I don't write much. I mostly want to read, but whatever. I can get in the spirit and post a story now and then!
For as long as schools have been in session, there has not been a single child on earth who would not swear that at least one of their teachers was an alien, and when asked which kind of alien, would point towards the starry sky, and Helen was no exception to that rule. She sat in detention staring at Mrs. Leeming's long, thin nose that had just the slightest curve to it like Helen's pet parakeet's beak. But if Mrs. Leeming was any sort of bird at all, she'd have to be a flamingo, because she always wore bright pink and she had the longest legs Helen had ever seen on a person. The woman had to be nearly seven feet tall, or maybe only six feet, but either way that was incredibly tall for any one person to be.
Finally, Mrs. Leeming looked up from grading this week's spelling test. "It's been an hour, Miss Bradbury. Your detention is over."
Helen started to leap up from her seat.
"Just a moment, Helen." Mrs. Leeming clicked her red pen shut. "I want you to promise that you will never throw water onto anybody again."
"But Ms. Ruhl had all the signs of being a real witch!" Helen leapt forward across the distance between herself and the teacher's desk. "That was the water test to see if she melts."
"And she did not melt."
"Because she wasn't that kind of witch." Helen forced her temper down. Her Father said she had to pick her battles, and Mrs. Leeming had proven to be just as stubborn as she was. Besides, Helen had much more important matters to be getting on to. "But I promise, Mrs. Leeming, that I will never throw water onto anyone at school ever again." She smiled her adorable, innocent smile, the one that made her cheeks both dimple. "Cross my heart and hope to die."
Mrs. Leeming only nodded. She clearly did not believe, nor trust, Helen to do as she promised, which Helen greatly resented as she returned to her desk to gather her books, but Helen's word was her honor.
It just so happened that Helen had reason to believe that one of her teachers really was an alien, so her mission, should she choose to accept, and she did, was to discover everything she could about the teachers on her list before class tomorrow. Mrs. Leeming currently was on the bottom of the list since her height was really the only thing that had her under suspicion. The list of suspects went Mr. Fletcher who taught eighth grade science, Ms. Miller who was Helen's English teacher, and Mrs. Remick, the principal.
Each one of them had something equally as strange about them. Mr. Fletcher was always doing weird experiments for his eighth graders that the students generally described as making potions. Ms. Miller always made a soft clicking sound whenever she was thinking hard on something like a robot, and Mrs. Remick was more than the strictest, most stern principal ever. She wore a big green ring on her right hand with a golden letter inside it that was like no letter Helen had ever seen, and when kids came to her to be disciplined, Mrs. Remick held her fingers laced together with her elbows perched on the edge of her desk so that the ring pointed towards the student. It was a mind control device. Helen was as sure of that as she was sure that she had five toes on each foot.
It was very possible that only one of her suspects was actually an alien, and Helen would judge that for herself, but the one thing that made it absolutely certain that at least one of them was an alien was the discovery she had made while on her way back from the bathroom in social studies class. Something small and silver had caught her eye as she made her way though the empty hall. Stopping to pick it up, Helen discovered the object to be perfectly round and smooth like the river rocks her Mother had used in her landscaping this summer. It must have sensed the warmth of her hands, because it began to vibrate and hum, and then a projection popped up from it like a hologram from the movies! Helen buried the thing in her pocket when it started making noise in a language she didn't recognize and ran the rest of the way to the bathroom. It hadn't made a single sound since, much to Helen's relief because she was certain she should not have it.
