The next morning, when Sami hopped down from her school bus, she found herself facing a huge crowd. Every kid in the school and most of the teachers were packed into a half-circle. In the center of that half-circle stood Brian the alien and, beside him, a television reporter. The reporter was speaking into her microphone while a camera operator filmed her. Parked nearby was a van from the television station. On top of the van, sticking twenty feet up in the air, was a big dish antenna on a pole that extended like a pirate’s telescope.
Sami hurried over and joined one end of the crowd. This gave her a good view of Brian. Behind and all around him kids were shoving and jostling each other with their elbows for more room, jumping up for a better view, pointing, giggling, and whispering. Sami saw Tim waving and scooting back and forth in front of the crowd to be sure he was seen by the camera. Brian was squinting in the bright, already hot, morning sunlight.
The reporter had a big smile on her face that stayed there even while she was talking. (Sami pictured the reporter asleep in bed with that big smile still plastered on her face. Imagining this gave her the creeps.) The camera operator followed the reporter as she turned to Brian and leaned forward to ask him, “So, Brian, how do you like your new school?”
Sami could see Brian squinting even more as he looked up at the reporter. He stared at her for a moment and then said, “I do not know yet.”
“Well,” continued the reporter, “how about friends?”
The bright sun and the shiny white teeth of the reporter became too much for Brian and he had to shade his eyes with one of his hands. When he brought up that alien hand to his forehead, the crowd of kids erupted into even more pointing and chattering, and a few kids shouted out things like, “Hey monkey hands!” and “Ooka ooka!” That was when Sami discovered that the alien boy’s neck was not as flexible as hers. Brian started to turn his head, but he seemed to get stuck part way and had to twist his shoulders around to look at the noisy crowd of kids behind him. The teachers started yelling at some of the kids to be quiet, and pretty quickly the crowd settled down. As Brian turned back toward the reporter he saw Sami. He stopped to look at her for a long moment, which made Sami feel like she had worms wriggling in her stomach. Then he finished turning back to the reporter, who asked him, “I’m sure you’re making friends?”
“No,” he answered.
The reporter smiled and nodded, which surprised and then infuriated Sami. She wanted to yell at the reporter, “He didn’t say yes! He said no!” But all she could do was to look sour and shake her head.
The reporter continued. “And what kinds of things are you learning in school?”
From under the shade of his strange hand, Brian stared up at the reporter’s brightly flashing teeth. Sami’s legs suddenly became twitchy and felt like they would explode if she tried to stay there a moment longer. She pushed her way through the crowd and ran off down an empty school corridor.
Miss Fox stood like a statue, silently staring at her class. She was waiting for the kids to settle down. Her eyes flicked from one fidgeting kid to another, warning each one with her sternest glare. Brian stood stiffly beside her, facing the boiling classroom. Miss Fox was skipping their morning routine so that they could get to know Brian better.
Sami looked across the tops of her classmates’ heads at Brian, who was quietly looking at the kids with those big, golden eyes of his. He looked neither embarrassed nor scared. Sami recalled times when she was up in front of the class. She always wanted to be called on and to be in front of the class. But when she did get up there she did feel embarrassed and scared. Sami thought that Brian must be feeling the same way now, but that he wasn’t showing it because he was an alien.
At last the children were sitting quietly.
“Okay,” said Miss Fox, “who has a question for Brian?” Almost everyone shot their hands up into the air and waved frantically. Miss Fox took a moment to decide, which caused some of the kids to wave even harder and squirm and make little grunting sounds. “Ellen?” Most of the hands dropped and some of the kids whined because they did not get picked.
Ellen sat up straight so that everyone could get a good look at her. “Where’s your hair?” she asked the alien.
“We do not have any,” explained Brian.
Ellen made her eyes big and said, “Even the girls?”
“No.”
Ellen and Maribel looked at each other in horror, covered their mouths and pretended to be disgusted. Other kids hooted, including Marquette, who had scooted his chair next to Sami’s to have a better view. Ming covered her whole face, and Tim slipped off of his chair and rolled on the floor. “Tim!” said Miss Fox. She glared at him until he climbed back onto his chair, grinning. She shook her head and then said, “Who else?” Up shot the hands. “Carlos?” Down went the hands.
Carlos looked serious as he asked his question. “What was it like to be in a spaceship?”
“I was asleep for the journey, so I have only a few memories. I remember going up in a small boat—”
“Boat?” Carlos asked.
Like a suddenly cornered animal, Brian froze and stared at him for a long moment. Then he said, “I mean spacecraft—like your airplanes, but without wings or engines—to meet the ship.” He immediately corrected himself. “Spaceship.” He scanned the faces of the kids, then seemed to get an idea. “This small spacecraft,” he explained with some enthusiasm, “moved so fast that it became red hot.”
Carlos and many of the other kids were clearly quite pleased with this. “Awesome!” he said, nodding.
Brian nodded with him. “Yes, awesome. When we got to the spaceship everything was quiet and we were floating.”
Ravi slapped his desk. “Cool!”
Again Brian nodded. “Yes, cool. After that I went to sleep and that is all I remember.”
“Someone else?” said Miss Fox, looking around. “Juana?”
Juana opened her eyes very wide. “Do you have a mom and dad?”
Memories of her own parents flashed through Sami’s mind. Her mother knocking the mud off of Sami’s shoes, her father chasing a fly around the house with a rolled-up magazine, her mother and father singing Happy—
“Yes, of course,” said Brian.
Miss Fox started to open her mouth and search for another question, but Juana grunted and bounced on her chair and waved her hand wildly. “Wait wait wait I have another question!” she blurted, then immediately asked Brian, “Where were you born?”
Sami saw Brian become very still. She could see that he was remembering or thinking very hard. For a moment she thought he looked sad. Then he looked up at the ceiling. “I was born a very long way from here, on another planet.”
Juana started bouncing on her bottom again, like she had to go to the restroom and it was an emergency. “No no I mean what’s the NAME of the place?”
Brian closed his eyes for a long moment, then opened them and answered, “Illum, on Adonae.”
Miss Fox pointed with her chin. “Ravi?”
“Why is your name Brian?” he wanted to know.
Sami saw Brian’s forehead wrinkle and pucker up in just the same way hers did when someone asked a question that confused her. It was the first time she had seen Brian react that way. He stared at Ravi, then said, “That is what my parents named me.”
Ravi nodded, apparently satisfied.
“Holly?” said Miss Fox.
“What’s your favorite food?” asked Holly.
Brian’s face did not change very much, but Sami thought she could see that he was suddenly pretty nervous. He appeared to be doing some hard thinking as he looked from one student to another. Finally he said, “Pizza?”
The kids cheered and clapped and swore that pizza was their favorite, too. Sami was sure she saw Brian actually smile, but it happened so fast that, in the very next moment, she wasn’t so sure. Miss Fox settled the class down, then pointed at Franklin. “Go ahead, Franklin.”
He asked, “What’s your favorite video game???
?
Sami saw Brian’s face freeze, and again his eyes darted around, looking at the kids. He was taking a long time to answer, and with each passing second she saw his body get stiffer and stiffer. Then she got an idea. Holding her hand near her chest, she pointed and started jabbing her finger towards Marquette beside her and making big-eyed faces at Brian. When he finally noticed her and what she was doing, Sami used her finger to draw a circle around the front of her shirt and tipped her head toward Marquette. Brian flicked his eyes over to peer at the front of Marquette’s shirt. Printed on it was a drawing of men with bulging muscles and big swords. They were driving fiery cars with huge wheels. Written above the picture in big, pointy letters was, SMASH CITY!
“Smash City,” said Brian.
The boys in the class went wild. They hooted and poked each other and swore that Smash City was the best game in the whole world. Tim fell off his chair again. While Miss Fox tried to calm them back down, Brian was gazing at Sami. She thought she saw that smile of his again. She automatically smiled back at him, then felt shy and looked down to retie her shoes (even though they were already tied just fine).
Miss Fox finally got Tim to stop rolling around on the floor and back into his chair, and the rest of the kids quieted down. “Okay, who else?” Hands went up. “Alejandro?”
Alejandro grinned and said to Brian, “You look weird.”
Sami’s head snapped up and without thinking she angrily shouted at Alejandro, “YOU’RE weird!”
“Sami…” warned Miss Fox.
“But he’s—“
“I said that’s enough, Sami. I heard him,” said Miss Fox. Sami made her lips tight so that she would not say anything more. Miss Fox glared at Alejandro. He was looking around at the other kids and grinning proudly. “Alejandro, that was not a question. Do you have a question for Brian?”
He nodded and looked at Brian. “How come your hands are so weird?”
Sami exploded. “YOU ARE SUCH A JERK!” she yelled at Alejandro. Then there was a lot of yelling by everyone except for Brian. Miss Fox ended up sending Sami to the “time out” desk in the far corner of the classroom. Then Miss Fox spent some very long minutes lecturing the class about what were proper questions and what were not proper questions. Brian continued to stand there beside her, in front of all of the kids. Except for Sami, of course. She just sat in her corner, burning with anger and glaring down at the floor. If she had looked up she would have seen Brian watching her.
It was very noisy in the gymnasium during recess later that day. There were three classes in that big, open, echoing room. And three classes of kids yelling, running around, and playing ball can make quite a racket. No matter how many kids were in there, though, Sami was always alone. She told herself that she didn’t want to play their crummy old games, and that she liked being left alone.
Sometimes this was true.
But sometimes she watched the other kids playing and fooling around, and wished she could join them. She had tried playing with them many times in the past, and it always ended up in arguments and shoving, so she had given up on even trying. Still, there were times she wished things were different and that she was not sitting alone.
At the very moment she was thinking these things, she looked to her left and there was Brian, sitting right beside her! “Ah!” she yelled, which startled Brian, who also jumped and yelled, “Ah!”
“You scared me!” said Sami.
“You scared me,” said Brian.
“Well you scared me first.”
Brian nodded. “Yes, that is true. I am sorry. May I sit here?” Sami shrugged, which meant that it was okay with her. “May I talk with you?” he asked her.
Again, Sami shrugged. She made her face look like it did not matter to her whether or not they talked. But inside she felt excited. Here she was, actually talking with an alien. They had sat next to each other in class for almost two days and she had not said a single word to him.
Brian continued, “Thank you for helping me this morning.”
“That’s okay,” said Sami.
“Is Smash City a good video game?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” said Sami. “I’ve never played it. But the boys go nuts over it.”
Brian looked a little confused at this, and said, “Nuts? People eat nuts.”
“Yep,” added Sami, “they go bananas over that game.”
This really confused Brian. He thought about these strange phrases for a minute, then finally shrugged, just like he had seen Sami do it. He glanced at her and said, “I am sorry that you were sent to time out.”
Again Sami shrugged. “Alejandro is a jerk.”
Here was yet another word to puzzle Brian, and he repeated it. “A jerk… a jerk?
Sami nodded. “Yeah. Total jerk.”
Brian’s eyes got wider. He started nodding too, and said, “Total jerk.”
Sami grabbed her water bottle for a drink, but it was empty. “Rats.” She banged it back down on the floor beside her and pouted. Brian picked up his bottle and held it out to her.
“Here,” he said, “I have plenty.”
Sami looked at his bottle. It was almost full, and she was very thirsty. But she remembered what her mother had told her about keeping her distance. And that made Sami think about the alien germs that might be on the bottle. So, even though she was dying for a drink she said, “No thanks.” She bent her legs up, rested her chin on her knees, and stared down at the floor. Brian carefully watched her do this, then copied her exactly.
The two of them stared down at the floor like this for a few moments, then Brian asked, “Why do you say the word ‘rats’ when you are angry?”
Sami shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. Rats are supposed to be bad, I guess.”
“Rats are mammals, belonging to the order of rodents, which is the largest order of mammals and includes mice, squirrels, and porcupines,” Brian explained.
Keeping her chin on her knees, Sami twisted her head and eyes around to look at Brian. “Porcupines?”
“Yes.”
“Wow. I didn’t know that.” She turned her head back to watch the kids playing basketball.
“Yes,” Brian repeated, “porcupines. Sami?”
She kept watching the other kids. “What?”
“What exactly is a porcupine?”
This time Sami turned to stare at him for a moment. Then she said, “It might be good if you didn’t talk that way.”
“What way?”
“Always showing how much you know and stuff.”
“Is knowing and stuff bad here?”
“Well no, I guess not. But kind of keep it to yourself. I mean, if you want to sound more like a regular person.”
Brian nodded. “Oh, yes, I want to sound like a regular person.”
“That’s good.”
“‘That’s’ is a contraction,” he said.
Sami’s forehead puckered up. “What’s a contraction?”
“Yes. That is also one” Brian agreed.
“One what?”
“A contraction.”
“That’s what I’m asking you!” Sami started waving her hands around. “What’s a contraction?!”
“Of course it is,” agreed Brian.
Sami stopped like some toy whose switch had just been turned to off. She stared at Brian. “Okay, okay,” she said at last, “just don’t talk to me for a while.”
Brian nodded. “‘Don’t’ is also a—”
“Unh!” Sami cried as she stuck the palm of her hand in front of his face, like the school crossing guard stopping traffic. Brian froze in the middle of his sentence and stared at her. She lowered her hand and went back to resting her chin on her knees and watching the room.
Brian started to vibrate. Think of a time when you blew up a balloon and just held the floppy end closed so the air would not escape. You could feel the air in that balloon just wanting to rush out. That is what you would have felt if you put your hand on Brian’s
chest at this particular moment. He held it in as long as he could, then he blurted it out.
“Contraction.”
“Brian!” yelled Sami in her most exasperated voice.
“I am sorry.”
Sami sighed and looked at him. “You’re not going to stop talking, are you.”
“I like to talk,” said Brian, nodding. Then he shook his head and added, “I am a total jerk.”
Sami laughed. “Me too,” she said.
“You are a total jerk?” said Brian.
“No, I mean I like to talk, too.”
That little smile flashed across Brian’s face and he said, “Good.”
They sat quietly thinking for a few moments, then Sami suddenly brightened, sat up, and announced, “Oh, now I get it! You mean contractions, like when two words go together.”
“Yes, Sami. Maybe if I use them I will sound even more like a regular person. Do you think I should use contractions?”
“Definitely. Absolutely.”
Brian looked serious and nodded. “Okay, I will do it—no, wait…” He thought hard for a moment, then tried again. “I’ll do it! Fr’now’n I’ll do’t.”
Confused, Sami shook her head and squinched up her face. “What?”
“Contractions,” explained Brian. “Fr’now’n I’ll use’m.”
Sami covered her eyes with one of her hands and muttered, “Oh brother.”
Of course many of the other kids had noticed that Sami and the alien boy had been sitting together and talking during recess. This made the rest of the day hard for both Sami and Brian. There was a lot of teasing of the “Is he your boyfriend?” variety. Sami was used to getting this kind of silly junk from some of the other kids, so she could pretty much ignore it. But what about Brian? Even though he heard plenty of this teasing, too, he never said anything back, or even looked at whoever was teasing him. But Sami was quickly getting better at noticing the little changes in Brian’s face. She could see his eyes and mouth get tighter when kids said mean things to him, and Sami just knew that this constant nastiness was like little knives nicking him again and again.
At last the end of the day came. Everyone had written down their homework assignments in their daily planners and was busy stuffing books and papers into backpacks. The bell rang with a screaming clang that shook Sami’s head so much she thought her teeth would fall out. After years at school, though, she was used to it. But Brian winced, squinched up his face and put his hands over his ears. She remembered seeing him react like this whenever the school bell rang. The clanging finally stopped. Everyone in class froze and looked up at Miss Fox. She took a long moment to scan the room, making the kids wait for freedom. Then she smiled and said, “Okay, see you tomorrow.”
Wham! The room exploded with shouting and chairs banging and kids swinging backpacks and shoving and pounding feet and…
A minute later the room was suddenly empty and quiet. Miss Fox was already busy erasing the boards and writing new things on them for the next day. Sami was just now standing up and heaving her backpack onto her shoulders. She had a bus to catch, but she was never in a hurry to get to it. The less time she spent in the bus line, the less time she would spend dealing with some of the annoying kids who rode her bus. Brian seemed in a daze.
Sami asked him, “Are you okay?”
He looked up at her and nodded. “Yes.” Then he stood up and worked at putting on his own backpack.
“Well,” she said, “I have to get to the bus. Do you ride a bus?”
“No,” said Brian. “A government man picks me up and drives me home.”
She shrugged. “Well, see you tomorrow.” She turned to go.
“Sami?” said Brian. She stopped and faced him. “Will you come to my house tomorrow after school?”
Miss Fox stopped writing on the board. She did not turn around, but continued to stare at the board. She was listening to Brian and Sami.
A lot of things were suddenly zooming through Sami’s mind. How would she ask her mom? What would happen at Brian’s house? What would they eat? How would she get home? What would the other kids say about this? But the one thing she knew the moment Brian asked her was that she wanted to say yes. So Sami said, “Yes, okay.”
There was Brian’s little smile again, and he said, “That’ssss great.” He extended the ess sound so that Sami would be sure to hear him using a contraction.
She did, and she gave him a nod. “I gotta go!”
She rushed out the door, leaving Brian alone in the room with Miss Fox, who had resumed writing on the board. Brian pushed in his chair and headed out the door, too.
“Goodbye, Miss Fox.”
“Goodbye, Brian.”
Chapter 7
“Hop in”