The Boy Who Sang About the Stars

Chapter 6

"We are experiencing some technical difficulty at the moment, please be patient while we try to asses the problem." The female voice said over the sound system in the transport pod. We had come to a halt and an awkward silence had filled the air. I was sandwiched between Jenny and the side of the pod, there was almost no room to move around in the small space and with two other people crammed in here with me I found half of my body being pressed uncomfortably against the glass side. The Doctor had insisted we could fit the three of us in here with no problems since Jenny was small in size, but he had been completely wrong. The one bright side to having my face pressed up against the glass was that I had an amazing view of the fish outside.

"Jenny, back in the market how did you know it was me? Back when we first met I was...different."

"Over the past couple of years I've been traveling, like you do, and I asked around to see if anyone had seen you. Apparently you're quite the celebrity, you have your own sightings guide." Jenny said reaching into the satchel strung over her shoulder and pulled out a slip of paper. I tried to turn my head to see better but I couldn't see past Jenny's body and she was holding the paper in front of her. "See, that one is what you look like now" she said, pointing to something on the sheet.

"I look nothing like that, they made my face look all..weird"

"Lemme see" I said. Jenny turned some and held the paper up to my face pointing to a certain picture towards the bottom.

"You look like a Mr. Potato Head" I said suppressing my laugh. I saw the Doctors hand snatch the paper away from my face and hand it back to Jenny.

"Whatever, I'm going to see if I can get this thing moving again." he said. I heard the familiar sound of his screwdriver and a couple seconds later the pod began moving forward again.

"Why are you dressed like an old man?" Jenny asked. I didn't know if the question was aimed at me or the Doctor, my tan sweater with the red and black zig-zags wasn't exactly "young and hip", but I didn't think I looked like an old man.

"What do you mean I dress like an old man?" the Doctor asked.

"You're wearing a bow tie, aren't those for old men?"

"Oy! Don't diss my bow tie, its cool." he replied as we came to a stop. The transport system announced we had arrived and the the glass siding lifted up freeing my body from its smushed position. I hefted myself over the edge and down onto the ground and sighed in relief, I was not agreeing to playing human sardine again and the next time I was taking my own pod to the next destination.

"Why exactly did you two wanna come to a petting zoo anyways, aren't you both a little old for them?" Jenny asked as she joined me down on the ground soon followed by the Doctor.

"They have species from all over this solar system, I thought Adam would want to see them, he's only ever seen the animals back on Earth."

"You're from Earth?" Jenny asked me. I nodded my head in response and looked down at the ground trying to avoid Jenny's stare, I felt a blush rising to my cheeks again as I glanced up at her. "I've heard so much about it, you're going to have to tell me everything later!"

"Uh, yeah, sure." I said lifting my head back up, Jenny was smiling at me and I immediately regretted looking. Of all the quirks I could have gotten being incredibly shy around girls was the one I had received. I wanted to say something else to her but I felt as if I had lost all control of my motor skills and instead had ended up awkwardly staring at her. I was reminded of the one time I had tried to ask a girl out in high school, I froze on the spot and she punched me in the face for being "creepy".

"You know Adam" the Doctor said planting a hand on my shoulder, I jumped back from his hold in surprise. "We should really go check out these creatures called the Anexxon, did you know that they're very protective of their young?" I snapped out of my trance and looked at the Doctor, every inch of his face was reading "You even look at her and I will shove my screwdriver into your eye socket."