ASCENDANT

School being school, meaning dull and boring, I shifted my thoughts inward. Summer vacation begins tomorrow and I looked forward to summer soccer camp. And Megan. My long distance best friend and fellow athlete. My parents made a big thing of the trip to camp, beginning with traveling along the west coast of California then ending in Big Sur where the soccer camp was located.

Summer wouldn't be summer without that trip despite the fact that by the end of it, none of us would be speaking to each other. The ride home was always quieter than the way there.

Having brothers combined both an annoyance and pleasure. With me leaning toward annoyance most days. I suppose I could rant about being the only girl in the family but really, I didn't care. I held my own in all things including flag football and kickboxing.

Having grown up with brothers made me strong and agile. I developed a thick skin over which the normal girly emotions were buried deep within. There were times I doubted I had any emotions at all, rolling with the punches of life without care.

Cole, my twin, was the exact opposite. It was like our souls had been transposed in each other's bodies in the womb. I had a more masculine mindset. His was more feminine. Cole cried easily over any infraction, intentional or not.

Our Dad despaired of ever getting him to man up. Cole was too sensitive for his own good, receiving more than his fair share of negative attention from our brothers and bullies alike.

I once defended Cole and it crushed him. He refused to speak to me for three weeks. I couldn't figure out why until I finally confronted him. When he revealed I was the source of his silence, I apologized and promised to never step in for him again. Only in the case of imminent death. This I vowed on my knees until Cole told me to stop being so dramatic.

I had arched my eyebrow over that comment. "I'm dramatic?" I exclaimed.

He arched his own eyebrow and replied, "Quite logically so, Alex." Thereupon led us to launch into quoting from all the Star Trek franchises. It was our way of patching things up.

To be fair, Cole will fight when he has to. He preferred to use other methods than fists. He had a natural ability as a peacemaker. Sometimes his peace overtures worked but not in the case of this particular bully. Fists were the only thing Kyle Harding understood.

Rebuffed to the point of exasperation, Cole finally responded with a punch so hard that Kyle immediately dropped to the floor. The fight earned Cole a warning and Kyle, Saturday afternoon detention.

I was so proud of him, I almost hugged Cole right there in the hallway but stopped myself in time. Instead, I kicked Kyle in the leg and told him, "See what you get for messing with a Zimmerman?" Luckily Principal Taylor hadn't seen me or else I would have spent my Saturday locked in a room with Kyle.

Sweat dripped down my back. I fanned my face but only succeeded in moving hot air around. The sub, Ms. Greene refused to open the windows despite the fact that the A/C stopped working. We all sat at our desks panting like dogs.

I didn't even have a scrap of paper to fan myself with because after I returned all my books, I had dumped out the entire contents of my locker into the trash. Pretty sure my ID and one of my missing library books ended up in there too.

The last day of school meant sophomore year and hello sixteenth birthday for Cole and me. We weren't supposed to survive our birth let alone live to be sixteen.

Our Mom had complications throughout her pregnancy. She went into premature labor despite having been put on bed rest. We were born at two pounds so lived in an incubator for three months until we reached the ideal weight of five pounds.

Still, Cole had to be on oxygen for the first year and I didn't talk until the age of two. Dad said I'd more than made up for the silence by being a chatterbox now. The only exception to that was when I had a cell phone in my hands. I'd stay quiet for hours so long I had a fully charged battery.

I glanced at Cole. Sweat beaded on his forehead and upper lip. He caught me looking at him and mimed dying of thirst by placing his hands at his throat then collapsing with his head on his desk.

I rolled my eyes. And he called me dramatic.

My older brothers were already done with school for the summer. Lucky ducks. Ethan had just finished his first winter semester at college. Oliver graduated high school last week. They didn't have to suffer through the last day of school. Cole and I would have skipped but Dad insisted we go. He said something about sticking it out until the very end.

Oh, yeah, I was sticking all right. I stuck to my seat because of the heatwave. Thanks a lot Dad.

I scanned the room. More than half the desks were empty. I envied the students who were already celebrating summer vacation. I bet their parents didn't hassle them about finishing out the school year. Or maybe they just skipped without their parents knowing.

I was tempted to get up and walk out. What could Ms. Greene do stop me? It was the last class of the day. Twenty minutes to the bell. The sub droned on and on about her boyfriend and their spectacular vacation plans. Who cared about her trip to Italy? I didn't.

Ms. Greene attempted to appear young and hip but failed miserably. She was forty something years old. Her gray hairs mingled with the out of the box color she used wasn't fooling anyone. Well, it wasn't fooling me.

In the midst of her gushing about Italy, a wet ball of paper slid down my head and dropped onto the desk. I didn't have to turn around to find the culprit. It was Kyle. Of all the people who didn't skip it had to be him. I ignored the spit ball, pretending to be absorbed in Ms. Greene's description of her boyfriend's car.

Splat. Another spit ball bounced off my head. Then another. By the time I turned around I was covered in Kyle's disgusting spit. I got up out of my seat and stalked over to him. With one move of my hand, I slammed his head down on the desk. "Knock it off."

His head came up. Blood spurted everywhere. Trace screamed and Angela nearly fainted. God, sometimes I didn't know my own strength.

Ms. Greene acted quickly. She pointed at me. "You, office. Now." Then at Kyle. "You, go to the nurse's office."

On my way out, I happened to look out the windows. "What the hell?" The sky had grown dark, so dark the sun was blotted out. Was it a tornado? I scanned the skies for evidence of clouds but there were none. Instead I saw something that belonged in a science fiction film. "Cole, come look at this."

"I thought I told you to go to the office," Ms. Greene.

"In a minute," I said to her, "You might want come see this."

Cole was beside me in a flash. Trace appeared on my left and Angela was on Trace's left. "What are they?" Cole asked.

"They look like balloons." I craned my neck. "They're just hovering."

Finally, Ms. Greene appeared on Cole's side. "That's impossible," she said with her hand at her throat. She backed away slowly then speed walked to the phone. She lifted the receiver, babbled a bunch of words then listened quietly said, "okay," then hung up.

The things in the sky appeared to be made of plain gray rubber. Circular in shape, they floated in mid air in the middle of the sky. There were hundreds of them, enough to prevent the sun's rays from reaching Earth.

"Where did they come from?" Trace asked.

"Either military or outer space. Or an enemy faction," Cole said. "Dibs on outer space."

"What makes you say that?" I inquired.

"Do you see anything holding these floaty things up? They weren't here a second ago. Outer space seems the most plausible explanation."

"Aliens don't exist."

"I think these things prove you wrong," Cole answered. As we speak, the floaty things begin changing colors. From deep blues and purples to bright oranges and yellows and every color in between. "You see? What technology on Earth can do that?"

The door burst open, startling us. We turn around almost in unison. Soldiers came in carrying M4 Carbine rifles. "Get away from the windows!" The lead soldier ordered us.

"Why?" My mouth spoke before the thought fully manifested in my mind.

As one unit, the soldiers lifted their weapons and aimed them at us. Trace screamed and Angela fainted. "Sit down. Now!"

In shock, Trace and I helped Angela to the nearest seat. Trace sat next to her. Then me. Then Cole. The four of us were the only ones left in the classroom so we sat in the front row facing a much too frazzled Ms. Greene.

"Eyes front. Hands on desks." The Lieutenant in charge walked over to the windows and closed the blinds making an already stifling room an inferno.

"What's going on?" I couldn't help it. I had to know why they were here. What those balloon things were. Most of all, why were we being held like we were prisoners?"

"No talking."

I was about to argue when I caught Cole shaking his head. "Be quiet," he whispered.

For once, I listened to his gut instinct. Nothing about this was right. Plus, they had automatic rifles. Not a wise thing to do under any circumstances.

"Best do what they say," Ms. Greene said. "Until we know what's going on, we're under their protection."

I couldn't risk a comeback to that. "Protection? They have guns on us."

"That's so. They are children."

The Lieutenant nodded at his soldiers. "At ease," he said. With the rifles lowered at their sides, I let out the tiniest bit of breath of relief.

Still, they continued to stand at attention as if they were awaiting orders the Lieutenant didn't possess. I studied the lieutenant's collar trying to determine what branch of the military they were from. My Mom is ex military, retired now, so I was familiar with all of them.

Their uniforms were standard combat issue except for one thing, an insignia attached to their collars. Combat uniforms didn't have insignia on them, only service and dress uniforms.

The insignia was created to camouflage with the existing colors. A brown patch that had two inverted triangles with a couple of red slashes creating an elongated X across the intersecting points.

Definitely not our military.