Sundays are the laziest days of the week. Most of the time, I would just lay around at home watching TV or fooling around on the internet. I still go out with my friends or my mom, but I like to relax more on Sundays.

After breakfast, I checked my cell phone to see if I have any messages. I got Amy's text message, saying she and Pam are coming over at my house. I texted her back saying that that would be fine. In no time, Amy and Pam showed up at my door.

I invited them in and led them up to my room. I told them everything that happened yesterday. I mentioned that Old Man Handy was having his very first interview with the alien, and how excited he was. I mentioned the exciting rave night I had with Dainu, and how he break-danced on the dance floor, discovering his new hidden talent.

Pam's jaw dropped in excitement, "Girl, I can't believe I missed the most incredible rave night with Dainu."

"I know," I said, flapping my hands. "You should've seen Dainu. He was really break dancing. He did the helicopter twirl, the head spin, and he even mastered the moonwalk. It was, like, totally amazing!"

"So?" Amy said flatly. "Everybody does that. Those dance moves are nothing new."

"But Dainu learned them out of the blue," I remarked. "At first he didn't know what dancing was, because he said that on his planet, he just listens to music, not dance. Once he got use to the techno music, he started feeling the beat and unleashed his talent he never knew he had. That's what makes it so special."

"Dainu's really getting used to our planet, after all," Pam said.

"Heck, yeah," I exclaimed.

"Where should we take him next," asked Amy.

"I don't know," I said, dropping my head onto my pillow.

"How about we go for some pool?" Pam suggested. "We can just chill there and teach him how to play."

"But there are a lot of people..."

"If we go now, we'll be the only ones there. Nobody goes for pool in the morning. It'll be perfectly safe."

"Great idea, Pam," I said.

"I know," Pam joked, flamboyantly fanning herself.

We burst out laughing when she said that.

By ten thirty, I got Mom's permission to go play pool, and followed my friends out the house to pick up Dainu. Pam was right; most people sleep in on Sundays since it's a lazy weekday. That's why I like to wake up at eight in the morning so I can go through the morning with some fun, and then by the afternoon, I relax. That's the reason why Saturdays and Sundays go together: Saturdays bring out the fun and exciting times, and Sundays lets us meditate and chill.

We made it at the pool table place, and I was surprise that they open up in the mornings. We got ourselves pool sticks―I got the shiny one with the black and white zebra stripes at the end―and inserted our tokens in the pool table to unlock the balls from the compartment of the table. I placed the twelve balls in the triangle holder and set it up on the table. I took off the holder and placed the white ball at the position I wanted to aim. Dainu reached over, took the white ball, and examined it up close.

"What are you doing, Dainu?" asked Amy in annoyance.

Dainu felt the ball in his gentle fingertips and palm, rotating it around to felt its roundness. Then, Dainu was about to do something that was really stupid, he was about to eat it. I quickly snatched it out of his hand. Dainu looked at me in quizzically and pleadingly.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Dainu," I said. "This is not for eating. It's for playing."

"Playing with food is very infantile," Dainu said matter-of-factly. "It is incredibly unsanitary for your health."

I slapped my forehead. "No, Dainu. It's not food, it's a marble sphere that's used for this game to aim and hit the other balls into the holes. If you eat this, you'll break all of your pretty perfect teeth, and we don't want that, do we?"

Dainu shook his head understandingly.

We really not professionals at pooling, but we just play for the fun of it, and to joke around if one of us messed up. Sometimes, we would get silly and start using our hands to roll the balls into the holes. Plus, we love to hang out at the pool tables to chat and play.

I placed the white ball on the table and set my aim at the point of the triangle. I shot it, but unfortunately, I didn't hit hard enough to break the triangle. The balls barely scattered the table.

"Loser," Pam joked.

"Shut up and shoot," I laughed.

I stood right next to Amy, watching Pam take her turn. She got two balls, a solid and a stripe, into the hole.

"That makes two," she said. "Beat that!"

"Watch yourself, or you'll get one across your lips," I teased.

We all laughed uncontrollably.

We continued our game while Dainu observed our clumsy shots and our awkward aims. Dainu said to us, "This game has a logical structure, but you all are not using your mental thinking to direct to objects into its goal."

We turned to look at him.

"It's just a game, Dainu," Amy snapped. "We know we're not perfect, so we like to fool around in this game. Who the heck cares?"

"Chillax, Amy," I interrupt. "We know it's just a game and we're just having fun, but Dainu's right. It does have some thinking into it. But I have to admit, we're too lazy to think in this game. That's why we mess up a lot. But we don't give a crap."

Dainu held out his hand. "May I participate and show you some strategies that I know?"

"Sure," I said, handing him my stick.

"Like if he's all that," Amy mumbled rudely. I pretended that I didn't hear her.

Dainu took the stick, and examine the arrangement of the balls scattered on the table. I knew he was thinking of a plan to shoot a couple of balls into the holes. He sat himself on the table, place the pool stick behind his back, like how the professionals do, and shot the white ball. It first knocked the orange stripe ball into the hole, then followed by a blue solid, swerved into the yellow solid ball, and finished itself by knocking off the green stripe ball. Dainu got four balls down in just one shot. Pam and I cheered and jumped up and down. Amy didn't look all pleased.

"He used his super powers," she said. "It's not fun if you use your powers just to show off your talent."

We all frowned at her.

"I vow I did not use my abilities to spoil the game, and I despised showing off. I would never apply cheating in my lifespan," Dainu said.

"Yeah, of course he didn't cheat," I told Amy. "Dainu's honest and he knows what's right from wrong. And he just wanted demonstrate in using logic thinking, that's all. It's nothing to be cranky about, Amy."

"Whatever," she murmured.

After about an hour, we decided to get something to drink at the vending machine. Pam got herself a Dr. Pepper, Amy got pink lemonade, and Dainu and I got some bottled water.

We headed out of the place and walked back to our neighborhood. We went to our deserted park and rested on a bench, the same place where the old lady was feeding the birds. We didn't talk much because we were too busy slurping our drinks, refreshing our dry throats and empty bellies. But Dainu didn't drink his water. He was looking at it, disapprovingly.

"Dainu, what's wrong? It's just water," I said.

"But it is not sanitary," he said. "Do you not see the filthiness dwelling in this bottled water?" He showed me his bottle, but there seemed to be nothing wrong with it.

"There's nothing in there, Dainu," I said. "And it is sanitary. Look, it says so right here: 'hundred percent of pure natural spring water.'" I pointed the caption on the top part of my bottle.

"Such sinful lies they use to deceive others," Dainu shook his head. "My vision is very precise: I can see things from a distance, and what dwells in waters that you cannot see. I can show you what swims in your liquid that might be hurting you health."

"It's nothing in there," Amy fussed. "It's just water. So what if there are specks of whatever hiding in our water bottles? We're still living and breathing."

"Ah, what you do not see, you do not understand. Watch," Dainu said, dipping his finger in his bottle. We crowded around close to see what kind of super ability he's going to do next. Soon, tiny specks of black, brown and grey bubbles turned visible before our eyes, floating in every direction like billions of atoms. I never notice those things in water bottles. It tasted so fresh and clean, but companies were using tap water all along. Dainu's right, they have been lying to us, making it taste and look clean just to sell their products.

When Dainu lifted up his finger out of the bottle, the tiny specks levitated out of the bottle, following his finger in its direction. I heard Pam gasped loudly next to me. Dainu, then, captured those dirty things in his clinched fist, turned over his hand, open it, and they were gone.

He sipped his water and said, "That is much appeasing."

"Whoa," breathed Pam. "I didn't know you could do that, too. What was that stuff?"

"Mostly carbon dioxide, chlorine, algae, hydrochloride, and magnesium," he noted.

"You mean," I said, "we've been drinking plain tap water all along, and all of that stuff could've killed us?"

"It would not have killed you; it would affect your well-being. Make you fatally ill. But it might have been worse, if you were swallowing lead into your system, it would be brutally treacherous to your health. Fortunately, there was no sign of lead poisoning in this beverage."

I opened up my bottle cap and handed my bottle to Dainu. "Can you filter mine, please?" I asked politely.

Dainu smiled, accepting my drink to be filtered and purely clean. After he did his magical filtration thing, I took my bottle and took a sip. It was the purist, invigorating, delightfully taste I had ever drink in my whole life. I had never tasted anything so pure, so cool, so crisp, and so healthy on this planet. And it was all thanks to Dainu for proving it to us.

Pam shoved her Dr. Pepper at Dainu. "Can you purify mines, too? I mean, not purify it, but get rid of the calories and sugar in this soda, so I won't get fat when drinking this?"

Dainu laughed. "I am afraid I cannot do that. It is impossible to eliminate calories and carbohydrates."

"Aw, man," whined Pam. "I wish it was possible. I could drink as much pop as I want and never get fat."

"Newsflash: try Diet Coke. Duh," I teased.

Dainu, Pam and I laughed.

Later, after Pam finished her drink, she asked Dainu if he can give her a flight ride. Dainu accepted and Pam ran out into the open grass field like an excited child. Amy and I remained on the bench, watching Pam having a blast. A weird silence flowed between Amy and me.

"Hey, Kaley," Amy finally spoke, "Dainu's a great guy, but is he that special to you?"

"Well, yeah," I admitted. "He's been by my side a lot, and he's done a lot for me. First with healing my sprained ankle, outsmarting Carmen for me, saving me from that stampede we had at school, and staying perfectly hidden when I tell him to. That's what I like about him; he's obedient, honest, thoughtful, and patient. I never met anyone like him."

"But he's a green alien from another universe," added Amy.

"So?" I asked. "So what if he's different? We're all unique in different ways, in and outside this universe."

"Yeah, but Dainu's an alien, an outside creature from another planet. Like a foreigner coming to America and not knowing where to start."

"What's your point," I asked suspiciously.

"My point is just because Dainu is all new here and he's all special to you, doesn't mean you have to praise and baby him with everything he does. I mean, look at him. He's flying with Pam on his back. Big deal! We've seen that kind of stuff on TV. It's nothing special."

"But this is not TV," I corrected, "this is real life. And what do you mean I'm babying him? So what if I get a little excited at the things he does? You were, too, when you first saw him, remember?"

"When I first saw him, I was still confused if he was real or not. Until you proved it by purposely cutting yourself so that E.T. can heal it. You're just letting him show off his powers just to make us think he's all, like, better than us."

"No," I raised my voice. "That's not true! I did that so you would believe. Why are you being so critical at Dainu? He's done nothing wrong."

"Because he doesn't belong here," Amy answered angrily. "He's been hogging our friendship for a long time. It's always Dainu this, and Dainu that. All you ever talk about is Dainu. What about us? Aren't we your friends too?"

"Yes, we're still friends, BFFs. And Dainu's our friend too. I couldn't have left him in the forest all by himself. He needed me. What if I never met him? He would be lost, alone, and probably captured and experimented."

"There you go, again. Adding Dainu into this picture. Always mentioning about Dainu, Dainu, Dainu. Maybe you should've left him in the forest. Maybe he shouldn't have come here in the first place. He's just making attention for himself just because he's alien who is smarter, better, faster, and stronger than us. Besides, he's not one of us; he's nothing but a freak!"

That last word hit me like a rock pounding on my head. How dare she say that about Dainu? Backbiting behind his back like that. No wonder she was acting moody today. It's because she was jealous. Jealous that I found a miraculous new friend, jealous that he only stays by me because I found him and he's my responsibility, and jealous that she's not as perfect as Dainu is. Jealousy seems to cloud her mind like black smoke polluting the sky.

"He's not a freak!" I scolded. "He's my friend, and you shouldn't be judging him like that! Dainu had told me that judgments can ruin your mind with evil thoughts and false doubts. Plus, you're jealous."

"So what if I'm jealous? I might be judgmental but it's the truth. Look at him, he's green, he's has super abilities, and he does some abnormal things, like when he almost ate that ball on the pool table."

"He didn't know at first. It was a small mistake. God, you're such a hypocrite, Amy," I argued back.

"Maybe I am," she admits, "but at least I'm not all over Dainu like some lovesick puppy like you. He should go back to his own planet and leave us alone."

"How about you go home and leave us alone?" I scolded.

"Fine! No one's forcing me to stay. I'll leave you nutcases by yourself. At least I'm not some weird freak who believes in every freakin' thing that's a fake."

"Open your eyes, screwball," I yelled. "The proof's right there in front of you!"

But she was already starting to walk away, leaving us. I turned away from her. I don't want to bother looking at her.

Dainu landed on the ground with Pam on his back, and Pam jumped off onto the ground.

"Hey, what's up with Amy," she asked concerned. "Why is she leaving?"

"Nothing's wrong," I said, controlling my emotions. "She got a call from her mom, she said she had to go."

"Oh," said Pam. "For a minute, I thought there was something seriously wrong. Like, you just had a fight with her or something."

"No, not at all," I lied, but Dainu saw right through my lie.

Pam decided to go home too, since she had to finish up her homework and catch up on her reading for Lit. I walked home too with Dainu by my side. I was so tensed, so build up with anger that I didn't realize I was walking too fast ahead of Dainu.

"Kaley, what is wrong? You seem tensed," Dainu said worriedly.

"Nothing's wrong," I said tightly. "I'm fine."

Dainu teleported in front of me, stopping me in my track. "Stop doing that!" I snapped. "It startles me. Can I please move outta my way?"

"Kaley, you know well that I despise dishonesty. You are troubled about something. I can sense your emotions. Plus, I had noticed your hand was tightening. What is wrong?"

"You wanna know what's wrong?" I snapped. "You wanna know what's wrong?! It's Amy! She's being such a witch. While you and Pam were having fun, Amy was complaining about how you are special to me, and how you're smarter and better than us. She was jealous of you, Dainu. And I tried to prove to her that you're special from the inside, not because of your brains and powers. And what's worse, she called you a freak, and that hurt me. She was being so mean, so judgmental, like a hypocrite. But you're not a freak, Dainu. You're not!"

I was pouring out tears like a waterfall. I sobbed so loudly that my cheeks turned hot red.

Dainu put his hand on my shaky shoulder. "Her jealousy should not upset you, Kaley. I am sure we can forgive Amy."

"No!" I shouted. "I can't forgive her. I'll never forgive her. She said mean things about you. She's just like Carmen. She thinks I'm showing you off, making you better than everybody else, but I'm not. She's jealous, Dainu. But she doesn't want to see that."

Dainu tried to comfort me by hugging me, but it didn't work this time. I pushed him away, and ran inside my house, leaving Dainu outside, alone, and concerned.