She touched her hair and frowned. Had she even showered? The week had been hazy. She remembered that the latest hookup wanted no condom, and she had almost said yes. Probably the next time, she wouldn’t be such a stuck-up bitch, right? The voices in her head were getting louder and louder.

Who do you think you are?

Freak.

Ugly.

You’re just another random queer. If you died, no one would care.

She looked at the contents of her purse spread out on the coffee table. From time to time, Evan or Skylar or someone else rifled through her stuff. But when Katrina asked them to stop, they told her she was being paranoid. In the end, she was always the one to apologize.

Katrina reached under the sofa for her violin.

She frowned. She checked. She checked again.

Her violin was gone.

“Where’s my violin?”

Evan shrugged.

“Where is it?”

Katrina launched herself at Evan, but he pushed her away. Her head hit the wall hard. Evan rushed forward, but Katrina ducked, spun around him, and pulled his head back by his hair. She noticed that Evan was lot weaker than her father.

“Where’s my violin?”

Just then, Skylar and Jewel walked in. “That pawnshop wasn’t like on TV, at all, and the guy wasn’t even funny,” Jewel said.

Skylar rolled her eyes. “I know, right? You were so wrong, Evan, that violin was barely worth—”

“Where’s my violin?” Katrina interrupted.

“What the fuck? Let him go!”

But Katrina did not listen. She pulled Evan’s head back further.

“I’ll fucking kill you. Do you hear me, I’ll fucking kill you!”

“Skylar!”

Skylar handed Katrina a receipt.

Katrina released Evan, who pushed her away and raised his fists.

“Don’t even try it,” Katrina said softly.

While keeping one eye on Evan, Katrina grabbed her belongings, backed out the door, and stumbled away.

“Fuck you, you crazy bitch!” Evan shouted.

As Katrina left, the neighbors stared at her like she was garbage.

Which she was.

“So … you’re a space alien?”

“Citizen of the Galactic Empire would be more accurate.”

“And you escaped here … to make donuts.”

Lan nodded. “I needed to get my family far from the Empire. But I needed a way to do it without raising suspicion.”

“And that would be donuts?”

Lan shook her head. “Well, not just donuts. At this moment, two hundred forty-seven light-years away, a level-five gamma ray burst is on a direct collision course with this solar system.”

“Level five? Is that good?”

“Beyond good!” Lan gushed. “Less than one percent of gamma ray bursts are level five. When it arrives, every planet, every moon, every asteroid it hits will be bombarded for about four minutes—not just with gamma rays, but all sorts of high-energy radiation! If we’re lucky, even your sun might be affected!”