Content

adjective: in a state of peaceful happiness or satisfaction.

The dictionary really needs to go into more detail from time to time.

The week passed mainly without events. Each day seemed very much the same as before. Get up, hugged by Xandrell, breakfast, hugged by Xandrell, walk to school, hugged by Xandrell, lessons, hugged by Xandrell, break, hugged by Charlie, more lessons, some music group at lunchtime, more lessons, hugged by Xandrell, walked home, hugged by Xandrell until dinner, then after dinner hugged by him while doing homework, and finally getting rid of him when I went to bed.

I woke Saturday morning however, I had an unbearable ache in my abdomen. I gave a long low groan, trying to force myself out of bed, when Xandrell threw open the door and rushed forwards to me.

"What's wrong?" he immediately asked. "I heard you moan, are you in pain?"

"Just a bit." I grunted struggling upright. "I'll be fine once I'm moving around a bit."

"...Amy... what the heck is that?" asked Xandrell looking horrified, staring at the front of my pyjama bottoms.

I closed my eyes and groaned again before looking down at the bloodstained front of my pyjama's. "It's nothing." I said quickly, dashing over to my wardrobe and rifling through the drawers.

"It is!" cried Xandrell, sounding more and more alarmed by the minute. "Amy, what's wrong with you?"

I sighed and closed my eyes. "You're ridiculous." I muttered, finding a little green packet and some underwear before dashing out towards the bathroom. "You can fix like spaceships and stuff apparently, but you have no idea what a period is."

Well this would have to go on my list of human things I've had to explain to him

1. Bikes

2. Social statuses in school

3. School in general

4. Love on Earth

5. Jealousy

6. Cups of tea

So number seven, periods. Oh and while I was on the subject, I may as well have gotten it out of the way, number eight, why women have periods.

He waited patiently outside the bathroom door until I emerged. "Are you better now my love?"

"What have I said about the 'My Love' crap?!" I told him moodily. "And yes, I'm fine thank you."

"So what do we have planned for today?" he asked wandering along warily behind me.

"As far as I can tell, we have a busy day of nothing ahead of us." I muttered walking back to my bedroom and closing the door on him. "Why?"

"I went out in the night." he whispered through the crack in the door. "I found something you might like to see."

I sighed as I quickly dressed. Some Earth thing obviously that I'd probably seen a hundred times over, yet he'd gotten all excited over it.

When I finally emerged from my room, Xandrell grinned at me and grabbed my hand, dashing down the stairs and out the door, practically dragging me along behind him. My knees began to ache as we ran down the main road together before turning right, into the park. He sprinted over the grass dragging me along behind me in the direction of the huge field, surrounded by hedges. Finally, we stopped in front of the big oak that stood in the field. Here he looked at me expectantly, his eyes almost lit up with happiness.

"Yeah, it's a tree." I said folding my arms. "Big whoop. Do you have a point?"

He grinned his usual annoying smile. "Can you climb trees?" he asked in hushed tones.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "I haven't climbed a tree since I was ten. Maybe younger. It's the sort of thing you tend to grow out of here." He rolled his eyes and chuckled before grabbing my wrist and pulling me forward. In one swift movement I was up on his back. "What the..." I stuttered, but that was all I could get out before he leapt at the lowest branch, which was about five feet up and beginning to scramble through the reaching boughs.

I gasped and wrapped my legs around his middle, practically strangling him with my arms around his neck. Every so often, a branch slapped me around the face, probably the tree's way of telling me we shouldn't be there. Finally after about a minute of Xandrell's nimble climbing he paused, resting a hand against the trunk of the oak, breathing heavily. "We're here." he whispered tensely.

I glanced around. "Oh, good. The middle of a tree." I groaned. Yeah, this was where I wanted to be on a Saturday morning when I was due to have heavy mood swings.

He grinned at me over his shoulder. "You are so unperceptive Amy." he gave a low chuckle, he began to creep along one of the thicker branches, with me still clinging on to him. "Don't make a sound." he whispered as he carefully pushed aside a clump of leaves. I gave a tiny gasp as he did so.

On a small fork in the branch was a little nest. Inside were three of the strangest birds I had ever seen all curled up sleeping. They had a little bit of dark fuzz on the tops of their tiny heads, and their tiny wings were scarcely covered in dark fluff. Their little yellow beaks seemed to open and close a fraction, and I could almost imagine tiny snores coming out of them.

"What are they?" I whispered, seriously confused. They were unlike any bird I'd ever seen.

"They're baby sparrows." he whispered back. "I found them here last night chirping for their mother. I ended up sitting up here with them until they went to sleep. I don't know why, I don't think they liked being alone."

I immediately felt a pang in my chest, as I did when I saw a baby anything. "Poor things." I murmured.

"Where do you suppose their mother is?" he asked looking up at me. "Why has she left them on their own?"

I sighed and looked down at the helpless featherless creatures in the nest. "You have to remember that... well sparrows are pretty low down on the food chain. A fox or a hawk might have got her."

Xandrell looked like he was going to be sick. "That's horrible."

"That's life." I told him quietly. "Survival of the fittest, evolution, food chain, all that crap. It's a hard world here if you're not a prince, Xandrell. The sooner you realise that, the sooner you can start fitting in."

"I suppose." he muttered. "But what are we going to do about them?"

I looked down at the tiny vulnerable babies as one of them opened its beady little eyes and looked up at me. My heart broke as I spoke. "We can't do anything. We can just leave them and hope their mother comes back."

I could tell Xandrell was as heartbroken as I was to do this, but slowly he lowered the cluster of leaves to hide the baby birds from view. For a long moment, we both just sat, completely motionless. Finally, Xandrell began to retreat along the branch, back to nearer the trunk, before reaching up to the next branch. We climbed a lot slower this time, obviously both deep in thought. After about five minutes of silent ascent, we finally stopped. I carefully slid off of Xandrell's back and sat carefully on a bough that seemed a lot thinner than the last one we had stopped on had been. The leaves around here seemed a more vibrant green than the ones where we had found the chicks.

"Do you feel safe there?" asked Xandrell crawling a little further along the branch.

"Why are you going to jump up and down now?" I muttered.

He smiled at me. "Try to stand up."

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you kidding? Do you mean so I can fall off when you jump up and down? I'm sure you'd love another excuse to use your Vederic."

"Don't say it like it's a bad thing!" he snapped with a grin. "Yes, I'd love to get my Vederic out from time to time, wouldn't... oh stop it Amy!" he snapped as I collapsed into a fit of giggles. "You and I both know what I mean by Vederic."

"Your favourite toy." I sniggered, and when he nodded I couldn't control my laughter.

"You have a slightly dirty mind don't you." Xandrell said curiously, before shaking his head and clambering upright, pushing his hand through the canopy of the tree and grinning down at me. "You ready?"

"What exactly am I preparing myself for?" I asked, but before he could answer, he had pushed the canopy aside and brilliant sunlight shone down into my face. I gasped and shielded my eyes with my hands. "What the hell are you trying to do, blind me?" I yelped.

He chuckled lightly and held out a hand towards me. "Do you want to see the view?"

"Uh..." I looked at his hand. Did I really trust him that much?...

... oh screw it, I'd always been a bit of a risk taker.

Before I could trust my mouth to say anything, I gripped his hand. He quickly lifted me up so he was holding me up on one of his shoulders, so I could see out through the canopy.

It really was breathtaking. We were at the top of the big oak, right at the top! No-one had ever managed to climb this high. We could see right over the farmland, over the lakes and rivers, even past the skyline of the city at least ten miles away. We could still see the slightly pink-ish clouds of the sunrise, even though the sun was already a little further up in the sky. A gentle breeze blew my fringe out of my face and made me feel more strangely alive than I had in years.

"This is incredible!" I whispered, an elated smile tugging at my lips. I took a deep breath and yelled "HELLO WORLD!"

Somewhere, far below us, I heard an old man shouting something. I couldn't totally work it out, but I heard the words 'disruptive' and 'teenagers' make their way up. I immediately blushed and looked around at Xandrell, wondering if we should stop. He glanced up at me, grinned before shouting himself. "HELLO!"

The words echoed out over the farmland. Somewhere in the distance, I heard a dog barking a reply, and the cows lowing in response. We both took up the cry now, listening as the birds began to twitter in the trees around us, and the wind blew stronger, greeting us.

After about half an hour of sitting at the top of the tree, Xandrell carefully put me back on his back and began to climb back down the trunk of the tree. Finally when we reached the bottom, I slid off his back and we simply stood and grinned at one another. "Well that killed an hour." I said, shrugging one shoulder. "What do you want to do next?"

Xandrell looked thoughtful for a moment. "I want to learn more about your world." he said after a while. "It's all well and good learning about these things in classes, but a whole other thing to feel them. I mean, that breeze, up there in the tree, I understand how it works. We studied the logics behind it, but I never ever thought that that was what it would feel like." He slipped his hand into mine and looked at me imploringly. "Show me your world, Amy!"

So we spent most of the day, experiencing things I wouldn't normally think about in a normal day in a whole new light. I took him into the town centre on the bus. Until now, he'd only popped down to the corner shop at the end of our road if we'd needed anything. It was almost amusing the way he looked around, curiously but at the same time tense with excitement. I ended up taking him into Burger King and getting him a burger, and to top it off, a toffee ice cream despite the fact that he didn't actually need to eat. For Xandrell, it was merely 'experimenting with Earth flavours' as he put it. I laughed when he took his first bite. He almost seemed to go into a trance. I think he enjoyed it. He certainly ate all of it. I'm not sure it could have touched the sides. We wandered through the town square after that. He kept pausing when he saw street performers, before poking me and asking what they were doing. In the end, I had to hold his hand and lead him through the crowds. At one point, a little dog dashed up to him and started barking at him, obviously after attention, and wouldn't move however much the owner tried to pull it away. I immediately bent down to make a fuss of it. Xandrell wasn't so sure at first but after a minute with my encouragement, he also knelt down and started scratching the dog behind its ears. He almost seemed to start enjoying himself before the owner led the dog away, and I led Xandrell in the other direction. At about three o'clock, I thought I'd let him in on one of the ultimate teen experiences. Bowling.

After the ordeal of getting shoes, in which Xandrell had gotten seriously confused about his size and told the girl behind the counter "well I'm pretty big I guess..." and she accused him of attempting to violate her (groan-worthy), I led him over towards our lane. The one thing I hadn't banked on when coming here was the prospect of there being other people from my school there. The popular clique, you know the sort, boys in tracksuits with their hair gelled right up, and blonde ditzy girls wearing tops that they were practically falling out of. I really should've thought ahead I supposed now, considering it was three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon. Although frankly, I would've thought that most of them would've waited until the evening. But then, I disputed, their Saturday evenings would've been far too filled up with going out and getting drunk to do fun things like bowling with their friends.

They muttered things when they saw that we were on the lane next to them. I heard the words 'dorks' and 'geeks' strewn around in there somewhere, but I decided to ignore it.

"So what do I do?" asked Xandrell, frowning down the alley at the pins.

"Basically, you throw the ball down the alley to knock down the white pins." I explained, tightening my shoes.

He looked around at me shocked. "But why are the ball and the pins at war?" he exclaimed. "Surely they won't stand a chance against the ball!"

I rubbed my temple before picking up a bowling ball. "Look, watch me." I instructed him. "I'll show you how."

I was a pretty good bowler... well about average actually. It was one of the few sports I could actually get a decent score in. I rolled the ball down the alley and got a strike first turn. I twirled on the spot and wandered back to where Xandrell was sitting looking horrified, clutching a ball in his lap. "This game is barbaric!" he whispered. "Those pins won't be going home to their children tonight!"

"Xandrell..." I said slowly, trying to keep my temper under control. I think I was being a bit patronising. "Number one, they are wooden pins. Their destiny is to be knocked down by the bowling ball. Number two, look down there, they got right back up."

He looked down the alley, and his face immediately relaxed when he saw the ten pins stood upright at the end of it. "So they're ok?"

"They're fine." I told him patting him on the shoulder. "Go on then, go knock down those pins."

He grinned at me got to his feet, walked up the alley, swung the ball back... and promptly dropped it. The populars roared with laughter as the bowling ball fell to the floor with an almighty crash. He quickly flapped around, trying to pick it up without anyone really noticing, before glaring up at the populars. I saw anger and hatred in his eyes.

"Have another go." I encouraged him, quickly picking up the ball for him. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea.

"Can't I just bowl that ball into their faces?" he muttered.

"It's only a bit of fun!" I told him anxiously. "Come on, try again!"

He took the ball off of me and wandered over to the alley again, before tossing it down the alley, not really looking, still glaring at the populars. I watched as the ball rolled down the alley... and knocked down all the pins. My mouth dropped open as did many of the populars. They muttered something about beginners luck as he made his way back to the wooden seat.

"How did you do that?" I hissed when he got back to his seat.

"I did what you did." he muttered. "Exactly what you told me to."

"Well keep doing it!" I told him earnestly. This would be something to rub in the populars' faces on Monday.

Xandrell bowled a completely perfect game, and by about halfway through, the popular kids weren't laughing anymore. I bowled a fairly varied game. I managed to get two more strikes, two spares and the rest I had at least one pin still up. Still between the two of us, we managed to beat the total score of the eight popular kids. We left feeling rather pleased with ourselves, while they still sat looking seriously annoyed that a pair of 'geeks' had managed to beat them in a sport.

When we left, it was five o'clock in the evening, and we decided we ought to head home. We caught the bus back, but just as we passed the park, we looked at one another, and I could tell we had the same idea. So we got off the bus and hurried inside. Xandrell pulled me up onto his back and began to sprint up through the branches until we reached the topmost bough. There were fewer leaves here, and we had a clear view of the west horizon, so we settled down and watched the sunset.

It was funny. It was only here, sitting with him that I really noticed the colours of the sunset. I could really see the intricate blends of red and orange and pink.

"I had a really great day today." he said, intertwining his fingers with mine and resting his chin on the top of my head.

"Me too." I said leaning into his chest. "Do you know, I've lived on this planet for sixteen years, but you never do these things until someone comes to visit."

He chuckled and kissed me lightly on the cheek. "I love every moment I spend with you. Do you like spending time with me?"

"Occasionally." I muttered, giggling when I saw him pull a slightly hurt face. "I'm kidding. I do like spending time with you when you're not being a dork."

"Thank you Miss Tact." he muttered, 'Amy Wren' style so I giggled. I was really wearing off on him.

After about half an hour of sitting there, contentedly watching the sun go down, he gently pulled me back onto his back and climbed down the tree. We made our way back home in silence. As I pushed open the front door however, I could tell something was not the same.

"Hello?" I called to the house at large.

No answer came at first, and then Jenny emerged from the kitchen, her face shining. "Everyone's in the garden." she said happily. "Amy, guess who's here!"

I frowned and walked to the back window that overlooked the garden. My mother was sitting out in a garden chair clutching a glass of lemonade, smiling as I had not seen her smile in a long time. Sitting beside her was a large bespectacled man with his head shaved. My jaw dropped as I saw him.

"Holy crap." I whispered. "When did Dad get home?"