Alien in My Pocket #4 Read Online Free Page B

going to be so bad after all.
    I headed down the hallway for a test that I was now thinking would put me back on top of the McGee Family Egg Drop Derby.

Runaway
    I plucked an egg out of the carton on Taylor’s bed. It took only a few seconds to yank out another piece of tape and attach the toy parachute to the egg.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Taylor asked suspiciously. “Is that a parachute?”
    I ignored him and walked over to the window. Taylor pushed his way next to me. He pulled on my arm. I laughed. Science was even more fun than it looked!
    â€œStop wasting eggs,” he cried.
    I felt like one of those crazy scientist guys with the wild hair who always appear in Frankenstein movies. My laugh actually sounded a bit like a loony cackle.
    â€œDad, tell Zack to quit it.”
    My dad had just come through the backyard gate. He was carrying a folding chair, which I think was for me to sit in while I filmed Taylor’s egg drop.

    â€œWatch this!” I called out.
    I tossed the egg in the air. It went up as high as the roof, the parachute fluttering behind it. Then it began to fall. And like magic, the parachute popped opened beautifully, with the egg swinging comfortably underneath the parachute’s umbrella.
    â€œHA!” I shouted. “LOOK AT THAT, SUCKERS!”
    Then something happened that had not occurred to me: the parachute started to drift. A sudden breeze blew my parachute off course.
    â€œNO!” I cried as the parachute drifted away and across the backyard. The three of us stared wide-eyed as my helpless egg went on the ride of its life.
    The parachute picked up speed as it continued to the other side of our backyard. I gasped as I saw it heading directly for our barbecue.
    With a satisfying splat, the egg exploded against the barbecue as the parachute was blown out of sight.
    Nobody moved.
    â€œYou really don’t like eggs, do you?” Dad said.
    My mom appeared behind us. She had her work laptop in one hand and the laundry in the other. “Look at my boys, working together.”
    â€œZack has turned this into more of a food fight than a science experiment,” Taylor complained.
    I looked at the stack of Taylor’s underwear that my mom was carrying.
    â€œWait, did you go into my room?” I blurted out.
    â€œYes, I did,” Mom said, taken aback. “Why?”
    â€œDid you close my door?” I said, grabbing her arm.
    I could tell by her face she hadn’t.
    I ran out of Taylor’s room and looked down the hallway toward my door. I saw Amp emerge from my doorway and start running in the opposite direction, inside Mike’s hamster ball. He was trying to escape!
    Amp stopped for a moment, looked over his shoulder at me, then continued even faster down the hallway, the ball rotating around him. Without warning, he took a sharp left-hand turn toward the stairs.
    I gasped. “No!”
    â€œWhat was that thing!?!” Taylor whispered from behind me.
    I heard the plastic ball bouncing violently down the stairs. THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
    I stood frozen. Mike’s ball bounced down the stairs. Then . . . after a few seconds of silence . . . I heard the ball hit the wooden floor. It bounced off the wall opposite the stairs and then . . . silence.

    I turned and looked at Taylor and Mom. “Uh . . . nothing,” I said.
    â€œThat was the loudest nothing I ever heard,” Mom said.
    I had just witnessed my third egg fall to its death. And now I was terrified that I’d find my alien houseguest splattered all over the inside of his plastic egg prison!
    Before I could start moving, I heard the front door open downstairs. My dad made an odd noise. “Zack McGee! You need to get down here right now!” he hollered.
    From the sound of his voice, I feared that my secret alien roommate had just become a whole lot less secret.

Doodles
    I shot down the stairs so fast I don’t actually