After the anniversary of Arrival Day, everyone is on edge. The guards are more observant and watch everyone inside the school and outside especially the Atrians and have been treating them cruel. Aren't the guards and the SEU supposed to protect the Atrians and humans? I've seen Drake around school but every time he saw me or tried to get to me I moved away from his sight and him.

'He almost killed someone' my mind repeats over and over again making me distance from him even more. The Sector bus stops right on the side of me almost hitting me, the guards have really changed and not in a good way. I see the Atrians walk out with Drake and Teri coming out first I hide behind someone's car hoping they don't see me; I follow in their direction trying to listen in on their conversation.

With everyone else talking I only hear the most important words, 'Trags', 'Beaumont was a spy', then I here Drake joined the Trags because he wanted freedom for him and the Atrians but Teri interrupts him talking about some place in the swamps he talks about. So, Teri is a Trag as well, Officer Beaumont was an Atrian who had his markings removed, and Drake simply wants freedom. I get up from behind the car because I see people staring and continue to walk inside the school I look out the corner of my eye and see Drake coming towards me.

"Rachel!" He shouts. I keep walking but I am not fast enough and he pulls my arm and we are behind a plant.

"I know you have been avoiding me," He says casually. "Why?" I look around making sure no one sees us or hears us.

"Would you avoid someone who almost killed a person right in front of your eyes?"

"I didn't know you were there—

I cut him off. "What if you knew I was there the whole time? Would you have raised your weapon and nearly chop his head off?"

"No, you saw me; I wasn't going to kill him."

"What if you did though? You saw me standing right there and you killed him." He looks away and moves closer to me.

"I would have regretted it." He states.

"Why?" I ask as he moves closer and I'm against the brick wall and my backpack strap falls off the shoulder it was on hitting the ground.

"I'm not that guy who would kill someone because they were human." He says putting his forearm against the wall next to my face. "And I would never want you to see me that way." I start looking into his eyes but snap out.

"Is that all? You just want freedom so you joined a terrorist group that hates humans. Let's say you do get out of the Sector and you're able to do whatever you want, the Trags can start bombing innocent people on the streets. What would you do?" I ask. He looks at the ground but quickly looks up.

"I would quit the Trags and be free to do what I want," He replies. "And make sure they don't touch you." He finishes. Our faces are very close now with, I can't help it, and I start staring into his deep green eyes getting lost in them. He moves closer to my face but the bell rings and everyone goes inside. He takes his arm off the wall and leaves; I grab my backpack and head to class.

Health Class…

"Atrians have two hearts and two full sets of lungs, now this combined with their skin's ability to absorb oxygen from air and water makes their respiratory systems-

"Superior. Like everything else about us." Teri cuts her off.

"No, Teri not superior. Different. The important thing to remember is that Atrians biological differences are due to their native environment right down to their markings which are bio-luminescent in water." I look at Drake but Eric gets in my way stretching his arms on purpose and his friends laugh. I look back to Ms. Benton and her speech.

"It's called adaptive evolution. Those aren't the only differences; physically Atrians mature faster than we do their sensitive to salt and dry air and allergic to a lot of our foods, pretty much anything with caffeine in it. But, Atrians and humans are strikingly similar some biologists suggest a common origin." The teacher says and Zoe raises her hand. 'Here we go' I thought rubbing my forehead.

"Does that mean a human and an Atrian can get their intergalactic freak on?" Zoe asks. The whole class looks at the Atrian and at each other with smirks.

"Hypothetically, yes." Ms. Benton replies.

Hallway…

I walk around the hallway and head to the trophy case, passing all the crowds of people in the hall. I look ahead and see Sophia standing there looking at the swim team's photo. I walk next to her looking at all the trophies and ribbons, but my eyes automatically go to the tennis team's picture. I touch the glass and just stare at the team's faces.

"You're on the tennis team?" A voice says. I turn my head and see Sophia looking at me and the picture.

"You mean was on the tennis team." I say.

"What happened?" She asks.

"My shoulder happened," I touch my shoulder and feel the way I felt when I hurt it. "We just won a very big game, everyone was happy but then the next game that came was the game where everything went downhill. I never played again after that." I look at the trophy's holder in the photo, me.

"I didn't know…"

"It's okay." We both look at the photo.

"That's our swim team." Sophia and I both turn around and see Emery standing behind us.

"I've never been a part of something like that… a team." Sophia says.

"Even in the Sector I don't really have many friends. I was hoping to find some on the outside but it's not that easy is it?" The bell rings and people start moving to their classes.

"Friendships are tough, even for humans." Emery replies. Sophia tilts her head and looks behind Emery and starts moving to even more pictures of the swim team.

"Swimming is important here?"

"If we win tomorrow, we go to state finals." I say. "You should try out."

"I've never been in the water since we got here." Sophia says. Emery and I both look at each other.

Pool…

Sophia is a great swimmer. I can't even hold my breath that long as she can in the water, she is a natural. Grayson and Eric stand next to each other, Grayson claps but Eric just looks at Sophia unimpressed. The door opens and Teri and Roman enter watching next to Grayson and Eric looking at her stunned.

"What's Eric's record again?" Taylor asks.

"4.19." Grayson replies. Eric still stares at Sophia with his eyes coldly. Sophia's head breaks out the water and Emery stops the stopwatch.

"Four minutes and seventeen seconds!" She exclaims. Sophia throws her arms in the air and her markings glow bright blue.

"She broke form, so is that what we call freestyle?" Eric comes in and the excitement is over.

"Then why don't you race her? Head to head." Emery states.

"Because I'm not getting in the pool with a diseased-ridden tattie." Eric says. Teri starts walking over to him in anger but Roman pulls her back. Everyone looks at each other in the eerie silence.