THREE:

When it comes to high school hierarchy, Xandi is at the top. She’s popular with outcasts and loners, troublemakers and goodie-goodies, jocks and nerds. Anyone who doesn’t like her is only saying that because they wish they could be her. Somehow she knows how to navigate the institution that is the educational system for teenagers in her area. And let me tell you, it is not an easy system to navigate.

I thought all of those classes we took on the subject were over exaggerating, but no, things truely are that complicated.

First, there’s a social component, it’s super important to a smooth experience. Everyone has their place based on things like study habits, activities, and expectations. Some students just want to ride the four years out and move on, others want what is shown in movies and television. Attention, popularity, excitement! As these teens come into their personalities more and discover who they are as almost young adults, they make and lose friends with the changing wind. It’s a lot more often than I ever realized.

Next comes the physical piece. Bodies are changing and growing. This leads to a higher level of relationship dynamics. Dating happens, insecurities abound, it’s a whole different thing. Back home, we’ve got puberty and all that jazz, but it doesn’t occur in such a dramatic fashion. We celebrate it. These earth teens don’t seem to know what to do with it. So messy!

Finally, there’s the educational aspect. In four years, teens are expected to know what they want to do with their lives and cram an insane amount of knowledge into their brains. It’s a strange system, but it might only seem that way because it’s so unlike the one we are used to. That being said, we have to serve the Alliance before we can even start our futures. Perhaps we’re getting the short end of the stick.

Please, don’t fire me. I love my position.

The point of all this is to explain that while Earth teens are physically perfect to recruit for help, there are a lot of maturity issues they need to sort through. Some are ahead of the game, and it’s hard to figure out who those individuals are without getting close. Getting close is tough. Xandi has to be able to work through all three parts of the system if she has any hope in succeeding. Not only does she do it well, she also makes it look easy.

By first hour, she’s sent up her recommendations for approval. We’ll start with Marco.

Marco is Xandi’s first friend from school. When she arrived six months ago, he helped her settle in over the summer, introduced her to the world of Everly High, and the rest is history. Through Marco, she met her best friend Taylor who also happens to be Marco’s girlfriend of two years. More importantly, Marco is a solid guy. He’s grounded, he knows how to balance all of the components of being seventeen. Not to mention he has an amazing moral compass guiding him.

Starting with them for her new mission is not a surprise. The fact she chose to approach Marco over Taylor, however, is. I’m sure if she could give her colors to more than one person at a time, it wouldn’t be an issue. I guess I’ll understand her reasoning more once they have their talk. We’re still only in third period.