Private Finished Only Here for the Puppy

Delaney's cheeks warmed as Sela called her cool. She was not blushing! No, she was too goth and cool to blush. But the young teen was very flattered.

Sela's dream castle sounded so cool. Delaney could easily imagine it, looking up at endless walls of books and shelves. Going up so high that it looked like they came to a single point. Man, that many books would be awesome. "Totally use the blood fountain idea. And, like, put a plaque on it with my name. The Delaney Blood Fountain." That would be metal.

"I mean, yeah. You're right." Delaney said after thinking about Sela's question. "But like, I'm trying to learn a lot of things that don't really matter if I know them or not? Mostly trivia stuff or things the voices tell me." If she could learn enough, then she would never have to worry about school tests ever again! The only downside to her plan was that memorizing trivia was super incredibly boring. "Maybe we could study together."

Trading Earth knowledge for space knowledge? Sign Delaney the heck up! That was so more than a fair trade and will make all her siblings incredibly jealous. Yeah, I know all about space travel and aliens. Learned it from my alien friend. No big deal. "You got yourself a deal! And yeah, I'm from Earth and the voices are. . . " She trailed off, and made vague circular motions with her hands. "The voices are in the back of my head. They describe stuff that's happening across the universe. I hear lots of space stuff or things on Earth. Sometimes I get island happenings. I can, like, ignore them mostly."

"And don't be sorry for being excited. We're both super cool individuals totally worth feeling excited over." The teen grinned, totally unbothered by all the questions. Delaney continued, "Tell me about space. What's the coolest thing you ever saw out there?"

Delaney imagined a giant space ship full of glowing sea creatures dotted with stars. And it wasn't just something imagined by science fiction, but something real and out there! And a planet of giants with flying sea creatures that dotted the sky like birds. So cool. Space was wild. Maybe she should forget trying to become a god and instead become some kind of space explorer. "Once the voices described space pirates over taking another ship and taking everything of value inside. It was so cool, 'cuz usually the voices talk about boring stuff. Like, animals killing each other, or people doing mundane things.

"Every now and then I listen in on something really cool." She grinned, thinking she might have to tune into the voices more often. Just so she could have cool space stories of her own to share with Sela. "Do you live here at school? We should totally visit each others dorms if you do."

Sela lives in a dorm by herself and her dorm parent? Delaney thought that must be super boring for Sela. Like, she got lucky and shares a dorm with two of her best friends. Lizzy and Chi were great, and her dorm parent was nice too. "Wait, like, you can just keep stuff inside of yourself. Man, I would love to do that. I could take all my craft stuff with me everywhere!" It did give Dela an idea though.

"My dorm is like the others. Got a central housey area, and then rooms for me and the other dorm kids. There's plants everywhere, our dorm parent is a plant lady. She's nice. I call her plant mom. But you should totally come visit. I can show you my room." Which of course was decked out in black and posters of local metal bands. "And my crafting table. I'm so proud of it." Lizzy and Chi were probably really tired of Dela going on about it.

Delaney figured that was a fair question. Plant lady could mean multiple things on this island, even when being literal. "She's a living plant. She's green and has petals on her. And she likes plants." Delaney liked having plants around, even if she couldn't see them. She still had a nose, and it was nice to walk into a room and smell flowers.

"Aw, aren't you sweet? I might take you up on that, but I also got a big craft bag to store stuff in. I embroidered skulls and hearts on it." The hearts of course, were very realistic and a few leaked blood. She finished it last year, before her home town went to hell. "When I get better at it again I'll make you something too."