The Visitor

There was a girl who had two hearts. Some might say one of them was a backup heart, in case the other one failed. Most people didn't know the full story since she didn't really let people know about the condition she had. Her parents were very protective and cautious of her health, even though she acted like a normal little girl. Lena was also extremely smart for her age. Most 6-year-old girls didn't know the square root of pi and could name every single constellation in the sky. Lena skipped a few grades, so she was in 4th grade by the time she was 7. One day, she was walking to school with her older sister Rayella when they heard a noise.

"What's that?" Lena asked.

"I don't know. What does it sound like?" Rayella asked.

"I'm going to go check it out, okay?" Lena said. "If I don't come back in 5 minutes-"

"Lena, I'm coming with you. I promised Mom and Dad I'd look after you. Besides, you have to be careful because of your hearts." Rayella replied.

Lena sighed. "I know, I know." She hated more than anything that people had to constantly be watching her, hovering, making sure she was okay. All because she had two hearts. If everyone else had two hearts, then they wouldn't be worrying about me so much, Lena thought. But no, I'm fragile because I have two hearts. All she wanted was to do something without someone watching her every move.

The girls walked to the source of the sound and found an unusual sight. A small creature was eating a piece of cement off of the sidewalk.

"Back away very slowly. If we don't move fast, it probably won't hear us," Rayella said.

Lena thought. She was very curious about the creature and wanted to know more about it. Was it really harmful, or was it just misunderstood? She decided to get a closer look at it and discovered something.

"There's a Gemini symbol on it's ankle! Ray, what if it's from outer space!?"

Rayella laughed nervously. "I don't know if it's from outer space, but I do know that it is probably dangerous. We should get to school before we're even more late and before it turns around and attacks us," Rayella whispered.

Lena ignored her sister and inched closer to the creature. It stopped eating the sidewalk and turned around. Rayella stood frozen in terror. The creature didn't look that threatening because it looked like a puppy with a kitten tail. It was black with white patches all over it's body, and the Gemini symbol on its ankle. "Hello, little guy. I'm Lena." Lena said, squatting down to be face-to-face with the creature. Rayella's eyes were almost popping out of their sockets

"Lena, what on earth are you doing!? What if that thing attacks someone!? Are you just going to introduce yourself to it and hope that it's not a threat?" Rayella cried. Lena looked between her sister and the creature. The creature looked Lena in the eyes. She knew, somehow, that this creature was meant to find her. She felt as if it had something to do with the fact that she had two hearts. Lena smiled and picked up the creature. It rubbed it's head against her arm and made a purring sound. "I'm going to call you Gem." Lena said. Rayella shook her head in disbelief. "What am I supposed to tell Mom and Dad, that we just found a creature eating the sidewalk and brought it home? Should we also mention the fact that we skipped school unintentionally to find this creature?"

"Don't worry so much, Ray, I have a plan. I'll tell them that school got out early because it was an early dismissal," Lena said. "As for Gem, I'll just put him in the shed since nobody goes there anyway."

So they went home to put Gem in the shed and told their parents that there was an early dismissal. Lena went out to the shed often to check on Gem and feed him. Lena's parents never knew about it, and they still don't to this day.