Just Hold Hands

Chapter 1

The aliens invaded on a Tuesday. Theo was not thrilled about this development.

She had spent the last hour studying, she was carrying an entire notebook worth of important notes, and more outdated textbooks than could fit in her bag. She was tired. Theo rubbed her eyes, gathered her things, and tried not to fall down the stairs on her way to the kitchen. On her way down, she saw the television set to the news, and her whole family watching.

"What's going on?"

"Shhhhhhh."

"A series of unidentified foreign ships have arrived in Chinese space," said the newscaster. He stared blankly into the camera like the news was perfectly ordinary. "However, they do not appear to be of Chinese origin. Reports from Chinese officials indicate that these ships have arrived from deep space, not from a particular country. These reports suggest that the ships may be of extraterrestrial origin."

Theo groaned. "I did not need this today."
She trudged into the kitchen to assemble some sort of breakfast. From the other room, her mom and sister were communing in hushed, panicked whispers. After gulping down her coffee, Theo and her sister headed out.

"School's going to be insane today."

Catherine grinned back. "No homework."

Theo pulled her hair into the best ponytail she could manage. A good third of her short hair fell right back out.

"Do you think it's aliens?" Maria whispered to her during first period, from Theo's right. "I think it's aliens."

"Shhhh. Attendance."

The teacher finished rattling off the names, and Theo responded, "It's probably not aliens, someone probably just illegally launched space junk. I bet it was Elon Musk."

The boy on Theo's left leaned in and added, "It was definitely Elon Musk."

Kate turned around from the desk in front of Maria. "Aliens for sure."

Nora from across the room added, "If aliens are really invading then I'm dropping out." She was leaning against the wall, facing them.

"Aliens aren't invading," shouted some guy from behind her. "Nora's an idiot."

Nora violently turned her head to look at him, her long hair quickly following, shiny enough to reflect the cold public school light. "At least I'm gonna drop out and not fail out," she bit.

"It's a Chinese hoax," some other guy yelled back.

"The ships were spotted by an American diplomat!" Kate shouted. Theo smirked. That guy hit her in the face with a basketball in seventh grade and she never quite forgave him.

"You're stupid!"

"You've been copying my homework for three weeks," Theo added, just loudly enough for him to hear. She shrunk back into her seat.

Nora grinned in their direction. Theo smiled back.

"Let's try to learn some math today," begged the teacher. The class did not end up learning any math.

"Where would the aliens even come from?" someone asked, twenty minutes into the period.

"Space, dumbass."

"But wouldn't we know if there was extraterrestrial life close enough to get here in like, not two million years? And their ships look so much like Earth designs."

"Not really, it's a synthesized metal but not like the ones we commonly use here on Earth," replied Mrs. Baker, who had given up on her lesson plan. "And there are only so many designs that are both aerodynamic and functional."