I glanced over at my friend Kelly typing away on her laptop.

"Seriously Kel? Again?" I questioned exasperatedly.

"Shut up, he's thoughtful and gorgeous and you're just jealous." She teased, going back to IMing with her long-distance boyfriend. I laughed and threw a small pillow I grabbed from my bed at her.

That was a year ago, back when my life was that of a normal fifteen year old.

I think back on that moment as I turn and fire my 9mm handgun at the men chasing me.

Let me explain what led up to this moment.

My dad was a software designer at a company called Nuetech. The technical description of the company was: "A modern corporation that helps protect you and your company's important information, it's more than a firewall, it's a lifeline." Gag me. I figured it was this boring, geeky, run-of-the-mill job. Holy crap was I wrong. My dad was one of the program designers for a security lock on military secrets for the UN. Apparently Neutech had some kick-ass security systems. My dad was the big brain, the guy who had the passwords and keys and a complete and utter knowledge for the system. I dare say he knew the system better than the bathroom in our apartment (and he spends a lot of time in our bathroom).
That's why they wanted him.

The strange men who wore half-masks and gloves on their right hand.

It was three months into sophomore year, about one-thirty in the morning and I was having (yet another) bad night's sleep, so I was awake.

That's when I heard the struggling and mumbling. I got out of bed and padded down the hall to my dad's bedroom. I saw three men dragging my father's wriggling body of the the room, I pressed up against the wall in the shadows so that they couldn't see me. I shut my eyes and bit my lip until the noises faded away. Once the sounds stopped I ignored my racing heartbeat and ran into my dad's bedroom to see the bed completely askew and the bedside lamp knocked over.

At this point I was breathing heavy, tears welling in my eyes, pacing back and forth, panicking.

Until a man ran into the bedroom.

That's right.

A tall man with brown hair, a ridiculous bowtie and a tweed jacket. I stood there in shock as he glanced around at the chaos.

"Hello." He said in a (frankly adorable) british accent.

"Hi." I said, furrowing my brow. "And, uh, would you like to tell me who you are?" I asked calmly.

"Oh right!" He held out a hand for me to shake. "I'm the Doctor! And you are?" He asked cheerfully as I slowly grabbed his hand.

"Adrianna." I said. "So would you like to clarify why you're here, for me?"

"I'm here to help!" He smiled, puffing out his chest and standing tall, similar to that of what a frog would do to intimidate other males.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" I said, crossing my arms over my chest. He gave me a cheeky smile and pulled out a long metal object from his awkward tweed jacket. "What is that?" I asked.

"My sonic!" He exclaimed like a small boy after christmas would say as he showed a new toy to his friends.

"And what does that do exactly?" I barely finished the question before he pressed a button on the slim device and a green light came from the tip, along with a high pitched buzzing noise. 'The Doctor' fixed his eyes on the device for a few second then spun around in a circle, eyes still focusing on it..

"How does that help?" I questioned as he pointed it up at the ceiling.

"Well now we know where you father is! Or was that your brother? Maybe a cousin? Or an uncle!" He yipped like a puppy.

"My dad." I said before he could ramble any more. "And how the hell does that tell us where my dad is?"

"I did a quick scan for other non-human lifeforms and non-terrestrial to earth tech and the waves zeroed in on a spot above us so that means they must have a direct teleport link to this spot." He explained (more to himself) and dashed out if the room.

"Wait!" I yelled, running after him, "Where are you going!?" I found him in the kitchen, rummaging through my dad's coat. I sighed and didn't even bother to ask what he was doing. Suddenly, he pulled a small blinking red object out of one of the pockets.

"Ah-ha!" He said triumphantly. I glanced at him with an I'm-expecting-an-answer look. "This is the direct teleport link, they have to use their teleports within three feet of here or their atoms may end up scattered all over the place, not very advanced technology, but they are Arikandians so it's to be expected, now if I can just adjust the frequency of my sonic to match that of the teleport link I can use the frequency to direct my TARDIS to their ship where, if I am correct, we will find your father!" He grinned, expecting me to be impressed.
I stood for a moment, digesting what he just said.

"I understood some of those words..." I said "A few quick questions, first: Teleport? You mean like Star Trek sci-fi future kind of teleport?"

"Yes."

"Okay, next: Arikandian?"

"Alien race, home planet Bilge in the constellation Aurora Major II of the Gregorian-point-six galaxy."

"Great, last question... TARDIS?"

"Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, My time machine spaceship!" He said gleefully.

"So let me get this straight, you think that you can use your time machine to teleport yourself onto the spaceship of aliens who have captured my father andare holding him captive." I tried to clarify.

"Exactly!" He clapped his hands.

"Right, I'm calling the cops." I reached for the phone hooked to the wall.

"Great! Wait- No no no no." He said, putting himself in between me and the phone. "I'm here to help! Honest! These aliens, the Arikandians, they want your father for the passwords to the missile defence safety program he created. If you don't cooperate, he will die and Earth will be launched into a World War Three." His face was suddenly serious.

"Excuse me?"

"They want the humans to fight amongst themselves and while you do that they plan to scavenge your planet of all it's resources for themselves. They will leave Earth war-broken and stripped bare." His face flushed with anger and urgency.

"Okay." I muttered.

"What?"

"I said okay. You may be a whack-job but you seem like a fairly sane whack-job so I'll help." I agreed.

"Brilliant!" He ran out of the kitchen.

"Wait!" I called.

"What?" He said, popping his head back into the doorframe.

"I'm coming." I demanded, grabbing my jean jacket off of the coat rack and walking out of the kitchen past the doctor.

"No, it's too dangerous." He said sternly.

"Oh please." I scoffed and opened my front door. "Coming?" I asked, stepping outside.

~oOo~

We stepped out into the cool november air of New York and I glanced up and down the street.

"So, uh, where's your spaceship fly-boy?"

"Boy?" He he squeaked defensively.

"Oh please, you're like twelve." I chuckled. He pouted a bit and walked towards a shadowy alleyway near my apartment building.

"Close your eyes." He grinned. I did as asked and let him guide me further forward. "Okay now... OPEN!" I opened my eyes to see him, holding with his arms in a ta-da gesture, next to a blue police box.

"Um... It's a phone booth." I said monotonically.

"Are you sure?" He asked, opening the door a crack and gesturing for me to enter. I shook my head, giggling, and walked forward into the box. But it wasn't a box, it was the control center for a spaceship. An alien spaceship. The Doctor ran past me into the TARDIS, still with that grin plastered across his face. He stood staring at me with his stupidly adorable face.

"This... Is..." I glanced around again. "FREAKING AWESOME!" I run around the console looking at the lights and buttons and switches. "It's like Mary Poppins' bag! What science did you use for this!? I didn't think the space-bending theories were possible! Is that how you did it? Did you bend space? Or maybe it's a moving black hole!" I rambled excitedly.

"How old are you?" He questioned.

"Fifteen." I stated, going up to him. "Why?"

"Well most fifteen year-old human girls don't know much about theoretical physics." He laughed.

"I'm more of a conceptual physics girl myself." I grinned. "And an IQ of one-sixty doesn't hurt either." I bragged.

"A smart one, eh? I like it." He said.

"Alright, alright. Hook up your sonic thingy to the controls so we can save my dad on stop freaking World War Three."

"Yes ma'am!" He saluted me before rewiring a bunch of things and pressing lots of buttons. Suddenly, the whole place jolted and made a loud whooshing noise.

"Holy shi-!" I was cut off by falling onto the floor. I glanced over my shoulder and saw a laughing Doctor, on the floor behind me.

"Never gets old!" He yelled. Then it all stopped, we were still.

"What just happened?" I asked, standing up.

"You, young Adrianna, just took your first flight in a spaceship!" He said, hopping onto his feet as well.

"Sweet!" I fixed my jacket and brushed a piece of hair out of my face. He walked over to the door of the time machine and made a 'shush' motion with his mouth. I nodded in understanding. The Doctor opened the door to the TARDIS just a crack and peeked outside. He looked back towards me and waved me over. I followed as he left the time machine.