It was Marigold Vildiz and she wasn’t part of the chess club. Instead she was part of the cheerleader squad and Kat was wondering why she was here and not there. The cheerleader squad could train in the gym with rain and Kat thought the turkish beauty would attract a lot of new members.

Marigold had lovely sun kissed skin tone and bright golden eyes. She stood six feet tall on the dot and had black wavy hair that she always kept in a tight lower ponytail. 

She was wearing an orange chemise off shoulder baggy shirt that was tucked into a pair of black flared dress pants. Under the shirt was a white backless sleeveless leotard and on her feet was leather dress shoes.

“So why are you here, Marigold?” Kat asked and didn’t mind Marigold resting her chin on top of her head. “I don’t think the people here will want to join the cheerleader squad.”

“We want girls to join this year, not a bunch of horny teenage boys signing up just to get close to me.” Marigold sighed and moved to bury face into Kat’s hair. “Being a Gorpsia is hard at times…” She muttered quietly enough into Kat’s hair that only Kat heard her words.

Marigold was an alien race called the Gorpsia and on the outside they looked completely human. On the inside was a complex plant biology and the race was only females like the Aensi. Just like the Aensi, the Gorpsia were very beautiful and needed other males from other races to produce children. 

The beauty Marigold gained caused her problems from unwanted attention from men when she started to come to the city for high school as the small farm town she’s from didn’t have a high school. At first she would scare off those men with her Gorpsia super strength, which she explains away as being a hard working farm girl, but once she joined Kat’s group of friends Eris or Rory would scare those men off.

Kat always wondered who was stronger, Eris’ Gigatreed strength or Marigold’s Gorpsia strength, and it would be a mystery as Marigold was completely scared to get into a fight with Eris. Marigold once explained the reasons to Kat that Eris was far more experienced in fighting and that Eris is in a heavier weight class than her, even though Marigold was taller.

“So you thought about making yourself scarce and hiding away in the chess club?” Kat asked and heard Marigold make a small grunt sound. “You could have hid away in shop class, Eris is in there.”

“Could have but you're not building a car and warmer to cuddle up to.” Marigold said and Kat snorted from that comment. Kat noticed Cale was looking around to see if anyone else was open to play chess and his shoulders slumped when he saw no one was open.

“You’re so lucky that Eris isn’t a jealous type of girlfriend or she would never let you get away with this.” Kat said as she reached out to touch a pawn but stopped when Marigold released Kat from the hug. Before Kat could ask, the bell rang out and signaled that the first period was over.

Kat stood up and walked to the middle of the room to clap her hands together. Everyone looked at her and she smiled sweetly, “Thank you all for coming today and trying our club but the first period is over. The next club meeting is Friday after school. If you fully choose to join us just hand in the paperwork by that day or earlier." Kat announced before everyone started to stand up. “Have a nice day everyone.”

As everyone was getting to leave Kat grabbed her laptop bag and walked out of the club room with Marigold. “So first class is Physics 101 or Flirting 101 for you and Eris~” Marigold teased and Kat just rolled her eyes. Kat’s ear twitched as she heard a very familiar laugh echo through the halls before being quieted. 

“Wonder what made Eris laugh this time?” Kat chuckled before waving her hand for Marigold to lean down. “Don’t tell anyone but I’ve got a tip that Mrs. Fletch is going to be forced into retirement soon.”

“Oh? Where did you hear that from?” Marigold whispered and tried her best to slow her walking to match Kat’s pace. “Would that be conne-”

Marigold was cut off when Kat felt a familiar strong and firm hand gently tugged her away from Marigold. “Mind If I join this conversation?" Eris asked and Kat moved to hold onto Eris’ arm while relaxing her head on Eris’ shoulder.

“Kat got some inside information about Mrs. Fletch being forced into retirement.” Marigold said and Rory lightly hip bumped her. “Hey Rory~” She returned the hip bump and both smirked. 

“I will believe it once it happens,” Rory said as slide his phone into his coat pocket. “That old crow seems like the type to die on the job.”

“I agree with Rory, even tongue lashing from my mother didn’t scare her into retirement.” Eris said and Kat shivered from the thought of tongue lash her own mother could do. “Come on, let's not be late so she doesn’t have a reason to talk down to us.”

Everyone let out some sort of sigh in agreement and started to head to the Mrs. Fletch classroom. Kat was hoping what she read in her mother’s office and that Mrs. Fletch would be replaced by an undercover FCP agent posing as a new teacher.

Chanda walked into her private office in FCP headquarters and she hung up her wet coat on the coat hanger by the door. Her office looked like a typical private office of a high ranking person in an office company. On the shelves on the right had books and pictures of her family outings and on the left were a couch and file cabinets. 

She sat down at her large wooden desk and she sighed looking at all piled up paperwork. “You think we have gone digital by now.” She muttered as she moved some piles. “What did you think when you work for the government? Red tape and more red tape.”

She tapped her desk and keyboard lit up in front of her and the hologram screen turned on. She logged in using the built-in keyboard and opened up a galactic phone app on the computer.

“Calling ‘Captain Varma’,” The app said in a robotic voice. Chanda leaned back in her seat and rubbed her temple as the app let out the phone dial tone. The dial tone stopped and the screen turned into an image of private captain quarters on a spaceship, which Chanda knew quite well.

She leaned forward with a soft and loving smile before the screen glitched and she heard her husband’s voice come out garbled before the call was cut off. Chanda’s smile faded and she just stared at the screen with disappointment that only a mother could give. 

Before trying again there was a knock on the door and Chanda ignored it until Amy entered the room. “Hello there, Chanda.” Amy said as she hung up her trench coat that had an empty thermos hanging out one of its pockets. “Troubles on call with the hubby?”

“Something caused a glitch and line to be cut off before we even started.” Chanda said and her fingers tapped rapidly on the keyboard. The screen changed to report about space weather and Chanda groaned as saw the results on the screen. “There is a solar storm between earth and the Blazing Hope…and the meteor shower coming by earth doesn’t help either.”

Amy flopped onto the couch and gave Chanda a sympathetic look, “That would do that.” Amy said and Chanda turned off the screen before moving her paperwork back in the proper place. “They are still getting you to do paperwork, so I heard something about transferring to digital by now.”

“It’s the government, they said they do it but then spin around to say they do not need to change anything and so on and so on.” Chanda said as picked up a piece of paper. “Oh they finally approved my idea of putting an undercover agent as a teacher in school with how many young aliens we are getting lately.” 

“That’s good but a little late to be good news for me and you due to this being our child’s last year of high school?” Amy asked as shifted on the couch to be lying on their back. “Which teacher is being replace…please tell me it’s that old bi-”

“It is Mrs. Fletch being forced to retire,” Chanda cut off Amy and her eyes locked on Amy. Chanda always felt a little self conscious about her body whenever she looked at Amy with her unnatural beauty but that went away as Chanda remembered that Amy was an Aensi. “Are you here just to check on me or have something else you wish to talk about?”

“Truth…I don’t know…” Amy sighs as she plays with her necklace. “I’ve just felt like…”

“Need to talk to a friend?” Chanda asked and opened up the bottom draw of her desk to pull out a bottle of whisky with some glasses. She stood up to walk over the couch and Amy sat up to allow Chanda to sit down. “A true friend and don't have to hide true sorrow.”

Amy took one of the glasses Chanda offered, “I don’t have many true friends…all other aliens on the planet are scared of me.” Amy held the glass still as Chanda poured some whiskey in her cup. “Sure they are polite and not screaming and running away.”

Chanda poured herself some of the whiskey, “Well it is understandable the fear, I’ve seen you bisect a bounty hunter, vertically.” Chanda chuckled with a smirk before it faded to a grim expression. “Or they're scared they would become targets.”

Amy swirled her drink as she looked at it, “Maybe, are you scared that will happen to your family?” Amy glanced at Chanda out of the corner of her eye.

Chanda’s smirk returned, “My family already has a target on its back with me being a high ranking FCP agent and my husband is a high ranking officer of the Varma Clan.” Chanda chuckled and held her cup to Amy. “Though it's hard to hit a target on one’s back when someone has your back.”

Amy paused before laughing and clinking glasses with Chanda. “That is true,” Amy and Chanda took a sip of their whiskey and Amy stopped as glanced at Chanda's desk.

Chanda noticed the hologram ring tone muffled from paperwork and she got up to move the paperwork to allow the hologram screen to appear. She put down her drink before answering the call, “This is Agent V, who is calling?” Chanda asked and crossed her arms.

“This is Agent R, and we have illegal landing in section V-M2,” Agent R said. The video call showed a middle aged man and he was in a radiation suit with the hood down. “Normally we wouldn’t call you but…” He moved his tablet or phone to show the ship.

“That looks like a Zam-28 model,” Amy said from the couch and leaned forward to get a better look. “They were outlawed due to radiation leakage and they can not normally be picked up by scanners.”

“So is the smuggler still on the ship and you need assistance in getting him out?” Chanda relaxed her shoulders and put her hands on her desk.

“No, they came out stumbling out of the craft puking and they refuse to tell their name.” Agent R said and moved the camera back to him. “We are transferring him to the medical bay. The problem is that he might be some Big Shot’s kid due to his clothing and how he was acting.”

“So you're just giving heads up that this may get dicy or is there more?” Chanda paused from Amy’s words. “Did the radiation leak breach the helm of the ship?”

“The helm is strong and radiation has been contained the moment we closed the ship’s bay doors.” Agent R said and pointed the camera back to the ship to show the bay doors closed. “We don’t have the equipment to tow it since Kang took it to tow the crash ship in the Hudson Bay.”

“It would be faster to put a barrier with a cover story and wait for Kang to come back, rather than ask for a different sector for the equipment.” Chanda said and stood up straight. “Under my orders do that and say it’s radioactive space debris.”

“Yes, madman,” Agent R said before hanging up and Chanda picked up her cup of whiskey.

“I have a feeling this is going to be a headache…” Chanda muttered under her breath and took a sip of her whiskey.

“Well if anything you can just use a wooden spoon to fix everything.” Amy said with a playful smirk on her face as she took a sip of her own whiskey.

“That only happened one time!” Chanda gave Amy a mock scornful look before cracking into a smile. “Though I may be right, the universe may need a reminder why I was banned from diplomatic positions.” Amy just let out wild laughter and Chanda joined in seconds with her own loud laughter.