Aliens Are Real: Part 2 (9 page)

M
r. Conrad
finally
arrived and
unlocked
the door
, saving Jasmine from further questions
.

She
sat in the seat next to Mark again but he wasn’t interacting like the day before.
He slumped in his seat with his arms folded the whole period.
He wasn’t frowning
,
but he also wasn’t smiling.
His expression was a straight line across his face.
She
wanted to know what he was thinking.
He looked mad
,
but
she
didn’t know what to do to make it better.

The feeling of helplessness frustrated
her
.
Here was a guy
with whom
she
thought
she
could really connect
,
and
she
thought he felt the same way
. B
ut now he was hurt or possibly mad at
her
.
She
didn’t have the guts to just tell him how
she
felt about him
.
She
was sure that would freak him out
,
and drive him away.
Unfortunat
ely, Honorio made it seem like h
e and
she
were an item or there was something more between
them
.
That might have driven him away already.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the period.
She
turned to smile at Mark
,
and ask if he wanted to walk together again
. B
ut he was already up
,
and head
ing
toward
the door.
Alex noticed
,
and made a sympatheti
c face toward
Jasmine
.

Slowly,
Jasmine
picked up
her
papers and walked to dance class alone.
Until he wasn’t there,
she
didn’t realize
,
completely,
how wonderful it was to walk with Mark.
She
heard once that
people
have sadness in life so
they
can understand and appreciate happiness.
The saying was true and poignant.
She
missed Mark
,
but didn’t realize how much until he was gone.
She
was determined to fix the situation somehow.

Jasmine
bumped into Malika as
she
was walking into the locker room.
Jasmine
dropped
her
books and papers
because of the impact.
Malika met Jasmine’s eyes
,
and
laughed.
The laugh was full of condescension and mockery.
It crashed through
Jasmine’s
already fragile sense
of control.

Jasmine
was nice to
the girl
.
She
had
tried everything
she
could think of to be nice to her
,
but
Malika
still treated
her
with less respect than a germ.
Jasmine
was sacrificing a happy life with Mark just to give her stupid group a cover to protect them from the government
,
and here
Malika
was making fun of
her
.

Jasmine
leaned toward
Malika
, poked
her
finger
in Malika’s chest
and hissed.
“Get away from
me
this instant or so help
me
I
will rip you apart limb from limb.”

Maybe the stars were aligned in
Jasmine’s
favor.
Maybe Honorio’s last warning to
keep
hands off
stopped
Malika from retaliating
.
Maybe the look in
Jasmine’s
eye was just crazy enough that Malika lost confidence in her ability to control the situ
ation.
Whatever the reason, Malika
sniffed haughtily
,
and walked out the door.

Jasmine
gathered
her
papers into a messy pile and flopped onto the bench in front of the lockers.
Her hands shook from anger and fear that she might have pushed her luck too far.
Jasmine’s
shoulder still
ached
from time to time
,
reminding
her
of
the pain Malika
had
inflicted w
hen
she had taken
her
down at
the alien
s
’
house the day after the concert mission.

***

Malika didn’t want to smile as she walked out of the locker
room
,
into the dance
studio
.
Even though Honorio
had
ordered her again to befriend Jasmine, she still couldn’t stand the girl.

Malika thought about the new plan and chuckled out loud.
Honorio was making himself into a fool by attempting to win over Jasmine.
In the end, Malika would gloat and say
I told you so
.

On the other hand, Malika found amusement in using Jasmine.
She had no idea that she was a pawn in
the real plan, not the excuse Yumi and Honorio were feeding her
.
If Honorio did woo her, eventually, she would discover it was all a ruse.
Jasmine’s heart would be broken and Malika would be there to laugh.

***

At the conclusion of Dance class, Jasmine quickly
stormed to Family Development.
She
had
had
almost an hour to think of the many reasons
she
hated Honorio.
In a cartoon, smoke would have been billowing out of
her
ears as
she
plopped in
her
seat, waiting
for
him to show up
.

He arrived well before the bell.

As soon as he was near enough to hear a whisper
she
laid into him
, just quietly enough so as not to cause a disturbance, but with enough force to drive her point home.
“You’re a real jerk, you know that?”

He paused as he
sat
.
“
To what are you referring
?”

“Why, on this great green E
arth would you introduce yourself to
my
friends?”

“
Earth is not so great. If only you could see WASP-17b, then you would know ‘great’. And
Earth
is mostly blue, not green. As for your query,
I
thought introducing oneself is considered polite
.
”
He laid his backpack on the floor.
He rummaged in it then pulled out
his notebook, textbook and pencil.

Jasmine
leaned toward
his hunched
body.
“Not when you’re messing with people’s minds.”

“
I
do not und
erstand w
hat you are talking
about
.
”

“Mark is all weirded out by your stunt
…
and he’s not talking to
me.
”
Tears sprang from Jasmine’s eyes.

“Why?”

“Why?
Why?
” Her
rage grew as her tongue fumbled over the answer.
“
Because you came up, told him
I
was spending Thanksgiving with you and not him, acted like you were superior
to him,
then winked at
me
when you left!”

Jasmine’s voice rose in pitch
,
and she
realized
her volume
had risen
high enough for surrounding classmates to hear
.

S
he
leaned toward
Honorio so
she
could talk more softly
,
but still get
her
point across.
“You said you wanted to keep a low profile
- that
you didn’t want friends.
Well, introducing yourself to
my
friends is not a good way to do that.
You’re messing with
me
and
I
’m sick of it.”

She
was tempted to reach over and strangle
or slap
him.
Instead
she
sat back in
her
chair
,
and folded
her
arms.
She folded her legs as well
,
and
tried not to punch
or kick
the infuriating guy next to her
.

Honorio watched her
movements
,
then leaned toward
her.
“
Jasmine
, be reasonable.
It’s for the best
,
and you’ll under
stand when you have calmed down
.
”

She ignored him.

H
e continued.
“
Part of Yumi’s debriefing on this planet included information about how females have severe hormonal swings for several days each month
,
and cannot remain emotionally balanced.
Is this your
...
” Honorio raised both hands with two fingers extended, gesticulating quotation marks.
“...
time of the month
?
”

His condescending expression lit a flame.
She
opened
her
mouth several times then closed it
,
choking back
her
initial
replies.

Finally,
she choked out a response.
“No
,
and it isn’t any of your business.
It will
never
be any of your business.
In fact, nothing in
my
life is your business.
Forget dinner.
You can find a different cover.
I
don’t want you anywhere near my house.
”
She seethed, clenching
,
then extending her fingers.

“
Jasmine
.
Don’t be silly.
”

She
put
her
hand in his face.
“Don’t talk to
me
.”

“Would you act in a mature manner please?”

“Oh, and you think you’re all mature?
Ruining someone else’s life for them is
mature? I
t’s
downright
childish.
..
And rude
.
”

“
I
am not ruining your life.
I
am helping you see that friends are an unnecessary distraction.
Look at you.
You’re falling apart.
Over what?
Some boy?
Think about this logically and you will see that
I am cor
rect.
”

“
I
don’t care.
Stop interfering with
my
life
.
”