When Fern got home she decided to put the poem aside and work on her story. She wanted to finish it before Christmas. Fern sat down at her desk and put the note on top of her Sherlock Holmes book and pulled out the notebook from under it. She flipped to the page where she left off and began to write about her character Winston. She gave him rough features, but when she imagined him she imagined a boy with a quiet demeanor and gentle spirit. Fern got a sudden burst of inspiration from this and began writing as fast as her hands could move.

At The Park…

D.W. walked along the path to the park. From her widow facing the sidewalk she'd seen Brain pass by their house, headed for the park earlier. As she skipped along she thought about Arthur liking Fern. It seemed strange to her; she always imagined her brother having a crush on someone like Francine or Sue Ellen. Really, anyone but Fern. D.W. turned the corner to the park and saw Brain sitting down on a park bench, reading a book on Biology. She smiled to herself before straightening up and walking over to Brain.

"Hello, Brain," she said with a big smile. He looked up and nodded.

"Hey, D.W.," he greeted her. "What brought you to the park?"

"Oh…uh, I just wanted to go for a walk," she lied. "What are you reading about?"

"Genetic engineering," he said, "Do you know what that is?"

D.W. didn't have a clue what that meant, but she didn't want Brain to think she was dumb, so she answered, "Yeah."

Brain gave her an impressed look. He opened his mouth to speak, but someone interrupted him.

"D.W.! Do you know where Arthur is?" Buster asked, walking up to D.W.

"I don't know. Probably at home writing another poem for Fern," she said with a shrug.

Buster gave her a confused look. "Why would he write Fern a poem? Is he entering another poetry contest?"

"No, he likes her you dummy, so he's writing her love poems," she snapped. She wished Buster would just leave so she could talk to Brain.

"Oh no, it's worse than I thought!" he exclaimed before running off. D.W. just rolled her eyes. He was so weird sometimes!

At Arthur's House…

Arthur sat at his desk in his room, doing his math homework when suddenly Buster burst in, eyes wild and panting for air.

"Arthur!" he cried, startling Arthur.

"What's wrong, Buster?" he asked, worried. He stood up and walked over to his best friend.

"Arthur, they have you in their grasp! You need to fight it! Don't let the aliens win!" Buster yelled, grabbing Arthur's shoulders and shaking him. Arthur took a cautious step back.

"Buster, what in the world are you talking about?" he asked, slightly scared of Buster's erratic behavior.

"You don't really like Fern, it's the aliens mind control!"

Arthur got an embarrassed look on his face. "How did you know I liked Fern?" he asked with a blush.

"D.W. told me," Buster answered. Arthur's eyes narrowed.

"D.W.!" he muttered. He should have known it was her, she was such a loudmouth!

"Arthur, it's the aliens! They're brainwashed you into liking girls! You have to resist Arthur, it's your only hope!" Buster exclaimed, flailing his arms around.

"Buster, why would aliens want to brainwash me into liking girls?" Arthur asked with a disbelieving look. He was used to Buster's usual accusations about aliens, but this was a little over-the-top.

"They want to make everyone so distracted that they won't notice that they're trying to take over the world! But I'm not going to fall for it, and you can't fall for it either!" Buster declared.

Arthur just rolled his eyes. "Buster, there are no aliens and I'm not brainwashed!"

"Fine, but when aliens take over don't say I didn't warn you!" Buster said, irritated that his best friend wouldn't believe him! He turned around and left Arthur's house in a huff. As he walked down the sidewalk he kicked a pebble into the street. Why didn't anyone believe him? Maybe if Arthur heard it from Brain he'd believe it, but Brain didn't believe him either. What was he supposed to do?

As he passed the Sugar Bowl he looked inside and saw Brain sipping on an orange soda. Maybe he should try convincing Brain of the oncoming alien invasion again. He was supposed to be smart, so he should be able to see how logical Buster's theory was. He ducked inside the small restaurant and sat down across from Brain.

"Hey, Brain."

"Hello, Buster. You look slightly flustered, is anything wrong?" Brain asked, slightly concerned.

"Yes, you heard D.W. at the park, the aliens have brainwashed Arthur even more, and no one will believe me!" Buster ranted.

Brain let out a sigh as he rolled his eyes. "Buster, I already told you, Arthur hasn't been brainwashed by aliens, he's going through puberty. It's something everyone has to go through," Brain tried to explain, but Buster still had a stubborn expression on his face.

"Then how come I don't like girls? And how come you don't either?" Buster asked.

"I have no time for such frivolous things; I have work to be done. As for you, boys go through puberty at different ages, Arthur just went through it first." Buster still gave Brain a disbelieving look, so Brain continued.

"You'll go through it too eventually. It's affects kids differently, and girls usually go through puberty first. For example, I have a suspicion D.W. has a small crush on me, while I still don't find myself interested in girls yet-" Buster's eyes widened.

"Wait, D.W. likes you?" he asked in shock.

"I believe so, but it's typical for young girls to have crushes on older men. She'll grow out of it," Brain assured him, but Buster didn't buy it.

"Oh no, the aliens are getting kid's younger and younger! Soon they'll be brainwashing babies if we don't do something to stop them!" he exclaimed, drawing the attention of a few customers who were seated nearby.

"Buster, get a hold of yourself!" Brain said, trying to calm him down.

"No! We're the only ones who haven't fallen for their alien tricks, we have to fight back!" Buster declared. "And if you won't help me then I'll do it by myself!"

With a huff Buster jumped out of his seat and ran out of the Sugar Bowl. As he ran home he found himself screeching to a halt when Francine suddenly appeared in front of him. She had on a baseball hat and a catcher's mitt in her hand. Buster looked to his right and saw the baseball field with Jenna standing on home plate with a bat in her hand. They must be practicing for the upcoming game on Friday.

Francine crossed her arms and gave Buster a sly smile. "Where are you hurrying off to so fast?"

"I have to get home and prepare for the alien invasion!" he exclaimed. Francine didn't even bat an eyelash. She was used to Buster's crazy alien theories by now.

"Oh, well I was just finishing up practicing, I'll walk with you," she offered with a smile. She turned and waved to Jenna before walking with Buster down the street.

"Francine, are you…are you interested in boys?" Buster asked her. If she wasn't then maybe she would see how crazy it was that Arthur and D.W. were. Maybe they could fight the alien invasion together.

"Do you like girls?" Francine countered, offering him a hopeful smile.

"No, of course not!" Buster said, and Francine's smile fell.

"Oh."

Suddenly Buster understood why Francine looked disappointed. "Oh no, Francine…do you like me?" Buster asked, horrified. When Francine's cheeks turned a slightly shade of red and she didn't answer Buster's eyes widened in surprise and he ran away yelling,

"Oh, no! They've got Francine too!"

Two Days Later…

Fern looked around the classroom at her classmates as they waited for the last class of the day to be over. She glanced at Arthur from across the room and when he lifted his eyes and their gaze met Fern looked back down at her paper, a blush creeping onto her cheeks.

She looked over at Buster whose eyes darted around the classroom suspiciously. He was sitting at the very end of this chair, as far away from Francine as he could get, who was sitting next to him. For the past couple of days he'd been acting weird, like he was expecting something terrible to happen. When she'd said hello to him earlier that day he'd nearly jumped out of his skin. He was unusually jumpy for some reason.

Suddenly the bell rang and Fern put away her books and slung her backpack over her shoulder before walking outside to where she knew her mom was waiting. When they got back from the Hair Salon two days ago her mom had grounded her for two weeks for going behind her back and disobeying her like that. Fern wasn't happy of course, but she'd expected it.

She hopped in the car and they drove to the Hair Salon on the other side of Elwood City. Even though everyone liked her new hair—something she'd come to realize was genuine—she was still glad she was getting rid of her purple hair. She didn't like waking up in the morning and looking in the mirror to see a girl who looked like she'd come out of the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As soon as they got there Sally got Fern right up on a seat and walked over to a wall filled with an array of hair dyes. Her mom came over and they tried to find a hair dye that her mom approved off.

"We might have a color that would match her natural hair color. Do you have a picture of what she looked like before she dyed her hair?" Sally asked. Fern's mom filled out a small picture on her keychain of Fern in eighth grade. Sally looked at the picture for a second before reaching up and pulling a bottle with a brown colored liquid inside.

"You're in luck, we have that exact same color here," Sally told Fern's mom with a smile. Fern let out a groan from where she was sitting. That would be just my luck…she thought glumly as Sally walked back over to her and started to apply the liquid to Fern's hair.