After waving Minji goodbye, I proceeded towards the bus stop, a ten to fifteen minute walking distance from the school gates. Not surprisingly, it was deserted since most students, after all, were picked up by their parents like Minji or had their self-driving electric cars waiting on them.

   Obviously.

"Hi, Mr. Remi." I smiled at the familiar bus driver after getting onto the bus that had come to a stop as I handed him my pass.

   I braced myself for the journey ahead to the "Classic Suburbs", the only remaining area where buses were still allowed and my district, Ridgeton, was situated.

   These were the parts of the state which remained untouched by the 3D Printed houses with self-cleaning tech and military grade alarm systems, android babysitters and other technological advancements that one would usually see in other areas. One could have still been fooled by the phrase, "Classic Suburbs" if not for the definitely not-rich state of the houses and the vices constantly projected by the media.

   Ridgeton was no exception.

   Once more, the gawks at my uniform had been activated. Leaving Ridgeton High to a school like Zavlon did not go unnoticed. I performed my unrelenting ritual of staring straight ahead.

   I didn't think I should feel bad for taking an opportunity like this and I never have. They would've done the same thing. People don't choose to be a part of the wrong statistic. Most don't anyway.

"Mum?" The unlocked door gave away her presence at home.

   Being a nurse in a district like ours didn't really warrant the average work times. Especially when one was in their final years of medical school as well.

   Those, however, guaranteed being underpaid and more expenses.

   These were the times I reminded myself why I should be grateful for the scholarship and just disregard the crappy treatment I get for it.

"In here, darling." An exaggerated feminine voice that sounded like nothing like Mum's came from my living room.

   I rushed from the kitchen, trying to shield the knowing smile that crept up. My theory was confirmed by the sight of my favourite person in the world on the living room couch, biting on a giant-sized cookie.

"You're insane, you know that right?" I rolled my eyes.

"And you reek of bougieness in that little uniform, you know that right?"

"What exactly did you get from our conversation yesterday, Tali?" I scowled into dark, defiant eyes. "'Cause I'm pretty sure it ended with you not breaking into my house anymore."

"And yet I managed to break in and bake this cookie before you got home." Tali settled deeper into her seat. "So how was Vultron today?"

"You know it's Zavlon," I plopped beside her and stole a piece of the snack. "but you will not believe what— wait..."

   Her paranoid expression instantly appeared at my suspicious stare. "How long have you been here? It's only three thirty."

"Uh," She placed the cookie on the plate in front of her. "Not that long."

"Long enough to bake that though," My narrowed gaze never faltered. "What did you do this time, Talise?"

"Why should I have done something?"

"Oh right, sorry." I sighed before trying again. "What offence that you definitely didn't commit were you accused of this time?"

"Nothing!" Tali's guilty look didn't disappear though. Then I understood when she whispered, "Yet."

"I'm currently on a 24 hour suspension until the mystery of the leaked teachers' group chat is solved. Like that would ever happen." She snickered.

   I shook my head to hide my grin. "How'd Glenny take it?"

"You'd think that by now he'll be able to control the panic attacks." Tali's last words could be barely heard over the wheezes that kept escaping.

   The nervous breakdowns of Principal Glen whenever Talise pulled one of her hacking escapades in school —to stimulate her gift, she said—was one of the few things I missed at Ridgeton High, not gonna lie. Sometimes, I wondered why I was constantly worrying when her luck never seemed to run out.

   And though I'll never admit it, she'd come a long way from picking my doors' locks (Mum's changed them a lot over the years) and the confiscation closets in the teachers' lounge in primary school. The day she decided to move to challenging firewalls and encryptions was when a monster was born. A really skilled, genius of a monster.

   Who may or may not have been responsible for the sudden blackout that racked Ridgeton and some neighbouring districts two years ago—that I may or may not be proud of.

"Anyway, as I was saying, you'll never guess what happened today!"

"Yeah, I probably won't," she shook her head with a chuckle. "Our thinking does not sync in the least. Remind me why we're friends again."

"We have the... embodiment of Tony Stark as our new headmaster!"

"Okay Robert Downey Jr. as your principal?" she scoffed. "Isn't he like a hundred years old now? That is too far-fetched. Even for you."

"No." I elbowed her side. "What are you talking about? I mean if Tony Stark was an actual person. Not the actor."

"Oh." The beam on her face got brighter. "ELON MUSK JR? Holy-"

"Colin Speck!" My hands rushed to cover her mouth. "You know, former CEO and current owner of Speck Tech?"

   She was kind of right about the Elon Musk Jr thing though, I'll give her that.

"Oh, him! That's cool, I guess." She did a double take of my figure before saying, "No free stuff though?"

   The sound of a door closing from another part of the house broke the flow of our conversation.

"Beth?" Mum's call sailed from the kitchen. "Come help out!"

"Hey, Miss S." Tali greeted her as we both headed into the kitchen.

   We tackled each paper bag one by one and soon what seemed like a dozen of them were spread out on the kitchen cabinet.

"How are you, Tali?" Mum directed a warm smile as she added the last bag to the others before shooting a glare at me.

"Whud?" The grapes in my mouth muffled my speech.

"How about you unpack everything before stuffing your face?"

"Right." I picked a few more and shoved them in quicker than Mum could register. "Sorry."

***

   After hanging out in my room for a while, Talise and I decided to swing by a familiar spot we visited almost every week.

"Mum, we're going to Mr. Shin's!" I yelled, my hand gripping the kitchen's door handle.

"Not without doing your homework, you're not." Her warning tone came from the living room.

"Well, what do you think Tali and I were doing?"

"Definitely anything else."

"Byeee."

"Hmmhmm."

"What?" Tali had on one of my exclusive accusing stares for her as I asked. "I'll do it when I get back. I'm going to explode if I don't go to Mr Shin's this week."

"You're no fun when you become like me." She shook her head. "By the way, are you done with the Neuroskel?"

   Usually I'd be glad in her attempt to show interest in my remakes since my mum was simply a lost cause in even pretending to understand them and no Zavolonian knew what I did in the tunnels (thank God). Her question this time, however, resurfaced the tunnel incident that occurred today. Instantly, the aftertaste of grapes in my mouth turned sour.

"Something else happened today," I grimaced, carrying on to narrate what happened.

"And you still don't recognize the voice?"

"No. Not a clue."

   It was the strangest thing. I was starting to think maybe my mind was just playing tricks on me.

"You know..." The incoming smile on her face was already a huge giveaway.

"No."

"You haven't even heard me out yet. I could help you get your stuff back. I'm pretty sure they found out about you and will be guarding the place now. You'll need an experienced—"

"Trespasser? Yeah, I don't think the school will take a liking to a nonstudent sneaking around school grounds," I responded, shaking my head.

"They wouldn't have to. It's not like I'm going to get caught."

"This isn't one of your challenges Tali." I didn't drop the seriousness in my tone. "You could get into serious trouble."

"Fine." She replied with an eye roll, sighing. "And I was worried about you turning into me."

***

"You girls came just in time." Mr. Shin's soft tone matched the warmth of his bookstore/coffee shop. "Delivery day was early today."

"Hey, Mr. Shin," we greeted in unison.

  The lilac freshness of the book section of 'Drinks and Reads' flooded everywhere as always.

"This delivery came with a lot of classics. Limited editions too." He winked toward me at that last statement.

  When I looked at those brown irises keenly enough sometimes, the colour was betrayed by the original specks of purple-green, the standard eye colour for Fomads, a non-human species. As time went on, it was getting harder and harder for the government to hide the other forms of life in the galaxy that walked with us on planet earth.

   It didn't take a lot of research to find out what kind of species Mr. Shin was after a contact lens slip up some years back. Despite the many questions I had, I knew it wouldn't be best if he knew Tali and I were aware.

   The discussions on the possibility of others among us always ended in heated debates. Polls and interviews have also shown the percentage of the public's acceptance of the idea of aliens and none looked promising. I blamed the hundreds of years that portrayed anything new and different as scary and harmful.

   Sometimes though, I think he knows we know.

"Talise, the new collection of Jackie Felton's Escapades are at the far left corner." He smiled.

"Great! I can't wait to see what impossible code she cracks this time!"

"And Beth, 1980 Alternate Comics. Same spot."

"Thanks, Mr. Shin."

"Have fun girls."

   Tali and I secured our usual spot in the coffee shop that had an enjoining door with the comic book store. As usual, its ever peaceful environment merged with the aroma of coffee and pastries was enough to lose myself in those glossy pages of heroism, supernatural abilities, technology and possibilities of the impossible.

A/N: 70 reads in three days!!! Thank you so much🎊❤️!

Tag a friend/interested reader in the comments for a dedication🎉.

I'll be picking one person randomly😌.

Published 15th September, 2021.

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