"Kaila," Jordyn said. "Are you all right?"

Kaila was stunned. She opened her mouth to speak but what emerged was a hoa.r.s.e croak.

All the students in the hall stared, unable to process what they'd just witnessed.

Mrs. Bourg pushed through the crowd. "Jordyn," she said. "Suspend time. Now!"

Jordyn's eyes again went solid black. He peered intently at the students a.s.sembled in the hall. Each person froze like a statue. Jordyn did not put Kaila under the spell.

One girl stood with her mouth open, her eyes wide with fear. Another guy had stopped with his hand over his mouth. Another held his foot in the air, stopped mid-run.

"I am concerned about you, Jordyn," Mrs. Bourg said, arms akimbo. "Every day I see more emotion." She motioned to the suspended students in the hall. "This is a terrible mistake. Do you understand?"

"Some of these humans p.i.s.s me off."

"I don't care!" Mrs. Bourg shouted. "We are on their turf and are not to be discovered."

Jordyn frowned.

Mrs. Bourg wagged her finger at Jordyn. "Listen to me. You are my son. You do as I say, you understand?"

Kaila held still so as not to draw attention to herself. She held her breath, her heart pounding like a jackhammer.

Jordyn was Mrs. Bourg's son? G.o.d, Kaila, you're like a dumb ostrich sticking your head in a hole in the ground. Wake up! You always knew they weren't from anywhere near New Mexico.

"You are becoming infected," Mrs. Bourg said.

"Sure, I'll listen," Jordyn said. His eyes again transformed from hazel to solid black. As he stared at his mother, Mrs. Bourg's face went limp. She froze, her finger stuck in the air.

"And now," he said to his mother. "You will listen to me. You are a human. You were a carrier of me as an embryo. But that is all. You are not my ruler, and we are sick of taking orders from you. You will have no memory of this. You will remember that you walked through this hall to the office and that is all."

He put his hands on his hips on his silver overalls; he walked around the hall, surveying the frozen students. A girl's eyes bulged, her mouth open, revealing her braces as she was paralyzed mid-scream.

"And the rest of you," Jordyn said, "will only remember that Kaila tripped. Wade caught her, and it was a moment that you will barely recall. It was nothing. In fact," he added, "you all thought Kaila looked beautiful today and that she is one of the hottest girls in this school. You will tell her so."

He bent over Wade, who was frozen, holding his hands over his ears, gripped in his worst nightmare. "That last part goes for everyone except you, d.i.c.k-brain."

Jordyn approached Derek, his recoiled fist held mid-air, about to slug Jordyn. Derek had a snarl on his face, his hair sticking up like black icicles.

"Big tough guy, aren't you?" Jordyn asked, walking around Derek. "When you wake, you will have to go to the bathroom really bad. Too bad for you, but you will not be able to hold it. p.i.s.s on us-we p.i.s.s on you."

He returned to Kaila. "And you," he said, his eyes changing back to hazel. His face softened. "You will remember all of this . . . if you choose."

Kaila said nothing. The students were still frozen. On the clock on the wall, the second hand had stopped.

"Which is it to be?" Jordyn asked. "Do you want to remember or not?"

Kaila's little mouth opened, but no words came. Her mind raced like a runaway train.

Jordyn bowed his head. "Yes . . . or . . . no?"

In the vacuum of time, there was no sound other than his voice.

Kaila nodded.

"You can handle it?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Done." Jordyn nodded.

As if a director on a movie set cued, "Action!" everyone in the hall moved, walking down the hall, texting on their phones, gossiping with friends. The second hand on the clock ticked onward. Mrs. Bourg disappeared down the hallway.

Someone tapped Kaila on her shoulder. "Kaila, are you okay?"

It was Phyllis Joiner. Her blue eyes bugged out of their sockets like she'd seen a ghost.

"What do you mean?" Kaila asked.

"I saw you trip and Wade helped you up."

Kaila realized Phyllis's eyes were bugging out because she had a thyroid problem. That's right. She remembered now.

"I'm-I'm fine," Kaila said.

"Good," Phyllis said. "And by the way, you look great today."

"Yeah, you really do look hot," Douglas Lafarge said.

"You do look hot," someone else echoed.

"Hey I don't know you, but you look really beautiful," a girl said.

Everyone in the hall a.s.sembled around Kaila telling her how hot she looked.

"They're right," Brandy said, shaking her head. "You look hot."

Tara nodded. "Yeah. Hot."

Jordyn smirked as Kaila whirled with the circle of people complimenting her. Then she heard a cry.

Derek clutched his crotch. His khaki pants were stained with p.i.s.s all the way to his knees. He ran down the hall as more people surrounded Kaila to compliment her. It was all so crazy!

Kaila threw back her head and laughed.

"You are so talented," Kaila said in Melissa's bedroom. Melissa's artwork covered the bedroom's walls.

Melissa created drawings on computer graphic programs, printed, and then painted them with watercolor. There were drawings of planets in galaxies with swashes of color in s.p.a.ce. One featured a close up of a praying mantis on a porch next to potted geraniums. The colors and detail were so precise, the painting looked like a photograph.

"Hey, peeps," Pia greeted, striding into Melissa's room. "What's up?" She wore cut-off shorts and a pea-green halter top that set off her short auburn hair.

"Hey!" Kaila hugged Pia.

Pia removed her fiddle from its case and sat on the bed, holding her fiddle. She bowed a few notes and said, "Check this out."

She played the Cajun song Parlez-Nous A Boire on the fiddle, then sang: O, parlez-nous a boire, Non pas de mariage, Toujours en regretons, Les jolis jours pa.s.ses.

"You speak French?" Kaila said. "You are both amazing."

"No, Kaila." Pia put down her bow. "It's you who's talented."

"At what?"

"You have a lot of gifts."

Kaila sighed. "I wish someone would tell me what they are."

"Enough small talk," Pia said. "We know what we want to talk about."

The three girls exploded, all talking at once.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Pia cried. She exhaled. "Okay. We gotta calm down." She closed and locked the bedroom door, went to the window, and shut the blinds. "Let's have a powwow."

She laid Melissa's comforter on the floor. Unrolled her sleeping bag on top. Put the pillows at the edge. She sat cross-legged on the sleeping bag. Melissa and Kaila joined her.

"First off," Pia said, "let's make a pact-to tell the truth. And nothing we say goes outside this room. Too dangerous." The three joined hands.

"This is our triad," Pia said. "Just us. Okay?" She looked pointedly at Kaila.

"I'm in," Kaila said. She was relieved to have friends. She had so much to say she could barely contain herself.

"Okay, Kaila," Pia began. "Why do you wear that wig?"

Kaila tried to pull her hand away.

"Don't do that," Pia said clutching her hand. "You have to open up, tell us everything."

Kaila went silent.

"Look," Pia said. "We heard them telling you to take it off, so the secret's out. And it's okay, Kaila. We want answers. Because we have something to tell you."

"Okay," Kaila said. "My mom and grandma always made me wear this plastic stuff on my head."

She pulled off the wig. The night table light reflected on the black plastic. Pia and Melissa drew back, startled.

"Are you scared of me?" Kaila asked, confused.

"It's not you," Melissa said. "It's seeing your big head and eyes."

"I'm gonna tell you a secret," Pia said. "And then I want you to tell us everything, okay?"

Kaila nodded.

"Something weird is happening. To us. To this town," Pia began.

Melissa stared at her lap.

"Melissa and I get this high-pitched ringing in our ears, mostly the left ear. We wake up some mornings exhausted, like we've been out all night. We have strange dreams, of black cats and owls."

"Owls?" Kaila asked.

"Well, we figured it's not really an owl or a cat. It's a projection. They make you see what they want you to see."

Kaila hugged herself, chilled. She thought about how Jordyn had manipulated Mrs. Bourg's mind to make her believe she saw a bandage and bruise on her knee. How he'd made everyone in the hall think she'd tripped.

And then, what about that owl dream? Wake up, Jordyn had said.

"You gotta help us," Melissa said. "One night I woke up and I was standing outside the woods in the backyard. I had no idea how I got there."

Pia added, "One night I was walking home from Melissa's. It was dark and I had a flashlight. I looked at my watch and it was like eight-thirty. I was hurrying because I knew my parents would be perturbed." She peeked over her shoulder, lowered her voice. "I saw this bright white light in the sky. Next thing I know it's after ten p.m. and I'm at another part of the road. I couldn't remember anything about that lost time."

"And look at this," Melissa said, extending her leg. She pointed to an indentation, as if someone-or something-had scooped out some flesh on her calf.

"I've got one too," Pia said, turning her upper arm.

"We've both woken up with drops of blood on our pillow," Melissa said. "We get creeped out." She whispered, "Like we're being watched." She glanced over her shoulder. "But you can't see what's watching you."

"I went on the Internet," Pia said. "Did some research on alien abductions. All the pieces fit."

"You think aliens are abducting you?" Kaila asked.

"We know it sounds crazy," Melissa begged. "But you've got to believe us."

"I'm starting to realize anything's possible."

"Can you help us?" Melissa asked.

"I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out myself."

"You have to know that all that New Mexico stuff is bulls.h.i.t," Pia said. "They're not from anywhere near this planet."

Kaila licked her lips and swallowed. Though b.u.t.terflies fluttered in her stomach with Pia's p.r.o.nouncement, she was relieved to get this out in the open.

"They have special powers," Kaila said. "Wade Stoops started making fun of my hand. Jordyn came and . . . helped me," she added. "They have a power that they use with their eyes."

"We know that!" Pia cried. "How do you think they take us from our beds at night and leave us with no memory of it?" She sighed. "Okay we spilled our guts. Now tell us why you wear that thing on your head."

"It's protection," Kaila said. "To protect my mind." Once said, she knew this with certainty. "You know what? I think what happened to you is what happened to my mother . . . maybe my grandmother too. That's why they always made me wear this stuff on my head."