Dreams Of Fame
1.13 - Beatrice
While all the drama was occurring back at home, Liberty had managed to land on a tiny planet. The planet was definitely like no place she’d ever seen. The whole landscape was decorated with giant mushrooms, peculiar rock formations, and the strangest sky she could have ever imagined.
“Wicked,” Liberty breathed, looking around.
After wandering a good distance from her space ship, Liberty discovered some curious plants. She dug them up and stuck into a bag. She was excited to discover all that she could about this strange new world by researching what she managed to bring back with her.
As she worked, Liberty started to think. It was no wonder that Travis was more interested in her than Summer. Summer was far from geeky, and had done nothing more than getting a low paying job at a local bar. Liberty, meanwhile, had quickly risen through the ranks to become a competent astronaut, just like how Travis had worked hard to be promoted to one of the government’s top hackers.
It’d been Summer who’d been the one to point out that Travis dyed his hair blonde, laughing about how obvious it was because of his dark eyebrows, saying that he should have made of an attempt to match them. Travis said that his reason for doing so was deeply personal, and that he didn't particularly care if people thought it looked weird. That was exactly the reason why Travis would always pick her over Summer. Liberty didn’t care about being pretty, she was what Summer called “oblivious to everything fashionable”.
Liberty was startled out of her thoughts by a tap on the shoulder.
“Aaaaahhhh!” she shrieked, jumping up.
Liberty was very surprised to find an alien staring her down.
“Hello, human child,” the alien said. “I am in need of some assistance…”
“Okay, first off, what the heck? And second off… do you really talk like that?”
“No, of course not, stupid girl. I’m on the run, and I would really, really appreciate a ride in your space ship!”
Liberty, torn between self preservation and her own kindness, froze for a moment.
“Please!” the alien begged.
“Oh, alright! Come on!” Liberty shouted, gesturing for the alien to follow her.
The two ran across the barren landscape, Liberty’s spaceship just within sight.
“What’s your name?” Liberty yelled. “I’m Liberty!”
“I can’t pronounce it in your language, just call me… Beatrice.”
Beatrice and Liberty jumped into the rocket ship, and Liberty hurriedly pressed buttons. “Blast off!” she shouted as they launched into the cosmos.
Back at home, Summer opened up the door to a woman and her two children.
“Who are you?” she slurred drunkingly.
The woman gave Summer a disapproving look. “We just moved in… I’m Amelia Brown, and these are my children, Cory and Jamira.”
“Nice to meet ya,” Summer responded.
“Mommy,” Jamira said, tugging on Amelia’s sleeve. “Is she okay?”
“Excuse me, but is there anyone in the house that’s… how do I put this… less drunk?” Amelia asked.
Summer turned into the house. “Whoever cares, Amelia Bedelia is at the door!”
Zoe and Giovanna joined Summer at the door.
“I’ve always wanted to meet Amelia Bedelia!” Giovanna said excitedly. “Are you the real person? You’re almost as famous as me, Giovanna Cardwell, also a character!”
“Have a book,” Zoe smiled. “It’s on me, free of charge!”
Amelia grimaced. “Just, take this plate of cookies and please don’t bother me or my children again.”
“Will do!” Summer said, snatching the cookies and closing the door in their face.
Zoe watched as Amelia and her children hurried away. “Aw… they were so nice. You didn’t have to scare them away like that, Summer…”
Summer shrugged, and went to get some wine to go with the cookies.
At the rocket pad, Liberty and Beatrice stepped out of the rocket onto solid ground.
“Welcome to Willow Creek, Beatrice,” Liberty said, gesturing.
“Is that the name of your planet?” Beatrice asked.
Liberty shook her head. “That’s just the city I live in.”
Liberty pointed over to a glass building. “I have some clothes in there that my... Granny- ugh that is so weird to say- used to wear.”
Beatrice nodded her thanks. “I’ll just transform into a human first.”
“You can do that?” Liberty gasped.
Beatrice answered by doing just that, then walking over to the glass control room.
Without Beatrice to distract her, Liberty’s mind returned to the subject at hand: Giovanna’s adoption of her and Travis. She really didn’t want to be the legal child of Giovanna, she had loving parents of her own. And plus, that would mean her and Travis would technically be siblings, and that would just be too weird.
Beatrice emerged from the control room, looking like an ordinary human being.
“How does the whole disguise thing work? Is that an actual person?” Liberty asked.
“She’s the name I gave to myself. Long time ago, I used to work with a human named Beatrice Stark, we were both ambassadors to our respective races, but she passed a couple of decades ago,” Beatrice explained.
“A couple... decades? Uh, I'm just going to ignore that for now so I can process it. Let me, um, take you to my house,” Liberty said. “You can stay there for now, everyone… no, everyone except for Zoe will be okay with it, and Summer will be too drunk to care.”
Liberty was very surprised when she stepped through the front door and encountered Zoe happily skipping around.
“Zoe?” Liberty asked carefully. “Are you okay?”
“Completely! There’s no reason to worry about little old me, Liberty!” Zoe said cheerfully.
Liberty turned back to Beatrice. “She isn’t usually like this…”
Travis came down from upstairs. “Liberty? Is that you?”
“Travis!” Liberty grinned, throwing out her arms.
Travis hugged her, then took a step back. “You’ve missed a lot, Liberty. You can’t blast off to space for even one day with this family.”
“Explain it all to me,” Liberty said.
Liberty was both shocked and pleased to learn that Giovanna had adopted Summer instead of her, but expressed genuine sympathy to Travis for his moms being okay with his adoption.
“I’d almost guess they assumed Giovanna was some distant relative,” Liberty suggested.
“Giovanna said she had some government person pull strings, that might be it… And speaking of the government!”
Travis delved into how Cassandra and payed a visit, Summer had tricked Zoe into going to a hypnotherapist and totally changed her personality. Liberty, in return, introduced Beatrice and they told her story together.
Things never seemed to be normal in the Presley household.