Also, I don't think I've put this out there, but Alex is half-alien. Like, only Andrea and Alex's mom know that, but her actual bio dad is Gravitron who is some superman-type alien. Now that I think about it, I probably should have mentioned something about that before now, seems reasonably important.

The only person Alex seems to care about at all besides Riley (the human), and Andrea is Ian, who coincidentally is Riley's hang out buddy. This shit just writes itself. I mean, it could all just as easily be happenstance coincidence, but it seems awfully easy to connect the dots all the way back from Riley choosing to stay on Earth up to the modern day and difficulty establishing just what it is she wants to look like if it all boils down to she's trying to impress Alex, and hasn't figured out how to do that yet. ^^ I mean, maybe I'm just an attention whore, but it seems like it could totally work. Either way, if you're interested in pursuing that let me know. I'm also going to bed, though, so night all that are still up. 

EDIT: One more thing, how do we actually identify Riley? Like, thinking about the possibility that she literally just followed Alex around and changed appearances to keep Alex from noticing got me to thinking. If my friend, uh, let's call this human person Taylor, right? Well, if my friend Taylor was a dark, tall guy yesterday, and today walks in as a short blonde girl, I wouldn't just be like, "Hey Taylor!" I mean, no, this chick would walk up to me and start talking and I'd be like, "Do I know you?" 

EDIT EDIT: Okay, I swear I'm going to go to bed at some point, but what if courtship on Riley's homeworld is literally this? They have no pre-established gender or appearance, but at some point decide they like someone, follow them around, get as close as possible to them (as in inserting themselves into the other person's life) and go through this elaborate ritual dance type of thing trying to find a form that's pleasing to the other? I mean, that just seems like it should be a thing somewhere. It even plays into the whole Masks theme of self discovery and how much your view of yourself is based on that of others. Like, literally they discover what their biological sex/gender/whatever is based on finding the malleable meat suit piloting brain they like, and then the two just try out different shapes until they find one mutually pleasing to the other, and then that's just who they are from then on. I mean, they probably continue to shapeshift for combat and survival purposes, but then that just is their default appearance, and they have their mate based on what each other finally settled on based on what the other was looking for. It's even kind of twisted and romantic. In a creepy kinda way, but still. Alex for whatever weird reason just is already what Riley was looking for, and so now she's just doing her side of the dance trying to get to the point that she thinks Alex wants her to be. 

I bet Riley didn't even run away from her bus in this potential universe, like she just straight up told her teachers that she found her courtship partner, and in their culture that's just that; she found the one, her one, and that's sacred, now she has to do what she has to do to make it work. 

EDIT EDIT EDIT: [@Hyper Harlequin] Maybe I'm just not going to bed. So, Riley's people are aquatic, right? Well I doubt they have a whole lot of long, drawn out conversations. Obviously they're capable (at least in human form) of speech, but what if their primary ways of communication in their natural habitat are body language and pheromones? Like, smell is super important to them, it's their version of what speech is to humans, and even beyond that it's how they identify who they want in a partner. So basically, this field trip is way more than just that (after all, they just as easily could have watched a Magic School Bus). It is a way for them to explore different places in person, all with an either implicit or at least understood idea that they do this when they reach sexual maturity with the express purpose of looking for a mate. They have to go in person because they're literally looking for someone whose natural smell and pheromones match what the particular alien person is looking for. It all makes sense, too. I mean, why do we have sexes before reaching maturity? For humans, it's because we can't radically change our forms, but for shapeshifters? There would be no reason they would have a biological sex until they reached sexual maturity, found a mate, and worked it out so that they found some form of mutually acceptable form. I dunno, but I'm super stoked on the idea. If you don't want to do it of course we don't have to, but if not I'm totally using it for some other project down the line; I love this idea.