"Pay me five hundred up front, and you get two weeks surveillance…" Said a raspy teen holding a very nice camera. His grey hat and dark brown overcoat giving him a dark and mysterious aurora.

"You got yourself a deal…" Eric said, friends behind him. "Thomas, two fifty please." Thomas handed Eric two hundred dollar bills and a fifty.

"I said five hundred…"

"Markus… I'll see how your pictures turn out, and I'll give you the rest then. Take good shots, or you'll only get the two fifty." Eric said sternly.

"Doesn't work that way, bro… I get my pay upfront."

"Works that way now… Thomas? Eric asked, his friend handed him a shiny, silver handgun.

"Now… the only reason I ain't taking the pictures myself is that I can't hold a camera steady, but I got no problem keeping a still firearm…" Eric said, pulling back the slide on the pistol. "Are we on the same page here?"

"…yeah…" Markus grabbed the money out of Eric's hand, nervously eyeing the gun. "I'll see you in two weeks, full package. Photographic evidence and an occasional video…"

"Good. Perform well, and there's no reason we won't give you your full pay. But don't skimp out on quality, you can go."

. . .

"Lance, can you come here, please?" Hannah asked from the living room, the boy slowly made his way down stairs.

"Yeah?" He asked. Hannah picked up a dark brown acoustic guitar, shiny polished wood with gold tuning pegs and a white trim.

"Whoa, where'd you get that from?" Lance asked, now interested.

"Got it in the mail, it was my dad's; he brought it along overseas before he… died. A friend of his sent it over."

"Oh, it's a very nice guitar… may I?" Lance asked, the girl handed him the guitar. He quickly tuned it up, and strummed a few chords. "It's got really good sound…" Lance observed.

"Thanks, I was wondering if you'd teach me how to play it… I know like, three chords, but now that I've got a nice guitar… and I have a nice teacher…" Hannah asked sweetly. Lance stared her down a minute, it was a friendly glare, but his gaze would make anyone want to melt and hide in their shoes.

"Sure. Be right back." Lance headed upstairs and came back down with his tan acoustic and a notebook of various chords and riffs, which he laid on the table in front of the two as they sat next to each other, Lance demonstrating a few chord progressions.

. . .

"So… uh, do you need another drink?" Jason asked, eyeing Ilana's empty drink. She'd taken him to another party with Newton and Kimmy, which he enjoyed because he got to be with her.

"No thanks, I think I'm fine for now." She replied.

"Okay… so, uh… how do you like Hannah? Is it weird adjusting to her living with you?"

"Well, she's more social than Lance, so she comes down every once and a while, but mostly she'll just be upstairs. That's understandable, considering her loss recently…"

"Yeah, oh hey… come on, I want to show you something.

. . .

"Okay… so this is your G chord, put your fingers down like this…" Lance instructed, pointing to a diagram and showing the fingerings on his guitar. Hannah repositioned her hand several times until she got it. "Good, now strum it." Lance let the open chord ring. Hannah did the same thing, but was only followed by a few notes and buzzing.

"Ew…" Hannah grimaced at the horrible sound her instrument made.

"That's alright, just push down harder and keep your fingers in the fret box. If they're on the far side, it'll buzz. So keep them more towards the middle, or further in."

"Um… okay…" Hannah adjusted and tried again, a beautiful chord rang out. "Yay!"

"Okay, now we're going to switch to a C chord…"

"Aw… but I just learned this one…"

"Yeah, and we're going to switch to E minor and then to D, and then back to G." Lance said patiently. Hannah lifted her hand off of the fret board, sad to see her accomplishment disappear, and shaped her fingers to match Lance's.

. . .

"Wow, it's really clear from up here…" Ilana marveled at the stars above from the top of a grassy hill not far from the house party, Jason pulled out his phone and waved it around the sky.

"You see, I got a new app in astronomy club… it points out consolations and stuff, pretty neat."

"That's cool." Ilana said as Jason moved it around the sky, pointing out famous shapes such as the big dipper and a belt of some sort. Ilana gazed up at the open night sky and leaned her head against Jason's shoulder, she couldn't tell him, but up in the stars somewhere was her home planet. In some solar system far away, Galaluna waited for her… waited in broken pieces, at the feet of the Mutraddi. She wanted to return home, but she knew they needed to hide on Earth, being the King's daughter, and sole heir to the throne.

"You okay?" Jason asked.

"Yeah…" Ilana said softly. "This reminds me of my old home, in California… I lived there for a while. Thanks for showing me this." Ilana lied; it didn't matter if he didn't know her real story, that she was a princess of a war torn planet. Because he didn't love her for that, he loved Ilana Lunis, he loved her for her.

She stroked her hands on the tall grass that shone bright white from the moon, and gazed off at the city lights and stars above. Jason didn't say anything in response, words were not needed. He simply turned Ilana's cheek and kissed her, on the lips for their very first time.