11 My Teacher Is an Alien

Chapter 11 My Teacher Is an Alien Mr. Granite was building a spaceship! It was red and black and silver, and it looked just like the spaceships you see in movies. It was cool! "Andrea was right!" I whispered. "Mr. Granite is from another—" But I never got the chance to finish my sentence because at that moment, the garage door started going up. Mr. Granite, the alien, was standing there looking right at us!

I didn't know what to say! I didn't know what to do! I had to think fast! "Freeze, dirtbag!" I yelled. "You're an alien, and we know it!" Mr. Granite put his hands in the air. Then he realized we didn't have a gun or

anything, so he put them down. "Yes, I admit it," he said sadly. "I'm not from New Jersey. I'm from the planet Etinarg in a galaxy far, far away." "WOW!" we all said, which is "MOM" upside down. "Etinarg?" I said. "Isn't that 'Granite' spelled backward?" "Yes," Mr. Granite said. "Everyone on Etinarg is named Granite." "Doesn't it make things confusing when everybody has the same name?" asked Ryan. "It does," Mr. Granite replied. "I was sent to Earth to help you stop global warming and to come back with some new names for our people. Now my work here is done. I must return to Etinarg. My spaceship is finished. I just need some rocket fuel so I can blast off."

"Wait a minute!" Michael said. "How do we know you're not yanking our chain? Prove you're an alien!" "Yeah," I said. "Let's see you peel off your face." "Well… okay," Mr. Granite said as he put his hand under his chin. I covered my eyes with my hands. I wanted to see Mr. Granite peel off his face; but at the same time, I didn't want to see what was underneath. What if it was scary? So I covered my eyes, but I opened my fingers so I could look between them. Mr. Granite pulled at his neck, and the skin started to come loose. Then he peeled off his entire face! And you'll never believe in a million hundred years what he looked like underneath. He looked exactly the same! "Hey!" Ryan said. "That face looks just

like the one you peeled off!" "It never hurts to have an extra face," said Mr. Granite. Even though Mr. Granite's peeled-off face looked the same as his regular face, it was still cool. "Don't tell Mr. Klutz!" Mr. Granite said. "Our lips are sealed," I told him. But not with glue. That would be weird.