Chapter One – Jake:
I should have known something was up when shooting stars were flying overhead, visible in the night, moving far faster and with more agility that I thought was possible, yet I decided to ignore it. The next morning it was still on my mind, but shrugged my shoulders, dumped my backpack onto the back seat of my car, got in and drove to school.
I muddle through school, not doing great, but not one of the ones who're always bringing home D's and such. I managed to maintain a B- average, unlike my cousin who regularly gets an A average. She's the type people get jealous of: good looks and breezes through school with seemingly little effort.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Cori, probably the shortest person in our year at just over five feet, slam her locker shut in frustration. She jammed her books into her backpack and threw it onto her back, storming through the crowds.
I closed my own locker, holding my books in my hand and walked after her, quickly catching her short stride with my longer one.
"What's the problem?"
"Dez," she muttered, diving into the girls' bathroom so I couldn't follow her. That one-word answer was all I needed to hear from her.
Dez was her older brother/parental unit/authority figure, and had been for the past two years. Unfortunately, even though they were siblings, they didn't exactly get along much. Cori picking up smoking habits and routinely staying out until the early hours of the morning didn't help matters much.
I turned to walk away, heading towards my first class, when Cori walked out of the bathroom, her hands still wet. Giving them a quick shake, she looked up at me.
"He's being annoying, as usual. Giving me crap about this, that and the other. He's saying I should concentrate on schoolwork more. He's one to talk: he left high school when he was my age, with nothing to show for his education. At least I'm holding a C average."
I said nothing, just nodded to show the pretence that I was listening to her. She usually bitched about the same thing every morning, although whether it was out of actual annoyance or just longing for her brother to be her brother again, I wasn't sure.
"Oh, I don't believe this!"
Breaking me out of my thoughts, I turned to look at Cori, eyebrow raised as if to ask what had happened.
"I forgot my Algebra homework! Mr. Matthews is gonna have a shit-fit. I'm gonna have a week of detention!"
"I'm afraid you'll have to make that two weeks of detention, Cori," a stern voice said, and I knew who it was before I'd even turned to look. Vice-Principal Chapman, widely known as someone who'd put students in detention for small things such as putting gum under the table. If you were caught swearing, then you could easily say goodbye to your freedom for at least a couple of weeks.
"Ah, Vice-principal, I didn't mean to, it's just slipped –"
"Two weeks, Cori. And there's no use trying to worm your way out of it," Chapman said, walking away.
Cori muttered an epethit quietly, and for once, I agreed with the sentiment.
ooooooooooooooo
"I was beginning to wonder when you'd get out of detention," I muttered later that day as Cori flung her back into the back of my car. "I've been waiting here for a good fifteen minutes.
"Chapman met me in the corridor after I left and gave me a stern lecture about the use of 'inappropriate' language in the corridors." She sighed. "How was basketball practise?"
"Same as usual. Couple of good attacks and baskets, mainly mediocre ones, Brad was reprimanded yet again. If he carries on like this, he'll be kicked off of the team Never mind that he's close to being kicked out due to his grades anyway."
"Mmm, yeah," Cori said, leaning against the side of my car. "Mind you, you're pretty close to being kicked out too."
"No, I'm not. I'm well over the GPA needed."
"Yeah, you were last semester. This one? Uh-uh, not as much luck."
"I'm still doing all right. I just need to concentrate more on studying."
"And less staring at Cassie's ass."
"I don't stare at her ass. I don't stare at anything of hers."
"No, you more cast sideways glances at parts of her anatomy, pretending that you've been concentrating on your work whenever someone shows the slightest chance of having noticed you doing said glancing." Cori sighed again. "Why don't you just ask her out already? What's the worst that can happen?"
"I get shot down," I said flatly. Rejection was not something I was good at, especially romantic rejection. I considered myself one of the best basketball players in out high school, and I was devastated when I wasn't allowed to complete in an inter-state basketball tournament. Being rejected by someone I liked would probably give me more than a few days of teenage depression.
"You ask, you get shot down, you move on. That's life," Cori said, opening the door and sitting down in the passenger seat. "Come on, if you don't hurry up your parents and my brother are gonna wonder where we are…or more specifically, what we were doing."
"I get the message," I replied, walking over to the driver's side, then freezing, looking skywards. "Cori?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you believe in aliens?"
"Why?"
"I think I just saw an alien spaceship crashlanding." Leaping into my car, I jammed the key into the ignition, started the car and yanked the steering wheel. Pressing the accelerator all the way down, I sped out of the car park and headed in the direction of the crashing ship.
ooooooooooooooo
"So, let me get this straight. You –" Cori said, pointing to Tobias, "– were stargazing and saw this unusual phenomenon occurring and rushed over here, phoning up her –" she pointed to Rachel "– who then phoned up you –" she moved to look at Cassie "– and you all rushed over here while you –" she then pointed at me "– phoned him –" she pointed at Marco "– and told him to get his ass over here? And then you –" she turned, pointing at Branden "– were skulking here anyway."
"Yeah," everyone said, with varying degrees of confidence and embarrassment.
"Well, so long as everyone's clear on having a seven-people party when that thing lands –"
"If it lands," Branden replied with a snort of annoyance. "It's probably just a low-flying aircraft or something."
"A low-flying aircraft which seems to have trouble staying up in the air," Tobias replied, head inclined to look up at the sky, a pair of binoculars in his hands. Squinting at the aircraft, he instead looked through the binoculars, and shook his head. "Too far away, and not enough light to see through them." He handed the binoculars back to Cassie, and scratched his forehead.
"What is it circling for? If it was damaged, surely the pilot would land it. It's almost like it's looking for something," Rachel said. Almost as soon as she stopped speaking, the craft banked sharply, heading straight for us.
"Good going, Rachel, the pilot thinks you're an expert in aviation engineering, and is going to crash into us in order for him to ask you how to fix his craft," Marco snapped as all seven of us backed off, trying to stay close enough to see the craft, but far away enough to avoid being crushed, as Marco so eloquently put it.
After a few minutes of panic, the craft finally came to a halt, and we could see how alien-looking it was.
About the size of a minibus, it had a scorpion-like tail arching over the top of it, looking like a weapon. All of us shuffled forwards slightly, wanting to investigate but none of us daring to venture further than anyone else.
Tobias stepped forwards, and almost as soon as he did so the door of the craft opened. The interior lights blinded up for a few seconds then, as our eyes adjusted, we could see who the pilot was.
"A deer?" Cori asked in disbelief, shaking her head.
"A weird deer if it is one. What deer have you seen with arms and a scorpion tail?" Marco shot back. The owner of the craft stepped onto the ramp leading from the door to the ground, and instantly collapsed.
"Are you all right!" Cassie yelled, rushing forwards. Her worry about seeing someone injured overcame her fear of who that someone was, and spurred the rest of us into action.
"You're injured, what happened?" she continued to question, putting one of its many-fingered hands around her shoulders, holding them up. Her eyes tracked along their body, noticing the many burns marring their blue-and-tan fur.
What he said next would change all of our lives.