by Carrie Ryan
And second of all, Duncan wasn’t wearing a shirt.
He did something completely insane then, even for him. He actually put down the bat, walked over to the porch where KC was standing, and sat down next to her on the steps.
Between you and me, I’ve always kind of suspected there was a little something going on between Duncan and my sister. Why else does Duncan always go, “Sorry,” whenever KC comes storming in when Duncan and I are downstairs in the den playing Halo, and tells us to be quiet when she’s trying to study? Who says “Sorry” when a girl does that, instead of just fart and wave the fumes in her direction, like a normal person? Clearly, Duncan is in love with my sister.
And how come ever since I started going out with Amber, KC’s always ragging on me about not spending more time with Duncan? Clearly, she is in love with him.
I don’t know how I could have missed the signs.
Next thing I know, Duncan is asking Kaleigh, “It was you, wasn’t it? You’re the one who slipped the note under the Dulles County women’s softball team’s locker room doors just before their game against the Pritchard Wolves, warning them not to drink from their cooler.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. But KC evidently did, since she sat down onto the porch right next to him and asked, her eyes huge, “How did you know?”
“My cousin’s friend is friends with a girl on the Dulles County team,” Duncan said. “She told him all about it. How they opened their cooler and smelled it, and it was filled with—”
“I know,” KC said, wincing. “It was Amber. I didn’t find out until it was too late to stop her. She’d already done it. All I could do was warn them.”
Duncan nodded. “I figured as much. Right after that game, you quit the team. I just put two and two together. You did the right thing, Kaleigh. It’s always best to tell the truth.”
I still didn’t understand a thing they were talking about. I was like, “Hello. Remember me? Could someone tell me the truth? What did my girlfriend put in her opposing team’s Gatorade?”
But KC was too busy giving Duncan this big kiss—and Duncan kissing her back—to answer me.
So I just sat down on the lawn and concentrated on looking at the moon coming up over the Garrisons’ house across the street, instead of how much I wanted to puke.
Until I heard the noise of tires crunching on the driveway. It was like two o’clock in the morning by then, and at first I was kind of worried it might be Amber (this one time, she thought I was sexting with her best friend, Taylor Hotchkiss, so she came over and lit our mailbox on fire).
But it turned out to be Radha, KC’s best friend.
“Oh, my God!” Radha whisper-shouted as she ran across our driveway. I guess she didn’t want to wake up the neighbors, or our parents. Radha should’ve known by now that our parents could sleep through anything, including a spaceship landing. “KC, are you all right? I just read your blog. I came right over. I—”
“They’re busy,” I told her.
“When did that happen?” Radha asked, meaning my sister and Duncan.
“Don’t ask me,” I said with a shrug. “I just live here.”
She took off her cineplex uniform visor and ran her fingers through her hair, which was long and shiny. With the moon coming up, I could see that Radha’s eyes were a real pretty brown, which I’d never noticed before because she and KC were always running off into KC’s room and slamming the door.
“This is all very upsetting,” she said. Then she started going on about how many hits KC’s LiveJournal had gotten in just an hour. She thought it was because Amber had posted the link to her Facebook page.
“And you know your girlfriend’s got a zillion friends,” she said. “They must’ve posted it to their pages, and, well, now it’s pretty much gone viral.”
“Amber’s not my girlfriend anymore. She broke up with me,” I said. I don’t know why I thought it was so important to share this news. I think it was the fact that Radha smelled a lot like popcorn. I didn’t even realize until right then that popcorn is my favorite food.
So it was excellent that a second later, Radha threw her arms around me.
“Oh, Kyle!” She started snuggling her head and other parts of her body against me in a way that I really appreciated. “I’m so sorry about what happened to you that night when you were six! It explains so much about you, though. How could Amber not be more understanding of what you’ve been going through all these years? I’m so sorry you and KC have had to carry this terrifying burden alone for so long.”
I was like, “Uh, yeah. It has been pretty terrifying.” To tell the truth, I mostly can’t remember much about it anymore. Except that thing in old Doc Hall’s office, when he was stabbing KC, and then got electrocuted himself, or whatever. That was messed up. For him, mainly.
“You should know that you don’t have to be alone anymore,” Radha said. “I’m here for you now.”
Then our mouths kind of bumped into each other’s, and I started kissing her.
I’m not saying I took advantage of the situation, or anything. I just realized I might have been going about this alien thing the wrong way, keeping it a secret and everything. Duncan was right: It’s always best to tell the truth. I should have encouraged KC to tell everyone the truth a long time ago. It’s an excellent way to get girls—nice girls like Radha who smell like popcorn—instead of girls like Amber, who I have to admit can be kind of scary sometimes.
That’s what I was thinking as the moon finally rose over the top of the Garrisons’ house, and flooded our front yard …
… and Taylor Hotchkiss’s dad’s Audi suddenly pulled up in front of our house, the brakes screeching, with Amber leaning out the front passenger window, screaming.
Interview of Radha Singh
RESTRICTED ACCESS: EYES ONLY
Honestly, I only went to the Conrads’ house to see if there was anything I could do to help. I wasn’t quite sure I believed what KC had written. I certainly believed she believed something strange had happened to her the night of her sixth birthday.
But it’s difficult in this day and age to think that aliens have visited our planet and not been tracked by our own government’s very advanced radar technology. No offense to you nice people, of course.
Then Amber Johnson showed up and began screaming abuse out of Taylor’s car window at poor Kyle. I can’t even tell you all the things she said, because it wouldn’t be polite.
“Kyle Conrad,” she was yelling, really very loudly. “I hate you! You can have your team jersey back. I don’t want it anymore! Here are our tickets to prom … I don’t want to go with you anymore. And here’s the present you gave me for my birthday …”
The next thing I knew, Amber was throwing many things across the Conrads’ lawn, including a bottle of Justin Bieber cologne Kyle said he’d given her (because she’d asked for it, he later explained. Kyle says he’s not a fan of Justin Bieber) and a card he’d made for her for Valentine’s Day, which happened to be highly personal in nature, I noticed as it flew by.
As if the fact that she was causing a very emotional scene in front of me and KC and Duncan wasn’t enough, the wind had suddenly begun to blow quite hard, and was scattering everything Amber had thrown out of the car across the neighborhood. Kyle’s team jersey flew across the street. The valentine ended up in a tree. It was really all very upsetting and quite tasteless.
“Would you please chill out?” I heard Kyle say to Amber. “This is not cool.”
“You know what’s not cool?” Amber screamed back. “You saying you loved me when you were in love with your best friend’s mom the whole time!”
Then things really got out of control. Both KC and Duncan jumped to their feet and began marching down the lawn toward Taylor’s car, looking perturbed. I didn’t know what to do, so I started running after the things that were blowing away, like the valentine. I was thinking that in the wrong hands, it could be quite embarrassing for Kyle.
�
�And who’s that?” Amber shouted, pointing at me. “How many sluts do you have, anyway, Kyle?”
I must say I’ve never in my life been called a slut. It was a tiny bit thrilling, but also quite embarrassing. I could feel myself turning bright red, and saw that Kyle had an outraged expression on his face. I will admit that this was also a bit thrilling.
Excuse me, I forgot to ask, you won’t be making this video available for public viewing, will you? Oh, good, thank you.
Well, before Kyle could say anything, I saw KC grab Duncan’s baseball bat and stalk up to Taylor’s car.
“Hey,” KC said. “You ladies want to live?”
I must say, mine wasn’t the only jaw that dropped. Amber’s did, too.
“Are you threatening us, KC?” Amber asked. “You better cut it out, or you aren’t going to know what hit you.”
“No,” KC said, angrier than I’ve ever seen her. She was still holding the baseball bat in the air. But she wasn’t looking at Amber. She was looking up. “In about ten seconds, if you don’t get out of that car, you aren’t going to know what’s hit you.”
I looked up, following KC’s gaze.
And I realized the light I’d been seeing that I’d been mistaking for the moon wasn’t the moon at all.
It was a large spacecraft … its engines were what had been causing all the wind.
And a second later, it landed directly on top of Taylor’s car.
Interview of KC Conrad
RESTRICTED ACCESS: EYES ONLY
It was a pretty dramatic entrance, landing on Taylor’s dad’s car like that. I don’t mind admitting, I was scared. Someone could have been seriously hurt.
But of course thanks to my warning, no one was. Taylor and Amber escaped just fine … not that you’d have known it from the way they carried on. Neither of them was the least bit grateful to me, either. It was like they thought he’d done it on purpose. Which I’m sure he didn’t. He wouldn’t want to draw that much attention to himself.
Things had changed a lot since the last time he’d been there. Now ours wasn’t the only house in the middle of a bunch of empty lots. So he couldn’t just swoop in and out undetected, the way he had ten years ago. Dozens of other houses had sprung up all around ours.
Which meant everyone in the whole neighborhood came out onto their front porch to see what the racket was when Taylor’s dad’s car got squashed … including my parents, Duncan’s mom and dad, the Garrisons, everyone in town, practically, who wasn’t already up and on their way over to my house because they’d read my blog entry, like you guys.
And those of our neighbors who didn’t grab a cell phone and start filming what they were seeing used their phone to call the local news and tell them to get over there right away. It was an instant media frenzy.
Which I’m sure is what made him switch on the force field. That’s what the big blue light was that came out from his ship and circled it … and us, Kyle, Radha, Duncan, and me. It totally freaked out my parents. Like they weren’t freaked out enough that there was a spaceship on the front lawn.
“Don’t worry, kids! I called the base!” Dad yelled. He’d rushed down to the side of the ship. “General Henry and the rest of the boys are going to be here any minute. They’re bringing everything we’ve got. Whatever this thing is”—he banged against the force field—“it doesn’t stand a chance against those new Phantoms we just got in. We’ll have you out in no time!”
This was so like my dad. Someone was messing with his kids? He’d call the Air Force base where he worked and get them to drop a missile on them. Never mind that he might be starting an intergalactic war.
Meanwhile, next to him, Mom was calling to us reassuringly, “It’s all right, kids. It’s going to be fine. You’re destined for greatness!”
That almost made me laugh. Because Mom didn’t remember where she’d heard that the first time. We’d told her that. The guy who’d crash-landed his spaceship on Taylor’s dad’s car had said it.
But I didn’t feel like laughing a few seconds later when the door to the ship started to open.
Because even though Duncan was right—it’s always best to tell the truth—I’d never intended for this to happen. It wasn’t the same thing at all as outing your brother’s girlfriend for unsportsmanlike behavior.
Now because of me, the poor spaceman who’d only wanted help saving his planet was probably going to get nuked.
Kyle must have realized how terrible I felt, since—just like that night on our birthday a decade earlier—he reached out to grasp my hand.
“Mom’s right, you know,” he said, when I glanced over at him. He was smiling. “He selected us for a reason. It’s going to be all right.”
But I had trouble smiling back. Sure, we’d been selected … probably because I’d been the only person on earth—or at least in Peachtree County—who hadn’t had the sense to run away.
So why, because of my stupid mistake, did poor Duncan and Radha have to be dragged into it? They were innocent bystanders.
Not that they were looking that upset about the situation—in Duncan’s case, anyway. Radha had reached out to grasp Kyle’s other hand a bit worriedly, to be totally truthful.
But Amber had apparently gotten over her near-death experience, and was now jealous that she wasn’t the focus of the Channel 4 news crew that had pulled up and was filming us through the force field. Taking a cue from my dad, Amber started banging on the side of the force field, only she was demanding to be let inside, not that we be let out.
The spaceman completely ignored her—and everyone outside the impenetrable barrier he’d erected around us—as he leaned out of the door of his ship and smiled at us.
“Children,” he said, “I’m so sorry about the mess.”
Just like ten years ago, I found myself hypnotized by the blue of his eyes …
… until I saw him glance—for the briefest moment—in the direction of my dad.
“Hurry up!” Dad was yelling into his cell phone, his expression stricken. “He’s got my children!”
“Don’t worry,” the spaceman said in a soothing voice, glancing back at us. “You’ll be completely safe with me. Come in.”
But if we’d be completely safe with him, this tiny part of my brain asked, what did he need the protective force field for?
That’s the only reason I brought the baseball bat into the ship with us. So I guess you can call it premeditated if you want to. Something told me I’d need it.
And it turned out I was right.
Interview of Duncan Mulroney
RESTRICTED ACCESS: EYES ONLY
I’m only going to say this once, because I don’t like how you guys have been running this little show. So listen close.
That space dude may have been all smiles and blue eyes for the cameras outside that ship. But inside, where no one was taping, it was another story.
All Kaleigh was trying to do was ask him why, if he wasn’t planning on doing anything wrong, he needed the force field. Fair enough, right? She’d known this guy since she was a kid. She was concerned. She was trying to protect him. And us, too. She was trying to explain how that kind of thing might not look good, especially to a guy like her dad, who’s in charge of a squadron of fighter jets.
But did the dude listen to her? No way. He was completely ignoring her, messing around with a bunch of switches on his control board.
That’s when we noticed the mucus. It was soaking through his human suit. Because that’s what he was wearing: A human suit to cover up the fact that he was actually a six-foot slug.
We found that out when Kyle stepped up and pulled off the dude’s mask. Underneath, he was … well, I’m all for diversity, but where those blue eyes had been were tentacles. Instead of a mouth, he just had a gash … a gash filled with razor-sharp teeth.
Once the mask came off, things got ugly. Pun intended. The dude picked up what looked a lot like a gun and pointed it at all of us.
“I only bothered dis
guising myself to look as disgusting as you to make you trust me,” he hissed. “There’s no need for that now.” He pressed a button, and this blue laser appeared at the tip of the gun he was holding. “I warned you never to reveal my presence to anyone, and you didn’t listen. So I will take the implants now. There must be no evidence I was ever here.”
“Uh,” Kaleigh said. I have to hand it to her. She looked scared, but she stood her ground. “It’s a little late for that. There was a news crew out there, not to mention two dozen people with cell phones. Video of what’s happened here is probably all over the Internet by now.”
“Outside this ship,” the alien said. And I swear, he smiled with that slug mouth as he turned the gun toward us. “But no one will ever know what’s happened inside. Because no trace of any of you will ever be seen again.”
So, let’s say some alien civilization from way out there in the Andromeda Nebula discovered our planet. What do you think they’d do? Share with us all their advanced technology, so that we too could roam the universe in search of new worlds, like James T. Kirk and the rest of the crew of the starship Enterprise?
No freaking way.
First, they’d send out scouts to gather as much intel about us as they possibly could … their own Christopher Columbuses. Especially intel about our military and defense systems.
Only they couldn’t just go strolling into government offices and military bases, could they? Not when the mucus of their real skin soaks right through their human costumes in about five minutes. Sure, it might fool a kindergartner hopped up on birthday cake. But no one else.
So they’d need another way to gather all the information required for the mass invasion they’ve been planning. Because ultimately their goal would be to colonize us, after first enslaving us, then kill us off when they didn’t need us anymore.
That’s exactly how we’ve always done it when we’ve discovered new worlds. Why should they do anything differently?
This guy’s solution was to find little kids—especially ones whose parents work for the government, the military, or even local hospitals in some capacity—to stick these little data recorders in, and gather as much info from them as he could.