To Cassidy Valdez, my Bff 4ever, and to all fantasy writers and lovers who inspired me to write this story! P.S. Even though the title is "The Alien Invasion" this book is for all genders, so girls, don't be shy to read this book!

-V.W.

    I woke up with a start and looked at my calendar. It was Saturday! I quickly changed out of my comfy panda PJs and into some jeans, a t-shirt, my black hoodie with the words “Slay Queen” around a pink heart, and slung on my good-luck purse. Hopefully, if no one was awake yet, I could sneak into Kieran’s house without anyone noticing! Giddy with excitement, I thought of all the fun things we could do. Maybe we’d play Techno Rift on his OmniCore console. Or maybe we could turn his hamster, Figaro, into an octopus. Or maybe— 

    “ESME EVERLY!” Mom shouted in her I’m-very-annoyed-so-you-better-not-piss-me-off voice. “What in the world are you wearing?” Now, I've never told a lie in my life, so of course I replied, “I’m wearing some jeans, a t-shirt, my black hoodie,

                               Chapter One

and my good luck purse, and I’m about to sneak off to Kieran’s house!” Just kidding! What I actually said was, “I’m wearing very comfortable clothes and FYI, I'm not going to Kieran’s house.” She pointed at our family calendar - one look at it turned my blood freezing cold. Saturday and Sunday: Family Camping Trip. How could I forget that this weekend we were going camping, of all the things to forget?! I made a mental note to always check the family calendar before making secret plans. 

    “Did you pack your stuff?” my mom asked, raising an eyebrow. “Nooo…..” I sighed, “ But can I at least eat some breakfast first?”     She nodded with an exasperated look, then went to wake up my little brother. I sighed. No visits to Kieran's today. I got up and went into the kitchen, then looked at my cereal options: Jurassic Crunch and Sugar Rush O's. Knowing my brother, he probably ate all the dinosaur-shaped marshmallows in Jurassic Crunch. I decided to go with Sugar Rush O's. 

No sooner did I pour the milk and cereal into my bowl when my little brother rushed into the kitchen making weird robotic dinosaur noises and spilling my cereal all over my clothes! "Koda!" I fumed, giving him a death stare, "I just got this hoodie last week!" "Sorry!" he shrugged, and started pretending to be a robot dinosaur. Rolling my eyes, I prepared another bowl of cereal, and after gulping it down, I rushed to my room to start packing. I packed a pink shirt with an image of a sleeping cat saying "Hi! I'm tired!", a plain white t-shirt, 2 jeans, some dark-colored socks, and a brown hoodie with an image of a gaming console and shoved them into my backpack. I also packed 2 books for in case I was bored, a drawing notebook, some pencils, my phone, some headphones, and a pack of gum and shoved those into my backpack. 

By the time I finished packing, my backpack was full. Slinging it over my shoulder, I went down the stairs and sat on my favorite sofa. It was white with little light blue flower designs here and there and it was very comfy, fitting only 1 person so I could sit in it by myself- plus, it was right in front of the TV! Koda was still pretending to be a robot dinosaur, and his toys were scattered all over the floor. "You should clean those up before we go," I scoffed, "Otherwise mom's gonna get mad at you" He just stuck his tongue out at me and started spinning in circles. Sighing, I picked up the remote control and started browsing through Netflix. Suddenly, Koda was right next to me. "Can we watch DinoBlast Bots?" he pleaded. "Didn't you already finish the series?" I reminded him, "Plus, Dynamo Daring is out, and I wanna watch it before all 

my other friends watch it so they would think I'm cool." "All you ever think about is your friends thinking you're cool!" Koda wailed, "You never even play Rexopoly with me anymore!" "Well it's not MY fault that you're still a baby!" I retorted. Then I realized my mistake. Looking at him, I could tell that he's about to start a tantrum, one that will most likely get me in trouble instead of him. "Wait!" I exclaimed, shoving the controller into his hand, "I'm sorry! I'll let you watch DinoBlast Bots!" Too late."Mooommyyyy!!" Koda wailed at the top of his lungs, making me cover my ears, "Esme's being mean to me again!" Mom rushed over, and I could tell that she was just taking a shower because she had her towel wrapped around her head. "Mom, listen," I tried to reason, "I wasn't being mean to him! In fact, I was just joking around with him!"

  I could tell my reasoning wasn't working though, because the next thing I knew, Koda was happily watching DinoBlast Bots while I was punished to count all of the grains of rice in our house. There was a lot, mind you, because my little brother would always beg our mom to make him sushi, so mom always bought a bunch. After I finished counting, (there were 7,354 grains) we bundled into the car and started the looooong drive to the camping site. I honestly don't know why my dad didn't just buy plane tickets, since the drive was over 5 hours long. As we drove, my brother started making weird jokes and riddles that didn't even make any sense, so I decided to listen to music on my phone and draw random scenes. By the time  we arrive, I had listened to 17 different songs (I repeated some of them) and had drawn 9 different scenes. "I'm hungry!" Koda complained for the

6th time in the car, "Plus, I'm bored!" "We're here, idiot," I exclaimed, rolling my eyes. "Don't call your brother an idiot!" dad said in a dangerously gentle voice, "Appologize right now." "I'm sorry that you're an idiot," I smiled, "Afterall, it's not your fault." "Esme Everly!" dad exclaimed, his voice more dangerous than before, "I want a sincere apology!" Mom gives me the look that says if-you-don't-listen-to-him-he-will-get-mad.  I immediately understand. The thing about my dad is that his voice is naturally rough, so when his voice suddenly turns sweet and smooth like honey, then that means that he's either getting mad or he's getting ready to kill someone. "I'msorrythatIcalledyouanidiot," I say as speedy as I can. Thankfully, dad understands, so he nods his head and unlocks the car. "Everyone get out and start helping!" he says in his naturally rough voice.

 Dad and Koda take out the luggage (which are surprisingly heavy) while mom and I setup the tents. By the time we finished, it actually looked pretty decent, so I plopped down on my sleeping bag and started reading. "Is there a McDonald's here?" Koda asked dad. "Nope!" Dad exclaimed, "So mom will be doing all  the cooking!" "What?!" Koda and I exclaim unanimously. "Yep!" Dad replied, looking pretty happy at himself, "So that way we can get a little camping experience!" Oh, no no no no no. 2 full days of mom's cooking? Not even a simple Burger King or McDonald's?! "Daaaaddd!!!!" I whined, sounding a lot like my little brother, "Why didn't you tell us?!?!" He just shrugged. There seemed to be no more point in reading if there wasn't anything to look forward to afterwards, so I put a bookmark in the page where I left off (I only got to page 3) and put the book away.

"Hey, Esme?" Koda asked, looking at me with big, pleading, eyes, "Wanna play Rexopoly with me?" It was annoying how he could convince me to do anything he wanted when he changed his eye shape and tone, but since I had nothing better to do, I agreed. After about 3 rounds of Rexopoly, dad said it was time for lunch. Koda whined and complained, asking for 2 more rounds of Rexopoly, but to be honest, I was relieved that I didn't have to play anymore since every time we played I had to purposely let him win. "What are we gonna eat?" I asked dad, hoping he would take the hint to not let us play 2 more rounds. "I.... honestly don't know!" Dad laughed, "Maybe you should go ask your mom!" So I did, and I found out that we were gonna eat BBQ for lunch. "Why for lunch though?" I had asked, thinking that BBQ was usually a dinner thing. My only reply was

 a lousy "'Cuz I felt like it". As we sat down next to the campfire, my dad tried to teach us a campfire song. It went something like

                            I'm next to a campfire

                             I'm with my family

                            So here's my wish:

                     To make a family treeeee

We all thought it was funny that the wish was to make a family tree, and after 3 or 4 times, we actually got the hang of it. That's when we heard a loud Crash! and suddenly there was a lot of smoke down the cliff we were camping on. "Aliens are invading us!" Koda giggled. I rolled my eyes while dad stood up. "I'll go look at what happened," he said, squinting his eyes at the smoke, "If anything happens I'll scream DaDaDaDo, ok?" "DaDaDaDo?" I sniffled a laugh, "Why that?" But he was 

already gone. A few moment later he climbed back up and told us something so funny that it was next to impossible. "We got invaded by aliens!" Dad screeched, actually looking alarmed, "There's a UFO down the cliff!" This time, I couldn't hold it and laughed so hard I couldn't breathe. "Good joke dad!" I said between giggles, "But what did you really see?" He was silent. "Dad?" I asked again. "I'm telling the truth," he insisted, his eyes dark as the sky, "But if you don't believe me then go down yourself." "I'm bringing my phone for this," I said, grabbing my phone. "Can I come too?" Koda begged. "Only if I come too," Mom suddenly said, which surprised us all because she was one of those no-nonsense parents that didn't believe in unicorns. Dad followed too, telling us so he could say told you, but we all believed it was just because he was scared of

being alone. When we got down, I gasped. "Woah!" Koda breathed, his eyes as big as the moon, "It's a UFO!" "Told ya," Dad said, a smug expression on his face. Suddenly, we heard noises coming from inside the UFO. "Run!" I screamed, but I didn't need to say that because everyone was already running. Everyone except Koda. "Koda, run!" I screamed even louder, but he acted like he couldn't hear me.

"This isn't funny Koda," I said, starting to get alarmed. Suddenly, he started to move. But not away from the UFO, but towards it! "Koda! What are you doing?" I whispered urgently, grabbing his arm. But he just shook me away like I'm a bug and continued to walk towards the UFO. "Mom! Dad!" I exclaimed, "I think there's something wrong with Koda!" I turned around and realized that they were already gone. Frantic, I pulled Koda away from the UFO. Maybe it was that weird superhuman strength that sisters have when their brothers were in trouble, because somehow I was able to carry Koda back to our camping site. "Thank goodness you're alright!" Mom exclaimed, tears in her

Chapter Two

eyes, "I was getting worried that something had happened to you!" I looked at her and could tell she was really worried, so I started having a little debate in my head that only lasted 5 seconds in reality but to me was long. "We should tell her what happened to Koda!" my honesty said, "Otherwise, she would never believe a word we said and would never let us near Koda again!" Then my empathy came in. "If we tell her we would just make her more worried! Can't you see that she's already very worried?!" empathy argued, "Plus, I thought that we never really liked Koda anyways, so why is it such a big deal that we would never be allowed near him?" I made my decision. "Mom?" I said, trying my best not to sound worried,  "There's something I need to tell you..." "What's wrong?" she asked, looking at me like I just told her

that I had just told her that I got a concussion, "Are you hurt?" I pulled her away from dad and behind our tent. "The thing is," I started, and told her the whole story, starting from when we ran to when I dragged Koda back to camp. When I finished, mom's eyes were as big as disks, and if someone passed by, they might've thought she was an alien in disguise. "We should go back now," I told mom, and we walked back to where Koda and dad were sitting on the floor, playing Rexopoly. "Are you just gonna act that calm after what happened?!" Mom shrieked at dad, catching him off guard. "Wh-wh-what do you mean?" Dad stuttered after recovering from the shock of mom shrieking at him, "I mean, Koda here doesn't remember a thing about the UFO so I thought I was just dreaming! Now can you please put your

slipper down?" What? Koda didn't remember a thing? "Stop lying!" Mom shrieked at him, "Plus, even if he did forget, why would you assume it was a dream? 'Cuz me and Esme weren't here to tell you it wasn't?!" Feeling pre-tty bad for dad, I decided to offer to make dinner tonight, hoping to lift mom's spirits. Unfortunately, my plan backfired when mom got suspicious and started asking me why. After dinner, we all decided that it had been a rough night and went to bed. I couldn't sleep, though. Not after what had happened. I kept tossing and turning, seeing glimpses of creatures that were hopefully from my imagination, before I passed out from exhaustion and lay in a crumpled heap on my bed.

    "Good morning," I yawned, sitting up from my sleeping bag. I waited for Koda to jump on top of me and scream, "I AM THE CHAMPION OF THE WORLD!!!" but nothing happened. "Koda?" I whispered, looking around our tent. All of his stuff, including him, had disappeared and the only trace that he was ever hear was his sleeping bag, folded up and put away into a small corner. Suddenly remembering what had happened yesterday, I bolted up and raced towards mom and dad's tent. As quiet as a mouse, I sneak next to my mom's sleeping bag and gently tap her on the shoulder. "What do you want?" she mumbled groggily, still half awake. "Mom!" I whispered urgently, "Mom, it's about Koda! With surprising speed, my mom woke up and almost knocked me over.

"What's wrong?!" Mom whispered urgently, panic in her voice. "You see..." I looked away, then quickly said, "WhenIwokeupKodawasgoneandsowereallofhisthingsandI'mreallyreallysorrymompleaseforgiveme!" She blinked for a second, then, as if all of a sudden it made sense, she went "Ooh," I looked at her, dumbstruck. "You're not mad?" I whispered, knowing that dad was still sleeping. "Why would I be mad?" Mom whispered back, "After all, it wasn't your fault that he probably got kidnapped by aliens, but I am terribly worried about him. Should we look for him?" I gave her a little nod and we tiptoed out of the tent. "I didn't eat the peanut butter! I swear!" I heard dad sleep talk, "Please have mercy!" I stifled a laugh and followed mom to the edge of the cliff. As soon as we 

got there, we looked down, expecting to see more UFOs and some army of aliens forcing Koda to be their slave. To my surprise, I just saw the same old thing as yesterday, except that the lights were on and I saw figures inside moving. "Weird," Mom grumbled, ruffling her hair the way she does when she's confused and trying to solve something out, "Welp, since nothing's here, I guess it was just a dream that we all coincidentally happened to have at the same time!" What? Was I the only one seeing this? Don't panic, Esme, I told myself, even though I was really panicking. "What's wrong?" Mom asked, "Did you stub your toe or something?" "No, it's okay!" I said, trying not to show my panic, "Let's go!" "Are you sure?" Mom asked, clearly concerned, "I mean, you lo-" "I wonder what's for breakfast!" I cut her off, hoping that she'd stop talking.

Thankfully, she did, but she kept on giving me weird looks as we walked back to camp. 

                                         ---

    The rest of the day was pretty weird. By weird, I meant that nobody seemed to realize that Koda was gone, not even dad, whom we didn't tell anything about. "Hey dad?" I had asked once, "Aren't you worried about Koda?" You know how he replied? This is what he said that knocked me off guard. "Who's Koda?" he had asked, looking at me like I had just told him I was a talking dog. "Ha, ha, very funny," I had said, "Stop joking around, this is serious." Then all of a sudden he picked me up and brought me to the car and started driving. "Where are we going?!" I asked, frantic. "To the ER because I'm pretty sure you got a concession," he replied. Wait, did that mean