been more doubtful than I thought.)

I looked him in the eye as only a child could, human or otherwise.

Tavi’s eyes, those catlike gold eyes, responded with a sort of authority. I had gotten disciplining looks like this before, but never like this. For as long as I could remember, Tavi was always the one who was in command. He was older, the only person to raise me other than myself. Sometimes I didn’t like it, but it was what had kept me alive all this time, so I’d didn’t mind it too much.

Shyly, I drudged after him as he went into the room. Tavi thanked the “safe-dummy” and the door was closed behind us. Tavi reminded me that the room would be dark only while Laylo could see it. When the entrance was safely closed, the lights slowly came on and I gasped.

I had expected to find a little room surrounded by rock. Instead, I saw what looked to be a small town. An artificial miniature sun lit an underground sea, its dark blue water gently touching a smooth, cleanly cut coastline. A thousand feet above me was a stone ceiling that had the look of marble. It was warm here, like summertime. I had never known such a thing as summer in my eight years-- most of the places that I ended up in were kind of like a winter in upstate New York. This made me forget all that. I didn’t feel tense anymore. This was nice.

Tavi stood alert. Apparently, he wasn’t about to accept this beauty. He looked below him to see that we were standing on a great pillar. Behind us was the door we had left. The room we had been in seemed to be located in this other thing, with the outside of the elevator reaching into the air, surrounded by clouds. The pillar was covered by the room and we were left stranded on a cliff hundreds of feet above the ground underground.(To imagine this, simply pretend that you’re on the top of a ninety-story building and are hanging perilously on the ledge.).

He turned around and tried to open the door, but it was locked. Okay, what now?

I sighed tried to sit on the ledge. My butt reached the smooth ground just fine, but my legs couldn’t get over the edge. They simply laid straight, as if there was some sort of support under them. I could move them upwards, but not any lower than the level that I was sitting at. What did this mean?

Tavi looked at me and asked, “Why are you sitting like that?”

“As if I know? Look at this here!” I demonstrated what was happening.

Tavi gasped. He stuck a foot next to my thighs. It held up. He put more weight on it. Still, the air held him. Finally, Tavi ventured to stand on it with both feet. Then I joined him. It held.

“There must be an explanation for this,” I muttered. “Maybe it was something I ate.”

I heard a sound like wind coming from in front of us. It was musical and had a living sort of quality to it. Again, nothing could be seen.

By now, I had an idea what was going on: one heck of an illusion. The city below us, the sky above us, and everything in between was nothing. Even I knew how a three-dimensional screen could fill a wall. Why not six? Then I accidentally dropped a pebble I was holding. It should have landed near my feet. Instead, it fell a thousand feet below. Well, so much for wishful thinking.

The sound came closer. I backed into Tavi and gasped. He held me protectively and looked angrily at what we could not see. We walked back onto the cliff. I banged on the door and cursed like everything, but nobody heard me.

“Don’t be afraid, fools! I come in peace,” the voice shouted, getting clearer by the moment. It seemed booming and powerful, but not threatening at all.

“Who... what are you?” Tavi stuttered.

“I am what you make of me. That is all you need to know, thank you. I am also a cai like yourself. Now, don’t look around for me, though I’m right in front of you.”

“Are you Helzar, the magical and notorious? I heard you died a long time ago, but nobody knows for sure,” Tavi calmed down, curious now.

“You know I am,” he responded. Helzar was a name known by many, if not everyone, on Valeska. He was supposedly thousands of years old, a hero in history. But a couple of centuries ago, he began to question the Valeskan government’s treatment of cais. To escape prosecution, he disappeared. Everyone thought he was killed by the government, now a cai.

“See this town, this city? I built it a hundred years ago, and it’s grown rapidly. Everyone who lives here is a cai or a cai-sympathizer. They have escaped the dangers of whatever life they used to lead. I’ll admit, it is isolated. But that’s a fair trade, don’t you think?”

I looked down at the group of buildings, all white cubes of roughly equal size, save for a main structure in the center. I estimated that perhaps twenty of thirty thousand people lived here.

I started to comment on something, but I suddenly blacked out. When I woke up a moment later, I was had descended a thousand feet onto the ground. Tavi showed the same disorientation that I had felt. It must have been Helzar! But it was then that I saw the details of the city: pods traveling on the streets, some boats on the sea, and people walking everywhere. A woman led her child to their home while the father had a conversation with some friends. Tavi almost cried at the sight: cais living in peace, without the Authorities on their backs, living in a perfect world.

Helzar said to us, “This is New Valeska.”

“Nice place,” Tavi commented.

“Yeah,” I agreed. But at the time I could have cared less. I said, “What’s Earth?”

“It’s a planet,” he said, “a place that isn’t as perfect as New Valeska, but certainly not as trying as some other places you’ve been. I’ve known about it for many years, but my people- I let them discover this for themselves- found it only a few decades ago.”

“But if you have a refuge here, what’s this other place for?” Tavi asked.

“Boy, this place will hold less than a hundred thousand people, tops. Almost one fourth of Valeska is official cai, and that’s not counting people like me. That’s one eighth of billions upon billions of people. Think about it.”

“Hmm.”

“Yes, my thoughts exactly. I’ve known of your coming, children. Does that surprise you?”

“Of course not!” Tavi said. “I contacted one of your safe-dummies months ago.”

“You don’t understand, do you? I knew of it before you two were even born.”

It seemed to make sense that Tavi would fear such a powerful being. Helzar was psychic, telepathic, and many other things I don’t know the English words for. But Tavi seemed almost rude to him. I saw this as very stupid, since that dude could beat his butt in a millisecond. But maybe Helzar saw this differently. I didn’t even try to figure it out.

“When I was roaming the courtyards of a base near Valeskan territory, I had a vision of you both. Born to prosperous parents, you were guaranteed a good life. Tavi, you remember this good life, do you not?”

Tavi nodded casually.

“But you, Zayza, you do not. In three short precious years, you are born to wealth and reduced to being a cai living in poverty,” Helzar said, pitying me.

“It’s not that bad,” I responded. Maybe for Tavi, who wanted so much to attain his former lifestyle of security and finery. To him, this was pure hell. Me? All I had a to compare to a cai’s life was a cai’s life. Did it suck? Well, I was used to it just the same.

“... and you don’t even know what you’re missing! You’ll never understand, will you?”

You’ll never understand, will you? Now I think of all those times that Nathan(or Tavi, if you please) says that to me. Gee, I wonder where that came from...

“I’m alive and healthy,” I responded as only a child could. “Isn’t that all one could want?”

“I saw you receive the news and become a cai. You did not, could not, give yourself to the dangers of grief, of detection, of anything. You cried for all of ten seconds and then packed up everything in a sack. You did the safest thing you could do and here you are,” Helzar continued.

“Thank you,” Tavi said. “But if you could see and track us, how come the Authorities haven’t?”

“I am Helzar,” the man answered. “Need I say more?”

My eyes opened slowly as the alarm clock blared in my ears. I quickly flung out a limp hand and turned the thing off, muttering something obscene. Then I remembered that it was Saturday. Oh, thank all that is sacred! I caught a few hours’ worth of sleep and didn’t get out of bed until eleven or something. I saw myself in the wall mirror: dressed in one of Nate’s tee shirts and having morning hair, I looked worse than what Belle hacked up last week. But since I probably could have cared less at the time, I went to the kitchen. As I went there, I heard Nathan snoring, catching up on all that sleep he lost. You know he needed it.

The phone rang and I answered.

“Is Nathan there? I finished the report for him as quickly as I could!” It was Shanna.

“I’ll tell him. Dude’s busy now,” I responded.

“Oh, yes, of course! It’ll be waiting on his desk, unless he wants it-”

“That’s fine, Shanna,” I said. She was one of those people who cared too much about their jobs. Although less numerous than those who don’t, I find them just as annoying.

I took some fruit loops out of the pantry and made myself a feast of cereal and orange juice. Yum. Then I watched cartoons and laid down on the sofa. The phone on the coffee table rang and I rolled my eyes. If this was Shanna, I swore I’d kill her. “... Yes?”

“This Cassie?” It was Daniel!

“Oh, hello!” I responded. I was much more energetic now, although I don’t know if that was Daniel or the sugar. I hope it was the latter.

“What’s up?”

“Just eating some sugar-filled cereal and watching the tube,” I said.

“Rotting your teeth and brain at the same time. Wow...”

“So? Ya got anything better?” I teased.

“Yeah,” he responded in like, “and it starts at seven tonight.”

(Hmm...! Am I wrong, or is this guy asking me out?)

We arranged something and hung up. I felt like dancing and signing, but then Nathan showed up and that seemed slightly more than embarrassing. Nate ate a granola bar and called Shanna. After I took a shower, I called Alicia on the other line. “You would not believe-”

“What? What?” Alicia cut me off, deliberately trying to be annoying.

“Shut up, bunghole. See, Daniel asked me out.”

“Ugh... lucky!” Alicia sniffed.

“Huh? Oh, I know. Darren, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Keep diggin’, Watson! No duh, you think? Wow, I woulda never guessed. Next time, why don’t you set me up with someone who isn’t a total nerd?”

Oh boy, she had been dumped. The really bad thing? Whenever Alicia was feeling low, you were a criminal if she couldn’t drag you down with her. Oh well, I was used to this.

Then her voice took on a sweet quality. Oh help me, please! “Well, I guess that’s over now. Nice while it lasted, though...”

(Can’t you just hear my heart pounding in fear?)

“But I think we should go to somewhere, you know? Like to this party, perhaps. Everybody’s gonna be there. Wanna come with?”

... What? That’s it?! Phew! “Oh, yes, if it’d make you feel better.” I really should trust people more, shouldn’t I? This is Earth, not Valeska, I thought. It’s okay. Okay...

“Great!” Alicia said. “It starts at six-thirty tonight. Be there.”

This was a command. The girl had known all along about my plans and now wanted to change them. Not this time, girlfriend! I had my engagements and they would hold. Sorry.

“I can’t,” I said. “You know I can’t and don’t try to persuade me otherwise.”

Alicia may have her faults, but she’s a good friend. She also knows when the battle’s lost. Surrendered, she sighed. “Have a good time then.”

“Same to you.” I hung up.

Then I thought of what I was doing tonight. There was a remodeled theater downtown called the Emery. When it was built, it housed the local orchestra before the Music Hall was built. Then it was a movie house back in the days when going to see a flick was considered an event. After closing, a non-profit group took the place over. Now it played old movies. Tonight, they were doing Gone With the Wind.

Hours later, I stood in the lobby of the Emery Theater. The place was more than a century old, and I’ll bet that they not only showed these movies as classics, but when as new films too. I wore black skinny pants and a white satin fitted shirt. The old section of town outside seemed proud and majestic, buildings that had withstood the test of time. The same went for the inside of the cinema. These pants, they were so wrong for a place like this! I should have wore something long and expensive. I wasn’t waiting for a movie to start-- I was waiting for the conductor to come on stage. I breathed in the dusty air, air inhaled by those long forgotten.

But they weren’t forgotten, at least not by me. When I became human, I discovered that Helzar had been playing around with part of my brain. It wasn’t bad or anything-- it just made me see things that others, even Nathan, couldn’t. So now I just wasn’t imagining another time, but was actually in it. As I journeyed back in time, not moving a muscle, I saw the years pass by. First, the dust and grime washed away. Then the floor became shinier. It was last year and I saw myself with Alicia. Then it was the last decade and I saw the styles change, even if the movies didn’t. I saw history in reverse. The seventies and sixties passed even faster. World War Two was a blur, with schoolchildren running in for their weekly entertainment. The roaring twenties were slower, like a car coming to a slow stop. Finally, I saw daylight that didn’t immediately change into night.

It was the turn of the last century and the lobby was crowded with patrons. I looked at myself. Dressed in the latest styles from Paris, I was a Victorian belle to behold. I chatted with some of these other people and noticed that my voice had a “proper”, almost British, sound to it. I was here, a part of society.

Through the glass doors came Daniel, a suave gentleman of the highest standing. He greeted me in a mannerly way and took my hand, covered in a new white leather glove. He kissed it, his lips penetrating the thick material. I closed my eyes and savored the moment. When, after a slow moment, I opened them, I was back in the present. And it was good...

Daniel went to the ticket counter and ordered two, and bought us some stuff from the concession stand. Then he led me to the second level of the cinema. All the box seats on the balcony were taken, so we sat in the back. As we settled in, the organ next to the stage stopped playing and the movie started. The opening scene was that of Scarlett O’Hara sitting under a tree with two men madly in love with her. She took this all with a casual glance here and there.

I was not half as calm. Daniel watched the show, laughing to himself at various intervals. I recalled this movie opening here only minutes ago. This was a quiet theater now, but it wasn’t always. Daniel, whether he be a pillar of society or simply a fellow student, was so gorgeous that I forgot the difference. His eyes wandered from Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable to Cassie Smith and Daniel Mosswood. He got ideas.

A few minutes after the intermission, I saw a set of doors behind us. I indicated them to Daniel and we walked toward them. He opened it and gasped. It was a room no larger than my bedroom, with openings to unused bathrooms on each side. There were windows in front of where we were standing. Even though it was dark now, the room was ghostily lit by a neon sign posted outside. The room was empty, save for a lone chair that would probably have cracked if someone tried to sit on it. I examined the bathrooms. Both were dark, with a fold-out chair blocking a toilet that nobody in their right minds would use, even if the plumbing did work.

The doors were closed and we were totally alone. Daniel took me in his arms and said, “Look at this. This might have been a grand place once. Now?”

“Nothing,” I responded. This place was nothing, nothing but a place of mystery. It was dark and romantic. I saw his face in the neon light, as if he were a magical being. He was Rhett Butler and I could only imagine what he thought of me. I was confident, though.

His lips opened slightly and he drew me nearer. I offered no resistance. We embraced and kissed, a long and lingering kiss. It was spontaneous and we loved it. I fluttered my eyelashes and looked in his green eyes. They weren’t boys’ eyes. No, these were the eyes of a man. We drew closer again...

“Get outta here, punks! You’re not supposed to be here.” An old man, an usher, called from an the door. Apparently, he had heard us talking or whatever.

Daniel cussed under his breath and said to me as we passed the guy, “Let’s blow this joint. I can call my sister and we can go somewhere.”

I looked at my watch. It was nine-thirty. Some part of my mind said that I should go home, that I had been out long enough already. I considered it and decided that if I called him, Nathan wouldn’t freak out. That was good enough. Let’s go!

In front of the theater, a small green Pinto drove up to the sidewalk. I guessed that Daniel’s sister had bought it with the cash from an after-school job. Either that, of she had been ripped-off. Inside it were two women a couple years older than we were. The blonde one with tanned skin looked at Daniel. “Is this your date? She’s ugly. Can’t you get better, nerd brain?”

Daniel inhaled and looked at me apologetically. “This is Tiffany, who, by some weird twist of fate, happens to be my sister. Don’t be offended-- she treats everyone like that.”

“Ain’t ya gonna introduce me, Danny?” the other one said, a girl who’s original hair color was hidden by an array of rainbow colors. She wore some tight black vinyl number that I found tasteless. Tiffany wore something more suitable, but still not very modest.

“Oh yeah. Cassie, meet Billie. Billie’s not from Earth like you are,” Daniel said. “She comes from the planet of the purple people.”

(Uh, are you totally sure of that?)

Billie made an obscene gesture at us, but let us in the backseat of the two-door car. I looked at Daniel sitting next to me. In the course of a few days, I had seen the two sides of him: the dashing gentleman and the ordinary mortal. I liked the balance of this.

Tiffany laughed and continued her conversation with her friend. She stuck a cd in the walkman hooked up to the car’s stereo system. I remember that it was something heavy metal(is it still called that?). Well, whatever it was, it blared so loudly that I had half the mind to ask the stupid thing to turn it down. I looked at Daniel and he shrugged. Not his fault. He couldn’t change where he came from or where he was born.

I thought of the insane idea that came to my head whenever anything like this happened. My place of birth and my deepest secret were the same thing. What if I actually told anyone? What if anyone actually believed me?

No, nada, never. Overall, I’m a very honest person. Unless I’m in deep hell, I simply cannot tell a lie. This is probably due more to my Valeskan moral system than to some admirable human teachings. This is my cross to bear. You don’t know how much I’d like to tell Alicia after she tells me her little crimes. I have my confessions, too. I saw Daniel, the one person who I couldn’t ever tell an untruth to(there have been times when I’ve even told little white lies to Alicia, but only to comfort her.).

Then I thought of this stupid fantasy related to such a thing, where the Authorities are overpowered by the cais and Earth makes contact with them. But I knew that was ridiculous. I was, and would forever be, not quite what I appeared to be. I fooled everyone I knew. Retarded, ain’t it?

Daniel gazed at me and I stopped thinking of it. What was I getting all stupid about? I was human. He proved it. I was woman. He proved it. I was madly in love with him. He proved it.

The god-like person held my hands. “They must be cold,” he explained.

“My hands are very warm right now,” I responded. Still, he held them. My hands were long and delicate, with the nails polished in a rich red for him. They were protected by his, flawless but unkempt, the nails ragged. They were hands that could do anything.

The world was static at that moment. There was some sick conversation going on between the women in the front, but I didn’t hear it. Same for the so-called music. I did not see the crumbling buildings of the neighborhoods we passed. There was no cold, no warmth, and no discomfort. There was only love, that and the starlit sky. Daniel felt it too.

I know, I know: we were only fourteen and just infatuated. Yeah, sure. This was real, I tell you. If this wasn’t, then nothing was. I felt this feeling thrill up my veins, like a powerful drug. This would either kill me or cure me. Perhaps both. Who knew? Who cared? Not us, mind you.

“We’ve only been dating now for what now, two hours?”

“Yeah,” I laughed. “But it feels like two millennia, doesn’t it?”

“More than that,” Daniel said. His voice had the ability to melt even the devil’s heart. His lips formed the words as if it was a piece of art. The face was beautiful. His eyes had an curious look to them, like he always had something in mind that he wasn’t telling you. Then he’d reveal it to be nothing more than a sweet surprise. He gave his all, expecting nothing but a sense of happiness, like the joy of making a person’s life just a little better. His heart was a portrait of innocence.

But Daniel wasn’t a man to be walked on. He showed his strength and had a commanding air about him. He’d help, but he wouldn’t be taken advantage of. A hero with a heart, you could say.

I almost cried at such sweetness, and it’s hard to get me to cry at all. “I love you.”

Daniel looked at me. “Same here.”

Too easy. “Say it.”

He looked around him, in a cute sort of way. Fortunately, his sister and her friend weren’t paying attention to us. They could have probably forgotten that we were here if it wasn’t for the occasional glance in the rear-view mirror. With the crap out of that walkman as loud as it was, we could have done anything back here short of a nuclear war and nobody would notice.

“I love you.”

Closing my eyes, I wanted him so badly. Shivers went up my spine and I didn’t calm them down. I didn’t want to. He was here, I was here, and that was all that mattered.

If only the rest of Earth-of Valeska, too- could know this kind of love! If only we could all wake up one day and find ourselves content with that which we already have. Valeskans search for power and the minorities are destroyed because of it. Earth has had its share of violence, too. You destroy yourselves when you do this, each and every one of you! Love your brother, your neighbor, and even your enemies. Hear me, all those who have ever lived, this is love! I thought. I’d never say it aloud, but this was true to me at the time. Perhaps I had mistaken this for a moment of enlightenment, a little too optimistically, don’t you think?

Still, I pondered this even as Daniel walked me to the door, gentleman that he was.

The artificial sun was turned to a low setting and it was “night” in the town of New Valeska. The place was completely still, with only the waves of the sea moving and some strains of other people’s conversation being heard. It was quiet to say the least.

I relaxed. This could actually be a safe place! Helzar had provided lodging for Tavi and me in one of the cubic houses lining the sea. Except for the center-main building(which nobody lived in) and some the shops, all the structures were the same size. Every two people who came here were guaranteed a house to themselves. Tavi and I shared this one.

I sat on the floor of the bedroom, near the two sleeping mats. I held my old toy, little more than a simple rag doll. Tavi paced behind me. He was still suspicious of Helzar’s intentions.

“If you hate this place so much,” I complained, “let’s go!”

“No,” he responded. “If there’s a chance in Hell that we might not have to live the rest of our lives in this pathetic existence, we’re gonna follow this through! I care about you, siss. You know that, don’t you? And I’ll never let the Authorities get a shot at you, too.”

“Then why do act like this?”

“Because it could still be a trap. Sending two cais-including a freaken’ kid- to explore a new planet? Doesn’t that strike you as somewhat odd? There are people much better suited to the job than we are.”

“Maybe Helzar wants to use cais because he knows that he could pay us less- especially a freaken’ kid,” I suggested.

“Helzar worrying about money? I don’t think that’s very likely. Over the last few millennia, with his powers and all, he’s probably one of the most wealthy people in the galaxy! How else can ya build a town like this and not think about the profit it generates?”

I looked outside the window facing land. We were on the outskirts of the town, opposite to where we had entered it. There were signs some sort of economy with many shops. Some indoor, some folded up for the night in the market square. I had been given a tour of the city during that day and knew what the place was like. Some of the shops sold smuggled imports from areas on the other side of the galaxy, while others pushed local farm produce.

The only building here that saw activity all day and night was the main building, simply called the Bostona(Ardio for “The Main Hall”). It rose thirteen stories. The bottom six were occupied by general faculties, such as a school, a hospital, and other government-funded necessities. The seventh and eight floors were used as a city hall and a courthouse(the latter being rarely used, given New Valeska’s low crime rate). The remaining floors, blocked off from civilians, were a mystery.

Tavi, of course, was right. There was something suspicious about it. Helzar was being nice, too nice. Maybe Earth was a war zone. He could have wanted to explore it at no cost to himself. But then, for a being like him, wars wouldn’t be a problem, would they? No. More likely, Helzar wanted to do a favor for the Authorities, rounding up thousand of cais in one convenient spot. A person shouldn’t expect such hospitality like what I was getting, especially a cai. Oh yes, this was very queer, indeed.

I groaned. Why couldn’t I take anything at face value anymore? Why did I have to hide every day? Tavi said we had to or we’d die. But I was a child. How could I comprehend such a thing? When Mother and Father died, it didn’t seem real to a toddler. The people I had met in my short life, mostly cais, had all been caught sooner or later. But still, I couldn’t see the threat. Tavi was old. He understood the world we lived in, a vicious place. I was an optimist, though. He saw what could happen to use if the Authorities found us, and I saw what would happen if the non-cai kid standing near me in a station, as ignorant as myself, gave me a piece of his candy.

“Someday, we’ll die, you know,” Tavi remarked. He lost hope at the weirdest times.

“Yes. Aren’t all mortals supposed to do that sooner or later?”

“I dunno. It’s just that sometimes we get so close to escaping, so close to freedom, and yet something always goes wrong. The Authorities find out, we learn that it involves some sort of physical mutilation, or it just plain doesn’t work out. It seems that fate will have us eternally chasing after what we are never to attain.”

Poetic! I thought. Tavi goes poet. Now I know he’s depressed.

He continued, “When we left home, I thought we’d could find the help of our friends. But we were cais, no matter who we had befriended. They turned us away, Zayza. Generat was a close friend of Mother’s. She had helped care for me when I was half your age. I knew her as an aunt. She could have taken us in and raised us as her own. That woman loved us. But we were cais, and she and I both knew it. I remember when I went to her house a few days after they died. I knocked on the door and she answered. I asked her if she would help us. She just looked at us with pity.”

I nodded. Big deal. So a family friend had rejected us. If I was Generat, I would have done the same thing. I may try to be positive, but I’m also a cai. I knew how these things worked. One just had to find ways to get around the system, that was all. You were a fugitive for no good reason. This made sense because I had heard it so much that I thought it would be stupid to think otherwise. I was a reject. Fine. Do we need to have a pointless argument then?

“Tavi, I know you must be tired now. We’ve had a long day,” I said.

Tavi looked at me and smiled. “You’re right. Whining about all that now won’t really help things, will it? Okay, just let me take this off.” Tavi took off his bodysuit, stripped down to his underwear. I did the same.

I kneeled down and instinctively reached for my coat as a cover. Then Tavi showed me what the cloth sitting on top of the bed was for. All that cloth, just for one sheet to sleep under? Wow! If anything, I loved New Valeska if only for their sleeping arrangements.

So I laid down and slept for longer than I ever had before. The gel in the mats here was much finer than anything that I was used to. The soft quilting covered me and the soft padding beneath my head was wonderful. I closed my eyes and felt like a very fortunate three year-old who didn’t question the luxuries given to her. I saw Tavi two feet away from me, feeling almost nostalgic. He actually remembered what sleeping without having to worry about not waking up again was supposed to feel like.

For a few minutes, my mind buzzed with questions about what was going on, but my body urged me to sleep. So I did.

The next Monday, I felt like I was dead and in Heaven or something. My classes weren’t as annoying and study hall, of course, was so good. Danny and I were flirting right in Brittany’s face(oh, poor Miss Bobbie Fishnet must feel so sad. Awww!). Okay, so my attention usually given to class(yeah right) was somewhat diverted. Who cared? It was great!

I walked through the lunchroom giggling at every moment. I must have looked kinda loopy, but I didn’t care. I sat down and sighed. Too bad Daniel didn’t have this lunch bell.

Gina sat next to me. She was a tomboy, the oldest person at the table(I was the second). Her curly black hair was done up in a loose ponytail and her large eyes danced over everything in sight. She wore two tee shirts, hiding what she claimed to be a very womanly figure. Gina laughed a natural laugh and said, “Guess what. My band, 24/7, got a gig!”

“Wonderful,” commented Marie as she put her meal on the table next to Alicia. She was the only one of us to actually eat cafeteria food. Some of the stuff she got looked kinda skanky, but she rarely was the one eating it. A whole tray of food was too much for a little thing like her, so we’d all steal her pizza and fries while she nibbled on a salad(but without ranch sauce- we took that for the fries).

I smiled. Gina had been a part of her band for five years, as long as I had been a part of the human race. She always gave me the lyrics to her songs and I’d help her improve them. I even had a copy of their demo tape.

“Yeah, we’re doing Rimbaud’s this Friday.”

“Rimbaud’s,” an unusually quiet Alicia pondered. “Don’t one of your bandmates know the guy who owns the place?”

“No. You’re thinking of that other place, that place that closed down last month,” Gina corrected.

“Hmm...” Alicia’s eyes met everyone except me, sitting across from me. She was jealous, I knew it. This was the way she always acted. Gina had a boyfriend, too, but she’d always had one. Marie had never had a guy in her life, but that was fine with her. Alicia was the only one with a problem.

“Hi!” the voice was directed at Marie. It was Michael. The cheerful little boy with red hair was a grade below us, although even that was hard to believe- he looked fresh out of Greenschool Elementary. I thought of saying something, but didn’t. Michael and Marie were the same short height and their names put together had a certain ring to it. What a cute couple!

“You can’t sit with us. Sorry,” I said. Michael was very annoying to me. I wanted to physically hurt him, but I knew that Alicia would object(she thought he was cute like a teddy bear). Oh well, at least he wasn’t joined by Brent. He was worse than Michael, and the two were a very scary combination. I had heard that they had gotten in a fight over something, although I didn’t know what. This wasn’t pleasant for them, but it was for the rest of the world.

Michael left to sit with some friends of his and I relaxed, but only for a moment.

“So,” Alicia said, “how was your night out with what’s his name. Have a good time?”

“Yes,” I responded. “And your party with Marie? Also good, I trust.”

Marie, oblivious to this, nodded for her. “Great. No cute guys, though. But then, they’re all from here. No high school dudes at all! But hey, I still had a fine time.”

I took a cup of pudding out of my paper bag. It was chocolete-flavered, the type I didn’t like. But Alicia always went for it. I offered her some, in hopes of a truce. Well, maybe truce isn’t the right word- I hadn’t done anything wrong, had I?

Alicia politely refused. “I’m on a diet,” she said. Yeah, I’ll believe that. “Besides, I have to do lunch duty now. Mr.Bunson said gave me the punishment. Unfair, I tell you. Oh well!”

She walked off in a way that belied her words.

“That girl’s got problems today,” Gina remarked as we went outside on the parking lot for recess, joined only by Marie. The sky was a dark gray now, as if it were going to rain. I hoped it wouldn’t until late afternoon, but Cincinnati weather can screw you a lot.

Marie skipped across the blacktop, like a little girl. She was very young at twelve years of age, but had the mind of someone twice that age. She wore a dark green corduroy shirt paired with her only jeans.

Gina walked beside me at a more leisurely pace, like she was the coolest thing on Earth. Students all around us stood in little groups and conversed. Near where the cars were parked were a couple large gatherings of preppies. The rebels sat on the picnic tables, shaded by some trees behind us. Ahead were smaller sets of people who were either trendy like Brittany or normal like me. Beyond that, at the basketball court, were members of the football team trying to be cool. (Sorry, Rick, but it’s not working). The vast empty space next to that was inhibited by the socially challenged playing a game of touch football. And everywhere you looked, there was a stray kid without any friends wandering the small land, if you cared to notice.

I stopped for a moment. One of those annoying gifts from Helzar again. I heard his voice in my head, gentle but strong. I wanted it to shut up, but I knew that it was useless. So I stood still and let it finish. “Things are changing. Things are being destroyed. If you call Tavi and meet at your home, I can save you! Go! Now!”

Ugh! Shut up, old man. I figured he was just screwing with my head, like he had screwed with everything else that was a part of me. Sometimes I suspected that my brother and I were little more than a game to him. New Valeska was just a pet project and we were just his pawns. Helzar may have been more powerful than any god that Earth could conjure up, but he was also the most sadistic thing alive. Valeskans can’t lie, but Helzar’s not exactly Valeskan, is he? He said he was born to rule the galaxy, but not as a king. He said that he had other forces, those which I “cannot comprehend”, forces that made up all of creation. He could do magic and change form. Big whup. That’s not Einstein-ish at all!

Gina tapped me on the shoulder and I smiled. “I’m fine. Don’t worry. I’m fine.”

“They called in our class, girl. Mr.Edwards would get peeved if we got in late again,” Marie said. So we headed to that room inside.

Daniel was absent due to some dental appointment or whatever. I swooned after him, but Gina was tired of it. She always held her friends above her guys. Always.

Marie, suck-up that she is, sat at the desk nearest to the teacher. But then, maybe that wasn’t sucking up-- there were some people in this class that she couldn’t stand, and this was as far from them as you could get.

She laid out her books and started reviewing in case we had a quiz. I just read over my notes three times and that was it. Gina, Marie’s opposite, just put her head down and said, “Good night.”

Mr.Edwards walked into the room casually, still eating a bag of chips for lunch. He wore a simple polo shirt and looked middle-aged. The man had a gray mustache and was constantly smiling, although he also knew the meaning of discipline. Gina never forgets that.

“Today,” he said, his voice monotone, as if he were speaking Ardio. “We’re going to watch this video about the stars.”

Some boys in the back of the room weren’t paying attention and he continued, “or, if we don’t want to do that, we can simply do something else. Now would you like to tell me what’s so important back there?”

“Yeah! They’re talking about girls!” a laughing girl responded. Nicki, a friend of Brittany’s, sat near the two. She wasn’t as bad her cronies, though. She was worse. Nicki looked more like your typical honor-roll student than Brittany, but appearances can be deceiving. This chick was said to have actually beaten up people she didn’t like and had even left some hospitalized. I’d also heard that she had gone with guys who had been in jail. Her family was more screwed up than the Bundys. Of course, that was all rumor-- but I suspect it might not be that far from the truth.

Marie rolled her eyes and Gina mumbled something that I probably shouldn’t repeat. But Nicki held a certain fascination for me. Both of us had a past, but we dealed with it so differently! She tried to fight it off as if we a tangible thing. I just sat back and accepted it. Nicki sometimes called me a softy, a preppie, and a wuss. Whenever I wondered what it would be like if people knew what I was, I always thought about how she would react. That would have been funny!

(Well, actually, that thought scares the hell out of me. But still...)

The television was posted on a stand attached on the ceiling. If you sat right up close like we did, it was hard to see without hurting your neck. But I was barely paying attention anyway. The imagery was nice, but I already knew what they were talking about, as did the rest of the class. I looked at Marie and said, “About Daniel last Saturday. Oh...”

Marie smiled. “I’ll bet he was immature, just like at school!”

“No! That’s just one side of him, ya know. He’s the perfect gentleman-yes, man- when it counts. I’ve never felt so good in a man’s arms. The way he looks at me is beyond anything you can imagine. When I saw him that night, it was like he was different person. I love him, Marie. Really, it’s love. Can you just imagine?”

Gina woke up and said, in a bored tone, “You didn’t even kiss, did you?”

“Oh, we did much more than that,” I responded. I knew what I was suggesting, although nothing could be farther from the truth. We had embraced each other’s souls in a way that went far beyond the simple human mating procedure(which, after five years of living here, I still didn’t quite understand).

“Was he a good kisser, or was he all slobbery and gross?” Gina asked.

“Imagine Luke Kingston in his last movie, if you’ve seen it,” I said(by the way, it was Alicia’s idea for me to see it with her, not me!). “Kingston is like Bobbie Fishnet compared to this guy.”

Marie laughed so loudly that Mr.Edwards heard it. She quieted down and continued to giggle. Gina and I, the biggest idiots known to man, started giggling too. It wasn’t even funny, but that didn’t seem to matter. It was fun, you know?

Then Marie passed me a few printed pieces of paper from Alicia, given to her last Tuesday. Marie was always late with passing on that sort of thing. Alicia was an ambitious writer who wanted to become the youngest Pulitzer Prize winner ever. By now she had been working on her book for a week. But making history wasn’t the only reason she wanted to write this thing; if it became a bestseller and got made into a movie, she’d get Luke Kingston to play one of the lead characters. Well hey, anything is possible.

The story about vampires was like Anne Rice on drugs. The heroin was a teenage mallrat with an attitude who happened to be a vampire. I’ve decided to show you some excerpts of it, if you don’t mind.

“Alice woke up the next night in her usual hiding place, the basement of her old house. Twenty years ago, when she had died, her family had resided in it and she had to hide for a few years. But when they moved to another state due to a job transfer, it was safe to return. She just took out her old house key and walked in, having bought it cheap.

Well, you get the idea. Alicia loved vampire lore and couldn’t get enough of it. Marie looked at me, smiling. “I think it’s rather good, Cassie.”

“It is,” I agreed. But I wasn’t going to tell Alicia that. She would bite my head off. I figured it would be better to just let her get it out of her system and let it pass.

Marie, of course, didn’t know this. She remained ignorant of Alicia’s dark side, despite how long they had known each other. She saw the good in all people, except for those she hated-- but even then she couldn’t really hate them. She was an optimist good-girl and Gina was the semi-rebellious bad-girl. Both reveled in their roles while I simply sat in the middle. To say the least, I found it interesting.

Too wary to contemplate all of this, I took out my notepad and scribbled down some doodles while Mr.Edwards explained the day’s lesson, whatever that was.

After some weird dream, I woke up. My eyes opened slowly, peacefully. I knew where I was. New Valeska. The conversation my brother and I had the night before was forgotten and I lay there beneath the soft sheets. I saw a ceiling, unnecessary due to the absence of rain here and the pleasant temperature, only there for appearance. I closed my eyes, not wanting to fall asleep, but to savor the moment. My body was still under the covers. If this had been an ordinary day, I would have woken up in a grungy station wearing clothing I’d been wearing for months, having to move quickly out of my resting place if Tavi saw any men or women belonging to the Authorities in the area.

Tavi was asleep, making up for all those countless restless nights. It was already the middle of the day, and I knew he would hate knowing that he had slept in. A Valeska has a sleep cycle similar to that of a human’s, but we’ve been known to rest for weeks at a time. I had never tested that limit, but I suspected that he was about to. Let him sleep.

I stuck my lavender hand in front of me, against the backdrop of a window. It looked similar to that of a human’s in many ways. The skin had no pores or hair, but it was soft to the touch. The fingers had knuckles and joints like anyone on Earth. Besides color, the only major difference was that while a human has five fingers, I only had three.

The sky was a bright shade of green, which I had never seen before. It gave everything it lit an artificial quality to it. I wondered if it really was. My mouth opened as if to remark on something, but no sound came. A noise, even a child’s soft voice, would disrupt the whole thing. Such a concept seemed impossible.

I sat up, still in a dreamlike state. If this was Earth, I could have thanked whatever god I held sacred. But religion was unheard of, ever since the Revolution. Centuries ago, the planet of Valeska(this was before they expanded into the empire I lived in) divided up their people into two groups: the Majority and the Minority, based on various standards such as health, income, and whatever else. This had no effect on us, at first. Then, eventually, the two groups separated. In government, the Majority’s smallest interests took priority over the Minority’s largest. This caused tension and anger. Finally, the Majority just decided to eliminate the Minority completely. They changed the name Minority to the lower-case “cai”(which, as I’ve said earlier, means “non-person”). The Minority tried to prevent this change, but it proved worthless. They lost the war.

But that was all centuries ago. The Majority had established a government and that was that. I looked at Tavi. He had wanted to become a soldier for the Majority(although now it had no name, since being a part of the Majority was assumed among people) before we were orphaned. Perhaps he saw the allure of killing off what he would eventually become. But then, our mother had been a Guard, as had many other relatives. Genetic, I suppose.

I stood up and put on a fresh change of clothing that I had found on the other side of the room. But this wasn’t the bodysuit and rough coat I was used to. It was a shift dress, light as air, soft as skin, beautiful as anything. The color gray symbolized wealth on Valeska(as opposed to royal purple on Earth), and this dress was that color, lined with silver.

I saw a mirror on the wall behind the place where the clothing had once sat(A mirror? Yes. It feeds the vanity that is universal in this galaxy. Sorry). The cloth matched the silver streaks on my otherwise bald head. How could Helzar be mean when I received all of this from him?, my naive mind reasoned.

I hadn’t eaten in more than thirty hours, and even for a valeskan that’s a long time to go without food. Instinctively, I went over to another room in the house(there were three altogether: a bedroom, our equivalent to a living room/ kitchen, and a bathroom). There was a large yellow blob large enough for three of four people to sit on. I gasped. This was where Tavi had laid down our sack when we got here. The sentimental items were artfully arranged on a shelf near the blob, but nothing else could be found. All our food and clothes had disappeared.

I ventured closer to where the sack had been sitting. I found a note written on a paper made from a leaf native to this area.(You may find it odd that, like many other things we have in common, we also have a written language. The truth is, no advanced civilization can survive without it.). Unlike many other cais, I was literate-- Tavi had made sure of that. No matter where we were, he insisted that I take lessons from him. Although I was given written work, most of it was oral. Tavi knew that I’d probably never get to apply that knowledge, but he’d never let me become one of those children who “couldn’t read to save their own lives”. (Hey Tavi, guess what-- you’re a cai, too!). But all those annoying but necessary lessons paid off at times like this.

The note said, “Worry not, my guests. Your needs have been cared for. There is food stocked in the kitchen and new clothing shall be provided for you on a daily basis. You will be served by various citizens of New Valeska and will be expected to serve others in a similar fashion. I hope you are satisfied with your stay. Your faithful, Akasha.”

For the moment, I was relieved. Here, people helped each other! Man, this place was full of suprises. I left a note for Tavi next to this one, saying that I was going out and not to worry.

A gust of man-made wind hit me in the face as I ventured out. There were hundreds of people already up and about. A mother led her children to the marketplace while a boy slightly younger than Tavi played a game with his friend. But something was wrong here: these were cais, maybe the same ones I’d seen begging on the streets back home before I joined the ranks. At first, the sight confused me. It made me laugh. Then it made me shut up. And wonder.

I walked down the small congested street with no destination in mind, taking in the sights. They were beautiful and, more importantly, they would prevent me from getting lost. My bare feet touched a sandy-smooth ground. While some sort of foot protection is common in stations where the floor contains about six feet of crud, I didn’t need it here. Taking advantage of such an opportunity seemed to be the mode here. Everyone’s clothing was loose like mine was. Even the farmers’ pants were oversized(although not too much, lest they get in the way). Gee, no wonder Tavi had suspicions about this place! But since I wasn’t quite as cynical, I got to enjoy the place instead.

Eventually, I ended up in the marketplace. It was the center of activity in New Valeska. A man approached me from behind. I quickly turned around. The word “Helzar” flashed across my mind(I didn’t realize it at the time, but it seems that he had been screwing with my head long before I was human).

“You’ve taken a mortal form now,” I said. It wasn’t a question.

The man nodded. He was of average height, medium build, and looked like something that one wouldn’t give a second thought to. He strangely made me comfortable, as he always did. I didn’t question his intentions like my brother did. It would amount to nothing in the end, right?

“Perhaps I have. Would you like me to do it on you? It’s quite fun, you know.”

“What?” I asked.

“It’s elisiono, also known as shape-shifting. I’ve been blessed with such an ability, you know,” Helzar’s voice answered, no longer booming like a god’s.

Interested, I nodded for him to go on.

“You may think it as some sort of sorcery, like many people have. It’s things such as this that helped me win wars way back when. But no, it’s just a talent, mind you. Do you have any special talents?”

“I can read,” I responded. Having been a cai since before I knew what text was, this should have surprised him. But he just smiled at me. He knew!

“I know many things,” Helzar said. “You are one of them.”

I looked around me and saw that nobody noticed that we were talking. In fact, nobody knew that we were even standing there. I saw Tavi looking for me. Waving and calling to him, I expected him to notice me. He didn’t.

Helzar laughed softly behind me. “You’ll see...”

Needless to say, I found this annoying.

“Walk over to him, Zayza. I won’t stop you.”

I felt the suspicion towards him that Tavi seemed obsessed with. Still, I trusted this stranger not to hurt me, so I took his advice and went to my brother. I stood next to him as he leaned over the booth of a small vendor’s stand and asked where I was.

“Right here!” I said happily.

I was pretty loud when I said that, so I guessed he was just ignoring me. Helzar walked toward me and looked like he’d just done something wrong and loved the experience. I gave him a questioning stare, but he didn’t seem to acknowledge that.

Now I was worried. I felt powerless suddenly, an emotion that I knew well. All my life, I have been screwed, whether it be by the government, Helzar, or whatever the hell. It was times like this when I forgot my optimistic nature.

The man came toward me. I saw a woman standing between him and me. Of course, I thought that he’d move around her. Instead, he walked right through her. Like a ghost. My body stiffened as I slowly came to realize why Tavi wasn’t responding to my calls.

Helzar nodded with the type of smile that I’d knock off his face if it wasn’t for the fact that he was Helzar and I was a mere child. “Yes, yes, yes! You’ve changed forms already, haven’t you? Now you’re invisible and unheard. I can make anything of you I please. I’ve made you a ghost. Not forever, of course-- just long enough so you will see.”

Helzar liked to have power over people. He may seem fair and kind on the outside, but inside, he was an absolute tyrant. I doubted his control over things, didn’t I? Well, he figured, I can just fix that!

“Stop this! I beg you, just let it end,” I cried to him.

“Tavi, he runs, doesn’t he? From the Authorities who want to kill him, right? You join him. Still, even he follows the rules-- wait until the age of thirty-five years to mate, adhere to the Traditional Values, and respect the code. But you will want to break the rules,” Helzar remarked.

“I follow the code, don’t I?”

“What you follow is Tavi, that is all. Eventually, you will disobey all we hold true and timely. I can see the future-another one of my secrets- and I shall see you do this.”

The very idea made me gasp! I’d never do anything of the sort. The government was a load of crap, but Tavi and I, like all other cais, shared their ideals.

Helzar gave me a look that chilled my young soul. If I even thought of doing anything, he could kill me right on the spot. It wouldn’t be hard for him. This was nothing! I was nothing. New Valeska was nothing. To Helzar, anything but himself was nothing.

“Fine,” I said. “So why are you having us both go on this little expedition of yours then?”

“I see things, youth. I see things and I have my reasons.” Lying was a crime on Valeska, but secrets were perfectly acceptable. Helzar saw this loophole and used it as much as possible.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, probably the most disrespectful thing I could have done at the time. It wouldn’t do crap, but I didn’t really care. “Let me ask another question, okay?”

“Of course.”

“Why are you doing this to me? Not Eh-”(I forgot the word for whatever planet we were going to) “but rather what you’ve done to me now. I don’t like being a ghost.”

“Terribly sorry,” Helzar said. The thing about him was that no matter how much he did against you, he always charmed you. So polite, so suave, so dashing! How could you not forgive him? I didn’t know, but I still held my dislike for him.

“Get over with that,” said I. “I’m not buying the act. Just get me out of this form... I promise that I won’t tell a soul, if that’s what you’re worrying.”

Helzar contemplated this and smiled. “Even Tavi?”

“Even Tavi.”

“Alright,” he finally responded. I was a valeskan, right? I couldn’t lie to another. But since Helzar wasn’t valeskan... well, it was either a rationalization or loophole, and I hoped it was the latter.

Tavi turned to looked at something and then, seeing that it was of no importance, went back into his original position. His face lit up as he saw me. “Ah! I was looking for you, girl. Where were you?”

I pursed my lips nervously. I couldn’t lie to him, but I couldn’t betray Helzar, either. But wait-- I could, just so long as he doesn’t see it. I didn’t see Helzar around me, but I knew that he was there none the less. He had just taken on his natural form, that was all. I looked deep in Tavi’s golden catlike eyes.

Apparently, Tavi got the idea pretty quick and nodded. Good.

We walked to the Bostona. It wasn’t that interesting, architecturally. Instead of being a white cube, it was a light blue rectangular prism. Thirteen floors was only a tenth of the size of your average space station. Big deal. But the building’s appearance belied it’s extraordinary qualities. There were machines raising people to the various floors though yellow tubing. The ceiling was over fifty feet high. This floor was generally a reception area, with a service desk in the center of the room. To the sides were lounges and food stands. It was already two in the afternoon, but most places were still serving. Tavi took me to one of the booths.

“But we don’t have the cash,” I whispered to him.

He whispered back, “Helzar gave us some, along with the house and all. Here, what do you want?”

I ordered something and both of us ate on the hard floor(as is the custom). Tavi took a few bits and paused. He swallowed his food and asked quietly, “Where were you?”

Hmm... I looked cautiously around me, but I couldn’t sense Helzar near us. “Uh, if I tell you, will you promise not to keep this to yourself?”

“Well, yeah, of course. Oh no, why?”

“Helzar,” I responded.

Tavi stopped eating and almost choked. “What?!”

“Yeah,” I responded in a much softer tone. “We talked in the marketplace. He had shape-shifted into a mortal form. I was told about that. Then-I can’t believe it- the dude did the same thing to me! I mean, he changed me.”

My brother started to stand up, but I took his arm. “Don’t get angry just yet. There’s more. Helzar said that I was apt to do bad things in the future and that he had seen it. It was a threat, and he said he’d return me back to normal when I understood, whatever that was.”

“You were told to keep this secret, weren’t you?”

“Yeah, and I said I wouldn’t tell you either. But Tavi, what do I do?” I pleaded.

Tavi sat down and pondered this for a while. Then he said, “Do nothing. Helzar is bigger than we are and there’s no way to get out of this place.”

“So we should just sit here and give up? Is that what you’re saying?”

He sighed. “If we try, things can only get worse. I know how you feel; don’t think I wouldn’t like to get out of here too. But what would we be going back to, huh? Not someplace where you can walk around dressed all fancy, I’ll tell you that right off! No, we stay here.”

I wanted to argue, but he was right. Then I got brassed off at not only Helzar, but at Tavi as well. It was his fault we got here in the first place. If he hadn’t dragged us all the way up here, Helzar would have never come into the picture. But then, wasn’t New Valeska, overall, a good thing? It was too confusing for me so I shut up.

“So how long are we expected to be here, then?” I asked.

“Uh... I don’t know, exactly. Helzar says that before we go to Earth, we’re going to need training.”

“Like what?”

“Well, they don’t speak Ardio there, so we’d need to learn whatever they speak there. The scary thing is, Earth is home to thousands of languages,” Tavi said.

“What!? How can a place as dinky as one planet have that many? Is there some sort of problem that causes this? Valeska has a much larger population, but even then we only need one language, right?”

“Don’t worry, Zayza. I’ve heard that we’ll probably only need to learn one or two of the more popular ones-- and Helzar says that there’re all the same anyway.”

“Helzar? How come you trust him all of a sudden? I thought you hated his invisible guts!”

Tavi shrugged. “Who said I trusted him?”

“Well, you’re the one who keeps on quoting him and crap.”

“I’m not taking his lead, if that’s what you’re thinking. Frankly, I don’t know what the hell is going on any more than you do. Helzar may be helping the Authorities, rounding up cais. He may be setting us up for a fall. For all I know, he could be you in disguise! Still, we’re trapped here. And while we’re trapped here, that guy’s all we’ve got.”

Darn! I hated being forced to do things, like staying here of listening to Helzar. I wanted to-- what? Go away from the finery, away from the warm beds and hot meals? To where? Being on the run, always wondering if I’d live to see my next birthday? Okay, Tavi had a point, then: this place was better than station, not that that says a lot. Still, why did I now long for the familiar grim and dirt?

“... we’ll just have to proceed carefully, that’s all. Just be cautious, Zayza. That would be the best thing to do at the moment. Please?” he pleaded.

“But he did things to me, Tavi! Do you have any idea what he’s capable of?”

“Sadly enough, I do. When I went to school, I read about that war hero just like every other student. I learned of his ‘glorious’ endeavors during the Revolution and how he helped found Valeska in the Early Period millennia before that. He was a living god up until he disappeared two hundred years ago. We all say it was because he disagreed on the issue of cai treatment, but nobody here knows for sure. However, everybody we know remembers the story of how he once killed a million men in one second with his bare hands.”

I sat, stunned. “That’s impossible!”

“Oh, it’s possible, I can assure you. It takes a lot to scare me, but you know that this is coming pretty darn close, don’t you? We can’t run and we can’t hide, and that scares me,” Tavi said. I saw fear on his face, something that I had never seen before.

After inhaling deeply, I looked at him. “Uh... tell me more about Earth.”

“Fine with me. Besides the language problem, there are a few other thing as well. In their culture, people eat over a table sitting on chairs. Primitive, isn’t it? These Earth people are weird, I tell you. Even the more restrictive parts of that place allow romantic experience at an age much younger that thirty-five! And somehow, the males are considered superior to the females here as well. Earth’s population thinks they’re alone in the universe. Can you believe it?” Tavi relished the thought of talking about something other than Helzar and it showed. The excitement was very visible.

“Hey,” came a voice from behind me. It was female and almost flirty.

“Akasha! Let me introduce you. This is my sister, Zayza,” Tavi said, now really excited.

“Pleased to meet you,” the woman said. She was about Tavi’s age, more frail and thin than I was, although she still looked healthy. Her voice sounded like an opera singer’s. Save for being so skinny, she could have been considered beautiful.

“Same here.” I responded.

The two stood up and looked at each other. Akasha smiled flirtingly as Tavi said, “We met when she came to the house to fix something. I told her it was unnecessary and we got to talking. She’s lived here for, what, a year?”

“That’s right.”

I nodded. Then I wondered, why was she here? If she was descended from a cai, then she would be one, too. Of course, there could be many reasons. Still, I knew that while orphans are cais, so are dangerous criminals. Was she here because of some large financial debts, or did she owe debts to society? Not that I’d ever ask-- that’s the rudest thing a person can do!

“Do you require schooling?” Akasha asked me.

“I can read, write, and drive a ship,” I bragged. In this culture, school-given education generally goes from age four to age thirteen. After than, I heard, a person could become an apprentice in a certain trade, like medicine or politics.

“Not bad. How long have you lived here?”

“Uh, about seventeen hours, give or take a few minutes,” I responded.

“How long have you...” Akasha stopped. Another social taboo.

But personally, I actually didn’t find it uncomfortable. So I answered, “Since before I can remember, when I was three, I think.” It wasn’t stated with a sad face or a low voice, either. It was simply a fact. I was a cai, I was an orphan. So what?

Tavi might have slightly flinched when I said it like I did, but I didn’t notice it if he did. He was more sensitive about these things than I was. Five years, and he still couldn’t admit he was a cai. I knew he thought of himself as a ‘fallen soul, taken from the world by a cruel spark of fate, banished and never to know the good life again’. But then, I guess if I had known this ‘good life’ that he had grown so accustomed to, I would have probably thought the same thing(although perhaps not in the same words).

In response to that, Akasha shrugged. “For me, it’s been four years. But does that matter? I’m here and I’m thankful for that.”

“Aren’t we all?” Tavi added. It wasn’t lying in the fullest legal sense-- we at least should have been thankful, right? Shelter and warmth aren’t something one should take for granted. But with Helzar, we seemed to forget that sometimes.

“How did you find out about this place?” he asked.

“Word of mouth. A friend of mine found out about it three years ago. I thought it was a trap, so him and I stayed away from the place. Then Nyk died and I decided that it was either here or go out on my own. I could have done either, but the latter would have been lonely.”

“Nyk, a friend of yours, I assume?” I said.

“No. A love,” Akasha said.

Tavi and I were shocked. Well, this went against all that we held sacred. Don’t get involved until you’re thirty-five. Yet Akasha broke this rule! The reasons why she was a cai became much clearer now...

“What is the big fuss about? If you love somebody, shouldn’t you be able to acknowledge it? I don’t know about you, but I’m not waiting until my life is practically over. Yes, I risked death for my Nyk. But I swear, it was worth it!” she stated.

“I didn’t say anything,” Tavi said when his mouth started working again.

“Of course you didn’t. Nobody does anymore. The Authorities want to kill me because I just happen to have a heart, but even then they can’t say it. I’m just called impatient, and that’s fine with me.”

Part of me was trying not to be rude. The other part was intrigued with such a thought, the type of curiosity that I couldn’t ever admit to another person. Curiosity won over offense in a few moments. I wondered how a person could become a cai willingly(that is what is was, more or less). I closed my eyes, the valeskan equivalent of a human holding up her finger to indicate that she had something to say.

Tavi saw this and said. “Yes?”

Hesitantly, I inhaled. Then I went on. “Akasha, may I ask you of your experiences?”

“Sure,” she responded, much to my surprise. “When I was fifteen, I lived in Lower Valeska, an absolute slum. My mom and dad worked repairing ships in a local station. It was your typical dysfunctional family. Sometimes I went to the schools, but most of the work was too easy for me. Along comes Nyk. I first saw him lingering around the station. He was already a cai at the time, being chased after for some stuff that someone had accused him of stealing-- nothing big, though. It was love at first sight, I tell ya. First, I didn’t know it and tried to surpress the feeling, as any proper girl would. Well, that didn’t exactly work. We began seeing each other. Nyk made me feel like I was everything, putting me on a pedestal. Nobody caught on until my mom found us making out...”

Tavi’s mouth gaped even more.

Akasha continued, “She threatened to call the Authorities if it continued. I told her, ‘Why not? It’s better than living in this hole!’ so she did. They showed up on the doorstep the next day, I heard, but by then Nyk and I were already on the next ship to wherever. I could never go back after this, of course. My parents disowned me and I’d never come crawling after them. So here I am. You?”

Tavi answered, “We were orphaned five years ago.”

“Oh, sorry to hear that.”

“No, you aren’t. You think life is a game. Go and run off, what do you care? I hate you people. At least you had parents. At least you had the option to stay home. So you weren’t happy and decided to just run off, am I right? Yes. You disgust me!”

“It wasn’t like that that. How can you understand?” Akasha shot back. “I didn’t want to live the rest of eternity in some hole with a family that I can’t stand, so why should I?”

“Oh, I can understand just fine, thank you. Do you think I was content on Valeska-Central? Hey, I had feeling just like any other boy! But, unlike you, I knew my place. Our parents weren’t the best people I knew, but they cared for us. My school wasn’t as fun as you’d like, but I learned all I could there. Did I want more? Hell, yeah. But I’d never do the foolish thing you did!”

“Then-surprise, surprise!- we’re different like that, aren’t we?” Akasha said, more casually than expected.

Things being as they were, I thought Tavi would start an argument. He was usually very passive, but people like Akasha really got him angry. They made whatever we did to survive seem like something trivial. I hated them too, but not to that extent. Not meaning to be what an Earth person would call a “devil’s advocate”, I wasn’t mad at her. In fact, I was almost intrigued. It was a forbidden romance, the type that most females want anyway. More to the point, it was just plain forbidden. In the restrictive Valeskan society I lived in, people like Akasha were secretly worshipped by young girls everywhere.

I looked at my brother. Guys like him didn’t know this about young girls, nor did they actually care. He simply said, “I believe we’ll go to the upper floors and explore some of the faculties. I hear they’ve got some medical technology that are the envy of hospitals everywhere.”

“They do,” Akasha said, “and I personally work in the center, so I could give you a tour of the place.”

“We can manage by ourselves, thank you.”

Tavi led me to what appeared to be a navy blue sphere that was about ten feet in diameter. Out or it rose three yellow tubes, all wide enough for two people. The metallic surface on the front of it turned to liquid when we touched it. When we were inside it, the liquid turned solid again. Despite the outside appearance, the sphere looked like nothing, as if we were just standing in the room, an invisible stand keeping us a few inches from the floor. Tavi told the elevator that we wanted to go to the third floor.

Then it happened. There was no gravity. I was weightless. Outside, I could clearly see people standing up, feeling fatigue, sighing and groaning under the effects of gravity. But, hey, who cared? I did a few flips and gymnastics out of boredom. Then Tavi took my hand. It was time. The yellow tubing, like the sphere, looked clear from the inside. With nothing holding you down, it was almost like flying. No, wait-- it was flying.

I held Tavi’s hand, although it wasn’t necessary. I flew above everyone on the floor, fifty feet below. In the middle of the crowds, I saw Akasha. I looked at Tavi. “You shouldn’t have been like that to her. She didn’t deserve it.”

Tavi held my hand harder and said nothing as she caught his eye.

“It’s time to do the deed,” Nathan said.

I put down the magazine I was reading and got up from the couch. When Helzar had sent us to Earth, he told us to send him weekly reports of our new life. How did we do it? Though a funny device called a bylexi. It sent messages to New Valeska via a radio frequency too small to be detected by the average radio listener. Physically, it wasn’t much. It was the only thing in the apartment that didn’t come from Earth. A chip was installed into the computer(transferable to others. This was so we could keep up with technology-- or more often, Nathan’s materialistic whims). On the monitor, it appeared like a normal Windows word processor, save for the fact that it was all in Ardio.

“Who does it this time?” I asked. In the beginning, Nate had always done the weekly report. But now, with me older and his workload much bigger, I usually ended up doing it.

I looked at Nathan. He was signing the checks to pay off some bills I had organized for him. Okay, I’ll do it.

“Well, if it’s me, then can I at least sit on the chair?” I grunted. Nathan was sitting on the office chair, a big plush thing that he had gotten custom-made from Italy. It was a big brown velvet number, probably costing more than the stereo system(although considering our stereo system, maybe that’s not true).

Nate got up and I turned the chair 180 degrees to face the computer. I turned it on and typed in “win”. When the Program Manager popped up, I clicked on the icon for the bylexi. After the blink of an eye, it loaded up. Our computer was probably the fastest on the market at the time, although I insisted to Nathan that we didn’t need it. Nate argued that it still wasn’t close to a child’s toy on Valeska. I said that this wasn’t Valeska. Nathan then just rolled his eyes, which somehow made me feel like the dumbest thing on two feet. But the speed was nice, I must admit.

The screen showed messages from times past, starting the first day we were here. Those first few months were a period of adjustment, to put it lightly. I reread one of my favorites, written a month after we arrived.

Stardate: 1999560

To New Valeska:

I typed in that I wanted to write a new entry, not scrolling down since that would take forever with over two hundred and sixty messages in the program. Then I thought of what had happened this week. These days, we didn’t have as many key points that are a result of embarrassing events and more that come from logic and experience. I typed up something that would please Helzar and satisfy the town. Then, with nothing else to do, I scrolled past some old entries like another girl would reminisce over her diary. How things had changed! At first, we saw humans though the eyes of aliens. Humans were a lying, primitive, romance-obsessed species. Now, they weren’t. But then, we were now almost human ourselves, so how could we tell? I read of the surprises that this planet is so good at coming up with, from when we got Belle from the pet shop and learned what exactly a cat was to that time when... well, I’m not saying.

That finished, I walked over to the kitchen where Nathan was standing, talking on the phone with a co-worker. “Yeah,” he said, “I need those files in duplicate by tomorrow. No, I don’t care which copier you use. What? They’re both broken? Oh well. I’ll pay you back for whatever you spend at Kinco’s, okay? Thanks a lot. Bye.”

Nathan hung up the phone and said, “This might help me get the client yet. They do a million dollars a month in long-distance, you know. Do the math, Cassie. Can you imagine the commission on this deal? No matter how you do it, it’s a lotta money, ain’t it?”

“Kick,” I said. “It is a lot.”

Nathan smiled. Then I made some sandwiches for dinner, the peanut-butter and jelly kind. We sat at the coffee table and ate. He looked off into the distance, contemplating something. When people did that, I got angry and wanted to know what was going on. So I asked.

“It’s nothing.”

“You lie,” I responded. “It is something, but you just won’t tell me.”

“Alright. It’s Akasha. Happy?” Nathan said.

“Do you miss her?”

“How could I not? It’s been half a decade, but still... Oh, I don’t know! It’s so hard, I tell ya. On one hand, I was doing what I vowed never to do until I was old enough, to have a love of my own. Yet, it all seemed so natural! I could have stayed, Cassie. I could have spent the rest of my days with her and never looked back! I swear, and would have been so good!”

“I thought the reason why I’ve never seen you with a woman is because of the rules you chose to follow,” I responded, surprised.

“That has nothing to do with it. I could be like you, with a love life of my own, if it wasn’t for the fact that my heart is somewhere else. I know what you’ll say to that, too. ‘She’s gone, might be dead’, or ‘Get over it, already’, perhaps. But I simply can’t! It’s impossible.”

“I’d never say that.”

“Maybe. But you know you’d think that, wouldn’t you? Yes. And why not? I’ll probably never see the girl again. Not now, not ever. When we came here, things changed. For you, it was just culture shock. Culture shock! Everyone I know who wasn’t born in Cincinnati find moving here a culture shock. Culture shock! Anyone can get over that, but Akasha? I’ll never forget her.”

I’d never thought of it like that, but I supposed Nathan was right with one thing: for me, moving here did consist of some culture shock. Nathan underestimated it, but it was still true.

My brother calmed down and leaned over the armrest. His fingers ran though his hair, almost unconsciously. It was a habit he got into whenever he thought about that time before he lived on Earth, before he had hair to run his fingers though. First, they almost combed though his hair very quickly. Then, it slowed as he gradually let go of the thought. Finally, he stopped.

“Do you ever wish you could get over it?” I asked.

Nathan looked at me and we sat silently for a while. “Not for one second.”

I sat back next to him and sighed. Then, weirdly enough, my mind started wandering to Daniel and that thing that we had going on. If I went away, would he feel as Nate did now? I didn’t know. If he did, it would be sad, especially if I found another man soon after. But if he got over it in two seconds? Well, that wouldn’t go over so well with me either.

Still, that wasn’t really an issue. We were together, period. If we broke up, well... I’d cross that bridge when I came to it. No matter what, I made a vow at that moment, a vow never to become Nathan. If I was separated from someone I cared about, then I’d accept it. I’d move on. Nate can’t accept things, and that’s his problem. He can survive and adapt to a strange world, but he still can’t see that he’s a part of it. Mentally, he knew where and what he was. But psychologically, he couldn’t see it, even after all these years. In his head, he was still valeskan. I don’t even think he grasped the thought that he was a cai before he was a human.

Not that I didn’t have my own problems. Alicia still lingered in my mind, a mixture of remorse and anger. I loved Daniel, but did that mean that I’d lose her in the process? I’d known her for four years. I’d been with Daniel for, what, a week(if even that much!)? Would I have to lose one to keep the other, maybe losing both in the process?

Then what did I want more, Alicia or Daniel? Dumping Daniel hardly seemed like a sensible solution. Usually, I called Alicia to ask her for advice in situations like this. I could go to other friends, of course... and hey, who said I couldn’t? I got up and went to the kitchen phone. I dialed up Gina and walked over to my room on the phone’s long chord as it rang.

“’Ello. Who’s this?” her voice answered.

“It’s me, Cassie. You busy? I need help.”

“Sure! What’s up?” Gina said.

“It’s Alicia. You know how she’s, like, changed, don’t you?”

“Yeah. Tell me, why is that anyway?”

“Me.” It was one word, but that was enough.

“Ah! Let me guess-- Alicia’s jealous of you. Why? Hmm... she must be jealous of you having Daniel. Okay, this makes sense. So I’ll bet money now that you’re asking what to do, right?”

“Yup. Do you have any advice?”

“Well, the same thing happened to me once. I was going out with this guy and my friend resented it. Want to know what I did? I have the biggest fight with my friend and we broke up. Wanna know the really sad part? We never made up and the guy dumped me soon after that. So now I’ve lost both people, Cassie. The moral? Don’t do whatever the hell I did. My advice? I don’t have any.”

“Gee, thanks,” I said. It wasn’t as sarcastic as it sounded, but who cared? I sure didn’t.

“Whatever! I’m sorry if I don’t have all the answers. You know, I’m only human.”

“I know. It’s just...”

“Yeah, I know.” Then, into the distance, “Yeah, Mom? Oh, okay!” To me, “Gotta go now.”