Conquer the Martians: Summer Ashley's Gaming Journey

The sun shone brightly in the afternoon sky and the wind blew warm across my face. I leaned back into the springy grass and looked up at the blue skies. The air smelled like fresh cut grass and it was so quiet.

I closed my eyes and the light played across the lids, making little flashes of red, gold, and green. I let out a long breath and felt my body relax.

I heard someone walk on the grass behind me. I didn't move. It was probably my sister, Lacey, or Mom. They knew to leave me alone when I was outside enjoying a day like this one. But whoever it was did not walk away, they stayed right there near me.

"Summer?" A male voice asked quietly.

"Leave me alone," I whispered back.

He sighed heavily. "Look, I'm not what you think I am."

"What do you want?"

"To apologize." His voice sounded sincere. "Can we talk?"

I turned over to look at him and he smiled with relief that I had finally agreed to talk to him. He sat down cross legged next to me in the grass and started to pull off his jacket. Before he could lay it down for us to sit on he froze when he saw my face for the first time. He stared without blinking and his jaw dropped open slightly when he realized who I was.

My hair was pulled back tightly in a ponytail and a few strands were sticking out around my face from where it had been tucked behind my ears all morning while I worked on homework in front of my laptop screen. My eyes were hidden behind large round glasses that slid down my nose as they always did when I moved around too much causing me to push them back up every few minutes so they wouldn't fall off entirely. And then there was my skin, which was covered with multiple shades of scars from years of surgeries to repair damage done by viral outbreaks while playing computer games online. That wasn't even counting all of the laser tattoos covering parts of my neck, arms, chest and shoulders that weren't covered by clothing already that I usually kept covered anyway so people didn't stare at them either. Even though it was only one side of me that looked this way (my left side) it still made most people uncomfortable to look at me directly because of how different from normal humans I looked now compared to how pretty everyone else on Earth looked these days with their perfect faces and bodies thanks to genetic modifications provided by their jobs or wealthy parents.

The boy continued to stare in shock for several seconds before he recovered himself and managed a weak smile that barely moved his lips enough for me to see it before he frowned again as if it hurt him physically to be looking at me like this despite what his mind told him about who I actually am inside here where no one can see but myself...