Aliens for Breakfast (2 page)

2
.

Richard slid into his seat just as math was starting. He was under strict orders from Aric to act normal. “Do not let anyone know about me,” he had told Richard on the way to school. “If the Drane finds out I am here, you can kiss this planet good-bye.” So now Richard couldn’t stare at Dorf, even though he wanted to. Instead he had to pretend that the only thing on his mind was the question Mrs. Marks was asking.

As usual, it was a hard one.

“Who knows how many ways we can make
change for a dollar?” she asked. She looked around the room slowly. Then she stared straight at Richard. His heart sank. “Richard?” she asked.

Richard knew you could get four quarters or ten dimes or a hundred pennies from a dollar. But that was too easy. This was a trick question with a trick answer. Only he didn’t know the answer.

“Any ideas, Richard?” asked Mrs. Marks.

“Four?”

“Only four?”

“Five,” he said quickly. He would have to bluff.

“Who thinks there are more?” asked Mrs. Marks.

“There must be at least ten,” called Henry. He was good at trick questions. “What about a mixture of nickels, dimes, and pennies? Or nickels, quarters, and half-dollars?”

Half-dollars! thought Richard. I forgot those.

Then Dorf raised his hand. He had a big smile on his face. It showed off his perfect white teeth.

“Yes, Dorf?” said Mrs. Marks.

“There are two hundred ninety-two ways to change a dollar bill,” said Dorf.

All the kids in the class stared at Dorf. How had he come up with that number?

“Good guess!” exclaimed Mrs. Marks.

“It’s not a guess,” said Dorf. “I figured it out last summer. On my computer.”

“Well, you’re very clever indeed,” said Mrs. Marks. “Because that is the right answer. Can anyone explain why?” Her eyes moved up and down the rows. Richard tried to look invisible.

“You have pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half-dollars,” continued Dorf. “One hundred thirty-six coins in all. But you can mix them in all kinds of ways. Like five pennies, two dimes, five nickels, and a half-dollar. Or forty-five pennies, a nickel, and two quarters. There are hundreds of ways to do it. Two hundred ninety-two ways, to be exact,” he finished smoothly.

Mrs. Marks didn’t smile a lot. But she smiled now. And everyone in the class nodded, as if Dorf had just said something important and wonderful.

“He has begun to control their minds,” said Aric. Richard jumped. For a moment he had forgotten about the alien in his pocket. Now he felt a thrill of alarm at Aric’s words. What should he do?

“I told you before,” said Aric’s voice. “Just act normal. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” said Richard silently, sensing that Aric could hear his thoughts. He felt hot and nervous. But at least math was over. He walked over to Henry’s seat with his lunch box. They always traded sandwiches after math. Richard’s mother made him tuna on whole wheat, which he hated. Henry’s mother made him peanut butter and jelly, which
he
hated. So they traded. But when Richard got to Henry, Henry was already eating a sandwich. It looked like tuna fish. Dorf was sitting next to Henry. He was eating a sandwich, too. It looked like peanut butter and jelly.

“Hey!” said Richard. “Don’t you want to trade?”

“Already have,” said Henry, with his mouth full. “I traded with Dorf.” His eyes, when he
turned to Richard, looked funny. Almost as if they weren’t focused right.

“But we always trade,” said Richard.

“Here, Richard. Have half of mine,” said Dorf. He offered his peanut butter and jelly with a smile.

“Do not look at his teeth.” Aric’s voice popped into Richard’s mind. “They send out dangerous Drane rays that will bring you under his control. Look only into his eyes. They cannot harm you.”

Richard took a deep breath and turned to Henry. “I hate tuna fish,” he said. “And we always trade. How could you give my sandwich away?”

“It’s not your sandwich. Anyway, Dorf got to me first,” said Henry.

Richard sputtered with anger. “He’s a—” Before he could say “Drane monster,” Henry broke in.

“He’s a great guy,” said Henry. His mouth was still full of tuna fish. “He’s got his own VCR and all the Mad Max tapes. And he’s going to let me watch them on Saturday.”

“Why don’t you come too?” said Dorf. “A
whole bunch of kids from the class are coming. It’ll be fun.”

“I hate Mad Max!” said Richard, though this wasn’t true. Then he saw that Henry was staring straight at Dorf. Right at Dorf’s perfect smile. “And besides, I’m already busy,” he finished weakly.

Then he sat down at his desk and looked blankly at his tuna sandwich. Earth is in BIG trouble, thought Richard Bickerstaff.

3
.

All day Richard kept waiting for Aric to remember what the secret weapon was. But Aric didn’t remember. Instead, he complained. He whined about having to stay in Richard’s pocket. He made rude remarks about the classes he had to sit through. The only time he stopped complaining was during gym. Then he sat in the pocket of Richard’s shorts and didn’t make a sound. After gym he confessed that the smell of the basketball reminded him of Ingbar, his girlfriend on Ganoob.

But at last the school day was almost over.
Only art was left—Richard’s favorite. He had been working for weeks on a drawing of the starship
Enterprise
. Now it was nearly finished. He settled down and got to work. Using a silver crayon, he drew in one last fin on the ship’s side. “Isn’t this great?” he asked Aric silently. Now that he knew he could send thoughts to the little alien, he was beginning to like it.

“Primitive,” answered Aric. “Besides, interspace beaming is much cheaper.”

“But what if you don’t know exactly where you’re going? Captain Kirk never has a destination. He spends his time on the
Enterprise
exploring space. Looking for strange new worlds.”

“Get real. We have enough problems with the worlds we know already. Thanks to our friends the Dranes. In case you had forgotten.”

Richard threw down his crayon. “How could I forget?” he said out loud. Too late, he remembered about sending the thought silently. What if someone in class heard him talking to himself? They would think he was crazy.

But no one even looked at him. His whole class was watching in silence as Dorf worked on his art project. Richard wondered why everyone was so impressed. After all, it was only a little white paper pyramid.

Mrs. Logan walked over to Dorf’s desk. Dorf smiled one of his big smiles up at her. Her eyes got a little funny and glassy as she
smiled back. “How beautiful!” she said to Dorf. “So three-dimensional!”

Henry was sitting next to Dorf. He stared at Dorf’s pyramid for a long time. Then he stared at his own crayon drawing of two dinosaurs. Then he looked back at Dorf’s pyramid again.

“Mrs. Logan, can I make something new?” he asked.

“What would you like to make, Henry?” asked Mrs. Logan.

“Uh, something three-dimensional. Like Dorf.”

“What a nice idea!” said Mrs. Logan. “Of course! Go ahead.”

Then Celia raised her hand. She was drawing a picture of dancing jellybeans. “Me, too,” she said.

“Me, too,” said Jennifer, Ruth, Philip, George, Leroy, Fawn, Dawn, Sean, and Tristram. Mrs. Logan looked pleased.

“If you’d all like to try something new, go right ahead,” she said. The whole class got up. They walked to the supply table and took what was left of the white paper. Then they
walked back to their seats and began making little white pyramids. They look like a bunch of robots, thought Richard.

Mrs. Logan came over to him. “Is something wrong?” she asked. “Don’t you want to try something new too?”

“Not really,” said Richard. “I haven’t finished my starship yet.”

Suddenly Mrs. Logan leaned closer. “What’s that on your hand?” she asked. “Are you bleeding?”

Richard looked at his fingers. Yikes! The tips were bright red. Blood was oozing out from under his fingernails.

Richard grabbed his hand. “How did this happen? I didn’t cut myself. I’m sure of it.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Dorf smile. Why?