Body Switchers from Outer Space (5 page)

No! No way! I was not eating creepy crawlies!

This place was way too weird for me!

I snuck down the stairs, careful not to make a sound. I pressed the patch by the front door.
Whoosh!
I shut the door behind me and took off!

I ran faster than I ever had before—faster than I ever could have in my own body.

Once I put some distance between me and Chad's house on Fear Street, I slowed down a little.

The closer I got to my own home, the better I felt.

Could I have been wrong? Maybe I hadn't seen what I thought I saw. Maybe Chad's family wasn't eating slimy, creepy, live creatures. Maybe it had just been some kind of weird noodles.

Noodles with eyes?

I still felt sick to my stomach. What kind of food was
that?

I'd seen some disgusting food on TV, but those crawly things were the worst!

What could possibly be in the other dishes?

I didn't want to find out!

There it was! My front porch. And the shaggy lawn, which I was supposed to mow tomorrow morning. It had never looked so good.

It was great to hear the TV blaring through the living room window screens.

I charged up the front porch stairs two at a time. I didn't trip over the top step the way I always do. I rang the doorbell.

My bratty little sister, Pepper, answered the door. “Can I help you?” she asked through the screen door.

“Let me talk to Chad.”

“Sorry. You have the wrong house,” Pepper said. Her sneer softened as she gazed at me. She started flipping her eyelashes. It made me nervous.

That's when I remembered. I realized just in time that I wasn't me, I was still Chad-One. Or looked like him, anyway.

“No, I mean, let me talk to Will.”

“You don't want to talk to Will. Will's a big dummy. I can beat him at Trivial Pursuit and Jeopardy every time.”

This was a big fat lie, and I was about to tell her so, but then I remembered I wasn't exactly me.

“I don't want to play games with him,” I said, irritated. “I just want to talk to him.”

She looked at me for a minute, then said, “How much do you want to talk to him?”

“Huh?”

She was sharpening up into the Pepper I knew and suffered from. “Like, how much would you pay me to go get him?”

“Pay you?” I repeated.

“Is there an echo around here?” she asked, cupping her ear with her hand. “You got fifty cents?”

I reached into my pockets. I had no idea if Chad had fifty cents. There was something in the right
front pocket that felt interesting, but it didn't feel like money. Then I came to my senses. “Forget it!” I shouted. I pressed the doorbell again, hoping to get Chad's attention.

He wandered down the stairs.

“Hi, Chad,” he said. He stepped out onto the porch.

“Hey, tell Pepper I'm Will,” I told him.

For a second he looked furious. It was almost scary. I didn't know my face could look that mean and cold.

Of course. I had promised not to tell anyone about the switch.

Then his face went back to normal. “Sure,” he said. “Pepper, this is Will.”

“Don't be an idiot, Will,” Pepper said to Chad. “Oh. Sorry. You can't help it.” She smirked.

“She's too smart for us, Chad.” Chad shrugged.

“You are
soooo
dumb!” Pepper said.

She stuck out her tongue at both of us, then stomped into the house, slamming the screen door behind her.

“What do you want?” Chad asked me. That mean look came over his face again.

“We have to switch back now,” I told him.

He glared at me. His jaw got really tense.

“No way!” Chad exclaimed. “We have a deal!”

“I
can't stay at your house!” I cried. “Your family is weird!”

“I never said my family was normal,” Chad answered. “And a deal is a deal.”

If Chad wouldn't cut short the switch, at least he could explain a few things. Maybe then I'd have a shot at getting through the weekend.

“How come there's another Chad?”

Chad grinned. But it was the nastiest-looking smile I had ever seen! He never looked that way at school. “He's my brother,” Chad said. “I know he's a pain, but Pepper is no picnic, either.”

“What's with that weird second floor? Do you sleep in that closet?”

“It's a New-Age kind of thing,” Chad explained. “My dad invented it. You'll see. It'll make you feel great!”

“But—”

Chad cut me off. “Just watch what the other Chad does,” he instructed. “Copy him. Everything will be fine.”

For a second he almost convinced me. But then I remembered dinner. “Chad!” I burst out. “That food . . . I can't eat that food! We
have
to switch!
Now!”

Chad shook his head. “We had a deal. You wanted to be me. Now you
are
me! Live with it.” Then his expression softened. “Come on, Will,” he wheedled. “It's just two more days.”

Mom's voice called from inside the house. “Will! Time for supper!”

“Get out of here,” Chad said, giving me a shove. He went inside and shut the front door. I even heard him lock it.

I jumped down from the porch and stared up at my house. Some of the paint was peeling, but I didn't care. I missed my home!

I thought about all the drawers and closets in my room. I knew what was inside of them. I knew what food I'd find in the cupboards and the refrigerator. I even knew where Mom hid the cookies.

Back at Chad's house, I didn't know
what
I would
find. I was pretty sure I wouldn't find anything I could eat.

And my stomach was growling!

In Chad's body there was no way I could go into my own house and act as if I belonged there.

Especially if Chad didn't help me.

He could have said I was sleeping over.

But he didn't seem to want me around at all!

So now what do I do? The Division Street Mall was only two blocks away. I could go to the arcade and kill some time. I wondered if Chad had any money on him when we did the switch.

I checked my pockets.

In the front pocket I found a weird little metal thing. It was made of different pieces in shades of purple, all folded up. I couldn't get it to unlock or open. I thought it might be some kind of puzzle, or one of Chad's father's inventions.

There was a wallet in the back pocket. Four dollars in it. I could buy a burger, or play Galaxy Gremlins for six or eight hours. I'm really good at Galaxy Gremlins.

But that didn't totally solve the problem.

The mall closed at nine. Then what?

I had two friends from school I sometimes had sleepovers with. But I couldn't go over to their houses looking like Chad and expect them to let me spend the night.

It was getting dark. It was supposed to be chilly
tonight. I couldn't think of any place to go that would be safe.

I didn't want to do it, but I didn't seem to have a choice.

I had to go back to Chad's house.

*   *   *

The yelling started the moment I touched the door pad and walked in through the front door.

“Where have you been?”

“You know you're not supposed to leave the house without permission!”

“You know you're supposed to help with dinner cleanup!”

It was weird, all this harsh stuff coming out of people who looked like the perfect mom, pop, and son from a sitcom.

Then Mom's voice went back to being sweet. “We know you don't like the way skwiggers move,” she said. “But they're better for you when they're alive! Chad-One, you have to eat!” She waved a handful of wigglies at me.

“I
know what's wrong with him,” Chad-Two shouted. “It's those slimy humans! You
like
them! You keep socializing with them instead of studying them! You're starting to
act
like a human!”

Act like a human?
What did he mean?

How could I
not
act like a human?

“You know how dangerous it would be for us if the humans found out we were here!” Dad shouted.

Mom went back to yelling, too. “You were hand-picked for this mission,” she scolded. “Picked because you could maintain distance from local life-forms! Do you
want
to get us all in trouble?”

I looked at Mom. I looked at the little monsters squirming in her hand.

Then it hit me. The only way you could
act
like a human was if you
weren't
human!

These people were not just weird!

They were aliens!

A
liens!

I was trapped in a family of aliens!

Aliens who hate humans—who think humans are
slimy!

What would they do to me if they found out
I
was one of the slimy humans? Would they take me back to their planet with them—whichever one that was?

Or would they do something even worse?

I had to get out of there! Faster than fast!

My palms were wet with sweat. I had trouble catching my breath. I stared at the aliens. How could I ever have thought they were humans?

I should have known. No one really looks like people on TV.

I couldn't stay here! I had to get my body back!

Then it hit me. Chad was an alien, too. There was an alien in my body!

“Eat just one, Chad-One,” Mom crooned. “Come on. For Mommy. You've got to keep up your strength!” Mom picked one of the wiggling things out of her hand and held it out to me.

I almost spewed. Just looking at that thing made me sick.

But I had no choice. I had to eat it. I couldn't let them find out that I wasn't an alien! As I gagged, Mom stuffed it in my mouth. I swallowed before I could taste it much or feel it on my tongue.

I thought I could feel the skwigger move around inside my stomach. But not for very long.

The weird thing was that it stayed down, and I felt slightly better. Less hungry, anyway. And I didn't feel like throwing up anymore.

“Good boy,” Mom chirped. “Now it's time for bed!”

I checked my watch. It was about a quarter to eight. Aside from everything else that was awful in this house, early curfew!

What if I made a break for it? I knew I could run fast in this body. Chad-Two could probably run just as fast, though, and Dad might be able to run faster.

“Bed!” Dad announced. He grabbed my shoulder and pushed me toward the staircase. He was really strong!

Maybe I could sneak out after they all went to sleep.

I followed Chad-Two upstairs.

We trudged up the stairs to the weird pink second floor. I planned to watch Chad-Two very carefully. I didn't want to make any mistakes. It would be a disaster if he found out I wasn't the real Chad-One!

Chad-Two went to the first big touch pad on the floor and pulled on a pair of boots, then he stamped on the orange touch pad six times.

I waited for something to whoosh or glow. Nothing happened.

He walked over to the first green touch pad on the left wall and thumbed it. A long oval door opened, revealing another tiny room only a little bigger than a coffin. It was identical to the one I had seen before.

The next thing Chad-Two did surprised me. He grabbed the bars on either side of the little room and swung his feet up. They stuck to the ceiling!

He hung there upside-down like a bat, his arms crossed over his chest, and his hair hung straight down. He stared at me. “Go on,” he snapped. “Get in your own sleep chamber, will you?”

I crossed over to the big touch pad on the floor and pulled on the boots. They fit, but kind of grabbed my feet and ankles tight, and they felt prickly inside.

I stamped on the big orange touch pad six times, the way Chad-Two had, then went to the second green badge on the wall near his.

My thumbprint opened the closet I had guessed was Chad's room. Now I knew why there were bars on the wall.