"How do you know?" Kaila asked.

"There are no secrets," Mrs. Bourg smiled smugly. "You did marvelous giving your family a mind-screen when your step-dad broke his leg."

"I did?"

"Don't be humble," Mrs. Bourg said. "You are learning and trying your gifts. You put a mind-screen in them that everything would be all right and he would heal quickly. For this you should be proud."

Kaila stared at Mrs. Bourg's gla.s.sy eyes.

"You are coming around. You are my best pupil. Of course, I could not tell you all this in front of the other human students; you understand, dear?"

"Um. Yes."

"Good. Do you think you could do a mind-stare in cla.s.s?"

"I don't want to do a-"

"Of course you do. Once you open one gift, the others follow. You want to get an A, don't you?" Mrs. Bourg coaxed. "Now come to cla.s.s. Do well, and you will be rewarded."

Kaila trailed behind Mrs. Bourg.

She was relieved to see Jordyn in cla.s.s; earlier at lunch she, Pia and Melissa had looked for the hive at their tree, but they didn't appear.

Kaila took her seat, said, "What did you tell her?"

"Just wait," he said, looking at her fondly.

Kaila turned around. The other hybrids would not look at her. They stared straight ahead, as if she did not exist.

Jordyn leaned over, cupped his hands to his small mouth. "Sorry I didn't visit last night. Too hung over."

"I think you did visit," Kaila said. How else would Bourg know about Mike's leg?

Douglas called from his desk, "Hey, Kaila, hope you had a good weekend." He had spots that looked like ketchup on his white shirt from being thrown in the dumpster.

Phyllis stared with her bulging blue eyes. Her hair was even more stringy and greasy. She had deep bluish marks below her eyes. Kaila guessed she'd not had a great weekend.

Brandy strolled past her desk. She was clad in a pink Lacoste shirt, a short prep skirt, and a headband in her blow-dried strawberry hair.

"Hey," she greeted Kaila. "Got that emo look today." She tapped the black leather bracelet with studs on it. "Real cute."

Kaila could tell Brandy didn't think it cute at all. Tara trailed behind, also clad in a lime green Lacoste shirt. She took one look at Kaila and rolled her eyes.

Well, screw you too, Kaila thought.

"Brandy, Tara, take your seats," Mrs. Bourg said from behind her desk. "We have a special cla.s.s today. We will explore hyper-dimensional physics. And the nature of holograms. Echidna, please come and hand out the outline for holograms to the cla.s.s. Kaila, please come and a.s.sist."

Kaila's jaw dropped. Echidna strode to the front of the cla.s.s in her clingy silver bodysuit that emphasized her leanness. She motioned to Kaila with her long pointer finger.

"Kaila, up!" Mrs. Bourg commanded. "No time to waste."

Kaila went to the front of the cla.s.s and stood beside Echidna. Echidna promptly went to Douglas Lafarge's desk. He stared at her through thick gla.s.ses.

"How are you today?" Echidna inquired silkily.

"Fine," he replied. But soon as her spider eyes ensnared his, his head lowered.

Brandy, Tara, and Phyllis's faces turned white as ghosts.

Mrs. Bourg whispered to Kaila, "Hurry. This is what we do in this cla.s.s."

Kaila's heart sped up. She recalled Pia and Melissa being half conscious at her party. . .then realized with a start that this was what they had been doing to her in this cla.s.s. She'd had a screen memory of the cla.s.s implanted afterward the whole time.

"Go do Brandy," Mrs. Bourg whispered. "Wouldn't you like that?"

Echidna leaned over Phyllis, who looked back at her as if Echidna was a serial killer. One second later, Phyllis's bulging eyes went vacant. Her chin dropped to her chest.

"Oh my G.o.d!" Brandy shouted. "What're you doing?" She shot up.

"Kaila, go!" Mrs. Bourg implored.

Kaila blocked Brandy in the aisle. "Sit down," she ordered.

"Like h.e.l.l I will, you freakin' alien emo or whatever you are."

"I said, sit down!" Kaila's voice rose, getting mad. She stared hard at Brandy.

"Get outta my way," Brandy shouted, pushing Kaila.

Mrs. Bourg said, "Brandy, look at Kaila!"

"I will not. What is this freak show?"

Mrs. Bourg tore off Kaila's wig, revealing the layers of black plastic below.

Brandy seemed transfixed by Kaila's wrapped head and large eyes. Mrs. Bourg ripped off the plastic. Kaila's damp natural hair tumbled down her shoulders.

"Mind-stare, Kaila. Do it now!"

Kaila felt thoroughly humiliated. Now she had no choice. Brandy would tell the entire school she wore a wig.

She pushed her face two inches from Brandy's, felt her mind's energy surging from her eyes. Brandy froze with heightened fear.

"Sit down," Kaila said, her eyes black. Brandy sat, her eyes locked with Kaila's. "You will have no memory of any of this. The last thing you will remember is calling me an emo."

Tara Melancon, noting Kaila's eyes and Brandy's submissive state, screamed.

"And you," Kaila leaned over Tara. Energy and power poured from Kaila's eyes. "You will remember nothing either except the snotty look you gave me before taking your seat. Now sit down and shut up."

Tara's long brunette hair spilled forward as she slumped over her desk.

The hive burst into applause.

"Well done," Viktor called.

"Bravo!" Mrs. Bourg cried.

She put her arm across Kaila's shoulder. As Kaila stared at her teacher's crepey skin, Mrs. Bourg added, "Now Kaila, you will be permitted full involvement and recall in this cla.s.s. But I warn you: one hint of betrayal and everything-and I do mean everything-will be stripped from your memory. You will return to nothing but a sleeping insect like them."

She pointed to the stupefied Brandy, Tara, Phyllis, and Douglas. "Do we understand each other?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Very well, take your seat."

Lucius poked Kaila in her back. "Revenge is sweet, isn't it?"

"I don't want revenge," Kaila retorted.

"Quiet," Mrs. Bourg snapped. "Lucius, you have so much to say, come up here."

Lucius sauntered to the front of the cla.s.s.

"And take off those sungla.s.ses, young man."

"The light hurts my eyes," he said.

"Tough. Adjust to this planet like everyone else."

Lucius sighed, slipped the sungla.s.ses in the bib of his silver jumpsuit.

"Now," Mrs. Bourg said. "Would you please explain to the cla.s.s the physiology of mind-screens? Humans believe that aliens have magical powers, but there is a scientific basis for everything."

Lucius flicked his hand and created a three-dimensional head that looked like Mrs. Bourg's. Suspended in mid-air, the head had her bra.s.sy hair, pouches beneath her icy eyes. The head was transparent so that the board was visible through it as it rotated.

Lucius pointed to the eyes. "We control the mind by accessing the optic nerve, from our eyes," he explained.

The optic nerve in the floating brain lit red. The nerve pathways became visible in blue.

"The stimulus travels into the lateral geniculate body," Lucius continued. "We then go to the secondary visual cortex in the occipital lobes."

The cortex and occipital lobes lit bright orange.

"From there," Lucius continued, "the stimulus. .h.i.ts the parietal and temporal lobes and the hypothalamus. We activate neural pathways and can fire any neuron for the task required."

He demonstrated neurons firing like miniature fireworks in the brain. "Are we done now?" he sighed.

"In a moment," Mrs. Bourg replied. "So, in this manner we can implant false memories, new beliefs, create emotion, and induce physical sensation. Additionally, the entire memory bank can be accessed. If a human were partial to cats or owls, they might recall seeing a cat or owl in their bedroom after we visited. They'd have a false screen memory of who really visited them. And more so, by accessing memory, we can see a person's deepest fear. Fear has many benefits, as we will see later."

Lucius fidgeted in front of the room. The rotating head metamorphosed to solid with skin and hair. The eyeb.a.l.l.s went cross-eyed and a forked snake-like tongue flickered in and out of the faux Bourg mouth.

"That's quite enough, Lucius. Please dispense with the visual aid."

The Bourg head disappeared.

"We are now going to learn more about holograms," Mrs. Bourg continued. "Kaila, you are now going to get your reward." She waved her hand. "Lucius-go!"

Lucius peered at Kaila above his big nose. He lifted his arms dramatically.

"To Kaila's home," he said, leering at her with emerald eyes.

"No!" Kaila shouted.

But too late, the ceiling was lifting to black s.p.a.ce, the walls expanded and dropped away. A roaring in her ears, a buzzing sound.

The entire physics cla.s.s was standing in her living room.

Chapter 9.

Nan was in the recliner crocheting, Paw Paw slept in another recliner, and Mike sat with his broken leg up on an ottoman.

Judge Judy was on the television, giving a defendant a stern reprimand.

The hive stood in the center of the living room in their silver bodysuits. The human advanced physics students gathered beside them, staring with dead eyes.

Lucy and Woofy lifted their heads and growled.

"The dogs sense us," Mrs. Bourg explained. "But they cannot see us."

Kaila stiffened with the surreal realization that she-and her entire cla.s.s-stood in her own home, her family completely unaware of their presence. Any icy tingle shot up her spine.

"They cannot see or hear you, dear," Mrs. Bourg said. "And what a lovely home you have. Thank you for sharing.

"Cla.s.s, we have now entered the fourth dimension. A place where many ent.i.ties reside. This dimension shares s.p.a.ce with humans in the third, though they cannot see us. The third dimension is more solid. This dimension is lighter."

Mrs. Bourg waved her arms. The flesh below her arms jiggled. Her body appeared diffuse, its edges blurred.

"The fourth dimension is the phenomenon that explains such things as ghosts, who have traveled halfway through the portal, lingering between the third dimension of Earth and this one. But, if you are solidly in the fourth dimension, few humans, other than sensitives, can detect us."

Mrs. Bourg turned to Kaila. "This is primarily where your fathers reside. This is the place where your star brethren live."