I spent the rest of the morning doing biology homework. When I ran out of homework, I just read the textbook. It didn't have very much information that I didn't already know; growing up with two ex-research scientist veterinarian parents, surrounded by animals and biology books, you pick up a lot.
"Your friends go home did they, honey?" my mother asked, drifting through the lounge room. I always end up reading in the lounge room, for some reason.
"Uh-huh."
"Some of them were new."
I looked up, gave her my I'm-reading-and-need-peace look. "Yep."
"That's good." She smiled, and a chill went down my spine.
She was probably asking because both my parents were concerned that I didn't have many friends. She probably thought it was good that I was hanging out with more people than just Rachel. Probably.
She might have been curious because we were a collection of five kids, and my trip home from the mall last night took me near the construction site.
I looked back down at my book, willing my voice to remain normal. "They're from school. Their grades need improving. We're forming a study group."
"Oh." Slight disappointment. Because she was hoping I'd made new friends? Or because she was hoping she'd found the kids that the Visser was looking for? "Well, good on you for helping." She left the room.
I finished the chapter, went upstairs, and fished the piece of paper I'd been writing on the previous night out of my pocket. Then I tore it into tiny little pieces. It was evidence. I couldn't leave any evidence of any kind.
There was life on other planets.
And it had come to Earth.
Our little planet, our cradle of life, of meaning, that could very well have been the single, fragile representation of life in the universe... wasn't. We weren't even the only intelligent life. There were sentient aliens and they were similar enough to us to communicate.
And somehow, I had to protect my planet from them.