Paralysis. Exposure. Anger. “Wait a mi— Is that why?” I stepped back, the pieces falling into a very ugly picture. Chills turned to prickles of heat on my skin. “Is that why you looked at me at lunch? Why you thought I’d help now? Did you, did you think I had to be on your side because you know—” Years of practice kept me from saying it. We’d hidden for so long, decades, and now this ignorant dogtaur might ruin it because I got too close—
But Vasa was shaking her head, palms in the air. “No! No, that sh’asn’t sh’y. I could just t’ell you were . . . k’inder.” She sat back on her haunches, arms folding, and her gaze turned distant. “Not many h’umans have been k’ind. I th’ink more sh’ant to, but they’re afr’aid. Too many who don’t sh’ant us here.” My gut twisted. “But you’re sh’ne of the sh’nes who don’t hate me, at least. I c’ould tell that sh’en I looked at you at the caf’eteria. Thank you for th’at, by the sh’ay.” That too-human face stared up at the sky with the longing of someone missing home. The silence stretched between us, only insects chirring in the bushes.
“I underst’and.” A low, rumbling sigh. “It’s r’eally hard b’eing . . . diff’erent. I wouldn’t for’ce that on an’ysh’ne.” Her smile was sad as she looked at me and tilted her head in a nod. “I’ll keep my d’istance. Best of l’uck to you.” Another pause. “I sh’ish I sh’ere as good at looking h’uman as you,” she ended softly.
I stood there for a while after the centaur alien left. The stars had come out, the sky a deep, deep blue. If I tried hard enough, maybe I could get my skin to match and disappear forever.
It was almost midnight by the time I reached the dorm and fell into bed.
Classes were a haze for the next few weeks with everyone prepping for finals. I almost called in sick a few times—metaphorically I mean, most profs don’t even take attendance these days—but I was already skating on my grades. The felnim acted like she didn’t know me, and everyone else looked right through me. Just another college drone.
It was perfect. I was safe.
“Man, what has got you so down in the dumps lately?” Luke asked over Thursday study-lunch. It was drizzly today, so only a few of us stubborn types were eating outside. Ben hadn’t shown up yet, and Carla and Feb were engrossed in textbooks for their Chemistry III course. I snapped out of the staring contest I’d been having with the universe and looked up to see my roommate frowning. “You’ve been acting like somebody ran over your dog for a week. Is the physics final that bad?”
I didn’t answer, just waved a hand. He wouldn’t understand. I barely understood, and it was my problem. My eyes wandered toward the four-legged alien sitting peacefully under a tree. Luke, observant for once, noticed and growled. “What, is that thing bothering you? Join the club. I hope these dog-freaks clear out soon; they give me the creeps. It’s probably going to attack somebody any—”
“Her,” I interrupted, spork handle digging into my palm. Luke stared at me, eyebrows way up on his forehead. Fortunately, I didn’t have to explain myself, because right then a group of cocky-looking students rounded the bend and headed straight for Vasa.
Wait, did I say “fortunately”? I take that back.
Silence fell over the courtyard, everyone sensing the mood; somebody had finally decided to act on the faint hostility that permeated our campus. My entire body clenched as I joined the crowd of heads turning to watch. Ben was with them, that idiot. And no campus police in sight. Vasa was on her own.
The leader of the group pointed an accusing finger at Vasa, at her mountain of food, at the poster still fluttering on the wall nearby. Not a sound reached our ears beyond the indecipherable ranting of the student. I held my breath, watching as Vasa replied to whatever he’d said, calmly. Always calmly. Nothing phased this girl—not hostility, not attention, not danger, not anything.
I wished I were like her. I wished I were anyone but me. I wished I weren’t too afraid to stand up.
I stood up so fast my chair toppled. “Come on, guys.” My friends gawked as I stuffed books into my backpack. Luke spluttered something, but I guess the look on my face made him think twice, because he shut up. Carla and Feb followed me across the wet courtyard without question. We made it to the edge of the concrete before I slowed and took a long look back toward my dorm. Considered. It wasn’t too late . . .
Vasa was patiently listening to the mob leader rant. “—may have to tolerate you being here, but we shouldn’t have to watch your disgusting alien habits,” he snarled. Guy had the scruffiest mop of black hair I’d ever seen. “You’re turning us off our food with your daily gorge-fest!”
Vasa looked down at her overloaded tray full of half-eaten food. “My met’abolism is ex’tremely fast, so I h’ave to eat larger quan’tities than you h’umans.” She hadn’t seen me, but Ben had, and man, I really must have had some look on my face. He sank back through the mob like a rock in a bathtub.
“So that makes you better than us, huh?” Scruffy challenged. “We’re onto you aliens. You think you can just waltz onto our planet, delude our governments, and then you’ll take all our resources like the parasites you are!” There was a coarse cheer of agreement from the lackeys, except Ben, who was searching for an escape route. Scruffy grew bolder and raised his voice for the whole courtyard to hear, glorying in the attention like a puffed peacock. “I say it’s time we made it clear to this freak that some of us Earthlings don’t buy its innocent—”
“Her.”
Everyone stared at me—and I mean everyone—as my last shred of obscurity evaporated. I resisted the urge to bolt for the nearest door while Scruffy goggled at me, his bubble thoroughly popped. “What?”
Too late to back down now. Steeling myself, I pointed at Vasa, and the pet peeve that had been building up steam for two months boiled over. “She is a her. Any half-witted moron with eyes in his head can tell that she is a girl, so will everyone quit calling her an ‘it’?” I snapped.
“You idiot, what are you—” Luke’s anxious mutter cut off when I reached back and punched him in the shoulder. Silence and warm drizzle reigned for a solid minute. The jerks seriously didn’t know what to do with me, which was sort of what I’d banked all my hopes on. That, and the 911 call dialed into my smartphone.
Scruffy shook his head finally, and a slow sneer spread across his face. “Are you going to do something if I don’t, alien lover?” He leaned closer to me, way too close . . . and my life flashed before my eyes. What was I doing? They’d be watching me now, researching me, eventually they’d figure it all out, Goodbye, normal life—
“Would you l’ike us to?”
Scruffy and I stared at each other in confusion. The voice had been Vasa’s, but it sounded . . . higher than I remembered. Like, in terms of elevation. Scruffy glanced up, and I swear his face turned snow white. I turned around and choked, because Vasa had reared up on her back legs and now loomed over us from ten feet up. Those big forelegs of hers lay folded across her lower chest like a club bouncer, and her humanish arms sat akimbo on her waist. It was like being stared down by a giant alien bear and your very displeased mother at the same time.