Izzy & Eliza...an alien tale

PARTY*

  Life on earth wasn't all snow cones and gummy treats for Izzian. He was worried about the brewing catastrophes on his home planet and summer in Sudden Bluff was getting hotter by the day. The boy's stomach constantly ached due to all the lying he'd been doing.

  Back home, he was used to telling a little fib every now and again, but it seemed like every day with Eliza was one big festival of lies. It was a struggle to keep the truth of his alien identity a secret when Eliza was so full of interesting stories of her own.

  One positive outcome of the sizzling sun: Izzian had developed a tan. He hoped that it would cover some of the green sheen he anxiously noticed each time he glanced in the mirror.

  As if it weren't enough to be afraid of randomly turning green, habitually lying to his new friend and constantly worrying about the missing Klesians, Izzian had developed a bully problem.

  Izzian had his first run in with the audacious twins Lucas and Link on a return trip from town, having indulged in a Pink Peppermint Passion snow cone from Laddie's. He and Eliza were having a pleasant afternoon, strolling through town, walking back to the tree house.

  Eliza was finishing up her Badger's Banana Boil snow cone and abruptly stopped walking, causing Izzian to skid into a stop to avoid running her down.

  "Hey, watch out," said Izzian. He safely recovered his teetering mound of sugary ice.

  He hadn't noticed the reason for Eliza's abrupt stoppage, and he continued to prattle on about life and its little quibbles.

  "Do you really think badgers like banana? Eliza? Do you think it's girly of me to order a Pink Peppermint Passion? I haven't seen many boys sporting pink around here, but I think it's a delightful color," he declared, busily sucking up the sweet confection.

  "Izzian," said Eliza under her breath, "please stop talking. It's not the right time for you to go all prissy on me."

  "Well, hello girls," said a boy who looked identical to another boy. The other boy snickered and added, "Hey kid, enjoying that Pink Peppermint Pleasure?"

  Izzian tried to uncross his eyes at the site of two humans that might be clones. One of the boys had an enormous pimple jutting out from his nose and a cluster of similar looking mounds residing on his chin. Aside from that, Izzian assumed even the boy's mother had a difficult time telling them apart.

  Izzian spoke up, "Actually, it's Pink Peppermint Passion and while it's quite tasty, it pales in comparison to the Rhino's Raspberry Relish. Laddie makes magnificent snow cones."

  The clone boys laughed aloud. Eliza cringed and Izzian realized it was all at his expense.

  "Let me guess, Eliza. Your snow cone is called, Eliza the Loser Lemonade?" the dominant twin said, chuckling at his own joke. He then pointed to Izzian and asked, "Who's this turd? Got a new friend Eliza the Loser?"

  "He's none of your business, Slink. Leave us alone," said Eliza, combining both boys' names into one. She grabbed Izzian's arm and urged him to escape while he could.

  "It's okay, Eliza. Let me introduce myself. My name is Izzian Klowosky. I'm from Las Vegas; that's a town in the state of Nevada," Izzian rambled off his memorized factoids, oblivious to the fact that most Americans knew exactly in which state Las Vegas was located.

  There was a silent pause hanging in the air, and then suddenly Lucas and Link burst out laughing. Eliza appeared to be turning red from anger.

  "Looks like you've met your own twin, Eliza! You two freaks are perfect for each other," pimple faced Lucas said through his hearty laughter.

  The boy with a clearer complexion sneered, adding, "Izzian? Wh-what the heck kind of name is that? Izzy stupid? Izz-he-an alien?"

  Suddenly, Izzian's worst fear surfaced. How did this schmuck know he was an alien? Were the twins, Lucas and Link Klesian spies?

  Eliza rescued Izzian from his confusion by whispering, "Don't pay attention to these idiots."

  He noticed that Eliza seemed to cower to the lunatic twins. In fact, a little cluster of kids had gathered to watch the whole spectacle and they all appeared trembling and nervous.

  The twins were quite happy to have an audience. They kept making stupid name jokes, like "E-Loozer Allready," and "Eliza Allready stinks," thinking they were incredibly funny. But the surrounding kids seemed to be laughing more out of fear that actual pleasure.

  Izzian didn't mind the audience, either. He smiled, knowing that he played well in front of a crowd, too. He'd had a lifetime of practice.

  "Izzy, please. Let it go. Come on," Eliza beseeched.

  Izzian was confused about the girl he'd come to know as a tough cookie, acting so timid, but Eliza's unusual behavior could be cleared up later. For the present, Izzian did what he did best.

  "I don't believe you've mentioned your own names," Izzian said casually. "Which one of you is Mucous and which one is Stink?"

  Someone in the cluster of kids giggled and Izzian recognized the dark headed boy right away. Paksha stepped up and stood near Izzian.

  "Ha! That's a good one, Izzy. Mucous and Stink-get it? Lucas and Link," Paksha explained to the group of kids, his voice full of nervous tension.

  Izzian liked crowd participation. He fed off of it and he was thankful for Paksha's help.

  Izzian looked at Paksha and said, "Or, Pukus and Fink?"

  Apparently, Paksha had decided it was worth the wrath of Lucas and Link to create a few nicknames of his own. "I believe their birth certificates say Ducus and Dink," he said with gusto.

  "It's true, it's true," said Izzian.

  The other kids had finally snapped out of their fear induced silence. A few even dared to giggle; except for Eliza, who had stepped away and kept her mouth shut. Meanwhile, Lucas and Link were obviously not used to being on the bullied end of the bullying. They were not happy twins.

  "So boys, it's settled," Izzian said seriously. "From this day on, Lucas and Link are to be called…Pukus and Stink. Please address them as such. Agreed everyone?"

  The nervous crowd of onlookers tittered and giggled, but Paksha was the only one in the click of children bold enough to say anything against the twins. But before Paksha could open his mouth to agree with Izzian, Lucas and Link retaliated.

  "Shut up, Paksha. If you're smart enough to," said Lucas with a leer in Paksha's direction. "So, new kid from Las Vegas of Nevada," Lucas was building up to make his point, and Izzian got ready to run. "Izzy about to get his butt whooped?"

  Link answered, "I think so."

  Lucas and Link worked in tandem, too quickly for Izzian to run. Lucas pushed Izzian to the ground forcefully and Link plopped the boy's snow cone directly on top of his head. Izzian felt the jolt of pain as his derriere hit the concrete. He felt the cold ice running down his face, leaving behind accents of pink.

  Lucas stood up taller, admiring his and his brother's handiwork. "There. It's a work of art," he said, gesturing to Izzian's prone, clownish position. "I call it Pink Peppermint… Pointlessness."

  The group of kids laughed nervously at the ridiculous looking new kid, splayed on the ground, sporting a snow cone clown hat.

  Link said, "Come on everybody! Swim party at our house."

  Lucas kneeled close to Izzian's ear and whispered. "Consider this a warning. That's nothing compared to what you'll get if you ever go against me again. If you know what's good for you, you'll stay away from this loser," he added, pointing to Eliza.

  Putting on a jovial face, Lucas yelled, "You guys are certainly welcome to come too. Just clean yourself up first. No pink in the pool unless it’s on a girl's bikini!"

  With that, the group of kids followed the now friendly and joking Lucas and Link, mostly ignoring Izzian and Eliza. A few looked back with apologetic expressions but all remained silent, following their apparent leaders.

  Izzian's compatriot, Paksha, shrugged his shoulders, apologizing to Izzian and Eliza, and then ran after the disappearing group of merry kids. Apparently, Paksha wasn't quite ready to completely rebel against the towering twins. Either that or he really wanted to see a few
girls in pink bikinis at the swim party.

  Eliza extended a hand to help Izzian up, and said, "I tried to tell you. You don't mess with Lucas and Link. You're new here Izzy, but those two boys are trouble."

  Sitting on the ground with sore buttocks and Pink Peppermint snow cone dripping down his face, Izzian wondered what had just happened. He had been sorely defeated, that much he knew. But it had all happened so quickly that he hadn't even stood a chance at redeeming himself.

  Eliza offered a hand and helped Izzian to his feet, smearing her sticky Banana Badger all over his already sticky hand. This is becoming a habit with her, he thought.

  "Thanks, I guess I thought I could escape fast enough when those boys got too mad. Usually I'm pretty fast. It's like they worked as one single person. They were faster," Izzian admitted as he placed his hand on Eliza's shoulder, rubbing the gummy sugary goo from his hand back onto her shirt.

  "Twins huh? Fascinating..." Izzian said, not realizing he was speaking aloud. "Just like Simbiots," he mumbled to himself. So far, Izzian had been able to mostly control his thoughts slipping from his mouth, but he'd been rattled by the twins.

  "What are Simbiots?" Eliza asked.

  Without thinking, he began explaining the definition of an alien species. "Simbiots are another version of twins. They are attached by a type of juicy umbilical cord," he said, gesticulating with his hands.

  "Gross," said Eliza. "Please continue."

  Izzian stopped himself. He'd almost blabbed out the truth; the universe contained countless other beings and Simbiots were just one more race of aliens. Quickly, the boy came up with another lie to cover his rambling mouth.

  "Uh…I like to write science fiction stories. It's a name I came up with for a character."

  Izzian considered the pros and cons of accessing his plascreen to look up information about Simbiots. He'd come to think of the expansive artificial database research tool as an enemy, due to its constant borage of insults and jokes at his expense.

  Back home, Izzian hadn't thought twice about using his plascreen, and was thrilled that it would one day be implanted behind his eyes. But on earth, his plascreen had gone rogue and since it was located behind his eyes, he couldn't even remove the irksome thing.

  The second he stepped out of Gratified Speed 1213, the plascreen seemed to have a mind of its own and that frightened the boy. Not only that, but it seemed that on earth, he was living more in the moment, using emotion as a guiding tool, not some interactive database that told him tons of useless information.

  Oddly enough, his plascreen flashed the information Izzian needed regarding Simbiots and left out the usual insults.

  "Simbiots possess both organic and artificial parts, and can move quickly when they work together as a team. Like Lucas and Link." Izzian realized the bridge of differences between Simbiots and the twins grew closer with each comparison.

  Gala said there were undercover aliens living all over earth, but he quickly dismissed the idea that Lucas and Link were earthbound, secret agent aliens. They were far from Compassionate Citizens of the Universe. Then again, Izzian knew of several aliens that behaved opposite of CCU.

  "Simbiots are often used by a certain cult of scientists for research. One twin prefers dealing with numbers and scientific equations. The other twin prefers a more philosophical outlook."

  "Oh, a right brain, left brain kind of thing?" asked Eliza.

  "Exactly. But, we both know that Lucas and Link's combined brainpower doesn't even equal a single brain. Do the math," said Izzian. They both grinned.

  "But in actuality, anyone could be an alien. We'd never know," Eliza said, stopping, looking Izzian in the eyes.

  Izzian replied, "Yes, I suppose you are right."

  The two stood there, in a bizarre type of Mexican stand-off, each wondering what the other knew but wasn't saying.

  Izzian was fully aware that Eliza had known she was being watched. But did she guess it was Izzian doing the watching? He continually felt bad for lying to Eliza about every single thing and considered spilling his guts at that very moment. The truth was on the tip of his tongue, waiting to be spit out.

  Instead, he pretended the alien discussion had never happened. It was an interesting concept to think that Eliza might already be in on his secret.

  It didn't make a difference what Izzian said if she already knew he was an alien. Izzian promised himself to think about confessing the truth at a later date, when he wasn't doused in pink peppermint snow cone.

  Without warning, his unruly plascreen flashed a word that Izzian tried to ignore: coward.

  ***