Kell and the Giants Read online

  Dad is very smart and a research scientist and everything. But it is true that he is clumsy. All the wood was cut to the right lengths. He just had to hammer on the small steps that a kid would stand on.

  Bang, bang! Ouch! Dad hit his thumb.

  “Will you paint the stilts?” I asked.

  Bang, bang! Ouch! Dad hit his thumb. Again.

  “No. We have markers to decorate the stilts. Whoever has the best decorated stilts will get a prize.” Dad handed me a piece of wood. “Hold this for me, please.”

  Bang, bang! Quickly, I moved my hand away so Dad didn’t hit my thumb!

  Mom opened the back door and called, “John, Dr. East wants to talk to you.”

  While Dad took the call, I hammered together a stilt all by myself.

  Dad came back shaking his head, “Dr. East is worried about the weather. It might rain.”

  And that’s all anyone could talk about. Rain. What if it rained too much for the party? The weather forecast said it was going to rain on Friday night. But Earthling weather forecasters get it wrong all the time. It would probably be sunny and clear on Friday night. We could wait another day or two before we had to think about weather.

  Have you ever gotten a song stuck in your head? You sing it over and over? I kept singing, “Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are.” But I couldn’t remember the rest of the song.

  At lunch on Wednesday, I asked Bree to sing the song again, and I tried to remember more words. But mostly, I just let the Earth sun shine in my heart while she sang. That was a good feeling.

  Aja didn’t like the singing, though. “Please don’t sing while we eat.”

  Bree told Aja, “That’s a good star song.”

  Aja said, “Why do you care about stars?”

  Bree pushed her tray away. She didn’t like cafeteria food. “I don’t. I just like aliens.”

  Freddy frowned, “You keep talking about aliens.”

  Bree glanced at me and turned away, but said nothing. And suddenly, the sun in my heart was covered with clouds.

  Aja said, “If you’re not eating those fries, can I have them?”

  She shoved her tray over to him.

  Aja stuffed in fries and mumbled, “Are you an Alien Chaser or an Alien Lover?”

  “Yuk,” Bree said. “Who would love an alien?”

  Now, it was storming in my heart.

  All Bree could do was talk about aliens. But it wasn’t a joke for me. If anyone else found out I am from Bix, it might be very, very, very, very bad for my family and me. Bree was bad at keeping secrets.

  “Enough crazy talk,” I said. I picked up my food tray and stomped over to sit with Edgar and Mary Lee.

  After school on Wednesday, Mom picked up Bree and me. We only had two days before the Giant party and we had lots of shopping to do. Bree was still singing the “Twinkle, Twinkle” song to herself. Mom asked to hear all of the song. That was OK because I didn’t want to talk to Bree.

  Bree explained to my mom, “It’s really an old poem by Jane Taylor.”

  Then she sang the whole song.

  Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

  How I wonder what you are.

  Up above the world so high,

  Like a diamond in the sky.

  When the blazing sun is gone,

  When he nothing shines upon,

  Then you show your little light,

  Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

  Then the traveler in the dark,

  Thanks you for your tiny spark,

  He could not see which way to go,

  If you did not twinkle so.

  In the dark blue sky you keep,

  And often through my curtains peep,

  For you never shut your eye,

  'Till the sun is in the sky.

  As your bright and tiny spark,

  Lights the traveler in the dark.

  Though I know not what you are,

  Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

  Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

  How I wonder what you are.

  Up above the world so high,

  Like a diamond in the sky.

  Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

  How I wonder what you are.

  How I wonder what you are.

  While she sang, the Earth sun tried to shine in my heart, but I didn’t let it. That Bree. She had to stop talking about aliens. Or we couldn’t be friends.

  Next, we stopped at the candy store.

  Mom asked, “Do you have jawbreakers?

  “Of course,” said Mrs. MeLong. She pulled out three jars that were filled with colorful balls. First there were balls about as big as my thumb. Next were balls about as big as a quarter. And finally came the giant jawbreakers, bigger than Ping-Pong balls.

  Mom bought two of the smallest ones for Bree and me to try. Jawbreakers are candies as hard as a rock.

  Mrs. MeLong said, “Don’t try to bite it. Just suck.”

  Bree said, “Aliens have hard teeth. It should be easy for you to bite a jawbreaker.”

  She was doing it again!

  I pulled Bree behind a candy shelf and said, “You don’t know how to keep a secret.”

  Bree said, “I didn’t tell anybody—” She looked around, then whispered, “—that you’re an alien!”

  “But you keep talking about aliens. That means people keep thinking about aliens. That means they might find out about my family and me. You have to stop.”

  “But I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  Why didn’t she understand? Angry, I said, “We can’t be friends. You don’t know how to keep a secret.”

  Bree spit her jawbreaker into her hand. She started to say something else, but I held up my hand and walked away.

  Earthling girls just talk too much.

  Dark clouds filled the sky on Geography Day.

  Dad came to school with me, so he could bring the extra maps for my friends. He told Mr. Martinez, “I want to donate some prizes.”

  The maps pleased Mr. Martinez. “Who did these? They are excellent.”

  Dad said, “Oh, we just had these around.”

  I didn’t want anyone to know that I had made the maps. I just wanted my friends to be happy.

  Dad added, “I would like to decide who gets these special prizes.” That way, we could be sure that my friends got the right maps.

  Mr. Martinez nodded. “That’s great. You can be a special judge.”

  “I’ll be back after lunch,” Dad said.

  On the way to my classroom, it happened. I turned the corner into the Lower Grades Hallway, and there was Gloria and Mrs. Lynx. When she saw me, Gloria’s nose went up. She jerked to a stop and pointed her black nose straight at me. Her tail was out straight, and one front paw was pointing at me, too.

  Mrs. Lynx kept walking and said, “Come on, Gloria.”

  But then, she turned back and saw Gloria pointing.

  Classes started in ten minutes. Earthlings raced back and forth around me, boys and girls hurrying to their classes.

  I put my head down and walked.

  Two steps later, Mrs. Lynx called, “Stop! Everyone stop right where you are!”

  I kept walking.

  “STOP!” Mrs. Lynx bellowed.

  My feet froze. I turned and looked at Mrs. Lynx and her dog. This was it.

  Behind Gloria was the U.S. map with alien stickers to show where aliens had been found. Would Mrs. Lynx add another sticker today?

  Gloria was confused. She still pointed, but her head jerked around, trying to find the alien in the crowd. I was far enough away that I didn’t think she could smell me. I looked around, hoping to see another 3rd grader who might have treats for Gloria. But there was no one. I was on my own.

  Terrified, I started counting the alien stickers on the U.S. map. 1, 2, 3. . . .

  Slowly, I took a baby step backward. 13, 14, 15. . .

  Mrs. Lynx bent to stare at each kid, and when she did, I stepped backward again, and
again. 18, 19, 20. . . . And then again. 25, 26, 27. . . .

  Twenty-seven alien stickers were scattered across the western part of the U.S. How many in the eastern part?

  Now, Gloria was pointing straight at me again.

  A kindergarten kid started to walk away, but Mrs. Lynx roared, “Stop!”

  The kid started wailing, and Mrs. Lynx had to bend down to talk to her.

  It was my chance. I turned and darted into my class.

  Peeking out, the kindergarten kid was calmer, and now Mrs. Lynx was stooping to look at the next kid.

  The final bell rang. Mrs. Lynx stood with her hands on her hips, frowning. Finally, she waved at kids to go to their classes.

  That was a close one.

  I sat in my seat and shivered. But what about next time? It was hard to be an alien on Earth. It was hard to make friends. It was hard to make a home on a strange planet. It was all hard. At times like this, I just wanted to be home on Bix. Safe.

  But I wouldn’t know Aja, Freddy, Mary Lee, Roman, or Edgar. Or Bree.

  Somehow, I just had to stay hidden.

  It was a long morning waiting for the Geography Day assembly. Finally, we lined up to go to the cafeteria.

  Mr. Martinez said, “You must be on your best behavior. The food fight on Nutrition Day got many students in trouble.”

  Some kids laughed. That had been a fun day!

  “Try to stay out of trouble this time,” Mr. Martinez ordered.

  We marched to the cafeteria. The tables were cleaned off, and we laid out our maps for the judges to study.

  While the judges worked, we sat on the black and white checkerboard floor. I made sure that I sat far away from Bree. Aja was beside me on one side, and Freddy was on the other side. Onstage, we watched some people do yo-yos. A yo-yo is a wooden or plastic circle that is wrapped with string. An easy thing to do with a yo-yo is make it go up and down. But those yo-yo people did lots more than that.

  Freddy asked me, “Why are we watching yo-yos for Geography Day?”

  I pointed to the man doing a yo-yo trick. “He said that is called ‘Around the World’.”

  “But what does it have to do with geography?” Freddy said.

  Nothing. It was just fun.

  When I wasn’t watching the yo-yos, I was watching Gloria. She and Mrs. Lynx walked up and down the aisles of maps.

  Dad was looking at Roman’s map. It was the largest map and had a table by itself. Dad probably liked the stars for each capital city. He was trying to memorize all the U.S. states and capitals.

  The judges walked around the room with clipboards. They studied each map and wrote something on their papers.

  Suddenly, I heard Mrs. Lynx call out, “Good girl, Gloria.”

  And there she was, the brown and white pointer dog, the best alien pointer dog in the U.S. She was pointing straight at my Dad.

  Gloria was a thing of beauty. She was a thing of terror.

  Quickly, my Dad bent to the dog and started petting her. “Mrs. Lynx, what an interesting dog.”

  He pulled something out of his pocket. He had doggie treats!

  Gloria’s tail started wagging, and she dropped her point.

  Angrily, Mrs. Lynx said, “This is a working dog. You shouldn’t bother her when she is working.”

  She stared at all the kids sitting on the floor behind my Dad. Roman stood up and said, “Do you need any help?”

  Mrs. Lynx looked from Gloria’s point to Roman. Her eyes got big, and her mouth looked like she was saying, “Oh!”

  Just then, the yo-yo people finished and Mr. Martinez called out, “Time for prizes.”

  He wrapped his arms around the huge star globe and carried it up the stairs and onto the stage. He set it down on a table, plugged it in and turned on the lights. It was beautiful. And I wished it was mine.

  “We’ve had some special maps donated as consolation prizes,” Mr. Martinez announced. “If you didn’t win the big prize of the star globe, these prizes should make you happy.”

  Dad trotted up the stairs to join Mr. Martinez on stage. Dad held up the map on black paper with gold ink.

  “This goes to Aja Dalal,” Mr. Martinez announced.

  Aja went on stage to get the map. Carefully, he touched the gold ink and then fist-pumped.

  Mary Lee Glendale got the glow-in-the-dark map next, and Freddy Rubin got the map of the moon’s craters. They slapped high-fives.

  Which made me grin. I was glad they didn’t know the maps came from me.

  Bree got her special map of the Rigel star system with Bix marked on it. She looked at me and smiled, but I shook my head. Her smile faded, and she put a finger on her lips. She could keep a secret, she was trying to tell me. But I didn’t know if she could stop talking about aliens.

  I frowned at her. She frowned at me.

  Mr. Martinez tapped the star globe. “Now for the big winner. Roman East.”

  “No,” I whispered. I really wanted that star globe.

  As Roman walked by, though, I slapped his hand and said, “Yes!”

  Holding the star globe, the smile on Roman’s face was as big and wide as the Earth.

  It was a good Geography Day.

  After it was over, Dad wound through the crowd to find me. “We have a problem with the Giant party. It’s going to rain.”

  “Maybe it won’t.”

  “The weather man says a 90% chance of rain tomorrow. Yes, it will rain.”

  “What can we do?”

  Dad said, “What on Earth do I know? You have to think of something.”

  I already had. “Wait here,” I said.

  I went to the bathroom and pulled a bottle of Dad’s cologne from my coat pocket. I poured it on. Oops! The bottle was half gone. I didn’t smell like an alien now.

  I left the bathroom and went back to the cafeteria to look for Mrs. Lynx.

  She was in the middle of the room with Gloria beside her. Would the dog know I was an alien?

  I walked straight up to Mrs. Lynx. But my voice didn’t work. “Um.”

  “Yes?” Mrs. Lynx snapped. Her nose twitched.

  Gloria wasn’t pointing at me. Instead, she was wagging her tail. Had all the treats worked? Or was the cologne working? I didn’t care, as long as something worked.

  “Did you need something, Kell?” Mrs. Lynx asked. She waved her hand in front of her nose.

  Now, the words came fast. “Mrs. Lynx, may Aliens, Inc. use the cafeteria for Roman’s Giant party? We will clean it up afterwards. It’s just that the weatherman says it will rain, so we can’t do it outside. May we use the cafeteria? Please?”

  “Are you the one who smells so much?” She bent to look me in the eye.

  Those eyes. They were bright blue and shining, eyes that saw everything. I looked down, miserable, and nodded.

  Mrs. Lynx stood up straight and pinched her nose shut. Her voice sounded funny, “Yes.”

  “Yes?” My head jerked up in surprise.

  Mrs. Lynx snapped her fingers at Gloria, and the dog lined up beside the principal. “Yes, you may use the cafeteria. Aliens, Inc. does give great parties and it would be a sad thing to cancel one. Have your Dad talk to the school secretary about keys to get in.”

  Mrs. Lynx looked down at me again with piercing eyes.

  I was shocked! The principal’s eyes couldn’t see everything. They just saw ALMOST everything. I was safe.

  “Thank you!” I said.

  She nodded and turned away. Walking off, she said, “And Kell—take a bath. You stink.”

  Roman slapped my back. “The party is saved!”

  From across the room, I saw Bree watching. She nodded to me, like she wanted to say, “Good job.” But her mouth was straight, and she didn’t come and talk to me.

  Sometimes Earthling girls talk too much. But sometimes, I just want to hear a certain Earthling girl talking.

  The day of the Giant party, it rained.

  That morning we decorated the cafeteria and set up the tall strike
r game. We put non-slip plastic on the bottom of all the stilts, so no one would fall walking on stilts inside. We set up the food tables.

  We went home for lunch, and Dad went to pick up some things. Mom went out to check on the bees. She didn’t put on her bee clothes or bee hat or bee gloves because honeybees don’t like to fly during the rain. They sleep on rainy days. I watched from the window, which was as close as I wanted to get to honeybees.

  Mom took the top two hive boxes off to check everything. One or two bees flew around, but the rest were still. She heaved the hive boxes back to the top, but it was wet. They slipped. An angry bee dove and stung her hand.

  Back inside, Mom shook water off her hair. She held out her hand and showed me the tiny red spot. “It was my fault,” she said.

  A few minutes later, though, her hand was bigger. As we watched, it got bigger and bigger. “I must be allergic to bee stings,” Mom said.

  See? That is why I don’t like Earthling bugs.

  Mom pulled out her Bixster First Aid kit that we had saved from our space ship. A year ago, the kit was full of small bottles and pills. Now, it was half empty.

  Mom looked up, and her silvery eyes were big and scared. “We don’t have any delly left.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s the medicine for allergies.” She coughed, tried to take a deep breath, but coughed again. Now her face looked puffy, too.

  That scared me. “Mom,” I demanded, “where is Dad?”

  “He doesn’t answer his phone. He is picking up paper plates and cups for the party.” She took another breath, but it sounded rough.

  Mom was allergic to the bee sting, and I had to do something. But what?

  I bit my lip and worried. “Mom, tell me what to do.”

  But she was slumped in her chair.