Alien Me Read Online Free Page A

suddenly as it began. I froze, panting, unable to understand what was happening to me. Then I realized that the boy who had come in behind me had laid his cool hand on my arm.
    “There. That should be better,” the young man said. When he looked into my eyes, I saw gold diamonds in the black pupils.
    I had seen those same gold diamonds before when they had appeared in my own eyes at the start of summer. Only one other person had been able to see them, my neighbor Jonathan, a friend from childhood, right before he had lost his mind and was taken away raving in a police car. Three months later I attended his funeral.
    Terrified, I screamed once more and shoved this boy hard. A sound like a crack of thunder filled the room and the young man flew backwards as if fired from a canon. He crashed into the bulletin board next to the door, tipped over his desk, and almost fell down. The smell of ozone sharpened the air. A moment passed in stunned silence. Then a few students snickered. Several more got to their feet and moved toward the back of the room.
    For a moment Miss Ridgeway was too shocked to speak, but she recovered quickly and her eyebrows came together in annoyance. “Darcy Hinson! What was that?”
    “Her hair was caught in her necklace,” the new boy explained.
    “Unless your name is Darcy Hinson, I wasn’t talking to you.” Miss Ridgeway regarded me with irritation. “Darcy, what was that? Explain yourself.”
    “My necklace was burning me!” I cried and pointed at the new boy. “He did it when he came in here.”
    “Right. He made your necklace burn you and so you had to slam him against the wall?”
    “Actually some strands of hair were caught in the clasp of her necklace,” the boy said. “That’s what she felt.”
    I spun around on him. “It was not! You did it!”
    The new boy didn’t acknowledge me. He kept his attention firmly on the teacher. “Miss Ridgeway, it was her hair caught in the necklace. She’s confused.”
    “I’m not confused. Shut up! Who asked you?” I cried.
    Miss Ridgeway puffed up in fury. “Do you expect me to believe that this young man made a string of plastic beads burn your skin just by walking into the room?”
    “They’re genuine jade,” I said, stung by the implication.
    “Genuine jade. Right.” An angry, red flush rose in Miss Ridgeway’s thin cheeks. “Young man, what’s your name?”
    “I’m Sean Banks, and somehow the necklace was pulling her hair. She’s confused.”
    “I’m not confused! You made it burn me,” I shouted, turning on Sean. “It was you! You’re a friend of Martin Leonard’s, aren’t you? This is some kind of scheme you’re in on with Martin.”
    “That’s enough,” Miss Ridgeway said in a low, cold voice that was heavy with warning. “I see what’s going on here. One of you makes a scene and the other supplies an excuse. Maybe I should call the Oscar committee and have the two of you nominated. The vice principal can decide. Darcy, you can take your burning hot genuine jade necklace and your new friend, Sean Banks, to the vice principal’s office. March. Both of you. Now.”
    I had never been sent to the vice principal’s office in my entire life. “But this isn’t fair. He burned me!”
    “And I can see that by the charred, smoking skin of your neck,” Miss Ridgeway said sarcastically. “The vice principal will be happy to hear all about it. Go tell him. Now!”
    Miss Ridgeway strode over to the phone on her desk and dialed the vice principal’s office. By now much of the class was grinning in delight. Some whispered how this was the most interesting honors class ever and how one of the four Vestal Virgins had finally stepped off her pedestal. In the meantime, Miss Ridgeway didn’t bother to lower her voice when she told the vice principal about a rude outburst from Darcy Hinson and Sean Banks and how they would be in his office momentarily.
    Outraged by the injustice, I turned to Sean Banks to cuss him out, but