In all her sixteen (almost seventeen!) years on this earth, Stephanie Wang had never imagined that she'd meet an [i]alien[/i]? 

Like, that was sort of cool, but also-you know-sort of scary. And freaky. Waaaaaaay freaky.

Steph hadn't told anybody about it yet, because it seemed like she wasn't supposed to, based on what that blue guy said? But she'd been [i]dying[/i] to tell some of the other cheerleaders about it at lunch today, and [i]how[/i] was she supposed to keep this a secret from her best friends who'd she had known since third grade or whatever? She'd held her tongue for the past however many hours it had been, but gosh, if she didn't talk about it sometime soon, she would [i]explode[/i].

Good thing that there were other people there! Stephanie was fairly certain that it wasn't all a crazy wacky dream-Steph's dreams were never this complex, you know? Like, she once dreamed that she was front-tucking off of the top of a pyramid and broke her leg (that was scary), and she'd once dreamed that her mom had gotten her this [i]gorgeous[/i] pair of shoes she'd seen at the mall the week before (that was great!), but never aliens.

Hmm. Did that mean that Steph was shallow? There were people at school who said that about her, yes, but she never really paid it any mind. Plus they always shut up about it whenever she was perfectly willing to help them with homework (read: give them the answers). 

Steph shrugged to herself. So what if she was "shallow"? At least she could put together a decent outfit. She wrinkled her nose. Some of the guys at this school [i]really[/i] didn't know how to do that. I mean, come on. Who pairs bright red with green unless it's Christmas and you're trying to look like a tacky elf? 

Or if you're a numbskull football player, Steph supposed. 

After the last bell rang, Steph booked it to the meeting spot by the trail, impractically-high heels clacking loudly against the linoleum tiles. Once she reached the expanse of grass that separated the trailhead from the back door of the school, Steph paused, critically assessed the best route through the semi-muddy grass, and gingerly picked her way through it, lifting her heels off the ground (this was technically walking on releve, right? Her old ballet teacher would have been [i]so[/i] proud!) and minimizing the mud-to-shoe contact. When she arrived, most of the other people were already there. 

"Hi guys," Steph chirped, flashing them a bright smile. Tammy and Emma and Lalna and Mason and Adrian were all there. She took a quick glance around the group. "This is everybody, right?" A pause. "So, have you guys told anyone about this yet? Because I haven't. It's literally [i]killing[/i] me, but for some reason I think that we're not allowed to? Like, Prince Elfangor-whatever-his-name-was made it seem like we shouldn't talk about it? So I didn't?" Steph shrugged nonchalantly. "But like, how are we supposed to keep this a secret from everyone? Like even our families? Wow. I don't keep secrets from my family. In fact, I don't think I keep secrets from [i]anyone[/i]. I'm pretty sure the whole school knows about that time in second grade when I got gum in my hair and the teacher had to cut it out and I was [i]so[/i] upset afterwards because you know I hate bad hair days and it looked so weird and [i]ugh[/i]." Steph paused to take a breath, but before she could start rambling off on some irrelevant subject again, Emma noticed a deer.

Steph's eyes widened when Mason mentioned acquiring it. "Whoa, you mean like that alien said? Wow. That would be cool. Though I'd want to be like, something pretty. Maybe a peacock or a flamingo? I like flamingos. They're so [i]pink[/i]!" 

Steph contemplated this for a moment, before she heard Mason say something about drugs. "Okay, we're not on drugs, Mason," she said immediately, flipping her hair over one shoulder. "I don't mess with that stuff, you know? My parents would [i]kill[/i] me. Plus the pasty-faced druggie look is so, oh I don't know, not my thing. You know?"