“No! I can’t believe it! We still have six more months of school left!” Stephanie cried. She was looking at her planner in which she’d marked down the days they had left of school. By the look on her face, she was not happy about the numbers she was seeing.

“That can’t be possible,” Kelsey said, “We’ve been here for the longest time!” Kelsey leaned over to look at Steph’s planner to make sure the days were marked right. They were.

“I know, but obviously we haven’t,” Stephanie pointed at the number saying that there was still a long way to go before summer would come.

“I wish there was a way we could get out of going to this dreadfully boring place everyday,” sighed Kelsey.

“I know. Wouldn’t it be amazing if all of a sudden we could just leave and do whatever we wanted?” Stephanie was dreaming up the possibilities there were if she didn’t have to go to school.


“Definitely, of course, though, we’d probably be chased by the police or something,” laughed Kelsey. She couldn’t imagine Stephanie being chased by the police. Steph was just too straight. For goodness’s sake, she felt bad about taking an extra tootsie roll from Mrs. Mahan’s jar even though everyone else did. Yeah, Kelsey thought, Steph would never, ever be running from the police. Now me…

“That would be really fun though. If we could just walk out of school then go to the mall or somewhere more exciting than this place.” Stephanie said.

“If only we were older than fourteen, then we could drive and go on a road trip across the country. That would be amazing,” Kelsey was thinking of all the places they could go see like the big Hollywood sign in California, Elvis’s house, or maybe even Chicken, Alaska.

“We could see the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty, and the Smithsonian Museum,” Stephanie replied.

While the two girls sat at there desks in 3rd block knowing that they would never be able to go anywhere anytime soon since they lived in a small, Missouri town named Farmington, the intercom came on with the afternoon announcements.

“Good afternoon, students. These are your afternoon announcements. Tomorrow will be a late start, so remember to come two hours later to school. Also…” The announcements continued to drone on until Mrs. Shipman came on over the intercom and in a very stern voice said, “Kelsey Strickland and Stephanie Harper, come to the office right now!”

Omigosh, Stephanie thought, what could it be? Unless Kelsey… Stephanie stared at Kelsey in horror. Oh no! She did! She did something bad. I can just tell by the look on her face.

Smiling to herself, Kelsey was enjoying the look of sheer panic and disbelief on Stephanie’s face. That look is priceless! I knew that sending that “top secret” document to Mrs. Shipman was going to bring about some exciting things. Who knew that copying a little information off of AliensAreOutThere.com would get me and Steph here? If I knew that writing down a few measly “facts” about UFOs and space aliens on “official” government paper would cause us to be sent to the office, I would have done it years ago. Anyway this place is too quiet. It needs to be shaken up a little. And who better to cause some trouble but me?

Mr. Phillips cleared his throat, “Umm girls I guess you had better go down to the office.” The class was staring at Kelsey and Stephanie like they were criminals. They couldn’t believe those two would get called down to see the principal. Then again, they could.

In the hallway Stephanie started asking Kelsey what it was she did to get them called down to the office.

“All I did was sending a little piece of paper to Mrs. Shipman that said that aliens were alive and would be coming soon.”

“You did WHAT? What were you thinking?”

“Oh, I wasn’t,” Kelsey answered.

“WHAT! What do you mean you weren’t thinking? You knew we could get in trouble for having some record of aliens, but you sent it anyway!” Steph yelled. She couldn’t believe she was going to get detention or in school suspension for doing absolutely nothing. I can’t believe this! I didn’t do anything. Kelsey just wrote my name next to hers on the paper and sent it off.

“I did it on an impulse. Life here in the ninth grade was getting way too boring. I had to do something before I died of doing nothing,” Kelsey explained.

“Couldn’t you have just, oh I don’t know, dyed your hair pink or something just as vivacious? I mean did you really have to involve me in this whole event?” Stephanie asked while holding the door open to the office. Before Kelsey could respond, Mrs. Shipman walked out.

“Hello, girls. Come in and have a seat. I would like to talk to you.” After the girls took a seat Stephanie started to say how she was really not responsible for the paper and that it wasn’t even real.

“Silence. I don’t want to hear about how you’re not responsible for this text and I definitely don’t want to hear how it isn’t real.”

“But-,” Stephanie tried to convince Mrs. Shipman she was telling the truth. Mrs. Shipman held up her hand.

“I said that I don’t want to hear another word from you. In fact, I don’t want either of you to speak. I’m going to make this short and sweet. You have detention for the next month and that’s only from me. I called the FBI and they said that they would be dealing with you two in their own way.”

Stephanie gasped. She had never had detention and she couldn’t believe that the FBI might send her to jail or something. Kelsey smiled. This just keeps getting better and better. Mrs. Shipman released the two teens after this short speech. After leaving the office, the girls were quiet. Stephanie felt like hurting Kelsey for what she’d gotten her into and Kelsey felt happy. Finally, something was going to happen in the small city of Farmington.

“Well I hope you’re happy. We’ve got detention for a whole month and the FBI is going to do something to us.”

“Relax. The FBI won’t come get us. We are only fourteen and that document isn’t even real.”

“Well, I hope your right.”
Halfway to their classroom they stopped. Overhead there were noises like someone was crawling in the ceiling. The girls didn’t have long to wonder what was up there when ropes started falling down from the ceiling. Kelsey and Stephanie looked up. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing. FBI agents were sliding down ropes from up above. Someone shouted that the two spies were in sight and that they were about to make an arrest.

“RUN!” Kelsey shouted. The pair ran towards the front of the school to escape the agents who were fumbling to free themselves from their harnesses, but when the girls got to the front entrance they were blocked by the two secretaries and the principals.

“Stop! You will not get past us, the powerful group of Kung Fu Fighting Staff!”

Then, out of nowhere, the song “Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting” started playing. When the girls looked quizzically inside the office to see who began playing the song, they saw Chris standing there with his thumb up, smiling maniacally. Strange…, thought Kelsey. Then the fight commenced.

“Hi-ya! Take that you tyrannical principal!” Stephanie cried as she swung her arms at Mrs. Shipman.

“How do you like that Mr. Crass?” Kelsey bellowed while she kicked her legs out in a complicated set of karate kicks. When there was a break in the barricade Stephanie and Kelsey ran outside to see if there was any way of transportation. As it just so happened there was. They could hear choppers nearby and followed the sound to a helicopter that was owned by the FBI. The obviously absentminded pilot left the helicopter on while he left to go see what was taking the agents so long to secure two fourteen year olds. The girls jumped in and flew away.

“How do you pilot this thing?” Stephanie asked.

“I don’t know, but it seems like your doing a pretty good job. I mean we are off the ground.”

“Yeah, but for how long will we stay up in the air? Hmm… I think we should put on some parachutes. You know. Just in case.”

“I wonder what this button does,” Kelsey pressed a red button that had a person’s seat with some lines underneath it.

“NO!” Stephanie shrieked as she and Kelsey were catapulted up into the sky.

“You pressed the EJECT button!”

“Umm. Oops? Sorry… Do you know how to work these parachutes?” Kelsey screamed at the top of her lungs.

“I think you just pull this cord thingy like in the movies. Normally once the string’s pulled the parachute deploys.”

“Yeah. Well is the string supposed to fall off?!” Kelsey yelled as she watched her lifeline float down to the earth that was quickly approaching.

“Uh. Yes? Wait. Look, there’s another little cord hanging out pull it!”

“Okay…” WHOOSH. Kelsey’s parachute popped out. Unfortunately, Stephanie was still freefalling.

“AHHHHHHHH! I can’t find the string!! I’m going to die and it’s your entire
fault!” Stephanie screeched.

“No you’re not!” a man’s voice said. Stephanie looked up to see an older man with slightly scary eyes. They were dark and looked like they had seen things people shouldn’t see. His eyes were heavy with the type of guilt that nobody should have. The man also had an Irish accent. When the mysterious guy floated down to Stephanie’s level, since of course he had a parachute, he pulled a cord that had blended in with the rest of the parachute. Suddenly. she felt herself fly up to meet Kelsey.


“Wow that was close,” Kelsey commented.

“Way too close,” Stephanie shuddered. As the pair of girls drifted down to earth they wondered who Stephanie’s lifesaver was. After landing, the girls were about to ask the man who he was and thank him, but before they could, he turned away and left.

“What’s wrong with him?” Kelsey questioned aloud.

“Who knows? Anyway, it’s not our problem. Our problem is figuring out where we are. Do you recognize this place?” Stephanie asked. Trees were surrounding them and it seemed like they were in the middle of the woods.

“No, but I guess we should keep on walking until we do recognize something. Maybe we’ll find a house out here and we can ask the owners where we are.”

Stephanie and Kelsey started walking through the dark woods. All around them they heard branches breaking, birds chirping, and bees buzzing. Suddenly, they came upon a house.

“I hope someone’s home,” Kelsey mumbled as she rang the doorbell. After a couple of minutes, an old woman and a boy answered.

“Why, hello. How are you today?” the woman asked.

“We’re fine, but we’re kind of lost,” Stephanie said.

“Oh really? Then come on in and have a fruitcake. While you’re resting, I’ll tell you where you are.”

“Thanks, but we don’t really like fruitcake and we really need to get going so if you could just tell us where we are, then we’ll be on our way,” Kelsey replied. She hated fruitcake and she didn’t like the idea of going into this stranger’s house. The old woman looked down at the boy who said something to her and then told the girls that they were on Maple Street.

“Great! Thanks. Do you know how far away that is from Lincoln Intermediate?” Kelsey asked, but before the lady could answer, a voice was heard yelling, “There they are!”

“Oh no! I can’t believe they found us!” Stephanie shrieked. Quickly the girls thanked the old woman for her help and started to run.

“Stop! Stephanie and Kelsey, give it up! There’s no way out,” someone from the FBI yelled through a megaphone. Unfortunately for the FBI, Stephanie and Kelsey didn’t listen.

“Through here, Kelsey,” Stephanie said as she led the way through some thick bushes. Once through the bushes, the girls were in a clearing. With nothing to hide behind, Kelsey and Stephanie didn’t know what to do. They could either turn themselves in or try to make a run for it and hope that they were faster than FBI agents.

“Well, what do you want to do?” asked Kelsey.

“I don’t know. Maybe we should just give up and tell the FBI that the document wasn’t real,” Stephanie replied. She was looking back towards the bushes from which they had just come through and wondering if giving up so easily was the right thing to do.

“But we already told them it wasn’t real, and they obviously don’t believe us. I think maybe we should go for it and run,” Kelsey said. Before they could make a decision, they saw someone walking through the woods. It looked like a hunter.

“Excuse me, could you help us escape from the FBI?”

The man looked at the two runaways and was puzzled. Why weren’t these two girls in school? And help them hide from the FBI? Why not? They looked harmless enough, thought he. The middle aged man led them through the forest of trees, with the FBI close behind, to his miniature camp.

“Here, you can hide in here,” the guy pointed to his tent. “My name’s Whitney. What are yours?”

“I’m Stephanie and this is Kelsey,” Stephanie gestured towards Kelsey while the two tried to get undercover in Whitney’s tiny black tent that was only made to hold one person. Once they were situated, Whitney went to sit on a log that was near a little fire that was still burning from earlier in the day when he’d made it. In his tent, the girls hid while outside they abruptly heard the agents break through the foliage and start asking Whitney questions concerning two runaways who had stolen information from a government office.

“Have you seen two girls named Stephanie and Kelsey? One has dark brown hair, blue eyes, and is about 5’4. The other girl is 5’5, has blue eyes, and dirty blond hair. It’s vital that you tell us anything you might have seen that could lead us to these girls,” a very important looking man explained hastily, not wanting to delay the search for the fugitives any longer than necessary. Very calmly, Whitney declared that he had not seen the two girls, but he had heard some running feet a couple of minutes ago heading in the northern direction. Whitney hoped that the operatives couldn’t tell that he was lying. After all, he didn’t want to get in trouble for helping to conceal the damsels in distress. He started thinking that maybe veiling the girls from sight was a bad idea.

“Thank you, sir. We sure do appreciate your help.” the male in charge expressed his gratitude.

“No problem.” Whitney replied as the agents started to leave. He let out a massive sigh of relief. I didn’t get caught! Wow! Amazing what doing something wrong can do to you. What a rush! Whitney thought even though really he did do anything that extraordinary. Following the departure of the FBI agents the girls came out of there hiding place to thank Whitney. They were very grateful that they ran into him and that he helped them.

“You were a lifesaver Whit! It’s good thing you happened to be out here. We don’t know what we would have done without you.”

“Yeah. Thanks again, Whitney!” Stephanie called out as she and Kelsey went on their way to the mall. They wanted to go to the mall since that was the only place they could think of that could help them remain inconspicuous. The schoolgirls contemplated how they were going to get to Saint Louis which was the city that had the nearest mall around. They wished it was closer than over an hour away so they could walk to it. Instead, though, they had to find a ride with a stranger. So Kelsey and Stephanie headed towards the highway, stuck out their thumbs, and waited impatiently.

After standing out near the highway for a while, the girls hitched a ride to St. Louis with an African American doctor named Dr. Ganderbai. He seemed like a calm and patient man who dealt with lots of people everyday. As his gray Saturn drove along at seventy miles per hour, he questioned Kelsey and Stephanie about why they were out of school. He wondered why two ninth graders would be heading towards St. Louis by themselves when they were supposed to be in school. Stephanie explained to him how they were running away from school and the FBI who were after them because of Kelsey.

“What did she do?” asked Dr. Ganderbai. He looked quizzically at Kelsey and Stephanie. He couldn’t believe that the FBI was chasing them. Didn’t they have more important things to tend to?

Stephanie answered, “She stupidly sent a fake document about aliens to the principal who then sent it to the FBI. She thought it was real. Can you believe that? The FBI thinks that it’s something from Area 51 or something.”

“Well that’s insane. How could the FBI be that dumb?” Dr. Ganderbai was amazed at how naïve the government was acting. They couldn’t actually believe that these girls were some spies out to expose their secrets. Could they?


“Maybe they think we’re spies.” Kelsey replied. How ironic, Ganderbai thought, that’s what I was thinking. As he drove, he passed many, many green trees and barren houses. Out there in the country there wasn’t much too see. Soon the monotony of green, green, and green became so unbearable that Dr. Ganderbai pulled over at a near gas station name Route 66. It was an old and somewhat dirty property that looked like it was about to fall down with its fading white, red, and black paint. Inside Dr. Ganderbai didn’t think that anybody was working there until he saw a large woman in the back snacking on some Twinkies and a chocolate shake while smoking a Virginia Slims cigarette. The lady looked to be about in her forties and was wearing a white shirt with a red striped apron that had coffee stains all over it.

“How may I help you?” the woman ,whose nametag read Margie, asked with a scratchy voice once she looked up and noticed Ganderbai, Stephanie, and Kelsey. The three travelers didn’t know how to respond. They were surprised that Margie was on the floor smoking and eating the groceries meant for customers instead of working.

“We’d just like to get a bag of chips and a soda, thank you. That was very attentive of you.” Ganderbai replied for he had recovered from the shock first. While he started to walk back towards the front of the gas station to the location of his favorite chips, Sun Chips, the bizarre and outlandish woman set off to her work station where she was supposed to already be. Stephanie gave Kelsey a look that said strange.

Kelsey responded by saying, “I know. The managers did a great job choosing Margie as their employee. I mean she’s responsible, efficient, she cares about her work. You would never see her slacking off. No way. I only wish that I could someday be like her then I would be envied by all at my job.” She said all of this with a look of mock sincerity. Stephanie agreed of course. People today were very careful about who they chose to govern them or work for them.

“Girls, are you ready to go?” Dr. Ganderbai had purchased his food and was ready to leave.

“Yeah. Of course. We can’t wait to get to St. Louis. Then we’ll be able to hide out hopefully. Well until 9:00 pm.” Stephanie shrugged. They walked outside waving goodbye to Margie on their way out. Back on the road, the three sat silently for the rest of the way to St. Louis. Kelsey was thankful that Whitney’s little white lie had lead the FBI on a wild goose chase. She just wondered how long it would be until the agents figured out that that’s exactly what it was, a wild goose chase.

“Here you are Stephanie and Kelsey. It was nice meeting you. I hope everything turns out okay.” Dr. Ganderbai called out as the girls exited from his car. They were at the main entrance of South County Mall near Macy’s and Borders.

“Thanks so much Dr. Ganderbai. We really appreciate all of your help. It was very kind.” Stephanie commented. Following Ganderbai’s departure, Kelsey and Stephanie walked casually into the South County Mall. They started to head towards the food court because they were really hungry since they didn’t get anything at Route 66 and they missed lunch. On their way they ran into a man with a lot of stuff weighing him down. He had wires coming out of an earpiece, bags on his shoulders, and thick glasses.

“He’s got some serious problems!” Kelsey tried to whisper to me. Unfortunately this young man had exceptional hearing despite his handicaps so he heard what Kelsey said.

“Excuse me?” the man said in disbelief that someone could so blatantly insult him while he was right there walking by. Some people, he thought, had some nerve. Thinking that they could just do something, never mind the consequences that could come to them and their friends.


“Oh, I’m sorry sir for my friend’s behavior. Sometimes she can’t control herself. She just blurts stuff out.” Stephanie muttered apologetically. She was embarrassed because Kelsey could be so insensitive. Kelsey was astonished that the man heard her. She was sorry she had said what she had so close to his hearing range, but really she didn’t think that he would have been able to hear her anyway.

“Well okay, but next time-” the man was cut off by a strong voice that ordered “Arrest them!” It was the FBI! They had found Kelsey and Stephanie!

“How did they find us? You don’t think Ganderbai turned us in do you?” squeaked Stephanie. He had seemed like such a caring man.

“No. I think Whitney did it.”

“What makes you…?” Stephanie trailed off as Kelsey pointed to the traitor looking down at them from the second story of the mall. With Whitney there were several officers watching them, making sure that the police were doing the job right. Capturing Kelsey and Stephanie! Whitney had a look of euphoria on his face. Kelsey and Stephanie couldn’t believe it! Suddenly the man standing next to them tensed, grabbed the girls’ shirts, and started pulling them with him as he began to run.

“Come on!” He shouted because Kelsey and Stephanie were in a daze. Why would he turn them in? They wondered. As the three escapees launched by dozens of stores like Forever 21, Aeropostale, Hollister, and Abercrombie