by PJ Ryan
"Yes Rebekah?" he asked as he situated the projector so that its images would shine on the white screen he had pulled down in front of the chalkboard.
"Mr. Woods, you can't seriously be teaching a class on aliens," Rebekah said with her chin raised high in the air.
Mr. Woods smiled patiently as he looked at Rebekah. He was a fun teacher most of the time. His hair was always wild and sticking up in different directions. He wore slightly bent glasses that were always crooked on his nose, making his blue eyes look like they were two different sizes. His clothes were always rumpled, and at least three days out of the week he found a reason to wear a white lab coat. He was surely one of Rebekah's more liked teachers, but she did not expect such a silly class from a science teacher.
"Yes, I am teaching a class about the possibility of life on other planets," he said with a smile. "Who is to say what is beyond what we know?"
"Uh, I believe that science has made it clear there is no life on other planets," Rebekah pointed out.
"Actually-”, one of the girls sitting in the front of the class spoke up. "The Mars Rover recently discovered that water was once on the planet and that it might have been habitable. Maybe they will find out that there was once life on it!" she said, her voice full of excitement.
"There is a big difference between aliens and microbes," Rebekah said sternly. The girl in the front of the class was Libby, and she was rather strange in Rebekah's opinion. She was always wearing t-shirts that had funny pictures of aliens and strange animals on them.
"Maybe Rebekah," Mr. Woods agreed. "And I am not here to tell you that there is life on other planets, I am just curious what you might think life would be like on other planets."
"It wouldn't exist," Rebekah said sternly.
"I think it would be much better than ours," Libby spoke up. "I bet aliens are much more peaceful than we are."
"No, aliens are not real," Rebekah said firmly.
"Rebekah, everyone is allowed to have their own ideas," Mr. Woods warned. "We should let Libby share hers too."
Libby looked over her shoulder at Rebekah and smiled.
Rebekah forced a smile back and then slumped down in her chair. She did not like where this class was going. For the rest of the class Mr. Woods showed slides of different images of aliens that people had reported seeing or imagined that aliens would look like. At the end of the class he gave an assignment.
"I want each of you to take some time tonight and think about what a being from another planet might look like. Then you can draw this image for me, and tomorrow we can take a look at everyone's ideas. I think you might be surprised by how different they will be."
Rebekah rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath about how pointless the assignment was. It was not that she didn’t like drawing, but she felt talking about aliens in science class was silly. As the kids started to leave the classroom she fell into step beside Mouse.
"This is crazy isn't it?" she asked him.
"What is?" he tucked his hand in his pocket to keep Whiskers calm.
"Drawing pictures of aliens. Who really believes in aliens?" she asked.
"I do," Libby said from behind them.
"Well you're wrong," Rebekah said as she turned around to face Libby.
"How do you know?" Libby asked with a smile. She was a friendly girl, just not very bright, in Rebekah's opinion.
"Because, it has been proven again and again," Rebekah said and shook her head.
"Not all things can be proven or ruled out by science, at least not yet Rebekah, you should be a little more open about it," Libby suggested sweetly. Then she looked at Mouse.
"How's Whiskers?" she asked and peeked in his pocket when he held it open for her to see.
"Happy," he smiled. "She likes the cheese you told me about," he said. When Libby walked away, Rebekah looked at him curiously.
"What cheese?"
"Oh I was having a hard time getting him to stay in my pocket, so Libby gave me some goat cheese to try,” he smiled and held out a crumble of the cheese.
“Ew,” Rebekah scrunched up her nose. “That is smelly!”
“Yeah it is, but Whiskers likes it!” he smiled.
“Well she may know her cheese, but she sure doesn't know her science,” Rebekah smirked.
“Are you sure?”
Mouse asked and twitched his nose, not unlike his pet mouse did.
"Of course I am sure," Rebekah sighed. "Don't tell me you believe all of this stuff too!"
"I don't believe it," he said with a shrug. "I just don't not believe it either. I mean, lots of things are possible today that we didn't think were possible in the past, so maybe just maybe, we don't know everything," he offered her a silly grin.
"Maybe," Rebekah said thoughtfully. She had never even considered that aliens could be real. But now that she thought about it, she was curious.
That afternoon when she got home from school she sat down in front of her computer. She knew that if there were aliens, someone must have seen them. There had to be some proof somewhere. She started looking up information on aliens. The more she looked up, the more shocked she became. There was a lot of information about aliens and people who said they had seen them. One site, the scariest of all, said that some aliens could even look like and talk like human beings!
"How will we ever know who is an alien if they look like us?" Rebekah wondered with horror. She printed off a list of things to look for when looking for an alien.
1. Flashing or floating lights in the sky. These floating lights could be alien space craft looking for a good place to land, or other aliens that have already landed!
2. Odd behavior or a strange appearance. If someone you meet seems very weird, you might just have met an alien.
3. Oddly shaped eyes. Aliens have huge eyes that are hard to hide. If you see someone with eyes that are strange colors or shapes, this might be an alien.
4. Glowing or green skin. If someone seems to be glowing, or has green patches on their skin, this might be their true alien being shining through their human disguise.
She still was not sure if she believed in aliens, but it was good to have a list to use to spot them, just in case. She tucked the list into her camera case and then continued to search. She was a little surprised to find that while there was no scientific proof of aliens, people had been spotting aliens for many years. Some people even thought aliens lived right along beside them. It was an odd idea, and one that Rebekah was sure was not true, but still, she did have to wonder.
End of the preview. Continue reading to discover if Rebekah changes her mind about aliens!
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“Rebekah - Girl Detective”
#1 The Mysterious Garden
#2 Alien Invasion
#3 Magellan Goes Missing
#4 Ghost Hunting
#5 Grown-Ups Out To Get Us?!
#6: The Missing Gems
#7: Swimming With Sharks?!
#8: Magic Gone Wrong!
#9: Mystery At Summer Camp
#10: Zombie Burgers
#11: Mouse's Secret
#12: The Missing Ice Cream
“Mouse's Secret Club”
#1: Let It Snow (Inside the Gym!)
#2: Haunted Playground
“RJ - Boy Detective”
#1: The Mysterious Crate
“Rebekah, Mouse & RJ: Special Editions”
Prank Gone Wrong
Halloween Haunted House
Thanksgiving Turkey Trouble
Christmas Party Mystery
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