My Friend is an Alien - Edlund Niklas - Страница 35

"You crazy — " sputtered Niklas as Morik allowed him and Davy to get to their feet. "Nobody said anything about you taking your clothes off!"

"Nobody said anything about using them for bait or climbing trees, either, one way or the other, I might add, but it worked rather well, don't you think?" said Morik, grinning widely and retrieving his shorts.

"I think you cheated." said Davy.

"I think I won." stated Morik.

"I think I'm hot and tired and want something to drink." said Niklas.

"Good." said Morik. "Let's head back to the tent. I think Jahv got that glitch out of the food replicator finally."

"I hope so." said Davy, as the threesome headed off. "There's just something wrong about blue lemonade."

Upon arriving at the dome-tent that was home to the four aliens, they found that Jahv had indeed gotten the glitch out of the lemonade program. It was the proper color. The chocolate chip cookies were another matter, however. "Never saw purple cookies before." said Davy, trying to be polite and keep his gag reflex down. "With white chips."

Niklas closed his eyes, worked up his courage, and took a bite. "Well, they taste okay."

"I guess that's all that matters." said Davy, reluctantly tasting one. It was, as Niklas had said, perfectly fine in flavor.

"Don't know what to tell you, guys." said Jahv. "You should've seen what it did to the meal Arion ordered last night."

"Stuffed pakra roast is most definitely not supposed to be green." grumbled the young prince.

Conversation turned to other topics while everyone could still eat. "I still wish we could look around your world more." said Keyro. "It's just not the same, getting everything through computer screens."

"Your big brother tried that once." remarked Niklas. "From what I hear, it didn't go very well." Niklas turned to Davy for corroboration, but the youngster appeared deep in thought. That generally meant trouble.

"There might be a way." said Davy. "How would you lot like to attend a party?" "What?!" exclaimed all of the other boys — Jahv and Keyro in anxious expectation, Morik genuinely stunned, Arion moderately curious, and Niklas in utter shock. Niklas managed to get the next words in. "Did that purple cookie do something to your brain!?"

"The Halloween party." said Davy, grinning.

"What's — Hollow Een?" asked Jahv.

"Well, I don't know its entire specific origin, but these days, it involves kids dressing up in costumes for a night." explained Davy. The aliens suddenly caught on. "Used to be, kids would go around to houses in their neighborhoods, knock on doors and beg candy."

Jahv and Keyro tried to stifle laughter. They failed. So did Morik. The three aliens burst into raucous hysterics. Arion merely raised an eyebrow, as if finding both the concept and the other aliens' reaction equally absurd. When Jahv finally recovered enough to speak, he said, "That has got to be the silliest excuse for a holiday I've ever heard in my life! But you said something about a party?"

"Well, the past few years, it's gotten kind of dangerous for kids to be out at night, going around to houses where maybe they don't know everybody." said Davy sadly. "There's some sick people out there. So the town decided that the best thing to do would be to have an organized, supervised party. It's in the local high school's gym, but it's run by adults, and kids of all ages are welcome."

"And with everyone in costume," said Jahv, "no one's going to notice a handful of actual aliens."

"You two will have to wear your uniforms." advised Niklas, speaking specifically to Jahv and Keyro. "Morik, I don't know. Come up with something. Maybe a military uniform. Arion, you'll need to wear a shirt." That got him a nasty glare from his highness, as if Niklas had somehow stated the pathetically obvious. "And I'm still not sure this is a good idea. Davy, costumes can't explain some of their features."

"No one paid that much attention to Jahv on his first public outing, until he got tossed into the fountain and threw a lightning bolt." said Davy. "No one's going to pay that much attention now."

"When is this party?" asked Keyro.

"Two weeks from tonight." said Davy. "I can give you directions to the school, and you can meet us there."

"Great!" said Jahv.

"Indeed," said Arion. "I haven't attended a proper celebration since I left my homeworld."

Niklas and Davy weren't sure what to make of that remark, but decided to let it drop. They said their farewells, and headed out of their alien friends' new headquarters, and towards home. "I hope this doesn't blow up in our faces." said Niklas.

"Stop worrying." said Davy. "By the way, what were you planning on going as to the party?"

"I've been working on a pirate costume." said Niklas. "I've got this old striped shirt, and some ragged jeans my mom said I could cut up a bit. Put on a bandana and an eye patch and I think I'm set."

"I've got an old stuffed parrot toy." remarked Davy. "You could have your mom sew it to the shoulder of the shirt."

Niklas grinned. "Not bad. What about you?"

Davy stretched his arms. "Well, I was going to go as Adam from the Garden of Eden, but I'm not sure I can find a big enough fig leaf."

Niklas scowled, a desperate attempt not to grin. "You're sick, you know that?"

Two weeks passed. Niklas and Davy alerted the other neighborhood kids, those that knew about the four aliens, about their intended presence at the party. The more forewarned, the better off they might be in case something did go wrong.

The night of the party arrived. Niklas had arranged with just about everybody to meet in a darkened area behind the high school's athletic field scoreboard. Sniv, Jason, Fabian, Randy, and Jonathan had opted to head directly into the party. They were pleased to see their alien friends back, but they'd never been as involved with their activities as the rest of the boys.

Niklas had made good on his pirate outfit, complete with stuffed parrot. Davy had shown up wearing a sleeveless spandex leotard and claiming to be a professional wrestler. He'd inscribed the word «HUNK» on the front of the outfit. Keith was dressed in a leather jacket, blue jeans, and leather boots, stating that he was a biker. Martin was garbed in a loose-fitting white shirt, jeans even more shredded than Niklas', and a floppy straw hat — the sheer descendant of Huck Finn if there ever was one.

Keith wasn't quite able to restrain a few laughs when he saw Davy's uniform. "Jeez, Davy, if you have to advertise yourself that badly, why not rent out a billboard?"

"Watch it, pal, or I'll have to bodyslam you." countered Davy, more or less good-naturedly.

"So where's the aliens?" asked Keith.

"Here." came a new voice. Jahv, Keyro, Morik and Arion crept out of some nearby bushes. Jahv and Keyro were dressed in their usual spacesuits. Morik had taken the suggestion to dress in sort of a soldier's uniform, but he was going to have to pass himself off as a soldier of the future, given his long hair and the outfit itself, which consisted of a ridged, padded grey vest, black trousers with green and grey streaks in them, and the very high-tech boots. An insignia of Morik's own design was on the vest. He'd designed a cybernetic targeting eye to wear, in interesting high-tech contrast to the pirate eyepatch Niklas sported. Prince Arion was the wildest of all, garbed in a rather ornate, loose-fitting golden shirt, with turquoise trousers with red, glittering patterns running through it.

"Jeez, bird-head, what Las Vegas wardrobe did you raid to get that outfit?!" quipped Keith.

"I'll have you know that this is the ceremonial garb of the Royal House of Korras!" snapped Arion. Indeed, he'd managed to replicate it through the equipment in the dome-tent from memory. "And this is not how I am accustommed to attending parties."