In Search of Home

Epilogue

The tapping of the pencil on the wooden table was methodical. It stopped occasionally when its user needed to scribble down an answer to the test he was taking, but otherwise, its purpose was clear. Hitting the side of the table. Perhaps for eternity.

"Alright, that's time," the university professor spoke up, the first words spoken in the small room since the tests were passed out.

Viktor groaned, pushing away the paper and packing up his things. Calculus was a bitch.

"How'd you do?" his friend, Kasey, asked him, pushing herself off the wall from where she had been waiting for him. He gave her a long-suffering look, and she giggled.

"Physically, I am heading to the registration office and already signing the withdrawal papers," he groaned. "Mentally, I am dead." Kasey bumped shoulders with him.

"Can't be that bad!" she cajoled. "At least that was your last final." Viktor grimaced. That was true.

"Let's get something to eat," Viktor said, stomach growling in displeasure. Running on three hours of sleep and some Pop-Tarts were not what his body needed, but they were what his body got.

Kasey chatted his ear off the entire way to the dining hall, speaking of nothing and everything at the same time. She switched topics with no apparent pattern, immediately telling him what came to mind. They passed by hundreds of students on the way, all in various states of dread or relief as they went to or came from finals. Viktor imagined he looked no different.

"-and the Vokkra. I mean, can you blame him?"

"Huh?" Viktor asked, snapping out of the daze he'd been in and turning his attention to Kasey. She rolled her eyes.

"I knew that'd catch your attention. Are you gonna take that class next sem?"

Viktor idly swiped his card through the register before stepping into the cafeteria. "The... Vokkrus one? Yeah, I've been enrolled since they released classes. You?"

"Hell yeah, I am! You will not catch me missing a chance to learn more about those aliens. Especially Mr. Tall, Hot, and Sexy," sighed Kasey. Viktor didn't even have to fake the gag that came out of him in response to that.

It had been five years since Vok'Rul had left Earth. During that time, multiple emissaries from his planet had visited Earth to keep tabs on each other, and sometimes, emissaries from Earth would go to A1-308. That was rare and only happened when the Council was too busy to expend a representative to go to Earth. It wasn't all that practical, either; they had to send a spaceship out to Earth to pick them up, as they were lagging behind on the spaceship-making department, even with the Vokkrus' help.

Viktor hadn't gone back to high school; he struggled with walking and mental health issues that first year of Vok'Rul's absence so poorly that both he and his dad elected for him to complete his GED and SATs at home instead. It was a bit of a learning curve; he had missed out on school for two years before he got back into the swing of things, but he managed to get it all sorted out before heading into college.

He had been reluctant at first. Being away from his dad, the only person who sort of understood what he had gone through, had been daunting.

He went, though. He wouldn't let his fears hold him back - he had never been one to do that - and going to university by himself, doing something for himself, had been kinda cathartic. It had helped that he had met Kasey early on, who made for an excellent friend. Three years of double majoring in Astronomy and Political Science later - really, of course, Viktor was going to major in that - Viktor was almost finished. He had one semester to go. And then...