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Saturday, 6:23 am. Charlie

It was a Saturday morning.

I groaned. Why can't I just sleep in for once? Typical of me, the ONE day of the week that I can sleep in, my brain decides to wake up at 6-ish in the dang morning! I roll over several times, and, finally, deciding that I wouldn't be getting anymore sleep today, I sit up. Directly across my bedroom from the bed, sits a mirror, which I strategically placed there to get me up in the morning. How? Because the first thing I see when I wake up, is myself... Tousled, wavy bangs hung over my blue/green eyes. A halo of my short-cropped, black hair seemed to float above my head, which I quickly try to correct with a run-through with my fingers. A purple brush lay on the dresser, but it hasn't been touched since my last birthday when I set it there, exactly one year ago. Yep, you guessed it. Another strange thing about this day, it's my birthday...My 16th birthday, to be exactly. I can finally drive legally, even though that was never a problem for me. Because of certain freedoms (mainly, there being a significant lack of law enforcement), I was always allowed to drive where ever I wanted to. Just as long as I didn't text while driving, and looked out for pedestrians, and didn't listen to loud music, and and and...

In a little town like Stratonville (Yes, that IS the name of my town), when you've known all the people in the town since birth, and are related to most of them, you typically don't need to worry about, well... ANYTHING. Crime in our town is reserved to the occasional break-in, parking ticket, and police prank calls. Basically, a bunch of kids having fun late at night. Not that I would know anything about late-nights. I'm never involved in it. . I'm apparently too much of a "goody-goody" to be included is such matters.

Whatever...

Anyway, on the Saturday morning that was this, I was debating about whether or not to step onto the cold hardwood floor under my bed, when I heard a loud rumbling. And I mean, LOUD. I leaped out of bed, and was instantly knocked to my knees by the tremor that suddenly overtook the house. And with a deafening BOOM as the finale, it was over. I smelled something burning. Ran to my window. Out in my father's formerly perfectly manicured lawn, a strange purple and red blob-ish-thing was smoking heavily, half buried in the ground. A brown and black trail of burned dirt started around the line of woods, and stopped at the now brown and black... thing. My first thought: Oh crap. A spaceship just landed in my freaking backyard. Second thought: Dad's going to be FURIOUS! Presently, I was at a lost at what I should do. Should I go down and look at it? Should I call the police? "Excuse me, I think a spaceship just landed in my backyard, can you come and take care of it?... No, of course I'm not high. I- hello? Hellooooo?" No way...

And that's how this nightmare was started. I ripped off my pajama shorts, and pulled on a pair of jeans, making my way out of my bedroom and down the hall into our living room. Thinking ahead, I grabbed a baseball bat that had been hung on the living room wall. It had been signed by some famous baseball player, and my dad had displayed it proudly above the fireplace, literally. I pried open the back door, and stepped outside...

I squeezed my eyes shut at the blast of warm, smoky air that hit my face. Coughing, I shielded my face and pulled the door closed behind me. The brightly colored spaceship looked even bigger when I was standing a few feet away from it. A BANG sounded. I jumped back as a hatch opened on the top, letting loose another plume of smoke from the open hole. I watched in wide-eyed anticipation as a figure pulled itself out of the hole, and leaped to the ground. It stepped past the smoke into my view. I clenched my teeth to keep from gasping. It looked sort of human-like, except its skin was chartreuse green, and its eyes... Its eyes were red, and jelly like, like some kind of bug. Furthering its insect appearance, it had two black antennas, which right now were lowered, as if in exhaustion. Actually, the alien in general looked kind of bad. Its legs were wobbling, and it looked unsteady.

Not seeming to notice me, the creature turned toward it's ship. "Gir..." It said, voice cracking. Based on the voice, I would have guessed that it was male, but I couldn't be sure. "He" assumed a strong position as "he" looked up at the hatch. All of a sudden, a silvery looking child stepped out onto the top of the hatch. It leaped into the air, and fell to the ground with a thud and a shriek of laughter. As it lifted its head, and grinned at the alien, I realized something. It was made of metal, and had green, lit-up circles for eyes. It's a robot! "Let's do that again! WEEEEEEE!" The little robot, namely, "Gir", had an electronic, high pitched voice. Then the alien spoke again, this time with a stronger voice. "Gir. Use your locating system to tell us where we are. And then... check...th…" The alien placed a hand to his head, closed his eyes, and sank to his knees. It was when he opened them again that his eyes met mine. Or at least I think they did. He didn't really seem to have pupils. He gasped and leapt to his feet. "A human!" He turned to the little robot, who was now happily sucking on his feet, "Gir! Defensive mode!" Jumping in the air, Gir did a flip, and ran, screaming, off into the woods. The green creature sighed, and turned to me again. During this whole time, I had been standing, with my back to the door, knees slightly bend in case I had to make a run for it. Suddenly, metal appendages popped out of the half sphere on the alien's back, and lifted him of the ground.

He began stalking toward me...

I swung the bat in a wide semi-circle as the alien came toward me. It connected with one of the four metal legs with a sharp crack. Crying out, he fell to his side, and the legs sucked back into the purple and gray dome on his back. He growled, and began lurching toward me. I let out a shriek, and whacked him across the head, right above where his ear should have been. He fell to the ground while I stood there, still not quite knowing what to do. Still keeping a fast hold on the wooden bat, I slowly knelt down by the alien, and rolled him over with my weapon. His face was slightly dirty and smudged from falling face-down, and he was starting to develop a lump on the side of his head. Now, being this close to him, I realized he was quite small, probably shorter than me. I felt kind of bad now. I mean, he did try to attack me, but in his current state, I don't think he could have done any real damage. He was already covered in bruises, and a few cuts, which were oozing blue blood. Eew... Well, I can imagine how crashing in a spaceship to the crust of Earth could do that. Still unsure of whether I should go tell somebody or not, I uncertainly called toward the house, "Da-ad?" But then I remembered that he had left last night for a business trip to Florida, and would be gone for the week. He was, of course, perfectly fine with leaving me home alone for a week. Stratonville was about two miles away, a short four-wheeler or car drive away.

I outstretched my hand toward the alien, with one finger extended. Reaching slowly towards him, my finger touched the side of his face. Gently, gently, I lowered my whole hand onto his skin. It was warm, like a human, but felt slightly more rubbery. As I ran my hand down his face, he groaned. I leapt back with a gasp, swung the bat again. This time I hit him on the forehead.

He fell silent.