Chapter One – Amy

              I am bored. My mom says I can’t leave my room because I didn’t turn in my assignment on the Interstellar War (which is dumb, anyway), but I don’t care because I have my book and my pretty pony blanket and watching the holo-screen with my mom is stupid, anyway. Mostly I wish I didn’t even have to go to school. It’s an all human school, which is lame, because it means my best friend Bottle can’t go. He’s a Talian, with skin so green and clear he looks just like a bottle, which is why I call him that. His real name is really long and has numbers along with the letters. I could call him that if I wanted to, but Bottle is a better name. Bottle’s really smart too. He always gets good grades and he’s never grounded from watching his holo-screen. He even gets to help his dad work on their space cruiser on the weekends.

              I wonder what Bottle is doing right now. I look out my window. He lives across the street, two houses down, and I can see a light on in the garage. If I sneak out really quiet, my mom won’t even know I’m gone. I pull out the rope ladder that Bottle and I built a few weeks ago. I didn’t tell him it was for sneaking out of the house otherwise he never would have helped me build it. Bottle likes rules. Bottle also thinks I’m doing a science project on ladders.

The ladder makes a soft thump against the house when I unroll it out the window. I cringe and listen. I only hear the muted sounds of the holo-screen. Sounds like Monsters and Mayhem. Star Trek: Beyond The Beyond is better. I climb down the ladder and run across the street towards Bottle’s garage. The garage has a window on the front and if I stand on the very tips of my toes I can see inside. Bottle is rubbing down his dad’s space cruiser with a soft cloth. I watch as he makes methodical circles over the glass viewport. Bottle told me that his Dad teaches him all about how the space cruiser works. He even takes him out on the weekends and shows him how to fly it. He says that if he takes really good care of the space cruiser then he can drive it when he’s old enough. 

              I stare at Bottle through the window. Tonight seems like a good a night to take the space cruiser out to Luna’s Café. Now I just have to convince Bottle.

Chapter Two – Bottle

              I tap on the window.

              “Psst! Hey Bottle!” I’m trying to whisper but I need him to be able to hear me through this dumb window. He looks up at me with his big eyes blinking.

              “C’mon, let me in!”

              Finally he walks over and opens the garage door.

              “Amy, what are you doing here? It’s late. I’m gonna get in trouble.”

              “Well, are you going to let me in?”

              Bottle moves aside and lets me in the door. I can tell he’s upset. I don’t know why he’s so worried. His parents go to sleep early. Actually, now that I think about it, Bottle is supposed to be asleep too.

              “Why are you still up, anyway?” I ask.

              “I couldn’t sleep.” He shrugs his shoulders and goes back to rubbing the space cruiser with the cloth.

              “Well, then it’s a good thing I’m here!” Bottle stops rubbing the space cruiser.

              “Why?”

              “Because I have a plan.”

              “What kind of plan?”

              “A plan to help you go to sleep!” Bottle just stares at me so I keep talking, “We both know that warm honey and milk makes you go, like, right to sleep and Luna’s has the best honey and milk so, all we gotta do is take a quick trip to Lun-“

              “Luna’s! Amy, Luna’s Café is on the moon!”

              “Duh! That’s why we have to take your dad’s space cruiser. It’ll just be quick and you’re so good at driving it and no one will even know we’re gone. Just to Luna’s and back. Promise! Cross my heart and hope to die.”

              Bottle wants to say no, I can tell. But he’ll say yes. Because I told him he’s a good driver, because he loves driving the space cruiser, and because he can never tell me no.