Lillian Francken - We Come in Peace

Quickly he typed in the user name and then the password, but the only thing that happened was an error message. John motioned for Bobby to move over. Bobby quickly obliged. John sat down, went into the guts of the computer, and typed in a series of numbers and then clicked the enter button. Bobby watched the screen and hoped the system was not set up to lock up after a few failed attempts. To Bobby’s surprise, a large ‘Accepted’ crossed the screen.

“How did you do that?” Bobby asked.

“All computers recognize a cryptic code to bypass the security system.”

“We got to talk later,” Bobby laughed.

“Did I do something wrong?”

John pulled up Bobby’s grade history while Bobby watches over his shoulder.

“Is this what we came for?” John asked.

Bobby stared at the screen. “What are you doing?”

“You want to remain in school, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but isn’t what you are doing illegal?” Bobby asked.

“And us being here,” John asked motioning to the principal’s office, “Isn’t this illegal?”

“You have a point.”

Bobby looked at the “D” he was getting in Mr. Rowe’s class.

“I’m doing at least ‘B’ work, and he’s giving me an ‘D’—that isn’t fair.”

John clicked on the record and then changed the “F” to an “A.” He quickly modified other grades on the screen and then printed the page. Bobby grabbed the sheet from the file folder. He folded it, put it in his pocket, and replaced it with the new modified sheet. John turned the computer off and then just watched Bobby and waited for his lead.

Once done with modifying Bobby’s grades, they left the principal’s office and then walked down the corridor. John glanced curiously at the lockers with their combination locks. He walked over to one of the lockers and touched the lock.

“What is the purpose of this?” John asked.

“It’s where we store our belongings while we’re in school.”

John played with the combination lock for a moment, and then it suddenly opened. Bobby just stared at John.

“How did you do that?”

“These are primitive devices,” was all John said, adding no more explanation of how he opened it.

Bobby walked over to Shelby’s locker and motioned for John to open it. John reluctantly turned the combination lock a few times until the lock quickly released. Bobby slowly opened the locker and looked inside. Although there were no lights on in the corridor, Bobby could still make out the sketch of himself taped to the back wall of the locker. On the corners were penciled hearts with arrows through the heart.

“Oh shit, she does like me,” Bobby said with a grin.

Bobby closed the locker with renewed interest. He glanced at the clock on the wall and then quickly hurried to the teacher’s lounge. He feared the secretary would be there early to set things up for the meeting.

The teacher’s lounge wasn’t far from Shelby’s locker. Bobby had a purpose now. Granted he wanted to graduate, but he had to make sure that, along with his SAT score, he had the grades to reflect that that score was not a fluke.

Bobby quickly walked over to the teacher’s lounge door followed closely by John. Bobby opened the door slowly, hoping above all else that no one came early. As luck would have it, the lights were out. As he opened the door, the chairs were placed around the room for the meeting that was to take place shortly. Off in the corner, there were two pots of coffee on hot plates where the secretary put them earlier.

Bobby knew they would have to hurry because he was sure if the secretary would be back to finish setting up the room before the meeting started.

Bobby turned to John. “The show’s almost on the road,” he said, walking over to the pots of coffee. “Give me the bottles.”

John hesitated a moment. “I don’t know if what we are doing is right.”

“Now is not the time to back out,” Bobby snapped.

John looked concerned. “What effect it will have on humans, I can’t be sure.”

“I’m desperate. I can’t get expelled.”

“Maybe they won’t expel you.”

Bobby looked at John with disbelief. He was not going to chance that this would go his way. “Hurry, we don’t have all day.”

John took the bottles out of his pocket and reluctantly handed them to Bobby, who in turn quickly twisted the caps off and poured each into the two pots of coffee.

Once they were done spiking the coffee, Bobby and John quickly left the way they arrived, hoping not to run into any of the teachers or the principal. They made it out of the parking lot long before any of the teachers showed up for the special meeting.

Once Elmer readied himself, he quickly got in his old Cadillac convertible with the extension ladder strapped in the passenger seat. Spot sat silently on the back seat waiting in anticipation for what was to come. It was a short drive to Widow Megal's house.

Once Elmer pulled up to Widow Megal’s house he took the extension ladder and placed it under the second story window that was lit. He quickly took the bottle of Viagra out of his shirt pocket and then popped one of the blue pills into his mouth and swallowed it. Then he started belting out Mario Lanza’s “Santa Lucia” with all the gusto he could muster up, still clutching the bottle of Viagra. Spot sat patiently at Elmer’s feet.

Widow Megal hurried to the window to see what all the noise was. She opened the window wide while watching Elmer below with his arms outstretched. Fearing the neighbors calling the police because of the noise, she motioned Elmer to come up the ladder.

As Elmer started climbing up the ladder with the bottle of Viagra in his hand, he slipped and accidentally dropped the bottle. Elmer hesitated a moment, he glanced down in time to see Spot grab up the bottle and run off with it.

Meanwhile, the Widow Megal waited patiently at the window for Elmer. Elmer threw caution to the winds and continued up the ladder. Once he was near the end of the ladder, the widow grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him through the open window. For a brief moment, all that could be seen were Elmer’s legs waving precariously about until a hand reached out of the window, grabbed the seat of Elmer’s pants, and pulled him through. In an instant, the window was slammed shut.

The special meeting at the high school was delayed somewhat as no one wanted to deal with the situation at hand. The school year was almost over, and everyone only wanted to be home. It took follow-up calls to fill a quorum so that any decision that was made that night could not be contested.

The secretary poured coffee for the attendees as more showed up for the meeting. She quickly passed out cookies in the hopes that the grumbling would soon stop. Once enough people gathered, the principal proceeded to start the meeting. Unknown to all it gave enough time for the mind-altering drug to take effect and because everyone was drinking coffee, no one seemed the wiser to know what was being discussed was not the intent of the meeting.

“He is such a joy to have around,” the principal proudly announced.

If truth be known, he admired Bobby Drews’s free spirit and secretly despised the jocks of the school who seemed to bully anyone who didn’t fit into their conventional mode of thinking. Anyone who was in high school and did not fit into a particular clique knew what he was referring to.

Mr. Rowe stood up and announced, “I move to make him valedictorian.”

The school secretary meticulously took down the minutes of the meeting. Unlike all the others attending the meeting, she was drinking her bottled water. Although she was puzzled by all the brilliant comments about Bobby, she just did as she was told and took down the comments as they were said. She liked Bobby and thought he was given a bum rap by the jocks at the school. She was on the school grounds when the incident happened. Unlike Mr. Rowe, she had a different opinion as to who started the fight. She tried to explain that to the principal the next morning but her pleas were ignored, and it was Mr. Rowe who convinced the principal to hold this special meeting to have Bobby expelled. She secretly smiled to herself, listening to Mr. Rowe and his praises of a student that he had apparently despised four hours earlier.