I get out of bed, quinting out my window onto our colourful garden of near perfect Summer flowers. I open my curtains just a bit more, letting more bright sunlight stream in. 
I get dressed in some of my favourite clothes: a pink t-shirt with a picture of a rainbow-coloured bird on it (it reminds me of my pet parrot Twinklestar!), and a pair of stripy blue shorts. I pull on a pair of rainbow-coloured socks, and head downstairs.


“It was about time, Marshmallow.” Dad says from the bottom of the stairs, “I was afraid your extra-special birthday breakfast was going to get cold.”
I stand in place for a second, before rushing down the stairs and into the kitchen, Dad following me.
“Thank you thank you thank you!!” I say, giving my dad a hug.
“And they aren’t any regular birthday waffles. They’re extra-special.” He reminds me.
“And why’s that?” I ask, sitting down in one of the chairs around our little dining table.
“Because you get to have ice cream with them!” He reveals.
“Ice cream? For breakfast?” I say.
“Yes.” Dad crouches down and grabs the tub of ice cream from our freezer, setting it on the counter. “Thought you’d only be able to in Candyopolis? Think again.”
He picks up the ice cream scoop from a drawer, and gets a plain white mug from another, filling it with hot water. The waffle maker on the bench makes its usual twinkling sound, and Dad places 2 pink, heart-shaped waffles on a plate for me, pushing it onto the table and over to me. 
“Whoopsies,” He says, pulling my plate back over to him, “What other stuff do you want on it?”
“Strawberry jam, maple syrup, and whipped cream!” I request, “The classics!”
“Coming right up!” Dad says. He turns his back to me for a moment, layering “the classics” onto my plate of waffles, as well as 2 scoops of ice cream.
“There.” He says, once again pushing the plate over to me. He passes me a knife and fork, and I’m quick to eat it all up.
“Wow, I can’t believe you’re 12 now…” Dad says, sitting opposite me at the table.
“Yeah, it’s super cool!” I say.
“It certainly is.”


Our conversation is interrupted by my mum’s voice, coming from the living room.
“‘Mallow! Did you forget about your presents?” She calls.
I excitedly dash out the door and into the living room. Mum’s still holding her violin, but she quickly places it down on the coffee table and walks over to the small stack of presents on one of the couches. They’re all wrapped in colourful wrapping paper, which have various different patterns on them. There’s one that’s pretty large, and cube-shaped, one that’s small and rectangular, and one that’s triangular. It seems like Mum had a lot of trouble trying to wrap that one.
Mum sees me eyeing the large cube-shaped present.
“You’d better open that one last.” She says quietly.


Instead, I pick up the smallest present first, sitting down on the couch beside my parents. I take a moment to look at the wrapping paper, which is light purple with monochrome drawings of cats all over. I carefully open this present, and inside is… A set of colouring pencils! The fancy ones too, with labels like “Shimmering Peach” or “Aquamarine Sky”. 


Next is the triangle present. It has bright blue wrapping paper with wave patterns all over it. Inside of it is… A new pair of headphones! They’re a soft yellow colour with pictures of sunflowers on the sides. I like them a lot, especially because I needed a new pair after my old ones sadly broke.


The final present sits on the coffee table before me. It’s pretty big, covered in deep blue wrapping paper with images of stars and planets, and the occasional moon or sun. I slowly unwrap this one, and I immediately realise what it is.
My parents had gotten me a Firefly Unit.
I pry open the box, and… Yep. It’s a Firefly Unit!! It has a boxy shape to it, with a square screen, two antennas on the top, and tiny little decorative wings on both sides. Almost all of it is dark purple and shiny, except for the screen, which is black. I gently flip it over to examine what type of thrusters it has. There are 4 in total, but they’re all facing towards the centre, most likely in a resting position.
“Pretty cool, right?” Mum says, smiling.
“Super cool.” I say.
“Oh, and you know how I bought you that top hat?” Dad asks, “Could you go get it?”
I head upstairs, retrieve the hat, and go back downstairs.
“Cool, cool!” Dad says, “Put it on!”
I do just that.
“There’s a little button on the very top of it. Try pressing it.” He suggests.
I feel around and press down the button. It makes a quiet click, accompanied by a sparkly sound. 
Suddenly, the Firefly Unit jumps back upright, humming to life and slowly rising into the air. Its square screen powers on, a little, purple, pixelated face staring back at me. After a bit of examining its surroundings, the Firefly Unit turns to face me once more, its little face smiling.
“Hello, Marshmallow!” It says.
“Whoah, you know my name?” I say, surprised and excited. I stare at it in awe.
“I sure do!” It says, “However, I don’t know my name. Would you like to give me a name, Marshmallow?”
“Of course! I’ll call you… Ai!” I say.
“Ai… I like it!” It says. “From now on, my name shall be Ai!”
Ai flies around the living room, its tiny wings fluttering, and its facial expression changing with every new bit of information it takes in.
“Do you like it?” Mum asks.
“I love it! Thank you so much!!” I exclaim.
“That’s very nice to hear, Marshmallow!” Ai says from the other side of the room.
“Now, whenever you want to access any of the features that Ai has, just ask it!” Dad says, “If you don’t know what to ask, tell Ai to bring up a list of commands, and you can select something from there.”
“I see.” I say.
I pause for a second.
“Ai, would you be able to teleport me to the nearest planetary warp station?” I ask, “I bet Auntie Sprinkles and Merengue would want to see me soon!”
“Perhaps you should leave your visit to them ‘til later?” Dad suggests, “I know you love seeing them, but you might end up having too many sweets too soon if you go now.”
“Good point.” I say, “How about we go to the park? It’s the first NatureDay of the month, after all.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Mum says, “Ai, could you please teleport us to the nearest park?”
“Of course!” Ai says.
And we’re there in a flash.


You might think of a visit to the park as a kid as being “kid plays on the playground while their parents sit together and talk about boring adult stuff”. 
Well, our version of visiting the park is very different. 
First we listen to almost everyone in the Gardening Committee read out their monthly speech about their favourite flower, and why we should plant it in the huge gardens around the outside of the park. We vote for the best one, and then afterwards we all grab some flower seeds, and get to planting! 
Mum, Dad, Ai and I all stand in the centre circle of the park, which is decorated with colourful paintings of different flowers and leaves, and around the outer edges of the park, there are paintings of pink hearts, too, all done by the community. From where we’re standing, I can see the flowers we all planted last month: white and yellow roses. 
It was Mr. Honeypot who had read out his speech about them, including some really cool facts, going so far as to talk about why bees love them so much! He must have spent heaps of time on it.
Today there were also some great speeches, especially from a girl called Cherry Flutters, who talked about some very interesting characteristics that sunflowers have. 
After everyone else’s speeches have ended, I go over to her and say hello. She’s sitting on a bench by herself, slowly eating a few strawberries she’s brought with her in a little basket. She’s got long, light yellow hair, and is wearing a pink and blue dress, a matching woven sun hat, and a pair of lace-up shoes.
“Oh, hello!” She says to me.
“Hi!” I smile at her, “Can I sit here?”
I gesture to the spot on the bench next to her. Cherry nods.
“Marshmallow Glitters.” I say, holding out a gloved hand to her.
“Cherry Flutters.” She says, shaking my hand. She smiles sweetly.
“I really liked your speech. I think that Sunflowers are the coolest things ever now!” I say.
“Wow, thank you so much! I joined the Gardening Committee just a few weeks ago, but I’m glad that some of you liked it.” Cherry explains, “I quite liked yours, too.”
“Yeah, after me and my family planted those magical snapdragons in our garden, I’ve spent more time playing with those little guys than I have with my parrot, Twinklestar!” I say, “I just knew I had to present something about them.”
“I like your use of your Firefly Unit--Ai, right?” She says, “The way you got it to display images of snapdragons, and fly around in the audience so that everyone could see… It’s a nice idea!”
“Nah, plenty of people have done stuff like that before.” I say.
“Well then… I like how enthusiastic Ai was to be doing that.” She says.
Cherry looks around for a bit, eventually getting up and examining the already planted flowers more closely.
“Wow, how do you all get the seeds for these so quickly?” She asks.
“You’ll see.” I say.
I go over to where my parents are standing. They seem to be talking to various other gardening enthusiasts, and I greet them as well.
“Marshmallow! It’s almost time for voting!” Mum says excitedly, “Which speech was your favourite?”
“I liked Mrs. Jupiter’s way of explaining things, and Mr. Ribbon’s speech was totally awesome, but…”--I look back to where Cherry is sitting--“Cherry Flutters’ speech was my favourite.”
“Really? You weren’t a fan of Ms. Polka Dot’s speech about giant venus fly traps?” Dad asks.
“It was very good, but venus fly traps aren’t flowers!” I say. I point straight towards Dad, surprising him a bit, but we both end up laughing.
“That’s what I said!” Mum exclaims, “But I agree with you, ‘Mallow. Young Cherry’s got some talent when it comes to writing stuff like this.”
“ALRIGHTY! It’s time for vooooting, everyalien! Come line up over here!” The Head of the Committee’s Toucan Unit exclaims, flapping its large, colourful wings, and making sure everyone is in a straight line.
We vote for our favourite speech, and the Head, Mr. Fuzzyhat, quietly tallies the votes, and the Toucan Unit gives us our final answer.
“Miss Cherry Flutters has won by an overwhelming amount with her speech about sunfloweeerrss! Coooongratulations!!” 
The Toucan Unit flies over to Cherry, bringing attention to her. Clearly not expecting it, Cherry blushes and looks down at the ground, but after a few seconds, looks up and smiles shyly as the crowd congratulates her.
Cherry happily marches over to me once everyone has gone back to casually chatting amongst themselves.
“Nice work! Seems like I wasn’t the only one.” I say.
“Thank you,” She says, “But what happens now?”
A second after she asks that, a round helicopter flies overhead, landing on one of the outside paths of the park. It’s bright pink, with green blades, dark brown dots painted all over, and heart-shaped windows. This is none other than the Berrycopter, one of many fruit-themed helicopters, powered only by the power of friendship, as it requires 2 aliens to cooperate with each other for it to even move! The 2 aliens inside this one are Miss Stormy Chord, and her girlfriend, Miss Cookie Springtime. 
The two are Jam Aliens, meaning that they have pointy antennas, tails, and small, bat-like wings. Stormy has on a black and white cardigan, a dark purple skirt, striped leg warmers and sneakers. Cookie has a lemon yellow head bow, a pair of yellow, lace-up shoes, and a frilly yellow and white dress that just about reaches her knees.
They exit the Berrycopter and say hello to everyone. Stormy walks over to me and we talk for a bit.
“Hey Marshmallow!” She says. I jump up and give her a high-five. 
“Do you like my new haircut?” She asks.
Stormy’s usually long, swirly, white hair has been cut to about shoulder-length. She twirls around, showing off.
“It suits you!” I say. She smiles.
“You’re right it does!” She says.
Stormy goes back over to where Cookie is, and the crowd quietens down before they speak.
“Please line up in a straight line to retrieve your sunflower seeds.” Cookie says, her voice radiant and clear, “If you’d like, you can donate to us via Chii, my Butterfly Unit.”
Chii peeks out nervously from behind Cookie’s shoulder.
“Go on!” Stormy says, attempting to encourage Chii.
The Butterfly Unit slowly hovers over to a spot beside the stall that Cookie and Stormy have set up. It’s covered in trays of loose sunflower seeds.
A line has already formed without the help of Mr. Fuzzyhat’s Toucan Unit, and very soon, Aliens have full pouches of sunflower seeds and are teleporting to home and back to grab their brightly painted watering cans and shovels.
When it’s my turn, I make sure to donate 8 whole chocolate coins, which makes Chii a bit happier.
“Th- Thank you, Marshmallow…” It practically whispers, “You’re ever so kind…”
“No problem!” I say.
I take out my little seed pouch from my pocket, fill it with sunflower seeds, and find a spot in the garden to kneel down and start planting. Cherry follows, kneeling down right beside me. We plant a few sunflower seeds in silence before Cherry says something.
“It was very generous of you, Marshmallow.” She says, “8 chocolate coins? I didn’t know you were that nice!”
“Stormy’s one of my best friends! I kind of have to help her and Cookie out sometimes.” I explain. 
Cherry nods.
“I suppose that’s why you have so many chocolate coins to spare!” She says.
“I guess so. I just like being nice, you know? Doesn’t everyone?” I grin at Cherry.
“I like being nice, but I prefer to be on my own. That’s…”--Cherry tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and sighs--“Probably why I don’t earn very many.”
“That’s okay! How about… I treat you to lunch once this is over? Would you like that?” I ask.
“That would be nice.” Cherry says, “I’d like that.”
“Awesome!”


About 40 minutes later, and everyone’s finished planting their sunflower seeds! 
“For those who haven’t brought watering cans, don’t worry!” Stormy says, “I’ll come by on my raincloud very soon and water everything for you!!”
“See you all next month!” Cookie says, stepping into the Berrycopter, with Stormy following her. They take off, and we all wave until we can’t see them anymore.
“Lunch?” I say eagerly.
“Lunch.” Says Cherry.
I wave goodbye to my parents, so does Cherry to hers, and we head into town centre.
“Where would you like to go?” I ask.
“I really don’t mind!”
“Well, in that case…” I look around at the many different places to eat, their various colourful and cute decorations out front making my brain feel nice, “How about we go to Angel’s Cafe? It’s just over there.”
I point to a familiar cafe, decorated with pastel colours and cute paintings of snails, for whatever reason. There’s also a shiny statue of a bright green, happy snail on the roof. There are 2 big trees separating the cafe from the others, with big purple flowers.
“Sure! It looks nice.” Cherry says.
We enter Angel’s Cafe. Inside the walls are painted in pastel rainbow stripes, and the floor tiles are made to look like little pink and white bows. There are even more paintings of snails lining the walls, ranging in style from hyperrealistic to cute and cartoony. There are white coffee tables and soft pink couches crammed into every corner of the place, and everything is covered in cute plushies and decorative cushions. But there are no customers.
Angel Buttons, the owner of this Cafe, who is standing at the counter, immediately spots us walk in. 
Angel has black hair in a ponytail, but she also has a checked bandanna wrapped around her head. She’s wearing a white t-shirt with a simple drawing of a snail on it, with a long-sleeved, red gingham shirt underneath, and light blue jeans.
Perhaps she noticed us because of the strangely loud alarm-type thing that plays cutesy music whenever a customer enters. It gives Cherry a bit of a fright.
“Marshmallow! It’s been a while, hon!” Angel says, giving me a big hug. “Who’s your friend?”
“I’m Cherry.” Cherry says, nodding her head, “Cherry Flutters.”
Angel pats her on the shoulder and gives her a big grin.
“It’s lovely to meet ya!” Angel says.
“You too.” Cherry says quietly.
“Well, how about you go sit down somewhere. Uh…” She turns around, and yells, “SPORK!!”
Spork, her Pig Unit, hovers out of the kitchen door in the back of the cafe and buzzes around, ready for whatever command Angel is going to ask of it.
“Spork, could you please be a dear and show Cherry and ‘Mallow the menu? Thanks!” Angel says. She disappears off into the kitchen, leaving Spork with us. Out of nowhere it plays a very compressed audio file of a pig snorting. It makes Cherry laugh. 
Spork then brings up a list of menu items on its screen. First Cherry and I pick what drinks we want--we both choose hot chocolate--and next we choose food. I order 2 cupcakes, one cinnamon flavoured and one vanilla, and Cherry picks a strawberry sandwich.
We confirm our choices before Spork goes into the kitchen to tell Angel. She gives us a “COMING RIGHT UP!!” and brings us our hot chocolate in a flash. Cherry waits patiently for hers to cool down, while laughing at me trying--and failing--to drink mine while it’s still hot.
“Hey Marshmallow?”
“Yeah?” I say.
“I know you have a Firefly Unit, Ai, but I never really got the chance to speak to it…” Cherry says.
“Well, you can now!”
I tap the button on the top of my hat, and Ai teleports to just beside me.
“Hello, Marshmallow!” It says.
“Hey! My friend Cherry here wanted to say hello to you!” I say, gesturing to Cherry. She gives Ai a little wave.
“Why hello! It’s a pleasure to actually meet you, Cherry.” Ai says.
“You too!” Cherry says.
Ai turns to face me.
“Have you been enjoying your birthday so far, Marshmallow?” It asks.
“It’s your birthday?” Cherry whispers. I nod. “How come you never told me?”
“I’m sorry. I just didn’t have any time to!” I explain.
I look over at Ai.
“Definitely, Ai. I got some great presents, saw Stormy, planted some flowers with Cherry, and…” I trail off, staring out the window. Cherry notices, and turns around to look, too.
It’s none other than Stormy’s rain cloud. It’s a giant floating device that she uses to water the plants in Floweropolis, and it’s made to look like a giant cloud! I can just see her sitting on the very top, waving at everyone below.
“Wow.” Cherry whispers. 
We both go over to the window and press our faces against the glass. Although I’ve seen it many times before, I feel the same amount of excitement as Cherry.
“Ai,” I turn back around to speak to my Firefly Unit, “Could you teleport us to the top of Stormy’s rain cloud? I’d like for Cherry to have the full experience.”
“Really?” Cherry jumps from the surprise, “You could really do that?”
“Of course!” Ai says, “If you’re okay with it.”
“Let’s go then!!” I exclaim.
Ai teleports us to the top of Stormy’s rain cloud. The material it’s made from is strangely soft, and it feels a bit like walking on a mostly-deflated air mattress. Cherry stumbles a bit, before regaining her balance.
“Yo!” Yells Stormy. She’s sitting cross-legged on the tippy-top of the rain cloud. All around her are shiny, colourful buttons labelled with simple white pictures. She presses one down, it makes a sparkly sound, and Stormy swivels around to face us.
“Hey Stormy!” I say, “Mind if we stick around for a while?”
“I dunno, ‘Mallow.” She says, “I’m almost finished for the day!”
“That’s okay! We’ll stay with you until it’s time for you to head home.” I say.
Stormy crosses her arms and smiles, before turning back around.
“What are those buttons for?” Cherry asks me, slowly sitting down. She looks out over the city, gazing at the candy-coloured clouds floating in the sky.
“Oh, Stormy uses them to control the rain that comes from the rain cloud. They can change how fast the water flows, how much, what direction… All of it!” I explain. Cherry nods thoughtfully.
“I see. Did Stormy design it?” She asks.
“No. An alien called Silly Squiggle invented the rain cloud.”
“Cool!” Cherry says.


“See you later, Stormy!!” I yell. Stormy waves goodbye and I press the button on the top of my hat once more. Ai appears right in front of me.
“Hey, Ai, could you teleport us back to Angel’s Cafe?” I ask.
“We forgot to go back and eat our food.” Cherry adds.
“Sure thing!”
And then we’re back sitting at our table.
“I’ll be there in a minute!” Angel calls from in the kitchen. A moment later she’s serving us our food: My cupcakes, one cinnamon and one vanilla, and Cherry’s strawberry sandwich. They’re served on china plates, decorated with pretty paintings; mine has paintings of flowers, whereas Cherry’s has paintings of rabbits.
We happily eat our food. By the end, Cherry seems quite surprised.
“Wow, Angel’s a really great cook!” She says, carefully wiping her face with a polka-dot napkin, “I’ll definitely need to tip her some chocolate coins.”
“I get Angel to make my birthday cake every year, and it’s always very yummy.” I say.
“How special! I’d love for Angel to make me my birthday cake.” Cherry says, “And speaking of birthdays, I’d also love to get you a present! Would you like to come with me and pick something out?” She asks.
“If it’s alright with you!” I say.
“Certainly.”
Cherry gives Angel her tip, much to the delight of Angel, and we head out in search of a present.


“It has to be something small, unfortunately.” Cherry says as we walk down the footpath, which is made of lots of different pastel colours of bricks. 
“Oh, yeah. I remember you talking about not having many chocolate coins.” I say.
“Yeah… I’m sorry I can’t get you anything too fancy.” Cherry says. I shake my head.
“It’s fine! I’m grateful for any gift I receive.” I say. 
Cherry gives me a little smile.
“Okay.” She glances around her. “Where would you like to go?”
“Toy Universe!” I exclaim, pointing at the shop’s big, light orange sign on the roof. It spells out “Toy Universe” in large, rainbow letters, with drawings of planets surrounding it.
“Sure!” Cherry says.


Outside of Toy Universe, there’s an orange seat that’s made to look like a cartoon couch. There’s enough room for about 2 aliens, with the 3rd spot taken up by a life-sized model of the cartoon character “Portia Puddles”, a purple cat wearing a yellow rain hat and rain boots. She’s sitting with her paws in her lap, seemingly swinging her legs back and forth. The top of Portia’s head and nose have their paint worn down a bit, but other than that, she looks exactly as she does in the cartoon.
Cherry stops when she’s just in front of the seat.
“You know, I’ve been to Toy Universe quite a few times, but I’ve never actually sat next to Portia on that seat.” She says, “It’s strange, because I’m a big fan of the cartoon she’s from.”
I know just what to do.
I press the button on the top of my hat, and Ai appears again.
“What can I do for you, Marshmallow?” It asks. 
“Would you be able to take a picture of me and Cherry sitting on that seat?” I ask, pointing at the seat. 
“Definitely!” It says.
A small camera lens pops up above Ai’s screen. Ai goes into “Camera Mode”, letting us see ourselves clearly on its screen. Cherry and I go to sit on the seat, with Cherry closest to Portia.
“Are you ready to take the picture?” Ai asks.
“Yep!”
Ai makes a beep sound to tell us that it’s taken our picture. It displays it on its screen and Cherry and I take a look.
“I can print it out, if you’d like!” Ai offers.
“Yes please!” Cherry and I say at the same time.
“Splendid! How large should I print these out?” Ai asks.
“For me, small enough to fit in my basket.” Cherry says. 
“And for me, small enough to fit in a page of my photo album!” I request.
“Gotcha!” Ai says.
A horizontal slot opens on Ai’s side, and it spits out our photos. Cherry and I rush to collect them.
“These look really nice!” Cherry exclaims, examining her photo closely, “Thank you, Ai.”
“My pleasure!” It says.
Then we enter Toy Universe.


The carpet on the floor of Toy Universe is fluffy and soft, and has a blue, green, yellow and orange checked pattern. The walls are lemon yellow, with star and planet themed stickers all over, and the ceiling is a deep blue and decorated with star-shaped lights. The many lines of toy shelves create maze-like paths throughout the store, jam-packed with plushies, dolls, and playsets alike. 
The owners of Toy Universe have a special way to make such a large room feel cramped, but not too cramped. There are lots of windows to the outside, letting fresh air in, there’s quiet, calm music playing all over the store, and there are plenty of places to sit, too.


“Welcome… To Toy Universe!” An Elephant Unit greets us cheerfully.
“Would you like a map?” It asks.
“Why not?” I say, picking up the map it prints out. Cherry leans in to see it, too.
“It’s a bit strange to receive a map when entering a Toy Store, but it does help.” Cherry remarks. 
We head towards the plushies area on our left. There are 2: one for regular plushies and one for licensed characters from video games or cartoons. The one on the left is the former.
The small room is full, from floor to ceiling, with plushies of all shapes and sizes. There are mostly animals, though there are a few food items and other miscellaneous and inanimate objects turned into plushies, most of them with silly or cute faces.
There’s a round, fluffy brown rug in the centre, surrounded by lace trim. The wallpaper has a muted floral pattern with lots of browns and soft reds, and the floor is carpeted in a soft beige.
I look up and down the shelves, eventually picking up a puppy plushie. Its fluffy fur is a light beige colour, and very soft, and it has big brown eyes that were calling my name.
I summon Ai again.
“Hey! Could you tell me how many chocolate coins this little guy costs?” I ask it, holding the plushie up for Ai to see.
“Sure thing! It’s very cute.” It says. Ai scans the plushie, displaying how much it costs: 20 chocolate coins.
“Perhaps not…” I say, setting the puppy plushie back down where it was. 
I show Ai a few more plushies I’m interested in, but the prices get steeper and steeper with every one I find. It’s certainly not unfair; a lot of work goes into making plushies like these, but I know Cherry can’t afford one today.


“We could look through the dolls section, if you’d like.” Cherry offers. 
We go through another door into the dolls section. Happy plastic and porcelain faces greet us, with their rosy cheeks and shiny smiles. Some dolls sit high up, whereas others can easily touch the floor with their shiny red shoes.
This room is very pink, with pink plush carpet, and soft pink walls. Small lights hang from the ceiling, along with strings of beads and other things.
“I’ve always loved dolls!” I say, “I have a pretty big collection at home.”
“I’m more fond of plushies, but I certainly see the appeal.” Cherry says.
I carefully pick up a doll wearing a mint green dress, which has lots of pretty lace edges and different layers. She has short, black hair that hangs around her shoulders, with black shoes and frilly white socks. Her face is very cute, with dark brown eyes, pinkish-red lips, and delicately drawn on eyebrows. 
I lift her up to Ai, and it scans her.
“Ooh, she’s very pretty! And on sale!” Ai says.
It shows the price on its screen: 13 chocolate coins.
“I could definitely get you that!” Cherry says.
I think about it for a moment.
“I wanna look around some more.” I say. Cherry nods.
“Of course.”


Next is the area for playsets and smaller toys. And the shelves are full of them! Shiny, colourful packaging holds tiny creatures, furniture, food, and even their houses.
I immediately spy a set of “My Horse Friends” figures, as well as a 2-pack of both Portia Puddles and her friend Henry Heights in miniature form. I eagerly show Cherry the latter.
“If you got me this, we could each have one!” I say.
“That would be nice.” Cherry says, “Well, do whatever you want!”
I hold the set of figures up to Ai to scan. 10 chocolate coins.
“Perfect! We’ll get these, then.” I say.
A slot opens on Ai’s side and Cherry places her coins one-by-one into it.
“Awesome!” I exclaim, “Shall we open them now?”
“Not yet.” Cherry says, “Let’s wait until we leave, because we might lose them here.”
“Good idea.” I say, “You wanna visit the Space Projection Room?”
“Absolutely!”


The Space Projection Room is a feature that only Toy Universe has. It’s a large room in the centre of the building that’s completely dark. It’s still got soft carpet, with comfy couches and chairs, and there are little pillows to sit on everywhere, too. But there’s a small, glowing device in the middle that projects images of stars, moons and planets all over the room. There’s also pretty dream-like music playing all the time. It’s like you’re really floating through space!
Cherry and I feel our way around in the dark and end up sitting on a small couch in a corner.
“This place has always made me feel calm and nice.” Cherry says.
“I agree.”
I watch the twinkling stars slowly drift along the walls. The mesmerising music makes me feel sleepy.
“Oh! Marshmallow!” Cherry exclaims, “Which of the Lightning Bugs is your favourite?” I think I can see Cherry’s silhouette turn to face me.
“Definitely Surge.” I answer. “I think she and I are pretty alike. Plus, she’s great at dancing.”
“Interesting.” Cherry says thoughtfully. “Well, I’ve always liked Spark more. Her singing voice is very unique. She’s the only Jam Alien in the trio, right?” She asks. 
I nod, but upon realising that Cherry can’t see me, I say, “Yeah. Surge and Stripes are both Charm Aliens.”


We’re both silent for a while, before I hear Cherry standing up and stretching.
“We’ve been here for a while, huh?” I say, standing up as well.
“Yeah. I kinda lost track of the time, and I need to grab some things from the store before it gets dark.” Cherry explains. “I guess I’ll see you later?”
“Sure!” I say.
We both leave Toy Universe. Cherry waves goodbye and walks off down the street, whereas I get Ai to teleport me back home.


I say hello to my parents and go upstairs to my bedroom. I sit on my bed, looking out my window. I can see the beach. The waves slowly roll onto the sand, and I can see a few other Aliens swimming around with each other.
It’s a bit late to visit Auntie Sprinkles and my cousin Merengue today. The sky is already a beautiful shade of orange. My parents will be cooking dinner for us all sometime soon.
I get up and pull my colourful, flower-patterned curtains closed.
Perhaps I’ll go to Candyopolis tomorrow.