Of The Stars

Chapter 5: Bad Decisions

Keith was fully aware that the other Cadets thought he was strange. His hearing was substantially better than theirs and he'd overheard several private conversations not meant for his ears. Some of it hurt his feelings, other bits made him snicker, and others yet were down right puzzling. There was a girl in one of his classes who for some reason called 'dibs' on him and talked about a thing called a 'Shady Hawk Kin' dance. This one in particular was still confusing him as Keith had googled hawks and their kin only to learn they were a bird species native to Earth but had no relation to Humans. Why the Human's had a special dance for this species was baffling.

He knew they talked about him, he'd heard it after all, but it was the looks he sometimes got that startled him the most. BlueEyes was pretty useful for letting Keith know when he was being weird, the boy's face was incredibly expressive and he'd found himself glancing in the other's direction for validation from time to time. The most common thing he'd heard was that Keith was 'strangely cat-like' and some of the Cadets had taken to leaving balls of string on his desk when they were in particularly malevolent moods.

One time, someone had even handed him a snack that was fish flavoured. He'd eaten it and the others had laughed, showing him the packaging and revealing that it was cat treats. Well, jokes on them 'cause Keith pulled a power move and ate the whole bag during class, much to the horror of the other Cadets. They were pretty damn good though.

Currently he was sitting in the back of the class, filing his claws down. They grew incredibly quickly and he was constantly filing them to ensure they never surpassed an acceptable nail length for a Human male. It was tedious but necessary, and he'd taken to carrying a file with him at all times. The class he wasn't paying any attention to was 'Social & Cultural Studies', or something to that effect. Their instructor was discussing how differing cultural practices can make diplomatic endeavours difficult if one party were to inadvertently gaffe a social cue. He'd tuned it out mostly – until he heard the words 'Alien Culture'.

"So the project will be due by the end of the month at which time your presentations will take place." Keith sighed and raised his hand. "Yes? In the back."

"Um, what's the assignment?" He heard some snickers and a few groans, but he was more focused on the look of exasperation being thrown his way by the instructor.

"Were you not listening?"

"No Ma'am." He slunk down in his seat, embarrassed as all eyes were now focused on him.

"And what, pray tell, was more important?" he mumbled out a 'nothing ma'am' but she continued to glare. "Well? What were you doing if you weren't paying attention?" one of the Cadets muttered 'his nails' and another snorted, but Keith decided the truth probably wasn't going to help his cause.

"Nothing Ma'am. Lost in thought."

"Day dreaming." She tisked and shook her head continuing. "I'll make a note of this and automatically deduct 25 marks from your assignment." He groaned. "For anyone else who may have been daydreaming, pay attention. We will hold a mock UN meeting at the end of this term and you will each be representing a different Alien culture. You are to create this culture, name them, describe their physical characteristics, their home planet, their diets, their customs, etc. and explain how all of this comes together to affect their cultural norms and practices. You will also create a spoken language for your Aliens. Bonus points if your language can be taught to, and spoken by, others as opposed to merely being 'alien sounding' gibberish.

At the end of this month you will present your Alien culture to the class, the more attention to detail, the higher your grade will be. I expect you to create clothing and present yourself as an ambassador of your species." She looked up at the clock before frowning at Keith for using the last of her time. "Dismissed."