Jada

It was the first day of school. I don't know why I was treating it like a big deal. My mission on Earth was to assist Visser Three in conquering it. This was supposed to be a part of my cover. But me having a human host changed things.

Every host I had prior to this one was already a part of a race that we already conquered, so I never had to immerse myself amongst the population. That changed about a year ago. I was assigned underneath Visser Three, if only because of the project I was working on. It was something I was working on for a long time – something that could be an alternative to merely conquering and enslaving a race. Unfortunately, the project was weaponized, much to my chagrin. But save for Dualtrof, I didn't voice my grievance to anyone.

Visser Three wasn't one to take constructive criticism in a calm and rational manner.

So, I arrived on Earth, taking on a host that was one of the subjects of my project. During my time on Earth, I became immersed amongst the culture of the planet. Or, should I say cultures? The parents of my host came from two different nations of this planet – her father from Japan and her mother from Haiti. I didn't have the luxury of scanning my host's mind. I had to learn the culture from a lot of research and speaking to her family members. And then I had to learn about the cultures and history of this country – the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Suddenly, I became hooked, enjoying the music, the arts, the customs… I know a lot of my fellow Yeerks looked down on humans, considering them backwards as far as technology went, but…

"Humans are interesting," I said to myself as I walked through the building, schedule in hand. I looked at said schedule, looking at the room number for my first class. Once I read it, I looked at the doors I walked by to see if I was headed in the right direction. After a minute, I found the door. I then covered my mouth with my free hand as I yawned, still not fully awake. "Well, let's see what college is all about." I opened the door and stepped inside.

It was a large room – big enough to hold a hundred people, I'd say. Instead of desks, there were long tables with chairs behind them. On the wall that the seats were facing was a desk, two electronic projection strings, and a white dry erase board, as well as a desk and a computer. Hanging from the ceiling were projectors.

After I scanned the room, I noticed there were two people already inside. I raised my eyebrows curiously – I guess I wasn't the only one who decided to come early. They were talking amongst themselves and their voices sounded familiar. Quietly, I walked up to them. As I approached, I started to pick up what they're saying.

"…and my legs still feel like they're on fire," one of them said.

"Yeah, conditioning is no joke," the other one replied. "But we gotta be ready – especially since none of us got hit with a redshirt."

"Yeah. Congratulations on making third string."

"Thanks."

I was close enough to recognize them. During this, Antoine looked up at me. "Oh, you're in this class, too?"

The other person, Marco, turned around and smiled at me. I don't know why, but his smile gave me a fuzzy feeling in my chest. "Hey, Jada!" he greeted.

"Hey you two," I responded as I took the seat next to Marco. "How's your morning been so far?"

"It's been okay, so far," Antoine responded. "We just had conditioning this morning before we got a quick breakfast. And now we're here in our first class. What about you?"

"I woke about an hour and a half ago and had time for coffee and a protein bar," I replied. "And I'm ready for class, I suppose."

"Breakfast of champions," Marco joked.

"Well, it has always gotten me through the morning up to this point. Hopefully it'll get me through class."

We kept on talking as other students filed in, filling in the classroom. Then came the professor – Professor Hawley, if my schedule was anything to go by. The class went by in a flash. The first fifteen minutes or so dealt with the teacher's introductions, going over the syllabus, and the like. The rest of the class dealt with the first chapter of textbook. The three of us took notes, though I had to nudge Marco a few times to keep him from dozing off. Once class was done, we all gathered our stuff and left.

Once we were outside of the classroom, Antoine turned to Marco and I. "Yo, I have to stop by my dorm," he said. "I'll catch y'all later."

"Okay, bye," I replied as Marco waved at him. As he walked away, I looked at Marco. "So, are you doing anything tonight?"

"Well, I have practice from 3 to 5," he replied. "And, after that… I got nothing, really. Fortunately, my study hall is during the day, so I get my evenings off to just decompress and whatnot. Why, what's up?"

"Well, I know the semester just started but… I was thinking… we can study a bit tonight. Either at the library, food court… Starbucks even?" I looked at him with a bit of a pleading look. He looked back at me with a smirk.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're asking me out on a date."

I chuckled. "We're not there yet."

He tilted his head. "Yet?" I smiled coyly before I turned and walked away. "Wait, am I at least in the right direction?"

"Call me if you're available," I called out over my shoulder. I continued to walk with a little bounce to my step.

I had about an hour before class. So I decided to make my way to the Student Union to just sit around.

I regretted it.

As soon as I entered, I walked past a table. From my peripheral, I noticed a certain person sitting at one of the tables. I kept on walking, hoping that he didn't notice me. However…

"Jada, hey!"

…that hope was dashed.

I sighed as I stopped in my tracks and turned around. I watched as Tom approached me. It took all of my willpower to keep my expression neutral.

"Tom," I said. "How are we today?"

"Doing fine," he replied with a smile. "I just have been trying to plan this interest meeting for The Sharing this week. You should come by."

I blinked, mostly to keep myself from rolling my eyes. "I'm good on that." I was about to turn and walk away until Tom spoke again.

"Listen, I understand that you're doing your own thing for our own agenda, but understand that we're in the same space. It would be better for the both of us if we worked together."

"I have my reasons." Those reasons being my reason was my growing disillusionment of this whole invasion on Earth and my overall dislike of the fellow Yeerk inside of Tom's head. "I serve directly under our supervisor. If he tells me to work with you, I will do so. If you feel so strongly about it, I suggest you take it up with him. Now, I have some things to do before I go to class. Is there anything else of importance you would like to discuss?" There was a slight glare to his eyes. I didn't pay it any mind. I knew he didn't like me and I wasn't going to pretend that our working relationship – if one could call it that – was anything close to amicable.

"No – but we will revisit this," he replied.

I almost scoffed. "I'm sure we will. You have a nice day." With that, I walked away.

My mood was soured. I barely remembered anything notable from my other classes. Well, that wasn't true. I remember two of Marco's friends – Cassie and Rachel – was in my Introduction to Anthropology class. I didn't talk to them, let alone even sat next to them. I made a note to do so during the class. Other than that, I was going through the motions.

When my day was over, I was about ready to leave the campus for the day, wanting to just call it a day early. I was actually just approaching my car in one of the nearby parking lots when my phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out and checked the number.

Marco.

I stared at the screen. I remembered what I told him after class this morning. I didn't want to stay on campus, but I didn't want to stand him up either. With a sigh of resignation, I answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey Jada," Marco said. "You still down to study together?"

"I am." I looked around. "Where are you?"

"I just left a team meeting at the Athletic Center. If you want, I can meet you at Starbucks." He paused for a moment. "…You're going to have to order for me. I never been to Starbucks before." I started to walk away from my vehicle.

"I'm surprised. Are you more of a Dunkin Donuts person."

"Nah…Well, I am. But, I wasn't much of a coffee drinker before I came here. And even when I did drink coffee, I always went to this place my mom used to go to."

"I see. Well, I hope you trust my taste."

"Well, you're hanging out with me, so obviously you have good taste."

"Oh, wow. Hanging up now, see you when I get there." I promptly hung up the phone, but not quick enough to not hear his laughter. I smiled wryly, trying to act like I wasn't amused. "Maybe I do have a thing for cornballs." I chuckled to myself.

A few minutes later, I arrived at the Starbucks. It wasn't hard to spot Marco – he was dressed in a set of blue athletic sweats with the school's athletic logo over the left breast. He waited just outside of where the line began. When he saw me, he smiled. I smiled back at him as I walked over to him.

"Ready for that cup of coffee?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. We moved into the back of the line. As we waited and moved along, we spoke.

"So what classes are you taking?" I asked. "Other than College Algebra, that is."

"I'm taking College Writing 1, Intro to Psychology, and Introduction to Theatre," he replied. I looked at him.

"Interesting mix – are you undecided?"

"I am. To be honest, I've been so busy trying to get through high school that I didn't take time to even consider what I want to do with my life after high school. So, who knows? Maybe I'll go into Psychology. Maybe I'll get into acting." He chuckled. "I think I got the looks for the latter."

"Looks can only get you so far," I pointed out. "I'm… also kind of undecided. But I've been leaning towards Anthropology. So I decided to take Intro to Anthropology. Other than that, I'm also taking College Writing 1, and Sociology." I smiled slightly. "I find humans interesting. Don't you?"

"…I guess." Marco shrugged his shoulders as a certain look came over his face. I raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

He sighed. "It's just that…" He paused. "…So, during our first meeting, my coach told us a whole anecdote about how he was watching a basketball game at his kid's high school. And his kid was playing on the team. According to him, it was a huge game. It was against the state rivals and some college scouts were there. It was a huge deal, you know?"

"Right." I wasn't quite sure what any of that meant – the concept of sports still eluded me.

"Do, during the final seconds of the game, the home team – the team my coach's son was on – had a play drawn up to win the game. The other team was up by two points. So, the ball was inbounded. They passed the ball around. One of the players was wide open in the corner behind the three point line. So, the coach's kid, not wanting to make a bad pass, passed it to the next closest player, expecting him to make that quick pass to the guy in the corner. He didn't. Instead he took the shot for himself and air balled it badly. As coach found out later, the would-be shooter and the eventual shooter butted heads, with eventual shooter wanting all of the glory for himself.

"And that's how I look at the human population – we could be so much more, but we keep on fighting each other for reasons that are stupid, petty, and senseless. It's like we're determined to stay in our own way and…" He trailed off as he looked at me. He then smiled sadly. "Sorry. I… I promise I'm not always a killjoy. I just… I just have my cynical moments."

"It's okay." I brought my finger up and playfully jammed it into his shoulder. "I get it. But we don't have to worry about that now." I decided to change the subject. "So, how you like your coffee?"

"Sweet with a lot of cream and a bit on the strong side," he replied.

I pondered as I looked at the menu. "I think I know just the thing."

After a few minutes, we made it to the register. After scanning the menu, I spotted the items before I looked at the cashier. "Good afternoon," I greeted kindly. "I'd like two lattes. Make mine Vanilla and his Cinnamon Dolce." As I said this, I reached into my pocket for my wallet.

"I got it," Marco said as he reached for his own wallet.

"Are you sure? I don't mind paying."

"Honestly, I'd let you pay under different circumstances. But, NCAA rules are strict, so you can't even spend a cent on me without me or the team potentially getting in trouble."

I stared at him for a moment. "Are you serious?"

"I wish I wasn't." I watched him as he paid the cashier. After he got his change, I walked with him to the waiting area.

"That seems rather asinine," I replied. "It doesn't make sense."

"That's what I said when Antoine pulled me aside to explain it to me," he said in agreement.

We waited patiently for our drinks. Once we grabbed them and thanked the barista, we took a table near the corner. As I sat down and took my textbook and notebook out of my backpack, I watched him as he took a sip of his Cinnamon Dolce. After the sip, he looked at the cup in thought. He took another sip from it, then nodded in approval.

"I like it," he said definitively.

I smiled. "I'm glad you do."

From there, we spent the next couple of hours or so going over our notes and doing some of the exercises in the book. For better or for worse, our homework was online and we also had a lab, though our respective lab times were on different days, unfortunately.

After our study session, I tried to suppress a yawn, but to no avail.

"Wow, am I that boring?" Marco joked. I chuckled.

"Maybe," I replied with a sly smirk. I then shook my head. "No, I'm just at my limit. I say we pick this up again another time."

"Okay." As he said this, he started gathering his stuff. I started to do the same. After a couple of minutes, we were walking towards the parking garage. We didn't talk during the first half of the walk. He just strolled along, watching the people we passed by. Halfway during the walk, I looked at him.

"Hey Marco… you ever had a girlfriend before?"

"No," he said. "…I thought I might've had a chance with Rachel, but another guy eventually flew in." He chuckled slightly, as if he made a joke with a punchline that was known mostly to him. "How about you? Have you ever been with a guy before?"

"A long time ago, in another land," I said. I frowned. "It ended badly. I… Well…"

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," he said reassuringly. I smiled at him.

"Thanks." He nodded. Eager to change the subject, I spoke again. "So, when's the first game of the season?"

"At the end of the month. But we'll be out of town."

"A shame." I looked forward. "Well, I hope you score 100 touchdowns for me."

Marco chuckled. "Well, if they let me off the bench, I'll score 101."

We parted ways when we reached my vehicle. I bid him Goodnight before I drove off. As I did so, I looked in the rearview mirror and watched him as he walked off towards the stairwell. I smiled sadly as I looked ahead.

I shouldn't, I thought to myself. I shouldn't. It's wrong. It's not fair to him.

So why did I get this warm and fuzzy feeling in my chest as I looked forward to see him again?