SERENA

PART II: Chapter 5 - Onions

Serena walks all the way back to Las Cruces, following the same path she took once before, and she heads toward Alison's dorm. When she gets there, the sun has already passed its peak in the sky, meaning the day is over halfway through. She still remembers which door leads to Alison's place, and even though she has no idea whether Alison is already home or not, she decides to knock on the door.

After waiting for a few seconds and not getting a reply or hearing a sound coming from inside the house, Serena decides to knock again more forcefully. And this time, she hears footsteps inside and approaching her.

The door opens, but it's not Alison who's on the other side.

For a second, Serena wonders if she got the house wrong, but she's sure that was the place where she had been before.

The girl inside the house raises a black eyebrow as she sees Serena, clearly not recognizing her either. "Yes?"

The translated word comes out from Serena's device, and the girl looks even more intrigued.

"Hello." Serena says in her language and the translator in her hand allows the other girl to understand. "I'm looking for Alison."

"She's... in class." The girl replies slowly, and now both of her eyebrows are furrowed. "Who are you? And what the hell is that?" She points to the device in Serena's hand.

"It's a translator. I'm not from here." Serena replies and then realizes that she forgot to answer the first question. "I'm Serena. I met Alison a few days ago, and I was hoping I could talk to her."

The other girl nods slowly, still unsure of what to do about Serena's presence. "Right... Well, she's not back from class yet. And where exactly are you from?"

"Far away."

"Yeah, well, that's not a place."

Serena doesn't answer. If she was unsure whether to trust Alison to tell her where she came from, even after she helped her when she needed, she is even more hesitant to trust this girl.

"Sorry, my mom always says that I'm way too nosey and maybe she's right." The girl says, smiling and tucking a strand of her short black hair behind her ear. "I'm Mandy, by the way."

Serena smiles. "Nice to meet you, Mandy. Do you happen to know when Alison will be back?"

"She's probably on her way back already. But why don't you come wait inside?" Mandy asks, stepping away from the door to give Serena enough space to get into the house. "I'm sure you'll be way more comfortable here than out there. And if you're Alison's friend, you're very welcome."

"Thank you." Serena replies stepping into the house.

Mandy closes the door as soon as Serena's inside and then guides her to the living room/kitchen so they can sit down waiting for Alison. According to her, Alison's classes ended about five minutes ago, so she will probably be home in around other five.

"So, what brings you to town?" Mandy asks, pretending to just be making conversation.

Serena wonders what would could be a believable lie. Rakon once told her that she should try to stay as close to the truth as possible to leave less room for mess ups, so she tries that.

"Trying to get away from my parents."

Mandy's interest seems piqued and she cocks her head slightly to the right. "Why?"

Well, Serena didn't exactly expect follow up questions...

"They wanted me to be someone I'm not." Serena decides to say. "No matter how much I tried to be the perfect daughter they would be proud of, nothing was ever enough."