“This is just pathetic,” She said. Her voice echoed through the cavernous halls of her house. “It’s Friday night, I’m stuck in the house, eating alone, and I’m… I’m talking to myself.” She sipped the soup from her spoon. “Gee, Tess… you’d think you’d be used to being by yourself like this.”

She’d always been alone. She never really had a family. She never really had friends. Spending years chasing after Max, Michael, and Isabel prevented her from ever getting the chance to settle down and have a normal life, if having a normal life was possible with Nacedo as a father.

She had to laugh at herself for thinking that. Nacedo was nothing like a father. He wasn’t even like the guardian he’d made himself out to be. Every day before they came to Roswell was the same. She’d go off to a new school where she’d sit by herself at lunch, or sit with some guy who was trying to figure out if she was easy or not. Then she’d go back to Nacedo, who’d rant about closing in on finding the hatchlings. Every month they were in a new city or state. Every month she was in another empty new house. She never got the chance to get attached to anything.

Tess lived in her imagination as a child. She didn’t make friends easily at school, so she made some up in her mind. Anytime the girls at her new school were mean to her, her imaginary Isabel was there to play with her. Anytime the boys teased her, her imaginary Max and Michael were there to protect her. Jeremy Knight shoved his tongue down her throat the first time she was ever kissed. She could remember how angry imaginary Max and Michael were: they didn’t think that Jeremy was good enough for their Tessie. She and imaginary Isabel gossiped about it all night: Jeremy was the cutest boy in the seventh grade. Tess still had her imaginary friends, even as a teen. The more Nacedo chased after the real Max, Michael, and Isabel, the more he pushed Tess away. She had no one but her friends to rely on.

Tess cleared her dishes from her table and left them in the sink. “Might as well see what’s on TV,” She thought aloud. She walked into the living room, flopped onto the couch, and started flipping through the channels. “Game Show… No… Baywatch… No… ‘I’m where you wanna be, he’s coming home to me. Girl, I’m sleeping with your man.’… I’m not in the mood for a talk show either.” She turned off the television and reached for a magazine. “Hmm… Top ten ways to tell if he’s falling for you.” She put the magazine back on the table in front of her.

She fell in love when she was fifteen. It didn’t matter that she didn’t know him. It didn’t matter that he was supposed to be her enemy. She mooned over him for weeks. His name was doodled all over her notebooks. She dreamed of finding him and the others.

She thought that maybe, once Nacedo found them, he would change his mind about them. Maybe he wouldn’t be so hell-bent on killing them. After all, they were only a couple of kids and they didn’t even know where they had actually come from. What could they possibly do to hurt an entire race?

She didn’t know how Nacedo found out. He never said anything about it to her. But he was the one who came up with the destiny plan. He said that it would be the best way to get Michael, Max, and Isabel to trust them. Tess was mad at Nacedo for the entire week after he told her about the idea. But she forgot all about being angry after he told her that he’d found the hatchlings.

She hated the idea. She hated having to trick Max, Michael, and Isabel into thinking that they were predestined to love her. But she did as she was told. She had to do it. It was the only way they would ever trust her. Nacedo told her so.

Tess laughed again. [I don’t know why I even listened to him in the first place. Everything is messed up now. They’ll never forgive me for this.]

Nacedo didn’t care about her. He’d admitted as much. When he’d found her, all he saw was another of his kind, someone to help him in his quest to single-handedly destroy the enemy. Tess was convinced that he was crazy. But even if they weren’t really related, Nacedo was the closest thing to a father she had ever known.

But she was so close to having a real family now. She didn’t need imaginary friends anymore. She didn’t rely on Nacedo as much as she had. Michael, Max, and Isabel had actually accepted her. Sort of. All she had to do was show them how much she loved them. “Enough of this.” Tess jumped off of the couch and grabbed her car keys. “Maybe Isabel will want to go out somewhere.” She left her house and drove towards the Evans’ as fast as she could.

Max answered when Tess rang the doorbell.

“Hello, Tess.” He shifted uneasily. “What are you doing here?”

Tess looked over his shoulder. “Actually, I came to see Isabel.”

“She managed to ditch family night somehow. She and Alex are out stargazing somewhere. I’ll tell her you came by, though.” He started to close the door.

“Wait, Max. Why are you home?”

Max raised an eyebrow at her. “Um… I live here.”

Tess shook her head. “No, I mean aren’t you supposed to be spending the night with Michael and Maria tonight?”

“No. We were supposed to have family night tonight. Mom and Dad wanted me to stay home. Besides, they haven’t had a moment alone since last week. Why do you ask?”