Free How to Marry an Alien by Magan Vernon Page B

up and walked to the
last group of two students who pushed their desk into a small
triangle. Since there were only twelve of us it wasn't that hard to
remember who was who.
    "Hey, guys."
    I plopped my messenger bag down next to me
and took my seat. An Indian boy with thick glasses and a bowl cut
named Aapt sat to my left. On the other side was a girl with glossy
black hair, cut short and spiky. I believed her name was Skye or
something ethereal like that.
    They both nodded in my direction. I looked
down at their desks. They had their speech titles written down and
their outlines completely filled out. There dates also weren't
until the following week.
    Triple crap . They had more time than
me to prepare and they already had everything finished.
    "So, what are you guys doing for your
informative speech?" I asked.
    Five to seven minutes to educate the class on
a topic, and then you were critiqued by someone else in the class.
Then, in turn, that person had to speak for another two minutes
about their evaluation of you. Ugh, maybe if my roommate hadn't
brought her girlfriend home or I wasn't so worried about trying to
get in Ace's pants I could have actually done my homework.
    Aapt cleared his throat. "I plan on
explaining how nuclear power works and how it has evolved since
Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
    Awesome. Not only did he have a good topic,
but he actually seemed to know what he was talking about. He even
went as far as to spend his night in the library, looking through
articles and finding interviews with people in different nuclear
sectors.
    Skye had a voice that always sounded superior
to everyone else's, but surprisingly she was still really nice. Her
voice was just snotty. Her speech topic was even better than
Aapt's: about the canon in high school literature and how it has
defined what we read and how it is used today in pop culture. Why
didn't I think of something cool like that? Oh yeah, because I was
busy worrying about my roommate's girlfriend's former psychotic
tendencies.
    "What about yours, Alex?" Aapt asked.
    "Uh…" I looked down at my blank sheet of
paper. "I kind of don't have one yet."
    "Oh," Aapt and Skye said, practically in
unison.
    "When is your speech?" Skye peered over at my
paper.
    "Friday," I mumbled.
    "You should probably think of something
quickly and start writing then," Skye remarked.
    "Yeah, of course, I can totally get this out.
I didn't just accidently get into this honors program or anything."
I let out a nervous laugh, scrambling through my bag for a
mechanical pencil.
    Aapt and Skye read through their outlines,
giving each other tips on how to expand their topics while I could
barely think of anything to say. Not only did I have to come up
with a topic, write an outline, and prepare a speech, but I still
had all the Riley stuff to think about. How the heck was I supposed
to have an assignment that was twenty-five percent of my grade done
in two days?
     
***
     
    After biology, I forced myself to sit in the
library and use one of its computers to follow the live chat for my
online class. Maybe that would give me some inspiration for my
speech. No such luck. Instead I headed back to my dorm, starving,
and eager to just take a shower instead of working on any sort of
homework.
    "And she's back!" Lucy sat on her bed in the
lotus position and held her arms in the air while I walked into the
bedroom.
    "Yeah, sorry, I ended up staying at Ace's
last night." I shrugged my bag off on my desk chair and kicked my
flip-flops off near my bed.
    "No need to report to me. I figured that was
what happened after me and Riley interrupted you all," Lucy
replied.
    I grabbed my robe and shower basket from the
closet, tossing them on the bed. "Just letting you know."
    "Sorry about bringing Riley over. I didn't
know I'd be a boom-boom blocker."
    I choked on my own spit, trying to container
my laughter. "Did you just say boom-boom blocker?"
    Lucy's smile spread across her face. "Yeah,
you know, stopping you and Ace