Chapter Six: Oh My God! A Date?

Kimberly

I was recalling good times with my family whenever we came to the mall. Now, as I walked alone in the mall, hiding my face as much as I could, it made me think. Because I was seeing so many families together and they reminded me of my foster family.

There would be no more family nights at Pizza Hut on Sundays, no more walks to the game arcade with my brother, no more window shopping with my mom or taking my dad to the book shop or the newsletter stand on the occasional days.

There'd be no more being with my family again. Now that I've left them, there wasn't going to be a foursome get-together.

It made me feel sad.

My family, they loved me a lot. That day I brought Malcolm home, I tried to hide him at first but Bax found him in the closet quickly. My father didn't like the idea of keeping a dog in the house. So did my brother, 'cause to him it was unfair. He wanted a cat last year but Dad was allergic to them.

Mom however loves dogs so much that as soon as she saw Malcolm, she screamed "Ohhh, what an adorable doggie!" and declared we should keep him. Bax and Dad didn't get a chance to debate. After a while and a couple of laughs, we finally agreed to keep him. We played a game of picking a name from the hat.

So became his name, Malcolm. Which Dad told me it meant "disciple of Saint Columbia".

Although they were my foster family, I loved them so much. It hurts me that I was leaving them.

I think I shed a tear but I doubt no one saw that.


Jake

I sighed. I was asking myself why Marco had to call me at 8 in the morning on a weekend, why we had to give every cereal box we could find at his house to Ax when one box should have been enough, why Tobias later had to drag me to the mall before I ever had a chance to finish lunch.

And why I was spending my time at the mall watching Ax gobble down a Cinnamon bun like a starved animal.

"Sorry about this, Jake," Tobias apologized for the second time as he placed another plate of Cinnamon buns in front of him. "But it was the only way to stop him from seeing you-know-who."

"Couldn't you have thought of another alternative?" I asked with a raise of the eyebrow.

"What other choice was that? He really liked this girl."

"You're using my allowance," I groaned, pointing that out.

"I'll pay you back."

"No need. Marco will do that for you. He owes me big time. Back to business. What else did who-know-who see in those dre-"

Then out of the blue, Ax - halfway through his third one – suddenly stopped. He dropped it and quickly stood up from his seat. His mouth was wide open, showing the mashed up bun.

Seeing Ax stop eating for the first time was unnatural to us. It shocked us.

"Ax? Are you alright?" I asked.

In a whisper, he said, "It's her..."

"Who?"

"Her! Her! Her!" he yelled, attracting a lot of people sitting nearby.

As Tobias tried to pull him down, I gazed over my shoulder but where we sat, I didn't know who he meant, being that there were fifty individuals walking around in the mall. The next thing we knew, Ax bolted.

"Ax!" I yelled and we chased after him.

I had never seen Ax run so fast and so determined. He had never properly run long enough in his human morph and never this wild on his two feet.

Ax pushed his way through a pack of teenagers. He nearly tripped but with a few skips back on his feet, he kept on sprinting. Nothing was going to stop him from reaching his destination.

Ax turned round a corner.

THUD!

A loud sound and a crowd of people stared bewilderedly at only one focal point. A can of soup rolled away from it.

On the floor, Ax was clutching his head in pain while in front of him, who I think was massaging her nose was a kid laying on the floor with groceries spilt from the bags, cap fallen off. But she shortly got up.

"Ouch... My face..." she whimpered. "I feel like I hit a brick wall..."

"I am sorry. Sor-rie."

Her face turned from agony to astonishment. The girl opened her eyes and slowly raised her head up, staring at Ax.

"Phillip?" she gasped softly. "What are you...?"

Slowly the number of passer-bys decreased, clearing the area. We didn't step in because the two were staring at each other for a while. We just watched Kimberly picking her groceries up before they stood up.

"Twice in one day... We have to stop meeting like this," said Kimberly. "Least you didn't scare me this time... Cracked my skull though."

"I am sorry. Sor-rie. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Hey, it's alright. I've faced worse things than a hit on the head. Not even a concussion can stop me," she assured with a bright smile, putting back the cap. "But really, meeting you again? That's real something."

"What do you mean?" Ax asked curiously.

"Well, it's like we're destined to keep on meeting. Guess Fate's playing with the cards."

Ax's face showed puzzlement. "Our destiny can play with cards?"

Kimberly giggled softly. "It's a metaphor. It's something my mom philosophizes now and then." They soon began walking. We followed. "Wonder what else will happen next. After all, everything's connected."

What were we doing? Following them sounded the wrong thing to do. We should be grabbing Ax and dragging him away from Kimberly as far as possible.

Two old ladies were whispering behind our backs, maybe wondering what two guys were up to after a couple. Okay, that wasn't what I expected the ladies to call them that. A couple? Them?

"Kimberly, were you sad?" Ax blurted it out.

She stopped in her tracks. Her expression abruptly changed. "...How'd you know?"

"You looked sad six minutes and thirty-five seconds ago. Sec-kes. Is something wrong?"

"...Hee, you must have good eyesight..." she chuckled. "I was just thinking that soon, I'll be running far away from here...away from my family... I might never get to see them again."

"You do not have to run away, Kimberly," Ax exclaimed. "Your family must be worried about you. Woo-ree-d."

"Yeah. By now, my mom must be harnessing the cops and my dad trying to hire the best detective from New York to San Francisco to even LA."

"Are they?"

"Nah, I doubt they'd be that serious in finding me...but my mom, that's a different story."

"Perhaps they can help you. With your dreams. Dre-e-ms."

Kimberly frowned. "It's not that simple. They are my family...but they wouldn't understand what I'm going through. I don't even understand myself... It's just like...I'm completely lost and alone. In a crowd of people and there's no one there to listen to me...because I know deep down...they'll never believe me..."

She let out a smile but said, "What a cruel and excruciating way to experience it...makes you wonder why you exist in the first place."

I was surprised to hear those words. So was Tobias. To say such words made me wonder what was worse. Fighting Yeerks everyday or fighting dreams every night till you wanted to break down, both especially with the fact you couldn't tell anyone. From hearing how bad her dreams were, I didn't know if I wanted to compare.

To compare the worse of the two just wasn't right.

Kimberly began to bite her lower lip before a really long pause hung. Then Ax said the most unexpected thing.

"I believe you."

Kimberly wheeled up her head, astonished, and for a while waited for him to say something, then shook her head with a smile when he didn't.

"What's to believe? Pointless dreams that could hurt people? Even scientists would confirm me as crazy, in need of paramedic," she said. "You don't have to say that to make me feel better, Phillip."

"I am not," Ax said, which changed her smile to a small gap. "I have not said I do not believe you."

Kimberly was quiet. Her eyes were with surprise but also filled with meaning. What he just said was something she must had longed to hear. She wiped her eyes and then gave a gentle smile. "You're a sweet guy, Phillip."

"I am?"

"Hee-hee! Of course, you are."

Ax became contented. I think he really liked it when she beamed at him. But slowly we saw his smile fade away. He had a heavy look on him.

"It is sad that you will be leaving. Lea-vin."

"Hm?" she uttered.

"I will not get to see you anymore."

Seeing her expression, I was sure that Kimberly didn't expect Ax to say that. Neither did I nor Tobias. Another silent pause between them steadied, even though around them was the mumbling racket of the mall.

Kimberly then raised a hand to Ax and waited for him to grab hold of it. This surprised him. He glanced at her as she grinned cheerily.

"Then let's make this a memorable day for us," she said and suddenly grasped his hand. "C'mon!"

She took off, pulling Ax along. Oh dear god, she was going off with an alien. This was really bad news.

What am I saying? It was worse news! What if Ax demorphs or gets struck as a human? What if he blows off with our secret?!

"After them!" I hollered and we scrambled off our feet, after them. We tried to catch up as they rushed up an escalator, shoving their way without being aware of the angry looks thrown at them.

We nearly lost them when they disappeared into a crowd. Tobias and I stopped to catch a breath. I hunched down, hands on knees. I glanced up and quickly spotted them entering the game arcade.

"Where'd they go?" Tobias gasped.

"There!" I yelled. "I think."

"At the arcade?"

We went in. It wasn't long till we spotted Ax and Kimberly, already sitting at a monster shooting game.

"I like this game very much. The graphics are so awesome, you'd think you're in the game," said Kimberly, tossing in three tokens.

"Game?" Ax exclaimed, confused. "Gaa-mmeee."

"Okay!" She grabbed for the two handles of one of the large yellow guns. "Now be ready. The sea snakes and sharks are real annoyin'. So are the bosses. I've barely passed the fourth level. You set?"

"But...I have not played a 'game' before. How do you play it? Pl-aa-y."

"What?" she said, giving a stunned face. That moment, a couple of sharks in the game devoured their main characters. Game Over read the screen, but it didn't catch her attention. "You've never played games before...? Wow, first time I ever heard a guy say that..."

"I am sorry. Am I supposed to know how to?" he asked. "I am not familiar with this type of electronics. Eel-lec-to-nick."

"Well, guess I have to teach you, now don't I?" She popped in another two but kept one in her hand. "Okay, this is how you played."

She explained to Ax the story of the game: you are a deep sea hunter on a verge of hunting sea monsters across the seven seas. The objective is to shoot down any creature that might be a treat to you, like sharks, sea snakes, moray eels and small monsters. At the end of each hunt, you meet the boss, a giant mythical monster. It would be a giant shark or a huge octopus. You kill it and get rewards.

"Do you see what I see?" Tobias asked, sounding shocked.

I answered, "Yup."

She was teaching an alien how to play. I was dumbfounded.

"So the machine gives us rewards? What kind of reward? Re-ward. Something to eat?"

"No, silly. It's points for your score."

"What purpose is that for? Purr-pose."

"To get the highest score. If you do, you get to be Rank. 1 and put your name in the game for all to see."

"Why would someone want to do that?"

"It's just to have fun. You sure ask a lot of questions. Anyway, all you need to do is to shoot the bad creatures and not the divers. That's all."

"I understand. It is like educating the aristh in the line of fire."

"Excuse me?" she uttered, confused. I felt like coming over there and dragging Ax away from Kimberly before he'd spill anymore information we didn't want to spread. But Tobias stopped me since Kimberly was clueless.

"Oh, it is nothing. Na-thing," Ax stuttered. "I am ready to play."

"You say that now but later..."

Shrugging her shoulders, Kimberly tossed in the third token and the game started. After losing to the second boss for the second time, Kimberly decided to go for another game, a fighting one.

She chose a Tekken 3 game. Again, she lectured Ax on how to play it. A few rounds, Ax managed to win but Kimberly beat him many times, probably because she was so used to the game.

Come to think of it, I've rarely seen a girl play fighting games before. Rachel's always obsessed over fashion and Cassie with animals. It's a rare sight to even see a girl walk right into the arcade, fork out five dollars for tokens and start playing.

"Ha-HA! I win! That's three wins out of five. That means you win twice. You're gettin' better. I'd win four times before my brother calls it quits."

"Kimberly, how did you become excellent at these 'games'?" Ax asked. "Ga-meee."

"Oh, my brother got me hooked up on them."

"Hooked up? You need a fastener to play electronic programs?"

"No, silly. I mean it was my brother that got me started on games. Every Friday afternoon, he'd always drag me here just so he can have a partner to play with. But 'cause I learn so fast, he gets beaten many times."

"I see."

"...Wonder what he's up to now." Although Kimberly smiled, her eyes were a different story. I could tell. And Ax could too.

They were filled with unhappiness.

Quickly, she turned to Ax and grabbed his hand lightly. She smiled widely, hiding the pain away.

"Let's go get something to eat," she said, leading the way out of the arcade. I could tell she wanted to forget what she just said and go on with the day. No, she didn't want Ax to feel troubled over her.

She must have missed her family a lot, even if they were her foster family.

They went down two floors until they stopped at an ice cream store and took seats. Kimberly sent a quick glance at the menu in hand while Ax examined the store, as curious as a child.

"So what'd ya like?" Kimberly asked.

Ax snapped from the abundance of things in sight. She waited for an answer. Noticing there was a similar menu on the table before him, Ax picked it up and studied it.

"C'mon, pick anyone. It'll be my treat," she beamed brightly.

Ax stared at her blankly and then gazed down at the menu. "Pick anyone? A-ni-one."

He struggled with the choice giving, seeing so many ice-cream favors and pies on the menu before him. She could tell he wasn't sure which to pick or what he was to pick.

"How 'bout a Triple Chocolate Delight? With lots of hot fudge and almonds?" Kimberly suddenly exclaimed. She waved at a waiter. "We'll have the Saturday Special, please. Hot fudge and nuts included."

"Alright," the waiter said, writing that down before taking off to the counter. Not long enough a three-scoop of nutty cookie 'n' cream, chocolate-chip mint and peanut-butter double chocolate covered in thick nutty fudge and served in a small glassed bowl was brought to them.

"Dig in." Kimberly seized a spoon and took the first scoop.

"Hey, Jake," Tobias uttered as we watched them eat and talk.

"Yeah?"

"Would this be called...?" He stopped, trying to find the word.

"What?"

"A date?"

I looked at him as if he was crazy. A date? An alien on a date?! It sounded bizarre. Freaky even. I mean, an alien dating a human who has no idea that the person she's dating is an alien.

Then again, she did open up to him like a friend. And Ax was enjoying her company.

"Yeah, I guess so..."

"Marco would flip his lid off if he'd seen this."

"Rachel too, that's for sure."

The ice-cream was almost finished when I noticed Ax became slowly depressed his eyes aimed at the bowl. Kimberly noticed that too.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Uh... It is nothing," was her reply. But she could tell it was something. He was bothered that after this, it was going to end.

She reached out a hand and to his surprise, she wiped away a brown and green smudge off his cheek. The next thing that happened was that his face went red.

"...The day's still young, Phillip." With the last spoonful eaten, they got up. Kimberly paid and they were off again.

To where, I wondered. This was starting to get tiring. I checked my watch. More than an hour and half has passed.

"Left twenty minutes," I said. "We'd better get him before he becomes a human permanently."

"I hear you," said Tobias.

"JAKE!"

I nearly jumped out of my shoes when that voice shouted at full volume behind us. We wheeled around, wondering where the voice came from among the huge crowds of people. A hand waved violently. It was Marco. Man, did he have to shout so loud?

"Jake! You're not going to believe this!" he yelled, rushing over to us.

"Marco, if this is another lame excuse about Kimberly, I don't want to hear it," I moaned. "You've gotta let go. All she said was no."

"David!" he hollered. "It's David! He's back!"

My face froze. I was hoping he was just pulling my leg but by looking at his staggered face, I knew he wasn't joking.

"Oh sh-!"

CRASH!

The sound of broken glasses brought everyone's attention to a fashion shop. Its window shattered into a million pieces as if someone had thrown a brick at it. But it wasn't a brick that did the job because lying on the floor was a man in whites. A bit of blood splattered on some mannequins.

Approaching the shop, a person in black and wearing a strange helmet came into the scene.

What the hell was going on?


For so long, it felt like I was fighting my battles by myself. It also felt like I was hiding in my closet or under my bed from my monsters because I was afraid of my dreams and losing everything from them.

The only one time I ever felt truly relaxed was that one cold night I was next Antinanco, watching fireflies dance about. He hummed a tune as we watched the lights over the calm lake we approached. It was a breathtaking sight. I wanted to see more but I slowly became sleepy and closed my eyes. I never got to see them again when the sun came up.

That was the only time it seemed like all my worries were gone. That even if I had lost my memories and my biological parents, I knew I was safe.

Now that I think about it, it made me wonder. Having an experience like that might not happen to anyone in particular. It might be in a chance of 1:1 million. Meeting Antinanco, learning things I would have never know since I lost the memories of my past. It was rare to happen but I was happy to have met him.

And meeting Phillip now, it felt like the second time. Another rare occurrence to me.

I began to feel grateful of my life. If I didn't throw myself off the mall or do something stupid earlier, maybe I would never have these happy moments. I was an orphan to begin with and all I had were Antinanco's words to hold on when I stepped into a new family and a new life.

It's too bad I'll be leaving that life very soon. But it didn't matter. I was happy to meet Phillip third time in a row.

I was happy to meet someone unique like him.


Vickie: Okay, so it's not yet the battle like I mentioned in the last ch buuuuuut it's coming next CH! WOO-HOO!!! I'd like to thank everyone who has so far reviewed this fanfic. Sorry took so long to update as this one was a little harder to finish and school got me down later. *Goes to sulk in corner* I never wanted Engineering, I wanted media design…wahhh.

Marco: Ah suck it up.

Vickie: Mr. Scary?

Marco: AHHHHHHH!!! *Gets chased by Mr. Scary*

Vickie: I'm so sorry. It's been months and I think most of my readers have forgotten this. Well hope you enjoy this. XD And I have one thing to say: WOW!!! Over 900 hits on this story!?! Woo-hoo! Even though they're more on the ch 1. Ah well. I'm still happy so many looked at this. :D

And peanut-butter chocolate ice-cream, I have seen this on TV but I think it's good.