Silently entering through the door, creeping past everyone. Very inconspicuous.
In another room, she quietly swung the door open and entered. There were no windows. It was almost in complete darkness, save for the couple of beeping lights and glowing wires that illuminated the large objects, casting its curvy shadows onto the metallic walls that surrounded it. Other than that, this was her cave, a place that no one but she was allowed to enter into. It was dark and it was glorious; devoid of light, a seemingly hopeless and never-ending hallway that stretched out as long and as wide as she wished for whatever purpose she desired.
Its current purpose was to house a very peculiar object, one in almost a spherical shape, that stretched and came to a point by the front, adorned by a large curved window of hyperglass. Inside the mechanism were five separate seats, all empty.
She knew she must find them all—but where to start? They left no trace. Her cameras were already installed in the place where the ship had crashed, in the hope that they would return. So far, none of them had.
All she had to work off of were two separate samples of this strange, pulpy substance that must have derived from a type of plant not found on this world. Another sample she held in her other hand; the same kind of plant scrap was attached to a bit of torn cloth.
It had a very familiar scent to it….
She smiled. Perfect.
9/02
It's official. I like Hope.
I don't know how this happened and I don't know what to do now… but one thing I'm certain about is that whenever she's near me, and whenever I think about her, I always get this bright, warm feeling that I can't prevent.
It was odd—since admitting to himself, Teri felt a bit more at ease. Not around Hope, certainly; in fact, it was quite the opposite…. The list of ways he had begun to make a fool out of himself in front of her was already in the twenties.
It had only been a few days since the second quarter of eighth grade had started. Definitely not good.
Teri wasn't quite sure what came next. He had watched as others found their own romances, though never one to deliberately pursue something of the sort himself. This left him staring straight into a blank wall, so to speak, scratching his head and diverting his eyes. All he knew was that it was a very happy feeling to have—that unique connection with her—and as long as it didn't distract him from anything important, then it should serve him no trouble.
That, however, proved to be quite otherwise.
" 'Otherwise,' " spoke their English teacher as he gestured to the board with a pointing-stick, "is an adverb, conjunction, or adjective that is used to suggest alternative possibility under other circumstances, in other respects, or in another manner. The history of the word derives from…"
As the English teacher droned on, Teri's attention was rapt. Just… not quite for him. Instead he had been staring at Hope the whole period, as usual; a bad habit that he had happened to pick up. She was currently doodling some sort of design in her notebook, not listening nor interested in the lecture about the history of the word "otherwise." Had Teri been in his right mind, he might have questioned the reliability of his tutor.
Subconsciously, Teri let out a sigh with a sleepy look in his eyes. Oh how he was going to fail the next English test if he didn't start paying attention, and soon. But that really wasn't what was on his mind at the moment. Instead he took out his own notebook, not any of the ones for school, and laid it on his desk. Lately his notebook had been serving him as a place to write about—not relevant things—but his newfound obsession. He opened to his latest page and began to write.
Watching Hope do nothing in particular is really great…. She has a little smile on her lips as she doodles. Her cheek is leaning against the back of her knuckles. What's she thinking about? I wish I could know. I wonder why she doesn't have any bangs. Though, now that I think about it, it must be because she realizes how pretty she is and wants to flaunt it to the world. I think that's a good reason to have. I hope she knows it. She probably does. Ah, so this is what love feels like. I could just go on about this forever. I think I will. I think that
The bell rang.
Teri frowned and quickly shut his notebook so no one else had to see what he had been taking notes on, which wasn't actually the vital lecture his English teacher was giving.
During lunch, his two friends Yaoe and Sosuke watched him with concern while he completely spaced off. He wasn't even eating.
"Yup. He's gone from the world," said Yaoe as he sipped his juice.
"Dunno if he's ever coming back."
"Huh?" Teri turned toward them, finally snapping back. "What did you guys just say?"
Sosuke, a grave look on his face, placing his elbows on the table and clasped his hands by his chin. "We're worried. You've been changing, man."
"Changing into, uh… what?"
Sosuke pointed off somewhere toward a crowd of girls who were bird-watching a lone Merion with hearts in their eyes—he was only eating and looking out at nature contemplatively, nothing special. But the girls were clearly enraptured.
"I'm changing into a girl?"
Yaoe spit his juice out as he started to laugh.
"No." Sosuke's eyes were grim. "It's not a rare disease, Teri. We've all seen the symptoms before. You meet someone you like. At first it's just a little crush. And then, before you know it… you're completely absorbed in only one thing…"
"Not like he didn't have a one-track mind already," Yaoe noted.
"What!" Teri slapped his hands down on the table. "I—I don't know what you're talking about! You're acting like… like I… like someone or something—"
"It's Hope," Yaoe and Sosuke both said in unison.
"WHAT? Ahahaha, nooo…." Teri looked off to the side and began to laugh nervously.
Yaoe looked down grievously. "Alas. The Teri we once knew is no longer of this world."
Sosuke gave him a comforting hug. They both needed it.
"Think we should tell him?"
They had Teri's attention now. "Huh? Tell me…. Tell me what?"
"About Hope."
"What about her…?" Teri's voice was slow, uncertain.
"Do you remember," said Yaoe, "what happened last year when we got that new girl Kara Kutta in the middle of the year?"
"Um… nope."
"All the guys started liking her. Well. Most of them at least." Yaoe smirked a little.
Sosuke nudged his friend. "You were one of them."
"And this is important, why?" asked Teri.
"Don't you understand? Everyone loves new students. They go gaga over them."
"What?" It finally registered with him. "So there are other guys who like Hope?"
"Mm-hm. Precisely." He started counting off his fingers. "Plus, she's petite, and smart, and has that unnatural hair color, which has got to mean something."
"So? I've got an unnatural hair color, too. Doesn't mean it's anything special. Just means my mom has pink hair…."
"Maybe that means something, too."
Teri was silent for a moment. "This is a weird conversation. Let's talk about something else."
"Okay."
There were other guys who liked Hope. Teri hadn't considered that before.
It made sense, naturally. She was really cute… and funny… and really smart… and kind of mysterious, in a way….
He wondered if Hope liked any of them. She didn't seem like she was all that interested in anyone. This began to worry him. What happened if she did like someone? Unlike Teri, would she act on it?
Oh, darn it, is that what you're supposed to do when you like someone? Act on it? he wondered. He supposed this would be a good thing to do…. It couldn't be all that hard, right? All that he had to do was walk up to her casually and ask if she wanted to hang out not as tutor and pupil. Easy as being a pie. Which was actually rather hard to do, if he had been thinking about it. But he wasn't, because thinking about being a pie wasn't really an important thought to have.
The glorious sound of the final bell, signifying freedom for all students, was his signal to move.
Teri began to sprint to Hope, ready to confront her and ask the easy question. The closer he got to her, the more he slowed down. He was having second thoughts. Suddenly he wanted to pull back and descend into the shadows, rethinking everything he was doing. What if he did it wrong? Or made a fool out of himself when he asked her? What if she said no, because she didn't like him in that sort of way? Did he even know what he was doing?
Every rational part of him screamed, What are you thinking, Teri? There's no way you can do this. He pushed that thought down and sped up, even though his face began to burn. No, I can't turn back now! he told himself. He sped up.
"Hope, would you by any chance like to—"
Instead, he halted himself before her back that was facing him as he realized she was already speaking to someone else.
"Hi, Merion!" She had just clasped her bag shut.
The blondie turned to her in surprise as he closed his sketchbook. "Hm…? Oh, Hope. It's nice to see you."
"You wouldn't mind if I came to your house right now, would you?"
Teri's mouth dropped open.
"Hm? Why would that be, now?" he asked her.
Hope giggled innocently. "I think I'd like to get to know you a bit, that's all. I haven't really taken the opportunity to before, but will you give me a second chance?"
"Ah. This again." Merion scratched his head. "Well, I suppose it couldn't do any harm."
Just as Teri reached his arm out to her, they began walking off.
"Wait, Hope! We could always get to know each other a bit mo—"
They were already too far away.
Teri dropped his arm at his side and gave a small growl. He clenched his hand into his fist. Of all people that had to interfere… it just had to be Merion—like always, letting Teri know full well that he was still better. Now even Hope liked him. Naturally. Everyone seemed to. Teri had no words for how unfair this was.
"Omigosh, Teri's jealous of Hope!" he almost thought he heard some girls squeal behind him. "That's soooo cute!"
Confused at why he was hearing things, Teri reluctantly headed on home by himself.
The walk home was a lonely one.
For one thing, Hope wasn't there by his side this time, talking endlessly about how fun her day at school was and how she was so happy to be in school with everyone, giving off that lovely smile as hers.
For another thing, he knew where she was right now and who she was with…. He could feel his blood boiling.
Oh, and it was raining also and he did not have an umbrella. That was a thing.
Rather indifferently, Teri lifted his school bag over his head to keep the rain off of him. From out of the top, where one of the buttons had come off, his notebook slipped out and onto the rain-splattered sidewalk.
For the moment, Teri looked at the soaking booklet lethargically, wondering if it was worth it to pick it up. Eventually he decided it was, and he used his foot to kick it into the air so he could catch it with his hand. It was sopping wet. Honestly, he didn't really care at the moment.
Walking the next few blocks home seemed like the longest walk of his life. The rain got harder; he even thought he saw a bit of lightning flash every now and then. Usually, he loved the rain—especially when it was raining really hard like this—but today seemed extra wet. And not particularly in the good sort of way.
"I'm home," he called out to no one as he finally stepped inside the door. He slipped off his soaking shoes (after much struggling) and his socks, and put on a pair of indoor ones. His bag was too wet to get his homework out quite yet, so he didn't bother taking it up to his room. Plus, Hope wouldn't be there to tutor him, anyway, so what was the point really.
Sighing occasionally as he made his way up the stairs to his room, Teri waved his notebook about so all the water would fly off. A trail of water droplets followed him up the stairs. He entered his room and began to take off his shirt, contemplating what he should change into to be less wet. After a struggle with the wet clothing, he managed to get his shirt off and toss it, as well as the notebook, onto his bed. Maybe changing into drier clothes didn't really matter. The day couldn't get any worse, after all.
"Ah!"
Teri froze. He slowly turned his head toward the bed. "Did my shirt just say something…?"
He watched, in utter confusion, as the shirt on his bed writhed about as if it was coming to life. Something stuck out from underneath the shirt—a… blue… hand?
Finally, the hand whipped the shirt off and the creature took a breath. Blue skin, some sort of yellow hat, small stature…. It almost resembled a frog, in some way….
Teri let out a scream and jumped back.
"What…. WHAT IS THAT?!"
