“Amery, I know you’re in here. You’ve got a three second warning before I crawl underneath the door.” Lochie. I should have known he wouldn’t give up.
I considered remaining quiet and pretending I was invisible. But I knew Lochie meant what he said. There were no doubts in my mind he would crawl under the door. “Go away.”
“Like that’s going to happen,” he replied before his feet appeared at the door. They spread apart as he crouched down.
“I’m not opening the door.”
“Didn’t think you would. If you’ve been hiding in here all afternoon, I figure you’d stay here all night if you had to.”
“Go away,” I repeated. I wiped at my nose and eyes, trying to clean up the mess I was in. I couldn’t be sure but I would bet my life I looked as horrible as I felt.
“I’m not going anywhere. Lola told me what happened.”
“Lola’s got a big mouth.”
“She was worried about you.” His face appeared under the door as he shimmied his way through. He stood facing me within seconds. “I crawled on a bathroom floor for you, are you going to talk to me?”
I shrugged. “Nothing to say.”
He crouched down again so we were at the same eye level. He gently lifted my chin so I had to look into his beautiful blue eyes. “Dani is an idiot. She doesn’t understand what’s going on.”
“She’s known me since we were ten years old,” I shot back sadly. “If she’s afraid of me, how can I expect regular people to accept what I am?”
“I did, I’m regular people.”
He was right in one way. Lochie, of all people, had the most reason to hate me. Not only did we have a high level of animosity between us anyway, but I had also slept with him without telling him the truth. If anyone had a reason to fear me, it was him. Dani, on the other hand, had absolutely no reason. Which only made it so much worse.
“You’re an anomaly,” I replied. He let go of my chin and used both hands to cradle my head in his palms. I hated it when he did that, it always made me feel weak in the knees and started the butterflies in my stomach. I needed to not feel that kind of attraction now. I needed to somehow find the off switch and flick it – permanently.
“Everyone else will come around in time,” Lochie promised. Except it wasn’t his promise to make, he could never make sure it was kept.
“I need to tell you something.”
“What?”
I took a deep breath, it was time to come clean about something. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. I may as well give him a good reason to leave me alone crying in the bathroom. “Lola knew what I was before the Originals exposed us. I had to tell her a few months ago, just before she was kidnapped.”
Lochie pursed his lips while lost in his thoughts. I waited for him to start yelling. When he finally replied, he was oddly calm. “You told her?”
I nodded slowly. “I had to. My security team was worried about the Originals and took us to a safe house from the beach. She would only come with me if I told her what was going on.”
“But you didn’t tell me, even though I was helping you?” Clearly, the pain of my lie was still fresh in his mind. I seriously needed a time machine.
“I thought you’d hate me. You know, even more than you already did. If it counts for anything, I would do things differently if I could have a do-over.”
“You did what you had to, I understand,” he finally said decisively. I got the feeling he wasn’t all that cool with it, but he was trying. God, he was good to me.
“If you didn’t know me, what would you think about aliens?” I asked, out of the blue. The question had been playing on my mind since the day he pulled me from the crowd in the street. Would he be one of them? One of the people who wanted to hurt me because of what I was? I hadn’t been game enough to ask it until now.
He let my head go and sat on the floor of the stall, leaning against the door as he thought. “Honestly, if I was learning about you through the news reports, I wouldn’t like you being here. But the news reports are wrong, we both know that. Once everyone else understands, everything will be fine again. No-one is going to be scared of you.”
I hadn’t expected him to be so honest and I knew he was because his tell wasn’t showing. He always raised his eyebrows really high when he lied and there wasn’t one wrinkle on his forehead now.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” I whispered, so quietly I didn’t think Lochie would hear. It was more telling myself what I couldn’t say before.
“What do you think will happen?” My head shot up to meet his challenging eyes. “You don’t seem to think things can end well, so how do you think it’s all going to end?”
“In war.”
“So you’re resigned to that fact?”
“We should be realistic.” My voice had a hard edge to it, I wished it didn’t.
Lochie stood and reached for the door without saying a word. He unlocked it, ready to leave.
“Where are you going?” I asked, in a panic.
He shrugged, nonchalant. “You don’t seem to think there’s anything to fight for so I’m going. I’ll go home and start building a bunker in the backyard and prepare for war. I should probably start warning people too, things could get real nasty. How much food should I stockpile? Will it be a long war? Or will the aliens have laser beams that can destroy miles with one shot?”
“Very funny.”
“I’m being serious.”
We stared at each other, both of us waiting for the other to make a move first. I wanted to hit him, the urge felt overly familiar. He was pressing my buttons on purpose and I hated that he knew which ones to press.
Lochie finally held his hand out for me to take. I just looked at it. “Come on, I’ve just finished my detention and now I have basketball practice. If I’m late, I’m going to blame you and then the team will have a real reason to dislike you. Do you want to take that risk?”
“No,” I grumbled, taking his hand. He pulled me onto my feet, they were asleep from being in the one position for so long. I banged them on the ground to get the blood flowing again.
I let Lochie lead me to the gymnasium like a zombie. He deposited me onto the bleachers. “Stay here.”
“I’m not a dog.”
“Then you won’t get your treat afterwards.” Lochie grinned before leaving. I rolled my eyes, unable to suppress the urge. He was lucky that was all I did.
Garrick was sitting a few rows down. Either he was waiting to get a ride home with Lochie or he was suddenly interested in high school basketball. I guessed the former was more likely. As soon as he saw me, he climbed over the rows to take the seat next to me.
“I didn’t know you were a sports fan,” I started, not taking my eyes off the game. I couldn’t look Garrick in the eyes, not when I had barely said a word to him since the previous night.
“I used to play.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” Garrick replied, a little offended judging by his tone.
I was going to retort something smart aleck back to him but stopped before I could. The people that were around us shuffled in the opposite direction. Some even stood and walked away to find seats at the other end of the bleachers.
Before I knew it, there was a large circle of empty seats around us. Nobody could even stand being near us while we watched a stupid basketball game.
I couldn’t sit there and take it. “I have to go,” I muttered. At any other time, I might have been able to handle it. But after what happened with Dani, it was like I was getting punched from all different angles.
I stormed out of the gym, hoping Lochie didn’t notice. When footsteps pounded behind me, my stomach fell. If the team lost, they’d blame it all on me – just like Lochie had said. Why did he have to be so difficult?
I spun around, ready to give him a piece of my mind. I stopped, it was Garrick following me. I wiped at the te
ars stinging my eyes and willed them to go away altogether.
“Amery, what did you expect to happen?” He demanded angrily.
“They have no reason to hate us. They shouldn’t be afraid,” I blubbered.
“We’re different, we don’t belong here. Of course they have a reason to hate us. They think we’re taking over their damn planet, for God’s sake.”
“But they know me, I haven’t changed.”
“You have in their minds, now they know what you are. What we are.”
I had to breathe heavily just to catch my breath. The world swum around me, blackness started to seep in at the edges of my vision. Garrick grabbed my arm to stabilize me.
“We can disappear from all this, Amery,” he continued. “We can go away and let everyone else do the hard work. It will be so easy. You won’t have to live another day like today.”
I was openly sobbing now, partly because of what just happened and partly because Garrick’s proposal was sounding better by the hour. I hated myself for wanting to take the easy way out but I didn’t know how much longer I could stay and fight.
Lochie wanted me to fight. He had goaded me into it relentlessly. I could already picture his disappointment when he found out what I was considering. He really would truly hate me then. It would be a reason for him to walk away, just like my mom wanted.
I couldn’t be there any longer. I ran for the school corridors so I could call my parents for a lift home. I just wanted to be in the safety of my own room where the world didn’t exist. I desperately needed to be alone.
I got my wish half an hour later. I stormed into my bedroom and closed the door, tuning out the voices of my parents asking if I was okay. They could get the story from Garrick, I’m sure he’d be more than happy to fill them in.
For my entire life, I had never questioned why I was chosen to have such a burden placed on my young shoulders. I never moaned about the fact I had to be perfect while all the other kids could do whatever they liked. I didn’t let being different get to me and bring me down. From the moment I could understand what I was, I accepted it as fact.
But now the task of what we had to do seemed so overwhelming it felt like I was going to drown in the responsibility. It was up to us to convince the entire world that we weren’t going to harm them, that we would be good for the human population.
It felt like I was letting my people down. I wasn’t changing any minds, I didn’t even know how I could. People were afraid of me, Dani’s scared eyes kept haunting my thoughts. I was just a seventeen year old girl, caught up in something so much bigger than me. And I hated it.
CHAPTER 15
“And how do we get antimatter in the universe?” Mr. Wilson, our science teacher asked, hoping for volunteers willing to answer. I kept my head down, refusing to make eye contact with anyone. The entire morning had been long, I was more than ready for the bell to ring.
“Amery should know,” Mack snickered from the back. He was loud enough for the entire class to hear, which I’m sure was the point. He earned some giggles for his remark. I went back to pretending I was invisible.
Mr. Wilson finished his slow wander around the room and stopped at my desk. “Miss Jones? Do you have anything to add?”
“No, sir.” Was he having a go at me? Was he seriously going to encourage Mack, let alone let him get away with it?
“Cat got your forked tongue?” Mack continued his relentless teasing, the giggles turning into full laughter. Mr. Wilson did nothing. “Want to phone home?” Clearly he was intent on using all the alien stereotypes he could think of in his tiny little brain. And I was supposed to be the threat to the humans’ future?
“Shut up, Mack,” Lola said as she turned around to face him. “Just shut your face.”
“Ooh, Goth Girl is threatening me.” Mack held up his hands like he was surrendering before pouting at her. I badly wanted to smack that smirk from his mouth. I wanted to hit him way more than I ever did Lochie and that was saying something.
Lola must have felt the same way, she picked up a pencil and threw it at him. He deflected it with his palm. It’s a pity it didn’t go through it instead. That would have been funny.
“Sir, she assaulted me,” Mack said, his voice pleading innocence.
Mr. Wilson returned to the front of the class, shaking his head. “Antimatter, come on kids, it’s not that hard. Everyone settle down and focus.”
I refused to look around at Mack but I was sure he was satisfied with himself. His point was made, he got the better of the alien and she didn’t fight back. Thank goodness for Lola, she was the only one not shooting me daggers in the classroom.
My next class wasn’t any better. It was English, my favorite, but it was difficult to forget all the eyes staring at me. I honestly didn’t know why they were so focused on me. I had been going to school with most of them for the past eleven years. I hadn’t changed, my appearance and demeanor was still the same. There was nothing for them to see. If they were hoping to see some scales or antennae, they were going to be sorely disappointed – no matter how long they stared.
“Miss Jones,” Mr. Moore started. I dreaded what words were about to pass his lips. “Jane Austen has always been one of your strengths, do you think you can explain the character of Emma?”
I looked around, waiting for someone to make a smart aleck comment before I got a chance to answer. Twenty sets of eyes stared back at me. It looked like I was going to have to answer. “I, uh, I think she enjoyed playing matchmaker so she didn’t have to deal with her own social position.”
Mr. Moore nodded, pleased with the answer. “Well done, I tend to agree. So what can we learn from Emma?” He opened up the floor for answers, nobody volunteered. Undeterred, the teacher continued anyway, picking hapless students to drag into the conversation.
Mr. Moore called on me a few more times during the discussion. I kept expecting to be interrupted, but when I spoke, nobody seemed to care. Or at the very least they hid their hostility for an hour. It was probably the latter.
The lunchtime bell was like music to my ears. I packed up my things and hurried for my locker. Forty minutes of hanging around those who loved me was definitely going to be better than my classes had been.
I changed my books and looked down both ways of the corridors, trying to spot a friendly face. None came, I was a sole alien in the sea of hostility. Someone should send some humans back to Trucon and see how they like it. I’m sure they would run away crying instead of putting up with it.
I headed for the cafeteria, hoping to find Lola, Lochie, or Garrick there. They had to be somewhere on school grounds, it wasn’t that big of a place.
All of a sudden I felt someone collide into my shoulder. I dropped my books and lunch all over the floor. Pens scattered everywhere as my pencil case sprang open.
I looked around to see who had bumped into me. A girl from my grade, Melody, was staring at me. “Sorry,” she said sarcastically.
My blood boiled as people stopped to see what happened. They all stepped over my belongings on the floor, not one of them bent over to help pick them up.
I had enough of it all. I couldn’t take their prejudice any longer. They had no right to treat me like I was a parasite on their planet. Maybe a stranger who didn’t know any better, but not these people. Not the same people I had seen every school day of my life.
“What’s your problem?” I demanded, not letting her off the hook. I was speaking louder than I should have but I didn’t care anymore. “We used to be friends Melody, so what’s changed? Am I any different to how I used to be?”
There was no emotion on her face, it was like talking to a statue as she replied. “You’re an alien.”
“I was an alien then too. I’m not a different person now. So why am I such a problem to you?”
She leaned in closer, completely invading my personal space. I refused to move back, I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of knowing she got to me. “You… are… a big, fat�
� liar.”
“Leave her alone.” The male voice came from behind me, I couldn’t see who it was. It didn’t sound like either Lochie or Garrick. Who else would be standing up for me?
Melody took a step back, her face still void of emotions. “Don’t defend her, Luke. She’s not even human, she probably doesn’t have any emotions.”
“I’m with Luke, walk away Melody. Leave her alone.” That voice I did recognize, Kimberley was in my English class. We also won the national championships in spelling together three years in a row.
“You’re defending her? I thought you were smarter than that, Kimberley. Amery is going to kill us all, they’re all going to invade us one day. We’ll be prisoners.”
“Melody, do you really think I’m capable of that?” I asked, not taking my eyes off her. She was likely to spring at me if I turned my attention elsewhere.
“Who knows what you’re capable of?”
I didn’t doubt whether she meant it or not, there was nothing but pure hatred burning in her eyes. I looked around, for the first time noticing how many people were witnessing our standoff. There had to be at least twenty other students forming a circle around us. Some seemed curious, others on one side or another. Where the hell was Lochie? He never seemed to be around when I wanted him.
I addressed our audience next. “Does anyone else think I’m capable of actually killing someone? Seriously? All one hundred and ten pounds of me?”
Most people averted their gaze to the floor so they didn’t have to meet my eyes as I stared at them each in turn. Nobody said a word. All I could hear was Melody’s heavy breathing at my side. You could have heard a pin drop.
“Nobody has anything else to say?” I demanded. If Krom found out I was talking like that, he would punish me. I had no idea what he would consider punishment, but it wouldn’t be good on any planet. I was beyond caring. “Nobody?”
“What’s going on here?” Principal Tobin demanded. I hadn’t seen him sneak up on me. The crowd quickly disbursed. Everyone, including Melody, found something more important they suddenly had to do.
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