Morik, meanwhile, alternated his activities between exploring the woods around the hidden home of the aliens, which given his camouflage skin was absurdly easy for him to do, or spending time with the others. This required a bit of effort, obviously. Although all four of the aliens were reasonably humanoid, there were aspects that prevented Jahv, Keyro, or Arion from readily being passed off in public. Even setting their unusual skin colors aside, Jahv and Keyro had antennae on their heads, and Arion had feathers.
Morik's face, however, was much more human than the others. And he had neither antennae nor feathers. Davy had managed to use some leftover face paint that he had stashed in his treehouse on Morik, and was able to get a much more realistic coloration than he had on Jahv's one and only journey to the outside world. Practice made perfect, apparently. There wasn't much to be done for Morik's long, dark green hair, but any parents who saw the boy just assumed he'd colored it that way for some weird reason. This caused some slight suspicion, but Morik was sufficiently polite and friendly that their worries were soon enough quelled. It wasn't as though Morik could really cut and color his hair, either. That would've given away his one unusual feature. Rather large pointed ears. He'd also accepted the name «Morris» for when he was hanging around with the others, at least when someone who didn't know who and what he was was around.
Morik had shown himself to be a good friend to anyone he visited. He'd also proven to be a good artist. He loved to draw, even if sometimes what he drew was a little unintelligible by Earth standards. Morik called it "recapturing memories of home". Apparently many of the sketches were drawings of his homeworld as he remembered it. Morik was also merciless with board games, although surprisingly he was completely inept when it came to video games. Perhaps it wasn't that surprising. He'd never been around working machines all that much. Just the crashed shuttle on the planet he'd been stranded on. Picking up on the rules of a board game was apparently a lot easier for him.
He was also no great fan of music. Apparently most forms of modern music hurt his very delicate ears. He couldn't stand heavy metal or rap, thought country sounded like some of the animals he'd heard on the jungle planet, and disco just plain nauseated him (although a lot of the other boys were in agreement with that particular judgment).
Despite all of this, Morik was still welcome in any group where Niklas or one of the others who knew about him were hanging around. It had been rather devastating for Morik when school had started. Morik, obviously, had never attended school, and it was generally agreed that attempting to hack into the school system's computer, an idea proposed by Jahv, and enrolling any of these kids would be pushing their luck a little too far.
Jahv, Keyro, and Arion didn't really understand the principle of school, either. Children on Jahv's and Keyro's world were educated by their parents. Arion, being royalty on his world, had had private tutors. He had no idea how other children on his planet were educated.
Which basically left weekends and the occasional holiday to get together. It was October, but it felt like July. Summer had decided to deliver one last blast of heat and humidity through the area. Davy and Niklas, who had gotten together with Morik, were extremely thankful that the day it happened was a Saturday. No school, no church — no responsibilities.
Davy and Niklas had been spending quite a bit of time together, especially on weekends. Davy didn't attend the same school as most of the other kids Niklas knew, being just outside the school district. Niklas knew that Davy tended to be lonely. There weren't a lot of other kids in his neighborhood. When Keith and Martin had first dropped in on Davy, during their «runaway» adventure, the poor kid had acted desperate for friends. Fortunately, through Keith and Martin, Davy had gotten to know a lot of the other kids in Niklas' neighborhood, and they managed to keep in touch despite the distance.
Today, Morik had conceived of a game for all three of them to play. It was a variation on hide-and-seek. Davy and Niklas would try to find Morik somewhere in the woods. If he found them first, he won the game.
They'd already been at it for nearly half an hour. Niklas and Davy were hot, tired, rather dirty, and a little scratched up. "I don't believe this," said Niklas. "These woods aren't THAT big."
Davy retained a certain determination. "Maybe we shouldn't be surprised. He has spent most of his years on a planet a lot wilder than this forest, dodging things a lot nastier than us."
"Yeah, but how far could he get?" asked Niklas. "I know he's got skin that blends in with the background, but he was wearing a bright yellow shirt and red shorts! We should've spotted him by now."
Then Davy's foot caught on something. He looked down. "Uh, Niklas…" Niklas looked down. It was a bright yellow shirt and red shorts.
"That dirty little camo-skinned cheater." muttered Niklas. "We'll never find him now."
Suddenly a cry that sounded something like a strangled eagle shot through the air, and Niklas and Davy barely had time to look up and see a stark naked Morik plummed down on top of them from a tree branch. Fortunately there were enough fallen leaves on the ground to cushion the tackle. "I think the word is — TAG!" proclaimed Morik, sitting atop the prone forms of Niklas and Davy.
"You crazy — " sputtered Niklas as Morik allowed him and Davy to get to their feet. "Nobody said anything about you taking your clothes off!"
"Nobody said anything about using them for bait or climbing trees, either, one way or the other, I might add, but it worked rather well, don't you think?" said Morik, grinning widely and retrieving his shorts.
"I think you cheated." said Davy.
"I think I won." stated Morik.
"I think I'm hot and tired and want something to drink." said Niklas.
"Good." said Morik. "Let's head back to the tent. I think Jahv got that glitch out of the food replicator finally."
"I hope so." said Davy, as the threesome headed off. "There's just something wrong about blue lemonade."
Upon arriving at the dome-tent that was home to the four aliens, they found that Jahv had indeed gotten the glitch out of the lemonade program. It was the proper color. The chocolate chip cookies were another matter, however. "Never saw purple cookies before." said Davy, trying to be polite and keep his gag reflex down. "With white chips."
Niklas closed his eyes, worked up his courage, and took a bite. "Well, they taste okay."
"I guess that's all that matters." said Davy, reluctantly tasting one. It was, as Niklas had said, perfectly fine in flavor.
"Don't know what to tell you, guys." said Jahv. "You should've seen what it did to the meal Arion ordered last night."
"Stuffed pakra roast is most definitely not supposed to be green." grumbled the young prince.
Conversation turned to other topics while everyone could still eat. "I still wish we could look around your world more." said Keyro. "It's just not the same, getting everything through computer screens."
"Your big brother tried that once." remarked Niklas. "From what I hear, it didn't go very well." Niklas turned to Davy for corroboration, but the youngster appeared deep in thought. That generally meant trouble.
"There might be a way." said Davy. "How would you lot like to attend a party?" "What?!" exclaimed all of the other boys — Jahv and Keyro in anxious expectation, Morik genuinely stunned, Arion moderately curious, and Niklas in utter shock. Niklas managed to get the next words in. "Did that purple cookie do something to your brain!?"
"The Halloween party." said Davy, grinning.
"What's — Hollow Een?" asked Jahv.
"Well, I don't know its entire specific origin, but these days, it involves kids dressing up in costumes for a night." explained Davy. The aliens suddenly caught on. "Used to be, kids would go around to houses in their neighborhoods, knock on doors and beg candy."
Jahv and Keyro tried to stifle laughter. They failed. So did Morik. The three aliens burst into raucous hysterics. Arion merely raised an eyebrow, as if finding both the concept and the other aliens' reaction equally absurd. When Jah
v finally recovered enough to speak, he said, "That has got to be the silliest excuse for a holiday I've ever heard in my life! But you said something about a party?"
"Well, the past few years, it's gotten kind of dangerous for kids to be out at night, going around to houses where maybe they don't know everybody." said Davy sadly. "There's some sick people out there. So the town decided that the best thing to do would be to have an organized, supervised party. It's in the local high school's gym, but it's run by adults, and kids of all ages are welcome."
"And with everyone in costume," said Jahv, "no one's going to notice a handful of actual aliens."
"You two will have to wear your uniforms." advised Niklas, speaking specifically to Jahv and Keyro. "Morik, I don't know. Come up with something. Maybe a military uniform. Arion, you'll need to wear a shirt." That got him a nasty glare from his highness, as if Niklas had somehow stated the pathetically obvious. "And I'm still not sure this is a good idea. Davy, costumes can't explain some of their features."
"No one paid that much attention to Jahv on his first public outing, until he got tossed into the fountain and threw a lightning bolt." said Davy. "No one's going to pay that much attention now."
"When is this party?" asked Keyro.
"Two weeks from tonight." said Davy. "I can give you directions to the school, and you can meet us there."
"Great!" said Jahv.
"Indeed," said Arion. "I haven't attended a proper celebration since I left my homeworld."
Niklas and Davy weren't sure what to make of that remark, but decided to let it drop. They said their farewells, and headed out of their alien friends' new headquarters, and towards home. "I hope this doesn't blow up in our faces." said Niklas.
"Stop worrying." said Davy. "By the way, what were you planning on going as to the party?"
"I've been working on a pirate costume." said Niklas. "I've got this old striped shirt, and some ragged jeans my mom said I could cut up a bit. Put on a bandana and an eye patch and I think I'm set."
"I've got an old stuffed parrot toy." remarked Davy. "You could have your mom sew it to the shoulder of the shirt."
Niklas grinned. "Not bad. What about you?"
Davy stretched his arms. "Well, I was going to go as Adam from the Garden of Eden, but I'm not sure I can find a big enough fig leaf."
Niklas scowled, a desperate attempt not to grin. "You're sick, you know that?"
* * *
Two weeks passed. Niklas and Davy alerted the other neighborhood kids, those that knew about the four aliens, about their intended presence at the party. The more forewarned, the better off they might be in case something did go wrong.
The night of the party arrived. Niklas had arranged with just about everybody to meet in a darkened area behind the high school's athletic field scoreboard. Sniv, Jason, Fabian, Randy, and Jonathan had opted to head directly into the party. They were pleased to see their alien friends back, but they'd never been as involved with their activities as the rest of the boys.
Niklas had made good on his pirate outfit, complete with stuffed parrot. Davy had shown up wearing a sleeveless spandex leotard and claiming to be a professional wrestler. He'd inscribed the word «HUNK» on the front of the outfit. Keith was dressed in a leather jacket, blue jeans, and leather boots, stating that he was a biker. Martin was garbed in a loose-fitting white shirt, jeans even more shredded than Niklas', and a floppy straw hat — the sheer descendant of Huck Finn if there ever was one.
Keith wasn't quite able to restrain a few laughs when he saw Davy's uniform. "Jeez, Davy, if you have to advertise yourself that badly, why not rent out a billboard?"
"Watch it, pal, or I'll have to bodyslam you." countered Davy, more or less good-naturedly.
"So where's the aliens?" asked Keith.
"Here." came a new voice. Jahv, Keyro, Morik and Arion crept out of some nearby bushes. Jahv and Keyro were dressed in their usual spacesuits. Morik had taken the suggestion to dress in sort of a soldier's uniform, but he was going to have to pass himself off as a soldier of the future, given his long hair and the outfit itself, which consisted of a ridged, padded grey vest, black trousers with green and grey streaks in them, and the very high-tech boots. An insignia of Morik's own design was on the vest. He'd designed a cybernetic targeting eye to wear, in interesting high-tech contrast to the pirate eyepatch Niklas sported. Prince Arion was the wildest of all, garbed in a rather ornate, loose-fitting golden shirt, with turquoise trousers with red, glittering patterns running through it.
"Jeez, bird-head, what Las Vegas wardrobe did you raid to get that outfit?!" quipped Keith.
"I'll have you know that this is the ceremonial garb of the Royal House of Korras!" snapped Arion. Indeed, he'd managed to replicate it through the equipment in the dome-tent from memory. "And this is not how I am accustommed to attending parties."
"Just remember, this party isn't in YOUR honor." said Davy. Between Keith's wisecracks and Arion's attitude level obviously being set on «high» tonight, he was starting to get a little worried. "And don't expect to be announced when you walk in, either."
Arion snorted. "Barbaric primitives. No sense of ceremony."
The group headed out of the hiding place and towards the gym. "Anybody know what the rest of the gang was going to show up as?" asked Martin.
"Jonathan said something about showing up as an accident victim." remarked Niklas.
"That's hardly fair." said Keith. "You're supposed to come in costume, not as yourself."
"You sit on something sharp before you came here tonight, Keith?" asked Davy. "Tone down the attitude a bit."
"Yes, Hunk." said Keith.
"Fabian and Jason said something about coming as rock stars." added Niklas. "I don't know what Sniv or Randy had in mind."
The group entered the gym. Despite the presence of several hundred children and teenagers of varying ages, all the way from preschoolers to high schoolers, it didn't take long to spot the others. Jonathan had wrapped a bandage around his head and spattered red paint on it. He was also wearing a torn T-shirt that he'd drawn a tire tread across (or possibly rolled an actual tire across given how authentic it looked), and had smeared a bit of fake dirt and blood on his arms and legs. He was being given a generally wide berth.
Fabian and Jason were wearing phony, frizzed out wigs — Fabian's was green, Jason's was purple. They were dressed in tie-dyed T-shirts and blue jeans, and were carrying guitars. Keith muttered under his breath that they should call themselves the "Eyesore Twins". Randy was wearing a silver snow suit, which he'd attached NASA logos to, claiming he was an astronaut. Sniv had dressed as Spider-Man, apparently buying a commercially-produced costume, to which he'd added red rubber boots on which he'd drawn the web pattern, but instead of a mask, he'd painted his face with the Spider-Man mask pattern — entirely red, with black webbing lines, and the large, slanted black outlines around the eyes, with white centers.
Throughout the room was a miasma of costumes. Clowns, robots, monsters, animals, other superheroes, and several things defying description. At least three kids had gotten together and made a massive costume of some sort of nondescript but horrific-looking six-legged monster. Arion had to be restrained from attacking it. Niklas wondered how any of the inhabitants of the costume were able to get refreshments. Or even see where they were going. And milling through the crowd and watching over the refreshment tables were several dozen adults — in varying degrees of nervousness.
Music was playing, but only a few high schoolers were dancing. It was early in the evening, so everyone was still comparing costumes, and some of the younger kids were playing games.
"Uh-huh — and this race thinks of itself as an intelligent species." remarked Arion. "Riiiight…"
"Could be worse." said Niklas. "My sister could be here." Tina had managed to catch a nasty cold, and her parents refused to let her attend. It had taken all of Niklas' strength not to tease the daylights out of her over that one, but he realized doing so would lik
ely get him barred from the party, as well. He'd let her have it later.
"Hey, amigo!" called a voice, and Sniv turned. It was his friend Ricky, whom he had first met when Keith and Martin had run away. He didn't see the boy all that often. Ricky was dressed — sort of — as a soldier. But nothing like Morik. He'd smeared green and brown paint on his face and arms, and was wearing a camouflage T-shirt and trousers. "Nice outfits!" said Ricky, then looking at Morik. "Wish mine looked that good." Ricky came from a poor family. The shirt and trousers were probably actual clothes of his.
"You look fine." said Sniv. "I think you've met some of the others?" Niklas and the rest of the group had wandered over.
"Yeah, but not those guys!" said Ricky, seeing Jahv, Keyro, Morik and Arion for the first time. "Those gotta be the best costumes I've ever seen!"
Sniv gulped. Ricky had never been introduced to the aliens. It just hadn't worked out. "Uh, yeah. This is Jeff, Kevin, Morris, and — Arion." Jahv and Keyro had been willing to assume names that were a little more normal-sounding for the night. Morik had simply taken up his usual «Morris» identity. Arion had categorically and obstinately refused any alteration to his name.
Ricky scowled. "That's a weird name. You not from around here, amigo?"
"Hardly." said Arion with an icy tone to his voice.
Sniv and Ricky wandered off. Niklas walked up to Arion. "What's ruffled your feathers — pun intended?"
Arion glared. "Do you have the slightest idea what 'ameegoh' means in my language?"
"Well, in his language, it means friend — so make nice." said Niklas. Arion just shrugged. "Are there refreshments around here?"
Niklas pointed at towards the long refreshment table. It was actually a bit of a buffet. Somebody had reasoned that there was no reason to just have candy at the party. Besides, who wanted to deal with several hundred sugar-whacked kids in costumes? The high school wanted their gymnasium left relatively intact, thank you. Arion nodded and walked off.
My Friend is an Alien (niklas and friends) Page 15