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Yes. I stuffed the leader into my mouth. With a huge push I shoved him down my throat.

Gagging, choking, my mouth tingling with fur, I swallowed him.

I felt the alien body sink heavily into my stomach.

He felt different from the other alien. Bigger and stronger.

He wriggled and squirmed inside me. He’s fighting me, I realized. He must sense that I’m not human.

Rikki and Summer grabbed me by the arms and shook me. “What are you doing? Why did you do that? Are you crazy?”

“I—
ugh
!” I grunted. The leader was fighting me
hard, raging in fury. I doubled over, crying out in pain.

Rikki and Summer held on to me tightly. They glared at me angrily.

Slowly, their expressions changed. Their faces went blank.

Their hands slipped off me. I saw their knees buckle.

With loud groans, they both collapsed to the floor.

In the gym, I saw the other kids fall, too. They dropped to the floor, twitching, rolling, bouncing.

“People! Everyone!” one of the teachers shouted. “Stop fooling around! What’s the matter with you?”

But the kids’ bodies jerked on the floor as they screamed in pain.

Inside me, I felt the leader fighting. He seemed to be bouncing off the sides of my stomach.

I screamed in agony as I felt his teeth digging into my insides. Was he trying to chew his way out of me?

I dropped to my knees on the gym floor, clutching my stomach.

“Ben!” a teacher cried, bending over me. “What is it?”

I shook my head. I couldn’t speak. The pain was too intense.

“Somebody call an ambulance!” the teacher shouted. “Hurry!”

Through the pain, I began to hear the leader’s voice inside my head.

“
You can’t beat me
,” he said. “
I am all-powerful. I will sap the strength out of you
.”

“
You can’t kill me. I’m going to kill you first
.”

Another stab of pain shot through my body. I could hear the other kids around me screaming, as if from a distance, as if in a dream.

They were all fading, fading away. I could feel myself fading, too. I couldn’t stand the pain much longer.

I can’t let him win, I thought. I struggled to hold on, to fight him. But I could feel him growing stronger, angrier. His rage made him powerful.

I struggled to my feet.

But I was too weak to stand.

And the pain…the pain…

I dropped back to the floor.

I’ve lost, I realized.

I’ve let everyone down. I’ve lost….

“You don’t know?” I wailed. “You’re still aliens?”

Summer broke into a grin. “We’re teasing you, Ben. We wouldn’t forget the gross thing you did with that pea.”

“It still makes me sick to my stomach,” Jeff said.

“I’m sorry about all the things the aliens made us do to you,” Summer said. “Really sorry. But you saved us! You saved us all! I don’t know how to thank you.”

“How did you do it?” Jeff asked. “What happened when you swallowed the leader? Why did he die? He was supposed to thrive inside a human body.”

Summer stared at me. “Hey—that’s right,” she said. “How did you kill the leader?”

“Uh—um…well…” I stammered. What could I say? That the leader died because I’m not human? Because I’m an alien? Because I am The One?

No.

Maybe someday I’ll want to tell people, I thought. Maybe someday I’ll want to explore my alien roots. And tell the whole world who I really am.

But not now.

For now I just want to live a normal human life with my family and friends.

So what could I tell them? How could I explain it?

As they stared at me, waiting for an explanation, an idea popped into my head.

“The leader died because I’m not human,” I told them. “You see, he died because I’m an alien from outer space, too!”

They both laughed.

Jeff rolled his eyes. “Yeah. For sure! Good one, Ben!”

“Very funny,” Summer said, slapping me on the back. “So now you’re an alien, too. Very funny. Ha-ha.”

She slapped me on the back again.

And the three of us walked out of the gym, laughing at my crazy joke.