Oh, this one will be an interesting one

I am hoping to work on my character development in this book. I am trying to become better at evolving characters, and I think the relationship between an alien boy and his girl host will be the perfect way to start. 

Chapter One 

November 3rd, 2006

Jeffery fell off the bed again, possibly because I kicked him off, still, I sat up, wide-awake despite it being way past my bedtime.

I crawl over to the edge of the bed and look down. Jeffery, my purple stuffed rabbit was lying on the floor, staring up at me with his brown-button eyes. I think he was asking me why I kicked him off the bed so rudely, but I ignored him, because he had insulted me by calling me a blanket-hog.

I was not a blanket-hog.

I reach down and grab him, and quite forcefully did I tuck him back in beside me. If he was going to give such attitude about sleeping in my bed, then he was most certainly not going to get a good-mannered Rosie.

I lay my head back on my pillow and wrap my arms around Jeffery. We laid there in silence for a long moment. I blinked at the wall, but no matter how many times I closed my eyes, I couldn't get them to stay shut.

Frustrated, I sat up, and once again woke Jeffery up by grabbing his floppy ears, and pulling him along with me to the window, where I stared out at fields of our farm. Harvesting season was nearly over, which meant the fields would be empty once more with dirt and worms, and the crows that would peck at them.

The stars were glistening bright tonight, and I couldn't help but admire them, despite it being late and I should be admiring the stars that I dreamt of, not the ones that actually existed.

I lay my arms on the windowsill and lean my head on the wood as my breath fogged up the cold glass. Amused at the results of my breath, I drew a smiley face in it with my finger.

I really should be asleep. If either of my parents woke up to find me still awake when I had school tomorrow, they would punish me and Jefferey would laugh at me for being dumb enough to get caught.

Jefferey is the worst friend. He's never nice, and I'm getting tired of it.

I blink up at the sky once more, and wonder what it'd be like if the sun never appeared again. Stars would become our new day and that very thought was so interesting that I decided maybe I should draw a picture of the day but with a night sky.

Then, with my mind still thinking about my upcoming drawing, I noticed a very bright white dot among the stars. It was brighter and bigger than the other stars, and my father told me that the really bright stars are actually planets, so that's what I assumed it was. I pointed to it, and told Jeffery, "That's a planet." Because I like to show off everything that I know to the stupid rabbit that claims to know everything.

But I soon realized it wasn't a planet, because it was getting bigger, and bigger, and suddenly I was staring wide-eyed at large ball of fire falling falling falling, until it something broke off from it.

I stared at that something, as it speedily fell behind the trees in our backyard.

It took me longer than it should have to comprehend that a star just fell into our fields.

Grabbing Jeffery, I ran over to my bedroom door and opened it. I thought about going to my parents' room and telling them something fell out of the sky, but then I remembered last time I woke my parents up in the middle of the night for something that was not important to them, and I got in big trouble.

So instead, I tiptoed through the hall, and down the staircase. I grabbed my pink jacket from off the hook on the wall and struggled to unlock the front door. When the big metal lock finally twisted in my small hands, I opened the door only wide enough for me to fit through, and I escaped out of the house.

Jeffery said nothing as I hiked down our front porch and into the back fields of our property, where a small patch of trees stood that my father saved for when we needed firewood during the winter.

I stumbled clumsily over a rock that I didn't notice, but swiftly got back up before anyone could notice how humiliating it was to fall in the dirt. I continued through the trees where a large hole was in the cascaded into the ground. A hole that wasn't there earlier today.

I peered into the hole, unsure of what I'd find as it was dark in and all around it, and the only thing that cast off light was the large moon and it's fellow stars that still did not illuminate the ground as much as I needed it to.

I expected to find a star, or maybe a piece of the moon because that's what I wanted so I can hang it in my bedroom and have my own sky that I can stare up at every night and day.

I didn't expect to see a boy, curled up in the dirt, completely covered in a thick, black, liquid.

I stared at the boy wide-eyed. He was twitching a little bit, and I wondered if that meant he was alive.

I was told not to speak to strangers, but did that count for aliens? Is he an alien? I wasn't sure.

I muffled my fear of the unknown, and slowly began to climb down into the hole. I thought that maybe I should have woken up my parents, because they'd know what to do, but just as I was thinking that, the boy suddenly gasped, and I jumped back, afraid that he would attack me.

I held Jeffery close like a shield, as I nosily watched the boy who was now opening his eyes. He seemed to struggle for a moment, as he put all his strength into sitting up. He examined around him, until his eyes landed on me.

The black tar-like substance dripped from his face. It matted his hair, making it stick to his head as the liquid came flowing down his skin. His eyes were a dark purple, nearly blending in with the night sky. Upon further inspection, I noticed white sparks glittered in his eyes like stars, as though they were a night sky all in themselves.

This boy who sat on the earth, his curious face staring up at me did not look human. He certainly was not human.

Nervously, I stood still, not taking a step forward, but also not taking a step back. "Hello." I say to greet him, because that is what you do when you encounter a human that is not human at all.

He was silent for a long moment, and I thought he wasn't going to answer me, which would make sense because why would an alien know how to speak English? But then, he managed to shock me as he opened his mouth, "Hello." He responds, his voice smooth and soft like yellow silk. Yellow because it is the softest color in the world, of course.

I was surprised that he could understand me, or that he could speak at all, so I continue, "Are you an alien?" I inquire, my stuffed rabbit dropping to the ground as I lose all interest in it. Then I think what a stupid question that is, because if he wasn't an alien, then I was certainly going to be laughed at.

He blinks at me, the galaxy in his eyes seem to expand somehow, "No," He says at last, "You are."

I scrunched up my face, "That's not true at all. You fell out of the sky."

"I fell into your sky." He corrected me, but it didn't make any sense.

"Into? You fell out of it, not into it."

"Are you a human?" He changes the subject, and he slowly climbs up to his feet. He is taller than I expected as he towers over me, and I'm suddenly aware that I am out alone in a field with an alien-man but is also tall and has stars in his eyes.

"I am a human." I answer him, as I clamber backwards a step.

"You are the girl form of human."

"Uhh I think so."

"A child girl human?"

"I'm seven."

"Seven." He repeats, "I am Icah."

I realize his confusion and quickly try to correct him, "No, I'm seven, seven years old. My name is not seven." I give a short, anxious laugh, "My name is Rosie."

"Rosie."

"Yes."

"'Years' is a human statistic that I have yet to understand, but you must still be a newly formed."

"A what?"

"A new youth."

"I don't know what that is."

Again, he changed the subject, "Do you abide in this sector, Rosie, human girl child?"

Since I had no idea what abide meant, or what a sector was, I instead asked him, "How did you fall out of the sky?"

He stared up at the sky, then down to me, then all around him, then he said, "My star fell." And as if realization dawned on him, he seemed to grow somber, "I remember now."

"Your star fell? You live in the stars?"

"No," He corrects me, "I do not live in stars, I live in one star, Pherciah."

"Pherciah. How do you live in a star?"

"Then choose you, I was chosen."

My eyes widened, "They are alive?"

"Everything is alive, human girl, do you not know that?"

I frown because he sounds arrogant just like Jeffery, "Of course I know that." I lie.

His mouth slightly parts as he considers my lie, before he speaks up, "Then you can hear them too? The breaths and pulsing of the stars?"

I shrink back slightly, "Umm, yes?" I could not, in fact, hear the stars breathing but I didn't want him to think I was stupid like my rabbit does.

He becomes what I think is his own way of excited, "Then you are an equivalent form for unification."

"What do you mean?"

"An occupancy, you are where I will exist in. If I could not find a proper occupancy I will die here. Do you accept human girl child, Rosie?"

I still wasn't sure what he was talking about, so I just nodded, "Yes?"

He suddenly moved so fast towards me that I don't see him coming. For a boy who just fell out of the sky, he had no broken bones, and he could move quicker than any human I have ever seen. He grabbed my face in his cold, shaking hands, black liquid falling down his face, and I realize that it might be his blood. I shriek as he presses our foreheads together, forcing me to look into the universe in his eyes and suddenly I'm floating in that universe, in a galaxy that is not a galaxy. Stars all around me, with purples and whites, and blues drift like music around my body.

I'm floating and I'm weightless, and then just as fast, I'm falling, and I blink, and I'm back on earth, in our fields, in a hole, wearing my nightgown and pink jacket.

But Icah, the alien boy, is gone.