Yeerkish Archives 4.593
Article #584790232
Found: Earth, North America, site of Invasion, among the clothing of the
human Krystie Mennson. Now host of Markann-Four-Three-Seven.
Item: Document
Transcript translation into Yeerkish is as follows:
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March 17
Hello, Journal. You know, I really have to think of another name to call you. I mean, you don't talk to people like that. You don't say, hello, adolescent, or how ya doin', senior citizen? If you do you're probably in a room with padded walls! I know some people would say you're not a person, but I think you are. You are to me. You're very important.
How about I call you Yoda?
All right, all right, I know. I'm not writing about what I said I was going to. I got off track. I do that a lot. I suppose you know that, don't you? I needed to write about what...what happened. Maybe if I write it down, it will finally make sense. Maybe I can puzzle out what's going on.
Probably not. Oh, well, it's worth a try.
It happened Friday, the day of the sleepover at Ashley's house, when I just had to take that dare. Of course I had to. That's how Truth or Dare works! And I couldn't exactly tell Diana about Stevie, could I? She thinks he's such a dork! Her and Ashley are always dumping on him...Well, here I am, getting off track again. But anyway, I took the dare to walk through that empty lot at night. She said midnight, but I managed to make it a little earlier. So I found myself walking down the hill behind our house, you know, the one with all the nice sparkly rocks in it that I used to collect when I was little, being positive they were some sort of uranium or something? Well, I passed the mall part, and that was still alive, pretty much. There were some of the regular nightbirds out, doing whatever they do. I didn't pay attention. I was walking along as fast as I could, wishing I was in home and in bed and that Ashley had never thought of doing Truth or Dare. I actually thought about just going back and pretending I had never done it when I heard a voice behind me. Startled, I glanced back. It was just a group of kids, laughing and joking like any normal group of kids. I thought I recognized a couple of them from school. Sighing, I turned back, and there in front of me was Diana! I almost screamed, but managed not to just in time. I asked her what she was doing there, and she looked all guilty and said she was sorry she had told me to do this dare, that it was too dangerous and we should go home. It was then I had to get in my brave and honorable warrior mode and say that I would go through ten thousand construction sites any night she named! She still looked nervous, so finally I started walking toward the site, all caught up in this brave thing. She called me back, and then ran toward me to try and keep me back, and I started telling her we should do it now that we were here anyway, and what was going to happen to us, and such stupid things, when suddenly she stops and points at the sky and says, "Hey! Look at the shooting star!" I turned and looked. It was really weird, because this sure wasn't like any shooting star I ever saw. It was really big, and slow. It was when it started getting closer that I realized it wasn't a star. I told Diana so. "That's no star," I said with my Obi-Wan Kenobi voice. "That's an Imperial Death Star!" "Wait a second," Diana said then, and she was looking sort of scared. I sighed and watched it, and suddenly it hit me. I wasn't too far wrong. It was a U.F.O.
Okay, Journal, I mean, Yoda, stop looking at me like that. I can tell when you're skeptical; I have to erase a lot. But it really happened. I swear. Wait 'till you hear what happened next.
After the ship touched down-oh yeah, I need to describe it. It was sort of like a bus, with
Eek. Sorry, Yoda. Gotta go. Mom is yelling about something with my name it it. Be back soon!
All right, I'm back. Apparently Rosie was rooting around in some neighbor's azalea bushes again, and Mom said she was my responsibility, and I had to take care of it, blah, blah, blah. She was probably just going to see her new dog friend from down the street, that golden retriever or whatever, Hamlet I think his name is. Hooter. Homer, something. Ms. Pinkissy just has to break up everybody's relationships just because she got divorced last month...
Why am I talking about this? I'm supposed to be writing about last night. I don't even want to think about last night. I'm still hoping that in school tomorrow Diana won't remember, and then I'll know it was just a dream. All right, I'll go on. The ship was about the size of a bus, with this round...bridge, I guess...on front, and a long shaft moving away from it, and these two engines at the end, and-this was the weird part- some kind of blade curving up next to them, like a scythe or something. It sure didn't look like the U.F.O.'s I'd seen pictures of. There was no way you could mistake this thing for a weather balloon.
So it kept coming toward us, and we were just staring, when Diana said suddenly, "It's going to hit us!", but just as she said it, the ship landed, just like that. It didn't even need a runway, or anything. Then it just sat there, and nothing happened. In about two minutes our hearts started beating again. "Oh, man," Diana kept saying. "Oh, man." And then I pointed, and told her to look. On the other side of the ship, I could see that the piles of rubble were lit up, bright as daylight. "Something's happening over there," I told her. "We're missing it!" Diana said she really didn't care and she did not want to be abducted, the science project really wasn't that bad, and please could we go home now, and I said she could, but I was going to stay. I stepped forward and was trying to make myself go over there when there was another flash of light, and suddenly something moved in the sky. I looked up and there were two little red lights up there, getting bigger, and I knew they weren't planes. Diana, for no reason, started to cry. "I want to go home!" she moaned. I told her to go and stood staring. The twin lights were slowly descending, and just above them was something that blotted out the stars, black as the sky. "Wow," I murmured. "It's the annual extraterrestrial convention." "Krystie, let's go," Diana shouted, but I ignored her. I wasn't going to miss this! I stared, my sense of surprise gone, as the black thing, which looked like some sort of double-headed axe, vaporized one of those big John Deere caterpillar things that are always at construction sites.
Out of the black ship jumped creatures. They looked like...well, they looked sort of like those little dinosaurs in the Lost World, velociraptors, only they stood straighter and were covered with blades. I mean, blades like from a knife. They didn't look like somebody I wanted to mess with right then. Or ever, for that matter. "Aliens," I murmured. "Real, bona fide aliens!" Diana said something sarcastic which I ignored. I was glad she'd stayed. Then, behind the pointy dinosaur aliens, came something else. It was blue.
It looked like a centaur, like the one in Narnia, only...well, it was blue. It was covered in blue fur, and it had a tail curving up behind it that was not a horse's tail. It was more like the tail of a Stegosaurus, the ones with the sharp horns in their tails, the only defense they had against the T-Rex, or at least that was what I'd learned from reading dinosaur books when I was little. Or, maybe, more like a scorpion's tail, I thought. I remembered the scorpion in the zoo, the little white thing that glowed in the dark. It was hard to make a comparison. And then I heard the voice. I'll always remember it.
Well, well. I write it in italics because he, I'm sure it was a he, was not talking normally, but with telepathy, I guess, and I could hear it clearly even as far away as I was. Probably he used telepathy because he didn't have a mouth. What have we here? the blue creature said. A meddling Andalight? At least, I think he said 'And a light', just as if you were talking about a match, or something. Ah, but no ordinary Andalight warrior, he continued. Prince... then he said some name I didn't catch, and said something about shredding. I'm sorry, Yoda...I didn't exactly have time to take notes! I was still standing there, still in the process of stepping forward to go to the first ship. I tried to listen, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. Half the words didn't make any sense. I did notice that halfway through another blue creature came out from behind the ship, and I realized it was him the first had been talking to. I also got the feeling they weren't exactly friends.
Suddenly, the Andalight who had come down first struck at the other, his tail flashing faster than my eye could follow. The second one's shoulder looked wet, and he screamed. Aaaaaarggghhhh! Then some kind of energy beam shot out of the tail of the first ship, and hit one of the red- light ships, causing an explosion.
Abruptly my courage left me. This was no convention. This was a war! Diana started to whimper like she always does before she screams. I clapped a hand over her mouth. "We are leaving!" I shouted. Glancing back, I thought I saw one of the dinosaur aliens look at us. I started to run, grabbing Diana's hand. We both raced as fast as we could for the line of stores, not even seeing the bricks and rubble on the ground, tripping, getting back up, paying no attention to the world around us. Our eyes were only on the lights, the familiarity of humanity. We didn't stop running until we were stumbling up the hill behind her house. We collapsed on the porch and stayed there until Ashley opened the door and stared at us like we had just fallen out of the sky. We made up some lame story about going outside to look at the stars, and tripping and falling down the hill together. Ashley looked suspicious, but she said nothing. Finally, after all our cuts and bruises were cared after, she suggested a movie. "Sure," I mumbled. "What do you want to see?"
"Ooooh, Star Wars," Bonnye, the other girl at the sleepover, suggested. "I know you love Star Wars, Krystie!" Diana and I looked at each other.
"Not tonight," I said. "How about something more...cozy, like Little Women?"
Well, that's the story, Yoda. Pretty crazy, huh? I'm glad I finally got it all out. See, I was going to ask Diana what she thought about it, but she was asleep the whole morning and wouldn't wake up, and I had to leave without asking her. I even called her on Saturday, but her mom said she'd gone to audition for some school play or something. I'll have to talk to her at school tomorrow. Now, if you don't mind, I'm tired. I need to go do something that doesn't require thought, maybe play that new video game Mike got. See you tomorrow.
March 18
Hello, Yoda. I have the most impossible algebra homework. I want to know who invented algebra so I can go push them off a cliff. You know what, though? When I saw Diana today, in third period, she looked bleary-eyed, like she hadn't slept. I went up to her, but before I could say, "hi," she grabbed me by the shoulders and stared into my eyes. "It...never...happened," she said firmly. "Nothing....happened." She was shaking me with each word, and finally she let go and walked away quickly. I didn't know what to think. See, now this means it wasn't a dream, and it did happen, because why else would she be telling me it didn't? I really don't know what to do about any of this.
Well, anyway, in fifth period, guess what. Stevie looked at me...
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...such a great time I can't believe I didn't want to go!
April 17
Hello, Yoda. I'm sorry I haven't written to you for a long time. But nothing exciting's happened since I went to that one dance with Stevie, and he didn't even ask me out, though I was sure he was going to. But what happened, hey, it's exactly a month ago now...it's been on my mind, and I've decided how I can get it to stop bothering me. In English we're supposed to write a science fiction story that's not happening in the future, but in the present. I know what I'm going to write about.
Hmm, I'd better fake that conversation between those blue guys, though. It would sound stupid if I said it like I did to you, like I wasn't paying attention. I'll ask Diana. Maybe she'll remember more than I did.
I really don't want to go to that swim meet tomorrow. Maybe I can get out of it...go ice skating and bruise my hip, or something. Course, Mom would probably say something about how hips are not crucial in swimming and both the physical and social exercise is good for me...sigh. I wish I'd never signed up for this stupid swim team. The Triangle Tritons, huh. And I can't believe Ashley quit, after we agreed we'd be in it together. I don't know what's happened to her these days. She's all different, distant. She doesn't seem to care anymore...the only times she talks to me are when she tells me to join the Sharing. It's supposed to be some really cool club. They do all sorts of neat things. But I don't know anyone in it except Ashley, and I'm not going to join just because she's there, not after what's she's done. Double sigh. Good night, Yoda.
April 20
I did it! I wrote the story, and I put all my best effort into it. I think it's the best thing I've ever written! Maybe I could be a writer when I grow up, instead of a doctor like my mom wants me to be.
I tried to make friends with Ashley again today. I asked her if she wanted to come to Emerald Pointe this weekend...you know, the waterpark? But she just said no and that she had to go to a Sharing meeting. Then she asked me again if I wanted to join. I turned and walked away. Some people you just can't make friends with.
The weirdest thing happened yesterday, though. I went up to Diana and cornered her by the water fountain so she couldn't run away, and asked her about that night, to see if I remembered. At first she denied that it happened, and it took me a whole minute before she agreed that it really did happen, which naturally it did. I asked her if it didn't happen, why was she getting so flustered about it? That turned her around. I asked her about the conversation between the two Andalights, and for a moment she just looked at me. I waited, because I know Diana has this amazing memory. So I started to go over it, saying the first part which I remembered, and pausing at the part where the Andalight from the black ship said the other's name. At first she said, nothing, but then she began to recite the conversation, from beginning to end. I was standing there, shocked, scribbling it down. I asked her what the name was again, because it really was long and hard to understand. "Elfangor," she said softly, then shouted, "Elfangor! Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul! Now leave me alone! I don't want to think about it!" And she pushed past me and ran into the bathroom. I stood there, sort of in shock, and I heard footsteps behind me. I turned, and there was this tall blond girl staring at me, sort of in total shock. I heard someone else coming, and down the hallway in the other direction came another girl, shorter than the first, with dark skin and hair. "Did you-" she started, and the blonde shook her head, looking at me. I looked abruptly away and bent to the water fountain, taking a long drink. When I looked up, they were both gone.
April 21
You'll never guess what happened. Miss Nimmons loved my story! In fact, she loved it so much that she had to show it to the entire class and crowed over metaphors or something, and she almost made me read it, but I think she got a clue that I didn't want to. Maybe it was because I fell out of my chair and tried to hide under my desk. Now she's posted it in the hall and even wants me to do illustrations. I can't even draw a circle, but it would be cool if it could have illustrations, so I might ask this girl I know, Lyra, to do them for me. She's always drawing...once I borrowed her notes and all over the margins were the weirdest drawings, of dragons and women in crowns and things like that.
I don't think Stevie likes me anymore. I said hi to him in gym and he looked at me like he didn't know who I was.
April 22
Miss Nimmons put the story up today, during lunch. Lyra had agreed to do the drawings, so we spent the whole lunch period together, bent over her sketchpad. She's really pretty nice. When it finally was up, illustrations and all, I was so proud I stood watching it between fifth and sixth period, leaning against the lockers. I wanted to see if anyone would read it. It really looked good, with Lyra's illustrations almost exactly like it had looked that night. Maybe I could make it into a book someday.
Of course, I never told anybody it wasn't fiction.
Finally, just as I was about to leave, somebody looked at it. This guy was passing by with a blond girl, talking a mile a minute. She was rolling her eyes beautifully and trying to walk faster to get away. He glanced over at my story as he passed it and suddenly stopped, staring. "Whoo-ooo-ooo," I heard him say. "Rachel, look."
"What now?" she sighed, turning. Then she looked. "No way."
"Way!" he said, jabbing at the illustrations. "Way way way! And somehow I don't think one of them would put this up for everybody to see!" The girl, Rachel, was staring at my story, reading it as fast as she could.
"It's right," she muttered. "It's right. This can't be possible!"
"Hey, let's go," the boy muttered, pulling her away. "What if Chapman sees us?"
"We've got to tell Jake," Rachel was saying. They were walking right past me. I couldn't resist. I jumped out in front of them and asked them if they liked it. They sort of gawked at me.
"You wrote that?" Rachel asked, pointing. I replied that I most certainly had, proud as a peacock.
"Yeah, well, it was interesting," the boy said, looking at me. He seemed to be worried about something. "You spelled Andalite wrong, though." I looked at him, shocked, protesting I most certainly did not misspell it and how would he know, anyway?
I think the conversation would have continued, but the one-minute bell rang, and I jumped. "Gotta go," I said, and hurried off.
"Poor kid," I heard him say as I left. "Poor, poor, poor kid."
Now, if that isn't weird, what is? Hey, you know what? I just realized. I think that blond girl was the one who looked at me funny, back when I asked Diana about the conversation between the Andalights.
When I was leaving today, I saw the assistant principal reading my story! I'm so happy everyone likes it!
April 30
Hi, Yoda.
Yeah, I know I haven't written for awhile, I'm sorry. It's just I've been so depressed I didn't feel like it. You won't believe what happened. I don't even believe what's happened.
You know how Ashley and Diana always would dump on Stevie, insulting everything about him, calling him a dork, saying his name was stupid, only babies have named that end in "ie", that sort of thing. I would sort of stand there, while they talked, not feeling like their friend anymore, like I was outside some kind of circle. Sometimes I would defend him, but mostly I would be too...too much of a stupid coward to do anything. Yeah, well, now I think I should have spoken up, but maybe not. I don't know. I just don't know.
It was between third and fourth period, right after art--I had tried to talk to Lyra again about illustrations, I was thinking of submitting my story to a magazine and I wanted her to do some mroe drawings--but instead of agreeing like last time she had just looked at me, sort of scared, muttered something about her stomach hurting, and ran off to the nurse's room. It was just an excuse to leave, I know it--the nurse is only at school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Everybody just hates me now, I don't know why. Diana runs away from me, Ashley won't even talk to me, and people keep staring me in the hall like I just grew extra eyes or something. Extra eyes...I don't want to think about that either. But I haven't even gotten to the worst part. It started out fine, in fact it started out great. Stevie came up to me in the hall--I was so shocked I dropped all my notebooks--and asked me if I'd like to come to a Sharing meeting with him! He said it was lonely there, no one interesting had joined.
"Yeah," I said. "Just people like Ashley, who won't even look at you without sneering!" I laughed sort of nervously. He looked at me a little strangely, but didn't say anything, just nodded.
"Um..." I said, trying to hold onto my notebooks, "So when is--"
"Seven o' clock," he said. "Be there." Then he walked away. Not exactly the most romantic of invitations, but wonderful all the same. I forgot all about the terrible things that happened that day and rushed through the rest of the day, then hurried home and spent the rest of the day freaking out about the date, getting ready, changing about six times. And I usually don't care about that stuff too much. Diana, before...well, before it happened, she used to call me the "Unfashion freak", like I didn't care about fashion, which I didn't, until tonight...and a fat lot of good it did.
So I went to the Sharing meeting, and was really excited, it looked like everyone was having fun. Maybe I had been dumb not to go for so long! I looked all around for Stevie, and finally saw the back of his head--he was sitting on a couch. I went over and was about to say 'Hi' when I suddenly noticed who he was sitting next to. Who he had his ARM around and into whose mouth he was placing a dip-loaded potato chip! No one but Ashley! Ashley, who had taunted him, for so long...and who was sitting across from them, laughing, but Diana!
I must have made some kind of noise, because they looked up.
"Oh, hi, Krystie!" Ashley said. "So glad you're here!"
"Oh, very glad," Diana said, grinning and laughing, tossing back her hair. I stared. Diana NEVER tossed back her hair! She was always quiet...Ashley was the loud one! They all sat there, grinning, so strange. But why were they strange? They could be happy, they could be excited like anyone...but there was just something strange about it, I couldn't name what it was, but it was there...
"It's great that you've finally joined the Sharing!" Stevie said. "We've been waiting and waiting for you to join..."
"You never said so," I said, finally managing to speak. "And Diana! You never told me you joined!"
Diana shrugged and laughed, a strange laugh which made my stomach clench. "Well, you were being a bit distant!"
"Ashley, why did you quit the swim team?" I asked. "We PROMISED we would both take it!"
"Oh, are you still on that old subject?" Ashley said, sniffing. "I just got tired, that's all. The Sharing was more important."
"The Sharing really is great!"
"Yes! Thank goodness you finally joined!"
They're brainwashed, I thought suddenly, crazily. They've all gone insane. These were not the friends I knew, they were strangers. I turned and walked away.
"Oh, Krystie, don't go!" Diana called in her new, loud voice. "Please stay."
"You've got to stay!" Stevie said, sounding suddenly angry. "She's GOT to stay!"
"Hey, Stevie, calm down, it's under control," Ashley was saying.
But I walked away, not listening to them. I was going to leave, but they started a video and everybody was crushed around me, I couldn't see the door. So I just sat down and started writing. I'm still sitting here, not sure what to do. I'm sure I'm imagining this change in them...I'm just tired and disappointed because Stevie likes Ashley more than me. I thought he liked me, but he just likes me as a friend and wanted me to come here. It's nothing more than that. But still...that's the worst thing that could happen to anybody! Your ex-best friend stealing a guy you've liked forever, and she didn't even LIKE him before...
Yoda, I have to write this fast. I'm scared. During the movie somebody came up to me and told me to come in the next room a minute, they wanted to talk to me about joining. I didn't want to, but then I saw it was Mr. Chapman, and you don't disobey your assistant principal. Besides, he had liked my story, so I went. But instead of somebody talking to me about joining, there was a cage in that room, and nothing else. Somebody shoved me in the cage and locked it--Mr. Chapman had disappeared--and then shut the door.
So here I am, alone in the dark, and I have no idea what's going on. I'm scared, Yoda! I don't know what to do! I think I've been kidnapped...I don't understand!
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Transcript translation into Yeerkish is as follows:
Begin transcript...
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March 17
Hello, Journal. You know, I really have to think of another name to call you. I mean, you don't talk to people like that. You don't say, hello, adolescent, or how ya doin', senior citizen? If you do you're probably in a room with padded walls! I know some people would say you're not a person, but I think you are. You are to me. You're very important.
How about I call you Yoda?
All right, all right, I know. I'm not writing about what I said I was going to. I got off track. I do that a lot. I suppose you know that, don't you? I needed to write about what...what happened. Maybe if I write it down, it will finally make sense. Maybe I can puzzle out what's going on.
Probably not. Oh, well, it's worth a try.
It happened Friday, the day of the sleepover at Ashley's house, when I just had to take that dare. Of course I had to. That's how Truth or Dare works! And I couldn't exactly tell Diana about Stevie, could I? She thinks he's such a dork! Her and Ashley are always dumping on him...Well, here I am, getting off track again. But anyway, I took the dare to walk through that empty lot at night. She said midnight, but I managed to make it a little earlier. So I found myself walking down the hill behind our house, you know, the one with all the nice sparkly rocks in it that I used to collect when I was little, being positive they were some sort of uranium or something? Well, I passed the mall part, and that was still alive, pretty much. There were some of the regular nightbirds out, doing whatever they do. I didn't pay attention. I was walking along as fast as I could, wishing I was in home and in bed and that Ashley had never thought of doing Truth or Dare. I actually thought about just going back and pretending I had never done it when I heard a voice behind me. Startled, I glanced back. It was just a group of kids, laughing and joking like any normal group of kids. I thought I recognized a couple of them from school. Sighing, I turned back, and there in front of me was Diana! I almost screamed, but managed not to just in time. I asked her what she was doing there, and she looked all guilty and said she was sorry she had told me to do this dare, that it was too dangerous and we should go home. It was then I had to get in my brave and honorable warrior mode and say that I would go through ten thousand construction sites any night she named! She still looked nervous, so finally I started walking toward the site, all caught up in this brave thing. She called me back, and then ran toward me to try and keep me back, and I started telling her we should do it now that we were here anyway, and what was going to happen to us, and such stupid things, when suddenly she stops and points at the sky and says, "Hey! Look at the shooting star!" I turned and looked. It was really weird, because this sure wasn't like any shooting star I ever saw. It was really big, and slow. It was when it started getting closer that I realized it wasn't a star. I told Diana so. "That's no star," I said with my Obi-Wan Kenobi voice. "That's an Imperial Death Star!" "Wait a second," Diana said then, and she was looking sort of scared. I sighed and watched it, and suddenly it hit me. I wasn't too far wrong. It was a U.F.O.
Okay, Journal, I mean, Yoda, stop looking at me like that. I can tell when you're skeptical; I have to erase a lot. But it really happened. I swear. Wait 'till you hear what happened next.
After the ship touched down-oh yeah, I need to describe it. It was sort of like a bus, with
Eek. Sorry, Yoda. Gotta go. Mom is yelling about something with my name it it. Be back soon!
All right, I'm back. Apparently Rosie was rooting around in some neighbor's azalea bushes again, and Mom said she was my responsibility, and I had to take care of it, blah, blah, blah. She was probably just going to see her new dog friend from down the street, that golden retriever or whatever, Hamlet I think his name is. Hooter. Homer, something. Ms. Pinkissy just has to break up everybody's relationships just because she got divorced last month...
Why am I talking about this? I'm supposed to be writing about last night. I don't even want to think about last night. I'm still hoping that in school tomorrow Diana won't remember, and then I'll know it was just a dream. All right, I'll go on. The ship was about the size of a bus, with this round...bridge, I guess...on front, and a long shaft moving away from it, and these two engines at the end, and-this was the weird part- some kind of blade curving up next to them, like a scythe or something. It sure didn't look like the U.F.O.'s I'd seen pictures of. There was no way you could mistake this thing for a weather balloon.
So it kept coming toward us, and we were just staring, when Diana said suddenly, "It's going to hit us!", but just as she said it, the ship landed, just like that. It didn't even need a runway, or anything. Then it just sat there, and nothing happened. In about two minutes our hearts started beating again. "Oh, man," Diana kept saying. "Oh, man." And then I pointed, and told her to look. On the other side of the ship, I could see that the piles of rubble were lit up, bright as daylight. "Something's happening over there," I told her. "We're missing it!" Diana said she really didn't care and she did not want to be abducted, the science project really wasn't that bad, and please could we go home now, and I said she could, but I was going to stay. I stepped forward and was trying to make myself go over there when there was another flash of light, and suddenly something moved in the sky. I looked up and there were two little red lights up there, getting bigger, and I knew they weren't planes. Diana, for no reason, started to cry. "I want to go home!" she moaned. I told her to go and stood staring. The twin lights were slowly descending, and just above them was something that blotted out the stars, black as the sky. "Wow," I murmured. "It's the annual extraterrestrial convention." "Krystie, let's go," Diana shouted, but I ignored her. I wasn't going to miss this! I stared, my sense of surprise gone, as the black thing, which looked like some sort of double-headed axe, vaporized one of those big John Deere caterpillar things that are always at construction sites.
Out of the black ship jumped creatures. They looked like...well, they looked sort of like those little dinosaurs in the Lost World, velociraptors, only they stood straighter and were covered with blades. I mean, blades like from a knife. They didn't look like somebody I wanted to mess with right then. Or ever, for that matter. "Aliens," I murmured. "Real, bona fide aliens!" Diana said something sarcastic which I ignored. I was glad she'd stayed. Then, behind the pointy dinosaur aliens, came something else. It was blue.
It looked like a centaur, like the one in Narnia, only...well, it was blue. It was covered in blue fur, and it had a tail curving up behind it that was not a horse's tail. It was more like the tail of a Stegosaurus, the ones with the sharp horns in their tails, the only defense they had against the T-Rex, or at least that was what I'd learned from reading dinosaur books when I was little. Or, maybe, more like a scorpion's tail, I thought. I remembered the scorpion in the zoo, the little white thing that glowed in the dark. It was hard to make a comparison. And then I heard the voice. I'll always remember it.
Well, well. I write it in italics because he, I'm sure it was a he, was not talking normally, but with telepathy, I guess, and I could hear it clearly even as far away as I was. Probably he used telepathy because he didn't have a mouth. What have we here? the blue creature said. A meddling Andalight? At least, I think he said 'And a light', just as if you were talking about a match, or something. Ah, but no ordinary Andalight warrior, he continued. Prince... then he said some name I didn't catch, and said something about shredding. I'm sorry, Yoda...I didn't exactly have time to take notes! I was still standing there, still in the process of stepping forward to go to the first ship. I tried to listen, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. Half the words didn't make any sense. I did notice that halfway through another blue creature came out from behind the ship, and I realized it was him the first had been talking to. I also got the feeling they weren't exactly friends.
Suddenly, the Andalight who had come down first struck at the other, his tail flashing faster than my eye could follow. The second one's shoulder looked wet, and he screamed. Aaaaaarggghhhh! Then some kind of energy beam shot out of the tail of the first ship, and hit one of the red- light ships, causing an explosion.
Abruptly my courage left me. This was no convention. This was a war! Diana started to whimper like she always does before she screams. I clapped a hand over her mouth. "We are leaving!" I shouted. Glancing back, I thought I saw one of the dinosaur aliens look at us. I started to run, grabbing Diana's hand. We both raced as fast as we could for the line of stores, not even seeing the bricks and rubble on the ground, tripping, getting back up, paying no attention to the world around us. Our eyes were only on the lights, the familiarity of humanity. We didn't stop running until we were stumbling up the hill behind her house. We collapsed on the porch and stayed there until Ashley opened the door and stared at us like we had just fallen out of the sky. We made up some lame story about going outside to look at the stars, and tripping and falling down the hill together. Ashley looked suspicious, but she said nothing. Finally, after all our cuts and bruises were cared after, she suggested a movie. "Sure," I mumbled. "What do you want to see?"
"Ooooh, Star Wars," Bonnye, the other girl at the sleepover, suggested. "I know you love Star Wars, Krystie!" Diana and I looked at each other.
"Not tonight," I said. "How about something more...cozy, like Little Women?"
Well, that's the story, Yoda. Pretty crazy, huh? I'm glad I finally got it all out. See, I was going to ask Diana what she thought about it, but she was asleep the whole morning and wouldn't wake up, and I had to leave without asking her. I even called her on Saturday, but her mom said she'd gone to audition for some school play or something. I'll have to talk to her at school tomorrow. Now, if you don't mind, I'm tired. I need to go do something that doesn't require thought, maybe play that new video game Mike got. See you tomorrow.
March 18
Hello, Yoda. I have the most impossible algebra homework. I want to know who invented algebra so I can go push them off a cliff. You know what, though? When I saw Diana today, in third period, she looked bleary-eyed, like she hadn't slept. I went up to her, but before I could say, "hi," she grabbed me by the shoulders and stared into my eyes. "It...never...happened," she said firmly. "Nothing....happened." She was shaking me with each word, and finally she let go and walked away quickly. I didn't know what to think. See, now this means it wasn't a dream, and it did happen, because why else would she be telling me it didn't? I really don't know what to do about any of this.
Well, anyway, in fifth period, guess what. Stevie looked at me...
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...such a great time I can't believe I didn't want to go!
April 17
Hello, Yoda. I'm sorry I haven't written to you for a long time. But nothing exciting's happened since I went to that one dance with Stevie, and he didn't even ask me out, though I was sure he was going to. But what happened, hey, it's exactly a month ago now...it's been on my mind, and I've decided how I can get it to stop bothering me. In English we're supposed to write a science fiction story that's not happening in the future, but in the present. I know what I'm going to write about.
Hmm, I'd better fake that conversation between those blue guys, though. It would sound stupid if I said it like I did to you, like I wasn't paying attention. I'll ask Diana. Maybe she'll remember more than I did.
I really don't want to go to that swim meet tomorrow. Maybe I can get out of it...go ice skating and bruise my hip, or something. Course, Mom would probably say something about how hips are not crucial in swimming and both the physical and social exercise is good for me...sigh. I wish I'd never signed up for this stupid swim team. The Triangle Tritons, huh. And I can't believe Ashley quit, after we agreed we'd be in it together. I don't know what's happened to her these days. She's all different, distant. She doesn't seem to care anymore...the only times she talks to me are when she tells me to join the Sharing. It's supposed to be some really cool club. They do all sorts of neat things. But I don't know anyone in it except Ashley, and I'm not going to join just because she's there, not after what's she's done. Double sigh. Good night, Yoda.
April 20
I did it! I wrote the story, and I put all my best effort into it. I think it's the best thing I've ever written! Maybe I could be a writer when I grow up, instead of a doctor like my mom wants me to be.
I tried to make friends with Ashley again today. I asked her if she wanted to come to Emerald Pointe this weekend...you know, the waterpark? But she just said no and that she had to go to a Sharing meeting. Then she asked me again if I wanted to join. I turned and walked away. Some people you just can't make friends with.
The weirdest thing happened yesterday, though. I went up to Diana and cornered her by the water fountain so she couldn't run away, and asked her about that night, to see if I remembered. At first she denied that it happened, and it took me a whole minute before she agreed that it really did happen, which naturally it did. I asked her if it didn't happen, why was she getting so flustered about it? That turned her around. I asked her about the conversation between the two Andalights, and for a moment she just looked at me. I waited, because I know Diana has this amazing memory. So I started to go over it, saying the first part which I remembered, and pausing at the part where the Andalight from the black ship said the other's name. At first she said, nothing, but then she began to recite the conversation, from beginning to end. I was standing there, shocked, scribbling it down. I asked her what the name was again, because it really was long and hard to understand. "Elfangor," she said softly, then shouted, "Elfangor! Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul! Now leave me alone! I don't want to think about it!" And she pushed past me and ran into the bathroom. I stood there, sort of in shock, and I heard footsteps behind me. I turned, and there was this tall blond girl staring at me, sort of in total shock. I heard someone else coming, and down the hallway in the other direction came another girl, shorter than the first, with dark skin and hair. "Did you-" she started, and the blonde shook her head, looking at me. I looked abruptly away and bent to the water fountain, taking a long drink. When I looked up, they were both gone.
April 21
You'll never guess what happened. Miss Nimmons loved my story! In fact, she loved it so much that she had to show it to the entire class and crowed over metaphors or something, and she almost made me read it, but I think she got a clue that I didn't want to. Maybe it was because I fell out of my chair and tried to hide under my desk. Now she's posted it in the hall and even wants me to do illustrations. I can't even draw a circle, but it would be cool if it could have illustrations, so I might ask this girl I know, Lyra, to do them for me. She's always drawing...once I borrowed her notes and all over the margins were the weirdest drawings, of dragons and women in crowns and things like that.
I don't think Stevie likes me anymore. I said hi to him in gym and he looked at me like he didn't know who I was.
April 22
Miss Nimmons put the story up today, during lunch. Lyra had agreed to do the drawings, so we spent the whole lunch period together, bent over her sketchpad. She's really pretty nice. When it finally was up, illustrations and all, I was so proud I stood watching it between fifth and sixth period, leaning against the lockers. I wanted to see if anyone would read it. It really looked good, with Lyra's illustrations almost exactly like it had looked that night. Maybe I could make it into a book someday.
Of course, I never told anybody it wasn't fiction.
Finally, just as I was about to leave, somebody looked at it. This guy was passing by with a blond girl, talking a mile a minute. She was rolling her eyes beautifully and trying to walk faster to get away. He glanced over at my story as he passed it and suddenly stopped, staring. "Whoo-ooo-ooo," I heard him say. "Rachel, look."
"What now?" she sighed, turning. Then she looked. "No way."
"Way!" he said, jabbing at the illustrations. "Way way way! And somehow I don't think one of them would put this up for everybody to see!" The girl, Rachel, was staring at my story, reading it as fast as she could.
"It's right," she muttered. "It's right. This can't be possible!"
"Hey, let's go," the boy muttered, pulling her away. "What if Chapman sees us?"
"We've got to tell Jake," Rachel was saying. They were walking right past me. I couldn't resist. I jumped out in front of them and asked them if they liked it. They sort of gawked at me.
"You wrote that?" Rachel asked, pointing. I replied that I most certainly had, proud as a peacock.
"Yeah, well, it was interesting," the boy said, looking at me. He seemed to be worried about something. "You spelled Andalite wrong, though." I looked at him, shocked, protesting I most certainly did not misspell it and how would he know, anyway?
I think the conversation would have continued, but the one-minute bell rang, and I jumped. "Gotta go," I said, and hurried off.
"Poor kid," I heard him say as I left. "Poor, poor, poor kid."
Now, if that isn't weird, what is? Hey, you know what? I just realized. I think that blond girl was the one who looked at me funny, back when I asked Diana about the conversation between the Andalights.
When I was leaving today, I saw the assistant principal reading my story! I'm so happy everyone likes it!
April 30
Hi, Yoda.
Yeah, I know I haven't written for awhile, I'm sorry. It's just I've been so depressed I didn't feel like it. You won't believe what happened. I don't even believe what's happened.
You know how Ashley and Diana always would dump on Stevie, insulting everything about him, calling him a dork, saying his name was stupid, only babies have named that end in "ie", that sort of thing. I would sort of stand there, while they talked, not feeling like their friend anymore, like I was outside some kind of circle. Sometimes I would defend him, but mostly I would be too...too much of a stupid coward to do anything. Yeah, well, now I think I should have spoken up, but maybe not. I don't know. I just don't know.
It was between third and fourth period, right after art--I had tried to talk to Lyra again about illustrations, I was thinking of submitting my story to a magazine and I wanted her to do some mroe drawings--but instead of agreeing like last time she had just looked at me, sort of scared, muttered something about her stomach hurting, and ran off to the nurse's room. It was just an excuse to leave, I know it--the nurse is only at school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Everybody just hates me now, I don't know why. Diana runs away from me, Ashley won't even talk to me, and people keep staring me in the hall like I just grew extra eyes or something. Extra eyes...I don't want to think about that either. But I haven't even gotten to the worst part. It started out fine, in fact it started out great. Stevie came up to me in the hall--I was so shocked I dropped all my notebooks--and asked me if I'd like to come to a Sharing meeting with him! He said it was lonely there, no one interesting had joined.
"Yeah," I said. "Just people like Ashley, who won't even look at you without sneering!" I laughed sort of nervously. He looked at me a little strangely, but didn't say anything, just nodded.
"Um..." I said, trying to hold onto my notebooks, "So when is--"
"Seven o' clock," he said. "Be there." Then he walked away. Not exactly the most romantic of invitations, but wonderful all the same. I forgot all about the terrible things that happened that day and rushed through the rest of the day, then hurried home and spent the rest of the day freaking out about the date, getting ready, changing about six times. And I usually don't care about that stuff too much. Diana, before...well, before it happened, she used to call me the "Unfashion freak", like I didn't care about fashion, which I didn't, until tonight...and a fat lot of good it did.
So I went to the Sharing meeting, and was really excited, it looked like everyone was having fun. Maybe I had been dumb not to go for so long! I looked all around for Stevie, and finally saw the back of his head--he was sitting on a couch. I went over and was about to say 'Hi' when I suddenly noticed who he was sitting next to. Who he had his ARM around and into whose mouth he was placing a dip-loaded potato chip! No one but Ashley! Ashley, who had taunted him, for so long...and who was sitting across from them, laughing, but Diana!
I must have made some kind of noise, because they looked up.
"Oh, hi, Krystie!" Ashley said. "So glad you're here!"
"Oh, very glad," Diana said, grinning and laughing, tossing back her hair. I stared. Diana NEVER tossed back her hair! She was always quiet...Ashley was the loud one! They all sat there, grinning, so strange. But why were they strange? They could be happy, they could be excited like anyone...but there was just something strange about it, I couldn't name what it was, but it was there...
"It's great that you've finally joined the Sharing!" Stevie said. "We've been waiting and waiting for you to join..."
"You never said so," I said, finally managing to speak. "And Diana! You never told me you joined!"
Diana shrugged and laughed, a strange laugh which made my stomach clench. "Well, you were being a bit distant!"
"Ashley, why did you quit the swim team?" I asked. "We PROMISED we would both take it!"
"Oh, are you still on that old subject?" Ashley said, sniffing. "I just got tired, that's all. The Sharing was more important."
"The Sharing really is great!"
"Yes! Thank goodness you finally joined!"
They're brainwashed, I thought suddenly, crazily. They've all gone insane. These were not the friends I knew, they were strangers. I turned and walked away.
"Oh, Krystie, don't go!" Diana called in her new, loud voice. "Please stay."
"You've got to stay!" Stevie said, sounding suddenly angry. "She's GOT to stay!"
"Hey, Stevie, calm down, it's under control," Ashley was saying.
But I walked away, not listening to them. I was going to leave, but they started a video and everybody was crushed around me, I couldn't see the door. So I just sat down and started writing. I'm still sitting here, not sure what to do. I'm sure I'm imagining this change in them...I'm just tired and disappointed because Stevie likes Ashley more than me. I thought he liked me, but he just likes me as a friend and wanted me to come here. It's nothing more than that. But still...that's the worst thing that could happen to anybody! Your ex-best friend stealing a guy you've liked forever, and she didn't even LIKE him before...
Yoda, I have to write this fast. I'm scared. During the movie somebody came up to me and told me to come in the next room a minute, they wanted to talk to me about joining. I didn't want to, but then I saw it was Mr. Chapman, and you don't disobey your assistant principal. Besides, he had liked my story, so I went. But instead of somebody talking to me about joining, there was a cage in that room, and nothing else. Somebody shoved me in the cage and locked it--Mr. Chapman had disappeared--and then shut the door.
So here I am, alone in the dark, and I have no idea what's going on. I'm scared, Yoda! I don't know what to do! I think I've been kidnapped...I don't understand!
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