Alena sat on the bus, on her way home from the mall, as she entertained herself with her phone. Some people stared at her in wonder, as it wasn't that common for people to be born with pure white hair and red eyes. As she sat there, ignoring all the stares, Alena watched an episode of her favorite show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It was an instant favorite of hers from practically the first minute of watching. The art and animation style, the writing, strong and endearing characters; the show as a whole just screamed awesome the minute she saw it, and wanted to see the whole series through.
The episode was just about to get to the good part, when she half-heard her stop was up next. Alena shot up and pushed the stop request button, grabbed her stuff, got off the bus, and walked down the street to her house. It was convenient that there was a bus stop nearly at her front door. As she opened the door, Alena noticed that there was another pair of shoes in the entrance hall; her mother was home, which was a rare occurrence.
"Hey, mom, I'm home," Alena called. There was a short silence before her mother shouted back a warm welcome.
Julia, Alena's mother, stepped out of her home office and walked over to the entrance hall, where Alena still stood. Seconds ticked by, before Alena ran towards her mother and gave her a crushing hug.
"Holy crap it's so good to see you! Almost thought that the board might've kidnapped you," Alena jokingly said.
"Ha ha, no, the board didn't kidnap me; I've just had to oversee a few new rigs being built, and make sure everything was up to code with how they ran. I may be the CEO, but that doesn't mean I want to sit on my ass all day and do nothing but stare at a computer screen all day until a crisis happens."
Alena let go of her mom and looked at her for a moment; her auburn hair starkly contrasting against Alena's own snowy white hair; Julia's hazel eyes capturing you in a sea of comfort, versus Alena's fiery red eyes. Both Alena and her mother were at the same height, around five feet three inches, which made them fairly short compared to the average person, though that also meant that Alena got a massive boost in adorableness when it came to being eyed by both guys and some girls. Where Julia's chest was a pair of soft pillows at a size of 36C, Alena's own were only a mediocre 27B, which weren't big, but not incredibly small either.
"You know," Alena began, catching Julia's attention, "It's times like this that I really miss dad. He's been gone for years, and no one seems to have any idea where he went; it's like he just disappeared out of thin air one day, without leaving so much as a note," Julia stiffened at Alena's comment, which was picked up on immediately. "Mom, dad did leave a note before he disappeared, didn't he?"
Julia hung her head slightly, and with a sigh, she resigned. "Yes, he did leave a note, specifically for you. There were instructions though that it wasn't to be given to you until you were old enough. The note is at the lab, in his safe." Alena quirked a brow, "The way things are going with this, it seems that there is a lot more going on than what you are telling me, and what is known to the public. I'm not going to let this out, but you need to tell me exactly what's been going on." Alena's mom opened her mouth, "From the beginning, mom," and snapped it shut.
Julia motioned for Alena to follow her into the family room, "Come and sit, this is going to take a while..." Alena walked over to the couch that her mother had sat upon, and took a seat beside her. "Now," she continued, "I'm going to start from the beginning..."
The explanation took a while, but through it all, Alena just didn't know what to think; all this time, she was a walking goldmine for geneticists and astrophysicists alike. The geneticists she could understand, because her genes were apparently very different than a normal human's, but no one knew why. According to a theory by Alena's father, there seemed to be a rip in space right under their house, and it was spilling out this weird energy which slowly altered Alena's genes, and by extension, her mother's. The changes to her genetics had a few obvious signs: whenever she got really mad, Alena's eyes would change from red to a brilliant blue, and she would inexplicably calm down after a few moments; when she was younger, Alena would accidentally move things with thaumic energy - or as Julia had said, magic. There were a few times that Alena had apparently sat on the ceiling, and just walked right into a wall, only to phase through it.
John, Alena's father, was a physicist working at a very high tech lab, and had discovered the energy that was present in the house after Alena had been conceived, when things randomly moved around the house while they weren't being watched as if they were being teleported; the energy was confirmed after John had brought some equipment to the house and got some readings of it. The only conclusion that he and his co-workers could come up with was that there was a rip in space right below their house. When he had replicated the energy, and had built some things that could levitate objects without needing to worry about weight, the government had stepped in and demanded to know where he had found the energy; when John refused to tell them, they renditioned him on the grounds that he could have been planning to take out the government with weapons that utilized the energy he had discovered.
Alena's head reeled as the new information rattled around in her brain; her father was treated like a terrorist, she could use magic, and she was a treasure trove of information for geneticists that would kill to get their hands on her dna. She didn't know what to do about all this information, and needed someone to take her mind off all of this mess, someone she could just be herself with, needed a best friend. Alena brought her head up and looked at her mother, "I'm going to invite Placid over, I need someone to take my mind off of all of this." Julia looked confused, "Placid? Who's that?" Alena facepalmed at her mother's words, "Right, forgot to tell you, Serenity legally changed her first name to Placidia a few weeks ago, said it fits her better and still means the same thing."
Julia smiled, until she looked at her phone - there was a text that asked her to come out to one of the rigs, there was an accident that needed her oversight. She got up and rustled Alena's hair, "Sure, she can come over; and, listen, there was an incident at one of the rigs, I need to go oversee some things - I won't be back for a few days. Just make sure the house doesn't burn down and I'll be happy." Alena got up as her mother left the room and got her shoes on while she grabbed her purse and coat, "Stay safe, sweetie. There's plenty of food in the freezer and fridge, there shouldn't be any bills coming in but you never know." Julia gave Alena a kiss on the cheek before she headed out the door, "Love you, I'll be back in a few days." The door closed, and just like that, Alena was on her own. The house felt lonely, as if it was attempting to oppress her... it was working.
Alena dashed over to the table in the hallway and picked up the phone; she dialed the only number she could think of, Placidia's cellphone. The other end picked up, and Alena's ear was assaulted with the sound of an angelic voice, like the light of day at the end of a dark and dreary tunnel; the voice belonged to the one person that Alena could truly call a best friend throughout all the trouble she had in her life at school and elsewhere - Placidia. Maybe her father was right, that they were made for each other...
Alena was shaken out of her thoughts when the voice called for her attention, "Hello? Alena are you there? I know it was you that called me, unless you changed your number and someone else got it. I doubt it though."
Alena quickly put the phone back to her ear, unaware that she had taken it away from there in the first place, "Oh sorry, I was just lost in thought. Listen, do you think you could come over and hang out for a couple days?"
There was a slight pause, "Wait, a couple days, like staying the night over? Sure, I could do that, I got nothing to do over here anyway. Just let me get some things and I'll be on my way. See you in a few minutes."
One thing that was cool, according to the two of them, was that their houses were just down the street from each other's. Both of their parents thought it was convenient as well, as they could get together and discuss what kind of trouble their kids have gotten into and such. As Placidia was busy getting ready to go have a sleepover, Alena ran to her bedroom and promptly ran into the family room with her consoles, which she plugged into the TV, and turned on the home theatre system. She missed gaming with her dad late at night, staying up past her bedtime just gaming the night away with him while Julia just sat on the couch and enjoyed seeing the two of them getting along so well.
Just soon after the last console was plugged in, there was a knock at the door, though given the rhythm of the knock it could only be one person. Alena got up and walked over to the door to open it. The person on the other side of it was a walking example of 'cute beyond belief'. Placidia's long light blue hair was done up in a ponytail, she was just a bit taller than Alena, and was a bit bustier than Julia - at a staggering 30 D pair of knockers. Placid had her trademark grey hoodie on with a pair of black yoga pants; Alena had on a black shirt with a picture of Pandora and a pair of slim fit dark navy jeans. Lost in thought, Alena didn't realize that she was staring into Placidia's grey eyes.
"Hey, Alena, you know you're staring into my eyes, right?" Placidia giggled as her comment snapped Alena out of her trance, "Oh, sorry, didn't realize I was staring; come inside." Placidia and Alena ventured through the hall and into the family room, where a multitude of consoles sat in front of the TV, the one turned on being the Xbox 360, a game of Halo 3 already in and running. "I was hoping for a rematch so I could kick your ass again," Alena smiled as she picked up first player's controller, forcing Placidia to be second. Placid said nothing, opting to stick her tongue out at Alena's comment.
"I take that as a challenge, and I have only one comeback: challenge accepted."