2081

by Olive Lopez

Anna Armstrong jumped from the spaceship Apollo 22 and landed softly on Mars. Her best friend, Sofia, was right behind, and floated down next to her. They were here with her gymnastics team for a special summer camp. Girls all over the galaxy competed in The Inter-Galaxy Competition, as the director called it. There was one requirement: you had to be able to speak Martian. Upon arriving, Anna slowly took in Mars' rocks, holes, and moons.
"Come on, Anna!" Sophia's voice jolted her out of dream land.
"Coming," Anna muttered. She looked around for her bugs.
"They're above your head," Sophia said laughing, as Anna's face was registering shock since she saw her floating bugs above her.

~

Back in the oxygen-tight dorms, Anna's team, The Stars, started to setting in. Soon, the bell rang and they all went to dinner, not forgetting to zip up their spacesuits and turn off the solar-powered lights.

~

Xilobkyn the little martian was walking. He knew he should not have been out--but he was walking anyways. He saw a shadow of a crater (though he did not know this) and muttered, "Mycowylz," which is Martian for 'illusions'. He was wrong. Xilobkyn tripped over the "illusion" and fell into darkness.

~

Walking back from dinner, Anna too saw the shadow. She knew it was a crater but still tripped. Anna landed on the Martian with a bump. "Icckb!" screamed the Martian, saying something little Martians should not know, let alone say. Anna backed off into the side of the crator while the Martian whimpered.

(Anna and Xilobkyn's conversation was in Martian, so I shall translate.)

Xilobkyn started to cry and said, "I want to go home and I miss my nisssssa!" (Nisa is mother in Martian.) Anna was a bit startled, but said, "I'll take you home. Only, you have to tell me where you live." Xilo sniffled a bit and then