Maria looked back the way she had come. She didn't see anyone so she stopped to breathe. She looked around to see if she could figure out where exactly she was but all she could see was desert and rocks for miles around. She remembered when things like this didn't happen to her. When everyone thought she was just a regular girl, when nobody knew her secret, before she moved to Roswell, before she herself discovered exactly what she was.
* 5 years ago *
She was just an ordinary girl trying to get away from a past that she wanted to forget. Jumping from foster home to foster home was no way to live your life but for Maria Deluca it was the only life she had known, a life she had hated. That was why on the day of her 18th birthday she had gotten on a bus and said goodbye to Round Rock, Texas and the life she hated and said hello to a new life waiting for her somewhere else. She didn't even know where it was she was going. She had just pick a price and decided that wherever that bus was going was where she was gonna start her new life. Little did she know that the ticket to Roswell, New Mexico would forever change her life.
Maria knew that she had always been different but she had forever tried to hide it fearing that if anyone found out that they wouldn't love her and that was all she had ever wanted, love. She didn't know why when she wanted to change the color of her favorite shirt to black that it actually happened or why when she was unhappy with her hair cut that her foster parents had made her get it all of a sudden became long again. When people realized these things happened they sent her back to the orphanage so she hid them and just pretended that they didn't exist. It wasn't easy for her to hide who she was though, sometimes her 'powers,' as she liked to think of them, did what they wanted without her even realizing it. Like when her one foster brother had stolen her Barbie and ripped its head off she didn't know how she had made him sick but she knew that it had been her fault.
Maria spent 5 days and nights on the bus riding to her new life getting more and more excited as they came closer and closer. She didn't know what she expected to find in Roswell that would be so much better than her life in Round Rock had been but she knew that nothing would ever be the same again.
The bus pulled into the bus station in Roswell, it was a quaint little town, she remembered reading something at school about how it was suppose to be the Alien Capital of the United States due to the alleged UFO crash in the summer of '47. She didn't buy into that though, aliens and spaceships, UFOs and flying saucers, it just wasn't possible. She suspected that it really had been a weather balloon, the thought that she could be living her new life among aliens wasn't a thought that she wanted. She got off the bus and decided that the first thing she wanted to do was to get something to eat. After that she would look into finding a job and an apartment and maybe some type of car. She had a lot of money, mostly stolen from her latest rich foster home, they had treated her more like a servant than their child so when she left she decided that she deserved some of their wealth. She was wondering the streets looking for somewhere to eat when she happened upon a little diner called the Crashdown. Laughing to herself she decided to go in and try their, most likely, alien themed food and low and behold, the food was indeed alien themed, as were the waitresses and the whole inside. She took a seat at the counter and looked over the menu. A "Will Smith Burger"? "Men in Blackberry Pie"? This place was out of control. A pretty dark haired girl came over and gave her a bright smile. "Hi, how can I help you today?"
Maria looked up at her. Her nametag read Liz. "I guess I'll have a chili rocket god and an order of Saturn rings."
"Would you like to try one of our Alien Encounter shakes with that today?"
Maria stifled a laugh, this place was a joke, but a little chalkboard did say they were hiring. "Sure, and do you think that I could get an application for waitressing too?"
Liz gave her a big smile and said "Sure, I'll bring the shake and the application right over."
Maria smiled brightly and said "Thank you."
****
Liz walked behind the counter and over to her friend Isabel Evans who also worked at the Crashdown. "See that girl at the counter?" Liz asked while she was making the shake.
"Yeah, what about her?" Isabel asked sneaking a glance at the petite blonde that sat at the counter looking around the café."
"She asked for an application."
"Do you think she could be…a skin?"
"I don't know, its possible. I've never seen her around before and things were just starting to settle down. I mean…I don't know."
"Just keep a careful eye on her. We can't suspect anything unless we have a reason."
"But what about Courtney? And Whiticer?"
"We don't have any reason to think that she more than a new girl in town looking for a job. Just give her the application and do a background check on the info she gives you."
"Good idea."
Liz finished making the shake and took that and the application to Maria. While she was doing that Isabel walked over to the booth where her brother and Liz's boyfriend Max and their friend Michael were sitting. She told them that situation and all eyes feel on the girl sitting at the counter sipping on her green shake and reading a flyer that had been sitting on the counter for the upcoming Crash Festival.
***
Maria sensed eyes on her back, not just one pair but several. She didn't want to turn and look to see who was staring at her but she was becoming uncomfortable under the unwavering gazes. She casually bent down to pick up her purse and glanced in the direction of the booths along the wall. The other waitress along with two boys were standing and talking. When she looked they all turned trying to pretend they hadn't been looking at her. Just then she heard some commotion on the other side of the room and spun around to see what it was losing her balance and falling from the stool. As she hit the floor she saw a man pull out a gun and there was an explosion. Her head was looking around the back of the counter where she saw her waitress Liz lying on the ground, blood starting to form a puddle around her still body. One of the boys she had seen sitting in the booth that had been watching her was kneeling by her side. He placed a hand on her wound, the other behind her head. "Look at me Liz."
The girl began to stir and her eyes opened she looked up into his face and Maria began to notice the puddle of blood slowly getting smaller and smaller until it was gone. The boy moved his hand and the wound was gone. He helped the girl to her feet and looked at her to make sure she was ok. "You feel and hit your head, are you alright," he asked almost like he was telling her a secret.
Maria scrambled to her feet and looked at the two. The other waitress and the other boy stood nearby looking on. They were the first ones to notice the look of shock on Maria's face.