How to Hide an Alien Read online

  “No worries,” said Eddie. “But it would be great if you could try and find out when Stan might be able to go back to your school…”

  Kiki winced. This was the second time Eddie had brought the subject up in two days. But if the school basement wasn’t ready for weeks, or even months, and Eddie couldn’t afford to have Stan stay, what on earth was she meant to do with a homeless alien?

  “I’ll do my best to find out, promise!” said Kiki, hoping her smile hid the ripples of anxiety she was feeling.

  “Wait! STOP!” Ty burst out, his face a picture of concern. “What are you two saying? We ARE going to keep Stan, aren’t we?”

  “Stan’s not a puppy, Ty,” Kiki said with a short, sharp frown. “And he can’t stay with Eddie forev—”

  “Everything all right?” asked Mum, coming out of the front door. “Thought you’d all be gone by now!”

  “Just going!” said Eddie, jumping on to the bike and rumbling off, with Ty waving a cheery farewell from the sidecar.

  “Me too,” said Kiki, before hurrying away herself.

  But hurrying was suddenly incredibly hard, almost as if the weight of responsibility for Stan – for keeping him safe – was all on her back, as heavy as a rucksack full of bricks. Kiki forced herself on, eager to get to school and share the worry with Wes.

  As she headed down Hill Street, Kiki felt very, very alone.

  Except she very, very much wasn’t.

  The Star Boy waited till Kiki crossed the road and drew level with the Electrical Emporium to fall in step beside her. He had thought to say hello straight away – to tell her about his plan, or a little of it at least – but then noticed the clouded expression on his friend’s face. Curious, he tilted his head this way and that, noting Kiki’s upside-down mouth, the fur of her eyebrows dipping low on her forehead. What did it signify? What Human emotion was she feeling?

  But her face altered slightly, lightened somehow when her phone made a RING!-RING! sound. She took it from her pocket and smiled at the screen.

  “Hey, Dad,” she said.

  With the luxury of being unseen, the Star Boy leaned in as they walked, and examined Kiki’s father. He was smiling too, but only with his mouth, not his eyes. Did this mean his smile was not genuine? Or was he perhaps displaying nervousness?

  “Hey, Kiki – I just wanted to check in with you before school,” he said.

  “Yeah? It’s funny you should call right now – I’m nearly at the bottom of the hill, and I just passed the Oasis Guesthouse,” said Kiki, glancing over at Dad’s home from home whenever he visited.

  “Ah, well, actually, I won’t be staying there this time,” said Kiki’s father. “I’ve found an Airbnb that allows dogs. It’s up near your school, in fact.”

  The Star Boy noticed that Kiki seemed a little unsettled by that.

  “Oh, OK,” she said. “So how come you’re calling?”

  “Well, the thing is, Kiki, I know Tasmin has been in touch with you the last couple of days,” said her father, sounding awkward. “And you – well, you haven’t got back to her. She’s a bit upset about that… Could you drop her a quick message? Even just some smiley emojis or something?”

  The Star Boy turned to Kiki to see her reaction to this request. He was surprised to note that her nostrils were flaring, and she seemed agitated.

  “Sorry, I’ve got to go, Dad,” she snapped. “I’ve just seen my friend Wes.”

  The screen went blank as Kiki ended the call. Hastily, she shoved the phone back in her pocket.

  The Star Boy glanced this way and that.

  “Where is Wes?” he asked aloud.

  “AHHH!” yelped Kiki, stopping dead and staring around her, trying to locate him. “Stan! What are you doing? You can’t creep up on a person like that!”

  The Star Boy scrolled ‘creep’. It either meant:

  • a scary or odd person (noun); or

  • to move slowly and carefully without being heard (verb).

  “Do you mean the noun or the verb?” he asked Kiki.

  “The what?!” Kiki said, shaking her head in confusion. “Look, what are you doing out here on your own, Stan? It’s not safe! You know the rules: no going out without me and Wes!”

  The Star Boy nodded, not that his friend could witness that. She thought he had failed at number one on the Learning List. But he had not. Not technically.

  “But I am not alone. I am with you, Kiki!” he said.

  “Well … you are now, but…” Kiki muttered, flustered. “What are you even doing here? I’m on my way to school!”

  “Exactly. Overnight, I have been thinking about the damage done to the building last week, all because of me. I want to see it for myself,” he said, telling her the truth, but not the whole truth. (Is that the same as a lie? he wondered.)

  “Not now, though!” said Kiki. “I can take you later.”

  “But we are halfway there already,” the Star Boy reasoned. “I will simply stand outside the railings and quietly observe for a few minutes.”

  “Stan, I can’t let you do this. What if—”

  “What if you trust me to do this simple task, Kiki?” the Star Boy reasoned some more. “I know the route back to Eddie’s very well. And I promise I will never go further afield without you and Wes.”

  The Star Boy watched Kiki’s face soften. She was silent for some moments.

  “I suppose I can’t blame you for wanting to check out the damage,” she said, and began walking again. “But please make it quick and don’t put yourself in any danger!”

  “Yes. I will return straight away,” the Star Boy lied outright – ignoring the uncomfortable sensation it caused him.

  His white lies – not-the-whole-truths – had a purpose. He very much wanted Kiki to think the best of him, to never wish him to leave. He did not want her to be like the pizza Human of the movie, who was glad when the alien of the story returned to its home planet.

  And so he had to find a way to understand the surges and stop them. The Star Boy’s plan was this: if he returned to the playground where he had crashed – back where it all began – it might help him focus more clearly on a solution to his unexpected and disruptive disturbance in energy.

  It was the only thing he could think of that might help. He didn’t dare contemplate what would happen if it didn’t. The unknowable awfulness if he was discovered, not just for him but for his dear friends…

  “Kiki, why did you lie to your father? About Wes?” the Star Boy asked, suddenly remembering that he wasn’t the only one to utter untruths.

  His friend rolled her eyes, and carried on walking.

  “It’s just family stuff. It’s complicated,” Kiki mumbled, as they drew level with the high street.

  “I’m very grateful that I have grown up without the complication of families,” the Star Boy said softly, frowning a little as they passed the movie poster on the side of the bus shelter.

  “Look, I can’t really talk any more; it’s getting busy. People might see me and think I’m talking to myself,” said Kiki, as she paused on the kerb.

  “I understand,” said the Star Boy. “I will walk with you as far as the riverside path. But I will be silent.”

  With a nod vaguely in his direction, Kiki crossed the high street, then went down the side road that led to the Wouze. At the bridge, dozens of children in uniform were streaming across, all chatting and pointing at what was left of the lower-school playground, visible through the twisted wire-mesh fence.

  The Star Boy kept half a step behind Kiki as they joined the throng, dipping this way and that to avoid coming into contact with any of the young Humans. As they spilled out the other side, Kiki paused by the hazard-taped remains of the fence, pretending to look for something in her pocket.

  “Stan, are you there?” she said softly, rattling the keys in her pocket.

  “Yes,” he replied.

  “Don’t hang around, OK?” Kiki hissed. “Just take a look and go…”

  “I will,” said the Star Boy.

  Even before his friend had walked off, the Star Boy had begun wriggling his way through a gap in the mesh, and now found himself in the disorientating environment of the lower playground. The most startling sight was right in front of him: a huge crater where the large bushes and his hidden-away space pod had once been located. A chaos of shouty yellow-vested people and growling machinery disturbed his formerly peaceful haven.

  And then the Star Boy heard a familiar and calming sound … the flapping and cooing of a flutter of pigeons swirling from the ground, welcoming him back.

  “It is a good omen,” muttered the Star Boy, smiling as the birds spiralled into the air.

  Excitement rippled across his chest – just as tiny pings began stuttering and jagging in his finned left hand. Shaking the sensation away, the Star Boy hurried towards the hazard tape, his three hearts full of hope.

  Swept up in a swell of blue blazers, Wes pulled the toggles on his hood tighter, as if that would help him hide away just that little bit more.

  He scanned the ambling crowds of students all around him as they headed across the playground, and watched them chat easily to each other. Girls and boys laughing, boys landing friendly thumps on each other’s arms.

  Wes didn’t really get how people fitted together so easily. Sometimes it was as if other kids had a secret language that he didn’t quite understand. Sometimes he felt like a chicken waddling along with a flock of tall-necked geese.

  Is this how Stan feels? it suddenly occurred to him.

  The Star Boy was always so cheerful and enthusiastic. But figuring out how to be a human must be hard for him, just like it was for Wes.

  Momentarily forgetting the no-phone rule, Wes grabbed his mobile from his pocket, hoping to catch Kiki before they went into school.

  “Wesley Noone!” a teacher on duty yelled at him. “Put that phone away! And get that hood down!”

  “Yeah, Wesley No One!” came a snide voice by his side. “Do as you’re told!”

  The mobile was flipped out of Wes’s hand, quick as a wink, and landed with a clatter on the ground.

  Wes dropped down quickly, scrabbling for it before it got trampled underfoot.

  So much for hiding in his hood. He’d never be invisible to a bully like Harvey Wickes…

  The work party in the lower playground clattered and busied themselves, unaware of the alien in their midst.

  They didn’t have a clue that the invisible creature was now descending the small set of concrete steps to the basement boiler room, where the metal door sat wedged open, half blown off its twisted hinges.

  And here, where it all began, the Star Boy was relieved to see that, despite a coating of dust and debris, his first and very welcome sanctuary was reassuringly the same, with the large generator intact and clearly still working. He went over to it, lovingly running his hand over the DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE! sign, instantly feeling at home.

  And almost immediately his thoughts turned to his first faltering attempts at Channelling from this subterranean space. It had given him the ability to remotely wander the corridors and classrooms of the school above, to study the Human students, to learn what they learned. (Algebraic terms! Matisse’s abstract leaf cut-outs! Sedimentary rock formations! Life in medieval society! How to make cheese scones!)

  In that moment, the Star Boy’s hopes of understanding the surges he’d been experiencing were temporarily tucked into a corner of his mind in favour of the lure of remotely wandering the corridors of Riverside Academy once more. Spreading his arms wide across the generator – ignoring the slight ripple of pings in his left arm – the Star Boy thrilled as his senses coursed along the cables and wires of the school, zinging into light fittings, whirling through hand dryers in the loos, zapping into computers, projectors and whiteboards.

  He particularly enjoyed zooming into the desk lamp in the head teacher’s office, where he witnessed the unpleasant Humans called Harvey and Lola receiving a stern lecture about appropriate behaviour, following the bullying images that had mysteriously interrupted Mrs Evans’ presentation at the Open Evening. The Star Boy would enjoy telling Wes and Kiki about that!

  And where were his friends? He careered here and there, entering and leaving rooms unnoticed, except for the occasional fizz of static causing surprised “ouches” from the room’s inhabitants.

  And then, finally … there was Kiki entering a room on the second floor. Leaving the circuitry of overhead lights in the corridor, the Star Boy zipped into the classroom whiteboard.

  From here, he had the perfect view of his friend as she settled herself on a chair. What will Kiki learn in this session? he wondered. Whatever fascinating topic it was, he would study alongside her.

  The Star Boy only wished that, instead of hiding away unseen, he could interact with Kiki and the other students like a regular boy. What fun that would be!

  Kiki felt a bit sick as she tried to slither as invisibly as possible into her seat.

  Sharing a table in form class with people who very probably hated her wasn’t exactly the highlight of her day. Keen to avoid being blanked again by Lola, she kept her head down and concentrated on rummaging for her pencil case in her backpack. Kiki couldn’t wait for lunchtime so she could hurry off and find Wes. She was desperate to discuss Eddie’s worries.

  “So what did Mrs Evans want you for, Lola?” Kiki heard Zainab ask.

  “Nothing important. Tell you later,” Lola replied, flicking away the question like a hovering fly.

  “ACK-ACK-ACK!”

  Glancing over, Kiki saw two boys imitating the alien from the movie while their friends were all bent double, laughing.

  “Can we settle down and get started, please?” Ms Naik called out. “We’re going to get on with the topic we started last week,” she said, tapping the interactive screen and bringing up an image with the word BELONGING on it.

  Predictably, Kiki heard a couple of groans and sighs at that announcement, and also a random “ACK-ACK-ACK!” followed by more sniggering.

  “Enough!” said Ms Naik, waving her hands to get everyone to settle. “So we’ve already talked about different types of families and friendship groups, and today we’ll be exploring an emotion that’s very important in helping us bond with other people. Can someone tell me what that emotion might be?”

  Empathy, Kiki guessed, though she didn’t want to say it out loud and draw attention to herself.

  Ms Naik scanned the room, but no one responded.

  “OK, I’ll give you a clue. It’s to do with standing in someone else’s shoes…”

  DEFINITELY empathy, thought Kiki, still keeping quiet.

  “Anyone?” Ms Naik looked hopefully round the room for a hand in the air. “Come on! Lola – any idea?”

  “Dunno, miss,” said Lola, flicking her hair and acting extremely bored.

  “Well, the answer is empathy,” the teacher said wearily, clicking on to an image showing the definition of the word.

  ‘The ability to sense what someone else is going through’, Kiki silently read.

  “We’re all different, and sometimes differences can cause difficulties,” Ms Naik continued. “But, if we’re able to stop for a second and really THINK about what another person is feeling, that can make a huge difference, and really affect their happiness and ours.”

  Kiki could think of at least three people in this room who had minus points in empathy…

  “Now I’d like us to come up with a task that will help us develop empathy,” Ms Naik said, soldiering on. “Any suggestions?”

  The classroom practically creaked under the weight of the silence. Till it was broken by an “ACK-ACK-ACK!” and yet another burst of laughter.

  As the teacher tried to marshal everyone back to the topic, Kiki surprised herself by having an idea. And she was even MORE surprised when she found her hand in the air.

  “Yes, Kiki?” said the teacher, looking relieved that there was at least one semi-keen student in the class.

  “I … well … I was thinking about the movie Through Alien Eyes,” Kiki began, hearing a few whoops at the mention of the film. “It’s about empathy.”

  It suddenly felt as if the whole class was staring at her, wondering where the empathy was in the exciting sci-fi adventure they’d watched.

  “Oh yes?” Ms Naik said encouragingly. “I haven’t seen it. Can you explain, Kiki?”

  “Well, a pizza-delivery guy and an alien swap bodies,” Kiki began, feeling a trickle of sweat run down her back, wishing she’d never started. “The pizza guy realizes that the alien acts aggressively cos it’s scared and trapped. And the alien sees that not all humans are bad. So, you know … they end up empathizing with each other.”

  “Fantastic!” said Ms Naik, clapping her hands. “Unfortunately, we can’t swap into each other’s bodies, but what we can do is try seeing ‘through alien eyes’, everyone!”

  In that moment, Kiki thought of the Star Boy, who’d be safely back home at Eddie’s by now. She’d been feeling so overwhelmed with how to keep him safe that she hadn’t thought about how overwhelmed he must be feeling. Moving house was hard. Moving town was hard. Moving galaxies had to be mind-blowingly hard. No wonder his energy levels were all over the place. Kiki frowned, silently reminding herself to be more empathetic – and patient – with him from now on.

  “I’d like you to split into pairs,” she heard Ms Naik continue, “and ask each other questions, so you can understand each other a little better, and perhaps not be so quick to judge.”

  Kiki watched as Ms Naik started partnering people up before they hesitated or started mucking about and making alien noises.

  “…Simon and Bilal, Lola and Kiki, Nancy and Ceyda…”

  “Please, miss,” Lola began. “I don’t want—”

  “No discussion, Lola!” Ms Naik said briskly. “Just get on with it.”

  With a screeching of dragged and shifted seats, students settled into their pairs. Lola – of course – stayed where she was, letting Kiki bunny-hop her chair closer. Kiki risked glancing across at Lola; she was staring straight ahead, her face like thunder. Kiki sighed inwardly. There was no way Lola was going to be the first to talk. She racked her brains for something to say.