Starlight

Today, March 26^th 2025, will live throughout history. On this day the Doreans came to earth seeking asylum. They came asking for food, for shelter, and most of all for hope. There home planet ripped apart by war and natural disaster, earth was the only place that they could survive in. Earth was the only place with people that cared, most other beings were scared or even intimidated of their powers of mind reading ,there superior strength and knowledge of technology. Earth is filled with humans, who have never been known to be scared or intimidated by anyone. We are known to, with ever fiber in our being, want to help. We live to empower our kind as well as others. So when you see your fellow being out in this world do not think of them as Alien, they want the same things that we do. They want to help us and us to accept them. This is why I am starting the integration program. As your president I ask you to not be afraid, show them that human is not just a race of beings, but a way of acting and a way of life.

The Introduction of the Integration Program speech, by the President of the United States

(Two years later)

Waking up for school is always hard, but today I didn't even want to get out of bed. Today is the day I get my “assignment”. Since my parents signed up for the integration program I now get the wonderful gift of having to show a Dorian around the high school. It is already hard to be known as the daughter of a sympathizer. I roll out of bed and get ready for school.  I put on the usual grey t-shirt, blue jeans, boots, and a brave face. I have had already had to walk into battle for all of freshmen and sophomore year since my parents have never exactly been silent when it comes to them expressing their ideas. I believe in every word that they say and the reforms that they are trying to pass in court are wonderful. I fully believe that Doreans deserve all the rights that humans get but what happens in the court room should stay in the court room. Every reform they pass I lose more and more allies.

Before I head down stares I check on my flowers outside my window, I picked Wisteria a few years ago and now it’s grown along the brick wall and hit my window. The sill is the only thing that keeps the purple flowers from growing into my room. I probably should have researched them a little more to learn that they are a woody climbing vine. My parents think that it was a happy mistake though, it adds a bit of beauty to our red brick brown stone building.  

At breakfast my parent give me a bagel and tell me to hold my head high as I leave to pick up my assignment. My packet said his name was Orion. The packet also told me that these beings love the night sky; their names were able to translate nicely to earth terms since a majority of them are named after constellations and stars. It said he loves to paint, which raised a smile to my face. I have always wanted to paint, it seemed like a great hobby to take up; but being known as the klutz for sixteen years I never thought I would have the dexterity for it.

In my head he was scary; I have never actually met a Dorean. They tend to keep to themselves, so all I had to go off of was urban legends and ghost stories. In my head he was tall with black holes for eyes and fangs for teeth and all he wanted was our natural resources, but when I turn the corner I realize those stories only got one thing correct. He is, in fact, really tall. His hair is a black, like velvet; but sticking in all sorts of directions, begging to be smoothed down. His skin as white as parchment, but his eyes are the most striking part about him. There is no white, iris, or pupil. It’s all this deep dark blue with flecks of sliver, like a picture of the night sky. Its absolutely hypnotizing, he gives a half smile that would melt hearts and runs his fingers through his dark hair. “Are you planning on saying something or am I going to have to introduce myself into society all by myself” said Orion. Even his voice was magnetic to me, his deep basic sound makes my face blush. His accent is strange, like a mix of British and Scottish. 

I don’t even know what my parents were thinking. I can’t even interact with people at school how was I supposed to help Orion? “Um… I’m… Molly” I stutter out. He must think I am the freak. I clutch the AP calculus text book to my chest and hope that maybe my books would smother me to death. “I’m Orion, but you probably already know that. Well, show me the way Molly.” He says. We start to walk to school. I struggle to make conversation, “So, the informational packet says you like to paint”. Orion then comes back with “I do, how unfair. You get the advantage of knowing about me and I know nothing about you?”. I laugh nervously and say “I like to read”. He smiles and tells me that he hasn’t ever been into reading, even when he was on his home planet. How could he say these things?! “You just haven’t found the right book yet, everyone likes to read. It lets you be whoever you want to be”. Orion looks at me as we stroll into the school parking lot and says “well why would you want to be anyone else?”.  At that moment we are greeted by the one and only Kyle Striker, my torturer for all of my years of schooling.  He hits my textbook out of my hands and says “why hello freak, I see you came back for more. I also see you brought a friend with you. All of you sympathizers are the same. Those dusters should go back to where they came from”. I try to pick up my textbook and walk away but Kyle puts his hand on my shoulder “no you can’t leave” he says in a mocking tone “aren’t all you sympathizers into…”. I suddenly feel a very tall person standing behind me. “Don’t touch her” Orion says. Kyle sneers, but I could see the fear in his eyes “what are you gonna do about it duster”.  Orion steps in front of me and pulls up Kyle by his shirt collar. As Kyle flailed around Orion says “you should be happy I am doing nothing, but if you try anything with Molly ever again. I will not be so kind”. Orion sets Kyle on the ground and picks up my text book. In the distance I hear the warning bell, the vague reminder that I’m in a high school and not in some cheap Hollywood fight scene. Orion pushes me forward and we enter the most diabolical place on earth, high school. Before I drop him off at his home room he leans in and says “you shouldn’t let other people treat you that way”.

For the first half of the day I don’t even bother paying attention in class. Why would he even care what I happens to me, I am not even the same thing as him! I am still pondering this at lunch as I sit down in my usual window seat, I pull out an old classic that my mother loved called The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Why do I want to escape he asked? Well I want to leave this high school game of jocks verses nerd and leave this world full of human’s verses aliens and arrive at a new place. A world where there are no Kyle Striker’s or people against the integration program, a world where everyone can just get along.  

I look around to see if I can find Orion and I am not surprised to see him sitting with the other ten or fifteen Doreans at school. For some odd reason this bothers me, why should it?  I knew he would participate in this never ending game of “us versus them”, but some small part of me thought that he wouldn’t act this way. I just want to leave the cafeteria and go to the library, my place of solitude. However, the Dorean table is right next to the door. To make matters worse I see Kyle and his band of thugs sitting at the table on the left of it. I swallow my pride and what’s left of my milk carton as I get up to leave. I pray to god and every other higher power that I have learned about in school that these people just let me walk out in peace. Alas, one of Kyle’s thugs trips me and I fall to the floor. Orion fly’s out of his seat and punches the thug square in the face, one of his Dorean friends pulls him back and says “she’s not worth this fight, she’s only a human”. Orion pushes him off. Those words ring through my head as Kyle’s table and the Doreans go into an all-out brawl. I run out of the cafeteria and into the hall. I can hear Kyle screaming for me to stop but I don’t care, I just have to get out of here. I run to the roof, some primal instinct telling me to get to higher ground. I throw the door open. How could they say that? I have defended them, and my parents have defended them! How am I going to get through this school year with no one to turn to?  I hear the door open and Orion walks up on to the roof. He has a gash on his cheek and a bruise forming on his jaw line and knuckles. “Molly” he says “I’m sorry today hasn’t worked out the way it should have”. He looks down, as if he’s embarrassed for what happened. I look at him with tears in my eyes and say “you don’t know me; you don’t know what I have gone through for your kind. I have been bulled and harassed because I believe that you should have basic rights, my parents have to sift through the death threats in the mail every day. This morning I thought you would be different; I thought that you would become a friend, but by lunch all you did was give in to the ‘us versus them’ mentality” I hug my books to my chest, lunch would be over any minuet and I have to get to class. Orion stands right in front of the door and says “I do know you; I know that you are the first human that I have talked to that has been kind to me. You are shy, like to read, and are bullied all the time for your beliefs” Orion wipes a tear form my eye and says “I understand what is happening, remember, were both outcast here”.

The bell rings and he steps aside so I can go to class. For the rest of the day the school was buzzing with talk about the fight. Even the other sympathizers asked me about it, which was a big step since talking to me is basically painting a target on your chest no matter your beliefs. The last bell rang out with its shrill twang and told us all to go home.

The next few weeks fell into a routine, I would pick up Orion and we would walk to school with him. He started talking and would crack a joke and I would laugh. I could almost feel him sifting through my thoughts searching for something, but what? We would have lunch together on the roof, and just talk. He would tell me about his home planet and the people that he met. I would tell him about earth and all the books I have read. Then the last bell would ring and I would walk him home. He had taken to bringing a book and I would read to him in a little park that’s on the walk home. One day I asked “why do you like me to read to you, the first day we met you said that you weren’t really into books”. He smiled and said “well the first day we met you said that people start to enjoy reading when they find the right book, well I think people enjoy literature when they find the right person to enjoy it with”. I smiled and picked up on where I left off in Jane Eyre. Then like every day I would drop him off at home, but the next day when I picked up Orion he was quite. I felt him searching my mind even more than normal. It felt like fingers grazing my scalp, poking and prodding for answers. “Orion, what are you looking for” I asked. He stopped walking and stood extremely still, his face lost all expression and he said “nothing, its nothing”. “No” I shouted “these are my thoughts and I should know what you’re looking for”. He looked down the road and kept walking; “Hey” I shouted “where do you think you’re going! I need answers, you look in my head every day for something and I just want to know what it is”. I ran so that I was standing right in front of him and pushed him. He is 6 feet of pure mussel so he didn’t move but he looked shocked and angry. “You’re so human to me, and I can’t help to look into your mind” he asked. “What?” I stutter. “Listen to your thoughts and every day I find all of these negative comments about the way you see yourself and how no boy would ever ask you out, and how you think of yourself as some kind of social leper. Then you will pick yourself up and put your mind to work; and sometimes ,when you think no one is watching, you will think of the most beautiful thoughts I have ever read. Well, do you want to know what I think? I think you’re spectacular. There I said it, you are stunning and not in the normal cookie cutter way. The guys at school, I sincerely hope that they never even look at you. They don’t deserve to.” he put his hands on my shoulders and kept on talking “your kind, smart, and beautiful. You’re so, human. The Kyle’s of the world, those people that act like they understand everything and that their beliefs are law, they are not human. There some subset of Homo sapiens that just get in the way. You accept everyone as they are, and isn’t that what human is? Adapting to survive, but helping those who can’t?” I don’t know what to say, Orion looks away and says “please say something”. I turn away and keep walking. The silence after that was so thick you could cut it with a knife. When we got to school there was no normal good bye and there was no rooftop lunch.  I dread the walk home, since we are required to walk home our assignments. I look around and Orion isn’t any ware to be seen. I waite there for another twenty minutes, and he is still a no show. How could he do this to me, break regulation! I leave school in a huff and stomp home. I am fuming the entire way. I hate confrontation but tomorrow I am going give Orion a piece of my mind. To top it all of it starts to rain, I just barely make it home before it started to down pour. I walk in and I am instantly comforted by the smell of home. I know the house is mine for a few hours, so I go up to my room and set my books down on the desk. A nap is calling my name, but as I walk towards the safety of my powder blue comforter I see a blue glint in the mass of purple flowers in my window. I open the glass and I am immediately bombarded by the rain, but before I slam the window shut I grab at the glass object. I fall to the floor and examine what I found. It’s a light blue bottle, sealed with wax, and it looks like there’s a piece of rolled paper inside it. I break the seal and shake out a piece of canvas that’s about the size of a notebook. I unroll it and see a beautiful scene of a field at night; a weeping willow was sitting in the corner with firefly’s peeping in and out of the branches that lay against the canvas. The night sky was illuminated with stars and the moon was shining beams across the grass, and in the sky the most visible constellation was Orion. I flip the painting over and on the back it said:

Dear Molly,

 I meant what I said today.

-Orion

P.S.

Keep your window unlocked, and ware white

Wait, what?  Is he going to pick me up? What year is this, 1986? Here guys don’t just sweep you off your feet? What could I say other than yes? 

After dinner, homework, and after my parents went to sleep I change into a white V-neck t-shirt and keep on my normal skinny jeans and boots. As I put my hair up in a messy bun I hear a soft knock at the window. I open it and there was Orion holding on to the window sill. “You’re gonna hurt yourself!” I hiss at him. He gives me a half smile and says “you know Doreans have super strength, right?”.  “Anyway you’re squishing my flowers!” I whisper angrily. He chuckles and jumps, landing with the grace of a cat. “Jump” he says. “Are you kidding me?” I respond “I could break my ankle or hit my flowers!”. He waves his hands as to symbolize that he will catch me. I want to go but part of me says I should stay home. Suddenly I am not as gung-ho to go on this mystery adventure, what if I regret this rash decision?  “Well” I say to myself “what have I got to loose”. I jump and for a second there is nothingness around me, it feels wonderful, as if I am weightless. Then I feel a pair of arms rap around me. “Don’t worry” he says as I open my eyes “you won’t regret this”.  

We walk for a while, not talking; but the silence is a comfort. What am I supposed to say to the person that always knows what I’m thinking? I focus on the silence. I think about how it felt around my face and hands, the way it pressed on my chest. Holding in my words, making me fear to take a breath because it’s so fragile. “Wow” he whispers. I jump, why did he have to break the silence! Now we have to talk, “what?” I say, I try to hide my fear but he already knows. “Your thoughts, there beautiful.” he whispers as he stares down at his feet. “Why do you always listen to my head?! It’s really invasive” I say as I cross my arms. He stops and stairs out into the distance. “It’s not something I can just turn off, I listen to everyone’s thoughts all of the time. I just like to listen to yours since there always about a better life than this. So full of hope, most of the other humans are a little more PG-13”. I laugh, “Its ok” I say “if you listen to my thoughts”. Orion smiles, and then says “were close”. He pulls out a pair of sunglasses and hands them to me. “So, I know how you’re supposed to be ‘introducing’ me to the human world, but I wanted to show you a bit of mine”. I stop, I’m scared, what if they don’t like me. “Don’t worry, if they can’t tell your human if they don’t see your eyes, all Doreans have different colored hair. They’re gonna like you, it just some of them can be very prejudice”. As we near the Dorean neighborhood I take Orion’s hand, it was a reassuring pressure. He would defend me if the situation arose, I’m sure of it.

The brown stones here looked the same as mine, the streets were filled with Doreans, all of them laughing and looking generally excited, just like me I guess they are more of a night time people. They are just like the humans, and this makes me smile. I look at Orion and he was smiling too, he is in his element. “Come on” he says as he pulled me through the crowd, the people passed by like a whirl of snowflakes. I started to laugh out loud and Orion picked me up then sprinted even faster through the crowd. We finally made it to the gathering, in the center of their neighborhood. He sets me down, my face is red and my hair was a mess. I pull out my hair tie to put it back up and it snaps. Oh no now I look like a mess! “Don’t worry” Orion says as he runs his fingers through my hair, “you look beautiful”. I look up at him as he presses his palm to my cheek. Then I hear a roar from the crowd and look for the reason for the waves of cheers. The leader of the Doreans stands up on a plat form and a hush fell over the crowd. He starts to speak in a language that I had heard before, my parents learned it so that they could communicate with the people there defending. It sounds like the wind running through the leaves, raspy and airy; but with a musical quality to it. Orion stands behind me and translates, his breath tussling my hair. “My fellow Doreans, I know that this world has not been as kind to us as we hoped but it is our new home, and we must respect it. Not all of these humans are bad, there are sympathizers that take us into their arms and show us the human world. Being here means the survival of a species and the memories of so many beings. This is why tonight we celebrate being human” a defining silence fell over the crowd. “Being human isn’t about having pupils and twenty three pairs of chromosomes, it’s about the way you act. You can be a Dorean in appearance and biologically, but I ask you to act human. To be kind to those who need it, be respectful to those who are not, and to help the helpless. This world gave us a clean slate, the war and wrongs we did are lost among the stars, and here we are reborn. We can forgive ourselves but never forget. We shall forever look to the stars, there light reminding us of our past but telling us to learn from it and stride toward the future. The white you are wearing symbolizes the new life we have received. So I ask you, what you are going to do with it. Are you going to paint our future in the shame of the past, or live a new human life. It’s your choice”. The crowd roared with cheers. A silent tear fell from my eye. I look at Orion, and he smiles. Understanding the pride I feel. I know now that being a sympathizer is a blessing, not a curse. He presses his forehead against mine, I throw my arms around his neck and he twirls me around. He places me on the ground and a hand against my cheek. He says “we are revolutionary’s Molly. The change will be slow and a long process, but change will come” then he kisses me, right in front of everyone. I had never been kissed before and whenever I imagined it, for some reason, it seemed awkward; but with him everything fell into place. The roar of the crowed seemed to fall till it was nothing but a whisper, a memory of the night. All I could think about was his hands on my hips and this moment. I felt happy for the first time, almost free, and utterly human.