I Remember Area 51

Chapter 9

 Dinner went well, Lynn was fascinated at everything and how much Earthlings use. We walked back to our room and talked about the difference between our planets. She stayed up to see how long the lights would stay on. Apparently, there was no electricity after 7:30 on Xenon. Eventually, after asking me many questions about the basics of Earth, she fell asleep, in the middle of me answering a question.

It dawned on me why this was so familiar to me, answering questions into the late hours of the night. When Alexandria didn't want to go to sleep this same thing happened. Thinking of home made me miss home, I cried until I too drifted to sleep.

🜺

The bell woke me. I rolled into a sitting position. I almost tried to get off on the side of the bed, but then realized I was on the top bunk, and I would have fallen onto the cold hard floor. Instead I crawled to the foot of the bed and climbed down the ladder. When I got down Lynn was already she was looking at the packet again.

"Have you read this?!" She exploded, "Nonsense! No reasoning to be here at all! We have breakfast, a sport,- volleyball whatever that is- Interplanetary Sensitivity Class, -Well, that's a mouthful- Lunch, Test and Recovery, dinner 'in cell'" She made quotations with her hands, "And cleaning job. I'm most confused about 'Test and Recovery' Have you heard of it?" She frowned in thought. I was more confused about the dinner in cell, I wasn't thrilled about not seeing Kimmy. I started to was towards the door to go to breakfast. Lynn followed me, dropping the packet on the floor.

"I think that it's the blood transfer, but I haven't heard about the recovery and dinner in cell. I think it's like after a blood draw people are supposed to wait so they don't hurt themselves." She didn't seem to follow. "We sometimes donate our blood to people who lose too much from an accident, or something."

We entered the cafeteria, while I explained cars and car accidents. Breakfast was cold cereal, Cheerios. I got a bowl full and poured milk on top. Lynn hadn't poured milk in yet, so she grabbed a few dry Cheerios and popped them into her mouth. Her eyes widened.

"This is really good, it's so... so... Oh, what's the word?" She hit her head, trying to remember. I picked a dry Cheerio out of my bowl and ate it, it was the honey ones not the plain ones.

"Sweet?" I offered.

"I don't know. It might as well be, we didn't have things like this on Xenon. I'll ask Blake what it is later." She tried to pour milk into her bowl, but instead of the flow of milk falling onto the cereal, it fell mostly onto the floor, she immediately jerked her hand back up, slushing the milk onto her jumpsuit. She set the bowl down onto the table, and tried to pour the milk from there, she was much more successful, she only spilled a minor amount."What is this stuff? Why do we put it in here? What does it do?" She took a spoon out of the box and following my lead, took a bite of cereal. "Oh, that's really good! I can't believe it could be better!"

I smiled inwardly as I steered my way over to our table. Apparently, Lynn hadn't started to follow me because I heard a voice I didn't like.

"Hey! There's a line behind ya' kid! What did you do with the milk?" Konra looked at Lynn then at me, "Who's this kid? You're Penny, right?" She looked at me tauntingly.

"No, I'm Aspen, and this is Lynn. Lynn, this is someone not to associated with." and with that, I grabbed a spoon, and holding it in the same hand as my bowl, and with my other hand, I grabbed Lynn's elbow and guided her in the direction to our table. As soon as we were a safe distance from Konra, I let go of her.

"Who was that?" Lynn asked a she looked over her shoulder.

"Konra, she's a jerk, she acts above everyone else." I said. We sat down and started eating. The others were already at the table so Lynn asked if the weird taste was sweetness.