Alien Scrooge - Zara Zenia Page 0,26

fell into a panic in her room as she tried to gather pictures without any incriminating evidence to show her parents. She pulled out the images of Egrix and his home, trying to find all of the ocean and beach shots she could. She put the rest back away haphazardly and hurried back to her parents, hoping they weren't suspicious.

She sat down in front of them without making eye contact, shifting her seat loudly while she tried to pace her heart that pounded against her chest.

"I've only really been able to get one long exposure shot a day, but they came out so wonderfully that it was worth it." She took out the three collections of the sunlight and laid them down, feeling anxious. "I got one with the sunset and the moon coming up, then a midday one of the sun, and this treeline shot from the other morning." She sat and watched her parents look at her shots, but the nervous energy wouldn't dissipate.

"Honestly, I'm probably gonna make something with these because they turned out just how I imagined them, especially the sunset with the frosty ocean under it."

Her mother stared at her as she sat, bouncing in her chair. "They are absolutely gorgeous, honey," she reached out and touched Cara's hand, "but what's going on with you?"

Cara's face flushed instantly. "What do you mean?"

Her mother's eyes grew big all of a sudden, and she moved both of her hands to grip tightly to her daughter's. "Did you meet someone?"

Cara sighed, the look on her face transforming instantly to exhaustion. "How did you know?" she whined.

"Cara, I don't know how you are with anyone else, but you can never lie to me. I always know, and you're never convincing even when you think you are." She giggled at Cara's exasperated expression before wrapping her arms around her and giving her a squeeze. "So, who is he?"

They had both forgotten her father, who stared at them with his mouth agape, completely confused about what was happening.

Cara took a deep breath now that she'd been found out and looked at her mom, smiling slightly. "I have some pictures."

Her mom laughed again, over the moon for her daughter. "Of course you do. Can I see them?"

Cara nodded and hurried back to her room again and grabbed the ones she knew she could show them

As she started back down the stairs, she could hear her parents speaking, so she paused.

"Dennis, close your mouth, dear."

"What's going on, I'm completely lost." Her dad's voice held a note of confusion.

"Cara's met a guy, that's why she's been going out so much since she came home. She's going to show us some pictures of him."

Cara noticed her mom patting his shoulder gingerly as he took in the information that had apparently been sailing over his head. His face grew stern at the suggestion of another boyfriend in her life. He had never been fond of her previous boyfriends. So she assumed he was recalling Oscar, her last failure as a boyfriend and she cringed. But Egrix was nothing like Oscar or any of her previous boyfriends.

She almost missed her mom cocking a brow at him and saying, "You had better be nice about it, Cara deserves this."

"I'll be nice to her, Bonbon, but the boy will have to make a good impression first. I don't want her going through what she did the last time again."

Cara decided it was time to make an appearance, so she came back down the hall, looking sheepishly at the photos in her hands. They were all of the shots she'd taken of Egrix on their beach date, in his human form. She set them gingerly on the table and sat down, sliding them toward her mom.

Her mother shuffled through the photos with her dad peering over her shoulder and frowning deeply.

"Cara," her mother's voice was laced with excitement, "he's cute!"

"Yeah." Cara smiled at her mom. "We met at the beach a couple of days ago. I really like him. He asked me out today, that's why I was late."

Her mom set the photos down and threw her arms around her again, hugging her as she let out a small squeal. "I'm so happy for you, darling. Can we meet him before you go home?" She leaned back lovingly holding her daughter's shoulders as she looked at her face. "You should invite him to dinner for Christmas Eve."

"I'll see if he's available." Cara was a little wary of asking seeing as