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When Elena looks back at the camera, her hazel eyes are lit up with excitement and she’s grinning from ear to ear. “Ana, you have to take a picture of him. You have to!” She pulls her own old laptop over from across the table, flips it open, and begins tapping away.
“No way,” I snap, “just look pictures up online, you psycho!”
“I can’t! Do you know how freaking private he is about his child? I’ve heard that every photographer who points a camera at him mysteriously disappears, along with their photos. There’s nothing online.”
“Well, I don’t want to get murdered for a photo!”
“Okay, so, it looks like we’re in luck today.”
“What, with my impending death?”
“Mari, hurry up! This is juicy!” Elena flips her laptop around to me and flashes an article. I barely have a second to register a huge, imposing stone building before she turns it back to herself. “You see this orphanage? It looks like Tzelik is going to be holding a press conference there in…oh, in four hours! That gives you plenty of time to get there after you finish your classes! And it’s only a twenty minute walk from where you are! I know how much you love exercising…”
“Elena, get it out of your head! I am not going anywhere near this man.”
“Uh-huh… Mariana, I swear to god, if you don’t get down here right now!”
I hoist my bag further up one shoulder and start walking towards the exit—I can’t even go back to my lecture right now, I’m too annoyed. I need some air. “Stop it, Elena. There is absolutely zero percent chance that I’m going to this orphanage today. No way.”
***
Four hours later, I find myself standing across the street staring at Vasjeli’s Imperial Institute for Unhomed Youths.
Location Tracker tells me you’ve arrived at the orphanage. See, that wasn’t so hard!
I tap open Elena’s message and project the keyboard against my opposite palm to type back.
Shut up. I hate you so much. I’ll send a pic as soon as I get it, and then I never want to speak to you ever again.
She instantly responds back with a few angel smiley faces and a big thumbs-up. I scowl and look away. There’s no guarantee that Tzelik has even broughthis son here, but Elena insists that all the rumors say he barely trusts anyone enough to leave his son alone with them, and that the boy will definitely probably be there, don’t worry, it won’t be a waste of time…
I sigh and remain awkwardly away from the mass of reporters across the street. It will be a waste of my time, whether I get her stupid pictures or not.
Can you see President Tzelik?
I crane my neck as a few hover-cars zip across the road in front of me, trying to see around the crowd gathered near an erected podium in front of the building, where Tzelik is making his address. There are a few people standing behind the president as he speaks, mostly hulking figures that look like security guards and one skinnier guy who’s sitting in a chair furiously typing away on a holo-note in his lap.
My Snap vibrates again, and I look down at it in annoyance as Elena continues to barrage me with stupid comments. Is he still single?
How am I supposed to know the answer to that?
One second later, she answers her own question.
He is! Apparently, he hasn’t had a girlfriend since his wife left him four years ago.
Tzelik stands raised above everyone else, an imposing silhouette in a gray military uniform, making those around him appear small and unimportant with his sheer presence. I suppress a shiver as I watch him speak and decide that I don’t want to get any closer than I already am—there’s something calculating and deadly about his gestures, and I get the feeling I really wouldn’t want to test his patience. I begin to move parallel to the crowd to see if I can catch a glimpse of his son from here. But I don’t see a single sign of him.
I also don’t see any sign that Elena will stop messaging me any time soon.
Check out this article about him, it’ll bring you up to speed.
She sends me some dumb link titled ‘Most Eligible Bachelors This Side of the Nebula; Rich Single Dads to Keep Your Eyes On’, which I dutifully ignore.
The reporters are all starting to put their hands up for question time, and as Tzelik smoothly points to who he’ll answer next I figure that I don’t have much time left before the address is over. I still can’t spot any sign of his son, although I have noticed another young Zvezdi boy wandering dangerously close to the street without a guardian in sight. He’s got paper-white skin and a pile of messy silver hair flopping into his eyes, and the cutest, most dapper little three-piece suit on, complete with a little tie and vest and everything.
That’s actually one thing I was surprised to see here when I first arrived in Zvezden. Most of the universe seems to see Earth and all her residential space stations as second-class citizens since we’ve only joined the intergalactic community in the last hundred years. But for some reason, our fashion has sort of caught on, at least with the men, and our suits have become really popular. You see them all over the place, and I’ve always been a sucker for little boys in suits.
D’you think Tzelik wants his REAL baby momma to come look after him? ;) He’s actually kinda hot, for an alien…
