Page 76 of I Fell for an Alien Popstar

The foreground was just me and a job offer I’d wanted my whole life without having the language for it.

I opened the book and flipped past the mascot and the arena crowd to the pages with the Pilu, the bus bunks, and her face in half-finished lines.

“Look at you,” I muttered to my own scribbles. “You did something.”

My chest felt full and fizzy, like Luminal Fizz had taken up residence behind my ribs. For the first time in years, my brain wasn’t chewing on what I’d done wrong or how to shrink.

It was sprinting ahead, throwing up images—campaigns, posters, weird little creatures that might someday end up on someone else’s wall.

I wanted to tell her.

I tucked my sketchbook under my arm and left the mess hall, heading toward down the hall.

As I rounded the corner, I spotted Nova climbing up the giant glass window.

“Uh, how did you get over here so quickly? I just saw you in the mess hall a moment ago.”

Nova turned toward me and stared blankly. She blinked slowly a few times, then turned away and continued climbing.

“You are a very peculiar creature, Nova.” I shook my head and kept walking.

“Dune?” I called out.

“Yes, Vada?”

“Do you know where Zhari is?”

“I know where everyone is,” Dune replied.

“I know this, it was rhetorical Dune.”

“She is in the viewing bubble, relaxing.”

“Ah, thank you Dune.”

I climbed up the ladder to the viewing bubble where Zhari sat crossed legged looking out the window.

“Hey,” I said, hauling myself into the bubble and settling opposite her.

She turned her head, a small smile curving one corner of her mouth.

“Hey,” she replied. “So, was the Jelly Lounge amazing or what?”

“Oh my stars, it was totally out of orbit,” I gushed. “The Jelly Lounge was like eating inside a fish tank. It was incredible.”

I let out a sigh, tossing my head back.

“Ten out of ten. I want to go back before we leave. And anytime there’s a Jelly Lounge wherever we go, I want to go.”

“Good,” she smirked. “I like your brain too much to have it eaten by ribbon fins.”

I hugged my sketchbook close to my chest nervously.

“So,” I said, my pulse spiking. “Tev found this.”

I held the sketchbook up between us like evidence.

Her brows rose.