Oh my G.o.d. Ech!

"Get off me!" Kaila said. "Just be yourselves."

Pia looked puzzled. "We are ourselves. We adore you. Hey, is there anything we can do special for you at your birthday party?"

"Yeah," Melissa chimed. "Anything at all? We'll do anything to make it a happy day."

You could start by wiping off those simpering expressions that are making me want to hurl.

"Darling!" her mother cried when Kaila walked into the kitchen. She crushed Kaila in a bear hug. "How we missed you. We couldn't wait for you to get home. Muah muah!" She kissed Kaila's cheeks.

"Ugh, gross, get off me." Kaila pushed her mother away.

"Aw honey, you know we love you," Mike said, giving her a hug. He never hugged her. He was always the macho tugboat captain.

"Made your favorite," Nan said, needling in to hug her. "Fried shrimp and tartar sauce."

"Sounds good, Nan. Yeah. Thanks a million." Kaila wriggled out of Nan's grasp. "Look y'all, I got a ton of homework. So, bye!"

Kaila noted Paw Paw sleeping in his armchair. Jordyn had never answered about helping him. She'd have to pester the hive to heal Paw Paw. She pictured him being whole and well again, racing the horses beside her in the fields. Everything was happening so fast, she hadn't time to think! She raced upstairs to her room and locked the door.

She changed into a comfy big shirt and sat on the floor petting Lucy and Woofy, thankful for the stillness and the only sound the dogs panting. After a while, she calmed. She rose and sat in front of her computer. Facebook. After signing in, Kaila saw she had 4,487 friend requests.

She scanned the profiles of those requesting. Kaila guessed the entire town had sent her a friend request. So the mind-screen blanketed the entire town. It included every old fart, every grade school kid, the entire school, and the faculty. Even the janitor and cafeteria ladies.

Additionally, Wade had de-posted his mean comments. His new status: Asked Kaila Guidry to Homecoming. She is so HOT, the finest, and my ultimate crush.

Kaila's stomach churned. But worse, the comments. Derek: No way, spermfest. She's going with me. I want to be seen with the most beautiful girl in town.

There were over a hundred more comments.

Brandy: You would be sooo lucky to take Kaila to the dance.

Tara: If I was a guy, I would ask her to the dance. I'm even thinking of turning gay to ask her myself . . . This comment was liked twenty-seven times.

Kaila put her hand over her little mouth as she stared at the computer screen.

Lastly, there were comments from Valdyr Lawless, aka The Bourg. Kaila truly is one of the smartest, luckiest girls on earth. Worse, it was liked sixty-seven times.

Kaila stared at the screen, wanting to type obscenities. She felt defeated and empty. She should be happy; didn't everyone dream of being the most popular person in school? But this was like getting an A on an exam where she cheated. Then being made valedictorian by scamming her way through school. Worse, now, she was even defrauded of the sincerity of her friends and family.

She wished she could talk to Jordyn about helping Paw Paw and feeling overwhelmed with everything, but she knew he was prevented from spending time with her by himself. So even though she was the most popular person, she was alone.

Kaila pondered that high school and cruelty were a package deal. She had lived in a fairy-tale world thinking school would be a place where people her age gathered to learn and make friends. It was more this medieval gathering of tribes at war, trying to conquer the weak or different. Why couldn't everyone get along? Why was it such a crime to be different? Kaila sighed, wishing she would get kicked out of that stupid school.

And then she had an idea.

The next day she would wear the dorkiest outfit she could find. When everyone saw how dorky it was, it would jerk an alert in their minds. Then maybe the mind-screen's potency would dilute from total popularity to normal. And if they made fun of her, she didn't care. She hoped she would be sent home. She was close to being done. Baked. Cooked. Crispy.

After rummaging in her closet and selecting the next day's attire, she crawled into bed where she tossed and turned for hours. She clicked her phone for the time. 4:11 the white numerals stated.

When Kaila came to the breakfast table, exhausted but resolute, she received a hint how the day would turn out.

"Aw honey, those mouse ears look so cute on you," her mother said, sliding pancakes on her plate. "Didn't we get those at Disney when you were five?"

"Yeah, Mom."

"Hey," said Mike. "I see you're finally wearing my Christmas gag gift t-shirt."

Kaila wore a black t-shirt with big block letters that proclaimed: "ASK ME ABOUT MY EXPLOSIVE DIARRHEA." If that didn't jar them out of the mind-screen, nothing would.

"You know," Nan said. "I used to think that shirt was disgusting, but now it's cute."

"Adorable," her mom said.

Kaila sighed. So this must be the explanation why people gushed over terrible books, music, and movies. The aliens had blanketed a mind-screen over the entire planet. Then, all the zombies crooned in unison, "It's sooo wonderful!" when it wasn't wonderful. Some things just downright sucked.

She'd often puzzled why people flocked to mind-numbing, r.e.t.a.r.ded movies and why radios blared bulls.h.i.t songs. Now she knew the answer: planetary mind-screen.

Kaila's family didn't say a word about her fuzzy yellow duck slippers or orange shorts. Surely, the shorts alone would get her sent home. If a girl couldn't feel her skirt at her fingertips, it was too short. These shorts ended right at the bottom of her a.s.s.

She couldn't wait to be sent home so she could lock herself in her room. Now, home schooling seemed a sanctuary, away from all those hypocritical, back-stabbing holes.

On the bus, as she sauntered down the aisle, people actually said, "Oh, cool!"

"It's not cool, you idiots," Kaila snapped.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to offend."

Kaila hurried to the back of the bus.

"Mouse ears!" Pia exclaimed. "How adorable."

Ugh. The real Pia would have ripped the ears from her head and sent them sailing out the window like a frisbee.

People turned and called how wonderful she looked. Maddened, Kaila shouted, "Shut up! You all suck!"

Everyone on the bus nodded. "Yes, you're right. We do suck."

Melissa turned to Pia. "She's right. We suck. Yeah."

When Kaila stepped off the bus, everyone in the whole school surrounded her. Hundreds of people!

"That is the coolest outfit ever."

"You are so beautiful."

"Where'd ya get the diarrhea shirt? So swag!"

"And where'd ya get the yellow ducky slippers?"

"Explosive diarrhea? CRAY!"

She felt like a movie star who starred in a bomb, but everyone loved her anyway.

"Kaila." Tara pushed her way through the throng. "You like my hair?"

Tara wore a long blonde wig like hers. It looked awful. Even more pitiful: she wore contact lenses that made her eyes look large and alien, like Lady Gaga in that old Bad Romance video.

Kaila noticed that many girls wore blonde wigs. And many wore blue contact lenses to make their eyes look big. They had copied outfits she'd worn.

Kaila felt explosive, and way more than diarrhea.

She pushed through the crowd, flopping in her duck slippers to the back of the school. The mob ran behind.

The hive was waiting.

"Make them go away!" Kaila shouted.

Echidna took one look at Kaila in her mouse ears and duck slippers and laughed. They all laughed. Kaila had never seen the hive laugh before, at least when sober.

"You spit in their face and mock them," Echidna said, her voice rising. "You wear the ears of an animal to show what animals they are."

"Well done," Lucius agreed.

"You look absurd," Viktor said.

"I like the mouse ears," Toby said. He c.o.c.ked his head, listening. Then, "I want to go to Disneyland!"

"What is diarrhea?" asked Echidna.

"Stop," Jordyn said, noting Kaila's distress.

The whole school had stampeded from the field to the back of the school and gathered around Kaila and the hive.

"Make them go away," Kaila pleaded, feeling crowded and faint amidst so many bodies.

"We can't."

"What do you mean you can't?" Kaila shouted.

Jordyn sent a telepathic message to the hive. Their eyes then turned solid black. Several students started to scream, but as the hive beamed their gaze on the students, the screams stopped. All the students froze in whatever movement they were making, like statues. They went quiet. A crow cawed up in a tree.

"I'm begging you, take this away," Kaila said in the sudden stillness.

"We can't," the hive replied in unison.

"Then can you at least take it off Melissa and Pia and my family? I can't stand them fawning all over me! It's so false."

"We'll try," Jordyn said.

"And what about helping my grandfather? I thought you were going to heal him."

"We decided-"

Viktor interrupted, "We will heal your grandfather once you've sworn your allegiance to us."

"What?" Kaila said, thinking that was a deal with the devil. Why should a healing have a condition attached? "Listen here, hive. I will decide on my own. No one is going to bribe me. Got it?"

But what about Paw Paw? She would talk to Jordyn after she escaped this asylum. Everything kept whirling faster and faster. The hive stared at her, their eyes half black and half normal. The hundreds of students still cl.u.s.tered around like frightened statues.

You are one of us. Stop rebelling.

You see how ridiculous it is to align with humans.

To seek individual gains is selfish.

You have more power with us, the hive.

Kaila put her hands to her ears. She was hearing them now, even with the wig.

Stop fighting it. We are your blood. We are your mind.

No pain, ever.

Be a ruler, not a slave.

"Stop!" Kaila shouted. "I've had it. I'm blown out. Done. Keep these jerks frozen while I make a dash."

"Where are you going?" Jordyn asked.

"Home. I need a sick day. And please, consult with your leader or master or whatever the h.e.l.l you call him or it, and get this popularity mind-screen off the town. I'm not coming back to this school till it's off. Got it?"

The hive stared with b.u.t.ton eyes.

"I wasn't consulted in this popularity decision, so I reject it. I will not be controlled." Kaila narrowed her eyes and balled her fist. "Though we are a hive, we are all half human and we all have our differences. So, know me. And respect me."

Finally. Sister. You do have what it takes. Echidna's eyes widened below her black bangs.

Kaila stepped in front of Echidna and pushed her face two inches from hers. She stared into Echidna's chalky face, then said softly with a rivet of steel embedded in her tone, "You. Are. Blocked."

As Kaila noted Echidna's eyelashes rapidly fluttering, Kaila envisioned a golden box around her entire body. She didn't know how this telepathy thing worked but determined she would learn.

"Hope to see you all at my party Sat.u.r.day. One p.m. Don't be late! Muah!" Kaila threw a kiss and ran.

Kaila's mother besieged her with offers of chicken noodle soup, ma.s.sages, blankets, Vicks Vaporub till she ran upstairs and locked the door.

The next day, Pia texted, "Hey, you suck, where are you, ho?" Kaila sighed with relief. The mind-screen was at least off Pia.