Lewis?

Lewis wasn't sure why, but he felt a chill. Looking over at the girl, he shook his head, trying to rid himself of his paranoia. He watched as his parents left. Turning to face Annabelle he smiled.

"So, do you want to watch TV? Boardgames? Or do you prefer computer games?" He paused. "Or would you like to read a book?"

'What even are those things? TV? Games on a board? What even is a computer? If I say book, there's no reason for me to talk to him.' She ended up thinking for a while.

"Um, if you can't decide should we just watch TV? If you want to do something else later just let me know." He moved to the other room, waving at her to follow.

"Okay."

'Thank goodness for impatient kids.'

She followed him, upon entering the room she saw a large rectangular screen hanging on a wall.

'Oh, so TV is like a hologram? I hope he doesn't ask me what I want to watch…'

"What would you like to watch? We have a lot of movies, and a couple of series to pick from. I can also turn streaming on, and you could pick from that list if you want."

'I give up… Screw it.'

"I'm cool with whatever you want as long as it's action." She had watched a lot of action adventure movies when she was growing up. Though she hoped that earth had the same classification system.

"Are you sure? Is it okay if we watch Aliens?"

She raised an eyebrow.

He realized why in a few seconds. "It's not a dig, I swear!"

"Sure. What's it about?"

"It's a really great action thriller about alien monsters."

"Really?" She wasn't sure what to say.

"Yeah, if you don't like it or get scared, we can turn it off." He smiled as he put the DVD into the player. "It's kind of old, so give the CGI some grace alright."

'I'm just going to pretend I know what that is.'

About two and a half hours later Annabelle was thoroughly amazed at what humans could come up with.

'There are actually creatures like that. There's no way some human came up with that storyline…' She had been so engrossed in the plotless film that she had forgotten to mine information from Lewis.

"So… What did you think?" Lewis spoke up from beside her on the couch.

"The concept is interesting, but it lacks plot…"

"Yeah, I couldn't bring myself to watch Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. They kept killing off any plotline that semi-developed during the first and second movies. Though the new ones do kind of have a plot!"

'Oh no. I need to stop him before I get to hear all about this series…'

"Lewis what do your parents do?" She blurted.

"Dad acts as the clan head and mom helps him as deputy. They had a meeting clarifying clan policy about humans…" He stopped, realizing what he had just said. "About how we as humans should treat animals. Clan is just the name of their policy creation team."

"Okay." She accepted his explanation.

'Yeah right, brat. That means whatever they are, they're part of a clan. I know for sure they aren't human now thanks to his slip-up. Though it still doesn't clarify what they are…'

She was interrupted in her thoughts by Lewis.

"Hey, do you want anything to drink?" He was nervous and wanted to distract her from his earlier words.

"I'm good. By the way… You have a tail."

"Oh sh**, mom and dad are going to kill me…"

"Because you lost control of your transformation in front of me?" She was grasping at straws.

"You're not freaking out, does that mean you aren't human?" He hoped against hope she answered yes. If so, his punishment would be less than if she were.

When she didn't answer he started freaking out. "I'm going to lose everything. They'll take away my phone, TV privileges, I won't be able to hang out with friends… PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU ARE." He was beginning to sound desperate.

"I'm not human. But I'm not telling you what I am." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Thank goodness."

"What exactly are you?"

"A dragon."

"Really? Interesting, I haven't met a dragon before. Can I touch your scales?"

"Sure, there isn't anything interesting about them though. Since I'm immature they haven't glossed over yet or gained their color."

"How old are you?"

"A thousand. You?"

'Hmm, so a thousand is still considered a child. Approximately around the age of thirteen or fourteen maybe? And they seem to think I'm younger than him. Jeez, it's just one frying pan to another. I hope I don't end up in the fire anytime soon…'

"I'm not too sure. I got abandoned in an orphanage, and I don't really have any memories before that. All I remember is that in the last five years I haven't changed, and they started treating me like a monster, so I ran away."

"Please don't let your dad send me back. They might kill me, or worse experiment on me." She tried to look terrified, as if she had been in that situation.

But her acting sucked… It helped that Lewis was also a kid and a naïve one at that.

"I won't, if we explain your situation to him, he'll understand. He'll help you. I promise, when he hears your story, he won't ever send you back there."

"Thank you, Lewis!" She threw herself into his arms. Not having to act the feeling of relief she was experiencing. Hopefully she wouldn't have to re-enact the 'play' in front of John or Shelly. They'd probably figure her out in an instant.

"Can you explain it to them. I really don't like thinking about that place." She had moved away from Lewis. Trying to act timid.

"Sure. Don't worry about it I'll talk to him for you."

'I feel bad doing this, sorry Lewis. But it's important I'm not found out. Please let me take advantage of your naivete since I can't act worth crap.'