YOULKAY

eleven; well, erorest...(sh*t)

We passed most of the night and a good part of the week mastering the language of the Thoeys. Of my people. Based on the few things I could remember and those that I was able to relearn again.

By then, the spaceship had already became the favorite hanging out spot for Nicole and her friends.
Even if I was here.
Apparently, it was just to cool to miss on the occasion, had told me Elliot.

By now, they had brought mostly everything from Sonny Owens' old treehouse.
A couch, a small fridge, a hammock, an old TV with a DVD player and every movies they could sneak out of their house unnoticed.

After a lot of frustrating , I was able to master my color shifting ability again.
"Aw, but I liked how you looked!" Loudly whined Elliot when I was back to normal.
I kept my burgundy hair.
Though, I don't think Carol and Patrick were very pleased by this sudden change.

Walking down the streets of Fort Kitrie, I took the time to admire my little town.
Our ancestors... the town's first villagers were paranoid, afraid some crazy Americans would invade their home. As if Fort Kitrie was a strategic spot in Nothern Zernela. But they still built this big wall, protecting the city. A pale imitation of the Chinese wall.
I wouldn't say that much have changed now.
People were still stubborn and paranoid.
Still, it was, in town, a symbol of how united we could be, to protect our own. Though, that's what the Old Ernie said. But the Old Ernie's also collecting all sorts of weird weapons and pass almost all of his days yelling at every tourists in town. As if they would invade Fort Kitrie.

"!Tulas¡" Exclaimed Elliot as I stepped in the spaceship.
It was the Thoey way to say 'hello'.
Before I could answer, Elliot pushed me inside saying: "You have to see this!"

On the board, all of the -creepy and way too dangerous looking- mechanical spiders were aligned, connected to one another, each of them projecting a light, just like those old schools' projectors. Together they formed a picture. A countdown, to be exact.

"Okay, what's that?" Nicole asked dubiously.
"A countdown." I responded.
"Thank you, genius, for stating the obvious. I mean, what is it doing here?" Her eyes narrowed as she glared at Elliot Torres. "Elli, what did you do?"

"It wasn't me I swear!" Came an undignified cry from our bleached haired friend.

Then, by the entrance, came Sonny Owens, transporting an old, ugly, pinkish couch into the spaceship with the help of Jeremiah Merrit, Jay Lee O'Connor following close behind.

"Hey guys, we found this on the way here, Mme Charlie Tremblay was getting rid of it!" Merrit happily explained as they entered.

O'Connor's plead of 'disinfecting the couch before using it' went unheard or just totally ignored.

Bonnie and Sadie Crawford were already here, checking their Instagram accounts confortably seated on the hammock.
"Whatever happened, Nicci, Lovell should try to fix it. I mean, she is an alien, if anybody has a chance at stopping the countdown and possibly the end of planet Earth, it's probably the girl that comes from another planet." Bonnie eyes never left her phone as she said this.

Sadie lift her eyes from her phone(a miracle!) to look at me.
"Well, do something!"

Try to understand me on this. I left my home planet at a young age and remember barely the basic informations about it or some vivid memories.
How the spaceships from my planet -if it even was from my planet- worked was totally out of my reach.

So I passed my hand through the holographic countdown, which did absolutely nothing and just made me look stupid. I don't know if I really thought something would happen.

It's only when I let my hands rest on the board that something did happen.
Light glowed around it and, like a wave, it spread around the spaceship.

The entrance closed itself sharply, trapping us inside.
The countdown went faster until it reached 00:00 which glowed red. The floor beneath us started to shake as all of us were projected to the ground.

Every earthlings behind me were yelling at me to do something. To stop it.
You know how well that went the first time, the second still wasn't a success.

As I frantically tapped on the board, doing my best to stay up, the ship formed, on the top of the walls, some strange air vents which released a gas.

"Dear Lord Vranajri, help us!" I cried prayed.

But, prayers are more often unheard than answered at all.

The first one to fall was Jeremiah Merrit, soon followed by the twin sisters Crawford. Nicole, Elliot and Jay collapsed in a loud thud, falling on one another.
Sonny was able to glare at me before giving in.
"This is so your fault!"
Then he fainted like the rest.

For my part, after a few minutes of retaining my breath, I had no choice but to try to breathe, which was my downfall.

When we woke up, I wasn't sure how much time had passed.
A thing that was sure, though, was that we weren't in Fort Kitrie anymore.

When I regained consciousness, only Elliot was already up.

Their back was facing me.

"Elliot?" I called them, but they didn't answer me. As if they didn't even hear me.

Walking up to them, I caught sight of what they were staring at.

The most mesmerizing, but scaring view was in front of us. The infinite of space and furthermore.

We seemed so small while everything was so big.

No planets near, the nearest thing were the faraway stars.

For once, Elliot seemed to have lost the constant cheeriness. Their eyes never left the spaceship's porthole.

"I've always dreamed of adventure..." they said softly "of something more that life could bring..." they hesitated on their next words "I never thought of... that."

Of going in space.
Leaving Earth.
Leaving our country.
Leaving our town.
It all went unsaid, but I knew exactly what Elliot meant.

And, even if I was the alien in the situation...
"Yeah, me too..."