"Does this stupid app even work?" Alexis frowned after being tired of staring at the screen of her new cell phone; which was a gift from Natalia's dad, David.
The two girls, both 17 years old, were sitting at the back of an empty classroom of SpaceTravel Academy. They had entered the personal information of Alexis in the Soulmate app about 10 minutes ago and the screen still displayed "Processing..." on top of it. "I'm done waiting. This doesn't work", Alexis blurted out in bored tone.
Her best friend, Natalia said in high-pitched voice, "Of course it does, see," as she flashed the screen of her cell phone which was identical to that of Alexis. David was a spaceship captain in the Intergalactic Travel Federation (IGT Fed). His job required him to frequently voyage to other planets and as a single parent, it was hard for him to keep in touch with his beloved daughter. So, in his recent visit to the planet C-31, he had bought three cell phones of a new model with intergalactic reception. One cell phone was for Alexis as he loved her like his own daughter, and never differentiated between the two.
"My app already found my soulmate", Natalia was blushing a little as she said this. Her screen was displaying the name of her soulmate with a picture of him and his location.
"Congratulations!
Your Soulmate's name is:
Liam O'Brian
[Photo]
His location is:
P21 Street, MW-01"
Alexis's eyes were wide open. "What? Isn't this guy in our flight simulation class? How come you never told me about him?"
"It's not like I didn't tell you that I liked him. Well, I might not have told directly, but I gave you hints. It's just that you never seem to notice", Natalia said in a complaining tone that her best friend was so oblivious, even about her.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" said Alexis in a soft voice while her emerald green eyes were glistening as the beautiful twilight through the classroom window touched her exquisitely beautiful face. The waves of her luscious reddish-brown hair shined as she tucked it behind her ears. And her light pink lips curved upward to form an enchanting smile. No one could resist falling for her when this other-worldly beauty smiled innocently.
"Hey, don't give me that puppy-eye look. Or else I'll ditch my soulmate and fall for you. Seems like you'll end up alone anyway", said Natalia in a sarcastic tone.
With a little suspicious look on her face Alexis asked, "Are you sure mine isn't the knockoff one? Or are you playing tricks with me? How can an app decide who is my soulmate? Come on, spill it. You aren't joking around with me, right?"
"Whoa! Why would I play tricks on you? This thing is real", Natalia exclaimed with a hint of anger in her dark brown eyes. She paused for a while to calm down while her fingers stroked through her voluptuous dark hair and revealed, "I think the app displayed that in few cases it might take up to three days to find the soulmate. Well, you might fall under that few case."
Alexis said in a disinterested tone, "Never mind this soulmate thing. I was never interested in this love affair anyway. I think I should head home now, it's getting dark." She was suddenly concerned about the time and wanted to reach home as soon as possible.
"Hey, are those girls still bothering you? You can always file a complaint you know." Natalia noticed her best friend's sudden concern and was worried about her. Alexis lived in an impoverished neighborhood which was constructed from the ruins left from the last war between Earth (MW-01) and Planet C-31.
And this neighborhood was not the best place to live in, at least for Alexis, as she was frequently bullied by the local girls for her appearance. She stood out from rest of the girls as she looked like the goddess of beauty herself decided to create her. But the local girls picked on her saying that her eyes had a wide gap between them and she looked like an alien. But in reality, they were just jealous of her as the guys they liked only had eyes for Alexis.
"Filing complaint will make things even worse. Either they will pay few fines or get out of custody in a few days and bully me even more. So, I just try and avoid them as much as possible."
"Shall I walk with you to your home then?" offered Natalia. Even though Natalia's height was 5'5'' which was equal to Alexis's, her sturdy physique made her a strong opponent. In fact, she once easily took down bullies that were disturbing Alexis.
"No, it's okay really. I'll walk faster or will just take an alternate route. I have memorized each and every nooks and corners of my neighborhood, I'll be fine", said Alexis boasting and reassuring her best friend.
They packed their bags and headed towards their respective home.
As Alexis was walking down the road of P97 Street, several thoughts crossed her mind. She considered David as her role model which was the main reason why she joined SpaceTravel Academy. She dreamt about getting a job at IGT Fed and becoming an official voyager like David. In the future, she wanted to travel to all the discovered planets and lead missions to search undiscovered planets.
Before today, she had never given much thought about love. She hated the idea of love because of her parents. Her mom, Melissa, was abandoned by her father when she was pregnant with Alexis. And he never even tried to contact them. Though Melissa was a great mom and never let Alexis feel the need of her father, Alexis could not help but wonder sometimes if her life would be a bit better with the presence of her dad. She wanted to see her mom happy but Melissa never fell in love again. And after the Soulmate app did not show any result, Alexis wondered if she would be like her mom, who would never find a soulmate.
Her train of thought was disturbed by a sudden tap on her shoulder. She stopped and turned back to see who it was, and as she feared it was Judy. Judy was taller than average girls with two-block hairstyle. One could easily mistake her for a boy. Not just her looks, Judy's physical strength was also no less than that of a guy and could easily take down a girl like Alexis.
"Haven't seen this alien around in a while", Judy said in a monotonous voice to her two lackeys, Mina and Nora. Mina and Nora were not as tall as Judy but were as heartless as her when it came bullying Alexis. Mina's boyfriend once told her that he has not seen someone as beautiful as Alexis and she has not forgiven him yet.
"What do you say, Alien? You ready to take some beating on your alien face? If you hadn't run from us for three weeks, then maybe we would be considerate and just push you to the ground." Judy clutched Alexis's small face and said, "Now we have to put some wounds in that pretty face of yours."
Alexis's heart was pounding like crazy, so much so that even Judy might have heard it. All kinds of thoughts came to her mind, she even thought that today might be her last day to be alive. Just as Judy was about to punch Alexis, Mina's boyfriend appeared out of nowhere.
"Hey Mina, I'm sor...", just as Jimmy was about to apologize to his girlfriend, he noticed Alexis being held by Judy. "Hey Judy, what are you doing to that poor girl?"
"It's non of your concern. Mina I had warned you not to see this dog anymore, you still seeing him?" asked Judy in that same monotonous voice.
Mina whispered to Jimmy, "Why are you following me? I told you not to seek me when I'm with Judy."
"Then what do you want me to do? You were out of contact for more than a week", Jimmy whispered back.
"I want you two out of my sight, you guys are spoiling the fun for me", Judy slightly turned back towards them and demanded them to leave. But while she turned back, her grasp loosened and Alexis took this chance to free herself from Judy and run.
This was one thing that Alexis was really good at - running. Once she started running, no one could catch her unless she wanted to be caught. She dashed and dodged all the obstacles in her path and ran for her life. From all the frequent running, she had memorized all the paths and short-cuts back to her house. As she was running she would look back to check if the bullies were still following her, and to her terror, they still were. It seemed as if she would be caught today and get beaten up.
[NOTE: Keep in mind that IGT Fed does not provide services for the public to travel from one planet to another. The spaceships are just for official use and their major purpose is to be used for voyages to the unknown. IGT Fed's headquarter is in planet A-11 which bans unauthorized space travel to avoid war breaking out between planets.]