I was following Mom and Dad back to our home in Lebakor City when two creatures swooped down and grabbed me. One covered my mouth with a rag before I could yell. I registered their bizarre appearances: the things had aquamarine skin, green-and-red hair, and pale violet wings--aliens. Which meant that they were probably going to bring me to Jupiter or something.

I was half right.

The aliens flew me into space and took off my gag. After yelling my head off for a minute, I asked them who they even were.

“Quorzekians,” they replied, “from the planet Quorzek, fifty million miles from Pluto.”

My jaw dropped. The rest of our trip was silent. Finally I saw a huge, shiny blob: Quorzek.

We landed near a huge city not so unlike home--buildings of various shapes, sizes, colors, and types. Wow, that’s cool.

Suddenly a vehicle saying Quorzek Noobas zoomed toward us. A Quorzekian with a badge jumped out. “Caught!” she yelled. “Hands up!”

My kidnappers gloomily did as ordered. While two other Noobas loaded them into the car, the Quorzekian who’d spoken addressed me. “Sorry about that. They’re Earthling kidnappers. What’s your name?” she asked.

“Jane. Are . . . uh . . . Noobas like cops?”

“Yep,” she said. “So, what happened?”

I told her everything. She then informed me that I couldn’t go home for a while because of Earth’s atmosphere; so I’d stay with locals.

My “siblings,” Claire, Clara, Eralona, Jake, and Leon, welcomed me. Despite initial surprise, I was taken in and soon life was normal. We played with Luna, the newly adopted pet lion. All of us saw the Quorzekian Wicked at the theater where Clara worked; I shared a room with Eralona (who I could tell was still uncomfortable with my sudden arrival—at least more than the rest of us) and kept questioning Claire. Were there other alien planets? Did Quorzekians ever come to Earth? But I LOVED to see the city. It was beautiful.

And now I’m back home. Six years, and my parents still don’t believe me—but they can’t explain my annual disappearances. . . .