Tick.

  Tock.

  Tick.

  Tock.

  Tick.

  Tock.

  Emmaline looked up at the rooster clock and felt an urge to shoot it. Only she didn’t have a gun, or anything else to knock it down with. So she just glared at the clock as the second hand slowly ticked its way around the bold black numbers on the white clock face. It had made a full revolution before Mom finally spoke.

  “Are you hungry, sweetie? I’ll make some breakfast.”

  Emmaline blinked at her mom at the very ordinary comment, and it took her a minute to find her voice to give a response. “I already had some breakfast, and it’s lunchtime now anyway.”

  She refrained from saying what she had for breakfast. The ice cream hadn’t sat well on her stomach, and she felt a little sick, but Emmaline refused to say a word about it, or admit that maybe eating her part of a half gallon at one sitting was probably not the wisest choice. Though, it could be she was feeling ill because of the worry eating away at her for her dad and Michael.

  Mom looked a little sick too. Her face was pale and eyes were full of concern as she stared at the kitchen counter. She seemed to look through it rather than at it, lost in thoughts that Emmaline couldn’t begin to guess.

  “Mom?” Emmaline tried, her voice cracking slightly. “Where do you think they are? What do you think Michael is doing?”

  Her mother’s eyes snapped back into focus, and she smiled thinly. “Your father and brother are going to be fine, Em.”

  The words sounded hollow, and Emmaline knew her mother didn’t believe what she’d said either, but it was something to fill the silence and a not so good attempt too settle the gnawing worry.

  “You want some eggs?” Mom said to change the subject back to something more normal.

  “No, I’m not really hungry right now,” Emmaline said.

  Her mom just nodded as she kept her gaze fixed on the dark green marble countertop of the kitchen island. It seemed like an anchor to keep her from falling apart again. Emmaline frowned down at the counter herself to see a large drop of minty green liquid with two smaller ones almost right beside it. Had it been her or Michael who had done that when they’d been eating ice cream? She wasn’t sure. All she knew for certain was she wished her brother hadn’t left.

  He said he’d gone to right a wrong. Whatever that meant. She immediately shifted her thoughts over to the revelations their mother had made to them. Emmaline had some suspicions of what her brother had meant by that, but she was afraid to say them out loud or even to think about it too much. Surely, Michael was just going to get Dad to bring him back home, and then everything would be alright again. This nightmare day would finally come to an end.

  The blasting sound of a train horn nearly jolted Emmaline right from her barstool as she heard the extra-loud tone of her phone telling her she’d just received a text. It was quickly followed by two more blaring train horns. Her mom looked up just as startled.

  “What was that?”

  Emmaline cringed as she realized she’d turned the volume all the way up on her phone, and now her best friend, who had been silent all morning, was now assaulting her phone with an influx of texts. Helen was the one Emmaline had assigned the train sound to because her friend tended to go on and on like an endless train at a railroad crossing when she got talking. Em quickly jumped the rest of the way off the stool and dashed for the living room where she’d left her phone charging.

  “My phone. Helen is texting. I turned it up earlier. Sorry, I’ll turn it back down.” Emmaline said as she picked up the pink rectangular device that was loudly declaring a fourth sent message. She quickly turned the volume down to a normal setting before it could ring again. Just in time, because message number five was coming in.

  Crap on a cracker! What was Helen going on about?

  Em pulled up the messages and read them quickly, where she found a line of green alien faces and many exclamation marks that followed. Then a plethora of other emoji’s and short hand texts declaring Helen’s excitement for the news about the alien ship, and how it had completely derailed Mrs. Bowman’s lesson plan because everyone who had shown up to class refused to put their phones away as they watched the news feeds. The last text that had come in read, where r u?

  Home. Emmaline texted back.

  Lucky u. Helen replied.

  Emmaline huffed at that. She didn’t feel the least bit lucky at all. In fact, for the first time ever, she wished she were in school. She would much rather be there and in the dark about what was really going on, or even better yet, Emmaline wished she was just a clueless teenage human sitting in Mrs. Bowman’s class instead of learning she was something else.

  Can I call?

  She blinked at the text. As a rule, cell phones weren’t allowed to be used for calls during school hours unless it was an emergency. Though maybe today things were more lax with everything going on?

  Sure.

  Emmaline stared at the phone, not really seeing it for a moment as she wondered what to say to her friend. How would she even start the conversation? Guess what? I’m not really a human. Did you know my parents are from another galaxy? Would Helen even believe her? Whether or not she would, Emmaline felt a sudden urge to talk to someone about her crazy morning. Maybe that would help things not feel so upside down.

  “Don’t tell anyone what we talked about today.”

  Emmaline looked up to see that her mother had come into the living room. She was standing at the foot of the stairs with a hand on the rail to go upstairs.

  “But she’s my best friend.” Even Emmaline heard the whine in her voice.

  “I know, but this needs to stay under wraps for now.”

  “Everyone’s going to know, Mom,” Emmaline insisted as the phone started to ring.

  Her mother shook her head. “No one knows the ship is connected to us, and they won’t unless we say something. So not a word.” The tone in Mom’s voice had a sharp warning in it that Emmaline knew to take seriously.

  Great! So now the normal mom was coming back just when Emmaline was about to spill the beans to her friend. Not. Even. Fair.

  Mom gave one last warning look before she made her way back to her bedroom. Emmaline pressed the green talk button and answered. “Hey.”

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  “Em! Oh my God, have you been watching the news?” Helen’s voice tumbled through the phone, breathless with excitement. “It’s everywhere! An actual alien spaceship! Like, not even a joke!”

  Emmaline swallowed hard, her throat suddenly dry. “Yeah, I saw.”

  “You don’t sound very excited,” Helen said, her tone shifting. “This is literally the biggest thing to ever happen in the history of, like, ever! Mrs. Bowman completely gave up on teaching. We’re just watching the news feeds now. They’ve got all these experts talking, but nobody knows anything for sure.”

  “Yeah, I mean, it’s cool,” Emmaline managed, trying to sound normal. “But it’s kinda scary too, don’t you think?”

  “Scary? Are you kidding? It’s amazing! Cassidy thinks they’ll land soon. Her dad works for NASA or something, and she says they’re already preparing for first contact protocols.”

  Emmaline’s stomach twisted. If Helen only knew that first contact had already happened twenty years ago, with her own mother and father. And that Michael was—

  “Em? You still there?”

  “Yeah, sorry. Just... thinking.”

  “About what? Oh! Is your dad freaking out? I bet he’s glued to the news. My mom keeps texting me every five minutes like I’m going to miss something at school.”

  Emmaline bit her lip hard. “Dad’s… not home right now.” The words felt like lead in her gut.

  “Wait, he’s not?” Helen sounded shocked. “Where is he? I mean, with aliens showing up and everything, I figured everyone would be rushing home.”

  Emmaline’s mind raced. What could she say that wasn’t a lie, but also didn’t reveal what her mom had just forbidden her from sharing?

  “He had to go somewhere. Work stuff,” she mumbled, knowing how lame it sounded.

  “Work stuff? Today of all days? That’s harsh.”

  “Yeah.” Emmaline picked at a loose thread on her jean skirt. “Michael’s gone too.”

  “Seriously? Where did he go?”

  Emmaline’s throat tightened. “To find Dad.”

  There was a pause at the other end of the line. “Em, are you okay? You sound weird.”

  “I’m fine,” she lied, blinking back sudden tears. The weight of everything—her father leaving, Michael going after him, her mother falling apart, and now this impossible secret she had to keep—suddenly felt crushing. “It’s just been a weird morning.”

  “I’ll bet. With the aliens and everything.” Helen paused, and Emmaline could hear the classroom buzz in the background. “Wait, I have a crazy idea! What if I came over after school? My mom would totally let me. We could watch the news together and, like, witness history happening!”

  Emmaline’s heart skipped. Having Helen over would be both wonderful and terrifying. What if her mom started crying again? What if the aliens—the Ethians—came looking for them here at the house? What if Michael came back while Helen was there?

  “I… I don’t think today’s good,” she said reluctantly. “My mom’s not feeling great.”

  “Oh.” Helen sounded disappointed.

  “And I’m not feeling great either. Too much ice cream for breakfast.”

  “Ice cream for breakfast? Your mom let you do that?” Helen sounded both impressed and envious.

  “Not exactly.” Emmaline glanced toward the stairs where her mother had disappeared. “It was kind of a help-yourself morning.”

  “Lucky. My mom would––” Helen’s voice suddenly dropped to a whisper. “Sorry, Mrs. Bowman’s coming over. I gotta go. Text me later?”

  “Yeah, sure,” Emmaline replied, relieved to end the conversation. Keeping secrets from her best friend was harder than she’d expected.

  “Kay, bye!” Helen hung up before Emmaline could respond.

  The silence after the call felt oppressive. Emmaline got up from the couch and stood in the middle of the living room, phone clutched in her hand, feeling more alone than ever. The house seemed too quiet now, hollow without her father’s reassuring presence or Michael’s teasing comments.

  She wandered to the front window and peered through the blinds. The street looked normal—impossibly, ridiculously normal. Mrs. Peterson was walking her corgi. The Hendersons’ sprinklers were running despite the news of actual aliens hovering above Earth. How was everyone just... going about their day?

  Her phone dinged to show Brad had texted, wondering where she was and if she’s seen the news. Emmaline sighed heavily and threw the phone onto the couch. She really didn’t feel like talking to anyone right now.

  The dull thud of the phone hitting the cushion wasn’t satisfying enough. Emmaline wanted to scream, to throw something that would shatter, to make some kind of noise that matched the chaos inside her. Instead, she pressed her forehead against the cool window glass and watched the perfectly ordinary world continue without a clue.

  Maybe she should text Brad back. Tell him she was fine, just staying home because of a stomachache. It wasn’t even a lie. But the thought of maintaining small talk about the alien ship when she knew what she knew made her feel even sicker.

  Her phone dinged again. And again. The world was waking up to the news, and everyone wanted to talk about it. Everyone except the people who actually knew the truth of what was happening.

  A sudden crash from upstairs made Emmaline jump. She turned toward the staircase, heart pounding.

  “Mom?” she called out, already moving toward the stairs. “You okay?”

  No answer.

  Emmaline took the steps two at a time, her mind racing through terrible possibilities. Had her mother collapsed? Was she having some kind of breakdown? Or worse—had someone come for them already?

  She found her mother in the master bedroom, kneeling beside an open suitcase. Clothes were strewn across the bed, and a broken picture frame lay on the floor—the source of the crash. It was their family photo from last summer’s camping trip, the glass now spider-webbed with cracks.

  “Mom?” Emmaline said softly.

  Her mother looked up, eyes red-rimmed, but clearer than they’d been all morning. “We need to be ready to leave,” she said, her voice steady despite the tremor in her hands. “Pack only what you absolutely need.”

  Emmaline stared at the suitcase, at the clothes being thrown haphazardly inside. “Leave? What are you talking about? Where would we even go?”

  “There’s a place,” her mother said, not meeting Emmaline’s eyes. “A safe house your father and I prepared years ago. Just in case.”

  “Just in case aliens showed up?” Emmaline couldn’t keep the sarcasm from her voice.

  Her mother paused, a folded sweater clutched to her chest. “Just in case we were ever found.”

  “But what about Dad? What about Michael? If we leave, how will they find us?”

  Her mother’s hands stilled for a moment. “Your father knew this might happen. We have protocols.”

  “Protocols?” Emmaline repeated, attempting to take in that word fully and all it meant. It meant plans. It meant being ready. It meant having secret conversations about the possibility of being hunted by the aliens.

  Em’s jaw tightened as she realized her mistake. Somewhere along the way of all the revelations, she understood logically that the people in the black ship weren’t aliens, at least not to her. They were Ethians. And she was one too. She was the alien on this planet. She was the one that didn’t belong. And that thought made her feel ill.

  Nope, it was better to stick with aliens. If the Ethians were aliens, then she could still claim to be Earth’s daughter and not someone who belonged elsewhere entirely.

  “Places we could go if things went badly. Either our people tracking us to this planet or those on Earth realizing the truth of our origins and it not going well.” Her mother zipped a side pocket on the suitcase with more force than necessary. “Go pack, Emmaline. Just essentials.”

  “This is insane.” Emmaline crossed her arms, suddenly angry. “You can’t just tell me we’re aliens and then expect me to run away from my whole life like this! How long will we be gone?”

  “I don’t know, Honey. As long as it takes to make sure they don’t come for you and me.”

  Emmaline felt her chest tighten. “Come for us? You mean—like take us back?”

  Her mother’s face hardened. “Or worse.”

  “Worse?” Emmaline’s voice rose. “What does that mean? You can’t just drop something like that and not explain!”

  Her mother stopped packing and sat heavily on the edge of the bed. For a moment, she looked older than Emmaline had ever seen her—exhausted and afraid.

  “Emmaline, your father and I, we took the Emperor’s son from him. Yes, Michael’s mine son too, but legally, I had no right to just run off with him like I did. I mean, I did it because I didn’t think there was any other way to protect your brother, but according to Ethian law, I am in the wrong. And I know Ghar––Michael’s birth father. He won’t be forgiving of what your father and I did. ”

  “Oh,” was all that Emmaline could say as fear gripped her insides. This was just fucking great. Not only was her life as she knew it over, and one or both her father and brother were gone––probably forever, now an angry Emperor was out to get them. Could this day get any worse?

  Her mother’s face took on a look of regret, like maybe she shouldn’t have said what she said. She then reached out her arms and Emmaline ran into them. All of it was just too much. It was more than she could take, and all her frustration and anger spilled out in an anguished sob. Her body shook as she wept.

  “I’m so sorry, sweetie,” her mother soothed Emmaline as she gently rocked her from side to side. “I never wanted to burden you with this. This is why we didn’t say anything to any of you or Michael, or even Eric. This shouldn’t be your burden to carry.”

  Emmaline allowed herself to be emptied of all the turbulent emotions that had settled onto her in the last few hours. After she had no more tears to cry, she stepped back and wiped the wetness from her face. Her mother gave Em a warm smile through her own streaming tears.

  “I’ll go pack,” Emmaline said.

  Without uttering another word of objection, she spun around and quickly exited to throw as much of her life as she could into a suitcase. This truly had become the worst day in the history of Emmaline.