Chapter 3

Days after my awakening, Jorge and Gina deemed that I was ready to go outside. They thought that I had enough time cooped in the house and was more or less ready to be immersed to the human life. They still haven't fully told me about the planet where we came from. As long we were on Earth, the focus of the study should be here, they said.

"Wear your cap Aleli," Jorge instructed. "The blue one that Tahti gave you."

"Why?" I glanced down. "Vogue says that it will clash with my outfit." I smiled to myself. I was able to say Vogue clearly this time. In the days that we were inside the house, Jorge and Gina were helping me improve my speech. It was almost normal. Almost. They also allowed me to study magazines and local pop cultures, though some things were simply lost to me.

Jorge stopped to look at my clothes. She was supposedly on her way to the kitchen to grab her handbag. "Well you know what?" she said. "Vogue lied. In this world people lie left and right. They say they're fine when they clearly aren't. They say they read the terms and conditions before agreeing to something. And Vogue says that the cap will make your outfit ugly when it won't. Lies, all lies." She continued down the kitchen.

"But Jorgie," I whined. It made me smile again. Teenagers whined a lot, the magazine said.

"I said call me mommy."

I rolled my eyes. She was Jorgie to me, not mommy. Gina poked her head in the living room. "I caught you rolling your eyes," she said. "What did we tell you about that?"

"Soweee," I mumbled. "But Jorgie does it a lot. Why are you guys allowed to do it and I'm not?" I frowned both at my sentiments and the word I said. It should have been sorry, not sowee. I had to catch up if I was to play human well like Tahti wanted me to. My heart made this fluttery feeling at the thought of her. It always did when it came to her. I wonder why.

"Because you're a child," Gina said. "Children are not supposed to do it."

"We are the same age."

"You are a few days old. We have been living for hundreds of years." She sighed. "I don't expect you to get it, but please try to control yourself Aleli. Tahti would want that."

"Okay."

Jorge reappeared from the kitchen. She had her handbag, along with the cap she was referring to. She tossed the latter to me, which I hastily placed on my head. "Our stop for today is the mall." she said. "It's where all the humans gather to socialize and boast to one another. Let's go."

The three of us rode what they called a car. Tahti wasn't with us for the day. She has been looking for clues pertaining to Alena, making her come home late at night and leave early in the morning. But it wasn't always like that. There were times when she'd stay in the house and teach me stuff too. Those were my favorite days. Jorge and Gina were good company, but Tahti? Tahti was different. I liked her the most.

"It's as the magazine said," I murmured to myself upon stepping on the entrance. "The mall really is a huge place."

Jorge heard me. "This is nothing compared to what we have back home. But this will have to do for now." She offered her arm. "Let's go to the second floor. That's where the Apple store is. We'll buy you a phone, your laptop, and whatever a teenager needs."

I skipped to her and grabbed her hand. "I've been seeing this Apple thingy in the magazine. We're going to buy a fruit?"

Gina went to my other side. "No. It's a kind of technology here on earth. Humans have a way of naming things after their food." She guided me to the moving platform, the escalator. I stared quickly at the sticker on the side. Why would the humans put an image of a falling man there? Humans were strange as the books said.

"Imagine calling a product after a fruit," Jorge said. "Apple." She smirked.

We reached the store in a few. The two talked to someone from the shop while I walked around to check on the products. I saw two guys talking near the mobile section. It wasn't my intention to overhear their conversation. "I'm telling you man," said the first boy. He was making gestures with his fingers. "We dated, then bam! I left her for my side biach. Thug life baby."

The second boy clapped hands with him. "Thug life chose you though."

What was this life they were talking about? It wasn't in anything I have read. I decided to come up to them and ask. This information could be valuable. "Uhm excuse me."

The two turned to me. "What do you want lady? We have money to spend aight? We're just waiting for mom."

I frowned. "I do realize that. But what is this thug life you have been speaking of?"

"She kidding us right now?" the first boy spoke. "Hey lady, you kidding us?"

I stood there and blinked a couple of times. Why would I kid them? "No."

The second boy leaned to his friend. "Dude, I heard of people like her. She's—" He whispered something to the other boy, which I didn't hear. They turned to me again. "How old are you lady? Do you belong to a syndicate or something?"

"What is that? No I don't."

"Cause we're just 9 year olds you see. But you can't bully us, or something. . ."

"Oh. You're older than me. I'm only 27 days old."

"Man, this woman is taking an added dose of aspirin," said the first boy. "I can't be seen with the likes of her. Let's indulge her so she'll leave." He ran his gaze to me. "You were asking about the thug life aight?" I nodded. "Okay Chucky, explain it to her." He pushed the other boy in front of me."

Chucky looked momentarily unsure of himself before explaining. "Well, uhm. Thug life is when, uhm, you know, you go against the norm. Like when your momma says to sleep at 8, but then you sleep at 8:10. You're breaking the rules. You're tight. You're swag, okay?"

"O-okay."

"Tell you what lady. You seem like a cool person after all. We'll give you our number and ring you to teach you more stuff. Our mom is at the checkout counter, so we have to go." He glanced at his companion. "Hurry Luke, write your number on a paper."

"I don't have a paper Chucky."

"You're always unprepared." Chucky searched his pockets until he found a pen. He took my arm to my surprise and wrote numbers on my palm. "That's my contact number lady." He winked. "Don't call after 7. I have a curfew. And remember, I have dibs on you."

"What is this dibs?"

"It's like saying that I'm first or something," Chucky said. "Like the bro code. If you have dibs, then other guys should back off."

Luke pushed Chucky again. "That's not necessarily true," Luke said. "Even if you're the first, there's no guarantee that you'll stick together aight?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"It means that sometimes being the first one is not an assurance that you'll end up. It's like love. There's this girl. Name was Felicia. She was my first everything. First girl that I allowed to sit with me on the bump car. Man, I even saved up for our smoothie date."

"Then what happened?" Ooooh! This was exciting.

Luke 's dreamy look disappeared. "But then came Samantha." He snapped his fingers. "Girl was so good that Felicia just up and vanished from my mind. Just like that. So you see lady, just because someone has the dibs does not mean that it's permanent. You can apply that with someone you like."

Someone I liked? Like Tahti? "Thank you. I'm starting to understand now," I said.

"Good." His eyes widened. "Oh geez, mom is looking for us. Come on Chucky, let's scram." He ran away screaming, "Thug life!"

"Thug life," Chucky said after him, leaving me alone.

Jorge came up to me. She was with Gina and a store personnel. "Who were those kids?" Jorge asked.

"Luke and Chucky."

"Hmmm." She turned to Gina. "By the way, I was going to ask you what color of case you want." The store personnel showed me two. One was designed with stars, while the other was plain black. "I think the black is sleeker," Jorge said. "But which do you prefer?"

I checked the designs. Both of them were cute. Vogue said that black was always fashionable, but the cover with stars was also appealing. Chucky's voice rang in my head. I smiled and shrug. "I don't want either. I'll use the phone without it."

The attendant scowled. I imagined that it was what one would look like if she was insulted as the books said. "But we handpicked these designs for you ma'am," she said. "It's basically an injustice to use the phone without cover. It's just wrong."

"Oh well," Jorge said. "If Aleli doesn't want it, then we shouldn't force her. Let's go and pay for the things Gina. Our leader gave us a lot of money to spend." I winked at the personnel before she followed the two. Thug life.

We came out of the store with paper bags in hand. They got me a device which they had a name that ended with the word book. How could it be a book when it didn't look like one. Weird. They also got me headphones for music, a tablet, and a phone. I made a mental note to store Chucky's number on it. Maybe I have made my new friend as the magazine said.

We went to a cafe next. We were seated on the plush chairs when Jorge said, "This is the coffee shop Aleli. The place where you buy coffee and make it last for as long as possible." She pointed to a woman in the next table. "See her?" Jorge said. "She'll stay here for 4 hours. That's how long the coffee last."

"Why?"

"That's just the way things are on Earth," Gina supplied. "And if you like tea, they have what you call tea bags."

"They drink it from their bag?"

"It's what they call the small pouches," Jorge explained. "There are a lot of things that you have to understand with them. Humans are unlike other species in the universe. Have you been reading the information I told you to read?"

"About our neighboring planet? Yes Jorgie, I did. They are far more advanced than humans."

"That they are." She touched her chin. "Tell you what. I'm allowing you to go around the mall for an hour and explore by yourself. It will be a good experience."

Gina stared worriedly at her. "Is that a good idea? Aleli is just a child. She might get hurt."

"She won't. Besides, there are lots of human guards in the mall. As long as she doesn't leave, we'll be easily alerted when trouble happens." Jorge raised her brows at me. "You want to?"

Oh gosh. This was an opportunity that I have always yearned for. I clapped my hands together excitedly before leaning in for a quick hug. "Thank you Jorgie! You're the best!" I hugged Gina too.

"There, there," Jorge said with a pleasant smile. She glanced at her watch. "The time is 4:30. Be back by 5:30."

"I will!" I stood up. "Bye."

This was the first time that I would be by myself. I was trembling with anticipation as I stepped out of the cafe. With one last look at Gina and Jorge, I was off. Oh boy. Where would I go first? What should I see? I scanned the area until my gaze landed on a big image on a wall. What was that? I skipped to it, careful not to bump into anyone on my way. Bumping was rude, Gina said. Except on the bedroom, Jorge said, whatever that meant.

I stared on the colorful wall and gasped. There was an image of the interior of the mall. There were drawings of shops, restaurants, and even people. In the side was an image of a man. He was wearing glasses and a red and white shirt. "Where's Waldo?" I murmured to myself as I read the caption on the wall. What was this? I snapped my fingers. It was just like the crime thriller novel I read. Maybe Waldo was missing in the mall.

I frowned. His relatives took great care to broadcast his disappearance. They must really love this Waldo guy. Maybe I should try and help. I glanced around the area. People were barely looking at the wall. Humans were strange. Waldo was missing and yet they didn't want to help. Well if they didn't, then I would.

A little girl came beside me and stared at the image on the wall. "Have you found Waldo?" she asked.

"Have you?"

She shook her head. "No. This game is hard to play. You have to find him there." She pointed on the drawing. I understood what she was saying. Yes, I had to find him in the mall.

"Well, I'll go and search for him now," I said before jogging away.

I stared around. There was the fast food called Donalds or something. There were also stores selling clothes, accessories, and whatnot. Ok, there was a fountain in the middle with different colored lights. What else? Where could the victim be? A drawing caught my attention. It was a drawing of a stick man with arrows pointing forward. This was just a hunch, but what if Waldo was there? I decided to follow the arrows. It would lead me to Waldo, just like in the crime novels.

I hastened my steps until I saw the corner where the arrow ended. By now, I saw that there were two doors. One with a stickman, and another what appeared to be a stickwoman. Waldo was a male. He could be in the door with the stickman. But could I enter there? Maybe I should enter the other door and find answers first.

With a shrug, I entered the door with the stickwoman illustration. It was vacant. "Waldo?" I called. "Are you here?" There were other doors, which I opened one by one, only to find a toilet bowl behind it. What was this place? It was like a bathroom but larger. Waldo wasn't in any of them. I backtracked and bumped into someone, a woman with long purple hair.

She took one good look at me and hissed. "Alena Langley!"

"Huh? No, I am Aleli. Who are you?"

She jumped away. "Lies! You're Alena Langley!" There was a blinding flash that made me cover my eyes. When it subsided, she was holding something glowing. It looked like a weapon. "I've been looking for you. Electra has been looking for you for months. Prepare to die Langley!"

She ran to me and swung her weapon. It missed me but hit one of the swinging doors. I stared wide eyed as it got cut in half. "I-I'm not Alena," I said in a hurry. She didn't listen to me as she swung the weapon again. I ran to the other side.

"Tahti is mine!" she snarled. Her face was masked with fury. "I met her first!"

"B-but I thought Alena was her first."

"Lies!"

I had nowhere to run. I was trapped. With no other option, I squeezed my eyes shut. No wonder Gina didn't want me to go outside. The world was a mess. I felt warm. Really warm. It made me open my eyes.

"Don't worry Aleli, I'm here," Tahti said. She ruffled my hair before standing to full height. "I have not seen you for months Electra," she said to the other girl. "What are you doing?"

Electra flipped her hair behind her. "Doing the job I should have finished months ago. Give Alena Langley to me. I've been searching for her."

"I've been searching for her too, but this girl is not Alena. It is her twin sister, Aleli."

"Lies!"

"Our specie does not particularly like lying," Tahti said. "Leave Aleli alone. She has no part in any of this."

Electra stared past Tahti to look at me. I cowered behind Tahti. "She is the spitting image of Langley, but you're right." She made the weapon disappear. "Her essence is different. Tsk. I thought I had her." Electra turned around. "Mark my words Tahti, I will eliminate Langley. And then I can have you." She vanished out of thin air.

Tahti waited for a few seconds before glancing back at me. "You should be really careful Aleli. Are you okay?"

My heart made this fluttery thing again. "Yes I am." I stared at her. She was Tahti. My Tahti. "Can I hold your hand? I'm scared." She blinked a couple of times and just stood there. "Please? Just this once." When she didn't move, I grabbed her hand. It was warm and soft.

A thought occurred to me as we exited the place. It was about what Chucky said earlier. Just because the person was the first didn't mean that they could end up together. Could that happen to Alena and Tahti too? Tahti. My Tahti.