Continued...

The couple reaches the high school building; and go in along with other teachers and the parents...

Like everyday since the aliens arrived: Tonight, Quince has been trying to get over apprenoticed towards the aliens through going with his wife to work sometimes... Mina had to talk to both alien kids and adults under normal conditions, and by now had no trouble with them, like she thought she would've... Quince was getting over his fears, and had spoken with a few merely out of guilt.. except ...for with one alien.. who still made him very uncomfortable..

"Look! Everybody's gettin' along, tonight won't be bad either!" Mina exclaims, "I guess?" her partner replied.... A few humans walk by into the cafeteria turned dancefloor, Mina smiles and waves at them since they're some of the parents of the kids that attend her class.. Quince merely smiles sometimes, even at the aliens who pass by too.. Until a alien couple comes by "Mr Safron, Miss Champi, I'm glad you could make it too!" Mina greets them with a smile, "Thank you, Mina!" Safron replied "Though, we're wondering what's the purpose of this dance? I mean, we're all for it, but just curious...". "It's for socializin', kids rarely do that nowadays!" Mina replies with a laugh "Well, not in person anyway...". "Oh I get it!" he said with a short laugh "We kind of have a similar problem on Eukar!". Mina follows him as he leaves "Oh yeah, Eu, Eukar? I've been meanin' to ask about that place; alot of ya kids know alot about our junk already; well after I give 'em the jist of it!" the teacher explains.. "We're both intelligent species, of course our learning programs are similar!" Safron laughs as he revealed: "That's one of the biggest reasons we can fit in here so easily!".

Quince tries to follow his wife, but the other alien quickly steps out in front of him " Mr Morris..." she starts softly "I want to talk about things too...". "I, I'm not a teacher ma'am..." he retorts sternly and looks up at his wife: "Mina! I think she wants to talk to ya!?" he called out. Champi sighs as he steps around her, and Mina walks to him.. "Stop bein' mean, what're ya still a yella-bellied sap sucka?!" she whispers in anger, "I just don't wanna talk to her!" Quince whispers back "I'm not interested in tryin' to make friends with these things. I'm jus' tryna live with 'em, kinda!". Mina exhaled in annoyance until he adds "Besides, she keeps makin' creepy faces at me!". "What!?" Mina almost yells out in laughter, then looks at Champi: who's watching Quince from the back, but she noticed Mina watching and turns away... "Ha! I think she likes ya!" she reveals then laughed out loud! "What!!?" Quince asks.. no longer whispering "You should be pissed off at that!". "Watcha gonna do, run away with her???!" Mina replies sarcastically, then suggests to her husband "Jus' talk to the mushroom for a sec, then she'll got over it when she sees how much of a worry wort ya really are!". The teacher walks away giggling "What?! Stop, stop laughin'!" Quincy tries to yell softly, to not attract attention.. "Mr  Morris.." Champi starts again, he turns towards her in some fear as she asks sweetly "Can't we talk a little bit? It won't be too long, if you're really

 busy...". "A, al,alright..." Quince agrees to this begrudgingly...

But slow music now started playing; the Button-Mushroom shaped alien grabbed his hands "Oooh, me and Safron have practiced doing this!" she coos, and got in position to dance; Quince sighs and dances with her... "Wouldn't Sa... Mr Safron be angry if he caught us dancin' together?" Quince asks with clear irritation. "No, not at all.." Champi replies in an dreamy tone... "Isn't he your husband??" he wonders, "Hm? He's my partner at the moment, if that's what you meant..." she replies.. "Wh? Would you be okay if he was screwin' around wit' someone else?" Quince asked in a shocked tone, he almost adds something else, but she casually reveals: "No, I suspect he'd already have his eye on someone else by now.. We already have a schedule for little Buto though!". " That's great that you're together for your kid, but whattabout your marriage!?" Quince asks in more surprise, "Hm? What's that?" she asks casually.. Quince then put two-and-two together...

"So y'all like wild animals? There's no marriage, husband and wife or nothin' like that, huh?" he asked "I mean people like me and Mina are married!" Quince informs the mushroom woman.. "Oh.." she replies in question "When will be able to to get... remarried?". "I'm hopin' we can stay together!" he growls in annoyance... "Don't you people have any kinda responsibility to each other or anythin'? Can't you like each other and junk?". "Of course, I love Safron and Buto; but we also let each other free; ...is marriage like a business contact here?" she asks... "Yeah... to some; look, we want to start a family one day; and it'll be easier if we stay together for that!" Quince explains his feelings and future plans... "Oh, on our planet; we do that, we have families; but as soon as the child is old enough to spore; we stop being a unit, unless they need extra help." she explains. "So y'all just throw kids out into the wild when they're teens or somethin'?" Quince asked with judgement.."No, Eukar is very different from Earth. It's safe to do so, to tell you the truth I probably would hold onto a child longer if our home was even like this neighborhood." she somewhat jokes... He stares at her in surprise: the aliens seemed more beastial upon hearing this, it's surprising that they're agreeing to even raise their son to Quince... but he's snapped out of his thoughts by "Oh, let's stop talking about boring subjects.. Might we speak in private?" asked by the alien woman.. "I.. About what?" Quince replied being caught offguard... "It's private.. please??" she asks.. Quince sighs, and follows her into the school hallway...

Out there, he sighs nervously until she turns towards him "Mr Morris, I want to be with you next.. It might not be right now, but I'd love to unite with you.." she confessed... Quince steps back in shock; "I just told you I'm married to my WIFE!" he retorts. "And that will keep you from ever being with anybody else?!" she asks "You can never love anyone else again?". " Yes.. no, I still love my family, and the one I might start with her; I love them too!" he explains "But I ain't datin' anotha woman!". "Marriage stops you from ever pursuing romance again??" she wonders. "I can only feel it for only my wife, and vice versa!" he explained angrily! "So I can never be with you, no matter how much I want to be? No matter how I feel?" Champi asks in disbelief, "Um..."  Quince stuttered... seeing her hoping eyes turn saddened was hard for him.. "Does it mean you hate me? Or you're simply trapped by this contract?" she asks in a upset tone... "Wait, look.. we can still be.. um, friends?" he explains wryly...

"Oh... " Champi replies.... "Wait, look... we can still talk, just nothing only couples should do.. or talk about.." he tried explaining.. "I get it, it's not me myself; you simply CAN'T be with me..." she says in a saddened voice and turned away... "You don't have to be like that.." Quince sighs while watching the upset alien turn away "Um, look.. is there anything I can do for you? Like, something to smooth this over? I could by ya a drink or somethin'?" he asked awkwardly... Champi turns around and looks up at him "Can I have a kiss?" she asks, "I just told you..." he started, but she explains "It doesn't have to mean a thing to you.... Just, let me have assurance that you don't hate me at all... Then I'll go on to someone else; you don't have to... but I.. I want this, more than anything else...". Quince sighs, and looks into her black eyes; they're sad yet hopeful, glistening and giving him a stare he hasn't seen in years...even from his wife.. ..this causes him to consider for a second: she's just a Mushroom, an alien; kissing Champi would be like kissing a pet or an inanimate object... an plant.. this would be nothing. Even if Mina catches them, she'd just laugh anyway... so... he walks closer to her...

He kisses her cap, but backs away to find Champi cutely pouting "That was so small, and just up there...." she says "May I have one on my face at least?". "Wha!? Why do mushrooms even like being kissed!?" he asks in surprise and irritation! "We love kissing, we kiss each other all the time on our planet! It's a miracle that both our species share a similar physical sign of affection!" Champi reveals, then asks gently "So can I please just..." "No, go away.. I have to go!" he Quince retorted in annoyance! She follows him "But, Mr..." she started.. Quince quickly turned around; swinging his arm in anger "Go away!" he shouted, which mistakenly puts a gash into Champi! She lets out a blood curdling scream in pain!!! Quince is stunned at first, while he watches the jelly like blood starting to pool up, then runs away!

People flood into the hallway!!! "Champi!?" another alien yells, "What ha.. who did this!?" A human asked in utter and complete panic! Safron kneels by her "Did someone do this!? What happened!?"  he asks.. "It.. it was.. A mista.." she gasps in pain, while medics come around her...

Meanwhile, Quince speeds away in his truck "DAMMIT Quince, you gotta stop running away from your problems!!" he shouted to himself as he sped away!!! Then stops at an quiet street corner... he bangs his head on the steering wheel and realizes his racist words was heard by everybody around town, so they'd think he tried to kill Champi!!! While he didn't want to have the aliens on earth before, seeing them act as humans and even one revealing her feelings so quickly (even if it was immoral) to him and his injuring her made Quincy start to hate himself... he didn't want to kill them now, not anymore.. but...

He then hears someone outside "Mr Morris!!!?", Quince looks up.. then noticed who called out to him "Tito? What're ya doin' out here!?" he asked as he gets out of his truck... the Hispanic man walks to him "I'm with this protest group.. what about you hermano?" he answers with this question.. "I.. just came from a thing.." Quince says.. "Look, these aliens are gettin' crazy, man! We can't do a freakin' thing without being wrong! You knew this would happen; so you need to be the one to lead our group!". Quince looks at the others with Tito: they all wore masks, and had signs and torches... Of course the new laws about the aliens striking back after having so many of them being eaten... Quince knew something of it his from tv and online; and at this point ..he figured he could only move forward with the anger he had when the announcement of the aliens was first broadcast "Alright, gimme a torch.." Quince replies....

Days later; in the now mostly empty shelter in North Carolina... Jon sighed angrily as he watches a rerun of a public service announcement... President Stoker is now saying to turn in all aliens to the authorities, as some are retaliating against humans... "This is sickening.." Charles says in disgust at the report.. "Yes, I never thought it would turn out like this.." Jon agrees.. "After we invited those things inside our home, they do THIS!" Charles angrily replied "Then Djamor and Xenodermous goes missing too!?". " They could be afraid? I doubt they're the ones constructing these attacks.. especially when they can be alone with us anytime; wh,why wouldn't they get rid of us first?" Jon asks nervously, "Because we're under SWAT protection ol' man!" Charles reminds his friend "They wouldn't be able to get away with it!". "Yes, yes..." Jon replied, then gets up... "I need to think..." he added "What do we do when we're fighting a alien race, and people are fighting each other over them?".....he walks away, thinking hard...

He leaves ways away from the shelter on foot, walking very far without realizing this, until he hears yelling! Jon looks up to see a human man running from one of the royal siblings' bodyguards! The faster aliem quickly puts a rusty blade through the man, killing him... then swings the blood off... "H,hey!" Jon yelled and walked to him "You didn't just.." he started in disbelief, "I did? What's your problem?" the bodyguard asked.. "He, that was a person! You can't kill him out of nowhere!!! Anger won't solve anything!" Jon retorted in anger! "It's not, I walked in on Gishri being eaten in his restaurant!" the bodyguard revealed in cool fury.. Jon looks slightly surprised, while the mushroom alien continued "Like our Prince, I will kill all who eats our kind! We came to unite with you, but you instead consume us like we're nothing but food!". "I understand, but murder in broad daylight.... have you no decency?! Are you going to stoop that low!?" Jon replied in enraged, the bodyguard suddenly snatched him up by his collar; Jon immediately noticed he's wearing a rusty glove--an weapon that's doing something to the alien's body; allowing him to lift the obviously-heavier human scientist up..... "Listen to me, human being.. Your kind has and still is eating ours for no other reasons except gluttony and hate; do NOT throw your hypocrisy at me!" he threatened angrily and threw him down!

The bodyguard walked away, as Jon watches.. knowing he COULD probably kill him with his barehands...  calling the SWAT would work well too... his anger rose quickly, until he saw Xanthodermus coming from the street "Preparations are ready; Pois, contact the others about take off." the Prince commanded the bodygaurd. Jon walked to him "Xanthodermus!! Th,that monster killed someone just now!" he revealed.. but the prince casually replied "Good, but don't worry too much, we won't be here too much longer..."..

Jon glares at Xanthodermus, his trust in the alien Prince is broken!

TO BE CONTINUED...