My Friend is an Alien - Edlund Niklas. Страница 37

Davy spent a fair bit of time posing around some of the girls showing off largely mythical muscles. Niklas wasn't sure what he thought of that. Part of him almost felt — jealous? At the same time Davy seemed almost oblivious to the probability that the squeals and giggles of the girls were more a result of them laughing at him than any substantial measure of appreciation.

Candy was being given out as prizes for certain games, although Keith had apparently managed to find where it was being kept and had liberated a fair supply of it for himself and Martin, and it looked as though Martin had gotten a bit too much of it. He looked almost as green as Jahv did normally. He'd also apparently somehow incurred the wrath of a rather large specimen in a black hockey shirt and pants, who wanted some of the candy. Niklas recognized him. Until he'd switched schools with the start of the new school year, the brainless oaf, whose name was Toby, was the biggest bully in the school, and the smaller the target, the better. Fortunately, Keith had risen to Martin's defense, and Jason and Fabian had edged over, and Toby, apparently on his own, although in Niklas' experience Toby tended to have reinforcements available if needed, didn't like being outnumbered, even if neither Keith nor Martin would have stood much chance against him, and Jason and Fabian little more. Once Toby backed off, Keith went and found an adult, who gave Martin some antacid. The boy looked better minutes later.

Ricky and Sniv had spent most of the evening together, Sniv making sure that Ricky had a good time despite the boy's apparent shyness. Whether Sniv had told Ricky the truth about Jahv and the others, Niklas did not know, but the camouflaged boy kept glancing at the three «obvious» aliens almost every time he was within sight range. Morik didn't seem to attract the same level of attention.

Niklas was playing a few games here and there, but something in the back of his mind kept telling him to keep an eye on the aliens. He hated to think he was being paranoid, but something was bothering him. That was when he noticed he'd lost sight of Jahv.

A loud belch behind him quickly determined the location of the green-hued alien. Jahv was sitting — no, more like he was flopped down in a chair at a nearby table, holding a large cup of the rather peculiar punch the party had served. Niklas had wrinkled his nose at it. Everybody said it had tasted fine, but in keeping with the Halloween spirit, the punch bowl vaguely resembled a swamp. Jahv had a silly grin on his face and his eyes looked unfocused.

He almost looked — drunk!? Was that possible, wondered Niklas? Would Jahv drink something without analyzing it first? Maybe, in the spirit of the party, he might have. Niklas walked over to the alien. "You okay?"

Jahv sputtered some static in his native language, and then said, "Huh? Niklas. Oh, yeah. I'm great. Great party!"

Niklas winced. Something was definitely wrong. He went off in search of Keyro, and found him fairly quickly. "Did you drink any of the punch?" he asked.

Keyro shook his head. "It looked too gross, why?"

"Because I think your big brother has, and I think there's something in it that's not agreeing with him too well."

Keyro's expression became one of immediate concern. "Where is he?"

Niklas led Keyro over to where Jahv was. Jahv now looked asleep, his head down on the surface of the table. Keyro picked up the cup and pulled an anaylzer out of his own backpack. "Uh, ohhh." he said.

"What?" asked Niklas.

"This stuff is half orange juice. The other half is melted lime sherbet, but it's the orange juice that's trouble. Orange citrus makes us — act a little weird."

"Like drunk?" asked Niklas. "At least it looks like he's sleeping it off."

Keyro was shaking his head. "Not — quite like being drunk. And when the stuff really kicks in.

Suddenly Jahv's head snapped back and his eyes opened. They looked glazed. He still had a silly grin on his face. He tried to stand up and failed. Finally he knelt on the chair. "I have ridden the nebulae of Andromeda!" his voice blasted, echoing more than usual. "I have been one with the cosmos! I am the great space explorer! I have seen the wuhh — BWURRRP! — wonders of the heavens!"

"Oh, great." groaned Niklas. "Jahv, you want to keep your voice down? It's not only carrying, it's echoing." Somewhat unfocused eyes scanned the room, resting on one high schooler who had, for reasons known only to him, painted his face blue and was dressed in silver. "How the *hiccup* did a Trandosian get in here? Don't they have security at the door?"

"What?" remarked Niklas. Keyro just shrugged.

Suddenly Jahv jumped up on the table. He'd seen the two guys dressed as the four-legged monster. "Good Lord, it's a four-legged vraktow! They're much more dangerous than the six-legged kind, you know." Jahv slapped his hip as if reaching for a weapon, then looked down. "I'm not armed, am I?"

"No, you're not," replied Niklas, adding, mostly to himself, "thank God."

"Oh." said Jahv, climbing (more like stumbling) off the table. "Okay. Somebody else will have to kill it then."

"Jahv, I think maybe we should get you out of here." suggested Niklas politely.

"Huh? Why? It's a great party."

"You've had a little too much orange juice." said Niklas.

"Don't be ricid — riduc — diric — don't be silly." said Jahv. "If I had, I'd be acting drunk."

"Uhhh…" said Niklas, wondering how to phrase his next remark without sending the alien flying off the handle again.

"Niklas?" said Jahv quietly.

"Yes?" replied Niklas.

"This is the weirdest bunch of aliens I've seen since FelgerCon 35 on Relcos 7." proclaimed Jahv. "Or was it FelgerCon 7 on Relcos 35? It's a pretty big star system."

Niklas looked at Keyro. "What the heck is he talking about?"

Keyro shrugged. "Don't ask me. He tended to go ashore more often than I did anyway, back when we were traveling with our parents."

"Of course," said Jahv, continuing as if Niklas and Keyro hadn't even spoken at all, "that was probably because FelgerCon didn't have a dress code. Good thing, too, since I wasn't wearing anything!"

Jahv started to giggle at his own bad jokes, with intermittent native static coming through. This, however, was abruptly followed by a belch of truly staggering proportions. Niklas and Keyro weren't certain which was worse, the force of the blast, its unbelievable volume, or its staggering stench.

Niklas covered his face. "My God, what was that?!"

Keyro was blinking his eyes. "Smelled a lot like the last meal our parents fixed us. Only people I knew could ruin a meal out of a replicator."

"But — that would've been months ago!" said Niklas.

"Yeah, I know." replied Keyro.

The gaseous explosion had not gone unnoticed in the rest of the room. It had darn near drowned out the music. Somebody from across the room bellowed, "Hey, what the hell just died horribly over there!?"

"We need to get him out of here — right now." said Keyro.

"No argument there." said Niklas. Everybody within earshot, which was a good third of the room, was staring at them. Davy and Keith had already come over to help, and Martin was close behind. Niklas couldn't see Morik or Arion and right now he didn't care.

Niklas and Davy dragged the yammering alien out of the main room and carted him into a nearby — and thankfully unoccupied — restroom, not really knowing what else to do. They were followed quickly by Keyro. Martin and Keith stood guard outside, explaining to a few people that one of their friends was violently ill and they really didn't want to go in there. Somehow they'd managed to escape the detection of any adults so far. Either that or the adults didn't want anything to do with this, or assumed the matter was in hand or that Jahv had been removed entirely. Whatever the case, it worked to the boys' advantage.