“...and that thing people say about being able to leave if your professor is 15 minutes late? Nicole, I’m telling you it is not true. I learned that the hard way.” Adam paused to look down at his burger in a mocked expression of shame. I had only been half-listening to the story, but at least knew that I needed to jump in at this point to make it look like I was paying attention.

I’m a purple bipedal creature, vaguely humanoid, under a pretty broad definition of that term, somewhat stouter and shorter than humans. I have two five-fingered hands and two five-toed feet. The planet is significantly colder than Earth, but livable in the tropics. The technology level is roughly early 21st century by Earth standards.