This is " Al 's Story , " the first novella I ever wrote , completed when I was fourteen ( in 1992 ) . This is being featured here to show you my very humble beginnings . This is reprinted without changes , including any spelling errors or punctuation glitches . I put my books on the floor and tried it again . It still stuck . If I didn 't hurry , I 'd be late for science yet again . I tried it one more time . Stuck . I kicked my locker and yelled obsenities into the empty hall . I turned around . Some guy I 'd never seen before was standing behind me . The first thing I noticed about him was his eyes . They were a breathtaking clear green . " Umm . . . . " his eyes jumped all over the place . " You . . . uh . . . look like you 're having a little trouble . With your locker , I mean . " I checked the door . A - 28 . My locker was A - 29 ! No wonder the locker wouldn 't open , I 'd been trying my combination on a lock that wasn 't mine . But the guy had tried my combination on this lock , too . " That 's not my book . This isn 't my locker ! " I slammed it and put the lock back on . " I 've been trying to open the wrong locker ! " " Okay , bye , " he said as he grinned at me . I grinned back and opened the door . The teacher gave me a tardy mark . Boo - hoo . " Um . . . " Al mumbled as he pushed his hair from his forehead and flicked his eyes around . " Can I carry your books for you ? " he asked , finally looking me in the eye . " Sure , " I replied , smiling and handing them to him . It was obvious that he was interested in me , but he really didn 't know how to show it . " Hey , " I answered . Ann gave me a look like , " who 's he ? " . Then she looked him up and down and grinned . She gave me the thumbs - up sign . I grinned back . I looked back at Al . There was still something wrong with his eyes . He blinked too often and his eyes jumped around a lot , but something else was bothering me . But I couldn 't figure it out , so I tried to forget about it . " I said , where are you from ? " He looked at me . I noticed his eyes matched the color of his shirt . " I 'm from out of the country , actually , " he replied , looking away . " Um , a little tiny country that you probably never heard of , " he said , dismissing my question . I let it drop . We were almost at the English class , which was close to World Culture and all the Social Studies classes . We ran to the bus and he sat with me . We talked about teachers and other stuff all the way home . I asked him if he knew Ann , my best friend . He said he 'd met her . The next day , Al walked me to my classes and carried my books . Al 's eyes looked strange again . They looked brown . I knew it wasn 't my imagination . Plus , they were jumping around all over the place . I asked him what was wrong with his eyes . I shook my head . She was hopeless . A paperball hit them from above . We shouldn 't have been standing in the freshmen 's hall , because if you stand there the seniors pelt you with their trash . We started off toward fourth period . I looked at Al , about to ask him something , but all of a sudden I forgot what I was going to say . For once , Al 's eyes stopped jumping around and we looked into each other 's eyes . That night I finished Algebra early so I could get ready for my date with Al . I wore black jeans , a tank purple shirt , and an oversized blue button - down tee shirt that I left unbuttoned . I got my little black purse and put on a fat black headband . Just as I was sliding my silver - studded black high - tops on over purple socks , I heard the doorbell ring . He came in to meet my parents . For once they weren 't embarrassing . My dad just said , " Hi , how are ya , " and my mom smiled and offered Al a drink . He said , " Yes , please . " Stiff and polite , but safe . " I think it 's great , " he replied . He pointed at the sky . " See ? There 's Orion . And there 's Polaris , the North Star . And see , if you look really close at Orion 's sword , right there , the middle star , that 's the Orion Nebula . " " Oh , I have ! " he laughed . He turned away from me and mumbled , " You 'd never believe it , but , I have . " Then he turned back and grinned . He quickly turned back to the sky and pointed at Orion . " I can name some of the stars in Orion , too . His right foot is called Saiph , and the red star in his armpit is Betelgeuse . Did you know that the word ' Betelgeuse ' actually does mean ' armpit of the central one ' ? " " Oh , they 're playing it again ! I didn 't see it the first time it came out , but I have seen The Blue Lagoon . " I remembered the prequel to this movie was pretty good and very romantic . We laughed and looked at each other . Al 's eyes were weird again . It could have been the screen 's red light or my imagination , but I could have sworn that Al 's eyes were pink ! " Well , " Al said , looking down , " I think the reason my eyes change color is my moods . I guess it 's a little strange , but I don 't really think about it much . " He shrugged . " Just something that happens , I guess . " " Um . . . I think I must 've been sort of scared . I thought you might think I 'm weird and walk away , " he confessed . " I 'm glad you didn 't . " " I don 't do things like that , " I assured him . If his eyes were green when I first met him , did that mean he had been scared of talking to me ? I didn 't know . The theater darkened more and the feature presentation came on . It opened with some people on a boat . I took a sip of my Coke and scarfed down some popcorn . We hadn 't been watching the movie for ten minutes when Al put his arm around me . I was a little surprised , because we 'd only met recently and I hardly knew him . But I wasn 't uncomfortable with it , because it just felt right . I scooted closer to him in my chair . " Yeah , " I answered . It wasn 't long before he 'd finished off the whole bucket of popcorn . He started on the M + M 's , and let me have some . Then he finished his whole Coke . He must 've been really hungry . For a while I forgot I was there with Al , because the movie was good . It was about half over when something cold touched my hand on the armrest . It was Al 's hand , and it was still cold from the Coke he 'd been drinking . It sure beat holding hands with someone with sweaty hands , though ! We had a few long kisses and lots of short ones before the movie was over . It seemed a little bit cheap to be making out in a movie theater , but it didn 't seem that way at the time . It didn 't seem cheap to me at all . When we reached my house , we stood in the driveway with the porch light shining on us . " I had a great time tonight , Al , " I told him . " Thank you . " " Your welcome , " he said , smiling . He gave me a nice long goodnight kiss . When he pulled away , I looked up , and our eyes met and locked . His eyes were a dark , shining violet color . But I didn 't have to ask him what that color meant . He asked me to be his girlfriend the very next day , and of course I agreed instantly . I felt like I 'd known Al for a long time before I 'd actually met him . Sure , I 'd liked some of my previous boyfriends , but none of our relationships were at all like mine and Al 's was turning out to be . I told Ann 's friend Emily that Al and I were going out . Unfortunately , Emily turned out to be the biggest gossip in the whole school , maybe even in the state . So after the next week , everyone in the school knew who Al and Alecia were and that we were a couple . Not that it was a secret , though . Al and I rarely had a formal date . We only went to the mall or the movies occasionally . Most of our dates were homework things , or going to the community playground , taking a swim together , or generally just hanging out . What we did didn 't matter much , all that mattered was that we were together . Al liked my parents , and my parents liked him . This was amazing , because usually my parents hated whoever I liked . They didn 't approve of Ann , Emily , or Kelly . But they loved Al and they treated him as one of the family . We often had him over for dinner . Everyone loved Al . He was just that kind of person . I wished I knew if Al 's family liked me . But he didn 't have a family . He lived in this old barn in a field that was owned by the McMillan family . The McMillans were really charitable people Al said he 'd been friends with for years . But all they did was let him stay in their barn . They didn 't give him money or anything , he earned his own money by working part - time at the mall Monday , Wednesday and Thursday after school . That left weekends open for him to spend with me . One particular Saturday evening , Al and I had a date for a concert . Al didn 't have his drivers ' liscense , and although I had mine I didn 't have a car . My mother was nice enough to let me use hers . It was a Bon Jovi concert . I was wearing my silver - studded high - tops as usual , and a black vest over a green shirt . My black beret matched my vest . " Yeah , " he answered , grinning . I 'd known him long enough now to be able to recognize what colors each mood was . That neon green meant he was excited or pretty happy . The show took forever to start . I 'd been to the bathroom twice , drinken two Cokes , and gotten lost once before the warm - up band came on . They were okay , but not loud and cool like the real show was going to be . Al looked relieved . We sat in the car and listened to the bass booming out of the concert dome . Every once in a while there would be some guy screaming into the mike and the audience answering . Then a soft song came on . Al looked at me and I looked at him . He grinned and pulled out his lighter . He opened the top and swayed it around in the air . Probably that 's what people were doing inside , too . It was a " lighter song . " " I have a headache , " Al complained , climbing out of the passenger seat and into the back . " I have to lie down . " He stared out of the little skylight in the car 's window at the stars . His eyes slowly faded to a dark blue , which meant he was remembering something . " Where I used to live , the stars were a lot different , because I lived pretty far from here . Some I recognize , some I don 't . But it 's still the same in a way . " " Well . . . even though they 're different stars , they act the same . They 're wonderful and mysterious , because someone could never visit all of them even if they could travel at the speed of light . They 're sort of winking at us , proving that . . . no matter how much we know and how sophisticated we become , we 'll never learn all their secrets . " He turned and looked at me . " We 'll never know their secrets . " He gazed wistfully at them . " I want to know . Don 't you ? " All of a sudden I did want to know . What was going on out there ? Were we here on Earth for any particular reason ? Or are we just born to live and die ? There was so much that would be a mystery forever ! " I know exactly what you mean ! " I told Al , suddenly feeling the need to be closer to him . I jumped out of the driver 's seat and sat beside him in the back . He put his arm around me . We stared at the stars for a while , actually a couple seconds , but it felt like forever . I looked at Al and he had that look in his eyes that I was beginning to know quite well . His eyes slowly faded from the dark blue and into the violet color of love . We kissed for a long time . The " lighter song " was over and another screaming headbanger song came on inside the concert dome . We decided that there was no point in staying if we weren 't inside , so we left . Both of us had a lot of thinking to do . " In a minute , " I answered . I sat down on a bale of hay that served as a chair . Al had lots of " chairs " on the first level of the barn . That was his " living room . " He also had a loft , where there was his " bed . " It was just a mattress with hay all around it . It was a neat place to hang out . Al brought two plastic glasses full of water to the " table , " another bale of hay . Handing me one , he and I toasted over absolutely nothing . Then Al gave me a present . It was a hat he 'd bought for me at the mall with his employee 's discount . It was red with little white polka - dots . Then he whipped out his camera . I struck a funny pose and he took the picture . He took a picture of me swinging on the rope and a picture of when I was looking for a lost high - top in the straw and Genius , the dog , ran by and took my new hat with him . He ran over to try to take the hat out of Genius 's mouth , and Genius thought it was tug - of - war . We took a few other pictures and he gave them to me . He also had a few pictures of his thumb mixed in , by the way ! Al really liked some strange places for things like that . He liked the hay best , but close seconds were the playground and the water ! We always made sure we had protection , though . I didn 't like using the Pill , because it messes with your hormones and could give you cancer , I 've heard . Some people think seventeen is too young for sex , but I think it has more to do with your emotional stability then your physical age . And I think it 's okay if you 're in love . And I was sure in love with Al . One day Al came to school looking extremely upset . His eyes were a crystal blue color that I 'd only seen once before , when Genius had died last month . And it meant that something extremely sad had happened . " Umm . . . well . . . " he didn 't say anything . " I 'm . . . I 'm going away ! I 'm moving back to where I used to live ! " All of a sudden everything came out in a rush . " I 'm leaving , Alecia , and there 's nothing I can do about it , and you can 't come with me ! " I was holding a strip of photo booth pictures that I 'd been showing to Ann and Emily . They were of me and Al in the mall . Al noticed them and looked at them with me . " I won 't be back for a long time , " he told me . " Maybe even like three years ! " He sniffed . " We won 't be able to have any more fun times like these , " he said , gesturing at the photos of our happy , laughing faces . The five - minute bell rang , meaning we had to get to class . I couldn 't concentrate in my classes . I took a test that I knew I failed . He was leaving and nothing mattered but my Al . I watched Al closely in the only class we had together , Spanish . He was sitting there staring at the teacher with amber eyes , meaning he was bored out of his mind . Who wouldn 't be ? I told my mom Al was leaving and she was very sympathetic . She said he was probably not going to come back . I told her of course he was , we were in love . My mother didn 't believe a word of it . I didn 't do any homework . I hadn 't bothered to bring any books home anyway . I wouldn 't do my chores . I didn 't even call Ann . I was very depressed . All I did was eat , eat , eat until nine - thirty came around . " I don 't know , " he answered . " I was too busy thinking about what I was going to do after I leave . I don 't know how I 'll manage ! " I held his hand as we walked toward the swings . We sat for a while , staring at the stars . After a while we stopped looking at the sky and looked at each other , his crystal blue eyes staring into my brown ones . We stopped swinging and started kissing . " Wha . . . . " was all I could think of to say . He handed me an envelope . Then he gave me a big kiss and walked off toward the ball shed , leaving me stunned . Something strange was happening all of a sudden . There was a lot of static electricity in the air , and it made my hair stand out . There was a humming sound coming from up in the sky . I looked up . It took me a second , but I noticed that there was something there . It was a transparent bubble with people inside . I also noticed that it had some black parts that made it blend into the night . The strange flying thing suddenly let out a small transparent egg - shaped object . It drifted down to the ground behind the ball shed . Then it rose again . Al was inside ! " Al , wait ! " I yelled as loud as I could . Al turned around in the bubble to look at me . The bubble drifted back down to the grund and I ran to it . I watched Al get out . " Oh , Al , I don 't want you to go ! " I cried , tears coming out of my eyes . Al gave me a big hug and a long kiss . " I will be back , Alecia . " He looked at me sadly . " Bye . I love you , " he said . He stepped back into the clear egg . It floated up to the bigger clear object . Then it disappeared . As you 've probably guessed by now , I 'm not from around here . I was born in a spaceship , but my parents were from a small Earthlike planet that orbits one of the stars in the constellation of Auriga . Things are pretty different there . But not too different , which is why I could live on Earth . We 're on some kind of mission that I don 't understand myself , so I can 't explain it to you . I have to go with them to help . I just do what they say to do . After about three years we are returning to my parents ' home planet . I 've been there about four times , and I think you 'd like it there . What I 'm trying to say is , when I come back for you , will you come with us ? I 'd like to have you for my wife . I love you , Alecia , and I wish I didn 't have to be apart from you , but when I come back we 'll never be separated again . Unless you 've found someone else by the time I return . I don 't think you 're like that , though . If you decide to marry into our family , I 'll give you a diamond ankle bracelet . It is one of our marriage customs similar to your diamond engagement rings . I advise you to think this over while I 'm away . I hope you decide to be my wife . As soon as I finished reading it I fell onto my bed and cried my eyes out . He was really gone ! My parents couldn 't get me to come down for supper . My mother understood why . Every time I thought of Al I started to cry again . This went on until I cried myself to sleep . The next week my parents made me go to school . I didn 't care what I wore or how my hair looked , and my quality of life was really bad . I didn 't care about my grades or my friends . I didn 't even speak to any of them . Ann was not very sympathetic . She told me to just " get over him " and get on with my life . I couldn 't do it , though . I was constantly reminded of Al . His conspicuous absence from my life made me depressed out of my mind . It was just so obvious how empty my life was without him . The strange emptiness next to me on the bus . The silence of walking home alone with no one to talk to . No one to be bored with in Spanish class . Nobody to walk to class with . No one to remind me to open the right locker ! I was constantly noticing how he wasn 't there . I couldn 't handle it . So I dropped out of school . I just refused to go back to the place where I was surrounded by familiar people but still lonely . I caught a virus that made me throw up . After it had showed no signs of going away for a week , my mother decided that I was making myself sick on all that junk food and lack of excersise , and that my body had no resourses to fight the virus . I didn 't care . So Mom took me to a doctor . The doctor decided that it was not a virus that was making me throw up . I was pregnant . I had missed my usual menstrual period and hadn 't noticed . Somehow , knowing that I was going to have a baby turned my life around . I went into home schooling with my mother as the teacher . I got out of touch with Ann and Emily . I didn 't care , though , I just completely forgot about them because I had a new center of attention . Mom took me to the doctor very regularly . The pregnancy was coming along just fine . I studied a lot and when I wasn 't studying , I thought about Al and my baby . I read books on child development and parenting , which was strange because my baby probably wouldn 't be anything like what all the books I read said . I had no idea what the standards were for people like Al . The books said that generally children hold their bottles at three to five months , cut their first tooth around six months , say their first word around one year , and walk at around ten to fifteen months . My baby probably wouldn 't go by those standards , though . I really didn 't know what to expect . My mother helped me a lot . She reassured me and answered all my questions . She knitted outfits for the baby and helped pick out a crib and some other baby equipment . And despite all the nice things she did for me , I didn 't tell her any of the things I 'd learned from Al 's letter . I knew all that it would accomplish was to freak her out . My father also helped me . He believed Al had just left and that he was never going to come back . He thought that he 'd probably end up raising my kid . He did his part , though , by paying for my visits to the doctor and all of my other necessities . I would have gone to work for money , too , except that I had to take it easy in my last few months . The doctors said that I would probably have a difficult labor , but not to worry because the baby would be fine . Mom and I discussed names for the baby . I wanted to name it an Al Andy name like mine and Al 's . Mom liked cute names like Sarah , Stephanie , Timmy , and Cory . I decided none of those were good enough for my baby . There were three more days left until the due date when the baby started to come . Mom took me to the hospital and took care of everything for me . I wished Al was there to see his child be born . After only eight hours of labor , I gave birth to a healthy baby girl , five pounds , one ounce . As soon as I saw her I knew what to name her . She would be Alison Andrienne . Al would love her ! Other than her slightly low birth weight , Alison was fine . After they 'd cleaned her up and done the routine medical tests , they let me hold her . I thought that usually the mother got to hold the baby as soon as it came out , but not in my case , for some reason . " Hi there , Allie , " I said softly to her . She opened her eyes wider and made a cute sound , halfway between a hiccup and a yawn . She gripped my finger . She drooled and made another sound . Soon my mother came in . " And her eyes are such a pretty color ! " said Mom . Allie chose that moment to start crying . Mom handed her back to me . I noticed that her eyes had changed to a clear green color , meaning she had inherited Al 's eyes and was a little scared at the moment . Her eyes faded back to a brown shade when she was handed back to me . It only made sense that if Al 's eyes changed , so would Allie 's . I realized that there might be more surprises in store for me . I hoped that if there were any other surprises that they 'd be pleasant ones ! It turned out that I had nothing to worry about . Allie was full of surprises , but they were good ones . Allie 's physical developments were generally on the early side of being average , but her intellectual development was extremely precocious . She got her first teeth at six months . At seven months she began to talk . It was a little hard for her to say " f " and " s " sounds with only her front bottom teeth , but we managed to understand her anyway . Her first word was " phone " with a very strange - sounding " ph " sound . She said it when the phone rang . She was talking with ease at nine months , and she walked at about ten months . Soon after she learned to walk , I took her to the playground to play in the sandbox . There was another kid in there already , playing with a dump truck . The kid 's daddy was with him . Allie attempted to talk to the boy , but he had absolutely no idea what she was talking about . He just stared at her and went about his playing . Allie waddled unsteadily over to me . " What 's a daddy ? " she asked . I explained as best I could . Then she asked where her daddy was . Then I had to tell her all about how her daddy was in outer space and that I didn 't know when he would be back . " That cloud looks like a person , " she said , pointing . It really did . " Maybe he 's in that cloud ! " she put her finger up to her mouth and sucked on it . We went to the playground a lot after that . Allie loved to sit on the edge of the slide with me . I guess that place had a lot of meaning for her , since that was the place her father had taken me to create her . Since she really didn 't know that most people are not conceived on playground slides , I guess she really didn 't see anything wrong with it . Sometimes we sang songs or told stories , and sometimes I would push Allie on the swings . But little by little , I became increasingly afraid that Al would never come back . He 'd been gone for a year and seven months now , and I didn 't think I 'd be able to raise Allie without him much longer . We celebrated Allie 's first birthday without Al . My parents and I got her so many gifts all together that the pile was taller than she was ! Of course , she was born small , so that didn 't say much . She got lots of new books to read , and she read them all to us while we listened . We 'd also gotten her a special birthday cake , and she only ate the icing . I wished Al were there to help us celebrate . I opened it up . Inside was the letter Al had given me on the night he left . There was also a ticket stub reading LAGOON from when we went on our first date . I stopped what I was doing to look through the box . I sat on the floor and dumped it out . I found the Bon Jovi ticket stubs and , for some reason , the black beret that I 'd worn that night . I put it on . I also found Al 's lighter that he 'd played with during the Bon Jovi " lighter song . " I found the pictures from the barn and some of the photo booth pictures . Underneath all the movie ticket stubs , love notes , and other odds and ends , was the red and white polka - dot hat he 'd given to me . For some reason , seeing that again really set me off . I started to cry and suddenly I was really depressed . " Oh , I 'm just really sad right now , " I told her . " I miss your daddy . " I began scooping all of my memoirs into the shoebox again . Allie put her fingers in her mouth and watched me . I put the shoebox back in the closet and walked over to Allie . " Here , " I said , placing my red and white polka - dotted hat on Allie 's head . Allie put her hands on top of it and grinned . " Your daddy gave that to me , " I told her . Allie looked like she appreciated it . " No , " she said , shaking her head . " but it wasn 't anyone I know . " I went to pick up in my room , taking Allie with me . " Yeah . See , what happened was , Emily told Kelly a rumor about me , and we both know how she can be , we 're not friends anymore , by the way , and see , Johnnie heard it and told her that Brian said that his friend saw him looking at another girl , so he gets all pissed off and . . . . " She went on and on . I didn 't know half the people she was talking about and mostly , I didn 't care why or how it happened . " Well , I 'm really sorry he said that . I mean , did that . " I didn 't really want to tell her that she 'd mistaken me for someone who cared . I sighed . " No , Ann . I just . . . . Hey ! " Allie was climbing on my desk , trying to see out the window . I ran over to make sure she didn 't hurt herself . " Oh , Allie just . . . . " I didn 't know what to say next . " Listen , why don 't you drop over to my house ? We can talk here . " " This is Allie , my little girl , " I said proudly . Allie stuck her finger in her mouth and grinned around it . She waved shyly with her other hand . " Dunno , " I replied . " I think maybe he 's on a real long trip at the moment . " I looked at Allie . She looked at me . Allie covered her mouth with her hand and giggled . I invited Ann in and gave her a Coke . We caught up on everything . She told me all about school , which she said was more fun than it had ever been before , now that she was a senior . " She 's only a year old , " I bragged . " She can even talk in long sentences and read and everything ! " I was so proud of her . Ann made a face . I got the idea that she didn 't care when Allie did what . She cared about that about as much as I cared about who played what pranks on what freshman and who dumped whom . Ann played with Allie for a while . Ann asked Allie if she was ticklish . Allie asked , " what 's ticklish ? " and Ann began to tickle her to answer her question . She tickled her until her eyes turned pink . Then Allie went after Ann and tried to tickle her . Then Ann went home . Any time she tried to talk to me , I couldn 't keep my end of the conversation away from Allie . The reason being this : she was the center of my life , plain and simple . " All right , " I said and took her hand . We went to the playground . Allie put her fingers in her mouth and pulled me over to the slide . I sat down on the edge and pulled her up on my lap . " Oh , " she said . " Then what 's that ? " I thought it was another airplane and was about to say so when I realized it was transparent and that it reminded me of something familliar . I stared in wonder at it . I put Allie down and I waved my arms at the bubble . Then I took my beret off and waved it like a flag . Allie did the same with the hat Al had given me . I picked Allie up and dashed over to where it was descending . Al stepped out and I threw my arms around him as best I could while still holding Allie . We both cried . " I missed you so much ! " Al exclaimed , giving me a big kiss . " I thought I would die before I got here ! We 'll never be separated again ! " With that he pulled a ring of diamonds out of his pocket and presented it to me . " Al , " I said , " this is your daughter . " I handed Allie to him . He looked bewildered . I bent down and fastened the diamond ankle bracelet around my right ankle , and it promptly slid its way down into my sock . As the egg drifted up toward the ship , we talked and laughed . I saw in the eyes of my new husband and my child that they were having a good time . And they could tell the same about me .