Everywhere I look...I see my face. Thomas thought as he scrolled through the data-net. Every social media platform he went on, there were countless edited images, videos, memes, and news articles - all about him.

Hearing chuckling from behind him, he turned. Javqua was on her bed behind him, looking at her holo-pad.

“It’s a meme, isn’t it.” He said, standing up and walking towards her. Thomas had seen so many memes of himself at this point - and worst of all, most of them weren’t funny.

Javqua turned her holo-pad and showed him the incredible meme she was losing her mind over.

Thomas stared. It was a picture of a fist-sized rock with an ahegao expression, with the caption, “When a a human picks you up”.

He had to admit - it was lucky most galactic species shared the same bizarre, surreal sense of humour humans did, and he smiled slightly despite trying not to.

Of course, Javqua instantly noticed.

“You think it’s funny.” She said, a knowing smile spreading on her scaled face.

“I don’t. I-” Thomas couldn’t keep up his facade any longer - against his will, the corners of his mouth began twitching upwards, and he started to laugh.

It was a slow chuckle at first, and then he began laughing hysterically - both from the meme, and the absolute strangeness of the whole situation. He was a meme - he was internet famous.

He, Thomas Winters, at 16 and a half cycles old.

He tried to stop laughing, but couldn’t, the absurdity of his situation getting to him. Thomas’s laughter turned to strangled wheezes, and Javqua stood up, alarmed.

“Thomas? Thomas, are you okay?” She said urgently, getting up and grabbing him by the shoulders.

Oh great, now Javqua thinks I’m dying. That’s...that’s pretty funny - Thomas thought, and he somehow began laughing even harder. Before Javqua could get too panicked, he placed a hand on her shoulder and choked out a sentence.

“It’s - it’s all good Javqua, I’m……okay. I….I-'' Thomas finally calmed down, taking deep breaths.

“What? WHAT? It sounded like you were dying!” Javqua exclaimed, and just like that, Thomas fell into another fit of hysterics.

By the time he stopped laughing again, Javqua was very much sick of his shit...for only a few minutes.

“You may just have the dumbest sense of humor ever,” Javqua said, as she shook her head in a jokingly pompous way.

“You laughed at it too!” Thomas said defensively, a smile beginning to form on his lips - but a shout downstairs interrupted them.

“Everyone, dinners ready!” Mrs. O’dea shouted. As he began to leave the room, he realized Javqua remained sitting.

“You coming?” He asked, slightly worried, and Javqua looked up at him and nodded.

“Just thinking - I’ll join you in a minute,” She said, and Thomas looked at her a moment longer before he moved to the door. But just as he was about to leave, he turned back.

“Just don’t take too long, okay?” He said with a genuine smile before he moved out of sight.

I hope she’s fine. The past few days have been stressful after all. Is she taking all of this well for me? Thomas wondered as he gazed back at Javqua’s room.

Javqua continued to sit there, staring at where Thomas stood just a second ago. She spent the next minute thinking on her feelings, as much as it made her feel dumb for doing so.

I like Tom so much it hurts. Would he like me the way I like him? Wait, but what if he has a girlfriend I don’t know about? What, no- no, then surely he would’ve mentioned her- I- I don’t even know if he’s into girls! Wait, what am I on about? Javqua thought as conflicting thoughts and emotions mushed together inside her head.

Thinking intensely, Javqua made up her mind then and there - she was going to talk to Tom after dinner. It wasn’t going to be easy, but...she was going to do it.

Thomas ate the dinner Mrs. O’dea had cooked - for just meat, her meals were always varied and delicious.

Glancing at his side towards Javqua, Thomas noticed that she looked deep in thought, and somewhat nervous.

Keeping a watchful eye on her as, and after he ate - he decided to talk to her after dinner.

As they brushed their teeth, Thomas continued looking sideways at Javqua, who noticed.

“What?” She asked, and Thomas shrugged. “You look sad.” He said.

“What? Everything’s fine.” Javqua said, but Thomas could tell she didn’t mean it. He decided not to start a serious conversation while his mouth was filled with toothpaste foam - plus, he needed to shower anyway.

As Javqua began to leave the bathroom so he could shower, she seemed hesitant, as if she wanted to ask him something - but she left nonetheless. Stepping under the shower’s hot water, he began to think.

As he wondered what it could be about, a terrible idea struck him. What if she’s getting sick and tired of my shit? After the incident in the class, and now - what if she doesn’t want to associate with me anymore? Thomas thought grimly. No, there’s...no way, right? We’re close, after all. I...I’m being dramatic. She probably wants to tell me that I snore really loudly or something.

Brushing the idea aside, Thomas began trying to think of something that he thought would actually be likely.

Not being able to think of anything conclusive, Thomas begrudgingly gave up and turned off the shower - climbing out and stepping under the body dryer.

Dumping his dirty clothes in the washing shute, he quickly panicked, thinking he had left his holo-pad in his pants pocket. Thankfully, before Thomas started ripping his hair out, he remembered that he had left it on Javqua’s desk, and he sighed in relief.

With that out of the way, he changed into his sleepwear and exited the bathroom. Walking to Javqua’s room, he entered, closing the door behind him.

“Are you tired? I keep forgetting you need more sleep then m-” Before Thomas could continue speaking, scaled claws tightly gripped his shoulders. He looked up at his friend's face, expecting a joking remark - but was unnerved by the resolved yet fearful look on his Javqua’s face.

She clearly wanted to say something, so he waited for her to speak.

“ThomasIhaveacrushonyouandIwantedtoknowifyoufeelthesamewayaboutme,” she blurted out, her eyes scrunched shut and her jaw clenched.

Thomas tensed. Javqua had spoken too fast for him to hear properly but...had he just heard the word crush?

“Woah, woah woah, I-I didn’t hear you at all. Could you...repeat that?” He asked, and Javqua looked like she wanted to die.

Forcing herself to speak coherently, Javqua repeated herself. “I...have...a c-crush on you...and...I wanted to know if you felt the same way.” She exhaled, fidgeting madly.

Thomas blinked. It took him a few seconds to comprehend her words, and even more to articulate a response. While he was also very, very surprised, he was also very relieved. What she wanted to say to him could’ve been a whole lot worse.

The answer came out of his mouth a lot easier than he expected it would. “Wow, I-uhh...y-yeah.” Thomas stammered. As simple as that. No convoluted conversation, no dumb back and forth, or misunderstanding - just a simple response. There was an awkward silence, and he scratched his head.

Before he could say anything more, he was brought into a near bone-crushing hug.

Thomas immediately returned the gesture, a fierce blush turning his pale skin bright red. What the fuck just happened?

Javqua had not been more relieved in her life. She was expecting a half answer, so as to not hurt her feelings, but to be able to get a straight answer…and the answer being yes...

She was so ecstatic that she hadn't realized she had hugged Thomas until he returned the gesture. She felt like her brain was going to melt at any moment - that, or wake up in bed and realize she had dreamt the entire scenario.

This better not be a dream! She thought as she looked down at her little deadly living heater.

Valus was glad his immediate family lived on Clevin 4. He didn’t need to travel much, unlike other students, who had to travel for days to their homeworlds.

As he sat in the living room, surrounded by squabbling siblings, he zoned out to think about the video circulating online - of a familiar-looking human killing a large mammal, and he wasn't sure whether to be impressed or scared.

In the end, he knew that that was just human nature - and that they shouldn’t be discriminated against for it. It wasn't like he was going around attacking sapients or anything - as long as it was wild beasts...it was...okay.

It was for those reasons that he couldn't stand The headmaster's views - not that he would say that to his face. Otherwise, how else would he be able to glean information from him? The Magistra was clearly up to something shady, and he was going to figure out what.

There had been one point when he was close - when he had looked through The headmaster’s purchase logs and found odorless knock-out gas. Unfortunately, the substance doubled as sleeping medication, so he couldn’t report The Headmaster then and there. All this just so he could start dumb rumors and spread hatred and worry. Valus thought bitterly.

His thoughts drifted elsewhere, and he remembered the day The headmaster ‘warned’ him with news of other human planetary unifications sending their own citizens out into the wider galaxy. Apparently, that also meant their school was probably getting more human students.

Valus went online to see if there were any humans talking about it, only to find a plethora of humans going out of their way to type in English so broken the data-nets built-in translator was having a hard time doing its job.

Alongside the odd writing was something the humans were calling an ‘ancient meme’ that read, “apes together strong”, further confusing Valus, as he stared at the picture of a very hairy, primitive-looking mammal. The even weirder thing was that Thomas was tagged in every single one of them. Valus sighed. I can’t wait to see the carnage the new human students will cause. He thought.

But first things first, I really need to apologize to Thomas and Javqua...and maybe even try and become friends with them? They seem...nice enough, I just hope I haven't spoiled it. Valus thought to himself as he began thinking of the future.

He held his face with his two single-digit manipulators, as his anxiety began kicking in-

Yeah, that's gonna suck, he thought, before he felt his antenna being grabbed.

“I-huh?” Valus looked up just in time to see one of his many younger siblings tying his antenna together.

“You-!” Before he could stop them, they finished their prank and rushed off, disappearing into a crowd of family members.

Valus slouched in silent misery as he began the tedious process of untying his antenna.