This book is part of a series, so you'll want to make sure you read them in order.

The Breeding Ground Series:

Breeding Ground

Alien Territory

Expanding Empire

CHAPTER ONE

Lenora Gates woke to the sound of her phone ringing. She winced when she realized it was the unholy hour of four a.m. Thanks to her latest book obsession, Pride and Prejudice, she hadn’t gotten to sleep until sometime after two.

She didn’t even have to look at the caller ID. She knew it would be Rachel because Rachel was her only friend. They’d been BFFs since they were little, but lately Lenora had started to feel like they had nothing in common.

Not wanting to give up, Lenora had tried countless times to cultivate some common interests. But none of her efforts seemed to be working. Her failure might have had something to do with the fact that according to Rachel, reading wasn’t cool, at least not for teenagers. She loved her friend. She just didn’t know how to act around her anymore. It was like at some point they’d just drifted apart.

The phone rang again, forcing her back to the present. Lenora grabbed it, and swiped to answer. She immediately pressed the speaker button and set the phone on the pillow next to her.

“If I crash my car on the way to school it’s your fault for robbing me of much needed sleep,” Lenora joked.

She could usually count on Rachel for a laugh. So, when she didn’t hear anything, she knew something was up. That meant it was time to pay attention. Lenora had become an expert at “supportive listening” as her mother called it. Too bad no one ever seemed to listen to her.

Rachel didn’t acknowledge that Lenora had spoken. She didn’t laugh at her wittiness. Instead, she bypassed speech altogether and launched straight into crying.

“What’s wrong?” Lenora asked hurriedly.

She fidgeted while she waited for Rachel to speak. She ran a hand through her long dark brown hair, cringing when she encountered a large rat’s nest in the back. As she didn’t feel like pulling back the blankets and hunting down a brush, she gave up on her feeble attempts to finger-comb her hair.

Instead, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, eyes that were so dark it was hard to see where the iris ended and the pupil began. As the seconds ticked on, she tried to remember how long it had been since she’d last played hooky. It was going to be a long miserable day with no sleep. Would her parents believe her if she claimed to be sick?

Poor Rachel never got to skip because her mother taught biology at the high school they both attended. Lenora’s parents were also scientists, but fortunately they worked at the college level so they couldn’t track her every move. Lenora focused her attention back on her friend, who’s crying had now turned into a full-on sob fest.

“My mom is going to kill me,” Rachel moaned hoarsely.

“Your mom only likes to kill helpless creatures like frogs and butterflies,” she teased.

Once again Lenora’s joke was met with silence. Whatever this was, it seemed bigger than Rachel’s usual panic attacks about not getting new shoes or the cafeteria being sold out of chocolate muffins.

“Seriously, what’s going on?” she asked nervously.

“Promise you won’t tell anyone,” Rachel insisted.

“I promise,” Lenora agreed. Exactly who did Rachel think she’d spill the beans to? She had no other friends.

“I’m pregnant,” Rachel whispered. There was a long pause as Lenora sat still, desperately hoping she’d somehow heard wrong. “Did you hear me? I said I’m pregnant!”

“I’m here. Just processing,” Lenora shot back.

She was stunned. She had no idea what to say in a situation like this. Had she missed school the day they’d prepared students for grown-up drama like this? Perhaps they’d had a special talk in the auditorium about what to say when your best friend screws up her life. She knew she had to say something, anything. Ultimately, she decided that a vague question would be the safest course of action.  

“What are you going to do?”

Lenora held her breath, hoping she hadn’t said the wrong thing. Deep down she’d wanted to ask Rachel if she’d forgotten to use a condom. Instead, she kept her negative thoughts where they belonged, locked silently inside her brain. Lenora had learned early on to censor her random and sarcastic thoughts.

Rachel was talking so fast that she was having a hard time keeping up, but she did her best to be supportive. Given the early hour and her lack of sleep this wasn’t easy. When she began to drift off, she pinched herself hard on the arm to force herself awake. She was determined to be there for her friend even if it required a heavy dose of caffeine later.

Lenora realized Rachel had paused and that meant she needed some sort of answer.

“Uh huh,” she mumbled, hoping that her generic response made sense.

“Great. Thanks for letting me crash at your house this weekend,” Rachel replied.

“Of course. Just gotta ask the parents for a pink plus affirmative sign,” Lenora said. Her pregnancy test wisecrack wasn’t appreciated. 

“I can’t believe you’re joking about this, Lenora! Seriously! I have to go before my mom wakes up.”

Lenora tried to apologize, but the phone beeped, letting her know that her friend had hung up on her. For a while she just sat there, cradling the phone in her hand. Why, out of all her friends, had Rachel chosen to share this secret with her? She couldn’t help but feel a little honored.

Turning her head to her dresser, Lenora stared at a framed picture of her and Rachel smiling together. Rachel was popular, likely thanks to her outgoing personality, her spontaneous nature, and the fact that she was a cheerleader. With her blond hair, blue eyes, and perfect smile she’d never struggled in the boyfriend department.

Lenora wasn’t gregarious or popular. She was the quintessential loner. Because she didn’t like being the center of attention, she’d never really envied Rachel. She had been content to live in her shadow. Many times she’d considered how much easier her life would be if she could just act more like her friend, but it simply wasn’t in her nature.

She was overwhelmed with sadness for Rachel. One mistake and she’d become another teen pregnancy statistic. No matter what decision Rachel made, her life would be irrevocably altered. She tried to force her brain to think about anything else, but she’d learned long ago that her thoughts had a mind of their own.

She frowned at the ceiling and gave in to her wandering imagination. She grabbed a pillow from the bed and shoved it beneath her shirt. She adjusted the cushion so that it lay right on top of her stomach. For a moment she stared down at her giant fake pregnant belly. 

“This is crazy,” she muttered. The added fullness from the padding distorted her figure to the point where it didn’t even look like her body anymore.

How could Rachel have done this to herself? Lenora wondered. Very quickly she realized that she had no room to judge Rachel. After all, she’d never been faced with the same temptation. Boys weren’t exactly beating down her door. In order for her to risk pregnancy, a boy would have to first ask her out on a date.

It was hard to imagine doing something so irresponsible, but who knew how’d she’d respond if a boy ever paid that much attention to her? With a few seductive words and some thoughtful gifts, she might have found herself in exactly the same predicament as her friend. She yanked the pillow out from under her shirt and tossed it carelessly to the ground.

Who was the father? Rachel was always dating someone new, so it was hard to keep up. Lenora’s mother called her friend “boy crazy” and she wasn’t wrong. Whoever the guy was, Lenora was reasonably certain that the mystery baby daddy would be revealed at lunch.

She was sure she’d feel exhausted later, but there was no way she could possibly fall back asleep. Her mind was wide awake, and she felt supercharged, as if all the neurons in her brain were firing at once. Her mind was a mass of unanswered questions. Would Rachel want to keep the baby? Would she give the child up for adoption? What would people at school say? What would her mother do to her? Would her friend lose her popular cheerleader status?

Poor Rachel. It was as if her life had ended before it had really begun. And what really upset her was that she still couldn’t think of a single thing that she could do to help her friend. In the end, all she could do was offer her total support. Whatever Rachel decided she would stand by her. No judgment. Just loyalty and encouragement.

In her hour of need, Rachel had chosen to call her out of all her friends. That was the thought that her mind kept circling back to like a spinning record. Could this hardship be their new interest to bond over?

Part of her wanted to ask her mom for advice, but that wasn’t possible. This was Rachel’s secret, and she couldn’t break her trust. No, she would have to think of a way to help her friend all on her own. Lenora decided to name her task “Operation: Save Our Friendship.”

 

 ***

 

She lazed about in bed reading until her alarm went off at 6:30. Then she showered and went through her normal morning routines of getting ready. By 7:15 she was dressed and sitting at the table for breakfast. She wasn’t a coffee drinker, but she found herself staring at the coffee pot with longing. Too bad such an action would have been suspiciously out of character.

She wasn’t a good liar, so her plan was to not speak unless absolutely necessary. Then she wouldn’t have to risk spilling Rachel’s secret. Letting go of her dreams of caffeine, Lenora focused on her homework. She was reading a collection of poems by Emily Dickinson, but her heart just wasn’t in it. She really should have completed her required reading the night before, but Mr. Darcy had been too much of a temptation to resist.

Her parents were pretty laid back for the most part. However, they were adamant about family mealtimes. That meant breakfast and dinner. When her mom slid a cup in front of her, she couldn’t help but wince a little. If there was PTSD for failed food experiments, she had it.

Mary Gates was a health nut. Because of this, her culinary creations were pretty hit or miss. This morning’s fare seemed to feature some sort of unnaturally blue smoothie. Given her mother’s vehement rejection of food additives and dyes, Lenora couldn’t help but wonder how she’d managed to achieve that particular hue. 

One didn’t get to use the word azure very often, but that was the only way Lenora could have possibly described the smoothie sitting before her. Her quirky brain briefly imagined telling her mother how Emily Dickinson would have described the drink. 

 

It lay limply, at the base,

 

Swirling, whirling, and blended,

 

Never flying, not again,

 

Dead exotic blue butterfly . . .

 

Lenora lost interest in her attempt at poetry and her thoughts reverted to prose instead.

 

It looked as though the poor butterfly had thrown up and died in the blender, valiantly sacrificing its life for what was sure to be a very blah tasting breakfast.

 

She was smart enough not to recite her poem or her prose aloud to her mom. She quickly dismissed the notion of jotting it down, even though she was fairly certain she might be able to get some extra credit from her efforts. She doubted anyone in her class would appreciate her bad poetry.

Lenora had learned to censor herself a long time ago. Saying what she thought did one of two things, and neither of them was good. Either she offended people so strongly that they got angry and cried, or worse, she got in trouble. Over the years she’d learned that freedom of speech was overrated.

“What is this?” Lenora asked warily. Staring at the bright blue liquid, she hoped that she was wrong about the concoction containing a dead insect.

“Just drink it. It’s a new protein powder I invented,” Mary ordered.

Being the daughter of a talented biochemist wasn’t always glamorous, in fact it rarely was. Poor Lenora had been the subject of far too many of her mother’s culinary experiments. She considered refusing to drink it. Didn’t the Constitution have something in it about freedom to eat?

In the end she acquiesced. She’d learned the hard way that her mother was even more strong-willed than she was. Besides, she wanted something from her parents. That meant she needed to play the dutiful and obedient daughter . . . at least until they said yes.

Lenora took a sip and was relieved when the concoction didn’t taste horrible. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t totally revolting either. She could detect bananas and surprisingly enough, sugar! Her mom never used sugar. This made Lenora wonder how awful the protein powder must have tasted for her mom to give in and add such an unhealthy ingredient.

She was interrupted from her train of thought when her father walked in the room and sat down at the table across from her.

“You look exhausted, doodlebug. Up all night reading again?” Henry Gates asked.

“I know my rights. I believe I’m innocent until proven guilty,” Lenora quipped.

“I’m pretty sure the last time I checked, this was a dictatorship not a democracy,” Henry said and then he leaned in to whisper into Lenora’s ear. “We both know that your mother is the one in charge. I’d be careful if I were you.”

Lenora smiled warmly at her father. They had always had a special relationship. Sometimes it seemed like he was the only person that truly understood her. She loved her mother. But she seemed to have received an extra dose of her dad’s DNA, at least when it came to her personality.

“I heard that,” Mary said, not missing a beat. She poured Henry a glass of blue smoothie.

“Drink up or die,” Lenora joked.

Surprisingly, her father didn’t join in with his booming laugh like usual. Instead, he just sat there staring at the contents of his smoothie. She could have sworn there was a small tear forming in the corner of her father’s eye. She was used to upsetting people with her comments, but not her father.

“Sorry, Dad, I didn’t mean . . .”

“What? No. Sorry doodlebug, that was hilarious. I’m just feeling a little emotional because you’re right. I think your mother’s awful smoothie might actually kill me.”

As if on cue, Lenora’s mother changed the subject. “Your father is right. You do look tired.”

“I blame Mr. Darcy. If Jane Austen hadn’t made him so irresistible, I’d get a lot more sleep.”

Henry jumped up out of his seat. He pulled his wife in close for a kiss, but not before uttering, “Miss Bennet.”

“Oh, Mr. Darcy!” Mary squealed before she kissed him smack on the lips.

“Seriously! Please don’t ruin Pride and Prejudice for me,” Lenora pleaded. 

“Darling, Mr. Darcy is not the sort of man who can be owned by any one generation. He is timeless, and he’s far too much man for any one woman. Why, even your grandmother . . .”

“Gross,” Lenora hurried to cut her mother off. “Listen, I’m thrilled that you are both still in love. But not all of us are so lucky.” She sighed dramatically.

“There are plenty of cute boys at school,” Mary interjected.

“But none of them are Darcy,” Lenora replied.

“Ignore your mother. I fully support you waiting for a fictional character to whisk you away. At least until you’re in your forties.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Dad,” Lenora retorted.

“Hurry, or you’re going to be late,” urged Mary.

Lenora held her nose and downed the rest of her smoothie. She shoved her poetry book into her bag and zipped it shut.

“Oh, before I forget, can Rachel crash here this weekend?”

Henry glanced at Mary for a brief moment and then looked back at Lenora.

“I’m afraid that isn’t going to work, doodlebug.”

“Huh?” Lenora was confused. She’d been expecting an easy yes. This wasn’t exactly a big deal. Rachel slept over all the time.

“We need your help at the lab this weekend. Remember?” asked Mary.

Lenora vaguely remembered them asking her a few days prior.

“Sorry, I forgot all about that. But can’t Rachel just come to the lab with us?”

“We don’t have time to talk about this right now,” her mom said dismissively.

Mary stood, rinsed out the blender, and wiped down the counters. She had an aura of “I’m-in-charge-so-don’t-even-ask-me” about her. Normally Lenora would have just let the issue drop, but her friend needed her, so she kept pushing.

“We won’t bother you. I promise,” Lenora begged.

“Kiddo, this weekend is really important for your mom and me. You’ll understand after you see what we’ve been working on.”

Lenora couldn’t believe they were making such a big issue out of such a simple request. In the heat of the moment, she forgot to take the time to censor her words, and she just let them tumble right out.

“I don’t want to see! I don’t care about your boring science project. You can’t make me love your stupid experiments. I’m almost an adult. I should get to do what I want on the weekends. Spoiler alert, it’s not sitting around polishing test tubes!”

When Lenora saw the shocked expression on her parents’ faces, she knew she’d screwed up big time. She knew better than to let her sarcastic inner monologue out, but she’d failed to block it. She scrambled to think of an apology. But, ultimately, it didn’t matter if she had the right words, because she was too mad to say them.

“Well, Miss Almost Adult, this actual adult owns the house and therefore gets to make the rules.”

“Sweetheart,” Henry said softly, laying a hand on Mary’s arm.

Mary ignored her husband and continued to stare down her daughter. “Promise me that you’ll come to the lab right after school.”

“Whatever! I promise,” Lenora muttered stubbornly and stomped her way out the door.

She didn’t even look at her mom when she pressed a bagged lunch into her hands. She was so upset that she was afraid of crying, and she didn’t want to give her parents the satisfaction of seeing how much they’d upset her.

“I love you,” Mary called after her.

Lenora didn’t respond. She wasn’t about to return the sentiment. She was way too mad. What kind of a power trip were they on, telling her that she couldn’t have Rachel over? Didn’t they want her to have friends?

Lenora roughly shoved her lunch into her backpack and hurled it onto the rear seat. The fact that she was no doubt smashing her food was not lost on her. The way she was feeling she might just “lose” her lunch altogether. Yes. That seemed like the perfect plan. Then she could charge a bunch of junk food to her parents’ account. She smiled, envisioning how appalled her mother would be to see her chowing down on Doritos and Coke for lunch like everyone else on the planet.

Her fingernails clawed angrily into the steering wheel as she drove to school. She promised herself that when she and Mr. Darcy had children, she would never tell them no without explaining why. She would never expect them to blindly obey without reason like some second-class citizen. She would be an awesome mom, more like a friend than a dictator.

She was late, so she was lucky to find a parking space at all. Her crappy spot came complete with an extra-long walk to the entrance, which suited her just fine because she didn’t want to be there anyway. The first bell rang before she made it to the exterior door. Lenora let out a sigh of relief. Rachel wasn’t waiting for her at her locker. She’d bought herself a little more time.

“Mission accomplished,” she whispered under her breath. She hurriedly stuffed her bag into her locker and grabbed her chemistry book.

CHAPTER TWO

“You’re late,” Janice McNabby accused as Lenora hurried into science class.

“Sorry, Mrs. McNabby.”

Too bad her first class had to be with Rachel’s mom. It was going to be incredibly hard to focus on anything but Rachel’s dilemma with her mother two feet away. Lenora was afraid to even make eye contact with Janice, lest her facial expressions give something away.

Janice McNabby had big blonde hair that took over an hour, as well as half a bottle of hairspray, to achieve. She applied her makeup with a heavy hand, as if daring the world to notice that she was in her fifties. It was easy to see where Rachel got her good looks from. Lenora had no doubt that her friend would also take extreme measures to hold onto her fading beauty decades from now.

Janice was a close friend of her parents, so the odds were good that Lenora’s mom would know she’d been late for school before the day was over. She was probably texting her right now under her desk. Lenora groaned softly. She hadn’t even wanted to take this stupid class. Much to the disappointment of her genius parents, Lenora didn’t care for science.

It wasn’t that Lenora didn’t understand the principles; thanks to the double dose of genetics from her parents she was actually quite astute. Understanding biology and chemistry was a breeze for her, but it was also boring. Instead of a toy kitchen set when she was younger, her parents had built her a play lab, complete with plastic beakers and a fake Bunsen burner. She’d tried to pretend to enjoy playing with it for their sakes.

But all their enthusiasm couldn’t make up for the fact that what Lenora really loved was books, especially the classics. English was her favorite subject, even though literature went hand-in-hand with essay writing, which she abhorred. Why was the English language so inconsistent? There were just too many boring and conflicting grammar rules. 

Someone kicked her chair, alerting her to the fact that Mrs. McNabby was glaring at her.

“Are you with us, Miss Gates?”

“Ummm . . . I’m sorry, could you please repeat the question?” Lenora asked nervously.

There was no doubt about it, Janice was totally going to rat her out to her mother. From that point on, Lenora did her best to focus on school. One class was replaced by another, and the hours rushed by far too quickly. The bell rang and Lenora walked slowly back to her locker.

As she’d predicted, Rachel was there waiting for her, lunch in hand. Lenora put away her books and stoically grabbed her food.

“Let’s eat outside,” Rachel suggested.

“Okay.”

Lenora trailed slowly behind Rachel. She felt like she’d failed her friend already, and it was all her parents’ fault. She had to come up with a way to help her, to be there in her hour of need. She was silently chanting, Operation: Save Our Friendship, as she walked.

“Are you sure you’re pregnant?” Lenora whispered the last word looking around to make sure no one was nearby.

“I took three tests!” Rachel replied emphatically.

“Well, I’d say that pretty much settles it. How on earth did you have that much pee?” Rachel glared at her so Lenora returned to a more pertinent line of questioning. “Who’s the father? Was it Tom?”

“I’m not some slut who sleeps with everyone,” Rachel hissed defensively.

“Of course, you aren’t,” Lenora was quick to agree. A statistic maybe, but not a slut.

“But it’s what you were thinking!” Rachel whined.

“How long have you, I mean . . . I didn’t even know that you two were . . . ” Lenora fumbled about searching for the right words.

“Having sex? Seriously! Can’t you even say it? Not all of us are perfect virgins like you.”

Why did people always make the word virgin sound like an insult? Was it really that ridiculous that she was saving herself for someone special, someone that she had yet to meet? She took the high ground and ignored the virgin slam, because that’s what best friends were supposed to do.

“Does he know yet?”

“No. But he’d just say to get rid of it because he wore a condom, so it’s not his fault.”

“What a jerk. Condoms are only ninety-eight percent effective.”

“Tom’s definitely a jerk, but I don’t think it’s his.”

“What? Who else could it be?” Lenora asked. It didn’t seem fair that there’d been such an overreaction to her asking who the father was now, especially when she was in fact sleeping around with multiple guys.

“I can’t tell you,” Rachel replied evasively.

“Why not?”

“Because! I don’t know what I want yet. That’s why I have to come to your house this weekend. I need time to figure everything out.”

“About that, my parents . . .” Lenora started to talk.

Rachel cut her off angrily. “You told them, didn’t you? You broke your promise! I can’t believe I trusted you.”

“No! I didn’t tell them,” Lenora said defensively. Rachel’s accusations were like physical slaps. They hurt. She’d desperately wanted to hand the problem off to the grownups and be done with it. But she’d promised to keep her mouth shut, and she always kept her word.

“Sorry. I’m sorry I’m being so crazy! Of course, you kept your promise,” Rachel apologized.

“What I was trying to say is that they said you can’t sleep over.”

“What? Why not?”

“They wouldn’t even tell me. They were just like ‘Today doesn’t work. We’re too busy. Important science stuff. Blah blah blah.’ My mom was in full dictator mode.”

“No! What am I going to do now?”

Lenora couldn’t help but run through some options in her head. There were so many things she just couldn’t say, like: give the kid up for adoption, drop out and work at Wendy’s, go back in time and keep your legs closed. Really, the list was infinite.

“This whole situation sucks,” Lenora agreed. 

“Could you come to my house instead?” Rachel asked.

“I don’t know. My parents made me promise to come to the stupid lab after school,” Lenora said.

The bell rang again signaling the end of lunch, so Lenora and Rachel walked back inside. They had their next two classes together, and Rachel spent the whole time scheming. By the time they’d changed out of their P.E. clothes, Rachel had convinced Lenora to go to the movies and spend the night.

Lenora didn’t exactly have a long history of disobedience, but being a rebel felt kind of exhilarating. What was the worst they could do? Ground her? They should have just let Rachel come to the lab. Really, it was their fault for being mean.

 

***

 

“You can just borrow my clothes,” Rachel whispered, as the lights dimmed in the theater.

Lenora murmured back, “Okay.”

She and Rachel were similar in the height department, although Rachel had been blessed with a much bigger bra size. Lenora’s phone started buzzing before the previews had even finished. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and saw that it was her parents calling. Someone kicked her chair and she whispered, “Sorry,” turned off her phone, and slid it back in her pocket.

She felt a little guilty for not answering, but then it was really their fault for putting her in this impossible situation. If they’d just agreed to let Rachel spend the night, she’d have been the dutiful daughter and gone to the lab like they wanted. Lenora reassured herself that her parents would forgive her, especially once she explained how she was trying to repair her one and only friendship.

Rachel insisted that they do a double feature, so it was dark by the time they left the theater. Lenora was thankful that going to the movies had coaxed Rachel back into a good mood. She was very fun to be around when she wasn’t in drama mode.

“I wish aliens would come to earth. Then we wouldn’t ever have to go back to school,” Rachel said, twirling dramatically. “And it totally wouldn’t matter about me being pregnant anymore because the world would need my baby to help repopulate earth. I’d be like a hero.”

“Did we just watch the same movie? Did you see all the despicable things they did to the humans?” Lenora asked incredulously.

“The aliens wouldn’t be mean to me. I’m too pretty,” Rachel countered confidently.

Lenora looked up and saw Rachel vainly gazing at her reflection as they passed a set of glass doors. She shook her head but couldn’t help laughing at Rachel’s ridiculous theory. This is it. This is why we’re friends, Lenora remembered. Yes, Rachel was the quintessential drama queen. But she was so much fun when she just relaxed and lived in the moment.

Lenora paused for a second when she saw that her shoelaces had come undone. She kneeled down to tie them, and that’s when she saw him . . . the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen.

His hair was raven black, and she loved the way his bangs fell across his eyes. He was tall, and there was an aura of mystery about him which was enhanced by his stylish black and white striped jacket.

In a daze, Lenora took a step forward and almost tripped. She’d read so many books, but she’d always assumed that they were exaggerating the whole mesmerizing-attraction-thing. It was as if some invisible force was drawing her toward him. He might as well have been reeling her in like a fish on a line.

The mysterious stranger glanced over in her direction and their eyes caught. At that moment, Lenora thought she’d happily drown in the depths of his rich blue eyes. She didn’t realize she was walking towards him until Rachel tugged on her arm. Her friend might as well have dropped a bucket of ice water on her. She had effectively killed the moment.

“The car is this way,” Rachel muttered before launching full speed back into her alien-baby-mama scenario.

Lenora’s cheeks blazed fire engine red, and she abruptly turned her face away from the hot stranger. Fortunately, the fact that it was dark outside would help hide the tell-tale blush staining her cheeks. When she glanced back, he was gone, but she was too embarrassed to be truly disappointed. It wasn’t like she’d have known what to say to him anyway.

Rachel talked nonstop on the drive back to her house. They were both in Rachel’s car, because they’d left Lenora’s back at the school. When Lenora turned on her phone, she saw that her parents had tried to reach her several more times.

“I think I should call my parents back,” Lenora murmured, starting to feel the guilt setting in. She wasn’t full-on “repentance level” guilty, but she was willing to give lip service to the “sorry level” of guilty.

“But they’ll totally make you go home!” Rachel whined.

“I know! But they called like a dozen times. It might be important.”

She pressed on her mother’s contact and the phone went straight to voicemail. She tried her dad and the same thing happened.

“That’s odd, why would they both turn off their phones?”

“Uh, Lenora?” Rachel interrupted.

“What?” Lenora asked. She glanced up from her phone and followed Rachel’s gaze. Janice McNabby was standing outside on the front porch of Rachel’s house talking with two police officers. Rachel threw the car in park and went into full-on meltdown mode. 

“My mom called the cops on me! Can she even do that? How did she even find out I was pregnant? Did she go through my trash?” panicked Rachel.

“Your mom didn’t call the cops on you,” Lenora said.

Lenora opened the car door and climbed out. When Janice saw Lenora, she paled and whispered something to one of the officers. The officer turned, and when his eyes lit upon Lenora, he looked grim. Something was very wrong with the whole situation.

Part of her, the coward that resides deep inside everyone, wanted to turn and run. But curiosity proved to be the stronger force. She slowly shuffled over to where the adults were clustered on the porch.

“Lenora, honey, what are you doing here?” Janice asked nervously.

“She’s spending the night. What’s the big deal?” Rachel squeaked, as her nerves made her pitch much higher than usual.

“There’s been an accident,” Janice began hesitantly. She turned a raised eyebrow to one of the officers, waiting until he nodded for her to continue. “Lenora, there was some sort of explosion at your parents’ lab.”

“We have to go to the hospital!” Lenora gasped. She started to dash towards Rachel’s car, but a hand reached out to stop her.

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” sobbed Janice, struggling to speak through her tears. “They didn’t make it. The police said there’s no way they could have survived an explosion of that magnitude.”

Lenora heard the words, but they didn’t compute. Her parents were fine. They were at the lab. She needed to be at the lab. She’d promised to go there after school. If she could just go right now, everything would be fine.

Lenora’s lungs were emptying and filling so quickly that she began to feel dizzy. The word “explosion” kept repeating in her head. Over and over, she replayed the giant explosion sequence from the alien movie she’d just seen. Her mind raced. Lab. Explosion. Aliens. Dead.

Lenora’s mind just couldn’t accept that her parents were dead. She’d been right there with them laughing and telling jokes only that morning. Again, she couldn’t get that scene from the movie out of her head. She saw the flying chunks of flesh that were meant to represent the exploded humans. No. That couldn’t have happened to her parents.

As the truth began to set in, her panic continued to escalate. This forced her labored breathing into full blown hyperventilation. Her vision began to grow fuzzy along the edges. She was so out of it that she didn’t even realize she was screaming at the top of her lungs. Soon enough the lack of oxygen won over and she lurched forward and passed out.