Alienation

Transported to an unsatisfactory planet called Earth, this young alien girl is dealing with blending in and standing out for the sake of another person.

            Ignore me; I’m only here for the free food. I repeat this mantra over and over in my head as I try to melt into a grimy white brick wall behind me. Surely they won’t notice the average girl of average height nibbling at an average rate on the slightly less than average quality munchies. Disappearing in a crowd has been a favorite pastime of mine since I got to this planet though, so I was pretty confident I could pull it off.

 I was inconspicuously dressed, in a dark hoodie and jeans, as always, to avoid any unnecessary attention. The cheese tray was more pitiful than expected, but it would have to do for now. Dinner provided by penny-pinching strangers was still dinner after all. There was a blinking neon glow coming from the sign for the all-night bowling alley across the street. I stared at it while munching on cheese and half an hour must have passed because someone cleared their voice loudly and said,

“Alright everybody, it’s time to begin!” And with that my head jerked up, scanning the room and realizing that that was my queue to leave. These support groups always ended up the same way, and I didn’t care to listen to these humans moan any more tonight. I’m not knocking it. Being in the same room as people in my predicament would have been a great thing. Exchanging stories and expressing feelings about it can make these people feel better and that’s great.

Unfortunately, there was no support group for what I was going through. Why did the portal have to send me here, of all places? With its bland food and harsh problems? If I could jump back through right now I would scarf down 20 of my favorite Snugberry Crescents before I even said hello. I shouldn’t think like this. My human tummy was rumbling now with great force.

“Shut up” I whispered quietly to it as I walked down a long hallway of the building alone. I checked a few times, just to make sure no one was following me, before switching my shoes to Heelys and skating my way down the rest of it. The kinetic motion made me feel good as a slight breeze trailed along my body. Maybe this place wasn’t all bad. Smoothly turning a corner, I started to hear voices and cautiously slowed to a stop next to the wall.

“I bet you’re not even human, you little twerp.” A husky redheaded guy with designer jeans came into view. He was hovering intimidatingly over another figure. A teenage boy was lying on the ground, and I saw that the bigger guy was getting ready to give him another kick.

This sparked some rage inside me. It swarmed in my heart and fueled my feet to skate directly towards the bully in a beeline. I collided straight on, knocking us both to the ground away from the kid.   Notice that, jerk.

Sometimes you need to stand out. And stand up. And fall face-first into a concrete floor. Ow, that stings. But it was so worth it. The boy disappeared into the night, but not without giving me a smile of relief first.

“Thanks” he mouthed. Yep. Definitely worth it.