Chapter 2--The problem with people Oops. Noel had forgotten to practice not falling after an encounter with her alien advisor. /Think of a lie, quick, before they know something’s up! Rapid fire, Noel, rapid fire!/ “Oh, right, sorry, I just remembered that I left the cake inside and my dogs are bound to rip into it,” she settled for. Noel saw the side-eyed glances exchanged between Danielle, Marcy, Fiona, and Ri. The other “snobby, prissy” girl was Lexie, but she was hunched over her phone. The rest of the people invited hadn’t come, and there were at least ten others. Noel suspected the only reason that these five had come was so they could hang out with each other. But she didn’t care what they thought of her. They weren’t really her friends. Just some shallow minor characters in the bigger, larger gallimaufry of timelines. None of Noel’s visions included them. Still, there was a sad sinking feeling in the back of her heart. As if mourning for what might’ve been. Maybe she could be taking a selfie with Ri, or learning a TikTok dance with Fiona. Maybe she would have eventually helped Marcy pull her grades up from C’s to A’s. /No/, Noel caught herself fantasizing, /If I were to be in that future, I wouldn’t have met Cunning, and even with however annoying and bossy he is, there would have been no hope for this planet. This is the best–if not the saddest–future out there./ “My mom hates it when her dogs get in trouble, then she denies it and blames those things on me…plus it was chocolate cake.” Even Lexie popped her head up to raise an eyebrow at the spur-of-the-moment explanation. Noel stuffed down the embarrassed, belittled emotion creeping back up to her throat. “Chocolate is poisonous to dogs…” she trailed off. “So, no cake, food-poisoned-dogs, why are we here?” Danielle asked, in an exceedingly bored tone. “For her birthday, you idiot!” Noel didn’t bother to match that voice to its owner. It didn’t matter. “You’re an idiot!” "Shut up, that's not very mindful. Or demure," the group tried to suppress their giggles. “Guys, stop, let’s go see if her mom will drive us to the mall. Maybe we can even borrow money!” A dismissive nod was all the girls needed to saunter giddily through Noel’s front door. /Eager to get out of that awkwardness. Will not hesitate to go shopping/, Noel absentmindedly noticed as she watched her 'friends' disappear into her small contemporary abode. It wasn't much, only that Ms. Serrano had embellished the white-and-light-raspberry painted home with plants (inside and out, real and fake), one of which was the famous hydrangea bush that had stayed alive for five years so far under the stay-at-home-mom's careful eye. It was infuriating, really, the aggressive pink-and-purple petals blaring out at the foreseer with a headache. /You're pathetic/, they whispered, /you can't save the world when you're lollygagging like this. Hanging out with them. Right now they have a better chance of stopping the next world war than you do at consuming a whole cauliflower. Nobody wants a random girl with uncanny abilities, especially if she doesn't do something with her powers./ The flowers continued to gossip, but fading in the background this time, as Noel was hit head-on with a collage of visions, some muddled and some a clear, sharp pain of dizziness. This time she didn't collapse, though. She stood her ground, or rather, sat her ground. /What have you got for me this time, Future? If I'm the only human receiving these, then I'll at least use them to help save the world, or rather tell Cunning so that he can analyze them and figure out what to do. Yeah, all me. Let's go./ And with that, the girl's fragile-yet-resilient-mind allowed everything to pour in.
/Noel, what do we do, what do we do? Where to go, what if we die? We're gonna die, aren't we?/ Faces the seer didn't recognize stared at her with a variety of worry in their eyes. /Ships, ships, loads and loads of them looming over the public park. Aliens with their sneering, cold faces destroying houses to rebuild them with their superior infrastructures and bare rooms. Disgusting, scaly, manipulative frames with arms too long and bony. /The school teachers replaced with aliens, the local businesses with kind owners turned into hostile buildings./ /Grass and trees and butterflies and bushes, all ignored and withered, with shiny metal machines dropped on top./ /Mom in some sort of caged prison, iron bars keeping her separate from her daughter./ "Mom! What--where are you?" present-time Noel reached out, but Ms. Serrano didn't seem to register her daughter's hand, as was expected. Then another character swirled into the mix. One of many mortifying aliens holding a key card(?) and adopting a cruel grin. He bore what seemed like a name tag on his chest. The Sun was too focused on reflecting its light everywhere, so Noel didn't get a chance to read it before she was sucked back into the present. /Are you okay? That must've been rough, seeing her like that./ /Yes, I'm fine. You didn't have to do that. I know it was only a vision that may or may not happen. And I could have learned more, like which one of those horrible creatures committed a kidnapping./ /You would've gone insane if you saw what happened next. I'm only protecting you./ There it was again. That subtle change of tone that suggested there was more to this claim. /And if I can't call Drake--/ /Craig!/ /--Craig a loose tie, then you can't call my kin 'horrible creatures'./ /Why are you defending them? I thought you didn't associate with them anymore, wasn't that the whole point of your help? To rebel against them and all that mumbo jumbo you promised to aid me in defeating?/ /Yes, but, they are still the only friends or guardians I ever had. It's...hard to let go of all those memories./ /Huh. There it is./ /There's what?/ /I thought you only cared about advancing to the next step, not remembering all the sacrifices. So, there is your heart. I was starting to think I was talking to a wall. Now you understand, actually, you've understood this whole time, haven't you? The loss and pain and grief? It was always there. From now on, you can't just think about my dearest ones as little skipping stones to throw into the lake that eventually sink, and I won't think of yours that way, deal?/ There seemed to be hesitance and struggle, as if the alien was having trouble with making a new deal which would counter the effects of the previous one. /And no tricks, got it?/ Noel added. /This is the heart we're talking about. Not a light bulb, not a guitar, but the organ that gives us a thirst for life, and, well, life itself./ /Fine, deal. Also, what is a guitar?/ End of Chapter The first chapter is right here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1104455637
