Every time

 “We meet back here in thirty minutes, understand?” Mom says.

We all nod. This happens everytime we come here.

“Everyone has their watches?” She asks. 

We hold up our wrists so she can see the identical glowing watches.

“What happens if Bluecoat stops you?” She asks.

We all groan. We’re wasting time.

"Tell them we're looking for our parents." Lily says.

Royal leans over to me. "Are we gonna go, or not?"

"In a minute. She'll run out of things to worry about soon." I tell him.

Sure enough, she sighs in defeat. "You can go."

We cheer, and run to the door of the spaceship. It opens slowly, and we clamber down the ramp.

My name is Freedi. I have eight brothers. I'm the only girl. We're all from the planet Depbvor. Once a year, we get to go on a trip to different planets. We all get to bring along a friend. So, there are sixteen of us. This year, we're on the planet Sevveris.

Royal, or Roy, is my best friend. I've known them since I was little, and invited them with us every year. They have short blue hair and bright green eyes. We're the same height, but they're stronger by a lot.

I have long black hair, and brown eyes. I literally look like the most boring person ever, but according to Roy, I'm the opposite.

We all go different directions, and Roy and I go straight to our favorite place.

Every planet has a market. We weave through the crowd, until we find the Whitecoats.

"Hey!" Roy says cheerfully. They are good with people.

One of them look up. "Hello. How can we help you?"

"We wanted to know about one of the planets." They say.

The man nods, and picks up a binder. "Which one?"

"That one called...what was it?"

"Erath?" I guess. I can never remember.

The man chuckles. "I think you mean Earth."

"Oh, yes, that." Roy says.

He hands us some papers, and I hand him some money.

We walk off looking through them.

We think Earth is the weirdest planet ever. They're the only ones who aren't a part of the milky way government. I'm sure they know we exist, but it's not like they're trying to find us. If they are, they're doing a really bad job.

They don't know that there are different planets, even though we're right here. I think that they're looking the wrong way, or something.

I'm not sure what happened, but centuries ago, they had a huge disagreement with our government, and went off by themselves.

Apparently, they have something called covid. I'm not sure what it is, since I get bored reading, so I ask Roy to summarize it for me.

"They've got some planet wide deadly disease." They tell me as we walk to the food stands.

My favorite thing about the markets is the food. All the planets have different foods that they make that no one else can perfect but them.

Sevveris makes these little things that are like a small cup with a little dome on top. It has this really sweet creamy thing on top. They call them sweetdomes, and they are delicious.

"C'mon." Roy says, their mouth full of sweetdome. They pull me through the crowd, and towards their favorite part, the art.

Same as with the food, every planet has different model types.

Sevveris is a planet mostly filled with plants, so that's what's on their art.

There are trees and grass, and something called a flower. There are painted pictures, drawings, and sketches.

I can't draw to save my life, but Roy is amazing. They ask for lots of the drawings, and tuck them in their bag.

"Okay, we can go to one more place before we've got to go back." They tell me.

I look at the map we're standing in front of. There are lots of different things, but I promised my grandfather I would bring him something back.

"There." I say, pointing to the plant shop.

I fill my bag with different seeds, and flowers.

"C'mon, race you to the ship." I say to Roy.

We run through the crowd, but when I lose sight of them, I stop.

"Roy?" I say, turning around.

I gasp. They are on the ground, a Bluecoat standing over them.

The Bluecoats are really advanced robots. This one is wearing the usual dark blue coat, and a huge hat that covers most of their face.

It leans down, and scans Roy's face. They wince at the bright light, and I can see their shaking.

It jerks up, then an alarm starts blaring.

"You. You're the one we've been looking for." It says.

Roy suddenly kicks the robot in the chest, sending it flying in the other direction. They jump up, and run. 

Why does this happen every year?

"Ten minutes, Roy!" I yell.

They nod, jumping over a table, and onto a wall.

I don't know how I became friends with one of the most wanted criminals in the galaxy, but I am.

I walk through the crowd, and back to the ship. I walk with my siblings, though they probably don't even notice me.

"Hurry." Roy whispers behind me.

I sigh. "You can't keep coming with us if this is going to happen."

"Yeah, well, I'll never get out otherwise. Depbvor is the most boring planet there is." They tell me.

I roll my eyes. "Then why don't you just stay somewhere else?"

"Then who will you talk to?" They point out.

They have a point. I'm not great at making friends. It was luck that I met Roy, and I don't know how great it is to have a wanted criminal as your best friend.

My mom counts our heads as we walk up the ramp into the ship.

"Thirteen, fourteen - where are the twins?" She says.

Mike and Micheal run up the ramp, and it closes behind us. Roy and I look out the window, to watch the planet grow smaller and smaller.