Page 3 of The Bully Alien

"I expect not." He nods to me.

I swear I'm walking on air as I leave the classroom.

Except someone is out in the hallway clearly waiting for me.

Piercing Blue Eyes.

His name is actually Wyatt Whitmore. I know because the professor took roll call.

I lift my chin and refuse to look at him, trying to pretend he doesn't exist, but he falls into step beside me.

"You're quite ambitious," he says, though his tone is tinged with mocking. "Space science, eh?"

I make a face. The skin around my scar always puckers when I make a lot of facial expressions, so I try to keep my face at rest as much s possible, but he's getting under my skin too much.

"You're a space science major, too, aren't you?" I ask. "What's wrong with that? You ambitious, too, then?"

"Space science and archaeology, if you must know."

Wow, now that's a combination that surprises me.

"Good luck with that," I say.

"Bet you think you're smart," he scoffs.

I refuse to be intimidated by him, especially since I hadn't been sarcastic with wishing him luck. If I resented everyone who was an ass to me, I wouldn't talk to many people at all. Despite being bullied in high school, I had had a few friends.

So I turn to face him with a smirk on my face and shoot back, "What are you trying to say? That you don't think a 'girl' is capable of being smart?"

"I heard what the professor said," Wyatt says in a low voice. "You do realize that space science is a tough major, right? You'll need to work really hard to make it through."

I stop and finally look him in the eye. His gaze is intense, holding mine for a few moments before I break away, but not before I see a glimmer of respect in his expression.

"I'm more than capable of handling it," I reply as confidently as I can, "and whatever else comes my way."

He smirks at me, clearly unimpressed by my response. "We'll see about that," he taunts me. There's a challenging look in his eyes as he takes a step closer and says in a low voice, "Are you sure you won't be crawling back to Mommy?"

"I crawled so I could learn to walk. I walked to learn to run. And now, I run so I can learn to fly. You can't clip my wings. I have turbo jets."

And I blow past him and don't look back even though, chances are, he'll be in my next class too.

2

Wyatt

Icouldn't be more frustrated.

This space science shit they're teaching? It's shit. Complete shit.

I mean, I figured that would be the case. Earthlings haven't made it far at all as far as traveling in space, but still, to see how far behind their science is up close and personally? And I realize that I'm a freshman, that the courses I' taking aren't advanced yet, but still, this is beyond frustrating and pathetic.

To say that I'm beside myself would be the truth. I'm not from Earth. I'm a Grolla from Grixulara, and I would like to get back to my home planet.

But I'm screwed. I'm fucked. I'm going to be stuck on this terrible planet for the rest of my life.

And that girl? She thinks she can be an astronaut? Or do something to farther space travel? Not that any of the fools in this program are going to mount to much of nothing. the professors are all has-beens.

No. They're never was.

---