Milo on The Earth

9: Bully

Soon after, when they were starting to feel better, Sonthsya came home from school one afternoon and walked into her bedroom without a sound. Kazutlru, and Milo, after witnessing the strange behavior, looked at each other, hoping on of them had some sort of answer, and then to Tsunclrek, who had walked her home.

"I have no idea, she was completely silent on the way home, and refused to tell me anything."

Milo stood up, "I believe I understand what she's going through, let me go talk to her."

She sat on her bed, fiddling with a small toy weaving loom as they entered the room, causing her to turn away immediately.

"Are you alright, Sonthsya?" She pretended not to hear. They sat down next to her and pressed their hand on her forehead, being careful not to accidentally poke her third eye. Once it was determined she was healthy and had not caught their illness, they started talking.

"Are the other children being mean to you?"

"No."

"Are you sure? Remember, you can tell the three of us anything."

She tensed for a moment, trying desperately to contain her emotions, than shot her body around, naturally cyan face turning a grief filled shade of purple. "They won't even talk to me! They all say I'm a monster girl who wants to eat them and they always say they'll get sick if I touch them and that we'll get tortured forever when we die simply because we believe in reincarnation."

Milo pulled their arms around her as tight as they could without worrying they were hurting her. "We will fix this, many people have frightening beliefs about us, but that doesn't mean we are more hostile than any other species, and we certainly will not be tortured forever when we die."

"Why are humans so strange?"

If she had asked that question a year ago, Milo's immediate response would have been; 'The majority are not so different from us,' but after everything they saw, all they could say was, "I don't know."

As could be expected, stopping her classmates from bullying her was easier said than done. Her teacher seemed not only unaware this had been going on, but favored the main attackers over some of the more excitable children such as Sonthsya.

One day, when the class was taking turns giving a report on their country of heritage, Sonthsya came across someone who understood her.

"My parent, Stlrukashu, grew up near the ocean with a big brother, two little sisters, and another younger sibling." She announced to the class, already noticing some of the students starting to whisper and giggle.

One girl in the back of the group instead shot up spontaneously, "Did they use They/Them pronouns?"

"Yes, actually, my parent does too."

"And my neighbor!"

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

The child, whose name was Lily, turned out to be a sweet, creative girl who reacted well to Sonthsya's endless energy. The two would often come up with creative ideas for pretend play simply by coming up with a basic concept and expanding upon it through humorous additions.

The day after school pictures had been sent home, and when it was finally warm enough to play outside again, Lily whispered to Sonthsya during class to meet her in 'The Bush,' (a large shrub with a hole in it the two of them had conversations in,) during recess.

Sonthsya hadn't been suspecting much out of this particular conversation, Lily had already done the same several times to tell entertaining stories about here perfectionist older brother, but this one, it turned out was much more serious.

When she entered, Lily was sobbing in a corner, leaving her at fault on how to react.

"Is everything alright?" she asked, trying to walk through how Milo had talked to her a few weeks ago.

"My dad says I shouldn't be friends with a Martian."

"Why in the world would he say that?"

"He thinks you're collecting information on me, and that the school is stupid for enrolling you."

There was a long silence as both of them contemplated the situation.

"Does that mean I can't hang out with you anymore?" Sonthsya asked, fighting back the urge to cry.

"What do you think? I'm not even supposed to talk to Martians anymore."

At that, she snapped, "Don't call me a Martian."

"Does it matter anymore?"

"Yes! It's like if I said you were from Antarctica..."

"Go away."

"No one lives on Mars, and no one ever will, so stop acting like the universe is that small."

"Go away!"

Sonthsya stopped, realizing she was fighting back tears, "Fine, just don't be like the rest of them and say I'm going to be tortured forever when I die, because your father is the evil one, not me."

"Take it back!" Lily screamed, and she kept screaming as Sonthsya ran out of the bush, letting herself cry hot tears of anger.

"No, I can't, it's true, I hate humans, and I just want to go home!"