SERENA

PART II: Chapter 7 - Superhero

It has been a few weeks since Serena started working at one of the coffee shops in the campus Alison goes to, and it wasn't as easy to start as Alison had thought. The first big problem was the fact that Serena had no ID or any documents at all. But just like most of the problems Serena faced since getting to Earth, Alison was able to solve it. Well, in this particular case it wasn't her specifically, but someone that knew someone that she knew. She told Serena not to ask any details because she didn't either. All she knew was that one of her college friends had a friend who could get fake IDs if they ever needed one.

"It's not really smart to advertise that to everyone like he does, because someone can tell the cops." Alison said when she was explaining it to Serena. "But who am I to complain if it can actually help right now?"

So, Alison got a photo of Serena to give to her friend to give to the other person, but after a couple days he approached her after class.

"It's done already?" She asked.

"No. Actually, there is something my buddy wants to ask before he gets it done." Marcus replied.

He placed a hand on her arm and guided Alison to a quieter spot where no one would overhear them.

"So, what is it?"

"He's just wondering if your friend can dye her hair back to whatever color it was, you know? Because blue hair is flashy and I'm sure whoever checks her ID will, you know, obviously notice and won't just glance at it. And it's not like my buddy doesn't have confidence in how good his work is, but it's still a fake ID."

"Oh." It's all Alison says, because she knows Serena's hair is naturally blue, and she didn't seem inclined to change it. "I don't think that's gonna be possible."

Marcus frowned. "How bad does she want the ID?"

"She needs it." Not only to work, but to be able to live there in general. "But I don't think she wants to dye her hair another color."

"You mean undye."

"I don't think that's a word."

"You know what I mean." Marcus sighed. "Get it back to her natural color."

Alison didn't reply to that, which only made Marcus's previous frown deepen.

"You're not gonna tell me your friend has blue hair naturally, right? Because no one does." Marcus told Alison. "But there is something I have been wondering, actually, you know? Why does she need the fake ID? Because if it was to buy alcohol or something, you would have asked for one that said she was 21, but you asked for one where she's 20."

Shit, Alison thought.

"Something sketchy is going on here." Marcus continued when Alison didn't say anything. "I think my buddy is out."

Marcus started walking away, but Alison held his arm to keep him in place.

"Your buddy's whole business is sketchy." She whispered. "And if his work is that good, it won't matter if anybody takes an hour inspecting it."

"Then he'll want to meet her."

Alison shook her head. "That was not part of the deal. Besides, how do you know what he will want?"

It was Marcus's turn not to answer.

"There's no buddy, is there?" Alison asked. "It's you."

Without answering, Marcus opened his backpack, took out a notebook and ripped out a piece of paper from it. Then, he wrote something on it and handed Alison the paper. "If you and your friend want the ID, bring her to this location tomorrow after class." And with that, he got his backpack back on and left.