I headed off to the gym where I was meeting my friend Nora. She has been waiting for me for fifteen minutes as I am one of those ‘always late' people. Her dark skin was shining in the bright morning sun and she was anxiously twirling her natural black curly hair around her fingers.

　　“You can’t help yourself” she exclaimed with a teasing grin.

　　“I got used to you by now so please don’t feel bad about it."

　　We both laughed at the comment and walked in feeling the cold air from the ac hitting our skin. What a relief! The summer sun was too strong to stay in it for too long. We did our usual workout and went off to take a shower. By the time we left the gym, it was already noon so we headed off for lunch at our favourite spot.

　　“How was the exam Elle?” she asked, eyeing me with her big green eyes.

　　I smiled and nodded since I had a mouthful bite from my sandwich that I was still chewing. It was the last exam I had and I was quite confident that I did well.

　　“Did you meet anyone interesting yet?” Nora asked with a grin, raising her eyebrows up and down to emphasize what she meant by that question.

　　I managed to chew down the bread and laughed nervously answering with an unconvincing no. “Oh come on, I know you enough to know that you are lying. I can see your cheeks turn red. Don’t you lie to me" she decreed.

　　I swallowed the piece I was chewing and rolled my eyes. “Well, I am sort of interested in someone but I do not think that I am ready to have his feedback on how he feels about me. I’d rather think about my lunch right now then think about him. Hmm, I'm so hungry!”

　　I tried to brush off the subject as I was not ready to give my full explanation on how he looks like or what he is studying or any other question thrown at me.

　　“Have you heard about Rory? He just started dating the famous one from school. She sure knows how to make a scene,” I continued.

　　“No way! Debby? Really? I wonder how long they will last. She is a rich girl with those fancy cars and all, and he has this old good for junk car, not that mine is better than his, but what I mean is that she will surely make sure that he will spend all his money to make him look like someone she wants.”

　　Nora shrugged her shoulder, swallowed her last bite of her burger and rubbed her hands together to remove the crumbs off her hands.

　　“Little does he know the trouble he will be in because of her. Well, surely we will have some good time watching some entertainment from them.”

　　Finally, it was time for me to lay down in my comfy pink bed, my school work was done, my belly full, my thoughts of the exams though kept me awake for a while as I was convinced that I should have done more studying. As I was already laying down in my bed I stretched my body to reach for the lamp to switch it off, then tucked myself back under the layers of sheets.

　　It was 3 am and I was still fully awake. I decided to sit down and read Avatar in my warm bed when I heard a familiar sound coming from outside. Unexpectedly, my bedroom was filled with a blinding light that came through the balcony door, and that is when it hit me. I remembered the night when my eight-year-old self was looking out of the window, looking at the bright light coming from the tree that was in our courtyard.

　　“Oh my gosh! What the heck!” I got up slowly from the bed, still confused and walked towards the door to move the curtain away and expose what was behind it.

　　The same tree that had light coming from underneath it filled up the room with bright white light. I was astonished to see this and my body felt numb with excitement. Experiencing this as an adult made me feel more cautious this time, not knowing what could be waiting on the other side, but I couldn't resist the temptation.

　　I was feeling courageous all of a sudden to go outside and get close to it. I reached out to gently touch it and felt myself being sucked in mid-air, circling around and around just like Alice in wonderland. My heart raced and I couldn’t breathe. All I could remember from that short trip was that I fainted halfway and when I woke up I was in a bed with white clean sheets. I could barely open my eyes as I still felt dizzy, but I somehow managed to sit up slowly. I looked around the white room with a window to my right and a door to my left.

　　A young tall woman entered the room and introduced herself to me. “My name is Esmeralda and I am here to help you get better. Here is some water to help you refresh," she explained softly.

　　I stared at her and smiled weakly for a moment. "Where am I?" I asked shakily, pressing my hand against my head.

　　“You don’t seem to be from around here. You look different.” She said.

　　I still could not see clearly and did not feel very well so I remained quiet. When she saw that I didn’t respond, Esmeralda bowed her head, took the empty glass from my hand and left me to rest more.

　　When I woke up again, I felt much better than earlier and was also ready to start exploring. I walked out of the room and saw a lot of people walking this long corridor. I noticed they were physically distinct. They had pointy ears, unique hair colours, like pink or blue and all looked muscled or toned.

　　“How are you feeling?” a deep male voice came from behind me asked.

　　I turned to look at the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen. His tall posture made me stretch my neck to its limit as I observed him with my mouth open wide. He moved away a few strands of his silvery long hair, tucking it around his pointy ears as he smiled. My nose caught a mesmerising scent coming from him.

　　“I’m... feeling better,” I told him breathlessly, my eyes moving down his whole body, observing his muscles.

　　I realised I kept a straight face the whole time, feeling intimidated by his beauty, but it was too late to change my reaction now.

　　He laughed and said “My name is Eliah. Welcome to earth Rignau. I know we all look strange to you, but don’t feel threatened. I found you unconscious and brought you to our hospital. Are you a human coming from planet earth?”

　　I suddenly came into my senses and realised that I was the one that looked different here. “I am,” I said now smiling at him as I felt a gush of warmth on my cheeks.

　　“Your kind is very rare to come by" he continued.

　　I knew he could see me blush as my pale skin does not help to hide my red cheeks. I couldn’t talk. He was too handsome and I was right there, in front of him looking all messed up. I could feel my hair all over the place and I was just in my pyjamas, with nothing else to change.

　　"Look, my sister is on her way to pick you up. She will give you some of her many clothes to help make yourself feel at home. You can stay at my house for as long as you wish" he explained with a grin at the side.

　　She took me to their house with a carriage like a car. In opposition to her brother's looks, she had blue-black hair, was a bit taller than me and had green beautiful eyes with pointy ears. She looked stunning! During this unusual ride I found out her name was Belle. When we arrived at their small house she led me straight to her room and gave me a new set of clothes that she said she never wore. A white sports bra, dark brown trousers and dark brown heavy boots. She offered me to take a shower and gave me a comb to fix my hair too.

　　I was alone for a while as she had to leave. I felt at ease so I slowly took off my pyjamas, walked into the warm water and washed my hair first and then cleaned off the rest. I stayed there for a while thinking of what happened to me back on my earth. How I always thought that what happened to my eight-year-old self was just a dream. I was so dug deep into my thoughts that I did not realise I was not alone anymore.

　　I felt someone touching my wet back and turned in horror to find Elijah in front of my naked wet body. He changed his clothes since I last saw him and got into a white shirt that he left open and was tucked into a tight fit military green jeans. I quickly turned my back away from him, covered myself with the towel and turned back to face him not sure how I should react. His eyes were no longer blue but I saw them shift to an unusual silver colour. He stared at me and smirked.

　　“Sorry to interrupt but I wanted to let you know that I brought some lunch for us if you like."

　　I said nothing and stood there still shocked. My heart was racing and finally managed to ask “how long have you been here watching me shower?”