"Sometimes it takes a good fall to really know where you stand"

-Hayley Williams

"C'mon, follow me. There's now way I'm going to your place."

I winced in sympathy as Marissa dragged Aster out of the classroom. But at least Aster's partner wasn't the guy who put a bear trap in the middle of the family unit area. I looked at Aarav who wasn't making any move to get up from his seat. I rolled my eyes before walking over to the black eyed Izaldian who was talking to the Novian - Kali, I think - from his family unit. From the way Aarav was leering at her and the grimace on Kali's face, I assumed that the Izaldian was hitting on her.

"Hey, where do you want to go to work on the project?" Aarav looked incredibly annoyed that I had interrupted his conversation with Kali, while the Novian looked very grateful as she walked away.

"I don't care."

I sighed and was about to give him something to care about, when Rocca came up to us.

"Hey Iris, how about you guys come over to our family unit." She glanced up at Janelle, who was probably standing a little too close than to what the human wanted. "That's where we're going anyway."

"Okay, that sounds good to me." I didn't even bother to see what Aarav thought as I walked out toward the exit.

---

Araav and Rocca's family unit was two buildings down from ours. It was also on the first floor and had the same setup, except for the dirty clothes and dishes littering the living room.

"Araav, I told you to clean up after yourself last night." Rocca complained with a slight glance in Janelle's direction.

Araav plopped down onto the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table. "If you want the place cleaned, then you can do it."

Rocca sighed and tucked a piece of her pink and black streaked hair behind her ear. When I had first seen the streak in the girl's straight strands, I had thought it was odd. But now that I was starting to get to know her, I saw that it suited her.

Seeing that no one was going to say anything, I asked, "So, how should we do this?"

"Rocca," Janelle said before anyone else could respond. "How about the two of us go to your room?"

"Uh, I think that w-we should um stay with Aarav and Iris. I-I mean, it wouldn't be fair to ditch them." Rocca said nervously. "Also, my rooms k-kinda messy and-"

"That's okay. I'm sure they'll survive."

And before Rocca could say anything else, Janelle grabbed her arm and pulled her to the door that said "Rocca" with turquoise and pink letters.

At the slam of the door closing, I walked over to the couch and sat down a good amount of space away from Aarav. I pulled out my tablet and read through the assignment prompt:

Students must ask their partner about one of these six subjects about their partner's race's culture: food, clothing, academics, athletics, arts or government. They must create a presentation (visual or oral) that represents that piece of the race's culture. This project is due during class in two days.

I read through the rest of the criteria before looking at Aarav. "How about we both do food? I like cooking, and I can also show you how to make different Earthian cuisine."

"Sure. How about you go first." The Izaldian made no move to sit up from his slouched position on the couch, causing me to sigh in annoyance. Even though I disliked the fact that all the students were forced to attend the school, I hated the fact that Aarav just didn't seem to care about the advanced education he was receiving. He could at least pretend to.

"Alright... Maybe we should record what I'm about to say-" So you can actually have the information and I won't get a bad grade. "-in case you forget something."

"Sure, whatever."

I clicked the record button on my tablet. I took a deep breath to release my anger before starting to speak.

"Earth has many different nations, meaning that each nation is known for a different type of food. For example, pizza is a food common where I'm from - the INNA. It's pretty easy to make, if you want that to be the food you'll cook."

"Sure," Aarav shrugged. "What's it made of?"

"It's ingredients are bread, cheese-"

"Cheese?" Aarav's face scrunched up as he pronounced the word.

"Yeah, um-" Please, don't mess this up like Aster did with Rian. "It's made from cows and-"

"Cows?"

"They're a type of animal and-"

"Ugh, no way I'm making something from an animal. Choose something else."

"Look, it's not that bad. And don't you guys eat meat on Izalderra?"

"So? Is cheese meat?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Then I'm not making it. Choose something else." Aarav flapped his hand in my direction as he closed his eyes.

I knew that making a big fuss over this wasn't going to do any of us any good since we only had about three days to complete the project, so I took a deep breath and decided to suggest something else.

"What about cake?"

"Cake?" He looked at me suspiciously. "Is there any cheese in it?"

"Nope."

"Fine, then how about you get started on gathering the ingredients while I look some stuff up about it."

I nodded and as I made my way over to the kitchen, I saw Aarav click on an app that looked vaguely like an Izaldian version of Angry Birds.

Watch him not do any of the work.

---

And Aarav didn't.

After collecting the correct materials, I had come back to the sitting room to see that Aarav had fallen asleep on the couch. After poking him for a good two minutes, I had determined that the man wasn't going to wake up anytime soon. I had gone back to the kitchen and lost myself in the recipe I had made my mom multiple times back on Earth. Triple Layer Chocolate Cake was always my mom's favorite, and since I had come to Cressida, I had finally had a moment of comfort.

The comforting feeling was, of course, ruined when Aarav decided to waltz into the room. I had just finished mixing the batter together and was about to grab the pan to pour it into, when in one single swoop, Aarav dipped not one finger, but all five into the batter.

"Don't they teach you manners on Izalderra? That is a perfect example of how to spread germs!" I moved the bowl as far away as possible from Aarav as the black eyed Izaldian tried to get another scoop of the chocolate mixture.

"Well, I'm so sorry I'm not from the well-mannered Earth like you are."

"Whatever. Now that you're awake, can you please start helping me out?"

"Well, I would, but I'm afraid I would mess it up." The smirk on Aarav's face told me he wasn't sorry at all.

I was about to demand that he help me anyways, when I remembered that Professor Ehris had told us that if we made something edible, we were going to have to share it with the class. Well, there was no way I was going to be responsible for giving the class food poisoning, so, "Alright, how about you start gathering notes for one of Izzalderra's delicacies."

The man seemed to think about this for a second before settling on, "Nah, I'm good."

"That wasn't a suggestion! You need to do that as part of your side of the-"

I stopped talking when Aarav walked straight out of the kitchen and - from the slam of a door - to his room.

"Argh!" I exclaimed before resuming my baking. Even if I got a bad grade on this project, at least I had cake.

---------------

"So, how'd it go for you two?"

I sighed as I responded to Janelle. "Horribly. He doesn't do anything!"

"Aww, that sucks. I'm sure Rian would be happy to help."

The air was cool as the light in the sky slowly started to dim. At around five o'clock, Janelle said that it had probably been time to leave. With assurances from Rocca that she would make sure my cake would come out nicely (and would be protected from Aarav), I had left with Janelle. We were now on a path that she had assured me would lead to our family unit.

"I hope so. I'll need all the help I can get if I want a good grade."

"Yeah, I'm sure he'd be happy to help."

Unless he's too busy with Nyla. I shook my head at the thought as I squashed down the weird feeling swelling up in my chest.

"Anyways, how was it working for you and Rocca?"

A light blush colored Janelle's cheeks as she nodded. "It went great. She's really smart and has a lot of great ideas once you get her talking."

"You didn't scare her too much, did you?"

"Oh lay off! I'm not that bad! I just like teasing her a little. . . Besides, I'm definitely not as bad as Aster."

"True. . ." I laughed. "Hmm, I wonder how it going with him and Marissa."

"I don't think it's going that bad. . ."

"What? Why do you look like you know something I don't?"

"No reason." The Katian grinned. "I just have a feeling that they're gonna end up together."

"Seriously?" I stopped in the middle of the path as Janelle turned to face me. "You think Aster and Marissa are going to end up together?"

"Yup. It's just this feeling I have."

"Really?"

"Yeah, just like I have this feeling about me and Rocca, and you and-" Janelle's eyes widened as she realized what she said, and before I could say anything, she took off running.

"Me and - Janelle! Stop running!"

I tried to chase after her, but after ten seconds of running, I gave up and walked the rest of the way. When I reached the front door to the family unit, I saw Janelle standing there with an innocent expression.

"You know," I said as I opened the door and walked toward the sitting room. "One day, you're going to find yourself in a bit of a situation, and the only person that can get you out of it will be me. And then you're gonna have to tell me who. . ."

I trailed off at the sight laid out in front of me on the couch.

Rian was on the couch and blocked from my view by a certain human in front of him and practically on his lap. I could see that Nyla's hand was outstretched and it was resting on Rian's cheek.

Rian jumped at the sound of Janelle and I walking in, causing Nyla to lose her balance and fall onto the half-standing half-sitting Rian.

Nyla had the decency to blush and look embarrassed as she got off of Rian and composed herself. Rian on the other hand looked as if he could care less.

"Sorry for interrupting" I mumbled and on impulse, walked away from the sitting room and towards my room.

I made it to my room without tripping on my own feet and crashed onto my bed. I pulled out my tablet and opened it to the page I was supposed to have notes on Izaldian culture on. The hologram popped up and my mood darkened further at the absence of words on the document.

What was I supposed to do now?!

I tossed my tablet onto the floor and grabbed my violin next to my bed. Taking the violin and the bow out of its case, I got up into a playing position. I brought my bow hand down to the strings and stopped a centimeter away.

My hand was slightly shaking and my mind was unfocused. Normally I would play to calm myself, but instead my body froze.

Why? Why was this happening?!

I gritted my teeth and brought the bow down in a clean stroke. My fingers were trembling and my ears were ringing. Again and again and again I attacked notes and notes on my violin,

but I couldn't hear any of them.

I couldn't hear the notes I was playing--they were being drowned out. Instead, I was being choked by my thoughts.

What am I doing here?

Why am I playing house like a good little doll?

Why can't I just do the dumb project?

Why am I so bothered by Rian?

Why can't I play?

Why am I so unhappy?

Numbly, I put my violin and bow back into the case and placed it back next to my bed. I slumped onto the bed and stared at the ground. The room felt colder and I started to slightly shiver.

Before I could mope any longer, Rian walked in and paused after looking at me. He looked at me, to my violin, and then to my tablet which was still open to my black notes page. He bent down and soundlessly looked at it. He then walked over to me and let out a loud sigh.

"Come on, let's go." He said softly, coaxing me to come over to me with his hand.

I merely looked up at him.

"Iris?" He questioned, scanning my face.

"Go away." I hissed. I honestly didn't know why I was being so bitter towards him, but right now all I wanted to do was sink into myself.

His eyes lit up with recognition and then hardened.

"Quit your pity party, please Iris. I don't understand why you're so depressed all of a sudden, but it's certainly not doing you any good. Get up and let's go do something about at least one of your problems, which I'm assuming is this blank note page. Let me guess, Aarav was no help, like always?" From the look I gave him, he got the confirmation he needed. "Up! Come on, Iris."

He was starting to annoy me now, so I did as he said and send him a waiting stare.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"You need notes on Izalderra's culture, right? Well, let's go help you with that." And with a sly grin, he ushered me towards the door and I was once again following Rian's lead.   

------------------

Hey guys, sorry for the filler chapter. We've been quite busy so the real action will start in the next chapter! I had to make a character in art class this week out of plaster and wire, so guess who I made! (Aster btw) He looks awful b/c I can't do art, but oh well, I had my moment.  Anyways so when I was taking him to my locker to pack up and leave, A student near me was like "which character was that" and I was like "Aster" and she was like "Who?!" and so I said "He's from a story." You know what her response was . . . . "Who reads?!" . . . . .  . -__- 

WAS. NOT. OKAY. 

Anyways, it's the struggle of being a bookworm in the 21 century. But oh well, reading is awesome because ya know, books. 

Sorry for the mini rant!

Bi!