3Below: The Summer of Tarron

Chapter 2

Once school was over, Aja texted her friends that she was staying for a while longer. Of course, they had no idea of the details, assuming it was back at her "home country."

They invited her out to hang with them at their local mall, saying they were bringing their boyfriends, so if she wanted, she could ask Steve to come.

Of course she was excited at the idea, and agreed immediately to it.

"Steve, can you come with me to this mall place? Mary and Darcy are bringing their boyfriends, and asked me to bring mine," Aja turned to ask him.

"Of course, Aja!" He said, feeling it was a bit too enthusiastic to be considered cool. His face reddened as he chuckled nervously.

"Lively!" She exclaimed excitedly, texting them back that Steve was coming.

Too bad she couldn't set Krel up with anyone... Then again, it was terrible having a younger sibling tag along on your date. He did annoy the living daylights out of her on their last date, which ended up being rudely disrupted anyway by General Morando's bidding. Still, she felt a little bad leaving him alone. Maybe he could hang out with Eli or whoever he was talking with earlier at school.

She glanced back at her brother, who had been crossing his arms and walking alone. Should she...?

Biting her tongue, she excused herself to go talk to him. "It looks like you made a friend today," she pointed out, seeming to make his shoulders droop at the statement.

"He thinks I'm weird," he stated, finally turning to look at Aja.

"Wasn't that a good thing?" She asked, remembering when he had told her about their interaction after the math competition.

"No, he said it's why I don't have— never mind," he suddenly changed his mind about telling her, remembering how she basically told him the same thing.

"Why you don't have what?" Aja asked, frowning.

"I'm not telling you. You're just as mean," he grumbled with irritation.

"What?! What did I say? Wait, what did he say?" Aja asked, watching his expression grow a little more hurt than mad.

What did she tell him? Was he seriously mad that she told him that he needed to let more people into his life? It was literally just a suggestion!

"Fine, I'm sorry I told you to let more people into your life. You don't have to if you don't want to," she apologized, finally deciding it was better to be the bigger person.

"No... yours wasn't even that bad. I'm sorry for getting mad, Aja. It's just that... I guess I realized it was true that I don't have a lot of friends. No one wants to be friends with me because I'm too weird," Krel told her, shrugging miserably.

"What? No, I'm just as weird as you, Krel. It's not that. I just... look, I know that you didn't make any friends on Akiridion-5, or didn't really try to make any on Earth, so I just wanted to advise you to let more people get to know you. Did that kid seriously tell you that you're too weird to have friends?" Aja asked, furrowing her brows in concern.

"I know I don't have many friends. I guess I never really thought I wanted any, but I do... I tried to ask Seamus, and he said yes, but then told me he was joking," Krel explained, slumping in shame.

Why was he even telling her this? Last time she saw someone mess with him, which was Steve, she kicked him in front of many classmates, and somehow ended up falling in love with the oaf. He thought Staja was initially disgusting, but thinking of whatever Seamus and Aja's combined name would be was even nastier, especially considering how mean Seamus was. Seaja? Ajmus? It wouldn't make sense anyway. Besides, he thought Steve treated her with way more respect than Seamus ever could.

"What kind of dumb human joke is that supposed to be? Jokes are supposed to be funny, but that's just flat out rude," Aja frowned, looking around to see if Seamus was there.

"Don't bother, Aja. Let's just go home and deal with our summer homework," Krel told her.

"Oh, I was actually going to go with Steve and some friends to some place called the mall. I was thinking, maybe you could invite Eli so you'd have somebody to hang out with, or you could hang out with Steve and I if you'd like?" Aja offered, which Krel could tell was out of pity.

Did he really want to tag along with his sister and her boyfriend, her friends and their boyfriends, and Eli? He honestly knew it'd probably be awkward for his sister to have to drag her brother on a date, and he knew she was very capable of protecting herself in case of danger.

"Eh, I'll have to pass, but I will see you at home later. I'll get my homework started," Krel said, glancing down at his backpack straps as he yanked them a little.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Aja asked, feeling a little bad about leaving her younger brother by himself at home after having had such a bad day at school, "It could be fun!"

"I'll be fine, Aja. You have fun with Steve. Just don't do anything dumb, like that kind of behavior on the television channels, and it's usually done by people around our age, then it gets you in trouble," he advised, causing Aja to laugh a little at the seriousness of his warning. As weird as Steve was, she knew he'd never get into that kind of trouble. He was a nice guy.

"Yes, Krel. I won't do anything dumb," she repeated playfully, then asked, "But are you sure you don't want to come?"

"No, no. Please, you know how I prefer to get my work done first. I'll see you at home later," he said with a laugh, waving it off.

"Alright, I'll see you later then," Aja smiled, walking away to catch up with Steve.

Krel smiled back, but went off in the other direction to go back to their home. Walking back by himself felt a little more lonely than he wanted to admit, as he didn't spend much time apart from his sister on Earth.

Maybe he needed to find a girlfriend? Aja started making friends when she started dating Steve, so it was entirely possible that he could make friends if he started dating an Earth girl.

But who did he even potentially see that way?

All of Aja's friends were obviously taken, and he found them to be a bit too preppy for his taste. That one girl with the red glasses, Shannon, seemed nice, but she didn't seem like she'd be into him either.

He could ask that annoying Steve guy to help him, and maybe with Steve being so dedicated to Aja, he could find him a potential girlfriend.