Earth-People 101

Prologue

I clutched my item-carrying orb to my chest. Keeping my books and papers close to me made me feel warm inside, despite the chilly school. All of Zakria was chilly.

I blended in.

Just how I'd always been, just how I always would be, iust how I liked it. It was better not to be seen, because when you're seen, you always have people looking at you.Just like Loozir, the most popular guy in Zakria Academy. Even his name was amazing-- it literally meant shining star in Zakrian.

"Will Zek Mayird please report to the Principal's office?"

I sighed. The principal always invited me to after-school clubs that I didn't want to join. Didn't he know I would just tell him no as always? I liked schoolwork. I didn't want to just ditch it to go to some random club that I wasn't interested in.

I knocked on the principal's door. "Hello? Mizter Aczod?"

"Ah, Zek, come in."

I entered the room and took a seat. "So. What after-school club do you want me to join this time?"

Mzr. Aczod shook his head. "Actually, it's not an after-school club."

I'm sure he could see the surprise on my face. "Huh? Then what is it?"

Mzr. Aczod placed his hands on his desk and blinked his three eyes. He had been called a number of things for having that extra eye, but I thought it looked cool. "Well, the thing is . . . we fear one of our kind is being held hostage down on that foreign planet, Earth."

"Earth?" I exclaimed.

He nodded. "It's a very serious matter, so we need to send someone down there within a few days."

I did not like where this was going. "So you're going to send one of the jocks like Loozir, right? The guys who can beat up an Earth-person if they need to? So they can take back the Zakri?"

Mzr. Aczod shook his head. "No-- we're sending you."

If I had had some kind of liquid in my mouth, I would've spit it out like they do in all those primitive Earth movies (which was startlingly fitting for the matter at hand.) "What?! No! You can't be serious, Mzr. Aczod!"

"I am serious," he replied. "You have the highest academic scores in the entire school."

"O-okay," I stammered, "but I basically have no experience with the outside world, let alone Earth! If it were up to me, I'd stay inside the whole day and never talk to anyone. Plus I'm clearly not buff enough to take down Earth-people."

"I believe you are the right person for the job. If you get down there and you think you're not properly equipped, we can take you back and send, as you put it, 'one of the jocks.'"

I gulped. ". . . I-I-- why don't you just do that?"

His three eyes looked straight into mine. "Because you are the right one to do it."

"W-why wouldn't you just send an adult? I'm only five thousand eight hundred fifty four years old!" I protested.

"You'll fit right in-- 5854 is equivalent to a 16 year old on Earth, and Earth-people age the same way we do, so you'll look just their age. An adult might not be able to do the job as efficiently as you. A young mind is better than an old one."

I took a deep, shuddery breath.

". . . I'll do it."

Mzr. Aczod's face broke into a wide grin and he touched his thumb to my little finger, the standard Zakrian greeting and way to say thank you. "I knew you'd say yes! You're a good Zakri, Zek."