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THIRD PERSON'S POV
That promise Willa made was the truth.
She was simply stressed out with senior year and on edge about the aliens. While River still had the feeling it wasn't the full truth, it was better than nothing. And she just had to accept that and move forward even if it left her with a bad feeling. So, for the rest of the week, River was distracting herself from that feeling.
Starting with a sleepover.
"You promised and you bailed!" Lilith reminded her as they walked the halls of SeaBrook High together. "I know, but I just don't think that now is the best time for a sleepover, boo" River said, tugging on her black book-bag. "You said it yourself, you need down time" River responded as she was the first to notice Mason in their usual meet up spot near his locker. "Yeah, with Willa, not y'a—" River starts to point to Lilly before withdrawing her finger. Lilith tilted her head, blinked and waited for Rio to finish that sentence.
"Fine. I'll do the dumb sleepover or whatever" River says before groaning once they were finally at Mason's side.
"Sleepover?" Mason questioned, looking between the two. "Yes. Rio just agreed to do one at her place for bailing on date night. Twice" Lilith beamed, resting her head on Mason's chest. "Babe, did you force her?" Mason was quick to ask. "No, i willingly agreed to it this time" River reassured him. "You down?" She asked. "Can't. I'm busy with work" Mason told her. "Just us then" River winked at Lilly with a smile. "Maybe it doesn't have to be" Lilith says, making River wonder. "Wynter!" Lilith called out, grabbing Wynter's attention from down the hall.
"I wasn't staring at anyone!" Wynter cleared after she ran up to them. "Wha— no. Rio having a sleepover with me, wanna join?" Lilly asked. "I don't know... I think I should study for a test tomorrow" Wynter says shyly. "Tomorrow's Saturday, babe" River says with a smile, taking notice of Wynter blushing. "There'll be snacks" She added. "I'm in!" Wynter beamed, clapping her hands with smile.
"Should've just lead with that, huh?" Lilly said with a laugh.
──── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ────
River sat alone during lunch, her tray pushed away from her and checked to see if her new piece had sold yet.
Willa was still in math class, Mason was dealing with track while Lilly had been trying to stop him from doing track after he got hurt a few weeks back.
But it wasn't for long that River was alone.
Three blue haired aliens and a zombie popped over with trays. "Hey, Rio. You don't mind right?" Zed says after taking in River confusion. "I guess not" River shrugs, smiling at the aliens. "Speaking of the mind..." A-Li says, nodding her head towards River with a soft greeting and returning to the matter of their reason with Zed. "With our Luma Lens, we probed all the minds of Seabrook" she says. River raised her head from being in her phone and gave Zed a suspicious look.
"Except for... yours. Huh? I could've sworn we got everyone" A-Li took into account that she and the girl next to her had only met once. Which meant River's mind had yet to be probed. Also meaning that they didn't have all the information they needed. "Hey? Do you mind?" A-Li says to River as she lifts her Luma Lens off its attachment and held it up to River's sight. "I do. So, back up before I slap you" River snapped, eyeing the blue bobbed hair alien up and down.
Sensing her sudden upset expression and the tone in her voice, A-Li pouts and lowered her luma lens, turning back in her seat.
"What is a "slap"?" A-Lan questions; "I would love to win in that".
"Mind probes? Why would you do that?" Zed also questioned getting back onto more serious matters. The aliens all look at each other with shifty eyes. "To learn about cheer, obviously" A-Spen says and the other two joined in sync. "Cheer, obviously. Cheer".
"Okay, but what about people's privacy?" Zed said. "I mean, you can't just scan people's— Hey, what is that?!" Zed says after checking out A-Lan's Luma Lens. "Oh, your biology teacher's brain scan" A-Lan explains as the two boys looked through the Lens. "Is that my test?" Zed questions as he looked at his teacher grading his science test. "A D-plus?" Zed groans and grimaces; "That is... Ouch". "I could beat that easily" A-Lan stated with a head nod as he turned to look at Zed.
"Well, no college for monsters. We're back to start one" River butts in.
"Not necessarily. He was unfairly marked" A-Spen tells River.
They turned to Zed and continued to speak. "Your answers correctly highlight the purpose of brains for zombies" they said. "Your teacher does not understand zombie culture" A-Li says sweetly to Zed. A-Spen smiled at her. A-Lan swiped his hand over his luma lens, creating a beeping noise and a blue-reddish orb above it before it dispersed and changes Zed's test grade to a B minus. "That's the grade you should have gotten" A-Lan tells him.
"Yes! Just like that?" Zed said with happiness, looking over at the nodding alien. "Thank you" Zed says. A-Spen glances over at A-Li and pressed their lips together, turning their body and looks up at Zed. "So there is something you can do for us" They said, taking out her Luma Lens. They did the movement as A-Lan did before and appeared a blue glowing rock. A-Li shows the same thing to River as she was included at the table talk as well.
"This image appears in many scans. What is it?" A-Spen asks.
"That is the moonstone" River tells them. "Yeah. It is the most precious thing in Seabrook. It's the life force for werewolves" Zed added on in more detail. "Instrumomo" The trio beamed with joy. "But stay away from it, because the werewolves won't let any outsiders near the moonstone" Zed stated as River snaps her fingers in agreement. "You are so caring" A-Spen sighed in awe as they closed their arms around Zed's waist and arms. Zed groans in discomfort at the tightness of the hug from the small extraterrestrial.
"Okay, well..." Zed forces himself out of A-Spen's grip and pats on their shoulder. "Zed, we shall reward your help by improving your application" A-Lan tells the zombie. A-Li nods and smiled. "It's not rocket science, but knowing rocket science won't hurt" She said while flipping her bob back. Zed chuckles and looks at River before winking. "Start one you said?" "Shut up" River flips him off with a smile. "What does that expression mean?" A-Spen asked Zed.
"Oh, it means fuc—" River began to say but Zed cuts her off.
"It means that the universe has sent me an intergalactic alien dream team to help get this zombie into college!" He says, his hand up high as he is overjoyed by the outcome of his plans coming together.
A-Lan looks up at him with a nervous expression before he puts up his three fingers while the pad of his thumb sat on the nail of his bent pinkie. "Ye—Okay..." Zed says awkwardly while he wraps hand around A-Lan's three fingers. Zed smiled down at an in awe A-Spen, big goo-goo eyes with batting lashes as they sighed softly, their smile never fading. "A-Li raised a brow, slightly smiling herself and before she watched River getting ready to leave.
