Ustopia

In which a pair of teenagers from alternate universes fall in love in the course of one night.

"Kayla May!" Bob called from across the field.

"Sir?" She called back.

"After you're done feedin' the cows, can you make sure the hogs are pent up? Also, Momma needs some help paintin' the chicken coup!"

"Yes sir!" she said, mumbling a 'whatever you say' under her breath.

Kayla finished putting up the hogs only a few minutes later. After all, she'd lived on this farm her whole life. She knew how to do all of her chores like the back of her hand. She trudged her way over to the chicken coup, making it there just in time to hear a loud crash of thunder.

"C'mon Kayla. Help me put this tent up, will ya?" Mary Anne said, in her soft 'mom voice' as Kayla called it.

"Yes ma'am," she smiled. Kayla was always happy to help her mom. She loved her dad just as much, but he was a man. He was able to do most things on his own.

They put the tent up quickly, desperately trying to prevent the anticipated rain from hitting the fresh coat of red paint. Kayla screwed the cap back onto the can of bright crimson paint whilst her mother cleaned the brushes. 

"So much for helpin' me paint huh?" Mary Anne chuckled.

"I know, it seems like every time we start a new project out here it storms," Kayla smiled.

"Well, we always get it done despite that, don't we?"

"Yes ma'am," Kayla chirped.

"Alright Kayla May," her mom said, throwing her arm around her daughter's shoulder. "Let's get in before this storm beats us to it.

-----------

Hours later the storm finally settled down, and Kayla sat up in her room, reading a random magazine on country fashionwear. Meanwhile, her parents sat downstairs watching some football game on TV, eating microwaveable dinners for their Friday night "No Cook Night". Such things Kayla never participated in. She was never really that hungry until the early hours of the morning before the sun came up when she could eat all the sweets out of the pantry with no one to tell her otherwise.

But, when Kayla heard footsteps coming up the stairs to her attic bedroom, she grew confused. It could be one of her parents, ut it was rare for them to leave the living room on football nights.

"Momma? Dad?" No response.

Her eyes went wide as she saw a young boy with dark hair and tattered clothing on. She started to scream but stopped when he frantically shook his head and placed one finger over his lips. 

"Please don't," he begged.

"Why shouldn't I?" She said.

"You got me there," he said. "But I need your help."

"What? This isn't making any sense. I don't know your name, you look homeless, I don't know how you got into my house, and I have no idea where you came from," she said.

"Okay...well, um, my name is Astrid, I'm not homeless, but my journey here was quite vigorous, so that's why my clothes look like this. As for the other two things, you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said nervously.

"Okay Astrid, I'm Kayla and I'd really like to know why you're here and what you need help with."

"Have you seen a piece of a rock? It's kind of a glowing purplish color?"

"Listen, honey, I don't know where you're from and I don't know what you want but I do know that you better stop messin' with me cause I was raised on this farm and I will hogtie you and roast you like dinner."

"I'm not lying I swear! Can you help me or not?"

Kayla sighed heavily before looking up to meet his eyes. "If you can at least give me a little insight as to what is goin' on, I'll see what I can do."

A smile crept onto Astrid's face. "Let's go outside."

------

"So," he pulled out a tattered map. "This is where I'm from."

"I can't see anything on that," she mused.

"Not yet," he corrected. Soon, she realized what he meant. Slowly she began to be able to make out the outlines of land and water and each bend and curve of the land.

"Woah! How did that happen?" She looked at up at him in shock.

"It's the moon. Where I'm from, everything revolves around it."

"Where exactly is that?"

"Ustopia."

"I'm sorry, where?"

"It's another dimension," he said, nonchalantly.

"What does 'Ustopia' even mean?"

"It's the combination of 'utopia' - a perfect world - and 'Dystopia' - a world in ruins."

"I still don't understand exactly why you're here."

"Okay, so you see these?" He pointed to bright purple marks on the map. Kayla nodded. "Okay, those are portal spots. This one here, is the one that leads right into your basement."

"So that's how you got in," she said.

"Yeah. okay, so when you turn 17 in Ustopia, you can be tried for induction into the Ferrians."

"The what?"

"The Ferrians are a prestigious group of soldiers trained to protect and take care of Ustopia. To be inducted, you have to collect a special gem in a certain amount of time. This gem is called the Rosiena Stone. It holds the very matter that keeps Ustopia alive: Moon Triste. Of course, you only search for a replica, the real one is locked away, in a place that only the supreme leader -Atheenen- will ever be able to unlock." As he finished, a giant hologram came shooting out of the front of his map. "And there he is now. Hey, dad."

"Hello, son. How are we doing?" A deep voice asked.

"Fine dad. But, I found someone that can help me!"

"Yes, sir! I know the area like the back of my hand!" Kayla smiled.

"No! Astrid, we've discussed this! No putting others in danger," Atheenen sighed. Then out of nowhere, a full-blown dragon flew right through the hologram, leaving a fiery trail behind him, nearly catching Kayla's dirty blonde hair on fire. Both of the kids looked up at him in annoyance.

"That was an accident. Agret, control the animals please!" Atheenen called behind him.

"My little brother," Astrid whispered down to Kayla. She only nodded, her eyes trained on the image in front of her.

"Dad, I'm taking her. She'll be fine," Astrid said.

"Astrid-" he started.

"Love you!" He said as he shut off the hologram. "Sorry about him."

"It's good. He seems nice," she shrugged.

"Yeah, he's just such a helicopter parent. Like, he never lets me out unless he needs something."

"My dad's pretty intense. I think he just forgets that I'm a teenager sometimes. He just always has some job for me to do. Like, I should be out shopping and goin' to the beach with my friends, you know?"

"Yeah, I don't have that many friends back home. They're all kind of strange," he said.

"Well, you are from some weird alternate dimension where you live off of the moon, so I'm sure a lot of things a strange there," Kayla joked.

"Well, you know were not any different than you guys. We're still humans, were just more technologically advanced. And with that, comes the discovery of things without explanation, like the portals. No one knows why they work or what they're made of, which is why we can't recreate them. But once we can, I really wanna be an engineer and help build them."

"Well, I don't really know you but you seem like you'd be good at that kinda thing," she shrugged.

"What do you want to do?"

"I don't really know. I've never really had time to think about it. I spend so much time working for my dad that I've never really thought about doing anything different," she looked down.

"You could do anything," he blurted out.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, for starters, you're gorgeous. You're smart and capable, and you're really nice."

She blushed a bright shade of red, twiddling her thumbs in her lap. "Well, let's get going shall we?"

"Yeah," he smiled up at her.

The pair stood up and made their way back to her room. While Kayla went to go make up an excuse as to why she was leaving to her parents, Astrid strolled around her room. He saw pictures of her as a baby, feeding hogs, swimming. Then he saw ones of her as a teenager with her friends, most of which seemed to be taken in her house. He remembered what she said about her dad not letting her out much.

"Alright," she said from behind him, startling him. "We're all clear."

He laughed slightly at himself, and they went up to the roof again to discuss means of transportation.

"So, do you have a car?" Kayla asked.

"No, I was hoping you could take car of that," he replied sheepishly.

Kayla bit her lip in deep thought, furrowing her eyebrows. Astrid couldn't help but think that Kayla looked really nice right now. He makeup had obviously been done for quite a few hours, and her tattered large white t-shirt and black leggings suited her well. The moonlight shining down on her made her features more prominent and her deep blue eyes sparkle.

"Are you staring at me?" Kayla said, pulling Astrid out of his trance.

"No," he replied, much too defensively. "Just waiting."

"Okay, well, this could be stupid, but my dad has this car and I don't think he'll notice if we borrow it for a while," she smirked.

They walked up to the garage, having climbed down from the roof. When they got inside, Kayla flipped a switch which turned the bright florescent lights on. The car was a revealed, a bright red 1965 Shelby Cobra. Astrid loved studying cars, and he happened to know that this one was remarkably fast, which excited him.

"Ready?" Kayla asked as they both took a seat in the car.

"I think so," he smiled.

"Okay," she said. She cranked it up and pulled out of the garage abruptly.

"Woah," Astrid laughed as he was lightly jerked back in his seat. 

"Sorry," Kayla cringed. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he chuckled.

"Alright so, where do we go?"

"Okay, so the rock will naturally be attracted to areas with heavy moonlight, so an empty field or a hill. It also doesn't normally go for places with a lot of wildlife. So bugs, animals, even a lot of grass," he responded.

"I know where," she said, matter-of-factly.

The pair drove for a few hours, talking about life, surprisingly enjoying each others company.

"Wait wait.. you seriously ate cow tongue?" Astrid laughed.

"Yes! My dad likes to try new things, or so he says. My mom and I didn't talk to him for a week, he tricked us. He told us it was chicken!" She exclaimed.

"That's terrible! One time my dad made me and my brother cook dinner, mind you, my brother was 4. So we were making lasagna and Agret takes the glass pan out of the cupboard, and drops it. It smashes, and before I can get to him he tries to clean it, gets glass stuck in his hand, of course. He screams and we take him to the hospital and get it cleaned and bandaged. When we finally get home, I guess I'd forgotten that I put sauce on the stove to keep warm. So we get back and it's literally on fire. Just the pan, not the house. But then my dad's like 'Astrid Finard Lorden! You're so incompetent!' so Agret starts crying, I was only 12 so I did too. It was the biggest mess I'd ever seen. I've never seen my dad more stressed," Astrid laughed.

As Kayla's laughing calmed, Astrid started to notice how truly beautiful she really was. In her, he saw joy, beauty, wonder. When he was with her, he didn't feel lost, despite being in the wrong dimension. That's actually the reason he talked to her in the first place. The truth is, he wasn't looking for help, he was just looking for a way out of the house when he stumbled across her. He felt a warmth when he entered her presence, so he changed his story. He was honestly pretty sure as to where the stone was, he just wanted an excuse to spend time with her. He was pretty sure he'd never tell, as sure as he was that he'd never see her again. He knew it was stupid to get attached, considering they could never be together. He couldn't stay in this dimension, he had priorities and expectations and obligations. She could never move to his, the people who lived there weren't even safe, never mind an outsider. 

"We're almost to the place. Hey, are you okay?" She asked, looking over at him with curiosity.

"Yeah I'm good, I just- Nevermind, it's nothing," Astrid nervously chuckled. 

"No come on, tell me," she pushed.

"Maybe later," he smiled lightly.

"Okay," she whispered. "Hey look, we're here!"

Astrid looked up to see a large hill, rid almost completely of grass, resting in direct moonlight. "Wow, it actually might be here. But can we talk?"

"Yeah, of course. What's wrong?" He led Kayla up to the top of the hill and turned to face her.

"I need to come clean with you. I know where the stone is. I asked for your help because I wanted to get to know you. Which is ridiculous because we could never be together or anything like that.." He looked at her, she looked past him into the distance, a confused look covering her face. "Now would be the time to say something."

"I don't know what to say, I really enjoyed your company," she smiled.

"Kayla, this is gonna sound crazy, and I know that. I am going to sound ridiculous, but I have to say this. Kayla, I think I might love you." He looked up to meet her eyes, where she still held the confused look. He decided to take matters into his own hands, and he kissed her. She kissed back for a moment, then pulled away.

"I'm sorry Astrid. I don't feel that way about you," she said softly.

"I don't believe that. I think you're scared. I think you're afraid of what you don't know. And I think you actually want the same thing as me."

"I don't."

"I won't believe you until you look me in the eye and tell me that you don't want to kiss me."

She looked him directly in his eye, and through gritted teeth, said "I don't. Want. To kiss you."

"Okay, well, I'm just gonna call my dad, have him send a ship for me. Thanks for the help," he awkwardly smiled as he walked down the hill.

Around 30 minutes later, Astrid saw the ship coming his way, so he stood up. As he began towards it, he heard a voice behind him.

"Wait! Astrid!" Kayla ran up behind him, grabbing him by his arm and turning him to face her. "I lied."

And with that, she wrapped her arms around Astrid's neck and pulled his lips to hers. Astrid could feel the butterflies leave his stomach and replace themselves with falcons. He felt on top of the world. And suddenly, he didn't even think about what was going to happen. He kissed her until they couldn't anymore, and then some. And then, they finished their journey, together. No one really knows what became of Kayla and Astrid, just that they both traveled back to Ustopia, and lived happily ever after (probably).