The Brain Invaders

Chapter 8

“Oh no,” D.J. said. “It’s Aunt Millie. Quick! Hurry! Hide! In the closet. Pantry.”

Pantry. Closet. That was where Ryan, Kate and Zach were hiding! This was a nightmare!

“No,” Cassie’s dad said. “We have time to sneak out the front door.”

I heard footsteps running across the kitchen floor and then the door from the kitchen to the garage opened.

“Aunt Millie,” D.J. said. “You’re home!”

“D.J.,” Aunt Millie said. “Come here so I can give you a big hug and kiss. I decided to surprise everyone and come home a day early. What are you doing here?”

“I was going to surprise you and clean,” D.J. said. “I thought that it would be nice for you to come home to a clean house.”

“How nice of you Pumpkin,” Aunt Millie said. “Just wait until you see what I bought you and Kate. Help me carry my bags up to my room. I’ll get it for you.”

I could hear D.J. and Aunt Millie walking across the kitchen floor. I figured it was the perfect chance to escape out the back door. Zach, Kate and Ryan thought the same thing. Within minutes we were running as fast as we could out the back

door and in different directions.

I couldn’t believe what I had heard while huddled in that shower. A young girl, probably my age, was questioned and examined. Then they stuffed one of the sea slugs in her head. It was disgusting and terrifying. That could have been me. I could have been caught spying Friday night.

I ran all the way home. Cassie was coming over in an hour, and I had to shower. I was happy Mom wasn’t home yet. I didn’t feel like talking. I wondered what the others were thinking. Or if they were ever that close to one of them before.

I stayed in the shower a long time, letting the hot water beat my back until it was as red as raw salmon. I scrubbed every inch of my skin. It was like I was trying to scrub off the horror I had witnessed. But I couldn’t.

“Aren’t you ready yet?” Cassie yelled as I stepped out of the shower. “I know I’m early but I had to get out of the house. My dad is driving me mad.”

Cassie’s used to letting herself in, so it never surprises me when she shows up in my bedroom unannounced. But I was hoping to have some more alone time before she came over.

I dried myself off and then wrapped the towel around me. I walked into my bedroom combing my hair.  “What’s up?”

“Remember I told you that my dad promised I could have a birthday party this year?” Cassie asked.

I nodded. I remembered it well because Cassie had worked on him for about a week non-stop. Of course, that was before. Before he became one of them.     “You’re not going to believe this, but he wants me to have it at the fire hall. A birthday bingo party. How embarrassing. ‘Oh. Can you come to my birthday party? It’s going to be at the fire hall. We’re going to play bingo and win little

cutesy prizes.’ Give me a break.”

I had to agree with Cassie. Everyone would make fun of her. She’d become the face of the Most Un-cool Teen of the Year. But I knew why her dad was pushing for the bingo party. The slugs were desperate to get younger hosts.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

“I’m not having a stupid bingo party, that’s for sure. If my dad won’t let me have the kind of party I want, I won’t have any at all. He’s ruining my life, Alex. I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”

A sea slug, I wanted to say. “What about your mom? What does she say?”

“Like I told you before, she’s just as weirded out by his strange behavior. Just like today. Before I came over here. Dad came home and threw out my mom’s hair spray. Both bottles. The one that was on her vanity and the extra one that was stored in the cabinet beneath the sink in their bathroom. He’s gone psycho!”

“Did your mom ask him why?” I asked, remembering what I had heard while scrunched in the shower at Kate’s aunt’s house.

“Yeah. He said it was bad for the environment. Never wanted to see another can of hair spray in the house. Ever. Something about going green. Expanding our green footprint. Don’t know why because he never seemed to be too concerned about that before. I don’t think he knew what the recycle bin looked like.

 “That’s when I decided to split. I’m not sure what they’re doing now. I

wouldn’t be surprised if Mom decided to leave. I don’t think she’ll take much more. I noticed she’s been sleeping in the guest bedroom, and she only does that when she’s super mad.”

I got dressed while Cassie paged through a magazine. “Oh, almost forgot. Sean called right before I came over and asked me to the dance on Saturday.”

I tied my sneakers. “What did you say?”

“Told him I’d think about it.”

“But the dance is all that you’ve talked about for weeks,” I said. “You gotta go.”

“I plan on going, it’s just that, well, maybe someone better will ask me.”

“Like who?”

“Like Josh.”

I bite my lip. Josh was one of them. I noticed the change in him right around the time I noticed it in Mrs. McGee. I had to keep Cassie away from him.

“I thought you liked Sean better,” I said.

“That was last week. This week it’s Josh.”

I can never keep up with Cassie. She’s had more boyfriends than any girl in our entire middle school.

 “I like Sean better,” I said.

“Then you go with him.”

“I’m not going.”

 “Why?” Cassie said. “It’s the last one of the year.”

 “I know, Cass. Sorry. But I’m just not that into it.”

“Well, I might not be going either if my crap-for-brains dad won’t let me.”

I coughed and the swig of water I had just taken spewed over Cassie’s shirt.     “Alex!”

“Sorry. Must have gone down the wrong tube.”

Cassie had no idea how much crap her dad really had for brains. I handed her the towel and she dried off. We decided to grab some pizza before the movies and hurried to catch the next bus to the mall. I got on first and walked down the aisle, past mostly teens heading to the same place we were. I stopped dead a few seats from the back. Cassie bumped into me.

“There’s two,” said Cassie, pointing to two seats in front of a kid dressed in blue Nike sweats and a T-shirt and listening to an iPod while texting on his phone.

“Right there, right there,” she pointed.

I took a deep breath and slid in first, next to the window. I wasn’t sure if I could take the 20-minute ride to the mall. My stomach hurt like I had just been punched in the gut with a barbell. The kid with the iPod was one of them.