Falling

Chapter 2

"Come on in and have a seat, I've been waiting for you, and so has your food"

Rachel was sitting on one of the chairs at the small table in the kitchen, she had her back to a large window and the sunlight gave her curly blonde hair a golden tint. There was a stack of pancakes on a plate in front of her and she had drizzled what looked like half a bottle of chocolate syrup on it, and was eating with a fork and knife when I came in.

I sat on the stool on the opposite side of the table from her, letting my legs dangle from them, because the stools were tall, I could only imagine Aiden's feet touching the tiled floor as he sat on one of them, speaking of which, where was he and Mimi, I planned to ask that question later though, I was suddenly very hungry and my tummy was making some really weird noises.

There was a similar stack of pancakes on the table right in front of me, it wasn't drowned in syrup like Rachel's was, but she motioned to a bottle of syrup and can of whipped cream and asked me to help myself to any, then noticed the look on my face that said I didn't know how any of them tasted, so she smiled and said.

"Here, try out the chocolate syrup today, then maybe you'll want to try out whipped cream some other time, I personally love chocolate syrup"

My stomach rumbled and I quickly grabbed the bottle and helped myself to its content, though not as much as Rachel had, I WAS experimenting after all. Then I picked up my fork and knife and dug in.

We ate in silence for a while and I found out that I liked chocolate syrup... it's name was well suited to it.

"So, I'm sure you can't wait to hear some kind of explanation about why you're here on Earth"

Rachel's voice cut into my thoughts about chocolate syrup just as I finished chewing the last piece of pancake in my mouth. I swallowed and looked at her, nodding my head because I couldn't talk, I was suddenly so nervous. She was finally going to tell me.

"Well, I can't tell you the exact reason why YOU in particular fell, but a lot of stars fall, sometimes they end up on Earth but most times they fall on the other planets, and I can't really say what their fate on the other planets is, but of the stars that fall on Earth, only a few become humans like you, some just form huge craters as they crash. Again, I can't tell you why, we still haven't figured that out yet".

She paused and gave me a knowing look and a small smile before she continued

"I know you're wondering about the 'words' you suddenly seem to know", she made little quotation marks in the air when she said 'words' to put some kind of emphasis on it, and continued,

"But all that's because you have the body of a sixteen year old, and naturally everyone around your age knows all those words, so I guess you could say it comes as a package with your body, and don't worry, the body's all yours, you don't have to feel as if you're inhabiting someone else's body, I assure you that's not the case".

I inwardly sighed in relief, because when she mentioned that part about my body coming equipped with all I needed to know, I was seriously beginning to wonder if it was someone else's body I was living in, what were the odds that I'd arrived at a totally strange planet with a living body capable of accommodating me?

We talked some more about a bunch of other tiny stuff, like how I couldn't seem to adjust to gravity quickly-my body still felt heavy, and moving on two legs awkward- but she assured me that I was doing just fine.

I also asked her what she meant when she said, "WE still haven't figured that out yet", and she explained that there were a few others like her and Aiden, who knew about falling-stars-turned-human, and that they tried to get to places where stars crash on Earth to check if there were others like me and gave them refuge, just so the government wouldn't know about them.

I found it strange that they'd want to help people like me and hide us from the government, risking their own lives and families in the process, but I didn't question their motives, whatever it was, I trusted Rachel and Aiden, and I knew they wouldn't do anything to put me in danger on purpose. I just nodded and asked other questions, and she answered in return.

Then I asked the one question that's been on my mind since I came into the kitchen earlier.

"Um, where are Mimi and Aiden?"

She was caught off-guard by the question, probably surprised I even remembered about them.

"Oh, Aiden went out earlier, he had to go check something out at the office, and Mimi's out with friends, she should be back in an hour or so, I wanted to have some time alone with you so I'd explain everything"

"Oh" I said, because that was the only response I could think of. I couldn't just tell her that her daughter probably hated me anyway, so she probably wouldn't have come in there, even if she was home at the moment.

She full out smiled then, and said

"You still haven't told me your name"

I frowned at that and shrugged,

"I don't have a name"

"Of course you do, everyone has a name, what does your subconscious tell you?"

"Stella", I don't know where that came from, it was just there at the back of my mind.

"Stella, meaning 'star' in Latin", she remarked, "I think it suits you"

Then she went ahead to drop the ultimate bomb.

"And before I forget, Aiden and I have enrolled you in a school, it's just 15 minutes from here, and it's really nice, I think you'll like it, Mimi also goes there so you won't be feeling so lonely, but we need to work on a background story for you, in case someone starts asking questions about where you're from, you must never tell anyone that you were a star, not everyone takes kindly to extra-terrestial beings, although that may be arguable, you're not exactly from any planet, the point is you must try really hard to act human please Stella, don't let anyone suspect otherwise, I hope you understand"

I nodded to show I understood, and then we moved on to my story.

We decided to say that I was Mimi's distant cousin who lived in UAE, and I was here to stay with Rachel and Aiden because my parents died a few months ago, and they were the only family I had left. And with that, I had a story which Aiden and Mimi were to be let in on it, but no one else.

I sure was going to try my best to fit in if it meant saving my life.

But first I had to make friends with Mimi, I really didn't want her to hate me, her parents were really nice people and somehow, I felt I owed it to them to at least be on speaking terms with their daughter, so I decided to extend the olive branch later, and see if she'd accept.

So I sat in front of her room with my back to the wall, trying not to get bored as the minutes went by, thinking she'd eventually go there when she came home. I didn't know how to go about it -making her tolerate me at least- because I didn't know why she disliked me in the first place. But I quickly dismissed that, reasoning I'd find out when she came home.

So that was it, my name was Stella, still is, and as far as first mornings on Earth went, that wasn't really bad.

********

So, um yeah, that's the second chapter...

It's kind of hard writing when you're sort of depressed, I mean, not depressed, just kind of sad really.

It's especially hard when you realize you aren't good enough and never will be... I'm obviously not talking about the story here, I mean I know I'm not perfect at writing, in fact, I'm nowhere near good, but it made me happy you know... even though it wasn't that good.

The point is, I'm tired of trying to salvage something that probably wasn't worth salvaging in the first place... I'm... I guess I'm choosing me this time.

Pretty ironic how I'm writing Jamie when I totally suck at the real thing... lol

Anyway, today's song is... Demons by Imagine Dragons, it has nothing to do with the story, and I was initially thinking, "Red" by Taylor Swift, but... I changed my mind.

Zara