When Steve finally came into the living room, Stephen was standing on the sofa, carrying Ethan on his shoulders. Kevin and Tanya were holding Stephen's legs so he wouldn't fall and I was standing near the pair to catch them if they fell.

We looked like a very clumsy dance formation in a talent show.

There were holograms scattered across the room and three holograms embedded in the roof that we were trying to get off. It was, certainly, a chaotic scene to enter to. 

"What are you guys doing?" Steve asked, mirroring the words I had said but an hour ago. 

I turned to him, "These people thought it'd be a good idea to use holograms as frisbees."

Steve tilted his head upwards, a grin forming on his face."You were trying to get those down?"

"Yep." I said, and the others nodded in unison. 

"And you didn't think it would be a good idea to, I don't know, call me?"

I shrugged. I was not going to him with a mess they created.

"Let me show you something." Steve said with an even bigger grin. He went over to the disc that the root cause of the entire debacle and tapped on it. 

Immediately, all the holograms in the room disappeared. We all took a moment to blink in surprise.

"Dude!" Kevin whispered. I felt like that captured my feelings perfectly. 

"Indeed," Steve smiled, "consider this your philosophical lesson of the day. A lot of things in life can attained if you just ask for it."

He was met with silence. We are too stunned with what just happened to reply.

"You can come off my shoulders now, you are not exactly light." Stephen grumbled.

The room erupted into laughter, as Ethan came down, red in face.

Steve shook his head at their antics, "Anyways, I came down here because we are about to reach our destination. Here, take one of these."

He held out five of black coloured, earpod shaped things. "These are universal translators, so that you can understand what aliens say. Put them in your ears." He pulled out his own translator from his ear and put it back in to demonstrate. 

I followed suit. The translator expanded in my ear, fitting itself exactly in the shape of my ear canal. It made a gross sucking sound while it settled, like someone was drinking with a straw right next to my ear.

After it settled, my ears felt wet, like I had just came out of a shower.

"It will feel odd, initially, but you will get used to it." Steve explained. 

"Do you understand what I am saying?" Steve's voice came to me in English, but his lips were clearly moving a different way as if he was speaking a different language.

I nodded.

"This is awesome!" Kevin exclaimed. 

"Anyways, I just got a message from Alice (that's your mentor, by the way); she had some urgent work so she won't be there at the centre. You will meet an alien there. They'll show you around.

One more thing you need to know, when you introduce yourself, say your species and name. For instance, I'm Human-Steve."

I nodded. It was mentioned in the pamphlet.

"And do not use slang terms, since it doesn't translate." Steve went for a few minutes giving some more instructions. Pretty basic ones; easily deductible by common sense. 

But then again, these were the people who used holograms as frisbee. So maybe the instructions were necessary. 

 It was then, that the excitement started to creep up in me. So far in my space journey, I had only ever interacted with humans. Now, I was going to meet actual aliens. I was going to live with actual aliens.

I think a grin must have snuck onto my face, because Ethan grinned by at me. 

I took a moment to look at my now classmates. Ethan with his coppery, wavy hair clashing with his dark-ish skin; Stephen with typical blond hair, blue eyes; Kevin with well combed hair and dimples; Tanya with pale skin and glasses — they were so annoyingly regular. So normal looking, so Human. 

I couldn't wait to meet aliens. 

I was jumping on the balls of my feet with excitement. Steve finally announced that we had arrived. 

The doors to the spaceship opened with a smooth glide. I walked out of the ship into a closed room that appeared to be some sort of parking lot. 

Steve gave us a casual two fingered salute. "This is as far as I will be coming. See you around, kids." The door closed behind him.

I sighed and took in a deep breath.

This was the beginning of a new journey. 

And I was ready for it.