Chapter 5

Poppy

 

I stared at the girl who seemed to be yelling across the library, a place where I discovered that another source besides computers were. I glanced over at Ben who had a scared look in his eyes along with the emotion called anger. For some reason, I wanted to comfort him and take away what ever had caused such reactions.

The girl had fiery red hair, and a face that looked like it frowned constantly -a pinched face. Her glare was directed at me, so I processed her words.

"I don't understand. The definition for the word 'b***h' is a female dog. Humans are not related to the species canines as far as my knowledge takes me. So you're insult is void to me." I said, looking back to the shelves of books. 

The Universe and You. The book told of space travel on this planet, and I could say that I'm a little less than shocked to find that they still haven't perfected space travel, but I was curious.

The girl was looking at me with an expression that I had gotten a lot since I had gone to school. I believe the look was called baffled. She frowned once again and opened her mouth, but Ben cut her off.

"Take your s**t somewhere else, Angel. She didn't do anything, so back off." he said, sounding strained.

I didn't think it was possible, but the girl he called Angel frowned even deeper, her thoughts so loud that they seemed to make my ears hurt. 

How dare that... that... freak! With her unusual, weird features, she thinks she's the new hot stuff here, doesn't she? She thinks she can get anyone she gets her friggin' hands on. Well, she's got another thing comin' if she don't get her s****y hands off of my man!

This time, I frowned and stared at her funny. "I'm not touching him." I said, raising an eyebrow. "I'm holding a book right now. I understand you have emotional attachments to this boy, but I am not involved with him." I said carefully.

Beside me, Ben's mouth was open, and some unknown emotion bubbled up from my chest, but I squashed it down.

"Good luck with your... drawings, Ben." I said, and made my way to one of the study tables. Maybe I was wrong when I said that human beings were simple. Human society isn't simple from my experience so far.

 

 

I was relieved to hear that humans needed a source of food to replenish their energy, but didn't know how to get food, at the time. At school, I discovered that you could get food served to you on a tray in a cafeteria. I made my way there and sat down at a table when I got food.

The cafeteria wasn't crowded with too many humans, and I looked down at the food, uncertain.

"School food isn't exactly a five star meal, but it's decent enough that you don't have to worry about it gettin' up and crawling away." someone said, and I looked up to see the same human from the hallway.

"I've never had this before." I admit, and stare at my plate in curiosity. Through my few hours of school, I have learned to not question human lingos, sayings, expressions, etc. It only gave me funny looks and asking if I was a foreign student.

He looked skeptical. "You've never had a corn dog?"

I looked at him, confused, about to say no when another voice came near.

"Are we sitting at this table today?" someone asked, and two other human males walked up to the other one and stared down at me. A brief feeling of being held in the compound again, I was surrounded by the three people.

The boy I've been talking to raised an eyebrow and asked, "Do you mind?"

"Do I mind what?" I asked as I nudged the "corn dog" with my finger.

I got another funny look from him, but his eyes were amused. "Us sitting down."

Not knowing what to say, I just gestured towards the empty seats around me, and I felt many eyes train on me. I knocked my eating utensil off the table and just out of reflex, I reached for it and it flew back into my hands.

"Someone go tell Ben we're over here today." a boy said.

My mistake had been unnoticed. I had read that humans can't usually understand another's mind and emotions, or can control the elements and others unlike the Talonians. I read that there's many books on people who can do that, but they're considered "not real", "fiction".

"Oh, we should tell her our names, shouldn't we?" one of the boys asked, excited.

I looked up as I saw Ben walking towards us.

"Right!" the boy from the hallway said. "Sorry, where are my manners? I'm Liam, this is John, Cain, and the one comin' up is our Benjamin."

"I already met Ben." I said, smiling at him. "It's nice to meet you all."

Liam shot a glance at Ben. "You already know him? Funny, I didn't know that." Boy, why didn't you tell me, you lucky b*****d.

I inclined my head towards Liam and smiled sweetly. "I met him after you left me in the hallway without helping me like you said you would."

He started sputtering and the other humans started laughing. I didn't but I smiled at him while his face turned an interesting shade of red.

The boy named Cain handed me a metal cylinder, saying, "Here. An apology present from him." he said, still laughing.

I took it, and stared at it, curious. "What is it?"

John gave another bark of laughter. "It's Dr. Pepper. You open it like this." he said and pulled the tab at the top and a hole opened that I could drink from it. "You've never had it?"

"It seems that I haven't had a lot of your food or beverages. Your culture is different from what I'm used to." I said with a rue smile.

"So you're not from here?" Ben asked, curiosity written all over his face.

I shook my head and chose my words carefully. "No... I'm not from here. My land is... like a different planet." I said, and took a sip of the Dr. Pepper.

Something fizzy and syrupy sweet tasting made it's way down my throat, and reflexes made me spit it out and started coughing, making sure that I got it all out. My hands shook as I remembered the last couple days in the compound.

"Are you trying to poison me?" I demanded, angry.

Author's Note

The Dr. Pepper thing is... hard to explain. I might change that later on. The taste of sodas are similar to the poisons or toxins on Talonia... Yeah... I don't know what made me think of that...

Reviews

[easybreezy]

The DR Pepper thing worked for me. I pictured the fizz feeling like an acid to her (which could NEVER be a good thing to put into your body, right?) Damn, those aliens are smart! :))