Why bother with an introduction when no one cares enough to read this anyway? Let me just start. I remember this day very clearly.

On the first day's morning on the first month of the new year, I slept in because I really didn't care who got picked in the annual Meeting of the Stars. Who cares, who cares. Just another person I will never know from halfway across the world, where people are encouraged to follow their dreams and not their family's legacies.

Everything was quiet until a loud knocking came from the front door, then doorbell-ringing, then shouting. Finally, after a grudging sigh I pull myself up and do a quick change of clothes, and rush out to pull open the door.

It was Lu Han, of course. No one else is that persistant about... well, anything having to do with me, really. Happy kid that cares maybe a bit too much about everyone around him, a caring personality with a cute face and talent, too. He's got his dreams and he'll dream them, no matter what anyone says to him.

Sometimes I wish I could be like that.

...Right, so he was at my front door, looking like he ran for miles without stopping. I later figured out that he actually did, because in the next second he gasps out: "You-" wheeze "-you're the Human of the Year! Why-" huff "-weren't you there?"

At this point I'm pretty sure I was still half-asleep and not hearing correctly, because I just blink and reply with a "What?"

"The Human of the Year!" he raises his voice as much as he can without going into a coughing fit. I clap his back and roll my eyes.

"Lulu, just because I wasn't at the Meeting doesn't mean you can joke around-"

"Would I have ran this entire way to JOKE with you? Dude, GO! The stars themselves are calling for you!"

By now I'm very awake but with a blank mind. Information in one ear, then out the other without ever making it to the brain. So I grab his arm and yank him with me to the garage, where I pull out my bike ("Hop on behind me." "The universe itself is waiting for you and you're worried about me?" "Shut up or I'll leave you behind.") and we race off down the street.

"I swear, Lulu, if you're pulling my ankle-"

"I'm dead serious. Hurry up! It's almost noon, the solar system's delicate place in the galaxy-"

"Not that again."

"Just- can't you go any quicker?"

"Do you want to fall off?"

"We really need to get there-"

"Because I'll push you off."

"Kris-"

"I'll do it."

"...meh."

"Thank you. So how much did I miss?"

"The opening ceremony and the big speech about the world and the history of the whole thing, you know. Then they called your name and you weren't even there, that was kind of... honestly, Kris."

"Ha-ha. Just my luck." I mutter flatly.

After I moved away to the Western hemisphere for a while, Lu Han started calling me Kris because "I needed a Western name". That was the day I decided to call him "Lulu" too, just because that's what you do in middle school. Ridiculous nicknames.

By then we were almost there and we jump off the bike without braking, throwing it into a bush. In our rush I forgot about it and Lu Han drags me to town square, where I can hear the crowds of the entire town and the area around it. All talking about "where the Human of the Year went, why, when will he be here, what will happen if he doesn't show up in time".

This was probably the only time this anything close to this has ever happened in recorded history, and nobody knew what would happen if the chosen Human didn't chat it up with the stars before the solar system's balance became broken for another year. Maybe they wouldn't be the Human of the Year at all. Maybe the world would just go Human-less until next year's big winner.

But I made it, and the crowds fell silent as I stepped up to the stage, facing the balding old men that have kept the tradition since their first year on the job, which was probably a while ago. Despite all things I was anxious, hesitant. Heart rate high, but it could have just been the bike ride here. Though I was late the tradition is kept true, and I am ushered forward to the front of the stage, for a quick word and the typical thank-you to no one in particular. I say something about "an honor to be chosen" or something like it and I'm once again ushered over to the town hall building, to the Meeting Room.

It's where every Human of the Year from this area has met with the stars since it's creation. The Human is supposed to sit in the room and listen or concentrate or call forth something, but as I sat in the room, small and empty and silent but for the crowds all dispersing outside, nothing happened.

Nothing to listen to, nothing to concentrate on, nothing to "call forth".

I was alone in a room trying to find something that wouldn't come. For a minute I wondered if maybe I missed it, it's too late, the stars have left us, whoops sorry, but no one comes to get me and I'm just sitting there in the chair waiting for something, anything, to happen. Finally I got bored enough to think about my life and my choices, and remember back to when I first met Lu Han.

It was over the summer of third grade and I was picking at a flower that had started to wilt, when he ran up from behind me and asked to play basketball with me.

"Because playing alone is kind of sad, don't you think?" he said, but he was smiling wide. I agreed, and now I can't remember why, but I'm glad I did. We've been friends ever since.

As we were playing I went easy on him because of our height difference, and he must have noticed.

"Everyone I play with does that! You know someday I'm gonna be really tall too! Or, y'know, I'm gonna make sure I'm so awesome it doesn't matter that I'm short!"

To this day he's still pretty short, but at least he grew from third grade, and he's kept that optimistic confidence. I smile, just a bit, thinking about it.

Then the doors open with a creak and the main old guy nods and says to me:

"The stars have officially decreed, you are the Human of the Year."