The Alien Next Door 4: Trick or Cheat?
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical
events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other
names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s
imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or
persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
An imprint of Bonnier Publishing USA
251 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010
Copyright © 2018 by Bonnier Publishing USA
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or
in part in any form.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
upon request.
ISBN 978-1-4998-0584-0 (hardcover)
First Edition 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 978-1-4998-0583-3 (paperback)
First Edition 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 978-1-4998-0585-7 (ebook)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.
Halloween’s Coming
2.
Zeke Revealed
3.
The Best Robot Ever
4.
Roxy’s Reaction
5.
Costume Day
6.
Costumes in Class
7.
Recess
8.
Sabotage!
9.
The Contest
10.
Trick or Treat!
HARRIS WALKER RUSHED NEXT
door to his friend Zeke’s house on
Sunday. Harris and Zeke had only
been home for a week following their
adventure at Beaver Scouts camp, but
already it felt like a million years ago.
Halloween was coming this week, and
that was all Harris could think about.
“Guess what?” Harris asked
excitedly when he joined Zeke in his
room. “It’s almost Halloween!”
“Hall-o-what?” Zeke asked,
repeating the unfamiliar word.
Harris smiled. He had become such
good friends with Zeke that sometimes
he forgot that his next door neighbor
was not from Earth.
“They don’t have Halloween on
Tragas?!” Harris asked.
“Correct,” said Zeke. “What is it?”
“Everyone dresses up in costumes,”
Harris explained. “For that one day,
you can be whatever you want to
be—a ghost, a monster, an animal,
an object. Anything you can imagine!
Then we all go trick-or-treating.”
“What does that mean?” Zeke asked.
“We go from house to house and get
candy,” Harris said. “And the whole
neighborhood is decorated with ghosts
and cobwebs and other spooky stuff.
Then we come home, watch scary
movies, and eat our candy. It’s the best
holiday!”
Zeke looked puzzled. “So, once
again, like when we were telling scary
stories around the campfire on our
scouting trip, we want to get scared
because it’s . . . fun?”
“Exactly!” Harris said. “Now you
get it.”
“I’m still not sure I do,” Zeke said.
“But I want to learn all I can about
Earth culture. And I do appreciate you
helping me make my way through
your strange customs.”
“Oh, and I almost forgot the best
part,” Harris continued. “Every year
at school, we have a costume contest!
All the kids and teachers dress up in
Halloween costumes, and then the
kids compete to see who has best
costume.”
“I’m not sure why people would
want to dress up in costumes,” Zeke
said. “But I do like competitions. Back
on Tragas, we had contests to see who
could levitate the heaviest load, or
who could navigate a pebble through
a bunch of moving rings.”
“That sounds really cool! Do you
know what you want your costume to
be?” Harris asked.
Zeke smiled. “Well, If I understand
you correctly about this costume
contest, I don’t think I need a costume
at all,” he said.
Harris was confused. “What do
you mean?” he asked.
“I’ll just go as myself!” Zeke
announced.
HARRIS WAS VERY CONFUSED. How
can Zeke go as himself for Halloween?
He may be an alien, but he just looks
like a normal kid.
“I’m not sure you understood what I
said about dressing up for Halloween,”
he said. “The whole point is to not
look like yourself, to dress up as
something different, or something
funny, or scary.”
Zeke smiled. “I do indeed
understand. There’s something I
haven’t told you about myself yet,”
he said.
I know that he’s an alien. I know he
comes from the planet Tragas and that
he has some pretty cool powers. But what
hasn’t he told me? Harris wondered.
“The way I look,” Zeke began. “I
mean the way I look now, like a human,
that’s not the way I really look.”
“What do you mean?” Harris asked,
more confused than ever.
“My human appearance is only a
disguise,” Zeke explained. “People from
Tragas have the ability to change our
appearance. We can make ourselves
look like the inhabitants of whatever
planet we’re currently on. This is
very useful when my parents and I
move from planet to planet for their
research. It allows us to blend in.”
Harris had to sit down. Somehow,
this was even more shocking to him
than learning that his new friend
really was an alien.
“So, if this is not what you really
look like,” he asked, “what do you
really look like?”
“I’ll show you,” said Zeke.
Zeke took a deep breath and raised
his arms above his head. His body
started to vibrate, then glow with
a faintly yellow
gleam. His skin
and features
softened into
wavy lines,
and then he
began to grow
taller and taller.
Harris looked up in amazement as
Zeke completely changed shape.
The yellow glow faded, revealing
Zeke’s purple skin. His human arms
disappeared, replaced by six tentacles
extending out from his shoulders.
His human facial features completely
vanished. His e
ars were two antennae
pointing up from the sides of his face.
His hair disappeared, revealing a bald
green head.
He had no legs, and was floating
above the ground. His five eyes all
were looking at Harris.
Harris was stunned. He couldn’t
believe that this was what his friend
really looked like!
“It’s still me, Harris,” Zeke said. His
voice was unchanged. “I’m still the
same Zeke.”
“Um, not exactly,” Harris said. Then
both boys cracked up laughing.
“You know what I mean,” said Zeke.
Harris smiled in wonder. “Hot dog!”
he suddenly exclaimed.
Zeke looked confused. “What does
any of this have to do with the beef
shaped like a log that we cooked up
at the campfire at scout camp?” he
asked.
“Hah, it’s just an Earth expression,”
Harris explained.
Zeke nodded, then quickly
transformed back into his human
form.
“Well, you obviously don’t need to
make a costume,” said Harris. “Just go
as your true self, and you’ll win easily!
I’ve never come close to winning!”
“What was your costume last year?”
Zeke asked.
“I was a superhero, but this year, I
want to be a robot,” Harris said.
Zeke thought for a moment, then
smiled.
“I have an idea,” he said. “And if it
works, you’ll have the best costume!”
THE TWO FRIENDS HEADED
downstairs to the workshop in the
basement of Zeke’s house. Large
metal tubes, electric wires, and weird-
looking circuits were spread all over
the floor and workbench.
“What’s all this?” Harris asked.
“My dad and I like to tinker with
some of the Tragas technology we
brought from home,” Zeke explained.
“I’m pretty good at building stuff.”
Zeke levitated some long metal
tubes, some flashing bulbs, and a
whole bunch of wires above their
heads. Harris watched in amazement,
and his friend got to work assembling
them in the air.
As he finished each section, Zeke
lowered the completed metal pieces
onto Harris. More and more, Harris
began to look like a robot.
The robot’s body was a square box
cut to fit tightly against Harris’s own
body, complete with blinking dials and
knobs. The arms and legs were metal
stovepipes attached to his body. For
the head, Zeke used what looked like
an old TV. He attached a small metal
rod to look like a bright antenna.
“Pretty good,” said Zeke, stepping
back and looking at his creation.
“I want to see!” Harris rushed back
up to Zeke’s room and looked into a
mirror.
“Wow!” he said. “This is amazing. I
really look like a robot!”
When Harris turned around, he
saw that Zeke had again transformed
into his true alien body.
“But I still think you’re going to win
the contest, Zeke,” he said.
Downstairs, the front doorbell rang.
Zeke’s mother called up to them: “Zeke,
Harris, your friend Roxy is here!” she
shouted.
Harris froze. “Oh, no!” Harris said.
“This is bad, this is really, really bad!”
“I don’t understand,” Zeke said.
“Usually you are happy to see Roxy.”
Harris heard footsteps bounding up
the stairs.
“There’s no time to explain, but
Roxy is going to be so mad,” Harris
said.
A few seconds later, the door swung
open. Roxy started talking before she
was even in the room.
“Harris, I called your house and
your mother said you were at Zeke’s,
so I rushed right over. I have such a
cool idea for our Halloween costumes
this year,” she said, stepping into the
room. “Wait ’til you hear this. I—”
Roxy stopped short at the sight of
Harris in his robot costume and Zeke
in his alien “costume.”
“I can’t believe you made your
costumes without me!” she cried.
ROXY GLARED AT HARRIS,
shaking her head. “Harris! We always
do our costumes together!”
“I’m really sorry, Roxy,” Harris said.
He removed his robot head. “I was just
teaching Zeke about Halloween, since
they don’t have it on Tragas. Then I
told him about the costume contest,
and he helped me with my costume,
so I—uh—helped
him with his, and
this just kind of
happened.”
I wish I could tell her about Zeke, but
I can’t. I promised.
“You know, it’s not very nice of you
to leave me out,” Roxy continued. “I’m
happy that you and Zeke have become
friends.”
“Me too,” said Zeke, turning two of
his five eyeballs toward Roxy.
“But where does that leave me?”
she asked.
“What do you mean?” Harris
asked, starting to feel a bit ridiculous
having a serious conversation while
still in his robot costume. “We’re still
friends, Roxy. Just because I’m friends
with Zeke doesn’t mean we’re not still
friends.”
“You two go to camp together, you
make your costumes together, when
you know we always do that together.”
“Yeah, but—”
But Roxy wasn’t finished.
“And don’t forget, Harris,” she
continued, “that I was the one who
was friendly to Zeke first. I had to
convince you to be friends with him.
You were too busy trying to prove that
he was an alien.”
Harris and Zeke remained silent.
She’s not really wrong about any of
this, Harris thought. Even if I was right
about Zeke!
“I’m sorry, Roxy,” Harris said. “I
really am. I didn’t think.”
Roxy walked toward the door. She
stopped, turned back, and looked at
Zeke.
“Nice alien costume, Zeke,” she said.
“You better watch out or Harris might
turn you in for being a real alien.”
Then she turned and left.
Once Roxy had gone, Zeke changed
back into his human form.
“Did I do something wrong?” he
asked Harris.
“I don’t think so,” Harris replied.
“Every year since we were little,
Roxy and I have made our costumes
together. I guess I was so stunned by
seeing what you really look like and
excited about how you could make
my costume, Roxy
never crossed
; my mind. I
never meant
to leave her
out. I just
lost track of
everything.”
“Maybe Roxy can dress up in a
costume that goes with ours,” Zeke
suggested. “Then we can all go treat-
tricking together.”
“It’s trick-or-treating, but yes, I
think that’s a good idea.”
Harris felt better, but he worried
that Roxy might not want to go trick-
or-treating with him. And he was sad
that for the first time since before he
could remember, he and Roxy didn’t
work on their costumes together.
ON WEDNESDAY, THE HALLOWEEN
costume contest finally arrived. All
the kids excitedly streamed into
school in their costumes. The halls
and classrooms were filled with
witches, goblins, vampires, zombies,
werewolves, mummies, cowboys,
pirates, princesses, ghosts, ninjas, and
animals of all types.
Harris clanked his way into school
wearing his robot costume. Zeke came
in behind him, displaying his true
alien form in public for the first time
since he arrived on Earth.
As soon as Zeke entered the school,
he could see kids pointing at him.
“It’s a little scary but actually kind
of fun to be out in public in my true
form,” Zeke whispered to Harris.
“Don’t worry,” Harris said. “Just
keep pretending that it’s a costume.
Nobody will suspect it’s real.”
“Wow! That’s the best alien costume
I’ve ever seen,” said a girl dressed like
a zombie. “How are you floating like
that?”
“Uh, there’s hover technology
built into the bottom of the costume,