No Aliens Allowed

- Four -

Eleven snuck up on me pretty fast. I was just sitting on the couch, watching reruns of a surfing competition. A girl with the name of Ashley Pickleton just wiped out, falling backwards off her board to smack the water. Honestly, with a last name like that, she kind of deserved to wipe out.

We took a family vacation to California this summer. Catelin's family came and Penn too, with his little brother. That's when my mom started to not like him very much because he wasn't very nice. But not being nice was kinda Penn's thing. Anyways, I was surfing, and the water was so blue and I felt like I was flying and free and home.

Penn later told me that I looked powerful, crouched low on my board with the water spraying my face and my hair. He said I had a rare kind of smile on my face, one that made me glow. Then he gave me a look and walked away.

He was very confusing. Sometimes he said these things that made my heart flutter a couple beats because Penn really could be smooth when he wanted to and his face was almost as pretty as Allen's but sometimes he was an okole puka.

An ad for Apple came on the exact time the doorbell rang. I checked the clock -- it seemed that Allen had arrived precisely at eleven.

Whenever the doorbell rings at our house, our whole family springs into action. Catelin knocks, Penn comes in with me and all of Nala's friends seemingly appear inside the house.

"I'll get it," my mother said. Nalani came sliding down the hall in her socks -- funny story about that, actually. The scar on her forehead, just above her eyebrow came from sock sliding. We were racing, because there's a really nice wood hallway that runs the length of the first floor with these big arches off to the side for the living room and kitchen and stuff. But Nalani slipped at the end and hit her head on the coat rack and there was blood and screaming and Dad rushing to the hospital and Alana holding me close so I didn't cry --

Nalani's near-collision with me snapped me out of my thoughts pretty fast.

"That's him?" Nalani asked.

"Yep," I said.

"Kali," my father said, rushing into the kitchen. "That is your hoaloho, right?"

Dad did that a lot. When he didn't know the English word, he'd throw in a Hawaiian one and leave us to translate it. In this case, he'd forgotten how to say friend in English. Don't know how that happened because my Dad was all about friendship and thanking people and stuff like that.

One time, he got a gift from a friend for Christmas, and worked for three months to repay him.

I responded. "Yes, Dad, it is."

"You should change," Nalani told me. "You look awful."

I glanced down at my grey sweatpants and floral v-neck. "I look fine."

Nalani gave me a look like, are you actually serious right now.

My mother opened the door. I scrambled upstairs, hissing at Nalani to cover for me. I ran into my room, throwing open my dresser drawer. I looked out the window. It was sunny, so I kept the shirt on, but changed my pants out for a pair of skinny jeans. I shoved my feet into a pair of flats, noticing at the last minute that one was navy and the other pink. I kept the navy one, finding its pair under my bed.

I looked around desperately for my black sweater, at last locating it in the hamper.

I heard voices downstairs as I hurriedly put on makeup, trying not to stab my eye out with the mascara wand.

"You better not try anything on my daughter," my mother warned. "Or we'll have to talk."

I knew my mother meant well, but sometimes she could be a bit menacing and embarrassing.