"How long does it take for a silly Human to show up?" Stoica asked himself.

He was very irritated that the Human girl he was trying to get moved around so much. He really was getting tired of looking like a human and wanted to go home. Ren's team was posted in the surrounding area, watching for her, but so far, there were no sightings.

He noticed a cluster of girls standing in front of one of the neighborhood houses. They giggled and split into groups, many of them holding bags. The only group left in front of the house went to the one next door, the last one saying something about trying to draw a...chibi?

Stoica watched the girls as they knocked on doors and collected cans of food from the other Humans. He walked along the street to keep them in view. When the girls ran back the cans to their "home base" house, they ran right past him on the sidewalk. For a reason he could not explain or deny, his pulse raced as one of them passed. He turned to watch her.

She didn't look particularly impressive: her brown hair, naturally highlighted by gold, was short as a boy's. She was only five and a half feet tall, wore ovular glasses like Lena, and her eyes were blue-gray in color. She was sturdily built, broad shoulders and long, muscular legs.

Stoica didn't know if she was the one they were looking for, but he knew she was not the same as the other humans.

*.*

Lena sat in the hard booth and felt very uncomfortable sitting directly across from Sid. She sipped at her drink and looked as a short-haired girl entered with her younger siblings and father.

"That her?" Sid whispered. Lena shrugged and narrowed her eyes. The human was walking through another door.

"I'll be right back," she whispered back to Sid. He nodded, eating another french fry.

She waited in front of the door until the girl walked out. They made eye contact. Lena suddenly felt very nervous, as if she was being scrutinized by a very important person. Then the human smiled and stood aside to let Lena through the door, then returned to her table, back to back with where Sid was sitting.

He turned a little to look at the girl. She did the same, and then quickly dropped her gaze. But not before Sid saw a look in her eyes that said, I know who you are and what you're doing.

*.*

Jesse felt very guilty for waiting outside the Human's home. He tried to forget the uncomfortable feeling by reading out of his book, but it failed to completely distract him.

A small, blue car rolled into the driveway and four humans climbed out. The girl he was looking for delayed walking into the house by fetching several items from the car. When her family was safely inside, she closed the car door and turned to look at him directly. She raised her hand and gave a large wave, and called a greeting.

"Hey! Hope you have a good night!"

Her voice was at a lower pitch than he'd expected, and he was surprised by the cheeriness of her greeting. Southern hospitality, perhaps.

As the girl ran inside, she took an almost flying leap to pass two bushes lining the path to the door. Jesse shook his head in both amazement and amusement.

*.*

"So that's definitely her?" Ren asked the others. Everyone-even Stoica, who had dropped his human disguise entirely-nodded in perfect agreement.

"I'm really done with watching her," Zenet added. "She doesn't do anything at school that's really interesting."

"I say we go on and infiltrate the school already," Stoica added. "I am really ready to get off this Human Planet."

"Who's going to do it? And when?" Mason asked. "Not me. She looked right at me, so she knows who I am."

"Or are you just chickening out because she's a girl?" Sid teased. Jesse ignored them, and pointed at Ren.

"You are the only one who hasn't seen her in person. You will be certain once you do. I suggest you do it tomorrow, so that we may return to our own universe much sooner."

Ren nodded.

"Oh yeah," Zenet added. "There are twenty-four people in her class, so you'll stand out a bit."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"Let me handle this part," Stoica said. "You just get into that school at 8:15 in the morning."