School by Nathaniel Hardman (top reads .TXT) 📕

“Ivan’s not bad,” said Jeff, ignoring Suzy.

“It’s bad if it’s a girl dog.” Suzy chimed in.

“Do we really not know if it’s male or female?” Dad asked. “Nobody noticed?”

“It’s a male,” cut in Mom. “It peed all over the side of the corner cabinet and the pantry door. Absolutely disgusting. I spent an hour cleaning it on Saturday.” She shook her head. “Only a boy.”

Jeff scowled.

“Hey, you guys have got to go!” His dad pointed to the clock on the microwave.

“Can I take the car?” Jeff said, jumping up.

“Mmm hmm,” Dad said. “Nice try. Four more years. If then.”

Two minutes later, Jeff was hurtling down the stairs, his hair combed-ish, a toothbrush sticking out of his mouth. “Bye Mom, Dad!” He yelled around the brush as he grabbed his backpack. A loud bang from the garage answered him. He glanced that direction quizzically, but then Suzy, already out the door, called, “The bus is there! Hurry!”

He started after her, then ran back to the counter and grabbed the square of cardboard with the pinned dragon fly. It was no two-headed dog, but he was definitely showing it off today. He raced after Suzy, only catching up to her as she climbed the first step onto the bus.

“So, you ready for the math test?” She asked innocently.

“What?” Jeff said, eyes wide, a trickle of toothpaste dribbled down his chin.

NINE

Suzy was ready. She didn’t want to seem too eager, so she groaned with her friends as Ms. Hacking passed out the tests. But the truth was, she LOVED tests. She loved beating the problems; she loved the pressure, competing for the high score.

Suzy glanced over at Jeff on the other side of the room and smiled grimly. She was ALSO looking forward to beating her dumb brother and reminding him who was older, smarter, and better.

She was half-way through the test when the beeps and buzzes finally broke her concentration.

In front of her, Zoe was sneaking a glance at her phone, and she wasn’t the only one. Looking around, Suzy saw five others sneaking glances. Peter wasn’t even bothering to hide it. As she watched, he leaned over to Aiden and pointed to something on his screen.

Scowling, Suzy turned to Ms. Hacking and saw her staring at her own phone, her mouth slightly open.

“Ms. Hacking,” Suzy said, raising her hand. She didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, but she couldn’t just sit there while everyone in the class cheated.

Ms. Hacking looked up, her eyes unfocused. “Yes? Oh, right. Everyone put down your pencils. There’s been an incident. Uh. Come back to my desk, I guess. Or if you have a phone, you can look it up yourselves.”

Mr. McArthur came over the loudspeaker then. “Teachers, please turn on your classroom TV’s. There’s been an historic event, and I’m sure we’ll all want to keep tuned to the news as this unfolds. Again, turn on your classroom TV’s now. Students will stay in their classes until further notice.”

Jeff jumped up and turned on the TV mounted in the corner of the room without being asked. It was set to the school’s common signal, which was broadcasting CNN.

The banner at the bottom of the screen read, “Unfolding: Alien Found in Atlanta-area home.” Above the banner, the screen was split between a shot of the news anchor’s grim face and live footage of a large, orange, six-legged creature in a garage. It was lumbering about, bumping the bicycles hanging from the ceiling.

“JEFF!” Suzy blurted. “That’s OUR garage!”

TEN

The news anchor was saying things about “very early reports” and “too soon to positively identify as extra-terrestrial” and “no attempt at communication”, but Jeff only vaguely registered the words. He couldn’t stop watching the creature.

The camera turned momentarily to an on-site reporter, and Jeff yelled along with everyone else, “Put it back on the alien!” As if in response, the camera soon returned its focus.

The alien, if that’s what it was, looked like a furry, orange spider:  its horizontal body, suspended on six thick legs, was only about three feet off the floor, but its... elbows? knees? were higher, rising another two feet above the body. The head was hidden from the camera at first, but then someone opened the side door of the garage and got a view of it muzzling the floor along his dad’s tool shelves. The fur of its face was much shorter, revealing a cow-like snout and nose, but with an extra pair of eyes on the back of its skull. All four eyes were solid black, like a shark’s, with no whites.

The creature snuffled along the baseboard until it came to a spider’s web. A thin, black tongue lashed out, and then the spider web was gone. Jeff jumped, along with everyone else.

“This just in,” the anchor’s change in tone cut through Jeff’s concentration. “We are just getting reports that a second alien life-form has been found at the site. Julie, can you tell us anything about a second life-form?”

There was some confused, shaky camera movement, and they could see a woman running just ahead of the camera toward a crowd of news people crowding around the backyard gate. Then the view was looking down at Two-Head – Of all the names we could have chosen, Jeff thought, Is that the one that’s going to stick? – who was alternately trying to break through the fence and jump over the fence to attack the reporters.

The cameramen were having a rough time of it, trying to get a good view of the dog without having their hands or their cameras ripped to pieces as Two-Head leapt and snapped at them.

Then Jeff heard someone, Julie maybe, shouting off-screen, and the view swiveled around to the street. Dozens of men were boiling out of camouflaged hummers, some in grey hazmat suits, others