Chapter 2: Family Drama

"Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!" Ericha repeated pacing back and forth like she was in a deep trench. "Okay, I need to stay calm. Just take a deep breath."

Ericha quickly inhaled, counted to three and exhaled. She felt a little relaxed than before, but she turned towards the Poke ball in the center of the crater.

She slowly walked up to it, feeling her shoes stepping unto the broken parts. Once she was close enough, Ericha kneels down and picked up the Poke Ball.

"What the..." Ericha began observing around the Poke Ball for any brand name or a tag for any proof that this was just a toy. While investigating, she accidentally presses the button in the middle of the poke-ball causing it to shake.

"AH!" Ericha screamed as she dropped the Poke Ball and ran into her apartment building shutting the screen door, that way she could see what was going on outside.

The Poke Ball shook for about a minute until the hatch opened. Ericha watch as a bright light came out of the poke ball and landed in front of her doorway. It was so bright that Ericha had to cover her eyes.

Once the light descended, Ericha slowly uncovered her eyes and slowly look through the screen door, and found something she never saw before in her life.

Right on the front porch was a light yellow egg with green spots on it. The strangest part was the egg was the size of an emu egg.

"An egg?" Ericha mumbled. She slowly opened the door and tiptoe towards the egg. "What is an egg doing inside a Pok-!"

Ericha stopped herself when she noticed the lawn was completely clean off. All the ship parts and the crater that impacted the whole lawn were gone. It was if the ship didn't even crash.

"Whoa..." Was the only thing that came out of her mouth. She looked at the egg with a smile on her face. "I don't know what you just did, but thanks for not getting me in trouble."

Ericha went inside and carefully climbed upstairs to her apartment. Luckily it was only three floors not counting the basement. Once she got to the third floor, Ericha set the egg down and put her hands inside her pocket for her keys.

While she was searching inside her pocket, the egg faintly shook leaving a small crack on the side.

"There it is!" Ericha said in relief that she found her keys. "That was close. For a minute there I thought I was going to be locked out again."

Once she got her apartment door opened, Ericha picked up the egg not notice the small crack on the side getting bigger.

Ericha set the egg down in a bright green Easter basket and slowly walked up to the side of her bed. Without warning, she flopped face first unto her white comforter.

"Man I'm so tired!" Ericha groaned as she rolled onto her back and just stared at her ceiling. The room which was huge than you expect from an apartment, it had more open space and a sliding door that led to the balcony.

Ericha sat up and turned towards the egg that was sitting inside her basket motionless. "I wonder what kind of animal will it be?"

Ericha jumped on her feet and stretched her arms high in the air. She then smelled her armpits a cringed in disgusted. "Oh Gawd! I need a shower."

Ericha grabbed a towel and walked out of her room, leaving the egg alone in the room.

CRACK!

The crack began to get larger taking up half of the egg

CRACK! CRACK!

Soon more cracks appear at the bottom of the egg as it began to shake. After a couple of seconds, a black furry tail shot out of the eggshell.

Ericha sighed in relief. After a hot long shower, she felt refreshed. With one white towel covering her body and another over her head, she walks back to her room and sat at the edge of her bed while wiping her hair.

"Ahh! that felt nice," She said as she finished drying her hair. She stood up and was about to head to her laundry basket when suddenly, she notices something at the corner of her eyes.

Ericha slowly turned to her Easter basket and noticed broken pieces of eggshells scattered everywhere inside the basket.

This caused Ericha to tense up. Whatever was in that egg is hiding in her apartment. Ericha slowly went to her closet to get a weapon, just in case that the alien might be dangerous.

But as soon as she opened the closet door, she notices a creature curled up in the corner with his short tail sticking out in the air. It has black fur with silver rims at the back. What's odd was that it looks like it arose out of a cartoon show, reminding her of 'Space Jam.'

"..." Ericha was completely speechless by what she was seeing. She though she was dreaming. She thought that all of this was just an illusion. The space ship, the egg that came out of it, and this creature hiding in the corner. They were all just in her imagination.

Ericha slowly tried to grab the dogs tail, hoping that this can wake her up from this nightmare, but when she tried to touch it.

"AH!" The puppy yelled as he felt the girl's hand made contact to his tail.

"AHH!" Ericha screamed.

"AH!" The two were screaming at each other for a long period of time. Until the puppy quickly head deeper into Ericha's closet. At the same time, Ericha quickly pulled back her hand, causing her to fell on her but. She quickly scurried backward until her back was touching the side of her bed.

"What the hell was that?" Ericha said while gasping for air. She put her hand over her chest and took a deep breath.

'I'm not dreaming,' She thought to herself.

Ericha suddenly noticed something when she tried to touch its tail. The creature was more scared of her than she was at it. She crawled towards the closet, trying not to scare the creature.

"S-Sorry for startling you," Ericha said gently. "Please come out. I won't hurt you."

Ericha waited quietly. She hoped that this creature wasn't one of those bloodthirsty aliens she saw on television.

After a few seconds, the creature poked his head out from the darkness of her closet. To Ericha surprise, the dog creature blended in the darkness quite well in her closet.

"It okay, I won't hurt you," Ericha repeated softly. The small dog took one paw out of the shadows, but quickly hid back when he made a quick glance at Ericha.

"What's the matter?" Ericha asked confused about the dog's behavior. She looked down and suddenly realized that her lower towel came off and she was bare naked.

"Gah! I'm so sorry!" She yelped. Completely forgotten that she just finished her shower. Ericha stood up and gathered her towel off the ground and began to change into her clothes.

The dog hid in the darkness of the closet, feeling scared of what he just saw. After calming down a bit, the small puppy slowly walked out of the shadow area and out of the closet.

'Where in the world am I?' He asked himself. The puppy looked astonished of the area. The room was huge from his point of view, and it was also felt kind of weird. Like he was in a 3D dimensional world. He was even amazed by the floor he was walking on.

His ears suddenly picked up when he heard footsteps. The creature zipped back into the closet just in time as Ericha entered the room, carrying a plate with a slice of pizza. She was wearing dark blue jeans and a pink and black striped T-shirt.

Without talking, Ericha set the plate on the ground and sat cross-legged on the floor. She silently waited patiently for the puppy to come out.

Meanwhile, the dog could smell the scent of the pizza. The creature's stomach growled like he hasn't eaten anything since her mouth put him into the egg. Slowly, he peeked his head out of the closet and noticed the pizza. Ericha watched as the dog walked slowly towards the plate. He wasn't even paying attention to her.

Once he got to the plate, the creature sniffed the pizza for a minute and took a nibble at the end of the pizza. Ericha was startled for a second as the dog's eyes began to sparkle. She can tell that the dog really liked the pizza.

Ericha took the opportunity to start petting him. At first, the puppy flinched when he left her cold hands touched his back. But, he slowly began to get more relaxed with her.

"You know," Ericha began while still petting him. "You don't look so dangerous. I'm sorry for startling you."

The puppy stared at her thinking the same thing. Ericha stared back for a minute, thinking in her mind. 'Strange, this puppy looks so familiar. Like, I've seen it before.'

Before she could ask the puppy, the two heard a key unlocking the lock of the door.

"Oh no!" Ericha mumbled. She quickly stood up and stared at the dog, who looked at her tilting his head confused by her sudden reaction.

The last thing Ericha needed is her parents and her siblings to find out that she has an alien dog in her closet.

Ericha quickly grabbed the dog, which was heavier than she expected and place him back in the closet. "Sorry little guy, but it only until everyone asleep."

Ericha quickly closed the closet door and zipped in the living room to find her family coming in. Her mother had short, brown hair while her father was bald.

"Hi, Mom! Hi Dad!" Ericha greeted.

"Hi, Sweetie!" Her dad said. He ignored her daughter, hopped on the couch and turned on the T.V. Ericha mother known as Sheila just rolled her eyes at her husband and gave Ericha a hug.

"HI sweetie! How was school today?" She asked.

"Oh, nothing special," Ericha said. Even though she knew that was a complete lie. Ericha noticed her two siblings followed dad footsteps as they flopped on the long couch.

The young boy had short black hair and was wearing a yellow T-shirt that had a red #1 at the back. The young girl had long black hair with green eyes. The two look like the same height, but the girl was actually older than the boy.

"So hows the do- I mean how was it at the doctor?" Ericha asked nervously. Luckily she caught the mistake just in time.

"It went really well." Her mom answered. "Until your father got a stethoscope stuck up his nose."

"I was just showing the kids not to play with doctors equipment!" He yelled over the T.V. Sheila just rolled her eyes as she started putting the groceries away. Ericha was about to ask her mom a question, but her sister beat her to it.

"Um, Mom, can I have the last pizza for a snack please?" She asked.

"Alright Jesselyn," Her mom replied. Ericha sister known as Jesselyn ran towards the fridge.

"Um, mom..." Ericha said nervously.

"Yes, dear?"

"When am I old enough to get a pet to say... a dog?" Ericha asked with a puppy dog look. Her mother just sighed.

"Ericha, we've been through this before." Her mother reminded with a frown. "I don't matter how old you are we can't have a pet in this apartment."

"I...I knew that!" Ericha replied acting cool. "But, just for curiosity, why can't we have pets in the apartment?"

"Remember the cat I got you for your birthday last year?" Sheila asked as she started putting away the next bag of groceries

"Mr. Chubby?" Ericha asked.

"Yes, He died because somebody feeds him too much candy," She explained thoroughly to her daughter.

"I was ten! I didn't know that candy was bad for cats!" Ericha defended.

"My point is, you can't prove to me that you're responsible enough to take care of a pet." Her mother replied.

"Bu-?"

"Ericha, how could you!" Jesselyn yelled as she butted in the conversation.

"Jesselyn, what the matter?" Sheila asked.

"Ericha ate all of the pizza!" Jesselyn accused.

"What are you talking about?" Ericha asked confused.

"Quit playing dumb Ericha! There were two slices of pizza on the plate in the fridge this morning and now they're gone!" Jesselyn explained.

Sheila turned to Ericha. "Honey, didn't you have three slices of pizza for lunch at school?"

"Y-yeah," Ericha stuttered answering. "I'm really sorry Jesselyn."

"Oh, I see how it is," Jesselyn nodded. "You just wanna see my poor, little soul crushed because you are a heartless and selfish older sister."

"N-no it's not like that!" Ericha snapped while hesitated.

"If I was a defenseless girl, then I would have run in my room crying," The middle child of the family sobbed, sadly, however, Ericha can feel a smirked behind her crocodile tears. "But I'm not defenseless..."

As soon as she said that, Jesselyn darted out of the kitchen. It took a while for Ericha's brain to realized what she meant and darted after her.

"Girls are so weird," The youngest of the three mumbled while being zoned into the T.V.

"You said it son." His Dad replied. Sheila just rolled her eyes as the two were glued to the T.V.

"Wait, Jesselyn!" Ericha shouted as she enters her to find her sister snooping into her room. "You don't have to do this!"

Jesselyn ignored her as she looked at her drawers. "Where did you keep those gummy bears that you've been saving since Halloween?"

"T-They were stale so I threw them out," Ericha answered quickly.

"Your lying!" Jesselyn snapped. "I know you still have them because you brought three bags full of gummy bears at the Bulk Barn last Halloween and you just finished one bag. There's no way you can eat the last two bags on your ow-"

BURP!

The two girls froze when they heard the loud noise. Without hesitating, Ericha covered her mouth to make it look like she burped.

"Um excuse me..." Ericha mumbled sheepishly. Jesselyn wasn't paying attention to her and walked towards the closet, but her older sister immediately zipped in front of her with her arms spread out.

"Y-you can't find it there!" Ericha replied hesitated. Jesselyn stared at her with suspicious looking eyes.

"TRISTAN!" Jesselyn called. The younger of the three immediately ran into Ericha's room before Jesselyn could call out.

"What is it, Jesselyn?" Tristan asked. Jesselyn stared at Ericha and then at Tristan as the two huddle up.

"Listen, Ericha is hiding something in that closet," Jesselyn whispered. "And as former agents, we need to expose whatever is in there to our parents before this troubled preteen uses it to ruin our lives!"

Ericha put her hands on her hips. "Okay, you two need to stop watching that cartoon."

Jesselyn immediately pushed her off guard sister down to the ground of the way of the closet, while Tristan opened the closet. When he opened it, Tristan noticed something that caused his jaws to drop.

"Whoa! Jesselyn check this out!" Tristan pointed. Jesselyn got off of Ericha and joined Tristan. What she saw also made her jaw dropped.

"Mom! Dad! Come look!" She shouted.

"What going on around he-Oh my goodness?" Mom and Dad came in and were also shocked by what was inside.

Ericha slowly joined her family in the center to find the young puppy in the closet. She then noticed that the dog looked quite full like it ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the same time. Ericha witness that they are two empty bags beside it, summing up that the puppy ate all of her gummy bears.

"What is it?" Sheila finally asked, breaking the silents.

"A puppy?" Tristan answered.

"But why does it look so...animated?" Jesselyn questioned. Trying to find the right word to describe it. "...Like...it came out of a cartoon."

The dog stared at the family. He looked less scared before he met Ericha, but at the same time, he felt quite nervous about what they will do to him.

Sheila glanced at Ericha with a serious look. "Ericha, where did this puppy come from?"

"Well um..." She felt all her eyes are on her, waiting for an explanation. Ericha was trying to think of a good excuse. But, she didn't know how it happened as well. Everything from the spaceship crashing into her front lawn to an animated do hatching from an egg, sounded like a little white lie.

"Um... Excuse me..."

The whole family froze for a second and slowly turned to where they think they heard the soft and quiet voice.

"Please don't take this the wrong way but," The puppy mumbled before speaking more clearly. "It wasn't her fault."

Ericha and the rest of her family just stared speechless at the puppy that just spoke to them. The silent lasts for about twenty minutes until Ericha's dad decided to break the ice.

"...Holy mother of balls!" Dad replied in shocked. This got everyone to gave Ericha's dad an odd look.

To Be Continued...