ALIENATED: GROUNDED AT GROOM LAKE

Chapter 7: Drama King

 Compared to the familiar sounds of a school hallway—keys jangling, locker doors slamming, sneakers squeaking on waxed floor tiles—the sight of chattering creatures walking, snaking, slithering, hovering, and galloping to their classes felt even more weird.

Jessica and I half-jogged to keep pace with the ventitent as Octo cruised though the crowd, one tentacle curled up to hold his backpack in place as he navigated the busy hallway.

"You realize you're the only human kids here, right?"

It was quite a thought.

I'd spent a year as the only American boy at an off-base school in South Korea (and I was used to being the only kid interested in rockets and propulsion no matter what school I was in), but being the only human male in the student body made me feel...well...

Alien.

As we walked the hallway, dodging jet-powered paper airplanes and the occasional pigskin, the insectoids, reptiles, robots, and creatures that defied conventional classification sized us up.

I was used to this walk—I call it "the catwalk." I usually hated it, but here it was almost a relief getting eyeballed because we were descended from apes, not because our clothes or hair didn't follow a local fashion trend.

I decided to treat this like any other first day of school. I'd just try to survive it.

"So what's your story?" Octo asked. "Why are you guys at Groom Lake?"

"Our story?" gasped Jessica. "You're kidding, right? What's your story, tentacles?"

"I asked first, lollipop," Octo laughed.

"It's really just one big geopolitical misunderstanding," I began, trying to change the subject to stop any flirting between the walking squid and my sister.

"It's all his fault!" she said, jabbing a finger in my ribs.

"It's a long, complicated story," I said. "And it's kind of funny when you—"

"It's a short, straightforward story," Jessica said. "With a tragic ending."

I explained that our dad had been stationed at the NATO base in Germany and that he'd suddenly been transferred to Groom Lake.

"More like grounded," said Jess.

"Just your average, always-on-the-move, Air-Force-brats scenario," I said.

"But tell him why Dad got transferred," Jessica said. "Tell him why Dad got demoted. Tell him why we got kicked out of Europe."

I looked from Jessica to Octo and back—from Jessica's pursed lips and one-of-these-days-revenge-will-be-mine glare to Octo's glassy black eyes and over-sized beaks—took a breath and spilled the beans.

"There was kind of an...incident," I said.

"Involving a missile!"

"Involving a rocket," I clarified. "That I built."

"Your science project exploded or something?" Octo asked, his eyes widening.

"If only," Jessica muttered.

"It was a little more advanced than that," I explained. "My rockets are always a little more advanced than that."

"So, okay," Octo said, "you're an egghead. Being an egghead doesn't get you kicked out of Europe."

"He's a mad scientist," Jessica snarled. "Being a mad scientist who almost starts World War Three gets you kicked out of a two-thousand-mile radius of Russian air space."