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2020 was the worst year the world had ever known.

January kicked off with World War 3 threats. Then there were the fires in Australia. If that wasn't a big enough F-you from mother nature to humans, there were the earthquakes in Turkey and Caribbean, volcano eruption in Philippines, devastating floods in Indonesia, locust plague in Africa, Murder Hornets spreading to America, and the list went on.

Oh, and speaking of plague, there was the infamous COVID-19 that caused global chaos and imprinted the traumatic two words: 'social distancing' upon everyone's minds. Nations were shut down and leaders' true intelligence were exposed, or utter lack of intelligence thereof.

Yet if all that wasn't enough, Earth was rocked on its very foundations in late November of 2020 when hundreds— and I mean hundreds— of large spaceships entered the upper atmosphere and touched down on earth.

Aliens.

Or what we called Outworlders. They weren't green, bald creatures with black eyes. In fact they looked very much like us humans save for one thing: the Marks. All the extraterrestrial beings had crisscrossing colorful marks that interwove across their skins; like glowing abstract tattoos. It was more cool than weird, at least in my opinion.

It was all pretty anti-climatic really. A lot of people weren't even surprised when the spaceships landed because 2020 could not have gotten any worse or weirder.

Sort of like the movies the Outworlders had come to infiltrate our world. But in the name of good and in the name of peace. They even found the cure for COVID-19. Not just a vaccine, but a cure. So if someone decided eating a coronavirus-infected raw bat soup or whatever was a good idea again there wouldn't be another global pandemic.

There was an attempt of humans going to war, but well... it didn't really work out since these beings had the ability to morph into anything. Anything. Including your beloved morning coffee pot if they wanted.

In just three years, the aliens had infiltrated all continents and countries. Treaties and agreements were eventually made and soon the Infinity Council was formed—a council of both Outworlders and humans— and Earth became united under the New Order (very originally named, I know).

I was born almost a decade after the Infinity Council was formed; so all I'd ever known was the New Order. My grandparents and my parents— who were both about 15 when the New Order came to existence— still remembered a world free of Outworlders and were disgruntle about the extraterrestrials 'invading' our planet.

I didn't mind the New Order. I'd grown up seeing the Outworlders and their children all around me. I'd even befriended some in the past. That is, until my parents shooed off the alien children and told me to stay away from them.

However, no matter how much my parents resented Outworlders, they couldn't stop Order #327 which stated that whence a human turned 18, they were assigned an alien to live together for six months in efforts to raise a generation where both species coincided peacefully.

Sharehouses were set up everywhere: residences designed to support both humans and Outworlders for the six month duration of living together and learning about each other.

My Sharehouse was a simple, but surprisingly lovely, two story house. The interior was homey with clean wooden floors, large open windows, and basic furnishings sprawled everywhere.

I'd placed my move-in backpack and luggage by the door and immediately began exploring the Sharehouse. Upstairs there was only one bathroom and, to my further surprise, the rest of the floor was just one large bedroom.

Loud noises downstairs alerted me that my extraterrestrial partner had arrived. My heart immediately skipped with both excitement and nervousness. I was finally going to meet her.

I lingered a couple extra seconds upstairs and listened at the sound of footsteps pattering around downstairs. Then I took a deep breath and skittered down the stairs, ensuring my feet loudly clattered to give my alien partner enough warning that I was here.

The footsteps downstairs stopped. I hopped down the last step. My assigned Outworlder was leaning against the far wall. I halted. We stared at each other.

Two things sunk in at once. Each one sending an incredible shock wave down my spine.

One. My assigned Outworlder wasn't female specimen as I had thought. She was a he.

Two. I knew this alien.

And from his blanched face he recognized me too.

We both pointed at each other.

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