Chapter 8. Different

“Alena,” a woman’s voice whispered. I tried to open my eyes, only to realize that it was not closed from the start. The only problem was a white blanket seemed to cover my vision. Everything was hazy, and I could only hear the woman’s voice and see the outline of her face. The rest was one muddled piece of art. Like watercolors were poured inside a container, its colors swirling and combining with each other.

“Alena,” the woman repeated. She had a soothing quality in her voice, yet from her tone, it was as if she was about to cry. “I’m so sorry for leaving you. You won’t understand now, but someday you will.” My mouth opened to respond. Not a single word was uttered. I was so frustrated.

The woman leaned in. She had the most wonderful smell of spring. Like someone I knew. Someone with orange eyes and pale skin. “It’s almost time for you to wake up Alena,” whispered the woman to my ear. I raised my hand to hold her. It touched nothing but air.

“Wake up my daughter.”

“Wake up.”

“Wake up.”

“Tahti, is your bride dead? She’s not waking up.”

My eyes opened. For a moment, I was completely immobile, staring at the faces of three gorgeous ladies. One of them was wearing a worried expression. Tahti. So aliens get worried too, I wondered as I pushed myself off the bed. Tahti immediately relaxed.

“What are you all doing here?” I mumbled, shaking the dizziness away. The dream was instantly forgotten.

Tahti took a step forward. “Gina has been trying to wake you up for the past 10 minutes and you weren’t responding. The alarm you have set up in your mobile rang 30 minutes ago. We were. . .” Her brows crinkled. I realized that she didn’t know what being worried meant, seeing that she didn’t know much about emotions.

“Worried,” I supplied, wiping the sweat on my face. That was strange, I thought. “It’s called being worried or anxious Tahti. It means you are troubled about something.” In this case it was me.

“Yes that,” she said. “Your vital signs were normal, so we didn’t know what the problem was. You simply refused to wake up. Jorge said she would smash your mobile phone, but you didn’t open your eyes.”

Jorge snickered a few feet from me. “The thing blared and beeped for every five minutes, I just wanted to make it stop.”

At the mention of the time, my whole body turned rigid. “Wait! Dang!” was all I said before I dashed inside the bathroom, getting naked at once. The door that I wasn’t able to lock opened a tiny bit. “Dang it Tahti, don’t peek.”

“I apologize Alena, but why are you in a hurry?” she mumbled from the crack.

“It’s the first day of school,” I shouted so she would hear me over the shower. “Now leave me alone. I need to prepare because I don’t want to be late.”

A quick shower and change of outfits later, I tucked my mobile to my back pocket and grabbed the keys to my car before getting out the door. I was in such a hurry that I only noticed my other passengers as I buckled the seat belt. “What the freaking hell are you three doing?”

Jorge was the first one to speak. “We’re riding to school with you.”

“What school? Who said anything about school?” My voice was getting louder with every question. I turned to Tahti who was riding shotgun. “Explain before I explode.”

She stared at me calmly. “Jorge and Gina want to go to the school. It would give us tremendous opportunity to study the human life, especially emotions.”

I grit my teeth. “You don’t simply go to school Tahti. You need paper works for that.”

Gina tapped me on the shoulder, making me shift my attention to her at the back. “Already taken cared of,” she said cheerfully. “We talked to head cheerleader Chloe who has an uncle in the school board. We’re able to get in because of that.”

I shook my head in dismay. “And they allowed you just like that?”

“Well if it didn’t work out, we could always convince them,” Jorge murmured.

“Whatever, we’re running late. If you’re riding to school with me then you guys need to stay quiet. Are we clear?” I didn’t want to sound like a diva, but being late was not on top of my list. Oh well. Let me just apologize later.

“Okay,” the trio agreed.

A couple of minutes after, I parked the car to one of the designated spots and killed the engine. Unbuckling the seatbelt, I turned around to stare at the three. It was high time that I gave them a lecture. They wouldn’t be prevented from coming to school anyway. At least not by me. Who knew what they’d do?

“You want to go to school, be my guest,” I said. Gina nodded enthusiastically. Well wait till you enter the institution, I thought bitterly. You’ll never get out alive. “But just a friendly reminder. My school, my rules. If you want to stay here with me, then you need to follow what I say.”

“I didn’t know that your family owned the school,” Tahti asked with a confused look. “It appears like mother have a lot of investments.”

“No I didn’t mean I own the school literally.” I faced palmed myself.

“Oh I read that in the internet,” Jorge supplied with a bored tone. “It’s called being wealthy on earth.”

Tahti blinked a couple of times. “So what do you call me?”

“I think you’re called gold digger,” Gina said, shrugging. “When you go out with wealthy people and you’re not wealthy, that’s what they call you here oh holy one… err Tahti.”

Tahti smiled with a hint of understanding. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You got it all wrong,” I said, wanting to zap myself away from planet earth and this madness. It would be so tempting to explain how weird and wrong they were, but unfortunately, according to my wristwatch we only had a couple of minutes left till the bell rings, and I needed to show them around first.

I snapped my fingers to get their attention. “Listen up. School is where a lot of cliché happens.”

“I thought it’s where you learn?” Tahti said, cutting me off.

“That too,” I grumbled. “But it’s only the beginning. School is a battlefield you hear me? And you need to fight the war. Bullies are everywhere. If you’re not smart about it you’ll get teased, maligned, humiliated in front of your friends, and that is if you even have any.”

Jorge raised her hand. “Wait, wait. There are bulls inside the school? I thought they only keep those animals in the farm or pastures?”

I rolled my eyes at her. “Not bulls Jorge, bullies. It’s a different breed of bull. Consider them humans with nasty behaviors. You may want to steer clear away from those types. If there are guys, they will try to hit on you. Stay away from those too.”

“We’re not interested in men,” Gina chuckled. “We like pussycats remember?”

“Oh I remember alright,” I murmured darkly. “Which brings me to another advice. Do not tell them that you’re lesbians. It will just complicate things for you.”

Jorge smirked. “Looks like someone is not embracing the rainbow way.” She flipped her lustrous hair behind her shoulder. “What was that word you said earlier? Troubled? Well do not be troubled Alena, we can handle it. Unlike someone, we’re loud and proud, or whatever they called it on the net. Right Tahti?”

“Precisely,” Tahti said, touching my arm. An electric current ran through my skin, making me jerk my hand away. She smiled for some unfathomable reason. “We know that you are uncomfortable with us being alien, so we will do everything to blend in for your sake.”

Somehow, the unease I felt earlier seemed to vanish as I stared into her eyes. “You promise?” I whispered.

“Yes Alena. Now let’s go inside the school,” she said. “Nothing bad is going to happen.”

“I sure hope so.”

For the first time in what seemed like forever, I walked into the school with three people beside me. Ha! That reminded me of the lyrics of that song, first time in forever. Sheesh! What a dork.

Tahti tapped me on the arm as we made our way inside the building. “Why is your head lowered Alena? Do you have a headache?”

“No,” I mumbled. “I’m just checking if my shoelaces are untied.” Wrong! I was so used to lowering my head that it became a habit. A very bad one. Ever since I was bullied because of the scar on my forehead as a kid, I’d find every excuse to cover it, whether lowering my head or having bangs just so other people wouldn’t see it. Add to that the glowing eyes factor, which wasn’t much of a problem nowadays, and you got yourself a very insecure girl.

“So where are we going?” Jorge asked. She and Gina were flanking me and Tahti. “And why are they all staring?”

“We’re going to get the class schedule. And they’re staring because the three of you look like models.”

As we turned the corner, I almost collided with my boyfriend. Good thing Tahti pulled me to her side before that happened. “Alena,” Niko said, brushing his hair away from his face. “You didn’t call me earlier.”

“I got up late, sorry.” I gave him an apologetic look. Very much like the look I delivered to him yesterday when I caught up with him as he ran out of the kitchen after hearing me lie about being lesbian. It took a while before I convinced Niko that I was only kidding and I wanted to be with him.

Niko gave me an appraising look after he scanned my clothes. “New outfit?” he asked, referring to my tight jeans and top. “You look. . . Wow. . . It’s not your usual style but I like it.”

“Everything you see was given to her by Tahti,” Gina said. “Our great leader’s generosity knows no bounds.”

Niko’s eyebrows shot up. “Huh?”

“You wouldn’t understand it human,” Jorge snickered.

Niko grabbed my arm, earning him a disapproving look from the aliens. He dragged me a few feet away from them. “First Tahti, now those two,” he whispered. “Who are they Alena and what are they doing here? I’m so confused.”

How was I supposed to say that they were aliens? “They’re my new friends,” was my lame excuse.

“I thought you didn’t like to socialize? Now there are three weirdoes with you.”

I definitely agreed with the weird part, but there was no need to tell him that. “They’re with me okay? I don’t know how long they’ll be staying, but as long as they are, please, please just try to be patient with them. Can you do that?” I touched his arm. “For me?”

My boyfriend was putty in my hands. I hated to ask that of him, but what could I do? His shoulders seemed to sag. “Okay. But they better not influence my pure Alena with bad things. Or else,” he threatened.

I couldn’t help but laugh at his statement. “Pure? What am I holy water?”

He smiled, his blue eyes twinkling. “You’re a good person. That’s why I love you.”

The bell rang, saving me from the trouble of replying. Whew! It was cliché to say this, but I was totally saved by the bell. Oh snap! I almost forgot to get our schedules. Running back to the three girls after giving Niko a quick wave, I gave them a panicked look. “I don’t know where your classrooms are.”

“Don’t worry,” Tahti said, guiding me herself, as if she already knew where she was going. “I called Chloe and she told me what to do. The four of us share the same classes.”

“We do?” I asked as she ushered me inside a classroom, dragging me all the way to the back where I felt everyone’s eyes focused on us.

“Yes of course. Chloe the cheerleader wouldn’t lie to me.” The four of us took a seat. I was in the far left corner, Tahti to my right, Gina, then Jorge. It was a comfortable arrangement, except for that fact that everyone seemed to be talking in low buzz about me and the three hotties. They were probably wondering what a freak like me was doing with them.

A few seconds later, the teacher entered the classroom. Oh, I thought gleefully, it was Ms. Stewart, a totally chill teacher that everybody loved. “Hey everyone,” she said after setting her things down and doing what teacher does before the class. “I’m Ms. Stewart your homeroom teacher. If anyone has questions about anything at all, you can ask me.” She winked flirtatiously, looking straight at the back to us. Ugh. Were teachers supposed to do that?

Tahti was raising her hand before I knew it. Oh my God. What was she up to? I was about to lower it, but the teacher called her before I could do anything. “Yes?” asked Ms. Stewart with a friendly smile. “Any questions?”

“What is the meaning of happiness Ms. Stewart?” Tahti cocked her head to the side. The whole class got silent.

The teacher gave her a weird look. “I’m not sure why you’re asking me that, but for the sake of asking.” She cleared her throat. “Happiness is when you’re with someone you love and she or he loves you back, or something like that.”

“Well how will you know if she loves you back?” Tahti asked a following question.

“That’s a hard one.” The teacher looked outside the window, seeming to consider. “I guess if she tells you so? But if she doesn’t, then you need to look at the signs.”

“Like a banner?”

Ms. Stewart stifled a smile. “No, not like a banner, though it would be easier if people just wear one when they’re in love. What I meant was if she looks at you differently. She doesn’t say it directly, but her actions tell you the truth. In some countries, they show their like in the form of courting. They give flowers, say sweet things, something to that effect. Some even declare their love in front of many people.”

“Oh in that case,” Tahti murmured. Pushing herself off her chair, all of us looked as the alien made her way to the front of the room. She pointed to me, making me gulp the lump in my throat.

“Tahti, get back here,” I said, a weakening feeling in my legs. She was about to do something weird, and I didn’t know if I could survive it.

“Alena.” She paused. “I’m declaring my like for you.” Her voice was loud and clear, even echoing along the hallway. Oh God no. “From now on, I will court you until you willingly agree to be my wife.”

The whole room was deadly quiet. There were no sounds of breathing or anything at all. It was driving me mad. The clock ticked. Sweat dropped from my forehead. I thought it was the end of the world. As if a bomb has exploded, everyone went insane, cheering and clapping, looking at me or Tahti who was showing a genuine smile in front.

Dang. What have you done? You officially placed me on the spotlight, I thought as I laid my head against the table of the chair. Things were bound to get different. I could feel it.