Alien in My Pocket #4 by Nate Ball Page B

couldn’t drive me, and Mom had already left for work.”
    Amp was now pacing in front of the alarm clock. I could see it was 11:30 a.m. Wow, that really was a good night’s sleep!
    â€œI should have told you.”
    â€œTold me what?”
    â€œI borrowed those brake wires when you were at school on Monday.”
    â€œWhy on Earth would you do that!?!” I shouted.
    â€œAs you know, my landing system didn’t function when I arrived here, so I was trying to fix the braking flaps on my . . .” His voice trailed off when he saw the look on my face. He backed farther away from me. “Easy now, Zack.” He looked nervous. “Remember, you have a boo-boo.”
    â€œI should have known it was you,” I said between gritted teeth.
    With a groan, I started to get up, but pain shot through my shoulder. He instantly disappeared from sight, using one of his alien mind-control abilities.
    â€œYour Jedi tricks don’t work on me anymore, Amp,” I said. It was true; I had been teaching myself how to to deflect his invisible brain signals. At that instant, I saw him scamper across my bookshelf. “I SEE YOU!”

    He sort of blinked on and off in my vision as I concentrated on blocking his mind trick. He dove off the bookshelf and ran across the carpet and into the closet.
    â€œYou better hide, you little blue headache.”
    Honestly, my arm hurt too much to actually chase him. It hurt just to swing my legs off my bed. I stared at the wall, my anger at Amp boiling.
    Just then, there was a knock on my door
    â€œZack, it’s time for your pill, and you have a visitor,” Mom sang through the door.
    I knew who the visitor was before the door opened.
    â€œCome on in, Olivia,” I groaned.

Olivia + Mike + Amp
    I washed down my pain pill as Olivia swept into my room like she owned the place. That’s how she is.
    She had a stack of worksheets from school in one hand, a roll of SweeTarts for Amp in the other, and one of those clear plastic pet balls under her arm.
    Inside the plastic ball was her new hamster, which she had named Mike, which must be the most inappropriate name for a hamster ever.
    I had suggested a whole list of great names.
    â€œHow about Ace?” I had pleaded. “Or Skittles? Or PopTart? Or Yoda? Or Brownie? Buttercup? Fuzzface? Nibbles? Shaggy? Tinkerbell? Sparky? Monkey Butt? You can even name it Bubba. It’s so cute I could puke!”

    Olivia was having none of it. “No way,” she’d said. “He’s Mike.”
    She placed Mike in his ball onto the carpet. Mike instantly started rolling around, exploring my messy room. Olivia toed my open door shut so Mike wouldn’t wind up bouncing down the stairs by accident.
    She tossed the short stack of fluttering worksheets onto my desk. “Those are from the lovely Miss Martin,” she said. She looked around and didn’t see Amp, so she tossed the roll of SweeTarts on top of the worksheets.
    â€œAll those worksheets are from one day?” I croaked.
    â€œYesterday and today,” she said matter-of-factly. “Today is Friday, Zackaroni. You missed Thursday altogether. You’re piling up the makeup tests like crazy.”
    I groaned. “I almost died. You’d think Miss Martin would cut me some slack and let me miss a few tests. And what are you doing here? It’s not even noon. Why aren’t you in school?”
    â€œI convinced Miss Martin I needed to come see you and bring you your work. Cheer you up. I told her you needed a lot of cheering up.”
    â€œYou’re shameless,” I said, shaking my head. “Anything to get out of school, right?”
    She didn’t answer. She sat roughly on the corner of my bed and stared at me.
    â€œDon’t shake the bed,” I said, closing my eyes. “It hurts.” I could feel her staring at my sling. “How’s Mike doing?” I asked, just to say