❥ . ⋆ Chapter Two

     "Cammy? Oh, my God," Cam's dad rushed over to her side.  The Crashdown Cafe was now swarmed with adults and police, and everyone was being questioned.

     "No, Dad. Dad, look at this," Cam pinched her dress.  "See? I'm fine. I just spilt ketchup. I'm really- I'm okay."

     "Are you sure?" he cupped her face with his bigger and muscular hand.  Cam's dad had always been protective of his daughter, she was, after all, his only daughter and on top of that, his only kid.

     "Yeah, I'm okay," she smiled. 

     "The guy with the gun, right, was kinda like a muscular Beavis, you know?" Ariana was frantically talking to two policemen, using her hands to talk like she does when she gets nervous. "And then the other one was like a beefy Butt-head."

     "I'm gonna need a better description than that.  I'm assuming that they weren't actually cartoons," one of the policemen said, tilting their head.

     "Excuse me," Ariana pulled a bottle out of her apron, unscrewing the cap and inhaling deeply.  "Cypress oil," she explained when the cops gave her a weird look.  "It, um, reduces stress."

     "You okay?" Ansel busted through the doors, catching Cam off guard.

     "Uh, yeah," she smiled at her boyfriend, admiring how his hair sat on his face.  He had probably just woken up, taking the opportunity to sleep in on the nice Sunday morning.  He almost immediately took off his jacket and put it over her shoulders.  "Thanks.  I'm just a little shaken up."

     "Sheriff," one policeman walked over to Ansel's dad, the sheriff.  "The suspects ran out right after the incident occurred.  A couple of outsiders.  There's no apparent robbery no injuries other than the girl that fell.  It just seems like an argument that got out of hand."

     "Hey!" Cam's dad yelled to the tourist couple in town for the crash, startling both them and Cam.  "I told you two to stay outta there."

     "Uh, Sheriff.  Hi.  Um, I'm sorry.  I really need to talk to you.  I think something happened here," the guy walked towards the Sheriff and the small group of policemen, Ansel, Cam and her dad.

     "What do you think happened?" the Sheriff sighed, tilting his head at the tourist.

     "The gunman was standing right over there, right?" the guy pointed at the table where the two men had been arguing.  "And the shot was fired into this direction," he changed directions and pointed to the back near the cash register.  "Now, Jen and I we searched this entire place up and down.  And, I mean, there's nothing."

     The Sheriff stood up straight and nodded like he was catching onto what the guy was saying.  "Where's the bullet?" he asked the policemen around him.

     "We haven't found a bullet hole yet, Sheriff."

     The tourist guy wasn't done yet.  "Yeah, and Sheriff, before it happened, the girl gave me this," he handed the Sheriff the horribly detailed photo Cam had been using to mess with them earlier.  Ansel pressed a hand over his mouth to hide his smile as he saw it.

     "Jack," The Sheriff sighed and handed the photo to Cam's dad.

     Cam's dad sighed when he saw it too.  "Cammy."

     "Yeah?"

     "I told you, no showing the alien photos to the tourists."

     Cam ducked her head down, her lips forming a tight smile.  "There were two kids sitting over here when it happened," the tourist girl, presumably Jen, spoke up while pointing to the booth where Timothee and Tom had been sitting.  "Two boys about her age."

     "You know, that's right," the guy added.  "There were."

     "I didn't realize the detectives that the police called got here so fast," Ariana bit, sliding her arm over Cam's shoulders as she joined the group.

     "I didn't recognize them though, so they must've been tourists," Cam lied.  Ariana knew for sure Cam was aware that it was Timothee and Tom there but didn't question why she was lying.  Those tourists were super nosey and neither girl appreciated that.

     "No.  No, it sure looked like that she knew them to me."

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     "We spent the last week talking about genus and phylum.  And now we're gonna get a little more specific and talk about the difference between species.  For today's experiment, you'll be working in teams of two," the biology teacher explained.  Cam looked around, sitting by herself as she had no friends in this class.

     "Mr Evans," the teacher greeted Timothee as he walked through the door.  "So nice to have you join us."

     Timothee nodded and slid into a seat next to Cam since it was the only open seat in the whole class with everyone pairing off.  Timothee smiled at Cam before finding himself nervously biting on the end of his pencil.  Cam smiled to herself, finding Timothee's boyish charm adorable.

     "Okay, everyone on the right, prepare a slide with a vegetable sampling," the teacher explained.  "Everyone on the left, take a toothpick and get a sample from your cheek."  Timothee's eyes widened.  His hand shot in the air. 

     "Mr Evans?"

     "Could I get a bathroom pass?" he asked quietly.

     "High-maintenance today, aren't we?" she asked before nodding, the brunette boy getting up and swiping the hall pass easily before running back out the door.  Cam sighed, pulling the microscope closer to her as she realized she'd have to do the project by herself.  "It's very easy to look on the outside and say what differentiates humans from other species.  But what about what's on the inside? Everyone look at the human cells and describe everything you see on your lab sheets."

     Cam used a toothpick and observed her own cells and wrote down some notes on her lab sheet.  Doing the project so fast, she got bored and started staring off into space, eventually listening to her gut and taking the pencil Timothee had dropped on the desk while he fled.  She arranged it under her microscope so she could see it better, and was confused when his cells looked different.  Back and forth she switched the two different plates, comparing his cells with hers.  The school bell ringing snapped her out.

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     "Timothee!" Cam waved to Timothee in the hallway, causing him to turn around.  "Timothee! Excuse me," she pushed her way past some cheerleaders and the crowd in the hallway.  "Excuse me.  Timothee, I have to talk to you," she managed to reach him.

     "Okay," he nodded.  He'd been pining after Cam for all these years, and now suddenly she walks up to him in the hallway at school and wants to talk to him?  He was a little overwhelmed, to say the least.

     "Hey, Parker!" Jac Diggs smiled at Cam, waving at her from a couple yards away.  Her arm is looped with Avalyn Pratt, her best friend since kindergarten.  They're as close as Cam and Ariana, they just seem to have more time on their hands since they're always at the mall or protesting something on the weekends.

     Cam sighs but smiles back.  "Hey, Diggs.  How ya been?"

     "As if our lives matter compared to yours," Avalyn chuckles as they get close.  "We spent our Sundays sleeping in and doing homework.  You on the other hand almost died." 

     Cam gulped.  "Oh, yeah."  Timothee watches Cam's jaw clench from the corner of his eye.

     "If you're up to it, we're going to a protest this Saturday for gun control if you want to join," Jac continued.

     Avalyn nodded.  "Yeah, if you want to come just DM one of us!"  Avalyn smiles and waves.  "Toodles!"  she waves before the duo start walking down the hallway.

     Timothee clears his throat.  "Are you, uh, okay after what happened yesterday?"

     Cam forces herself to smile.  "I was just, uh, just a little shaken up.  It was just loud and then it was over.

     Timothee nods.  "Did you still wanna talk to me?"

     "Oh, yeah," Cam chuckles, tucking a strand of her long and straight hair behind her ear.  "Um, here, let's sneak in here,"  she grabs his wrist and pulls him to an empty classroom, opening the door just enough to squeeze their small bodies through it.

     The door closed, and both of them could hear the lock slamming into place.  "So, you're going out with the sheriffs' son?"

     "Um, yeah.  Well, it's kinda like this casual-" she paused once she saw the silly smile on Timothee's face.  "Okay.  Tim, can we just focus here for one minute, please."

     Timothee nodded, lifting himself up on a desk, scooting the chair slightly so he could rest his feet on it.  "What's up, Cam?"

     "Wow, uh, this is really weird to say.  I scraped some cells from your pencil."  Timothee sat up straight.  "I'm trying very hard to keep from blacking out here.  Um, the cells weren't normal.  So, Tim, what I'm gonna suggest to you is that we just go back into the bio lab now so that I can take a sample so that I can see what I'm thinking is wrong, you know that I got the wrong cells."

     "You didn't."

     "Okay, so, um," Cam gulped, moving her hands like if doing so would help her find the right words.  "Help me out here, Timothee.  I mean, what are you?"

     "Well, I'm not from around here."

     Cam's throat went dry.  "Where you from?"

     "Up north."

     "You're not," Cam paused.  "An-an a-alien.  I mean, are you?" she questioned with a small huff.

     "Well, I prefer the term 'not of this Earth'," Timothee smiled.  "Sorry, it's not a good time to joke, is it?" he sighed.  "Yeah, I am.  Wow.  It's weird to actually say it."  he noticed the look on Cam's pale face.  "Cam."

     "Uh, Tim, you know what?  I'm gonna be late for my U.S. Government class."

     "Cam."

     "So I'm just -" she turned her back to him and began walking towards the door.

     "Cam, listen to me," he jumped off the desk, running to the door before she could leave.  He leaned up against it, using his arm to block the doorway.  "You can't talk to anyone about this.  Not your parents, not Ariana.  No one.  You don't understand what will happen if you do," he said.  She was debating how to treat him but after all this time she had known him as just Timothee anyways, so it shouldn't be that hard to treat him like he's still human, right?  She was just after all blushing over his boyish behaviour in science class.

     She nodded.  "Mhm, sure."

     "Cam, please.  Now my life is in your hands."

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note
* mason hewitt voice * intensee