Chapter 1: Alien Alert!

Chapter 1: Alien Alert!

My name’s Karen Nielsen and I’m fifteen years old. I’m tall and I have short red hair and green eyes. I live in Seattle, Washington. It’s a wonderful, green city and I love it. I live with my parents and my dog, Tex, in a yellow house with a lovely garden. Tex is a big brown dog and he’s three years old. I have a lot of fun playing with him.

In my free time I like playing volleyball, going rock climbing and listening to music. I have a big music collection and I love listening to music with my friends. I also like reading science fiction books.

My story begins in August, a month before school started. My parents and I were having breakfast in the kitchen and we were watching the local news on the television.

Suddenly the newsreader said, “Alien Alert! Early this morning there was a report of an unidentified flying object near the Cascade Mountains east of Seattle. Two tourists saw a UFO in the sky above them. They said it was gray and round. They also said it didn’t make any noise. Later this morning a high school teacher saw the same UFO flying above her house. The Seattle Police are investigating.”

“Wow!” I said. “An alien spaceship here in Seattle! This is exciting!”

“Do you believe it?” asked my mom.

“Who knows? I don’t think we’re alone in this big universe,” said my dad. “The Earth is only a small planet, you know.”

I started thinking about aliens and went to the library to look at some books about UFOs.

That evening all the newspapers had “ALIEN ALERT!” on their front pages.

A month later I went back to high school. This is my second year at Washington High School and I like it a lot. When I finish school and university I want to become a chemist.

On the way to school I met my best friend and classmate, Barbara Reynolds. She is a tall, pretty girl. She lives near my house and we always walk to school together. She is Afro - American and one of the best students at our school. She wants to become a doctor. Basketball is her sport and she plays on the girls’ basketball team. Like myself, she also enjoys listening to music.

“We have some new teachers this year,” said Barbara happily. “I hope they’re all men and cute!”

“Me too. We need something new and interesting in our lives,” I said laughing.

Barbara and I like talking about boys and clothes; it is fun.

“Did you buy any new clothes for school?” she asked.

“I bought these new jeans and this black belt,” I said.

“The jeans look great with the pink T-shirt,” she told me. “I bought this new blue jacket and white trainers for the fall.”

“Did you hear about the news about that UFO near the Cascade Mountains last month?” I then asked.

“I was in California visiting my grandmother so I didn’t hear much, but I read about it online,” said Barbara. “People see at least one every month in the United States, but no one has ever seen an alien.”

“Do you think they really exist?” I asked.

“I don’t think we’re alone in the universe,” she said. “But it’s a mystery…”

“I agree.”

We got to school at half past eight and went to our first class, science. There was a man of about thirty in the classroom.

“Hello, I’m Mr Kent, your new science teacher,” he said.

Barbara and I looked at him. He was tall and quite slim. He had blond hair and brown eyes. He was well-dressed and had a friendly face.

“We’re lucky!” whispered Barbara. “He’s really cute.”

“You’re right!” I whispered laughing.

“What’s your name?” he asked, smiling at me.

“Hi, I’m Karen Nielsen,” I answered.

Then he looked at Barbara and asked, “And who are you?”

“My name’s Barbara Reynolds.”

At that moment an airplane passed over our school and made a lot of noise. Everyone in class looked out of the window, but the sun was very bright in front of us and it hurt our eyes. We turned away from the window, but Mr Kent didn’t. He looked directly at the airplane and at the sun. How strange, I thought, the sun doesn’t hurt his eyes.

When the science lesson was over we went to the English lesson. The new teacher was a very thin man with black hair and green eyes. He had a small nose and a pale face.

“What a strange teacher!” I whispered to Barbara.

“Very strange!” she whispered.

The new teacher didn’t smile and spoke slowly and coldly to the class.

“My name is Mr Wilkinson and I’m your new English teacher. I don’t want any talking in class. This year we’re going to study William Shakespeare and other great writers.”

“Ugh! How boring!” said two boys, who were sitting at the back of the class.

“Stop that now!” said Mr Wilkinson. “Now open your literature books at page five.”

His voice was strange: he sounded like, a robot.

Barbara touched my arm and whispered, “He’s terrible! How are we going to survive this class?”

I looked at her and whispered back, “I have absolutely no idea.