The revelation shook Francine to the core. "An assassin?" she blurted out. "You mean...he killed people?"

"Yes," said Sue Ellen quietly and somberly. "He told me the names of three people..."

"Stop!" yelled Francine, jumping to her feet. "Don't tell me any more!"

Stunned by the sudden outburst, Sue Ellen watched as her friend clenched her fists and fought to regain her composure.

"My name...is Francine Alice Frensky," muttered the monkey girl. "My dad is a garbage man. My name is Francine Alice Frensky."

Sue Ellen slowly rose up and looked down at the grass. "I wish I could say that," she said wistfully. "I wish I had your life."

"Come on," said Francine, rubbing her sore eyes. "Let's get to class."

----

"For today's homework, I want you all to read the first two chapters of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' by Mark Twain," announced the zebra man who taught sixth grade. He wore a white shirt and red tie, and a mop of curly black and white striped hair adorned his scalp. On the top of the blackboard was written his name, Jack Boughton.

The bell rang, and the kids in his class stood up to leave. Four of them exited the room together--Alan, Prunella, Mickie Chanel, and a fairly overweight owl boy who wore thick glasses and a yellow denim T-shirt with the initials C.V. emblazoned on the front.

"I can't believe he assigned Huckleberry Finn," Alan remarked. "Especially since he's African-American."

"How can you tell?" Prunella asked him.

"Yeah," the owl boy chimed in. "He's got black and white stripes all over."

"Zebras are from Africa, duh," said Mickie, the orange-braided aardvark girl, in an arrogant tone.

Prunella gestured toward the owl boy's arm as the foursome stopped in the hallway. "What's that bracelet you're wearing?" she inquired.

The boy held up his wrist, around which was wrapped a metal chain attached to a plaque. "This is my brain bracelet," he boasted. "With it, I can control the minds of others and make them do my will." Waving his hand in front of the faces of the other three kids, he intoned, "You will not believe me."

"It works," quipped Mickie.

"It's a medical ID bracelet," Alan observed. "You must be diabetic."

"Yeah, I am," the fat owl boy confirmed.

"Do you have to shoot yourself up every day?" asked Prunella.

"Not since I got my skin patch of power," was the boy's reply.

At that moment a swarm of fifth-graders passed before them, circling around a girl whom Alan and Prunella instantly recognized.

"That looks like Sue Ellen!" exclaimed Alan.

"I didn't expect her back so soon," said Prunella.

"I didn't expect her back at all," Alan added.

All of the kids in Mrs. Krantz' class except for Francine were mobbing the solemn-faced Sue Ellen and bombarding her with questions.

"What do you mean, they disappeared?" Buster asked her. "Then how did you get here?"

"Maybe they were abducted by aliens," George suggested. "I met a real alien while you were gone. He's a good alien."

"I don't know where they are," Sue Ellen grumbled. "No more questions, please."

"What's going on?" inquired Prunella when she, Alan, Mickie, and the owl boy joined the throng.

Fern, upon seeing Alan, immediately grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away from the crowd. "Sue Ellen's parents are gone," she quietly told him. "Alan, I'm afraid it might be our fault."

While Alan speechlessly took in Fern's news, the owl boy puffed out his chest and offered his services to Sue Ellen. "Never fear," he proclaimed. "As soon as I return to my secret laboratory, I'll find your parents using my telepathic locator helmet."

"Who are you supposed to be?" asked Sue Ellen incredulously.

"Charles Vincent Oberlin," the boy answered. "My friends call me C.V. My enemies call me Captain Valiant."

"You read too many comic books," Mickie chided him.

"You don't read enough," C.V. retorted.

Francine, her eyes still red from suppressed sorrow, shuffled into room 18 to find her mother busily erasing the chalkboard and the first-graders enjoying homemade treats.

D.W., clutching a cookie folded in a napkin, ran up to Francine with the Tibble boys and James in tow. "Your mom's a great teacher," she enthused. "She gave us chocolate chip cookies. Without spinach."

"She taught us how to eat with a napkin like civilized people," said Tommy, who was crushing an empty napkin in his hand.

"The crumbs go on the napkin, not on the floor," Timmy explained. "Then the napkin goes in the trash."

"I think I ate my napkin," said James sadly.

Francine stopped as Nadine jumped in front of her and snatched a cookie from the plate on the desk. "How'd it go, Mom?" she asked her mother.

"It was fun," Mrs. Frensky replied as she set down the eraser. "The kids were well-behaved. I drilled them on the alphabet, but most of them already know it, so I taught them about crosswalks." She bent over and put her hands over her knees. "Are you okay, Frankie?"

Francine lowered her head. "Sue Ellen's back," she muttered.

"Wonderful!" Mrs. Frensky gushed. "You haven't seen her for such a long time. You should be happy."

After staring blankly at her mother for a few seconds, Francine buried her face in the woman's belly and started to cry.

----

Once school let out for the day, Buster followed George and his third-grade sister Salma to their house. "It's so exciting to finally get to meet this guy," said Buster with enthusiasm.

"He's been looking forward to meeting you," was George's response.

"He's a sickiatrist," Sal said innocently. "He helps people who are sick in the head."

When they reached the Nordgren residence, they found two people sitting across from each other in the living room; one was George's mother. The other appeared to George and Sal as a young bulldog man in a navy blue business suit. To Buster's startled eyes, however, he was a creature with green, scaly skin, beady red eyes, and a tentacle-like nose, in a navy blue business suit.

Buster grinned widely and his ears perked up. "Cooooool," he marveled.

The visitor smiled and rose up. "You must be Buster Baxter," he said, extending a lizardlike hand to the rabbit boy. "George has told me quite a bit about you."

Almost too stupefied to move or even breathe, Buster hesitantly lifted a hand to greet the stranger. Despite their appearance, the man's fingers proved to have the texture of human flesh.

"How was your first day of school?" Mrs. Nordgren asked George and Sal as they yanked off their book bags.

"Weird," George answered. "Sue Ellen came back, but her parents didn't."

The green-skinned man led Buster into George's bedroom, closed the door, and sat on the edge of the bed in front of the astonished boy.

"S-so y-you're the man I saw at the airport," Buster stammered in wonder. "You're Dr. Portinari."

"You can call me Rick." The motion of the man's lipless mouth was almost undetectable behind his overhanging, pointed nose.

"Are you really an alien?" asked the excited rabbit boy.

"Do I look like one?" was Portinari's reply.

"Yeah, you do. I think."

The edges of the alien's mouth raised up slightly, and he let out a satisfied sigh.

"There isn't one human in a million who can see through my disguise," he began. "I have a device that sends waves into the brains of humans, making them think that I look like one of them. Only the most powerful minds are immune. Minds like yours, Buster."

"Gosh..." was all the starstruck Buster could say.

"I need a young person with a powerful mind for a special mission," Portinari went on. "I represent a vast Alliance of planets, whose leaders have only now taken an interest in Earth. I expect that by the time you grow up, they will approach your world with an offer of membership. When that time comes, Earth will need an emissary--a human with sufficient intelligence and training to argue for its place in the community of worlds."

"Whoa," mused Buster, understanding just enough of the doctor's words to be highly impressed.

Portinari took a deep breath. "I think you should be that emissary, Buster."

----

to be continued